The Re-Use Earwig Trap

Earwigs love to nest in -- and ruin -- my ripening grapes.  I don't  have as many this year because they bloomed early and frost hit some of the blossom.  I also deeply mulched the grapes this year so I wouldn't have to water them as often. The little earwig traps I bought a couple of years ago would be lost in it.

I've been eating tall tubs of Astro yogurt all summer.  I kept three out of the blue box to make earwig traps.  If they didn't work, I could always toss them back into the blue box.

The trap needs a way for the earwigs to get in,  the impossibility that they can get out again, and a bait to draw them in the first place.  A bait that they drown in keeps them from getting out.  They like beer and liquid detergent with a scent also helps draw them.  The detergent assures a drowning.

I drilled  four or five 1/4" holes in the top inch of yogurt container.  The lids go back on to keep out the rain and bigger vermin. The earwigs will crawl through the holes and drop into the bail solution.  Every few days I can remove lids and empty out dead earwigs and spent bait.

I had some very old near-beer sitting around.  It's the hops and malt that draws the earwigs, not the alcohol, so that was fine to use.  I had picked up a couple of detergent jugs early in the summer with push-spigots on them to replace my older outdoor sink water supplies.  Rinsing them out, I got a fair amount of diluted detergent which I stashed in another tall yogurt container.  I mixed the near-bear, detergent, and water in 64 oz. jug and now have a good month's supply of earwig bait.

I nestled the traps in the mulch under spans of vine that had grapes growing.  I've been removing earwigs every few days since and the grapes still look healthy.

Everything I've used in the traps has been diverted from the waste stream.

Rhubarb After Wine

... when you make rhubarb wine, you have shrunken, lightly sweetened rhubarb pieces left in your strainer.  They could be composted.  I tasted one -- just the right amount of sweetness (most of the sugar used in extracting the juice is in the juice). 

I really like the rhubarb-elderberry flavor combo I'm using in the wine.  I've got some elderberries frozen in the freezer.  The rhubarb chunks and a cup of elderberries went into my 2 quart glass measure (nice deep sides and a handy handle) and into the microwave.  First for three minutes, another three minutes, and then two (microwave wattages vary, so break up cooking times the first time out with something -- you can add more time to cook more, you can't undo overcooking).  The rosy hue of the rhubarb deepened,  a lot of the chunks held their shape with some saucing, and the result tasted divine over sourdough waffles with yogurt on top.  On the weekend away at a potluck breakfast I found it went equally well with yogurt on granola.  People also ate it as a side.  It was universally loved.

On the next batch of wine,  I cooked the sauce on the stove and canned it.

Rhubarb-Elderberry Sauce  (makes 5 half-pints)

6 cups rhubarb chunks (juice extracted via sugar)
1 cup elderberries (frozen is fine)
5 half-pint jars

1. Clean and heat jars as for any canning.
2. Cook the rhubarb and elderberries together.  The sauce is done when remaining juice in the rhubarb and juice from the elderberries combine and make a lightly gelled base for the softened fruit.  It will soften more during processing.
3. Spoon into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.  Use a knife or spatula to get out air pockets.
4. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  
5. Remove, cool, check that seals are made, label and store.

If you are making two batches of wine (two gallons) at the same time or a few days apart (store the chunks from the first batch in the refrigerator), you can double the recipe and put it into pint jars.  The water bath processing should then be 20 minutes.

A Rose from Rhubarb?

... wine that is!

Two years I began make a rose (don't know how to do the accent here -- it's pronounced "rose-ay") wine from rhubarb with the addition of black raspberries to colour it that delicate pink and give it a flavour lift as well.  I didn't get to drink any of it the first year because local teenagers explored my basement when we left the back door unlocked and made of with it!  After upping our house security and putting potables under lock and key as a backup, I've got 20 bottles of rose wine to enjoy in coolers, cooking, and straight sipping.

This year I had leftover canned elderberry juice and white grape juice (from my own shrubs and vines), so I've begun using those instead.  The elderberry juice adds the needed colour and both deepen the flavour dimension of the wine.

