Progress of the Family Vegetable Garden

Last year, my 'Honeycrisp' was loaded with bloom.  This year not a single blossom.  The crabapples and wild apples around me have blosssoms, as well as the probably 150 year old apple tree at the historic house of my brother.  On further investigation, at the tips where I would expect a blossom are tiny dead dry dots which fall off easily when I touch them.  My blossom buds from that night in April when the temperatures fell to somewhere around 9-12 degrees (F).

We like to make a lot of sauce, juice, and sliced apples and can them as a family.

Hancock Agricultural Research Station

The Master Gardeners are having an open house (August 7, 4 to 7 P.M.) at the Hancock, WI Research Station just off I-39/51. Anyone interested in growing grapes in Wisconsin should attend. Other points of interest might be the prairie planting, soybeans, or just the multi-year test of all those fancy coneflowers that are too pricey for a typical owner to try all at one time.

They have also been demonstrating different types of gardening styles; a raised bed herb garden, square foot gardening, and different caging and netting methods.

And although this is a small garden from botanical garden comparisons, they do have a nice water feature, and an interesting display of Depression era hand farm tools and machinery, although the machinery is used in the garden bed displays as sculptural elements.

Growing Grapes at the Hancock Research Station

The UW-Extension has a well-written booklet on growing grapes in Wisconsin. When Handsome Son was nine, he and I took part in the grape pruning clinic the station holds each spring. Then, they let you take some of the clippings from which are very easy to start your own plants.

The growing system is simplistic. Two wires strung between 8' posts sunk two feet into the ground. Grapes tied up on the wires with hay bailer twine in the spring after pruning.

The one thing the pamphlet, which can be downloaded free of charge as a PDF, is not exceptionally good at is pictures showing the ideal pruning structure. I would say I have never seen this pruning style, which I refer to as the Vitruvius Man, illustrated quite as were as it is seen on these 'Mars' seedless grapes. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

They had six or so varieties growing, in order of what I would say expected yields given the hanging grapes this season of heaviest to lightest; Mars, Edleweiss, Frontenac, Blue Belle, Unknown, Othello.

You can clearly see these grapes are completely cold hardy here in central Wisconsin by the size of the main trunk on this grape, which resembles a tree rather than a vine.

Grape Juice

'Othello' grapes in my potager

I canned grape juice, tomato sauce, and salsa this weekend. Started some apple cider. I made sun-dried tomatoes with garlic and basil in olive oil. I still have two very big bowls of tomatoes to can and apples to make into sauce. I have a basket of green peppers, some sort of hot, some not. I will probably chop or slice and freeze those, an easy way out as they don't even need blanching. I thought I had a plethora of canning jars, but I am down to about 6 large-mouthed quarts and a few stray others.

This weekend, my brother and sister-in-law have been concentrating on grape juice using a juice steamer. I will have to find out how that went. My brother says the harvest was one of the biggest he has had. His are Concord grapes planted on the old wind-driven water pumping windmill his historic homestead.

The grapes were there before he bought the property and have outlived the removal of the working parts of the drive that would have drawn up the water from the well. My sister-in-law has spoken of restoring it into a functional piece sometime in the future. A lot of expense for something that would be a novelty at best providing drinking water for her only livestock, a trio of donkeys.

Now, it forms the climbing structure for her grapes, however. Grapes that my brother had to harvest using a 16 foot ladder, wisely foregoing the tiny metal ladder running up the frame of the windmill.

Many people harvest what we call "fox" grapes which grow wild and can have a "foxy" taste. Some are lucky enough to have 'King of the North'. I have 'Othello', a true wine grape, and are a bit sweeter than the Concords. We have planted 'Reliance', a seedless red grape in the family garden for future eating as table grapes. We had five grapes this year,which the nephews declared very good with their 2-year-olds chant of "more, more!"

This year my pollination was hampered by the late bloom and rambunctious grow of leaves at the crucial point of pollination. On my two vines, I had ample set of grape bunches, but the number of grapes per bunch was down. Also a dry August affected the end size. My brother received two generous showers which my village missed out on entirely in August.

