RATS!

Every now and then someone mentions to me that they’ve put poison out for their rat problem.

Now and then the poisoners also happen to kill their dog or their cat.

How many hawks, falcons, cats, dogs, owls, etc., that eat the poisoned rats and then die, is an uncomfortable mystery to ponder. If you’ve never seen a rat, cat, dog, owl or hawk dying of rat poisoning, trust me, you don’t want to see it.

When rats spoil my tomatoes or get into my basement to spoil stored food, I want them promptly and humanely as dead as I can make them. I don’t believe in catch and release when it comes to rats. I wouldn’t relocate my rats to your neighborhood, and I don’t want you to relocate your rats to my neighborhood. When it comes to rats and other disease spreading or dangerous critters, you’ll find me in the, “People for the Ethical Treatment of People,” group.

A good friend of mine, after his dog ate the rat poison that he had put in his garden, came up with the cleverest and best way ever to catch a rat in a snap trap – without a miss. His vet bill to save his dog was $3,000. I think that is a good gauge of the value of his invention.

What you need is a snap trap, available in any hardware store, and a peanut. Victor brand rat and mouse traps are available everywhere. And you need a peanut. Roasted and salted seems to work faster than raw peanuts. If you only have raw peanuts, that works. If I only have raw peanuts, I put a little peanut butter on a tooth pick and push it inside the shell after I’ve broken it in two. I want the stronger smell of roasted peanut on the raw peanut. The peanut butter pushed inside the shell handles the smell and the rat will have to work for it.

The following pictures are pretty much self-explanatory. Always hold a set trap so that if it goes off accidentally, you don’t break a finger. Even if you don’t break it, it will feel like you did.

The two pictures involving pliers show how to set the trap with a hair trigger, or to increase it if you get it so lightly set that it goes off when you breathe on it.

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Sweet Potatoes are Fun!

I grow Sweet Potatoes, the whitish ones, and Yams, the darker reddish variety with the deep orange flesh.

Very few people that I’ve talked to have ever had what we call “Yams,” other than covered with syrup or marshmallows or in some other ghastly form. Mostly, people that have only had them that way have a strong dislike for “Yams,” the darker variety of Sweet Potatoes. When they eat them in a medley of roasted vegetables, or rubbed with olive oil, sprinkled with Kosher salt and baked like a Russet potato, they’re amazed.

Related to Morning Glory, they grow very fast in warm weather. As a ground cover, no ornamental vine compares.

Loaded with vitamins and minerals, one of the most complete foods in the garden, they’re very easy to grow in warm climates. Here in Los Angeles, I get them started in late April. Almost all of them come up as volunteers, left over from the year before.

One little sprout, piece of sweet potato or whole small one, that was left in the soil, will have a re-birth in the late spring. I transplant them or take cuttings. Cuttings, put in a glass of water at room temperature, will sprout roots in just a day or three. Put them in the ground and that’s that. Not much water is required for a big crop. You don’t even need to get the cuttings rooted. Just cut off a branch and stick in the bed. It will play dead for about three days. As soon as it has sent out roots, you have a new vigorous plant.

The following pictures tell the whole story. From these, on 3 May 2013, we’ll be having Sweet Potatoes and Yams through about January. When we want some, I’ll just reach down into the bed. (I have very soft dirt in those beds-having created a mix of about 1/3 peat moss to 2/3 soil by volume.) From the 2 beds, one 55 square feet and one 65 square feet, I’ll take about 300 pounds of the lovelies from August through December, and into January.

Volunteer Sweet Potatoes

Last year's Sweet Potato sending up new shoots called Slips

Slips sprouting form one looked over last year

Slips ready to go into the bed

What they'll look like in 2-3 months

Tomato Question

Dear Lee,

While back East I was talking to a Gal about growing tomato plants and she asked if I ever heard of hitting the plants with a stick!........she claimed that while in Italy she saw a man do this with the end result, twice as much fruit when all was said and done.

     

If true I know I would not want to do to my beautiful plants, but what is your take?

-W.

Hi W. -

Sure, we do that---but not with a stickl. We're not so brutal. We shake the cages, which shakes the plant, which causes more blossoms to be pollinated. Tomatoes are self-pollinating-they don't need no stinking bees. Wind accomplishes the same thing, causing more pollen to drop into the pistil. Commercial growers, in huge greenhouses, have fans that go on automatically for 5-10 minutes a couple of times a day to accomplish the same thing as the Italian with the stick-or us with the shake of the cage.

Have a swell day!

-Lee
 

Just Do IT!!

Aren't you convinced yet that the people you've trusted with your food supply all your life simply can't be trusted? There are hundreds of thousands of cases of food borne illnesses, some fatal, every year. We spend bzillions in taxes to monitor, regulate, legislate, politicize this stuff every year.

What do we get? We get sick- and some of us even die.

If you have only a few square feet, you can start there. Just start. You'll be amazed at much fun it can be, how relaxing and extroverting it can be, and with a little luck and less effort, you'll get some real, untainted, fresh, high nutrient actual food!