Equipment you'll need:

• kitchen scale -- you do have to weigh the rhubarb and sugar
• 6 qt stainless steel pot with cover
• a second bowl or pot for the straining step
• 2 quart measure
• fine-mesh strainer
• glass gallon jug  (clean and sterile)
• fermentation lock to fit the jug's mouth

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 - 3 lbs rhubarb
• 2 1/2 lbs white sugar  (this produces a dry wine )
• 1 cup elderberry juice
• 2 cups white grape juice
• 2 quarts filtered water
• 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (provides elements for the yeast not in the rhubarb)
• 1/2 packet of wine yeast (champagne type is good because it sinks to bottom of your jug)

Steps:

1. Gather rhubarb, wash, slice 1/2" thick.  Put 2 and half pounds of it (or up to three pounds) in the steel pot.
2. Add 2 and half pounds of sugar to the pot.  More sugar will make a sweeter wine, but no more than three pounds is advisable. 
3. Stir the sugar through the rhubarb and cover.
4. Leave for 24 hours,  stirring it every few hours.  The sugar will draw the juice from the rhubarb. 
5. Strain the juice from the rhubarb.
6. Put the rhubarb back into the empty pot,  add two cups of  filteredwater,  stir throroughly and strain again.  Do this twice. You're trying to get all the sugar and juice out.
7. Measure the amount of liquid you now have.  Add the juices.  Top up with more filtered water to make a gallon.  Rhubarb liquid + elderberry juice + white grape juice + filtered water = 1 gallon.
8. Heat to lukewarm.  Add yeast nutrient and yeast.
9. Pour into the gallon jug.  Set up your fermentation lock with some filtered water with a little bit of bleach or sulphite in it -- be careful not to overfill!  Insert the fermentation lock into the jug's mouth.
10. Let ferment 6 weeks in a coolish (less than 72 degrees F. but more than 60) dark place.  If fermentation takes place at more than 75 degrees,  you'll get a "lighter fluid" taste to your wine.
11. Check that fermentation is done:  jiggle the jug and no bubbles should come up through the fermentation lock.
12. Sterlize 5 750 ml bottles  (I use Perrier bottles I collect from household recycle bins in the neighborhood -- the caps are fine for this wine).  Use a tube siphon to tranfer the wine from the jug to the bottles.  You want to leave behind the yeast sediment at the  bottom of the jug. 
13. Cap and label.  Store in a cool, dark place for at least four months.  
14. When using, carefully decant into another bottle to leave behind any yeast that may have settled during the storage period.

Tomorrow:  what to do with the shrunken rhubarb after the juice is extracted

Old Bike New Again

In the fall on Cape Cod, I rode a bike that fit me well: I wasn't too forward on my seat, my toes could rest firmly on the road when stopped, and my hands didn't go numb after twenty minutes on the bike.
These were problems I was having with my current bike after it had been supposedly adjusted to my physique at a bike shop.  I noted the make and model number, looked it up on the Internet, and found that said bike shop was a dealer for them.

Life and other expenditures got in the way of going to a new bike.  When the local Shifting Gears event had a bike fair day with free quick tune-ups in a local park, I got out the bike.  I've been doing yoga all winter and the balancing on my toes when I came to a stop was not so much an issue.  That the bike didn't shift well was.  The free tune-up guy did some de-gunking of the shift cables, but said I needed to replace them.

I set up an appointment.  I noticed riding around that if I lifted my shoulders up and back a half-inch or so, the pressure came off my hands and they didn't go numb.  If the handlebars were up an inch I'd be fine.  When I brought the bike in I asked if they could also raise the handlebars.  The stem couldn't be raised.  I could possibly replace the stem at a cost of $30-$50 plus labour.  I said I'd think about it.

When I picked up the bike, the stems available for the bike weren't going to do much -- maybe raise the handlebars a half inch and bring it close to me by a half inch.  I decided it wasn't worth the investment.

On the pedal home (gears and brakes working so smooth now), I studied the handle bar.  It had two straight ends where grips, brakes, bell, and shifters were mounted and it had a bow in the middle where the upright stem clasped it.  I couldn't do anything about the stem, but what if I changed the plane of the handle bars and bow from horizontal to more vertical?  The bow wasn't very deep, but the plane change would raise the height of the bars from between a half-inch to an inch; it would also bring the handle bars closer to me by the same amount.

