blue jay bush bean

Thanks to a question from a customer a little while back, I have been trying to track down as much information as possible about the Blue Jay bush bean. This is a variety that I started growing in 2011, after scoring some at a seed exchange; the person who swapped them had done a trial run with them the previous growing season, so as far as I know they were the one to introduce this variety to my neck of the woods {from a preservation project just south of us}.

Besides some whispered rumours, I knew very little about the history of this lovely bean. So after some digging, I came up with a wee bit more, which I will share here. There are many other heirlooms that I adore, and it is my hope to spotlight more of them in the near future. Perhaps this will be a new "regular" feature on this blog.

The Story

The Blue Jay bush bean has dark navy blue/sometimes almost black colouring with splashes of white or beige. The flowers are a lovely pink or purple which attract all sorts of pollinators. From what I understand it is Canadian in origin, and one of its parent plants is the Comtesse de Chambord.

This is still a very rare heirloom variety that almost vanished. Thanks to a preservation project with Seeds of Diversity and Everdale Organic Farm & Learning Centre, gardeners will hopefully be able to enjoy these pretties for generations to come!

To read more about the history and preservation of the Blue Jay Bush Bean, check out the write up over at A Bean Collector's Window.

Growing Conditions

Being a bush bean, there will be no need to trellis the plants and you could probably do well growing Blue Jays in large containers. Like with all bush beans, you need to grow them in full sun and in well-draining soil, preferably with a pH between 6.0 to 6.5. 

Blue Jays seem to tolerate crowding fairly well I have had excellent harvests in both a hot and dry growing season and a cold and wet one.

Some plants that are known to be good companion planting matches with bush beans are peas, radishes, roses, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, marigolds, strawberries, cabbage, beets, celery, eggplant, corn, sunflowers; avoid growing with onions.

Planting

Plant the seeds directly in the ground after the danger of frost has passed, 1 inch deep and 3 inches apart.

 

Care

Personally I think that bush beans are one of the easiest plants to grow. While it is never good to neglect any plant, you are probably more apt to kill a bush bean off quicker by over watering than by missing a watering session or two. 

Should you decide to fertilize them {which to me is not necessary}, make sure that whatever you are using is not too high in nitrogen. Too much of that will mess with the pod setting. The only pest I have ever had any issues with when it comes to bush beans are earwigs {*grrr*}, but other ones to keep an eye out for are leafhoppers, aphids, and spider mites.

Harvesting

The really wonderful thing about Blue Jay bush beans is that you can either enjoy them green or dried. Given that they are very prolific, someone who grows them will have a great opportunity to try them both ways! For green beans it takes about 65 days to reach maturity and 90 days for dried beans.

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Sláinte!

Laurel

2012 garden report

I know that I haven't been posting as frequently about the garden as I have in previous years {well, to be fair I haven't been posting as much here at all}, but I decided to keep the traditional "annual garden report" going. So this is a post is an overview of the 2012 growing season.

This was probably the most challenging growing season I have ever had, not only because we had a to start a new garden from scratch {that had really crappy soil}, but it seems that there was all sorts of diseases and infestations going around. A whole bunch of local gardeners that I spoke to had an over abundance of ear wigs, which is what hit us hard. They went to town on a shitload of our seedlings and young perennials, which my poor monkshood and mayapple never recovered from. :*( However, after a long battle and weeks of "trapping", almost all of the other victims flourished.

Below you will see how our annual edible/useful plants did {to actually get this post published, I am not going to bother getting into the perennials}. As with other years past, I am the 1 to 5 rating system, 1 being absolute shit, 5 being fan-fucking-tastic.

Arugula

5. Our New Sun arugula from Soggy Creek Seed Co. just might be bomb proof!

Beans {Bush & Pole}

4. Our Purple Peacock and Scarlet Runner pole beans did very well, as did our Orca, Contender, and Blue Jay bush beans; our Tanya's Pink Podded bush beans were rather stunted thanks to the dastardly earwigs.

Beets

4. For the most part we grew our beets in containers and enjoyed them for their greens, and after thinning them getting nice big roots. The ones in the ground didn't do so well...{yes, thanks to the earwigs}.

Carrots 

3. These guys were also mostly reserved for containers to avoid certain somebodies nomming them to shit. For the most part our carrots were piddly little guys.

Chard

5. We had a steady diet of chard all season long.

Corn

2. Just like other seasons past, my luck with corn is just not there. It is too bad, because I was really excited about the two heritage varieties that I got at last year's seed exchange, Pickaniny and Painted Mountain.