Don't know where to start? Get the DVD's. They have everything you need to know, start to finish. Have other questions? Write to me. I've just spent the last 2 hours answering gardening questions; what's yours?

Golden Acorn Squash

 

They look beautiful this time of year! When an Acorn Squash has reached its full growth on the plant, it's harvested and cooked within a few days, it's one of the best tasting things in the garden. Acorns, unlike other winter squash, aren't "cured" for a week or two after being harvested.

 

Typical winter squash aren't cut from the plant until the stem has dried. The stem has turned a greyish-tan, shriveled, and looks dead. The squash is then carefully cut an inch or two from the squash. That stem isn't a handle for the squash. Lift or carry the squash by the stem and you'll probably break the seal, air will enter the squash, and it will begin spoiling. The typical winter squash is then left in the bed for a week or two to "cure," then stored in a cool dark place, for up to several months, until it's used.

 

Acorn squash start losing their flavor immediately after being harvested. Once they've reached their full growth on the plant, they're at their peak of flavor and nutrient content. From that point on it has begun losing its nutrients and flavor. 

 

If you leave the green Acorn out of the sun and out of refrigeration, it will start turning "golden." The older it gets, the more "golden" it will become. The more "golden" it becomes, the less flavor and nutrients it contains. It's that flat, nutrient absent flavor of squash too old, that people who "don't like squash," are thinking about.

 

If you're tempted to pay 2-3 times as much for a "Golden Acorn Squash" because it looks so pretty, go ahead. It can be a beautiful part of a table decoration. If you expect it to taste "good," it won't. Leave the Golden one as part of a decoration, but serve and enjoy eating the green one.

Me...A TV Star??

I have a TV show? In South Africa? Apparently I do!

Several months ago I gave a non-profit org there permission to show my DVD's on TV; provided only that they posted where people could order my DVD's if they wanted to, and that the showing would be non-profit. 

Over the years we've had any number of orders from every English speaking country, from Africa to New Zealand. The DVD's have also been shown on any number of Public TV stations in the US, both with and without my permission. This latest request from S. Africa wasn't much out of the ordinary. 

What I didn't expect was some of the most gratifying e-mails I've ever received. In the latest, the fellow told me he was "going to continue to watch (my) TV show for more gardening tips."

My purpose in making those DVD's, at considerable cost, wasn't with the dream of getting lots of money. My purpose was to help people get control of their food safety and quality, save money, do something for the environment, and enjoy the family unifying adventure that vegetable gardening can be.

With this latest S. African development, I'm considering my original purpose for the DVD's fulfilled.

I thank you all.

Lee

Sweet Potatoes

I have a bed that's 5' x 9' where I grow only sweet potatoes. The next bed over is 6' x 10' and I grow only yams in that one.

We can't grow actual Yams in this country. They grow only near the Equator. Yams can get up to 5' long and look more like a branch of a tree with heavy bark. The flesh is white, and tastes nothing at all like what we call a "yam." I've never seen one. My wife saw some in a market on some island in the Carribbean. According to her and everything I've read, even if we could grow them here we probably wouldn't.

What we call "yams" are actually a variety of Sweet Potato. Super Markets used to have to label their Yams, "Sweet Potato Yams." Apparently they aren't required to do that anymore, as it's been many years since I've seen them labeled that way. "Sweet Potatoes," the more yellowish of the two, have a drier and coarser texture than the more moist and fine fleshed Sweet Potato "Yam."

We've been pulling both out of my beds since August, whenever we want them for dinner. The vines are still green and make a beautiful ground cover for the 6-8 months they're growing. I simply move the vines aside, brush around the base of the plant, and ease out as many as I want. I let them sit under the awning the rest of the day.

At dinner time, I wash them off, split them down the middle, rub olive oil all over them, and rub some Kosher salt on all surfaces. I put them cut side down in a cast iron pan, cover it, and turn the burner on medium for about 15 minutes. About half of the cut surfaces get blackened. After about 15 minutes, I turn them over, cover them again, and in about 15-20 minutes, when they're soft to a fork, they're done. We eat them just like a baked potato, blackened skin and all--a little butter, a little salt....YUM! 

Sweet potatoes/Yams are one of the most vitamin and mineral laden things we can grow in our climate. They make a more beautiful ground cover than the Ivy used for the purpose, and I'll easily get 100 lbs. or more from each bed.

Now I realize I could plant lawn in those beds, and have a nice lounge chair there under the tree. But I'd have to mow the lawn. I just plant the Sweet Potatoes and Yams in April, have a more beautiful site to look at than any lawn--and I don't have to do a thing from April through December, when the lovely things will be all gone. But they'll be back in the spring---for sure they will be back in the spring!

I've tried to encourage my friends who have lawns to dig them up and plant Yams and Sweet Potatoes. I guess it wouldn't be politically correct. It would be infinitely healthier, much more beautiful, enormously more beneficial to the environment, but simply not done.

I'll have to work on being more "politically correct." Or not.