The Pauley Principle: Plants are Getting Market Ready!

Welcome to The Pauley Principle!

The Pauli Principle, named for Wolfgang Pauli, deals with atoms and electron-sharing that results in new, stronger bonds. Think 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, a shared delectable (!) electron and VOILA! Water!

Similarly, when you prepare whole food to share with family and friends, especially foods you've grown, something amazing happens. Meals become tastier and healthier. Your soul, not just your stomach, becomes fulfilled. You live life more abundantly as a result. During a shared meal, the bonds that people create grow stronger and become something new: GREATER than the sum of the parts! I give you The Pauley Principle.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Plants are Getting Market Ready!

We are getting a number of plants ready for our farm market. From broccoli, white cabbage, red cabbage, cauliflower plants and fresh green onions to potted herbs.

Without the advantage of a greenhouse, Chris has turned our loft into the next best thing. He babies our little vegetable plants night and day. They get plenty of sunlight, moving onto the deck during the day. A camp shower bag provides easy watering with its shower head nozzle. Lately Chris has been transplanting his veggies into individual cells, giving them more room, easier access to nutrients, and a great start.

My herbs are hearty and used to being outside. I potted a mix of herbs for kitchen or patio to make their debut at our farm market. The rangy tarragon in the herb bed forms a backdrop for tera cotta pots that are filled with Greek oregano, Italian flat leaf parsley, sweet basil and a pansy. Italian food lends itself so well to fresh herbs, so these herbs are a good introduction for the novice cooks out there!

One of the reasons our plants are growing so well has to do with a lesson we learned the hard way last year. Three different times I tried unsuccessfully to start tomatoes from seeds last year. Always before, I had used plain rainwater. Last year I used our county water, just regular tap water. Time after time, the little leaves would turn white and the stems would pinch off at the base, killing the young plants. Chris read extensively and discovered that the calcium chloride in our drinking water was killing the plants. The annual water reports read well, but we have completely avoided that water this year in our plantings. Our heirloom tomatoes should suffer no such plight.

The water we use now for our plants is our farm's well water, the same water Chris grew up on. It is a deep reservoir, very tasty and pure. Well water has advantages over rainwater. The natural minerals and rocks that the water percolates and filters through are beneficial to the plants. Since last year's eye-opening experience, that wonderfully fresh water not only feeds our new plants but has also become our drinking water.

For the plants, the result is faster growing and stronger veggie plants that will be market-ready for the weekend! For me, I just feel better!

At our farm market, we hope to offer customers the best products available. For this weekend: cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower plants, potted herbs, cut herbs (tarragon, spearmint, and Russian sage), and fresh green onions. In a couple of weeks, we should have several different pepper plants and tomato plants, including a few heirloom varieties.

Of course, I will continue making jams, jellies, and baking up a table full of goodies. One new item this coming weekend: Hot cross buns!

A word of caution: Watch what you're drinking, not just what you're eating. Stay healthy, my friends!

11 comments:

JenApril 3, 2012 at 6:48 AM
Very nice post... Good luck with the Farmers Market :)
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Clint BakerApril 3, 2012 at 6:54 AM
You all are doing a good thing! I pray you sell every last one of them!
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Lori SkoogApril 3, 2012 at 6:59 AM
Thanks for sharing the info on the calcium chloride. We have a well too.
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Granny SueApril 4, 2012 at 9:39 AM
Hey Ronda, sounds like you have been busy, busy, busy! I'm behind on your posts so this morning's read made me breathless. It sounds like your market is doing great--kudos to you both on your hard work :)

I wondered, did you have to get your kitchen certified or whatever by the state to sell baked goods and jams? A friend does that and had to build a commercial kitchen to get approval. I wondered of the rules are the same in Ohio.
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OxyplantsMay 12, 2012 at 1:03 AM
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OxyplantsMay 15, 2012 at 3:23 AM
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Give Yourself the Fast Food Alternative: 1, 2, 3 makes 4 and More

For many people, late night ballgames, church, work and other events make fast food too convenient to resist, but what's in that stuff? I can't begin to answer. Big franchises such as Taco Bell say the 63% or so that isn't beef is made up of "the secret ingredient". If we consume their food, don't we have a right to know what that secret is? And more importantly, what's it doing to our bodies? My plan is worth the effort since meals eaten at home with the family benefit our physical and mental health.

