Tired and sore

[Atash Hagmahani]

Planted a lot of odds and ends today, and did a lot of weeding too.

Tomatoes were the major crop to get planted today. None in the ground so far; I have a lot of modestly-sized determinate varieties that are going into pots.

I'm giving away tomato plants to some of the guests at my daughter's baptismal party Sunday. Some of these are RARE so I need to make sure they understand that they need to SAVE SEED. They're not special because they taste so wonderful; they are special because of their performance in cool climates. I was suspicious that the weather was being determined more by sunspot cycles than CO2, and that we'd have YET ANOTHER COLD SUMMER. So far we had a brutal winter and almost no spring, but now it is summery--went from cold to hot. I'm glad I chose these high-dependability varieties as I do not want to end the year with a bunch of green tomatoes! For several years now local backyard growers have had a devil of a time getting tomatoes to ripen. As the economic situation gets ever dicier, I care about reliability more than having particularly sweet and tasty varieties.

One of my tomatoes is a Canadian variety that was never very common and is now downright rare; the other was always rare as the grower was a small operator and is now out of business.

I'm just finishing supper. Quinoa pilaf, sauteed Moringa leaves, and some iced "sun tea". I made the sun-tea out of some cheap Chinese "gunpowder" tea (half-fermented tea in little balls that remind people of "gunpowder"), that doesn't seem all that great as hot-brewed tea, but it is surprisingly good sweetened as iced tea! Has an odd spiciness about it. My guess is that brewing in the sun probably avoids releasing bitter flavors that hot-brewing does, while it does release some interesting flavors (maybe the interesting flavors are in fact heat-sensitive). It also avoids heating up my house (we're having summery weather here), and its easy.

For those of you who don't know what "sun tea" is--many years ago as a boy for several years I lived among "Okie" neighbors (people in rural California whose ancestors arrived as refugees from the dust-bowl--and yes they openly referred to themselves as such) who taught us to make "sun tea". Just pour clean water into a clean clear container, add tea, and leave it in the sun. Tea brews slowly but consistently warmed in the sun. It is so much easier to brew tea for iced tea this way, because the water is mildly warm not hot. I made it extra-strong, filtered it, sweetened it, and diluted it. I used the cheap tea because store-bought high-quality tea is becoming a luxury at our house (in fact, when I run out, that's it). I am guessing the sun-brewing avoided creating some of the off-flavors it usually has, and really brought out its best qualities.

Obviously this only works where the water is potable without boiling it.

I have some tea that needs to be harvested from my own tea-bush (Camellia sinensis). Can't pick it though until I figure out the right way to process it. Last instructions I got--tear the leaves and let them dry in the shade--are dead wrong. You have to inactivate enzymes in the tea leaf using heat--either steaming or roasting, then drying. Otherwise, the leaf will have all the appeal of a dead leaf in a compost pile.

[Dame]

Ripening tomatoes in very short seasons is somewhat challenging.  Pull the whole plant before the first killing frost and hang it upside down roots and all in a dark cool place and let it ripen slowly.  They will last 8-12 weeks this way, so you can continue to have fresh vine ripened tomatoes.

Do not leave tomatoes out for more than 24 hours where the temp has not reached 70F, they will not ripen.  They will ripen indoors at cooler temps but not outside.  ???   I also pick all the tomatoes and put them in cardboard flats, not more than a coupld deep and let them ripen inside in the dark.  I go through them every couple of days, remove the ripe ones and juice, dehydrate (paste varieties only), freeze or can.  Freezing/canning condensed soup consistency tomato paste also works well.

If the daytime and night time temps are fuluxuating wildly, which happens here most falls, I cover the tomatoes with old sheets and blankets.  I keep a rubbermaid tub of them in the garden in the fall.  These are put on before dusk if frost is threatening and taken off in the morning.  As long as the daytime temps do not stay too low and there are only a few degrees of frost this can give an extra 10 days of growing.  I will cover them for the night in the spring as well.

The tomato can be forced to ripen faster by removing the foliage and flowers and undeveloped tomatoes as soon as the 3rd week in August.  This speeds them up by a few days as well.

And, keep a good flashlight.  We generally end up picking tomatoes after dark the evening the weather forcast says we are going to get frost and the daytime temp the next day will only go up marginally.

[Wellspring]

We regularly make sun tea.  Latest batch came from a combination of Apple Mint, Spearmint and pineapple sage.  Add a little lemon and yum~

Love the idea of using green tea for sun tea.  I've got some gunpowder and will try it out.

[Dame]

How long does gunpowder tea stay good.  I bought some a number of years ago and have been considering throughing it out; we did not like it steeped the regular way, and saved it in case it someone wandered by who wanted it.  If I try it as sun tea, and do not like it, is the old tea and need to try with fresh tea, or we simply do not like it.

[Watcher]

I used the cheap tea because store-bought high-quality tea is becoming a luxury at our house (in fact, when I run out, that's it)

Ouch.

