Sow There!: Planting peas and other fun for third graders, 8-17-17

Posted on Thursday, August 17, 2017 by Heather Hacking
A pile of pea seeds looks a bit like cat food, until you add air, water and soil.
A pile of pea seeds looks a bit like cat food, until you add air, water and soil. Photo by Heather Hacking

POSTED: 08/17/17

Monday’s solar eclipse is a rare and special event. It just so happens that this memorable day coincides with my first day in the classroom as a student teacher. The sun is a giant star, and in my mind, the eclipse means the star(s), the moon and the earth are aligned for my future career.

Last weekend there were more stars, the falling kind. My family unit sat in camp chairs at Lake Almanor watching the Perseid meteor shower. I had a mental list of wishes for each meteor that raced across the sky — wishes that I would be a great (or at least adequate) teacher, that my kitty will return home, and that my hair will not turn gray before I’m 50.

EYE TO THE SKY

It must be nice to be retired, because both of my parents are traveling north to the special zone of optimum solar eclipse viewing. My dad and step-mom rented a parking spot in Oregon on land owned by a wheat farmer. Campers have been instructed that once they park, they should stay in one place until the big show in the sky has come and gone.

Dad said they’ve packed enough food to survive a zombie apocalypse. If they need more, the farmer has arranged to have food and coffee trucks available to feed the crowd.

Mom and her beau are also traveling to Oregon with a more general plan. They plant to head toward the Oregon border and are hoping they won’t watch the sky darken while stuck in a traffic jam along Interstate 5.

For my part, I’m content to watch 80-plus percent of the sun disappear over Chico, where I’ll spend Monday with 28 third-grade students, all wearing paper eye-protective glasses.

After the sun fully returns, I’ll teach my first lesson.

A solar eclipse is a tough act to follow and my amazing mentor teacher suggested I teach the students to plant seeds.

I swooned.

“Start with something you love,” she said with a smile sure to enrapture children ages 6 through 9.

To ensure I had the best advice possible, I chatted with Jerry Mendon, of Mendon’s Nursery in Paradise. He said little hands would be best suited to big seeds, and suggested planting peas.

His advice provided me an opportunity to make one of my first mistakes as a future teacher.

I bought a big bag of sugar snap pea seeds at Northern Star Mills. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I bought the type of peas that need a trellis. They’ll sprout just fine, after being soaked for 24 hours. Yet, once they grow the children will have a big, tangled mess that looks like a massive philodendron house plant.

Luckily, Wilbur’s Seed and Feed had seeds for snow peas, the bush variety. Now I have enough seeds to plant an entire plot at the nearby community garden at Oak Way Park.

My next problem was that I was so excited about planting seeds, my mind started racing with more things I would love to teach third graders.

We could dissect fava beans. I could give a PowerPoint presentation based on the similarities between the anatomy of an egg and a seed pod. We could measure the growth of our peas each day (in millimeters), make growth charts, compare plants based on varying amounts of sunlight, visit the Chico State University Farm …

My sage mentor teacher said those were all great ideas, but my introductory lesson should be finished in 35 minutes.

The real point is of the lesson is that I introduce myself to the students, she said, rather than try to fill their minds until Thanksgiving break.

OTHER FALL SEEDS

If you’re planning your own fall projects, Jerry Mendon also suggested planting fall-sown flowers by seed, including calendula, pansies and sweet peas, which have tiny seeds but will provide just as much instant gratification.

Other seeds to start soon include cooler-season greens, broccoli, carrots and even another batch of cucumbers. Cucumbers can go from sprout to harvest in 60 days, the Monterey Master Gardeners explain in this helpful article about fall planting, http://tinyurl.com/ycs8wrbp

EXTRA SEEDS

Now I need to find some useful way to use 120 snap pea seeds that need a trellis. I’m hopeful some of the students will be so enthralled by the idea of growing things, they’ll take a handful of seeds home and plop them in the ground outside their bedroom windows. This could lead to voracious reading of stories about young boys and giant beanstalks; learning to measure growth in millimeters; calculations of growing conditions based on varying conditions; or children who arrive to class with dirt under their fingernails.

