Cat Creek Gardens

Teeny tiny sprouts

2011-04-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

Sprouts! It's what's for dinner! Well, not really, at least not today. I finally dragged myself out to the new Natural Grocer to see if they had sprouting seeds. I've sprouted on and off over the years, but with the current drought on in Central Texas, we've been forced to re-think some of our growing strageties. We've got tomatoes and squash in the fish pond right now, and getting ready to set up a hydroponics rig that will hopefully eliminate the insect predation we have going on right now. (We've lost 1 out of every 3 plants this year!)
NG did have a small selection of sprouting seeds, the only place I've found that has them any more. I picked up a few different packs, and we should be eating fresh sprouts and microgreens by this time next week. In my research, I ran across SproutPeople, a wonderful site with lots of info, which I will probably buy my next round of seeds from, since they are way cheaper than a retail brick and mortar place.
I'm setting up the sprouters today, and will report back later in the week with pics. Happy sprouting!

Happy Earth Day!

2011-04-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings frugalistas and urban homesteaders! Happy Earth Day to you all! Of course, here around the Farm, every day is Earth Day. We recycle water for the plants, collect rainwater for the same, recycle as much of our trash as we possibly can on our city lot, grow some of our food, eschew processed foods and fast food (Well, I do have a weakness for Panda Express!), cook from scratch every meal, use vehicles as little as possible, and many other things.

Here at the Farm we are dealing with the worst drought Texas has seen in nearly a hundred years. We catch shower water every single time someone uses the shower just to be able to use the water on the gardens. So far, things are doing OK, if a bit slow because of the lack of much water (hauling everything by hand) and the oppressive heat. We've lost the goldfish in the back pond in the space of 4 days, not sure why, possibly water contamination. The chickens stopped laying about a month ago, we're hoping they will start back up now that the days are getting longer.

Watching the prices of everything going up, up, up makes me even gladder that we homestead and live a frugal lifestyle. Sure, even we have to cut back on things, like entertainment, trips, luxury items, but we still are doing better than many people.

Meet the technohippy

2011-04-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

A great post from Erica over at NW Edible Life about 'yuppiehippes'. Here in Austin, we're called Technohippies, or simply Austin Hippies.
Austin Hippies are a strange blend of the uber tech and the back to the lander. We live in all environments from urban to rural. We work at tech jobs at Dell, Apple, and Samsung, yet we heat our houses and water with wood and sun, run our computers off solar and wind generated electricity so we can surf the Web and play WoW. We scavenge free stuff off Craigslist to build our toolsheds and chicken coops. Yes, we have IPhones. (Well, I don't, because I don't have a use for it, but that's just me. They're still pretty cool.) Like Erica, we grow our veggies and raise chickens so we can buy our organic milk to make yogurt and cheese. And I've been told press-on nails hide the dirt just fine.

Bbbbzzzzz......

2011-04-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

This is a sound I've been missing in the garden this year. Normally, early April is , pardon the expression, abuzz with bees. This year, not so much. I think I've seen a total of one bee so far this spring.
My friend M had an exterminator come out and kill off a beehive that was in a tree in his front yard. He called around to several beekeepers, none were interested. Finally he found one guy, who then informed him the tree would have to be split open to get the bees out. So M decided to kill them off instead. Personally, I would have probably taken out the tree, since it's way too close to the driveway, or just left the bees alone. But that's just me.
With the Japan reactors spewing out radiation, which is then being picked up by the prevailing global wind currents and spread worldwide, I am very afraid the already fragile honeybee population will be devistated beyond repair. Bees are extremely suseptable to radiation, and are one of the first things to be affected. Cell phone radiation is believed to be the cause of the current colony collapse disorder. Here in CenTex we are also in a massive drought, something which doesn't make the wildlife too happy on any given day.
The lack of bees has already begun to affect us here at the Farm. Some of the squash are not setting fruit, I'm thinking due to lack of pollenation. In the case of the bush plants, the male and female flowers are close enough together to be able to pollenate, but the vining varieties are not, so I'm going out with a small paintbrush and hand pollenating. Fun times. Still, a few minutes a day to (hopefully!) gaurantee squash is totally worth it. There are some native bugs who do pollenate the plants here, but It would also take decades or longer for the environment to stablize, with some plant species dying off, until the native pollenators took over the job again like they used to before the introduction of the European honeybee in the early 1600's.
I for one will sorely miss fresh local honey (with the comb, of course!) if the honeybees do all go away!