Cucumbers

3. Our Straight Eights had a set back thanks to you-know-who, so we didn't get to experience the prolific harvests that they are known for.

Kale

 5. We stuck to Red Russian and Dinosaur kale, which never let us down!

Lettuces

 4. We grew at least a dozen different types, and save for some bolting, all did very well.

Melons

1. These poor gaffers didn't stand a chance against the earwigs. They never made it past their first true leaves.

Mustard

 4. Some minor issues with loppers, otherwise our mustard did awesome.

Nasturtiums

 5. Both the vining and bush varieties grew like weeds.

Onions

 5. Old reliables.

Parsnips 

4. Had to start them a couple of times, but had a pretty good harvest.

Peas

5. We had a plethora of peas from Spring to Fall.

Peppers 

3. Another crop that had to be started over, thanks to the earwigs. Due to this we only got a small harvest.

Potatoes

 5. It probably would be fair to say that we had a bumper crop, especially with our Russets.

Pumpkins 

5. Our Small Sugars never let us down! For 2012 we grew them on trellises and that made a big difference with the powdery mildew, which we had some issues with previous years.

Radishes

4. Besides some bolting, they did well.

Spinach

5. Parfait!

Sunflowers

 3. I was so heart broken by the damage done by the earwigs. Once I saw that my sunflowers were being mowed down, it was war. I had to re-start them a few times, so they weren't as plentiful as they should have been.

Tobacco

3. Pretty much the same story as the sunflowers.

Tomatoes

5. We tried a few new varieties this year, but I think the Black Krim and Orange Blossoms did the best. 

Turnips

4. We mainly grew our turnips in containers and got lots of greens. The roots were a wee bit smaller than other years.

Winter Squash

 5. We grew a few varieties, mainly on trellises. I am in LOVE with Potimarron!

Zucchini

5. We tried a new variety called Summer Ball, which can be eaten as a Winter or Summer squash. Love them! Our Strange Zucchini from Outer Space did well too.

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Well, that pretty much is it. Now time to plan for 2013. ;)

Sláinte!

Laurel

a great new steader book & a pile of awesome giveaways!

Backyard Farming on an Acre {More or Less} by Angela England

In celebration of the launch of the book Backyard Farming on an Acre {More or Less} there six different Backyard Farming themed giveaway packs up for grabs! Here is a rundown of each of the packs:

Herbal Tea Drinker’s Dream Pack (Click Here to Enter This Giveaway) ■Libre tea infuser – $24.00 value ■Villeroy and Boch Floral Mugs - $92.40 ■Bee Raw Honey + Estate Tea Set - $98

Apartment Dweller’s Self-Sufficiency Giveaway (Click Here to Enter This Giveaway) ■Earth Box Junior Garden System – $24.95 ■Mushroom Garden Kit - $19.95 ■Peaceful Valley/Grow Organic Gourmet Flavors Organic Seed Tin – $24.99 ■BuyGreen.com Steel Composting Pail – $32

Backyard Farming Garden Pack (Click Here to Enter This Giveaway) ■Earth Box Garden System, original – $32.95 ■Safe Harvest Seed Bank - $42.99 ■Peaceful Valley/Grow Organic Good-Start Kit (Includes 1g Fish Fertilizer, 1 qt, Liquid Kelp extract, and Garden Art Calendar) – $37.97

Food Preservation Giveaway (Click Here to Enter This Giveaway) ■Legacy canning jars, one case each size – $34.83 ■Tattlers lids, 1 dozen – $24.99 ■Assortment of 8 Tomato Seed Packs from Baker Creek Seeds – $17.50 ■Yes, You Can! And Freeze, And Dry it Too! book by Daniel Gastieger – 19.95

Kitchen Creativity Giveaway (Click Here to Enter This Giveaway) ■Best Basic Cheesemaking Kit – $44.88 ■Villeroy and Boch Garden Serving Bowl - $98.25 ■All You Magazine Subscription + Kitchenwares Gift Basket – $50 value

Backyard Chicken Flock Giveaway (Click Here to Enter This Giveaway) ■25 Assorted Heavy Layer Chicks from Hoover’s Hatchery – $50 value (Orders will be held until February 2013 pending availability.) ■Brinsea EcoGlow 20 Chick Brooder – $59 value ■Peaceful Valley/Grow Organic Omega 3 Chicken Forage Blend w/3 17inch square seed flats – $10 value 

You need to get your entries in by December 18th! On the 18th there will be a live chat on the Backyard Farming Facebook page between 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm CMT, where the winners will be announced. Head on over to enter and make sure to check out the book!