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Sow There! Too many peaches sparks the need for new salsa recipes 8-13-15

Posted on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 by Heather Hacking

By Heather Hacking, Chico Enterprise-Record

08/13/15

To prove the extent to which these Armenian cucumbers will grow …Ashley Gebb — Enterprise-Record

Having too much food is a wonderful problem.

Mom and I were in a peach-picking frenzy last week at the Chico State University Farm. It was the first day for public picking, and we got there just a few minutes after 8.

(Sorry if you missed the U-pick party. It only lasted one week).

As these things go, the big part of the U-pick fun is frolicking in the shade of the trees and pretending to be Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The trees were so laden with fruit that the branches literally drooped. A few were even broken, and this time it was not my fault.

Finding the perfect peach is a bit like how my friends describe dating on match.com. You can run up to one piece of fruit, large and lush, and think it is surely perfection. Yet, if you look to the left or to the right, you’ll spot another, that may or may not be just as nice or better.

At the end, we end up with too much of a good thing.

I knew I wanted to fill a bucket, and Mom was a picking fool.

I didn’t realize until check-out time that she was picking fruit for me as well.

At the end of the adventure, we had 30 pounds, most of which was for me.

I felt like summer Santa Claus, delivering peaches to my coworkers and filling the fridge at my dad’s house.

We gave fruit to the neighbors and still had too much to fit in our own fridge.

Now I wish we had eaten that watermelon I bought on sale over the Fourth of July.

What was I saving it for? Thanksgiving?

To add to the over-abundance, the garden we planted in the black plastic truck bed liner is at its prime production.

The result is that we need to eat one zucchini and one peach each day.

HODGEPODGE RECIPES

Odd thoughts pop into your head when you’re chopping vegetables.

If you think about some of the most common recipes in the world, many were invented to avoid rotten food.

What to make for lunch?

Peach salsa.

Available outside my front door: jalapeño, tomatoes.

Located in crisper drawer: mild peppers, Armenian cucumber, white onion

Available, available, available: peaches.

Also handy: lemon juice, minced garlic, salt and pepper.

ARMENIAN CUCUMBERS

If you haven’t discovered these gems, grab one at your next visit to the farmers market. They’re huge. One will last you three days.

The curcubits have very light green, crenulated skin.

One day I bought one that was shaped like a circle, and popped it over my neck. I had a great time at the market because I forgot I was wearing a cucumber around my neck.

For the next hour, everyone was smiling at me. What a great town. I love my life. People really like me.

Later I saw my reflection in a window and remembered my light green accessory.

The Armenian cucumbers are also slightly more firm than a burpless, dark green cuke, which helps them last a day longer when sliced.

For a simple snack, serve cold and sprinkle with lemon pepper.

Just like summer salsa, most of our favorite winter recipes began by throwing everything that was edible into a single pot.

Stew, goulash, omelette, quiche, shepherd’s pie, moussaka, soup.

What’s really sad is that we have recipes for tater tot casserole. This means that when a Midwest housewife looked into her cooling unit in the 1970s, all she could find was frozen corn, hamburger, American cheese and frozen potato units. What’s even more sad is that this recipe endures despite what we now know about childhood obesity.

Recipe of excess

When I think about any of the foods above, I think you could certainly throw in a zucchini and nobody would notice.

Here is my favorite new recipe:

Zucchini sliced thin, or sliced Julienne. Three tablespoons olive oil. As much garlic as you dare. Half teaspoon crushed red pepper. Sea salt. Parsley or other herb.

Heat oil in skillet, cook zukes for five minutes. Add other ingredients and cook for one additional minute.

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The cure to tomato envy is to buy copious amounts of local produce, August 28, 2014

Posted on Wednesday, August 9, 2017 by Heather Hacking

IMG_2744
Author: Heather Hacking hhacking@chicoer.com @HeatherHacking on Twitter
What the heck? It’s already Labor Day? College students are back in town? It’s dark by 8:30 at night? What happened?

Moving to a new house took a big bite out of my summer.

I missed making memories of 2014 summer camping trips. I did not hike Feather Falls or kayak down the Sacramento River. Absent have been heaping bowls of fresh salsa and big barbecues in the backyard.