Fine teas are one of my luxuries, i love them.  Orange Pekoe, Lapsang Souchong, Assam, White Tea, Green Tea, Jasmine Tea, Japanese toasted brown rice tea, Rooibos. I've got them all and more in my kitchen right now.  I'll give up a lot, but tea will be one of the very last things to go.  Basically,  let the heavens fall, as long as i can have a hot cuppa i'll muddle through somehow.

I have some tea that needs to be harvested from my own tea-bush (Camellia sinensis). Can't pick it though until I figure out the right way to process it. Last instructions I got--tear the leaves and let them dry in the shade--are dead wrong. You have to inactivate enzymes in the tea leaf using heat--either steaming or roasting, then drying. Otherwise, the leaf will have all the appeal of a dead leaf in a compost pile.

This seems moderately informative, a site where home grown tea tips are swapped. http://coffeetea.about.com/od/preparation/a/growingtea.htm

[Atash Hagmahani]

Wellspring, I have a lot of tonic herbs in my garden, which I brew green in the summer and dried in the winter.

One of the best is Agastache foeniculum, a dowdy member of a mostly fairly ornamental genus, that has a scent with both minty and anise components, that is very pleasant.

Monarda dydima is also very good. It is commonly used as a substitute for bergamot oranges for making Earl Grey tea. To make at home mix half monarda to half quality black tea; ends up with half the caffeine and a nice basil-mint-lavender scent.

Sweet Cicely makes a tonic that is naturally rather sweet (hence the nickname I suppose). It grows like a weed. (In fact, it's weedy).

I have Pineapple Sage but being in a colder and wetter climate than yours, it is still recovering from winter.  Love the smell.

Another favorite--and it too would grow better for you than for me (but I have it anyway) is "Lemon Verbena"--Aloysia triphylla or something like that. Funny gangly shrub from northern Argentina in dryish scrub on the hills. It is generally reckoned to have the most pleasant ratio of aromatic oils, rich in geraniol, of any of the lemon-scented herbs. It actually survived last winter although a brutal one.

Speaking of geraniol, I've often wondered if some of the scented-leaf geraniums would work. How to extract their fragrances without the musky smell of the sap.

I brew a lot of other herbal things as well...including what would otherwise be "scrap" like excess raspberry leaves (makes surprisingly good ersatz "green tea") and blackberry leaves (makes good ersatz "black tea"--and without the caffeine).

Dame, tea is not long-lived. You can still brew it but you will notice that the flavor has deteriorated. I suggest trying it as a sun-tea, deciding if you like it, and dealing with it accordingly.

Watcher, we have most of those, but not the White Tea, as I find its taste too subtle.

One of our neighbors took a trip to Europe and came back with gifts of boxed tea. One was Assam and the other Darjeeling. I seem to recall the quality of the Assam was quite good.

Oddly enough, the Indian grocery stores have surprisingly high-quality black tea at a reasonable price, but availability is erratic. It's whatever they have in stock.

My stepmother came back from Shanghai with a very good tea. It was this brand:

http://www.mariagefreres.com/

and I swear it smelled like violets. No ingredients listed. Probably a trade secret. Couldn't tell from looking at it. Had something in it definitely not tea, but could not tell what it was.

My mother-in-law brought some "Iron Guelin" (not sure how to transliterate that; the name of the Chinese Goddess of Mercy).

Thai tea is popular at my house.

Thanks for the link; I'll have a look. Most of the differences among the vast numbers of teas in China and India are the result of processing and selection (tip growth best leaves), not specific ingredients or cultivars of tea (although I do happen to have 2, one a small-leaved Japanese cultivar and one a big-leaved Russian (they grow tea in Sochi on the Black Sea)). The processing details tend to be trade secrets.

I'd better harvest soon, while still young.

[darkdwarf]

In a survival traing camp, I was introduced to pine-needle-tea and I became hooked. Not only do i love the smell with a little cinnimon and sugar it is down right exquisite. It also has the advantage of being rich in vitiman C.

[opsec]

The vitamin C I knew about. I never would have thought to add sugar and cinnamon. I may have to try that sometime.

[chris]

Started a pitcher of chia leaf tea today. Added a little additional mint, lemon and tastes very good. Looking forward to the seed harvest this fall!

[Atash Hagmahani]

Chris, are you growing Chia to harvest seed?

I would have liked to, but no time. Had to focus on other crops.

[chris]

I am growing it for seed. The rain and wind took down the lower branches and did not want to waste the leaves.The stem is square and strong but very weak at the node. The leaves look and smell very nice...

[Harold in Kentucky]

Chris, are you growing Chia to harvest seed?

I'm growing Chia as a pet....   

arf arf.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Oh I think Chia sprouts are probably one of the best ways to go. I can't imagine myself growing them on a "Chia pet", though--more likely just a terra-cotta tray set in a pan of water.

Good to see you again, Harold. 

[Atash Hagmahani]

Got all sorts of interesting stuff to post...

...later...

...so tired...

This time of year, the kids have a lot of end-of-school-year-stuff to do.

I'm going to bed.

[Dame]

Hope you had a good sleep.