Garden Notes: June 2024

Rainfall

• 2nd: 0.14"
• 4th: 0.39"
• 5th: 0.42"
• 10th: 0.59"
• 24th: 0.01"
• 30th: 0.8"
• Total: 2.35 inches

Temperature

• range of nighttime lows: 53 to 74°F (11.6 to 23.3°C)
• range of daytime highs: 76 to 94°F (24.4 to 34.4°C)

Greenhouse temps Because I'm curious about the effectiveness of the shade cloth.These are the days 90°F and above so far this year, before and after covering the greenhouse with shade cloth.

• Without shade cloth
• Outside: 91°F (33°C) |104°F (40°C) inside 
• With shade cloth
• Outside: 90°F (32°C) | 84°F (29°C) inside 
• Outside: 93°F (34°C) | 84°F (29°C) inside 
• Outside: 94°F (34.4°C) | 86°F (30°C) inside
• Outside: 94°F (34.4°C) | 88°F (31°C) inside

I'm guessing that the steady rise in inside temps is due to the structure itself heating up and retaining that heat overnight. Also days of full sun versus partly cloudy days. Even so, it's still better than the temps without it.

Weather Notes

We're into our summer weather pattern, where, as it warms up, rain systems come up off the Gulf from the southwest and then split as they approach the southern Appalachians. The result for us is that we typically miss the rain that the rest of the Southeast gets (rain shadow effect). 

Garden Notes

• The birds got all the cherries! No pie this year.
• Now that the planting is done, I'm focusing primarily on getting everything mulched before picking starts. And watering as needed.

Planted

• sweet potato slips
• corn, Trucker's Favorite
• sorghum

Harvested

• multiplier onions
• walking onions
• wheat
• oregano
• thyme
• sweet basil
• potatoes
• garlic
• snow peas
• cherry tomatoes
• slicing tomatoes
• mulberries
• red raspberries
• lambs quarter
• kale
• Swiss chard
• wild lettuce
• daikon leaves
• daikon radishes
• blueberries
• green pepper

Preserved

• lambs quarter, canned
• last of the pantry stored winter squash, dehydrated for squash powder
• goats milk mozzarella, shredded and frozen

Photos

sweet potato slips before planting

winter wheat

My bed of volunteer lambs quarter

It's growing in the location of the new keyhole garden.

Beginnings of the new African keyhole garden

Peanuts, volunteer cherry tomatoes, and Katy

Corn and flowering carrot plant (a purple variety, I think)

Soon!

Besides processing wheat, I've been experimenting with making buckwheat flour from last
year's crop. I use my power blender and sieve to sift. Does an ok job but needs improvement.

Moonglow pear

June salad: wild lettuce, daikon leaves, last of the peas,
first of the cherry tomatoes, crumbled goat feta cheese.

Parting shot

First sunflowers

Your turn! How does your garden grow? (Or does it???)

Garden Notes: June 2024 © June 2024

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Shade Cloth for the Greenhouse

Something I never counted on when we built the greenhouse, was using it in summer. Fall, winter, and spring, yes, but summer is just too hot. For example, the hottest day so far this month has been 91°F (33°C). This was the temp inside the greenhouse . . .

My max-min analog thermometer. The red pointer is the day's high.

The solar attic fan helps, but it's still too hot to grow things. Plus, since the greenhouse is built off of my sewing room, the heat transfers through the windows and walls so that room gets really warm too. Which in turn, helps heat up the rest of the house. My idea was to cover the greenhouse with shade cloth. 

It's graded at 90% shade and measures 12-feet by 20-feet. I got it on Amazon; here's the link for more info ⇾ QLOFEI 90% Shade Cloth. 

We used cup hooks to secure the grommets, with the help of baling twine along the bottom edge.

How much difference has it made? The first day after we put it up, we got to 89°F, (32°C). But the greenhouse temp only got up to 83°F (28.3°C). That's about a 20°F difference thanks to the shade cloth. Obviously, I'm really glad we did this!

I also use shade cloth to cover my new transplants. They really stay happier the first few days until they establish their root systems.

Shade Cloth for the Greenhouse © June 2024

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

In Which I Learn How to Make Mayonnaise

A lot of people make their own mayonnaise, but for some reason, the idea always intimidated me. I have no idea why; maybe it was just the entrenched habit of using store-bought mayo. But then Dan and I got into another diet analysis discussion, and talked about more ways to improve our diet (there's always room for improvement). 

I had already changed the oils we cooked with. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon was a real eye opener on that front, and I eliminated all edible oils except extra virgin olive and coconut from  our diet. The hold-out was mayo, which is typically made with soy oil. For awhile, I was able to buy coconut or avocado oil mayo from our discount grocery, until they closed shop. I switched to the commercial mayo with olive oil, but it still contains soy oil. But now, with mayo costing $6 to $8 a jar, it was time to do something else. 

My first step was to ask for recipes at Permies.com. I got a lot of good ones, so I chose the simplest, plopped the ingredients into my power blender, and whirred it up. Except no matter how long or at what speed I blended it, my "mayo" remained liquid. Because of the EVOO it solidified in the fridge and tasted okay, but it didn't have the creamy consistency I wanted. 

After we finished that jar, I was tempted to just buy a jar of mayo again, but decided to hunt for a DIY video instead. This one, The Easiest Homemade Mayonnaise Recipe!, told me what I needed to know. She had the same results as me with her blender mayo, and recommended a stick blender instead. I vaguely remembered buying one for soap making, but it was still unopened in the box. Somewhere. 

Also called a hand or immersion blender.

I found it, assembled it, and dumped the ingredients into a wide mouth pint jar. Within seconds I had mayo! I couldn't believe how fast and easy it was. 

The first thing it went into was sauerkraut slaw.

Sauerkraut slaw. Just add mayo to sauerkraut or kimchi.

The recipe is the standard one found around the internet. For my records, here it is again.

• 1 cup oil of choice
• 1 egg
• juice of 1/2 lemon (or 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar)
• pinch salt (or to taste)
• 1 tbsp mustard (Dijon tastes best, but yellow will do)

Place all ingredients in a wide mouth jar. Insert blender all the way to the bottom and begin to blend. As the mixture blends, slowly lift the blender until the entire jar is mayo. 

Also, for mayonnaise lovers, here's another Permies thread with lots and lots of recipes and flavor variations for the stuff - Favorite kinds of mayonnaise and magic mayo method.

Who else makes their own mayonnaise?!?

In Which I Learn How to Make Mayonnaise 

© June 2024 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com