Here's an alternative and my answer to Rachael Ray's A Week in a Day. I call it 1,2, 3 Makes 4 and More. On the fifth day, Friday, make a quick and easy pizza.
In one day, you can make a roast, a hearty soup, and a one-dish casserole to get you through most of the work week.
Meal 1: the roast with salad and a veggie.
Meal 2: the soup served with warm bread or in a bread bowl.
Meal 3: the casserole with a salad.
Meal 4: soup from Meal 2 served with sandwiches using the roast, Meal 1.
Meal 5: homemade pizza.

Plan meals and shop for it. Then take a few hours to prepare the entrees ahead. Start with a roast seasoned to taste. I'm talking real meat. While that's slow cooking, start chopping veggies and meat for a good, hearty soup, one that will be a meal in itself. Get it started and simmering away and then begin a one-pot meal that takes a little more attention.

This week my plan is Day 1, a slow roasted ham with salad and mashed potatoes; Day 2, minestrone; and Day 3, shepherd's pie. I'm making mashed potatoes for two days (meals 1 and 3) at one time on my cooking day. The fourth meal will be ham sandwiches with minestrone. Salads and breads round out the meals for the week. Fruits with cheese make a quick and good-for-you dessert. A truly delicious recipe for shepherd's pie is in my blog.

Be good to you. Be good to others. On days 6 and 7, change it up by going out, having a pot luck with friends and family or grilling out. Remember, live your life abundantly.

About Venison

Venison should taste really delicious! No kidding. It is my favorite meat, except for crab.

Some things to consider though:
*If you wouldn't think of eating a bull, then don't eat a deer that had huge antlers or was in rut. I don't. It affects the flavor and tenderness of the meat.
*Replace the deer fat with beef fat for your ground meat for an 80/20 ratio. Deer fat tends to be slightly bitter and leaves that thick coating in your mouth that, although edible, is not palatable.
*For roasts, sear with butter and olive oil. These impart a wonderful flavor.
*For sausage, use pork shoulder, at a ration of about 3 parts ground venison with 1 part ground pork shoulder.
*Venison by nature is a lean red meat. A good young deer processed properly will give you many delicious meals.
*Anything you would do with beef, except ribs, you can do with venison. Look for my recipe for Shepherd's Pie. Use either beef or venison. Enjoy, share, and live abundantly.

Plan Now for Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is cooked down from sap that you gather from sugar maple trees. There are no other ingredients, not even water. And it's incredibly good. On the market, maple syrups will often have corn syrup, gluten, color and other additives which can stretch profitability and decrease the steaming time required. Since it takes 35-45 gallons of the thin slightly sweet sap to make a gallon of pure maple syrup, doing it the old-fashioned way takes time but the result is pure YUM!

If you have the opportunity to tap into maple trees and decide you'd like to give this a try, plan ahead. If you steam off the sap inside your kitchen, it can strip your wall-paper! Been there, done that, at our old farmhouse. If you cook it down outside with a gas turkey fryer, the cost can end up being around $8 a pint. We began cooking over a wood fire a few years ago, using a tripod and kettle. Oh, and a large firewood supply. Whatever method you choose, proceed slowly and with caution.

Gather your supplies. We use food safe plastic jugs, buckets, and little water line spouts. Maple syrup production houses will collect into stainless steel vats using long water lines but we simply gather the jugs, pour into buckets and bring it to the kettle twice daily. I buy little pint jugs to store it in. Very fresh, very pure. Start tapping the trees when daytime temperatures are going to be above freezing but nights are still very cold. In Ohio, the sap will be running fast sometime in February.

Try my cousin Stephanie Krupla's recipe for Sticky Bun Tea Ring and you'll want to search for maple trees you can tap into yourself!