Slow, but Steady Progress

Hazelnuts. 

I bought and planted a tiny American Hazelnut 4 years ago. It was so small I wasn't sure it would survive, but it did. Last year was the first year it bore any nuts... a whopping 15 nuts!

This year was much better, probably about 125 nuts! I'm encouraged, and intend to plant more hazels next spring. 

Hazelnuts (aka filberts) are used in confections to make pralines, and in some hazelnut paste products (such as  Nutella). In the United States, hazelnut butter is being promoted as a more nutritious spread than its peanut butter counterpart, though it has a higher fat content.

Hazelnuts are very high in energy and loaded with numerous health-benefiting nutrients that are essential for optimum health. 100 g of nuts provide 628 calories. The nuts are rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids like oleic as well as essential fatty acid linoleic acid that help lower LDL or bad cholesterol and increase HDL or good cholesterol.

They are are an excellent source of vitamin E; containing about 15 g per 100 g (providing 100% of RDA). Vitamin E is a powerful lipid soluble antioxidant, required for maintaining the integrity of cell membrane of mucus membranes and skin by protecting it from harmful oxygen free radicals. 

The nuts are packed with many of the important B-complex group of vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine (vitamin B-6), and folates. They are rich source of minerals like manganese, potassium, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium.

What's not to love?

Turmoil, and Garden Prospects

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker

I apologize for being "out on a limb" lately, with recent posts that are not positive upliftings... that is, no posts like a new garden, or growing technique, or a new recipe. Truth is, everyone's life has ups and downs, and I am lately inundated with less than a positive attitude (in general, but especially towards Monsanto!).

I'd really hate having a Life where everything was just the same, day in and day out, with even the weather being the same. So, I'll roll with the punches... and hope you will too.

Soon it will be gardening time again, and I am anxious to continue working towards a more sustainable garden that this year will include growing a greater variety of foods. There are many perennial vegetables I want to try in the quasi-guild system I am developing. My gardening zone is high 5 or low 6, and marginal for many of them, but having recently used the SunCalc to actually know precisely where the sun moves over my garden during various times of the year, I may have a better handle on protecting marginal perennial foods for survival over winters here.

Malabar Spinach, photo by La.Catholique

I have been growing some of the more common perennial vegetables for several years: asparagus, rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes, and French sorrel, but there are many more to try. On my list so far (assuming I can find seed) are Skirret (Sium sisarum), 9 Star broccoli, Chou Daubenton (perennial Kale), Chinese artichoke (Stachys affinis), and even things that are not perennials but re-seed annually without being deliberately planted, like Malabar spinach. I've already ordered seeds for the perennial Welsh Onion, both red-stemmed, and white.

Chickweed photo by Jason Stumer 72

There are many "weeds" that are edible, used as salad greens and/or potherbs. Once I determine what I really have growing here already, then I may look for more. Mother Nature has seen fit to expand chickweed all over my grassy lawn areas and all my flower and vegetable beds, so there will be a surplus of it. Fortunately it's both edible and medicinal.

Hardy Kiwi Vine, photo by Joe+Jeanette Archie

I know many of the less common fruits are actually perennial in cold zones like mine, and I hope to start a greater variety this year, like the hardy kiwi vine, the Siberian sea buckthorn, and a couple of fruiting quince if I can find some that are affordable. I want to add a couple more hazelnuts and try the hazelberts too. I had hoped to start a few cuttings from a nearly elderberry clump that has the plumpest berries around here, but with the weather having been so warm, I wonder about their dormancy and my chance of successful propagation.

My intent with adding perennial vegetables and uncommon fruits is twofold, although I do not plan to neglect annual vegetables. One goal is hopefully less work replanting in the garden as I age. The other consideration is that should a frightful scenario actually happen, any invading hungry horde would have no idea what is truly edible. I doubt they'd even dig up the dandelions, although that is possible!

 

Hazelnuts, finally

In August I posted pics of the growing first "crop" on my baby Hazelnut (aka Filbert) tree. Now I'm happy to report they all seemed to mature, and I actually got to them before the squirrels! There were not many nuts this first year (just 21), but according to all I've read the crop will increase significantly as the tree matures.

In the total re-thinking and re-design of my entire yard, I will be planting many trees with edible fruits and nuts... including a couple more hazels. They are easy to grow, reaching 10-12 feet when mature. I figure if/when things get far worse than they are now, I will have at least a small bit of natural fats/oils for my diet (if I don't acquire any meat/milk animals), plus the nuts can be ground for flour.

