Spider buddies: ecological pest control

Grasshoppers and I have something in common: we both love big, fat, sweet, juicy, homegrown tomatoes.  I can't blame them for liking them, but I can certainly hate them for eating ours.  We plant extra knowing that they'll get some of our crop, but its still a kick in the pants to see a huge, beautiful heirloom tomato with half a lobe eaten off.  Our flock of chickens does a good job of keeping the numbers down in the general vicinity of the garden, but there's no way to get all of them.  Tomato losses are unavoidable and inevitable.  I refuse to spray my food with pesticides, even those of the organic variety, because they kill valuable predator species like spiders that keep aphids and other pests in check.  Not to mention that many insects rapidly develop resistance to common sprays.  And mostly because I don't like eating pesticide.

Recently I noticed several garden spiders lurking in the tomato plants, their intricate webs spanning several branches and in some cases several plants.  The largest of them, pictured above, was rather imposing at 2 inches in length and had a curious zig-zag pattern woven into its web.  At first I didn't like them being there.  I'm not freaked out by spiders, but I generally don't like them to be lurking in the dark, shaded places where ripe tomatoes sometimes hide - and where I must reach to harvest them.  They were detracting from our overall enjoyment of the garden.  It occurred to me that the spiders were colonizing the tomatoes in response to the plentiful supply of tasty grasshopper food, but I still wasn't sold on having them there.  I contemplated several methods of killing them, such as smashing them between two 2 x 4's or attacking them with a fly swatter.

Spiderpig does whatever a spiderpig does.

 Before resorting to such drastic measures I decided to educate myself.  I learned that the common black and yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia), also known as the writing spider or corn spider, is essentially harmless to humans.  They rarely bite, and if they do their venom has little effect on people.  And the best part: they like to eat grasshoppers as much as I like to eat tomatoes. I was starting to like these guys.  The zig-zag pattern in the web is called a stabilimentum.  The purpose of this structure has been disputed by scientists and several ideas have been tossed around.  Originally it was thought to stabilize the web, hence the name.  Scientists later proposed alternative purposes: that it serves to camoflauge the spider, makes the web more visible to birds so they don't fly through it, or that it attracts prey.

Inspiration struck: let's catch a grasshopper and put it on the web and see what happens.  The results were incredibly awesome.  Words can't do it justice, check it out in the video below.

I've come full circle.  These guys are my friends - my spider buddies.  The protectors of tomatoes, the guardians of gourds, the champions of chard.  Whenever I'm in the garden I have to check on them to make sure they're doing alright.  Perhaps I will bring them more treats - but not too soon - they need to stay hungry.  This fall the big spider momma will build an egg sac, and with a bit of luck spider babies will emerge next spring to build their webs and wreak havoc on unsuspecting grasshoppers.  This is ecological pest control at its finest.

Who needs pesticides?  Not this guy.  Not with friends like these.

How to get rid of Folger's coffee without drinking it and kill ants at the same time

Every time I walk to the orchard, I pass a large anthill.  I also notice a lot of ants on the peach tree that is closest to the anthill.  After passing the anthill about 15 times, I finally decided to do something about it.  And before I did anything, I went to google.  Always do your research, kids.  I searched "organic ant control" and clicked the first link.  I found this page:

http://doubledanger.com/living-green/10-tips-for-organic-ant-control

I'm a little uncertain as to whether some of these are truly organic, not that I really care, but maybe home remedies would have been a better description.  Vinegar, or relatively pure acetic acid, does not strike me as "organic".  But whatever.  One more reason to throw out the idea of "organic" and whatever else and focus on local foods that are grown with some transparency.  But, I digress..

Ants.

I noticed that coffee was on this list.  We were cursed with a plastic can of Folger's someone had left at our house.  It came in handy when we ran out of good coffee - yeah, I'm a snob, whatever, I just like what my tastebuds tell me to - but even then it tasted like crap so it was small solace for not having a good cup of joe to start the day.  This seemed like the perfect use for the coffee.  Not to mention what the description said:

3. You can use coffee grounds, chili powder, cinnamon, peppermint or black pepper.  All deter ants and if you pour coffee grounds directly on an anthill, they will eat the coffee grounds and implode.

