Cellar news

Now that the outside temps are colder, it's much easier to keep the root cellar temperature at the proper level. I aim for somewhere between 32 and 36, with high humidity. The humidity has also been easy -- we've got a naturally dank basement, and thanks to 14 inches of rain in October, the ground is still saturated. Our average annual rainfall is 21 inches. Our basement subpump is still running every other day or so, which is pretty much unheard of in January here.


I took a quick inventory of the goodies in my root cellar, and I must say I am verily pleased. 95% of the potatoes are still good. It seems the Kerr's Pink variety doesn't last as long as the others, so I'll know to eat those first next year. And the blight spots and green spots don't seem to affect storage longevity. Also, the thickness of the skin hasn't been a factor--the thin-skinned spuds are doing just as well as the thick-skinned ones.

My few rutabagas turned soft and mushy back in December. Next year I think I'll plant them later in the season and keep them in the garden as long as I can. The beets didn't last long, either. Not a big loss, as my family doesn't like beets. But still good to know.

My two remaining cabbages are looking pretty decent, as are the two winter squash I have in the cellar. I've read that squash prefer a warmer storage temp, somewhere around 50 degrees. I have most of my squash in the main basement area, but I thought I'd experiment and put a couple in the cellar. So far so good.


And I've still got about two bushels of apples left. They look fine as well. If they start to go bad I'll do some processing. Anybody know how long apples will last in a root cellar?


Another surprise -- in my scrounging I found a forgotten tray of sand and carrots. When I saw them I winced, expecting a soggy mass of carrot mush. But when I reach my hand in, I was amazed to find most of the carrots still firm. They still had their short spikes of green stem sticking up, but apparently they stopped growing when the cellar temps dropped down far enough. I am elated by this, as I was not looking forward to buying supermarket carrots so soon.

So, overall the root cellar has been a fantastic success. I haven't had to buy any carrots, cabbage, potatoes, apples or squash so far this winter, and it looks like my boxes of seed potatoes will stay good long enough to plant next spring.

'To plant next spring.' Doesn't that phrase sound lovely!

Germination Testing

The garden seed catalogs have started to arrive, so I've decided it's time to take a good look at my present seed situation. I've got a dormitory refrigerator filled to bursting with saved and purchased seeds downstairs. Before I order any new varieties I should really clean out my inventory.

Part of that clean-out is throwing away bad seed. But how do you know if seed is bad or not? How do you know if that packet of Chiogga beets you bought four years ago is still good? You've got two choices. Wait until spring to plant them and hope for the best, or do germination testing.

Germination testing is very easy. And fun, at least to me. You can do germination testing with as few as ten seeds or as many as a hundred. The more seeds you use, the more accurate your test results will be. However, if you only have a hundred seeds to begin with, you probably want to use as few as possible. I generally use between twelve and twenty-five seeds.

There's probably a dozen different ways you can test for germination rates, but this is the way I do it.

Gather together your seeds, a cookie sheet, a spray bottle with water, several half-sheets of paper towels, a ziploc bag, a ball point pen and some paper for recording.


Take a sheet of paper towel and write the name of the seed variety on the bottom with a ball point pen.


Now flip the paper towel so that the writing is face down, at the other end of the tray. This will make sense in a bit. Spray some water over the paper towel to dampen it. Take your seeds and spread them across the bottom of the towel. Try not to clump seeds together -- you want each seed to come in contact with the moist towel.


Now, beginning at the bottom, roll up the paper towel (and the seeds). Make sure the seeds stay inside.


When you're finished rolling, the name of the variety should be visible. Make sure the paper is fairly damp. Not oozing water damp, but pretty well saturated. Press the roll flat and slip it inside the ziploc bag.


Continue with this process for each of your seed varieties. Several varieties can go inside one bag. When you are finished, put the bag (open, not closed) in a warmish spot where it will remain undisturbed. The top of the refrigerator, or under a lamp.


Be sure to record the species, starting date, and number of seeds being tested.