I loosened the basket mount and swing it up so I could get at the stem's bolt.  I sat on the bike seat and swung the handle bars up and towards me until I was no longer hunching over the handle bars.
Of course I had to reangle the grips, brake/shifter, and bell.  Now I went around the block properly positioned back on my seat (for the first time ever on this bike), my arms no longer overextended,  my weight no longer tempted to sag onto my hands.  It felt like I could ride forever (or at least until my pedalling legs gave out).

There's a comfortable trip to Lakefield in my future!

Rain -- At Last!

We've a dry few weeks -- only smatterings of rain.  Until today!  A real downpour with thunder and lightening.  So we found that the roof leak where the back room joins the kitchen is still there <>...

But I sweat the oldest planting of peas grew a foot today!  (I'm sure the warm temperatures helped too).

I've got four varieties of dried beans planted this year: red, black, pinto and Flagg.  Also more plants. Organic beans for soup and chili this winter, yea!  They are looking very healthy today.  I planted them just this week.  A tree came down on the "bean teepee" last fall, but we upcycled a neighbor's porch railing to an inverted V that beans can climb on.  I've still got the Early Risers to sprout in the green house yet.  Normally, I wait until the second week of June to put beans out, but the weather's been so warm this spring, I started them early, got them beyond the tender stage that some local bugs just love, and now they're out happily growing beyond their second set of leaves.

The weather is supposed to cool down a bit over the next week or so and we'll get some decent train too.  But I'm not regretting my mulch efforts one bit!

Garden Huckleberry Time

The black raspberries are almost done and now the garden huckleberries are starting to ripen. The early ones I threw in the berry mixes I use for bumbleberry spread. Today I got about a cup and a half and put them into the solar dehydrator. I'll use them like raisins or currents over the winter.

Some seed catalogs call these ground huckleberries. They are of the tomato plant family. I got my first seeds from Baker Seeds, a Missouri company. They didn't do well for me. I didn't plant any last spring. But late last summer I noticed a volunteer garden huckleberry in my lettuce patch, seeded there from the compost I fertilized it with. In September I picked the handful of berries it produced because they were larger than the berries I had gotten in my first planting.

In the spring I crumbled the dried berries and got out enough seeds to start about twenty-four plants. I've got them in three different locations. The ones in my front garden have turned out the smallest, but I'm still getting some berries. The others have done very well and I'll have berries for several weeks.

Preserving Food Without Heating the House

Well, 20 mm of rain in the rain gauge this morning, but no real break in the heat -- and it's supposed to be hot all through the week (with possibly more rain on Thursday). The rain barrels are full again -- it's how I've been keeping my kitchen garden (lettuce, tomatoes, basil, cukes, celery leaf, broccoli) going.

I've be religiously watering the main garden on the odd dates of the week (we can water only every other day) with city water. So with the heat I've been getting harvests: green beans, snap peas, black raspberries, greens, herbs. How to keep up with preserving it without superheating the house?

I had a couple of cool mornings with a good cross breeze so I did do some canning early in the morning (all done by 8 am!). Two batches each morning with 10 or 15 minute boil times; and I could use the preheated water to heat the jars for the second batch. One morning I canned pineapple and fruit salad; the second morning I canned black raspberry syrup and black raspberry butter.

The clear, hot days are a boon for the solar dehydrator: basil, oregano, garlic chives, yarrow, lavender, soup greens, celery leaves. I've been converting all my leftover fruit spreads (chiefly bumbleberry: mixed berries with rhubarb pulp) to fruit leather.

I froze some snap peas for stir fries while my second planting gets going and refrigerator pickled a quart of them. The excess green beans went into a fermentation pickle jar this morning. I froze some excess black raspberries (along with other berries just starting to come along: yellow strawberries, ground huckleberries, and red raspberries) for future bumbleberry spread (and possibly future fruit leather). One jar of black raspberry vinegar is steeping now and I just started a jar of blackberry liquor.