 OK, I'm sold.  I wanted to see some ants implode.  Even though the thought of spraying them with vinegar and watching them slowly be burnt with acid (but its organic, bro) sounded appealing, it wasn't quite on par with imploding.  Imploding is even more cool than exploding, because it sounds like exploding, but its different.  Its backwards exploding.  Its sort of elusive.  Anyone can make something explode with the right (wrong) stuff, but can you make it implode?  Yeah, I didn't think so.

So I sprinkled the Folger's poison all around the anthill and stood back to watch the show.  Like many things you read on the internet, it turned out that the effects of the Folger's were quite exaggerated.  Maybe there are ants dying underground somewhere, I don't know, but they sure seem to be having a good time to me.  Immediately they began picking up the coffee grounds and moving them inside.  There was no sign of any ill effects.  In fact, there seemed to be a sense of rejoicing.  They're probably all hopped up on caffeine now, worker ant efficiency has gone through the roof, and they're branching out and starting new colonies all over in my garden.  Great.  At least I got rid of the Folger's.

I checked on the anthill again the next morning to assess any potential destruction, thinking that maybe it takes awhile for the Folger's toxin to do its dastardly work.  I know it works that way on me.  About a half hour after I drink a cup I'm running for the bathroom.  Insects are physiologically quite different than humans, perhaps it takes longer to work on them. There could be imploded ants all over the place by now, right?  Sure.

Unfortunately, there was little sign of any coffee grounds and it appeared the party was still raging from the night before.  The Folger's didn't seem to have any effect on the ants.  However, I must declare that the experience was a success.  I got rid of the Folger's, and I found a much better way to kill ants: spray them with vinegar and watch them burn.  I also learned a valuable lesson: when your goal is to kill something, don't get all cute and try to make it implode.  Keep it simple.  Just spray it with acid and watch it burn.  The James Bond villains could have learned a thing or two from ants.

Fresh caught fish: Healthy and delicious, but watch your water quality.

Fresh fish should be incorporated into any healthy diet... ok, let's settle down and just say its a very healthy form of protein.  Fish is lean, high in Omega-3 fatty acids (which are great for you and everything), and fairly easily obtained with the right skills and equipment.  Head to a water near you with a fishing pole in hand and collect yourself some of the highest quality protein that can be found.  I have found that the more fish I eat, the more weight I lose and the better I feel.  Besides, bringing home a mess of nice fish that will feed your family several times over just feels good.  Another bonus is that wild fish, or even the government stocked variety, are quite far removed from the industrial food machine.  This is real food, as wild as it gets, and a staple of our ancestors.

 I certainly know it felt good to catch this land locked, Missouri River chinook salmon within 15 minutes of catching the 26" walleye pictured below.  Those fish fed us many times, and they sure taste after some time in the smoker or frying pan.  

However, it is wise to be aware of the quality of the water that  your fish dinner comes from.  Heavy metals like mercury and arsenic and industrial chemicals like PCBs are your main cause for concern.  These pollutants accumulate in the flesh of fish, and large predators near the top of the food chain, like many game fish, have the highest concentrations.  Tthey've spent their entire lives absorbing the contaminants that accumulated in the fish they eat.  Urban industrial areas and waters downstream of mining activities are most likely to be high in these pollutants. Find out if any of your waters have high levels of pollutants.  You may want to eat less fish, keep only smaller fish, or not eat the fish at all.

Mercury can occur naturally in waters, usually in fluctuating lakes or large wetlands.  There is a small amount of mercury in all living things, and when lake waters rise killing large swaths of vegetation, mercury levels can also rise.  The mercury that accumulated over long periods of time in the soils and vegetation works its way up the food chain of the lake, accumulating in fish.  This phenomenon is not caused by pollution, but one should still be aware of local waters where this may be an issue. 

