Baby Carrots?

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Well, I pulled up the carrots finally... didn't I tell you I took out the regular sized carrots mid-season and transplated them with baby carrots? No, well if you don't believe me, just have a look!
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I knew they weren't going to work out - I'd pulled one or two of them up over the past couple of months to see how they were growing... and I seen they weren't growing well. I'm pretty sure it's the same problem that caused The Great Radish Famine of 2014: I didn't leave nearly enough spacing between the plants, which caused them to choke out the growth. Next year I will follow the spacing directions on the packages to a "T" for all of my plants. I've read elsewhere that this is one of the biggest problems with us sky-gardeners working with a limited space - you have the desire to cram as many plants into a pot as you possibly can, and in doing so you actually produce far less than you could have. Live and learn.
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The carrots tasted fairly good though. I picked a cucumber and a few of the peppers, then added them to a salad for dinner.
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Mmmm... don't those cucumber slices look absolutely delicious?

They were!

The peppers as well were good - but as you can see in the top picture, they didn't grow terribly large. This has happened to me every year so far. It would be nice if they would grow bigger, but to be honest, I'm not sure how much bigger they should be in a "natural" state. What I mean is, most food from the grocery store is genetically modified - that's why strawberries from the store are the size of a small apple but have almost no flavour, while my strawberries are much smaller but pack so much flavour there is almost no comparison. I'm sure the peppers I'm buying from the store as well are genitically modified, so, while I know my peppers should grow bigger, I don't really expect them to grow as big as the store bought ones.
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I'll tell you what I've had really good luck with though - hot peppers. They just keep producing and producing... then I pick them, and a couple more flowers show up, and soon, more peppers to pick once again. Each year now, I've had way more hot peppers than I thought I'd get - and unlike the green peppers, they always grow to a mature size.
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Also, I was able to add some nasturtium flowers to the above salad, which gives it a little bit of extra zing as well as making the salad look rather unique. It was a little late for them to bloom, since I planted them mid-season when they should have been going much earlier, but they made it! I certainly like the idea of growing edible flowers - it just seems more, ahem, "manly" to grow flowers you can eat than something girly like petunias. Next year, only edible flowers. Grrrr! You go, man!
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Left: Nasturtiums / Right: Tomatoes

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Guess what else has happened recently? My very under-producing tomato plant gave me a late season suprise and produced two more tomatoes on the big plant, and a good dozen more for the cherry tomato plant. One of the large ones is a little deformed and I don't know how much bigger they will grow anymore this late in the year, but I'll take 'em!
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Potato Harvest

Well, I've read that the time to harvest the potatoes is when the leaves wilt and turn brown. God help me, but there is nothing left for me to do but let them wilt and turn brown. No amount of water seems to make a difference, so, up they come! It's not too bountiful of a harvest - 2lbs, 9oz. At a value of $1.12/lb, that's not too great! Meh, at least I got the seed potatoes for free. 
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What do you do when you live in a shoe?
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You smoke a hoot, move to a boot, and file for bankruptcy!

Sunset From The Balcony of Eden

Just some pictures taken during last night's sunset.
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Grow, my little cucumbers. Grow!

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That's one mighty fine looking pepper!

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Pests on the Balcony

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It's been a little while since I posted an update on the Balcony of Eden, so I figured I'd better get my ass in gear in case I lose my ever-widening audience! 
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The past few weeks have not been kind to me. One of the neighbours had pigeons nesting on their roof, and now that the little buggers are all hatched and half-grown, the entire corner of the apartment complex is plagued by these pesky birds. They are warbling all night, crapping on everyone's decks, and in my case, eating my fricking beans like there's no tomorrow!
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Death to all the pigeons that ate my beans!

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When the beans flowered and then began to fruit, I was really excited and thought perhaps I'd bring in 100 or more beans. I was planning on building a root cellar and everything. Then the pigeons came, and within two days ate almost every damn sprouting bean that I had! They left me three beans - yes, only three! Stupid birds didn't even let them grow. I seen the beans come out in one or two days, just tiny little sprouts, and the pigeons came and gobbled them up before they even had a chance to grow. What a disappointment! I went to Wal-Mart and bought one of them fake-owl scarecrows... which seems to work, but it was too late to save the bean crop. What a waste.
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Lettuce completely destroyed by worms.