Box Time!

2011-03-28T05:48:00.000-07:00

A very good and chill morning to you all! We had a cold front blow through here in Central Texas, and the temp last night dropped to a chill 52. Of course this was two days after we got the chicken coop set for summer. They were fine, altho a bit grumbly this morning.
For those of you who have been asking me "When is Box Time??", I finally have an answer. April 9th. If you are new to CC, here's how the box thing works: You get on the Box List, decide what size and how often you want a box (weekly, bi-monthly, monthly) and then come pick up your box on Saturday between 9 and 12. Those of you not familiar with the Boxes are probably thinking, "Why would I pay for a box??" Well, this box is filled with all kinds of goodies, and like a grab bag, you never know what will be in it! There is always fresh sustainably grown veggies and herbs, and usually some kind of baked goods, like home made bread or sweets, sometimes things like fresh eggs, flavored vinegar or preserves. You never know what you will find in your Box! Prices are $15 and $25, get on the list before it's too late!

Can't beat fresh ricotta!

2011-03-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

During my last cleaning spree I ran across a silverfish-nibbled piece of paper I had gotten from my parents' house after my mother died. It was her recipe for homemade ricotta cheese. Back in the 1950's, my mother, an Italian/German born and raised in Chicago during the Capone era, moved to N. Texas and couldn't get things like Italian sausage and ricotta cheese in the local stores, so she and my grandmother made what they could themselves. The problem is they only jotted down a brief note of the amount of ingredients, not the full recipe. So when I decided to try it, I turned to the Internet and found more recipes than I could ever use, but they all had the same theme; milk+cream+heat+acid, ricotta cheese (or farmer's cheese) does make.

So I gathered up the ingredients, and embarked on my cheese making expedition.

I heated the milk/cream mixture to almost boiling (OK, so I turned away for ONE tiny second, and it did foam up on me, but I got it under control before it went over.) and added a mix of vinegar and lemon juice. After much stirring the mix separated into curds and whey. Quick spider check at this point.

I had made ricotta once before a couple of years ago, and like every recipe recommended, I used cheesecloth to strain out the mix. I ended up with very little cheese NOT stuck to the cloth. After perusing a YouTube video showing a guy using a strainer, I realized I have a fine mesh strainer, and dispensed with the nasty cheesecloth.

I drained out the whey, saving it for breadmaking later this week. After 30 minutes or so of draining, I salted the cheese a tiny bit, and had some for a taste test on a multigrain/seed roll I baked.

I can safely say that I most likely will not even be buying ricotta cheese again. This was smooth and creamy, very rich, and not too salty like some of the store bought stuff. I usually need more than the small container, and less that the big one, and end up throwing away a quarter container or so almost every time. So now I can make it on demand and have the added benefit of knowing exactly what's in it.

So far so good!

2011-03-15T07:49:00.001-07:00

I was checking the peach tree this morning to see what the latest round of weather had done, and I found that there are still blooms on the peach tree, and a few have begun to make tiny peaches! Yay! I grew up with peach, plum and apricot trees, and have missed the truly transcendent experience of taking a bite out of a sun warmed fruit right off the tree. We still have a month or two of bad weather possible, so fingers are crossed.

The squash plants that were started indoors are perking up and growing finally, and so are the Vorlon tomatoes. Altho the nights are still chill, the days warm, and everything is doing well. I did lose a squash and a tomato to snails so far this year. Next time we get a rain (Soon please!) I will harvest snails and smash them up for a nice treat for the girls.