Sláinte!

Laurel

Using Botanicals to Dye Magical Textiles

{I had originally posted this over at the Unfettered Wood blog, but I figured some of the nefaeria readers might enjoy it too.} 

A few days ago I did some natural dyeing, so I thought that I would share a wee bit about that in case other folks would be inspired to give it a go. Please keep in mind that there are different ways that one can dye textiles with botanicals, this is just they way that I have been comfortable with.

There are a few things that all methods have in common:

1. Extracting colour
2. Fixing colour
3. Transferring colour

I would highly recommend people going through the resources that I will put at the end of this post to get more ideas to see what works for them.

The whole purpose of me doing this was to infuse the magical properties of the plants into the textiles, as well as obviously leave some colour on them as well.

  

For this batch the actual magical properties of the plants were of more importance to me than the colour. I wanted something that could be a good general purpose textile and wasn't quite sure how the colours would turn out. In one of the extra resources at the bottom of this post, there is a list of different plants and the colours they give off.

For fresh ingredients this is not necessary, but berries apparently benefit having a soaking in vinegar before simmering. This is a good time to do a blessing over the plant materials should you wish to, or to "charge" them with intent.

Using cold water is best to add for the vinegar, and after simmering giving the fabric a good rinse in cold water {water it runs clear} is needed. Other methods call for the fabric to be wet before putting it in with the dye wash, so this takes care of both the fixative and that step. Other fixatives are sometimes added to the actual dye wash or used to treat the textile afterwards. Learn more about fixative in the resources below.

Other methods call for a lower simmering time, depending on the materials being used. Sometimes fixatives, such as salt are added at this stage.

This is probably not a must, but it will make stage six a whole lot easier. As you will see in the follow photos, I did not strain all of the plant material out; some of it stuck to the fabric, which I just shook off outdoors once I was finished drying them out. I put the strained off bits into the compost.

The textile I used was a natural coloured cotton linen and I left it in the dye wash for a couple of hours. I shifted it around every once and a while with a pair of tongs. If handling, it is best to used a pair of rubber gloves so you don't dye your hands!

Before removing from the dye bath, carefully squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can. To get the concentrated veins of colours, I left my fabric bunched in a pile on a dish drying rack {made black rubber, no risk of it staining!} over night. Then I dried out flat on our clothesline.



Extra resources:

Using Natural Plant Dyes by Kate Aimson {from White Dragon Magazine}
Natural Dyes: Their History and How to Make Them by Varenya
Making Natural Dyes from Plantsfrom Pioneer Thinking {has a great list of plants and the colours they give off}

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a comparison of my linen before dyeing {top} and after dyeing {bottom}

It was exciting to see what the finished product would be and I am quite fond of the yellows, rusts and browns that came out in the linen. I will be using some of it in an upcoming project that I will post about later, as well as using some for charm bags and pouches.

For those who don't want to make your own, but would like some magical textiles, I will be listing some of this batch in the Unfettered Wood shop and I am happy to take custom orders.

Sláinte!

Laurel

lessons from the garden {unwelcome guests edition}

original image by travellinggirl2010

Just like every other gardening season that has gone by, I have learned a few more lessons from/in the garden, and this year's theme has been unwelcome guests. Some of these lessons are from my own experiences and others are from friends. I thought that I would share them with you dear readers, so you may avoid future these pains. ;)

1. If you have a wild & witchy garden, it is probably a good idea not to have church ladies who happen to be formal garden aficionados over to visit during the growing season. They will try to exorcise you of the Devil, and exorcise your garden of weeds {read: anything that is not a peony, orchid or rose is fair game!} while you're inside getting drinks for everyone. 
2. Don't invite over self-professed design snobs if your patio furniture textiles happen to not match your tomatoes {luckily this lesson was taught in a friend's garden; if the design snob had come over to my place, they probably would have fainted at the sight of our "patio furniture", which is just camping chairs!}.
3. Light sensors and wielding gardening shears are good deterrents when dealing with drunken assholes who like to "water" your front garden after an evening at the local bar.
4. "Piss-off" plants are a great way to keep neighbourhood kitties from using your garden as a litter box {recommended by a friend}.
5. Earwigs are truly evil incarnate. This year they did a number on some of my young perennial plants and a whole bunch of my annuals. While I was a bit late, I found strategically placed traps {shallow containers with some water and a wee bit of olive oil} kept them under control.
6. Fences are sometimes not enough to keep thieves and peeping toms out of your backyard. Having lots of thorny bushes and nettles where they are likely to hop over the fence will make them think twice next time. 
7. And finally some advice from a friend {for fellow witchy folk}: having signage politely informing people that a witch resides at your place and that if people fuck with your garden, they may very well be blasted into next week. Apparently this has effectively kept the idiots who used to vandalize her garden on their best behaviour.