To further disappoint, the lettuce which I planted a month ago had finally started to really grow... until the one morning I came out and they were just dead. And I mean dead. Full of life the one day, completely dead and flat on the ground the next. I just couldn't figure it out... until the next day when I had a closer look and seen these little worms amongst the leaves. They were pretty gross looking - almost like maggots - but they're not because they move along like inch worms. I looked around online and figure they were some kind of cabbage worm that will later turn into moths. It was incredible, these little buggers. Not only did they kill the lettuce overnight, but over the next three or four days, they ate every last bit of it! I mean, there's nothing left! I wish I would have taken a picture each day, but I had no idea they would simply devour the lettuce like that. Now they're all dead because there's nothing left to eat. Ha ha! Who's the smarty pants now?
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Cucumbers starting to fruit

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As for the rest of the garden, it is coming along fine. I had a pile of cucumbers flower - over twenty - and of the several that fruited there are five or six pretty good sized ones starting to form. I don't know if the smaller ones will continue to grow, as they are obviously now lagging the larger ones.
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Don't need any cucumbers dropping down there, do we?

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You'll notice that the cucumbers are no longer attached to the railing as they were last month. I had to move them because there are some people living on the bottom floor who have little kids and they set their patio up as a playground. As I watched my cucumbers flower and fruit, I started to get worried that as they grew larger... what if one of them fell off the vine and dropped four stories onto some poor kids head? So, I transferred the cucumber plants to some large sticks I had, and later also bought a trellis for them to attach to. It doesn't look as nice as before, but it's better than becoming the guy who killed some kid with a falling cucumber.   
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Raspberries looking healthy again... but now the blueberries are hurting!

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In a strange turn of events, my raspberry plant which I was sure was going to die last month has perked right up with signs of new life. But now my blueberry plant is suffering the death look in almost the exact same fashion as the raspberries were last month. Neither of these two plants produce enough fruit worth mentioning. I hope they both survive and work out better next year. Time will tell, but for this year, they were not worth the money. ($60 between the two of them!)
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Nasturtiums

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The nasturtiums I planted last month have come up nicely, but no flowers yet. I should have planted these all in one pot, or better yet, I should have planted them in with the tomato plants, since they are companion plants. Out of the package of 20 seeds which only actually contained 19, seven of them came up. Not a blazing success, but they do fill in quite well as they grow. Still, I shouldn't have used two pots for them.
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Peppers starting to flower

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The peppers have finally flowered and, if you look closely on the right, have just begun to fruit. So far, out of the five pepper plants, four have flowered. These things sure do flower late in the year - the same as last year when they flowered so late I didn't think they would at all - but then, around the end of July or beginning of August, bam! And they were ready to pick by September. This year seems like it will be a repeat.
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Cherry Tomatoes

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The cherry tomatoes are coming along alright, what few of them grew this year. Usually I have oodles of cherry tomatoes, but this year it looks like I'll hardly even get a handful.
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The best damn tomato on earth!

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But my, oh my, look at that one nice, big, juicy tomato, eh?

EH?

Isn't that beautiful?

I plucked that work of art and ate it all by itself, with only a little salt & pepper added. It tasted as good as it looked.

Good job on that one, Mr. Gardener!
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Yum, McDonald's Apologize as New China Food Scandal Brews

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"McDonald's and KFC-parent Yum apologized to customers on Monday after Chinese regulators shut a local meat supplier following a TV report that showed workers picking up meat from a factory floor, as well as mixing meat beyond its expiration date with fresh meat. The firms said they'll stop using the supplier."
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[...]
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"As well as Yum and McDonald's, OSI listed Starbucks Corp, Japan's Saizeriya Co Ltd, Papa John's International Inc, Burger King Worldwide Inc and Doctor's Associates Inc's Subway brand as clients in China, according to a 2012 press release.
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A Starbucks spokesman told Reuters that the firm does not now have any direct business dealings with Husi Food.
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Burger King, Subway, Papa John's and Saizeriya did not immediately respond to requests for comment."
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(Read More Here)
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Ugh! Et tu, Subway?