I had enough grapes to can just four quarts of juice.

I tried a new method. Last year I used an easy cold pack method:

Per quart:

1 1/2 cups of grapes, washed, and destemmed
1/2 cup sugar
Boiling water to fill within 1/4 of the rim.

Adjust two piece caps and lids and use a boiling water canning method for 15 minutes.

This is quick and easy, but requires some very messy decanting for not a lot of drinkable juice.

This year, I tried a slightly different spin on a couple different recipes, which is probably not advisable by the USDA.

Grapes like apples have pectin. Pectin separates out when fruit is brought to boiling. Pectin is good if you want it for making jellies and such. It is not good when you want to make good quality juices. Problem is, boiling is how you can juice and sterilize and pasterize.

So how do you get around boiling and the sediment it causes in the juice, which is not esthetically pleasing to the drinker?

The boiling water bath canning method makes use of boiling to set the seal. Everything is boiling, air is forced out, taking care of bacteria that need air to proliferate. The bacteria that don't need air are dealt with by use of proper pH. The proper pH is typically provided by a combination of lemon juice, 5% vinegars, salts, and sugar. This is why the weighs and measures in recipes are so important. It is also why only certain food items can be boiling water canned, others need pressure canning. It is also why with the advent of low-acid tomatoes the USDA recommends adding two tablespoon of lemon juice to each quart of tomatoes when canning them in a boiling water bath (one Tablespoon per pint).

So my method requires grapes to be simmered until they are soft enough to put through a food mill. It also requires they are brought to a minimum of 165 degrees for at least 10 seconds. (The USDA has found 6 seconds at 165 degrees sufficient to pasterize grapes, knocking out a whole host of pathogens.)

I then worked out the math on the proportions of sugar and boiling water that I would use if I canned my grapes using the cold pack method. This I compared to the syrup recipe found in the 'Ball Blue Book of Preserving' and found it to be in the medium weight syrup range. To be on the safe side, I added two tablespoons of lemon juice to each quart, as well. I canned the quarts in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Looking at my grape juice, I think there will be some of the pectin sediment that will settle out. Given the intensity of the grape juice, I would guess this concentrate will be diluted 1:1 with cold water when drinking, yielding much more volume of drinkable juice and a tastier product.

The alternative to this would be decanting prior to canning and two or more runs through a juice bag strainer. This method requires two or more days and a lot of handling of the product which can always provide additional steps for the introduction of bacteria and other pathogens.

Just a note, I did have just a couple seeds that the food mill allowed to slip in that I did not manage to remove, but no skins, and for the most part no seeds.


2011 juice on left, last year's vintage on the right.

Pictures from the Potager 2

A work house garden Roma-style tomato, 'Opalka'.



'China Rose' winter radish, has a strange growth habit, growing above ground. The taste has been good and sweet though.


Grapes are nearly ready for juicing. I had spotty pollination this year.


The largest Beefsteak tomato I have ever seen. It seems more the size of a small melon.


Celery, I not too excited about the way it has grown for me.

As you can see, I need to harvest and preserve this bounty.

Later...

More on Grapes

Grapes at the Chicago Botanical Gardens


The 'Concord' grape vines around central Wisconsin have really set on the grapes this year. In my village it is getting pretty dry. The family garden being just a tad north, 21 miles, got over an inch of rain last week. Here, just spit. Even my shrubs are feeling the hurt. After all the rain in May, June, and July, it is odd to see them drooping or losing leaves prematurely because of the lack of moisture. I have started to drag out my hoses.

Big juicy grapes need plenty of sunshine and plenty of moisture to reach their potential sweetness.

In the family garden, I underplanted them with squash. It was a great idea as we were having an issue with weeds and it really kept the weeds from growing there. As we had plenty of rainfall, moisture was not an issue.

So, in addition to watering, if needed, and they need it here in my yard; I typically prune some of the leaves off the plant that are shading the grape bunches overmuch. I keep in mind that as the grapes begin to ripen they also become tempting to birds trying to load up on calories to make their fall migrations. I don't want to make the grapes too accessible.