I want a summer re-do.

I can’t turn back time, but I can make one last dash to load up on tomatoes.

Last weekend was the salsa contest at Hodge’s Nursery, which I also missed. If you’re reading this Ken, can you slip me the winning recipe. I really need a salsa pick-me-up.

While I’m waiting, I’d love if readers would send in their favorite ways to spice up tomatoes.

Here’s mine:

Take a cookie sheet and cut tomatoes and onions in half. Remove the seeds from one jalapeno pepper. Cover the cookie sheet with as much food as will fit, then put in the broiler until the top of the produce is just barely blackened. When cool, add pepper, lime juice, garlic and cilantro, then whiz the concoction in a blender. (Thank you Donna G. for this recipe).

I like to freeze the smoky salsa in ice cube trays. Then when I need salsa for omelettes, I can take one or two cubes out to thaw.

Do-not-grow zone

I reserve the right to change my mind, but for now I’m pretty much done with growing tomatoes. Once upon a time 16 plants flourished in the backyard.

In my sepia-tone memories, I was wearing a Little House in the Prairie apron and gathering tomatoes in a wicker basket as the ribbons in my hair wafted in a gentle breeze.

More recent memories include hornworms. Hornworms must attract gophers. Between hornworms and gophers, the intruders won the battle.

The past several years I’ve planted tomatoes in pots and that was about as bountiful as planting a fruitless mulberry.

Meanwhile, my coworker Bill Husa had so many vegetables growing in his garden in Paradise that his friends and family sneak into his backyard when he isn’t home.

When he told me about his feeble fence to protect the garden from deer, I silently scoffed at his folly.

You can’t grow vegetables in Paradise without an eight-foot electric fence and a motion activated sprinkler system.

I told him was planting vegetables to feed the deer.

“I don’t care,” Bill said, with the honest nonchalance we all love about him.

Yet, every time we talk abut his garden, he brags.

Tomatoes. Squash. Zucchini. Lemon cucumber. Kale. Beets.

Perhaps the deer were scared away from his yard because he had so many friends and family constantly raiding his overabundance.

I’m glad for him (I say through gritted teeth). My jealously melted immensely when he brought me a big bag of yellow squash, the kind with the bumps all over.

Still time for tomatoes

Here’s the deal: We live in the Sacramento Valley. We are blessed with farmers markets and friends who have too many vegetables. We have absolutely nothing to complain about, even if our own tomatoes turn out to be duds.

This week I drove down the Midway to take some photos of almond harvest. On the corner of Hegan is the sign for Laura’s tomato extravaganza – the nice lady who sells tomatoes at a stand in front of her house.

Once Ken sends me the winning salsa recipe, I’m heading to buy a five-gallon bucket of Laura’s tomatoes.

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Sow There!: The odd habit of binge buying too much fruit Aug. 4, 2017

Posted on Friday, August 4, 2017 by Heather Hacking
Canopy Farm sells ground cherries, a cousin of the tomatillo, and a sweet addition to finger food trays, marinade and jam.
Canopy Farm sells ground cherries, a cousin of the tomatillo, and a sweet addition to finger food trays, marinade and jam. Photo by Heather Hacking

POSTED: 08/03/17

My good habit of attending local farmers markets is something of a bad habit right now.

The colors.

The smells.

Friendly people.

Big tomatoes, tiny tomatoes, ground cherries.

The problem is that when I arrive at the market, there isn’t much I need to buy.

My garden is producing enough tomatoes and several crookneck squashes are surviving the summer shrivel.

When my sister and I returned from Costa Rica, my friend LaDona phoned and said she had few saucer-shaped peaches on her tree. Chrissy gifted more peaches, and I blackened my fingertips in Adam’s thornless blackberry vines.

I can’t say no to free fruit, but I still want to go to the farmers market several times a week. Certainly, too much fruit can cause no harm.

A recent rediscovery is the Wednesday morning market at North Valley Plaza, held year-round from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., http://chicofarmersmarket.com.

In the past, I worked Wednesday mornings and would have had to make the choice between buying produce or changing out of my pajamas. Until college classes begin again, a friend and I take the bike path to the market, to combine fitness and nutrition into one friendly adventure.