The blank spaces on each row are for recording the number of sprouts when I check on them. I check on mine every three days or so. Be sure to remove the sprouted seeds at each checking, lest they die and get moldy. If the paper towels are drying out, spray on some more water. After two or three weeks have gone by, I tally up the number of sprouted seeds and do a bit of math to figure out the germination rate.

I've been doing this for a few years now and have had my share of surprises. One year I tested one-year-old Waltham butternut squash seed and four-year-old Waltham butternut squash seed. The one-year-old tested at 20% where the four-year-old tested at 80%. I've had three-year-old onion seed sprout at 95%, when all the gardening books I have say that onion seed goes bad after one year.

I'm testing a lot of seed this winter, twenty-two varieties to be exact. Like I said, I've amassed quite a collection of seed. I'll post my germination results as they come in. I'm sure you'll be on the edge of your seat!

Snowbow

It's cold outside. Very snowy, very blowy. Yesterday the snow began around 10 am and the winds picked up shortly thereafter. The kids were let out of school at 12:30. School was closed today, and will be closed again tomorrow.

We've actually only received about six inches of new snow. It's the winds that are dangerous. The high today was -9, and while that in itself is pretty cold, it's not school-closing cold. But we had 25 mph winds bringing the windchill to -34. Those same winds can turn six inches of snow into eighteen inches of drift on the road.

Road plowing in rural areas is vastly different than plowing in the city. Generally, rural plows don't bother going out until the winds have stopped blowing. We have yet to see the plow drive by our house. If we were living in a city, the plows would have been by three times already. In the city, folks will ring up city hall if they can't make it out of their driveways by 8 am. In the country, we've all learned to keep a few days extra of everything on hand in case we're snowed in. I hope to see the plow sometime tomorrow afternoon, assuming the winds have died down a bit.

I did manage to take a picture of a rare winter beauty -- a snowbow. It's created by light refracting off snow crystals blowing across the ground. You can't get one from falling snow, only blowing snow, because the sun also has to be shining. The kids were excited to see it. 'A rainbow in January is pretty rare,' Owen said. Yes, indeed it is.

Living proof

It's true. If there is any disbelief in anyone's mind, cast it aside. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, large livestock confinement operations are ideal breeding grounds for disease. Turkey barns, egg factories, feed lots, old farmhouses in rural Minnesota. Wherever many animals of the same species are living together for long periods of time in a confined area.

We are the living proof. Last week my husband's family -- father, two brothers, two sisters-in-law, niece and two nephews -- stayed with us to celebrate the holidays. Thirteen people living under the same roof for four days straight.

We had a grand time, don't get me wrong. Highlights -- gift opening, rockin' Settlers of Catan games, my brothers-in-law getting the sagging barn doors to close, an evening raw milk run with my sister-in-law, baking and decorating about a bazillion sugar cookies, forcing people to watch Fresh the movie, my brother-in-law's Russian peasant woman costume and dance, and the building of massive snow forts in the backyard.


Lowlights -- On day three the littlest guy (far right in the couch below) getting sick at breakfast. His Mom & Dad thought it was because he was eating too fast, but now I'm not so sure. On day four the oldest girl and second littlest guy (far left and second from the right) got stomach sick. That evening, after everyone had left, our littlest guy (third from the right) got stomach sick. Yesterday morning I went down with a debilitating head cold, and yesterday afternoon our middlest boy (third from the left) got it too.


My brother-in-law phoned today and told us that now he has a head cold. So, out of the thirteen people who lived in our house last week, seven of them have gotten sick. The temps last week ranged from 7 above to 15 below zero. The kids spent some time playing outside, but not a lot. That meant a lot of people spending a lot of time in a small area. Ideal breeding grounds for all kinds of ick.

On one of the short stints outside, our eldest tried snowboarding on a sled down our septic mound. You take what slopes you can get out on the prairie.


Of course, the other large livestock companies attempt to mitigate their disease problems by continually feeding low dose antibiotics to their animals. Hmm. There's a thought. Maybe next Christmas I'll spike the hot cocoa with penicillin. Hey, if Cargill and Tyson can get away with it, why can't I?

Ah, you know me -- organic, chemical-free gal that I am. I'm just kidding.

Probably.