Something that reminder me about this fall leaf pruning was some television show. Two men were having a conversation, I think it was some crime drama. Between them were these mature, perfectly grown and pruned grapes strung on wire between posts. Hanging from them were bunches, and I mean loads of bunches, of grapes. This wasn't some prop, a product of Hollywood's imagination, and the fact that they were properly grown was incidental to the scene itself.

I do know if the gardener was the "perp" for which the investigator was looking, that the gardener was so methodical, that he would never have been caught!

Wonderful Ideas and Take Aways from the Vegetable and Fruit Gardens at the Chicago Botanical Gardens

The Chicago Botanical Gardens are obviously testing the best way to stake tomatoes. This plot is demonstrating three different methods: no stake, square caging (I think using pea fence) and tying to staked wires. The varieties in this plot are all heirloom varieties.


This 6" by 6" slant cut and routered cedar posting with eye hooks and wires is an elegant trellising system for growing grapes. We have not yet put up the trellising for the 'Reliance' grapes in the family berry and fruits area. I might have to copy this idea.


Cabbages grown in beautifully compost enriched soils at the CBG. My cabbage look almost this good. We are two weeks behind the CBG veggie plot, but our soil looks no where near this nice.



The family garden has been difficult this year simply because of the weather and mechanical difficulties with the Mantis tiller. We are seeing lots of greens from the garden so far. We have allowed the 'Honeoye' strawberries to put out the fruit, although we probably should have picked off the flower buds as they formed. The picking of strawberries into tiny buckets has been too much fun for my two-year old twin nephews. They already have the eat two pick one method down pat!


Three Sisters planting method: hilled corn interplanted with beans and squash. This is an idea I am also using in the family garden. The legume I chose was edible soybeans, edamame. I soaked them for a half an hour. I have since read this is a no-no. The germination was not was I had hoped. Hopefully we will have enough to get a taste and decide whether we would like to perfect our growing methods.

I loved these plots. Obviously, the gardeners who work and volunteer here do, too. Their tender care shows.

Last Day of March

This thermometer is on the south side of my house.


Above the garden of earthly delights-- indoors...

... and that's garlic growing through the snow.



A beautifully-formed Seckl pear.



A Lapin sweet cherry I am torturing into an espalier. The guide strings are attached to a couple bricks. Twice a year I review, prune, and adjust my guides and bricks. This will be the third year in the ground for this cherry. I am anticipating getting a couple pounds of cherries this year. I had about a dozen cherries last year. I surely do not want a 30' tall sweet cherry in my yard, so, "it's my way or the compost, Mr. Lapin!"


Those are the grapes I need to prune. I cut away a lot of the vine in the fall to prevent the over-wintering of insects and pathogens. It also allows me a better view on what I need to prune in the spring and saves the plant's spring energy reserves, while still allowing some of the mass of the plant to provide winter protection. I grow these grapes on wire strung between two posts placed eight feet apart. The posts are four feet tall.


My handsome dwarf Honeycrisp apple tree.

Today is the last day of March. I've lived in a couple different zones. Some places I have not only raked my lawn, but mowed it as well, once more than a couple times! I almost always have it raked here in zone 4. Not this year, though! Although I am starting to see brown grass peek out from underneath the snow, and my female boxer has taken an inordinate interest in the male dogs in the neighborhood (a sure harbinger of spring around this house!), spring is not here.

The sun is shining, though, today! Applause!

This weekend we are forecast to return to sleet and snow.

Typically, my apricot is blooming in about 20 days. That is hard to conceive!

It is still difficult to get out in the yard. Any sort of clean-up of storm-damaged, rabbit and mouse gnawed shrubs has to wait. I have hydrangea with swelling buds that I can not cut back because I really have no where to go with the clippings. Generally, the village begins picking up yard waste on the first Monday in April-- four days from today!

We are behind. When spring finally arrives, I am afraid we will be leaf-frogging into summer in the blink of an eye.