In the rivers of the midwest and great plains, where agricultural runoff predominates, high fecal bacteria levels may be seen, but these are not of great cause for concern.  Wash your hands when your done fishing and cook your fish thoroughly and you should be fine.  The bacteria does not effect the fish flesh.

For any information on the condition of your state's waters and fish life, contact your state environmental or game and fish agency.

Getting an early start with cold weather crops

This spring we decided to do a little experiment: Determine the frost tolerance of cold weather crops, such as cabbage, lettuce, radishes, spinach, and broccoli.  In our neck of the woods, central South Dakota, the average last frost date is around May 20.  We reasoned that we could get two crops out of each bed instead of one if we planted both spring and fall crops.  Most gardeners around here just plant their cabbage, lettuce, and other cold hardy crops along with their beans, peppers, and tomatoes.  We felt that we could improve on that system with a little learning.  And I must admit, a strong part of the reason for doing this was so we could get down to the business of growing plants a lot earlier.

We started our cabbage plants under our growlight setup, which I will write about in a later post, on - get this - February 15!  On February 19 we had sprouts, and a day later we started our broccoli.  We started our Napa (Chinese) cabbage on March 2, thinking it wouldn't be quite as hardy as the cabbage and broccoli.  It turned out to be a correct assumption.  Over the next two weeks, we also started Paris Island Romaine lettuce, Brussel Sprouts, leeks, and several herbs.

After hardening off, we planted our cabbages and broccoli in one of our chicken manure fertilized beds in the last week of April.  We experimented with milk jugs and plastic covers to deter frost.  The milk jugs didn't work well.  We had issues with aphids, and the plants with milk jugs were always worse.  The plastic was way better.  We watched the weather fairly closely and covered when it fell below about 27 degrees.  The plants endured mild frosts without flinching, and once they were established and healthy and the aphid population was knocked down by our garlic/soap spray, they endured frosts as cold as 23 degrees. We had a very mild spring,  however, and I am anxious to try this in a more normal (what's normal?!?!?!) year, when frosts will be more severe and blizzards are a possibility.

We had great success with early planting this year, with bountiful crops of Romaine lettuce, spinach, radishes, cabbage, and full broccoli heads before anyone else's plants were even thinking about heading out.  I encourage anyone to grow their cold season crops when its cold.  They grow way better, and don't mind a bit of frost.

Growing napa cabbage and the art of making kimchi.

Incredibly different worlds collided when I worked in a Korean restaurant for several years while I was in college.  While employed, I developed a taste for kimchi, among other Korean cuisine.  However, the owner would not teach the employees how to make it.  I can't blame her, it was one of her secrets and a unique claim to fame, especially in the predominantly non-Korean environment of small town South Dakota.  I had fallen in love with kimchi, though, and when it dawned on me that I could grow most, if not all, of the ingredients, I had to make some for myself.  Besides, anything that goes that great with beer has to be incorporated into our diet.  With a little googling, I soon found that making kimchi was far from the mysterious, magical process I had envisioned when my Korean boss would disappear to the basement to make another huge batch of the spicy fermented cabbage.  In fact, it was quite simple.

One website in particular was helpful: http://drbenkim.com/how-make-kim-chi.htm

The instructions laid out by Dr. Ben Kim are clear, concise, and simple. I was delighted to find that the result of Dr. Ben Kim's recipe was very similar to that of my Korean boss.  The one setback was in obtaining the red pepper flakes, which were apparently only available from the website recommended by Dr. Kim, which happened to be unsecured.  At the risk of financial ruin, I went ahead and bought 6 bags of the red pepper flakes (I've used up one bad in three years) and watched my bank account like a hawk.  I didn't get ripped off, and I got the red pepper flakes.