Hazelnuts are also rich in protein. Moreover, they contain significant amounts of Vitamins B1 and B6, plus smaller amounts of other B vitamins. What's not to like?

Speaking of "huge" harvests (LOL), I finally managed to get ripe figs for the very first time! I have 2 small fig trees in pots, one Brown Turkey and one Celeste. Wouldn't you know, their watering care got away from me this year when they finally had lots of small fruits forming. The Celeste had perhaps 30 tiny figs, and fewer on the Brown Turkey. I lost ALL the Celeste figlets, and all but 2 of the Brown Turkey figlets. Those 2 figlets grew up into small figs... but figs nonetheless! YUM!

My First Nut "Crop"!

Four summers ago I planted a variety of fruiting bushes... and one nut bush, which was ordered as an Allegheny Chinquapin. It was a foot-long bare-root stick when it arrived, and this year it seems to be producing about a dozen nuts... which greatly pleases me, but they are NOT chinquapins!

In working towards sustainability, I wanted some small nut bushes to provide a source of minerals (including calcium), protein, carbohydrates, vitamins B1, B2, B3, amino acids, and some excellent unmodified fuel (fats). Almonds perhaps might have been my first choice, but they will not grow here.

Most people think of chinquapins either as the towering oak Quercus muhlenbergii whose leaves resemble those of the chinquapin, or the small Georgiana chinquapin (Castanea alnifolia), which is more of a creeping 4-foot tall shrub that grows in zones 8 to 10, but we seldom think of a medium-size nut bush like my "woulda-been" Allegheny chinquapin (Castanea pumila), which is basically a shrub or dwarf tree growing 12 to 15 feet tall in zones 3 to 9, and is a diminutive cousin of the American chestnut (Castanea dentata).

About MY nut bush

After carefully examining the shape of the nuts at this stage, my bush is a definitely a filbert. Of course, I have no idea which filbert it might be, since it's merely what Forest Farm sent me as the chinquapin I ordered 4 years ago. The shipping list and the invoice both indicate a chinquapin... but clearly it is not, although the leaves are somewhat similar.

I'm not totally disappointed as I also like filberts. However, it's the not knowing what I really have, how tall it will get, yada, yada...

Hard to see the nuts, but they ARE there

My next big project will be to build a Nut Guild around this bush and hope I can guess close to the mature size. Meanwhile I need to research what needs to be planted in a nut guild. I may even try to plant some of the mature nuts (assuming they mature!) this year to see if I can grow another nut tree.

Berries (and maybe nuts) fruiting soon!

I planted 3 Nanking Cherries 3 summers ago, mainly to divert the birds from other fruiting bushes or trees. This year there are cherries! (Last year I had only about a dozen cherries total from the 3 trees.) The berries are just starting to turn red, and will sweeten as they ripen.

I have 3-4 blueberries in pots that really need to be planted in the ground I prepared last year with sulfur to lower the pH. Looks like at least one of them will have lots of blueberries! To be sure not to stress the bushes and lose fruit, I'll wait to transplant until after fruiting. (Besides, the area needs major weeding first.)

The huge thornless Triple Crown Blackberries are blooming, so there should be lots of blackberries in August. I have been cutting down some of my red raspberries this year while weeding the patch, so the raspberry crop will be diminished for 2011.

My Chinquapin nut bush is starting to make flower/fruit buds for the first time. It needs a pollinator, which I do not have, but hopefully my neighbor's Chinese Chestnut is not too far away to act as a pollinator. I've been looking for a 2nd chinquapin for a pollinator, but they are expensive. A friend up in the northeast send me a sprouting seed this spring, but I managed to kill it.

Gooseberries: I have two varieties, one is a blush pinkish-green (Pixwell) and the other is a Hinoki Red. This is their third or maybe fourth year and they are still less than 2' tall. I wonder if they will ever grow up?


Currants: I have 2 black currant bushes, and 2 red. I don't see any sign of flowering so I'm wondering if a late freeze got them.

I DID have a dwarf elderberry but it looks like The Kid got it with the mower. The photo above is a wild elderberry growing in the wildness between my creek and the road. The mowers who trim the grass along the road usually manage to cut it down before it fruits. (Fruits come from the white flowers, upper left.)

And lastly, itty-bitty Grape nubbins. These are not table grapes so I neglect their care and leave them for the birds. They cover the end wall of a small shed.


All in all, there will be some kind of fresh berries soon. I plan to eat some fresh, and some with my homemade ice cream!

Chestnuts

My neighbor gave me a bag of chestnuts, with more to come as they fall!