One thing we try to do here at the Farm is process as much waste onsite as possible. Of course, the house is hooked up to the city sewer, which the city of Austin charges us outrageously. The cost of waste water handling is more than double the cost of the water itself. So any water we use that doesn't get consumed, is used or reused around the Farm. Water left in glasses after the ice melts is used on the plants or given to the animals. We use a bucket in the shower to gather water for the plants or 'flushing' the toilet. We are getting worried tho, as we are in a severe drought, and our raincatchers are almost empty.
Paper waste, like junk mail, is shredded for chicken butt bedding, compost, and to use in the lasagna gardens. Glass and plastic jars are reused for storage, or building materials (More on that in a later post.) Austin has single stream recycling, which means we get a big bin like a trash bin, and everything left goes into it, no separating anymore, yay! Animal wastes are buried around non-food plants and trees, and all food scraps are fed to the animals, composted, or buried in the yard.

The composting toilet is finally installed after 3 months of delays, and seems to be working well. Due to the drought, I am having to water it a little until we use it a bit more to keep the compost moist and working. The only drawback is the seat is a bit small and the unit is rather tall, so we have to use the footrest that came with the unit. Not a huge problem for the guys, they are tall enough to do without it, but me, not so much. Still, it's off grid, something we are working towards, and we are quite excited about it!

Home made butter the hard way...ok not really.

2011-03-11T06:09:00.000-08:00

Here at the 'Stead we've been making more and more of our day to day food products, instead of relying on the local HEB. Ok, so that means I'M making more stuff, but I digress....

After hitting the sale racks at Sprouts, I came home with two large cartons of organinc heavy whipping cream I got for half off. Being a 'buy it on sale first and figure out what to do with it when I get it home' kind of gal, I decided butter would be a good choice for the first round of cream processing. It has been many a year since I made butter, and the last time was with an actual butter churn, a nifty glass jar with a dasher and handle built in to the lid. Unfortunately, it was a loaner, so I got out a big canning jar to do the Butter Dance.

If you are not familiar with the Butter Dance, this consists of pouring cream into a quart canning jar (or any other jar with a tight fitting lid), tightening the lid down, and jumping around shaking the jar until the butterfat seperates from the buttermilk, and just like magic, you have fresh butter! I figured I'd get some much needed exercise as well as some tasty butter. What I had forgotten is it takes about 30 minutes of vigourous shaking to achieve this state.

This is what you get at about 15 minutes, a foamy soft mass that kinda tastes like butter, altho I think tastes more like clotted cream at this point.

After still more shaking and dancing, the butter finally started to seperate, so I put it in a bowl and mixed it with a spatula until the grains all clumped together. Here's the finished product of butter and butter milk. I used the buttermilk to make bisquits for supper.

I did have a bit of issues with the salt, to get it just salted enough to affect the taste, but not enough that it is actually salty. Still, all in all it was a good use for cream which would have probably been thrown out.

Next cream experiment; ricotta cheese!

Greens, glorious greens!

2011-03-08T05:23:00.000-08:00

With spring well under way here in Central Texas, it is time for us to get planting in the gardens. Oh, wait, we did that already, and now the greens are coming up! I used up the last of two large packets of lettuce seeds this year, and the Paris Cos and Romaines are up, and almost to the micro green stage. Microgreens became popular a few years ago, I'm guessing as a way to get some fresh greenery on the plate w/o waiting 2 months for the plants to head up. Having watched every single season of Top Chef (except this one, thank you DVR for dying and losing everything!) I have enjoyed seeing the current trends in food. Not sure about that whole 'foam' thing, the jury's still out on that.

I decided to leave out several green types this year, arugula and spinach mostly. I have really burned out on arugula over the last couple of years, and I'm tired of growing spinach for the bugs. Tried the climbing 'spinach' a few years ago, didn't care for the taste.

The tomatoes are coming along, still tiny babies, but with luck, we'll get a nice selection from the 7 heirlooms and the one alien (Vorlon) varieties. Various squashes are putting out new leaves, and the peach is still hanging on to its blossoms. Things are taking shape with the garden redesign, still not sure on the whole lasagna garden thing, more on that as the season progresses.

In other news, our 'farm'hand, Benji, has decided that this was not what he expected, and has returned to the big city life of buying everything at Wal-Mart. We wish him well, and hope he returns to a better lifestyle in the future.

Spring marches on!

