The strawberries we started last year are starting to bear the first fruit of the season.
The strawberry season has started- we are getting about a quart a day from the patch of Albion everbearing strawberries we planted last year. This is enough to help with our breakfasts in the B&B- strawberries and cream make a good start to the day, and berries are great on waffles or Dutch Babies. As we start getting warmer weather, guests enjoy getting a fruit sorbet for their first course.
Our favorite strawberry sorbet is very simple, and highlights the fresh ripe berries.
We use a self freezing ice cream freezer- no ice or rock salt, and it has about a quart capacity.
*Strawberry Sorbet*
(Makes about 1 quart)
1 1/2 pound (3 cups) fresh strawberries, rinsed and quartered
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Slice the strawberries and toss them in a medium bowl with the sugar, stirring until the sugar is moistened. Cover and let stand for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Puree the strawberries and their liquid with the lemon juice and salt until smooth. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Cat Days of Summer
On a warm summer day, there is nothing like stretching out in a patch of shade.
In the cool months the cats are happy to stay indoors. When we rebuilt our apartment we made wide window sills for them to sit on, though the backs of easy chairs and couches also make popular spots for watching the outside world. As the weather warms Frisky and Buttercup start making short trips around the yard- Sheba will go out if Susan is working in one of the gardens. Once the summer heat hits, the girls decide that they are outside cats and have to be dragged indoors at night. Even on the hottest days they would rather snooze in a shady spot than be in an air-conditioned room.
Guests Rich and Marla Williams sent a picture of Frisky- awake, but too lazy to stand up and greet guests.
Strawberry Sorbet
The strawberries we started last year are starting to bear the first fruit of the season.
The strawberry season has started- we are getting about a quart a day from the patch of Albion everbearing strawberries we planted last year. This is enough to help with our breakfasts in the B&B- strawberries and cream make a good start to the day, and berries are great on waffles or Dutch Babies. As we start getting warmer weather, guests enjoy getting a fruit sorbet for their first course.
Our favorite strawberry sorbet is very simple, and highlights the fresh ripe berries.
We use a self freezing ice cream freezer- no ice or rock salt, and it has about a quart capacity.
*Strawberry Sorbet*
(Makes about 1 quart)
1 1/2 pound (3 cups) fresh strawberries, rinsed and quartered
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Slice the strawberries and toss them in a medium bowl with the sugar, stirring until the sugar is moistened. Cover and let stand for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Puree the strawberries and their liquid with the lemon juice and salt until smooth. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Automating the Hyroponic Garden
The strawberry starts have rooted and have set several leaves.
The bare-root strawberry starts have taken root and are producing leaves. They have been doing well with a light watering or misting. Now that the plants are developing, they need nourishment in the form of a nutrient solution. A small pump distributes the solution, and I have been taking a small battery and inverter out to drive the pump.
The parts for setting up a solar power station arrived, so I built an addition to the hydroponic garden. The pump for dispensing the nutrients has a small power requirement, about 40 watts, and it will only run for a few minutes each day. Even that modest draw would need a large (and expensive) solar panel to power the pump directly- instead we chose to use a small panel and have a battery to store the power from the sun throughout the daylight hours.
I selected components that could support several pumps if we decide to expand beyond the two 20-pot setups we have now. The battery is a unit typical in small lawn tractors. I chose a 15 watt solar panel that is used to trickle charge car batteries. A charge controller manages the output from the solar panel to keep the battery safely charged. Finally, a device called an inverter takes the 12 volts direct current from the battery and puts out 120 volts alternating current that the pumps require. With a steady power supply we can have timers to control the pumps, making the routine operation automatic.
The cost of the system was about $200 dollars, which is less than what it would cost to run power out from the house. The system is also fairly easy to relocate, which will be handy if we do end up with a larger garden.