I'm not sure what all I will make with them; some will be chestnut biscotti and I have several recipes. A few will be a fresh spinach and chestnut salad, and I may even candy some.

For sure, a few will be placed in barely damp peat moss in a slightly ventilated plastic bag, and then refrigerated to plant in the spring. See the little tails on some of the nuts? I understand the nuts MUST have the tails in order to grow.

Whole chestnuts freeze well, so the rest will go in the freezer until I decide what I want to do with them. Meanwhile, I may even eat a few raw (very tasty!) and maybe roast a few. YUM!

Fighting Depression with Better Nutrition 1

My friend and neighbor who lost her 19-year old son to a fatal accident in early November is having a rough time with depression. For many years she has worked in the drug and alcohol addiction treatment field, and is naturally adamant about not taking drugs for depression.

For the next few days I am going to try and write about some foods that help fight depression and simultaneously increase overall health.

Today it’s essential fatty acids.

The human body can produce all but 2 of the many fatty acids needed for health. These 2 are linoleic acid (LA) and alpha-linoleic acid (ALA), called essential fatty acids both because we need them, and because we cannot make them. They must be supplied by food, or by supplements.

Essential fatty acids are important in several body systems including the immune system. They are needed to produce the hormones that regulate blood pressure, blood lipid levels (think cholesterol), cell growth, immune response and injury infection response. Essential fatty acids are necessary in brain functions, and changes in the balance of these essential fatty acids in the brain can affect our dispositions, sometimes severely.

Omega-3 and omega-6 are 2 important types of essential fatty acids we need. They are polyunsaturated fatty acids that differ from each other in their chemical structure and function in our bodies. They must be in balance for optimum function. Unfortunately, the typical American diet no longer provides these essential fatty acids in roughly equal amounts.

Omega-6 essential fatty acids are found in plant oils derived from seeds and nuts. Refined oils such as soy oils, are found in most of the snack foods, cookies, crackers, sweets and fast foods in our diet. Soybean oil alone is now thought to account for more than 20% of our daily caloric intake.

The longer-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA) are found in some fish oils, and walnuts. Cold water fish such as sardines, mackerel, salmon and cod are significant sources of omega-3 (unfortunately also a source of mercury from our toxic oceans).

The imbalance of these essential fatty acids is believed to contribute to the rise of diseases like asthma, coronary artery disease, many forms of cancer and neurodegenerative disease, all believed to stem from inflammation in the body. (Omega-6 increases inflammation.) This imbalance of fatty acids is also thought to contribute to obesity, depression, hyperactivity and even violence.

Joseph Hibbein, MD and psychiatrist at the NIH (National Institutes of Health) and perhaps the world's leading authority on the relationship between fat consumption and mental health, recently cited a study showing that prison violence dropped 37% after omega-3’s and vitamins were added to the prisoners’ diets.

Omega-3’s have been have been studied in mental health clinical trials for years, and consistently shown to make significant improvements in many areas. They have proven to fight depression, positively affect even more severe mental illnesses like bi-polar disorder, and improve the behavior of children with ADHD.

“You can cut down on omega-6 levels by reducing consumption of processed and fast foods, and polyunsaturated vegetable oils (corn, sunflower, safflower, soy, and cottonseed, for example). At home, use extra virgin olive oil for cooking and in salad dressings. Eat more oily fish or take fish oil supplements, walnuts, flax seeds, and omega-3 fortified eggs. Your body and mind will thank you.” ~Dr. Andrew Weil

Fresh Chestnuts!

My neighbor gave me some chestnuts, quite a lot of them as you can see from the photo! I don't know what they sell for or the open market but when I lived in Asheville, a street vendor sold fresh hot roasted chestnuts every fall, 6 for $1.50.

Chestnuts are very good nutritionally, being lower in fats and calories than most nuts. (Most nuts have nearly 50% fat; chestnuts only about 1%.) They don't keep the way most nuts do, so they need to have some processing or they will mold and spoil in just a few days.

Chestnuts are best known as roasted, because that brings out the sweetness. However, back in the days before the chestnut blight, they were used in a variety of dishes from a vegetable side-dish, or boiled and mashed, to puddings, stuffing ingredient, and even roasted and ground for flour. You can roast, peel and freeze them but since I'm out of freezer space, I'm looking at alternatives.

I have several ideas in mind for their use. Certainly, I shall roast and grind some (as soon as I can afford a grain grinder). I plan to puree some for use in combination with some kind of fruit for a leather roll-up, and I want to make a batch of chestnut biscotti.

I'll post pics and recipes when I make something with them.