2011-03-05T05:01:00.000-08:00

March has started the usual "in like a lion' behavior here on the Farm. Last night a front came through and the wind has picked up. Fingers crossed that the peach tree won't lose all its blossoms, I was hoping for peaches this year. It'll be a little chill but today is fence day, fencing off the main back growing area to keep little (and not so little) doggis out of the garden. Martok, who is a 90 pound Sheppard/Lab cross, will eat almost anything he can get his furry lips on, so the last thing we need is him browsing and munching his way through the spring veggies. He's already sampled the chocolate mint and likes it!

And speaking of veggies, the lettuce is up, and the snow peas are putting in an appearance. Of course the year that we decide to kickstart the Farm is yet another drought year. We did get a little spit of water from the sky last night, which helped refill the raincatchers. The next major project after the fence is pianting the house and putting up more gutters for water collection. Thank you Mark for the donation of your old gutters and downspouts!

Fuck the Derveas!

2011-03-01T05:06:00.000-08:00

So, those of you in the urban farming paradigm have been following Jules Derveas' creepy cult-like behavior in trademarking the words 'urban homestead' and 'urban homesteading'. Well, FUCK YOU JULES DERVEA! I would like to know where your ex wife is, and why she left you, and why your grown children (the girls especially) do not seem to have any spouses or mates. I'm a ULC minister too, but I'm not using that status to defraud the people and claim tax exempt status like the Derveas. (And the Branch Davidians..hhhmmm.....)

Take back our words! Take back our urban homesteads! Fuck the Derveas!

The Return to the Gardens!

2011-02-24T04:30:00.000-08:00

We are back, after a year + of problems which have plagued the Gardens. We lost two members of the feline clan, Jack Daniels and Keely, both went to the Summerlands in very old age. We also had the passing of my father last year due to age related disease. A new business to fill our times in between garden time, Cold Fuzion Productions has kept us busy until this year.

We have a new member at the Gardens, Ben Mendez, our new farm hand.

Ben is a transplant to Austin from the tough streets of Brooklyn. He'll be learning alot this next year!

Out in the garden, we already have things sprouting! After losing almost everything in the drought, things are looking up. Purple pod beans, lettuce, summer squash and 8 different kinds of heirloom tomatoes. We're very excited about our new variety, the Vorlon, named after the alien race the Vorlons from the t.v. show Babylon 5. We've also added fruit this year again, in the form of a redskin peach tree. Not sure if the Mars grape from two years ago has survived the drought, we'll know in a few weeks.

We are also trying something a bit different this year in the way of sales. Those of you used to ordering a weekly or bimonthly mixed box/bag will still have that option, but starting in April, we will be opening a stand at the Farm, Saturday mornings from 8 to noon. More on that later in the season.

It's great to be back in the Gardens after such a long absence, and we look forward to seeing you all soon!

End of days.... not really, just 2009!

2009-11-30T09:02:00.000-08:00

The year is drawing to a close here on the Farm. We survived a drought with some of the gardens and all of the girls intact. The xeriscaped wildlife habitat front did extremely well with zero water all summer, except what fell naturally from the sky.

Due to the drought, we scaled back the food garden, and shifted most herbs and perinnerals to the Temple garden instead. We've finally gotten it cleaned, and a few things planted, like poppies, violets and my prize German Porcelin garlic I ordered last summer. We should have 5 beds in production next year, down from last year's eight.

The girls are getting new digs, a new fence with mesh topping to keep out the huge hawk that would REALLY like to have chicken for breakfast. We're hoping to have the coop revamped next spring as well.

The first-ever winter garden is doing well so far, with cabbage and Brussels sprouts heading up the menu. We are growing both English and snow peas for the girls, and some purple pod green beans that are doing so well that we've been able to put up 4 quarts, and have fresh for Turkey Day dinner. There is some lettuce and spinach, but for some reason the lettuce is a bit bitter. We'll probably let it go to the girls and transplant some of the overcrowded cabbages in their place. So much to do!

Beautiful, beautiful beans!

2009-11-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

The fall weather has been good to the plants so far this season, and while the lettuce didn't do as well as I had hoped for, the purple pod beans have done better than I expected! We've gotten about 5 pounds from two small trellis plantings, and they don't show any signs of letting up any time soon. We've eaten alot of them fresh, and I finally put up a pound in the freezer for Xmas dinner. I'm hoping to be able to build some tiny greenhouses over the raised beds, and see how long the warmer weather plants continue to produce.
Talks are in process for a new greenhouse. I'm love to have a permanent one, instead of plastic covered, except then the view from one or two windows is compromised. Going to check into clear panels and see if that would work. I'll post more about that later when the project gets going.