My favourite fast-food joint first disappointed me by making their frickin' sandwiches upside down - like who the hell puts the meat on top of the veggies and still dares to call themselves "sandwich artists" - and now they're putting decidedly unhealthy meat on their sandwiches too?

That's it!

The Woman is just gonna have to learn to make me sammiches on her own!
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Related Post:
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Yes, There's Wood Pulp in Our Burgers
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"Yes, There's Wood Pulp in Burgers... Here's Why I Think It Matters" - by Michael Krieger

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(Source: Liberty Blitzkrieg Blog)
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On Monday, Quartz published an article by Devin Cohen titled, There is a Secret Ingredient in Your Burgers: Wood Pulp. Given the headline and people’s already present suspicion regarding all of the shady and potentially dangerous ingredients hidden in food items, the article gained a lot of traction. In subsequent days, most journalists and bloggers have focused on the dangers of this additive (unclear) and whether or not it is pervasive throughout the food chain as opposed to just fast food (it appears to be).
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The one angle that has not been explored as much is the overall trend. Let’s go ahead and assume that wood pulp is a safe thing to consume, it certainly seems to have no nutritional value whatsoever. So why are companies inserting it into food items? To mask inflation and earn more profits most likely. This was a major theme I focused on last year in a series of pieces on stealth inflation and food fraud, a couple of which can be read below:
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New Study Shows 59% of “Tuna” Sold in the U.S. Isn’t Tuna
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New Study Shows: Food Fraud Soared 60% Last Year
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The Quartz article notes that:
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There may be more fiber in your food than you realized. Burger King, McDonald’s and other fast food companies list in the ingredients of several of their foods, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) or “powdered cellulose” as components of their menu items. Or, in plain English, wood pulp.

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The emulsion-stabilizing, cling-improving, anti-caking substance operates under multiple aliases, ranging from powdered cellulose to cellulose powder to methylcellulose to cellulose gum. The entrance of this non-absorbable fiber into fast food ingredients has been stealthy, yet widespread: The compound can now be found in buns, cheeses, sauces, cakes, shakes, rolls, fries, onion rings, smoothies, meats—basically everything.

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The cost effectiveness of this filler has pushed many chains to use progressively less chicken in their “chicken” and cream in their “ice cream.” 

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This is the part that really interests me. When did these companies first introduce this substance into their products and what is the growth trend? My guess is that as food costs have risen, the proportion of non-nutritonal fillers has increased substantially. That said, I’d like to see some data and I haven’t yet.

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My big takeaway here is the same as last year’s when I first started writing about the trend. As the cost of food continues to rise, the cost of not paying attention to what you are eating rises exponentially. Companies will continue to try to mask inflation by shrinking package sizes, and when that is no longer possible, increasingly inserting empty fillers (or worse) into their products.

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(Source: Liberty Blitzkrieg Blog)

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Related Post:
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Yum, McDonald's Apologizes as New China Food Scandal Brews
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Teriyaki Marinade Recipe for Barbecued Pork Tenderloin

Given that it's Canada Day, it must be time for a great BBQ recipe. Here is a very simple marinade that can be used for either pork or beef. It actually originates from a recipe for beef kabobs, but I use it for BBQ pork tenderloin, sliced up and served on a bun, hamburger style. It's a great recipe for easy, self-serve eating for a group of people - it's something different than BBQ steak/hamburger/hot-dogs, and it's delicious!
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Teriyaki Marinade:

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1/4 c orange juice

1/4 c soya sauce

1/4 c oil

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of ginger powder   .

Put it all into a plastic resealable ziploc bag with your meat (the above recipe is enough for up to 1 kg of meat - adjust accordingly for more or less meat...)  Marinate for a minimum of 1 hour ... longer is better.
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BBQ on med-low heat until the juice runs clear when you cut into them ...  Enjoy! 
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Baked Potato Quick Tip:
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To speed up time for cooking baked potatoes, press a clean aluminum nail through them to facilitate heat transfer during the cooking process. 

