Gloriosa Daisy Seedlings. 1.27.22

 I wondered if these needed stratification.  I guess not.  First seedlings emerged in three days.  That's fast.

Gloriosa Daisies are Rudbeckia hirta, similar to Black Eyed Susans but perennial (although Black Eyed Susans apparently can be annual, perennial, biennial) and have more fall colors (center tends to be golden / brown / ochre / brick red, outer parts of petals are yellow) to the flowers.   I'm glad I tried without stratification.

Such tiny seedlings.  I think they will grow quickly and probably more will germinate.

Pruning Apple Trees. 1.26.22

 January can be a good time to prune apple trees.  They are not actively growing or producing apples, so we get a good look at their structure.  Many other farming / gardening jobs are on hold although there is always something.

My apple pruning goals:  Try to keep the branches at a height that won't be easy for deer to reach, but I can reach without a ladder.  My fruit goals are to have various varieties ripening from summer through fall and into early winter.  Not bushels of fruit at a time, but rather bowls at a time.

This is what started as minidwarf Liberty Apple, now at 22 years old has overgrown some of the dwarfing effect of the rootstock.  I bent higher branches horizontally to let them fruit within reach.  I cut off all vertical shoots, a few buds after their origins.   In front of Liberty is the columnar North Pole, with McIntosh flavors but larger and sweeter.  I just cut the top and prune side spurs to keep them about
a foot long.  Those were a few weeks ago.

Another NorthPole.  Both North Pole apple trees are on minidwarfing M27 rootstock, which gives small,  very slow growing tree but keeps the size manageable and maintenance easy.

Also Golden Sentinel.   Also columnar.   It's had some bark problems, seem to be healing but I'm leaving two healthy looking lower shoots in place as potential replacements.  If the existing top doesn't produce this year, I'll cut it off and let the vigorous young shoots take over.  I think it's on M9 dwarfing rootstock, but I forget.

I also pruned the Jonagold and Winecrisp - which has grafts of Sweet-16, Fameuse, and Duchess of Oldenberg.  Mostly, remove high vertical shoots, open up the canopies a little, remove long willowy branches that, when weighed down with apples, bend to easy deer heights.   Stubby branches don't bend so easily so are relatively safer from Bambizilla.   I pruned the dwarf multigraft that has Sutton Beauty, Airlie Redflesh, Liberty, Baldwin, and Prima.  I'm debating removing more of the Airlie Redflesh because those get too much scab.  The star of that tree is the ancient variety, Sutton Beauty (discovered about 1848).  Prima is a good disease resistant variety so I'm curious about how that will do.

There is one more apple tree to prune in this group, a large multigraft with Akane, Summerred, Fuji (Beni Shogun early variant), some Pristine shoots (early early very good disease resistant, sparkly good flavor), more Jonagold, and a red flesh from Home Orchard Society that might be descended from the variety Grenadine.  

Then there will be the three front yard apple trees, and that's all.  I very good that Im this far along on the apple tree maintenance.

Pizza. Home Crust. 1.26.22

 This is the pizza dough that seems to work best.  The recipe calls for more flour but then it's too dry and difficult (damn near impossible) to work.  It also calls for not kneading, but without kneading, the flour doesn't become evenly moist.   

Recipe (my version):

First, combine...

1 cup bread flour

2 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups warm water.

Stir together in bowl, cover, let sit until lots of bubbles.  About 30 min.

Then gradually work in about 2 more cups of bread flour.  I knead it together in the bowl.

Let dough rise for about an hour until doubled.

Cover and refrigerate,  It's nice to use a Rubbermaid type bowl so the cover doesn't come lose.  Refrigerate overnight or up to two week.  Longer duration gives a more sourdough like flavor and texture.

This is great because you don't have to worry about timing before making a pizza.  

To make the pizza, cut into half and roll out on floured board, making circles about 1/4 inch thick.