Have any tips or "unwelcome garden guests" stories? Feel free to share them in the comment section.

Sláinte!

Laurel

harvests, chutneys & updates

Howdy folks! I hope that you all have been enjoying September so far!

Things have been extra busy 'round here, which is why I have been especially lax in posting. This is just a wee post about some of the goings-on in my garden, kitchen, and the witchy part of my life.

For the most part things in the garden have been going well, there has been lots of mini harvests and a few large ones.

{purple pole beans}

{black krim, orange blossom, red pear cherry, tigerella and marzano roma tomatoes}

{summer ball & acorn squash, along with some small sugar pumpkins. one of the pumpkin vines got damaged so I had to pick some early}

I have also been doing some herb harvests from the garden and some wildcrafting.

{stinging nettle}

{raspberry leaves}

Most of my kitchen adventures have been dedicated to preserving including trying to find ways to use some nasturtiums and green tomatoes. I made nasturtium honey along with three different types of green tomato chutneys that ended up going to to baggies to stored in the freezer:

{peach & nasturtium green tomato chutney, with some olive oil and nasturtium honey thrown in there for good measure}

{pear & wild ginger chutney with green pear cherry tomatoes, and some chives and olive oil}

{apple & mint green tomato chutney, with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar}

{nasturtium honey}

For more green tomato recipes you can check this post and this post.

The witchy news is that I have opened up a shop on Etsy for Unfettered Wood:

I will only be posting information about the shop if something "big" is going on like giveaways. If are interested in keeping up with it, you can always head on over to the Unfettered Wood blog, Tumblr or Facebook page. I will also link to the odd informational post over there; I think for the most part I will be posting things about my spiritual and magical practices over there along with writing about folklore. This blog will remain one for general gardening & homesteading, politics, opinions and rants.

Sláinte!

Laurel

already august...

{bull thistle}

...and almost halfway done! I have been quite busy both in and out of the garden the last few weeks: celebrating Lughnasadh, collecting seeds, harvesting and preparing herbs, and have been spending much of my time on Unfettered Wood stuff.

The garden has also been quite busy and thankfully productive as well, although a few of the crops are lagging behind where they should be. I am to blame for some of that, especially in regards to the potatoes which I planted later than they should be. Mostly the main culprits are the earwigs, which kept on mowing over my poor little seedlings. Since I set out the traps though, they have been mainly under control.

Soon I will be planting our fall crops of greens, peas, radishes, carrots, and turnips. I have also been planning the rearranging of the perennials that I will be doing once they have finished doing their thing and there is room after the annuals have been cleared out.

Here are some photos that I have taken over the last little while since my last garden update post.

{potato bed}

{nasturtiums, squash, zucchini, pumpkins, bush beans}

{tomatoes, pole beans, squash, cucumbers}

{cucumbers, tomatoes, pole beans, bush beans, and nasturtiums}

{pumpkin getting friendly with the lilac tree}

{comfrey, squash, scarlet runners, sweetgrass, perriwinkle, and poppies}

{tigerella tomatoes}

{small sugar pumpkin}

{acorn squash}

{squash flowers}

{potato flowers}

{lavatera}

{scarlet runners}

{balloon flower}

{bergamot}

{swamp rose mallow}

{poppy pod}

{joe pye weed}

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Til next time, folks.

Sláinte!

Laurel

a refreshing summer salad

With the kind of heat that we have been getting, I really want nothing to do with stodgy foods nor cooking. But I sure as hell will nom fresh fruit and veggies all day. Here is something that I threw together for lunch/dinner {best part, it's all local or right from our backyard}:

bed of nasturtium leaves
cantaloupe
blueberries
green tomatoes
cucumber
drizzled honey
topped with nasturtium flowers

Please feel free to share your salad ideas! :)

Sláinte!

Laurel