Beautiful fall weather!

2009-11-03T09:28:00.000-08:00

It is finally fall here in Central Texas, and the weather couldn't be any more beautiful! Many people think that we only have hot, hotter and Oh Dear God! for weather here, but that is so not true. We do have an autumn, our trees do change colors after the first frosts, although not nearly dramatically as the ones up northeast. The days are warm, the nights cool to almost cold. We do tend to get rain this time of year, because of our geographic proximity, we get moisture from both Atlantic and Pacific tropical storms, which gives us our semi-tropical designation.

The gardens are doing very well, with lettuces and brassicas growing away. The girls are settling in for the winter. We don't use a light any more to heat their coop on the cold nights, so we have much diminished eggs right now. It does seem to be a feast or famine thing, and is certainly seasonal eating!

The possum family has been trimmed way down, thanks to live trapping. The possums are released unharmed into a local greenbelt which runs along the creek, so there are plenty of bugs, lizards and snakes for them to eat. The last one is the big one, which we think might be a female, and we are hoping to relocate her this week. She's much older than the rest, and is proving harder to catch.

Things are still going strong, with preserving food and tending the fall garden the biggest projects. We hope to be busy all winter, will post more projects when they are finished.

Welcome to the new and improved Cat Creek blog!

2009-10-27T06:41:00.001-07:00

Welcome! I'm hoping that this blog platform will be much easier to use, and hopefully generate some interest and discussion on my tiny urban homestead.

Cat Creek Gardens is an urban homestead in the heart of Austin TX, 10 minutes from downtown. When I decided to quit teaching due to the stress, which I was not willing to handle any more, I started looking around for something to do with my life and creative skills.
I had done the chef thing for some years on and off, and it was fun, and I love to cook, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. I've owned shops and done artwork, with mixed results, depending on the economy at the time. I tried my hand at a landscaping biz, but that didn't feel right either.

Then the economy started to slide downhill. People began to feel the pinch, especially people at my economic level, pretty much living paycheck to paycheck, most of mine going to processed and convenience foods, and eating out. We all began to gain weight, and were getting sick a lot more often. We didn't have the energy to go out like we used to, preferring to sit around and play WoW or watch TV.

I began researching, and one thing caught my attention, a web page from the Dervea Family in Pasadena CA. They were urban homesteaders, living the good life (for them) in the heart of several million people. I was already of the homesteading bend, having picked up my first back issue of Mother Earth News when I was still a teenager. (More on that later) So when food prices and gas began to climb, and I realized that these two things were putting us in the hole very month despite two paychecks, the Family confabbed, and I decided I would quit teaching, and we would urban homestead.

Like its big sister counterpart homesteading (usually done on a larger acreage area in the country), urban homesteading relies on doing more oneself, like food and energy production, among other things. Many skills I had learned from the older generations growing up, like growing a garden, raising livestock for food, wild gathering foods, herbal and preventative medicine, as well as repair skills and a few things like leather working, blacksmithing, and VERY basic carpentry. Urban homesteading has its own set of problems and hurdles, like dealing with neighbors woken up by your chickens at 5:30 a.m., because it is light, and they think EVERYONE should be up right then. And building issues on the property, city inspectors, etc. We aren't hardcore to other urban homesteaders. We are working into it slowly, seeing what works for us, and what doesn't. Mostly we raise some of our own food, and do many things from scratch that others buy. We try to reduce, reuse and recycle on site as much as we can, are cutting utility use and money waste, and in the process are steadily becoming healthier, and much, much happier.

Do I wish I was a multi-millionaire, and could hire everything done, shop at Whole Paycheck for my daily needs, and live the Pitt/Jolie/Beagley Jr. lifestyle? Well, yea, I do. I lust for things, just like most people. I want my house remodel to be off the grid, but I'm not willing to go into major debt to get it, and unfortunately don't have the skills to do it myself. So we do little thins, and add to when we can. Hope you enjoy reading about our journey, and the really cool people we are meeting along the way!