Then I use the cast iron skillet method.  One of the skillets is actually a cast iron tortilla pan, which is bigger but very shallow, like a pizza stone.  I oil the pans and transfer dough to pans.  Preheat oven to a toasty 500F.

The sauce:  1 cup home made tomato sauce ( just boiled down sauce tomatoes, pureed, frozen), thawed with 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp Italian herbs, dash pepper, 1 tsp dry minced garlic.  This time the sauce was a little runny so I mixed in a few spoons of dried tomato powder (slices of tomato dried in food dehydrator then blended into powder).  I made the tomato powder last summer using extra slicing tomatoes.  They actually have more flavor compared to the sauce tomatoes, and by drying them rather than cooking down, they don't cause an overcooked flavor.  More fresh.

Topping:  Spread on the sauce  then mozzarella, thin onion slices, thin garlic slices, 

mushrooms, Jalapeño slices, this time I added squash slivers,

Baking:  Place the cast iron skillets containing pizzas onto stove burners.  Turn heat up to high, or slightly below high.  Heat for 4 minutes,  The sough will rise and the bottom will start to brown.

Then transfer to 500F oven, mid to high rack,  Bake 7 minutes, until top is bubbling and toppings are roasted.

Remove from oven (careful, hot) onto cooling rack.  Sprinkle with dried oregano.

I think the squash might have been better under the other veggies.  It tended to fall off.   This is my favorite pizza recipe.  Even though I love sourdough crusts, this crust is really excellent.  Also these photos were before scattering on the oregano.  Finally, I like to add Tabasco sauce for extra zing.

Stratifying Perennial Seeds. 1.26.22

 There is conflicting information about whether some perennial seeds require stratification.  The seed packets don't state it.  Some references state that Coreopsis and Echinacea require stratification.  That means the seeds need a "winter" before they will germinate.  In the past, I've done that with apple seeds, peach, plum, daylily, milkweed seeds.  I'm not sure if I did for Echinacea.   Rudbeckia supposedly requires stratification, but mine (annual Rudbeckia hirta) grew like crazy without a cold treatment.  Maybe the seed supplier pre-stratified the seeds, or maybe the annual ones don't require stratification, I don't know.

It's easy.  For these, thoroughly moisten a paper towel.  Scatter the seeds on the moist paper towel, fold it, place into zipper lock sandwich bag, and seal.  Refrigerate for a month, then plant the seeds.

These will be ready to plant about March 1.

s need stratification.  To stratify, they need to be chilled in moist conditions.  That's how I germinated apple, peach, plum, daylily, milkweed seedlings in the past.  Some instructions state stratification is necessary for Rudbeckias and Echinaceas, and others either don't mention it or state it isn't needed.  The seed packets don't always mention it.  

Even though the first Rudbeckias germinated like crazy without stratification (annual Rudbeckia hirta), I'm not certain the others will.  So I moistened some paper towels, scattered seeds on them, folded, placed in sandwich ziplock bags, and placed in fridge.  They'll be there for a month, then I'll plant them.

A Nice Yeast Bread Loaf. 1.26.22

I haven't been making sourdoughs for a while and the culture died. I decided to try a yeast pizza crust using the refrigerator method - flour, water, yeast, salt. Nothing else.  Mix, knead, put into bowl, let rise to double, cover and refrigerate. Can use any time in two weeks, and has better flavor and texture after several days to a week.  The chilling makes the dough more workable and holds in fermentation bubbles for a nice texture.  I made a batch, then thought I'd make a second batch for a loaf of bread, but refrigerate in loaf pan. Otherwise the same recipe.  After taking Rufus for a walk, it was already completely risen so I sprinkled on bagel seed topping and baked 375 for 45 min. This had a great texture and flavor. Even though the topping is just sprinkled on, the flavor is present in the bread slices.

This reminded me of why I always made my own bread. It doesn't keep as long as store bought but is so good, it is used up before molds have a chance to spoil it.