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Related Posts:
Man With A Pan Recipe List
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Cool Write-up on Vertical Gardening at Mobile Home Living

I just read a neat write-up on alternative methods of gardening at Mobile Home Living. Check it out - there's lots of nifty pictures too, and we all know how much I love pictures.

I really like the look of this system using 2litre pop bottles and was thinking of trying something like that for strawberries - it looks like a great space saver which is cheap to make. A good winter project. 

What the Heck Happened Here?

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So, I came home today and went outside to admire my beautiful tomatoes in the garden, and what did I find? One of my tomatoes fell off! Like, what the heck? It's lying down there in the pot, but the stem it was hanging on is completely snapped in half and nowhere to be found.


A possibility is that it got pecked at by one of the cotton-pickin' pigeons that are hanging all around the apartment this year.

This sucks.
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A Mid-June Changing of the Crops

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Well, the Balcony of Eden has been chugging along for about two months now and it was time to harvest the kale, with the leaves having turned dark in colour. I had been picking through it already for several weeks, adding it into salads and making two good-sized meals of Stamppot with the rest. Altogether I harvested 20 ounces of kale from that one container. I did a little bit of Googling and found that Kale sells for $1.57/bunch, which is about 130grams or 4 & 1/2 ounces - the next time I go to the grocery store I'll check the prices locally and then weigh it on my scale at home. Quite obviously, this was a financial disaster, since I bought the kale as six pre-grown sprouts which cost a total of $8.94 plus 12% tax = $10.01 expenses. Take off the $7.07 profit I made by growing it and I have a net loss of $2.94 for my efforts. Uh oh! This is the road to bankruptcy! Quite obviously, one must grow from seed or gardening is not cost-effective. At that rate, I won't even pay off the $12.84 (incl. tax) for the container and 30litre bag of soil in which I grew the kale in.
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Heh, don't get me wrong - I'm not doing this to make money or to feed myself. This is more of an experiment than anything else, but I do want to monitor the expenses versus yields so I can become a more effective gardener. This was the first time I tried growing kale and it was a nice plant to grow - easy to care for; it looked wonderfully lush out on the balcony; and it tasted great. I'll plant kale again in the fall, since kale is one of those plants which can withstand frost and actually even tastes better after it has been exposed to frost. Of course, I will also grow it from seed next time, which will lower my expenses to around $2.00 - rather than the $10.01 I paid this time.
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Also, the Mesclun Lettuce Mix had turned to flower and, like the Great Lakes Lettuce, was starting to look a little ratty. Both lettuces grew about as long as I expected them to - two months - before starting to turn. I harvested a total of 18ounces of salad greens from both pots, but like the kale I had bought them as pre-grown sprouts rather than from seed. Leaf-Lettuce is worth $1.88/lb, so I produced $2.12 from an expense of $10.01 (incl. 12% tax), creating a net loss of $7.89. Therefore, coupled with the Great Radish Famine of 2014, I am once again losing money and the Balcony of Eden is not only failing to make a profit, but is creating debt as fast the Federal Reserve and leading me into bankruptcy.   
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Left: Carrots & Cucumbers - Right: Radishes & Climbing Beans

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On the other hand, I now have several empty containers that aren't doing anything. When I harvested the radishes I made the mistake of doddling around for over a week before planting again in the empty container, costing me valuable growing time. I replanted radishes in the one pot (above right), since I want to try them again, and in the other pot - the one with the carrots (above left) - I planted some more carrot seeds in between the plants that didn't get demolished by trying to grow them together with radishes, as so many people recommend. No more radishes mixed with carrots for me, thanks! However, since radishes grow so quickly - about 3-4 weeks from seed to harvest - losing 9 or 10 days of growing time will cost me in overall production. The new radishes are popping up now and soon will need to thinned - this time with the proper spacing as said on the package - but if I hadn't been lazy about it, they would have been much further along by now.
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I didn't make "the lazy mistake" with the kale and lettuce though, and had my seeds ready for planting as soon as I pulled out the old plants. I don't know how this will work, perhaps it's too late in the season already, but I planted ten nasturtium seeds in each of the previous lettuce containers. It says on the package that they should be planted indoors before transferring them outside two weeks after the last frost. Well, that time is well gone by, but the package also shows they grow until October, so I figured that's still quite a bit of time to have them. I made the mistake of planting a non-edible flower (Petunias - below left) to attract pollinators when I started the garden this year. From now on, nothing grown that isn't edible, I figure, so I wanted to try nasturtiums and see what they're like to grow.
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Left: Wave Petunias -- Right: Potatoes