This spring, my better half and I planted about 12 heads of napa cabbage, also called chinese cabbage, for the sole purpose of making our own kimchi.  We started our cabbage seeds on March 2, according to our gardening notebook (Get yourself a gardening notebook!  You will forget more than you remember from each gardening season, unless you have a photographic memory or something.  In that case, nevermind.).  We transferred them to the garden in the last week of March, which was earlier than expected because of a record setting warm spring.  We had plenty of aphids show up to munch on them, but routine applications of a soap/garlic solution (a topic worthy of its own post) helped keep them reasonably in check. 

We harvested our cabbage over the course of the last week or so.  We had some cabbage worm damage in some of the heads that were planted earlier (i.e. the oldest plants) and we had to cut off some of the heads.  We still had a solid harvest, though, with about 5 heads in great condition and some other heads with chunks cut off.  All the scraps and a few heads that were badly infested went over the fence into the chicken coop.  Nothing is wasted when you have chickens!  The bugs make for tasty protein supplements.

On to the kimchi!

We have made two batches of kimchi so far, each made 2 and a half quarts of the finished product.  The first batch was overly flavorful (a diplomatic way to put it) because I went heavy on the garlic and ginger - make that double heavy- and it was a bit strong.  Not to fear, however!  The solution to potent kimchi is to make one of the old boss's favorites, a pork and kimchi stew called kimchi chigae.  Don't ask me if I spelled that correctly.  It is a dish that was seemingly made for cold, rainy days.  If it is overcast and there is a chill in your bones, kimchi chigae will remove it.

To make it, you just brown up some fatty pork meat with a bone in it, such as country ribs or spare ribs such as in the photo.  Dump a bunch of kimchi in with the browned meat, add some water, sliced onions, and maybe some extra garlic and ginger.  If you're really feeling saucy, add some more of the red pepper flakes used to make the kimchi.  Boil for about 20 minutes, then simmer for another 45 minutes to an hour.  You can cook it for a shorter or longer periods of time, depending on how patient you are and how tender you like your meat.

Kimchi can be used in many other ways, such as in stir fry dishes or simply eaten plain, which is my personal favorite, especially when accompanied by an ice cold beer. 

Welcome to Not Exactly Homesteading!

Welcome to Not Exactly Homesteading!  What we mean by the name is that we try to live a more off the grid style of life without actually going off the grid.  We want to be free from the industrial food web, but we still want to have jobs.  We like our jobs.  Above all things, we try to be pragmatic.  We avoid pesticide use wherever possible, which is pretty much everywhere, but we don't try to be "organic" with our livestock or produce.  We figure that if it is grown at home, caught from a local lake or stream, or hunted from the landscape, it is of the highest quality.  Our taste buds tell us this is the case, and so do our waistlines.  So do our wallets. 

We kill deer, raise chickens for meat and eggs, catch fish, grow a huge garden, grow corn for food and feed, shoot gamebirds and waterfowl, pick wild asparagus, and compost everything.  But we also work 40 hours a week and buy some of our food, maybe 25%, from the grocery store.  We strive to find the balance between the simple joy recieved from providing for oneself and the comforts and safety of modern life.  We try to grow or harvest as many ingredients as we can, but we realize we can't produce them all.  For example, we don't want to buy a canned tomato ever again, but we love our dishwasher.  You don't have to go "off the grid" to have food of the highest quality at a bargain while minimizing your environmental impact and freeing yourself of the industrial food web.  You can know exactly where your meat, veggies, and grain came from, and it can be fun, especially if you love to cook.  We like to see our hard work in the garden, the field, or on the water translated to our plate.  We love being free from the confines of the inferior ingredients available at the grocery store.  Ours tastes better in almost every case.

So this is about food health, quality, and safety,  and reducing your environmental impact in any way possible.  But to be pragmatic about it.  Join us on our journey toward quasi-sustainability.  Share our successes and failures.  Hopefully we can develop a discussion community to lend insight to one another to get better at doing all the little things that make like more fulfilling and delicious.And we will try not to be too snobby or smug because of where our food comes from or how we live our lives, because we've all got some weeds in our garden.