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In the container that used to have the kale (above right) I planted two new rows of lettuce. We certainly liked the Great Lakes Lettuce better than the Mesclun Mix, so this time I'm going to try a different variety - Grand Rapids Lettuce - which looks similar to the Great Lakes variety. Lettuce grows best in the spring and fall, so I don't know how well this is going to work heading into the heat of July and August, but time will tell. I will be planting more lettuce later in the year when the other crops are harvested and the weather cools again, and this way I can kind of get a feel for what it's like to grow lettuce from seed - as well as seeing the difference between growing them in a small container versus a large one. Since my potatoes have grown like bloody palm trees (above right), once the lettuce sprouts out of the soil I'll move the lettuce behind the shade of the potato plants to help keep them cool.
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Tomatoes

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As for the rest of the garden, there are two beautiful tomatoes growing next to my chair (top right above) and a few more of the flowers are just beginning to turn into more tomatoes (bottom left above). The cherry tomatoes (bottom middle above) have flowered, but none of them have turned into tomatoes yet - they are certainly struggling compared to the full-sized ones, which is just the opposite of what I experienced for the past two years.
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Top: Blueberries -- Bottom: Raspberries

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The raspberry plant (above - bottom left) is struggling more than the blueberry plant (above - top right), although there are a couple of raspberries on the one plant, and so far, I see no blueberries at all. I suspect that since these plants are perennials, they won't really produce until the next year - like the strawberries (below) which are now cranking out abundant, tasty little berries for me, of which I sampled my first few only a couple of days ago. Mmmmm... you know, homegrown strawberries are certainly smaller than store-bought ones, which are sometimes almost as big as an apple, but the taste of the homegrown strawberries is one hundred times better. I cringe to think of what kinds of genetically modified tinkering goes into those huge store-bought strawberries.
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Yummy Strawberries

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Sweet Mix Peppers and Hot Mix Peppers

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The peppers which I transplanted from the window sill a few weeks ago are now taking root and growing to just where they are peeking over the rim of the pots. I had planted eight seeds and five made it, and out of those five, only one is struggling after the transplant (below right). Grow, my little babies, grow! You can certainly see the difference between topsoil-mix and potting-soil-mix in those pictures (below), can't you? The topsoil is full of little bits of bark and stuff, while the potting soil (the soil in the large containers) is nice and clean with no debris in it. I've read that potting soil is lighter than topsoil too.
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Sweet Mix Peppers & Hot Mix Peppers

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The cucumbers (below - top left) have finally reached far enough out of the pot that I am able to start attaching them to the railing like the beans (below - top middle and right). I am surprised that so few cucumber plants sprouted from the amount of seeds I planted - I have enough plants, but didn't need to thin them at all, so it worked out good but I'll remember that for the future so I don't "under-plant" the seeds and have too few plants sprout up. The climbing beans as well came with only six seeds in the package, and of those six only four sprouted... and of those four that came up, two have really gone gang-busters while two have languished (below - bottom left and middle). However, those two that succeeded are really going gangbusters! They climbed right up the railing lickety-split and and gave off several side-shoots that went nuts and grew about an inch a day as well, so the railing is starting to fill in now and I am able to kind of attach them here and there to fill in the bare spots. Next year I will plant more beans because it would have been nice for all six to have gone like those two. After all, how am I supposed to walk around naked on this balcony one day if I can't fill in my railing like a screen?
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Top Left: Cucumbers -- Top Right & Bottom: Climbing Beans

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