One day I planned to buy only green onions, but loaded up the basket on the bike.

How could I possibly look at produce in fashion colors and leave with dollar bills in my pocket? That would be like a child saying “no thank you” to a second serving of birthday cake.

TEMPTED BY FRUIT

The temptation to buy begins before you set foot under the white shade structures.

Folks can probably smell the strawberries from the front door of the nearby Sportsman’s Warehouse, wafts of sweetness singing across the orderly rows of vendors on a crisp morning.

Blueberries? How long will those be in season? If I don’t eat them, I can always freeze them.

SMOOTH TRANSITION

In fact, I prefer to freeze fruit because I make the kind of smoothies that could have inspired the folks at Jamba Juice to form a franchise. The fruit is so sweet you can add other healthful items that taste funky on their own, including chia seeds or whey protein.

Last spring I froze the abundance of spinach and kale from my backyard raised bed. If I dig behind the ice cream, I may or may not find a few remaining snack bags filled with greens.

More recently, my friend Samantha, an almond farmer, educated me about the high (fortified) calcium content of almond milk. Calcium, of course, is recommended for women of my age. By freezing the almond milk in ice cube trays, they can easily be added to my morning fruit slush.

Soon summer will end. My classes at Chico State will begin, and three days a week I’ll be in a third-grade classroom learning to become a teacher. If I’m going to be strong and wired on sugary smoothies, I should stock the freezer with as much fruit as the cooling device can hold.

MYSTERY FRUIT

One good thing about being a market regular is first pick of novelty items.

Recently I met Auburn Johnson, who grows colorful food at Canopy Farm on Dayton Road. Right now, the talk of the market is the ground cherries, displayed in their papery wrappers. Auburn offers samples, which light up your taste buds like a handful of Skittles.

The grower said people like to add of the tomatillo relative to jam for a tart burst, or add to meat marinades. She must have overheard LaDona and I talking, because she suggested adding a few to smoothies.

However, most people simply put a bowl of the light orange fruit on the table, then turn around and notice that they have been gobbled, she said.

The fruit provides protein, antioxidants, minerals, and includes B-12 which is helpful for people who follow a vegan diet, she said.

Read more at http://tinyurl.com/yaq8bwhn

Contact garden columnist Heather Hacking at sowtheregardencolumn@gmail.com or follow on Facebook.

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Sow There!: The odd habit of binge buying too much fruit 8-3-17

Posted on Thursday, August 3, 2017 by Heather Hacking

Sow There!: The odd habit of binge buying too much fruit

Canopy Farm sells ground cherries, a cousin of the tomatillo, and a sweet addition to finger food trays, marinade and jam.
Canopy Farm sells ground cherries, a cousin of the tomatillo, and a sweet addition to finger food trays, marinade and jam. Photo by Heather Hacking

POSTED: 08/03/17, 11:16 PM PDT | UPDATED: ON 08/03/2017

My good habit of attending local farmers markets is something of a bad habit right now.

The colors.

The smells.

Friendly people.

Big tomatoes, tiny tomatoes, ground cherries.

The problem is that when I arrive at the market, there isn’t much I need to buy.

My garden is producing enough tomatoes and several crookneck squashes are surviving the summer shrivel.

When my sister and I returned from Costa Rica, my friend LaDona phoned and said she had few saucer-shaped peaches on her tree. Chrissy gifted more peaches, and I blackened my fingertips in Adam’s thornless blackberry vines.

I can’t say no to free fruit, but I still want to go to the farmers market several times a week. Certainly, too much fruit can cause no harm.

A recent rediscovery is the Wednesday morning market at North Valley Plaza, held year-round from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., http://chicofarmersmarket.com.

In the past, I worked Wednesday mornings and would have had to make the choice between buying produce or changing out of my pajamas. Until college classes begin again, a friend and I take the bike path to the market, to combine fitness and nutrition into one friendly adventure.

One day I planned to buy only green onions, but loaded up the basket on the bike.

How could I possibly look at produce in fashion colors and leave with dollar bills in my pocket? That would be like a child saying “no thank you” to a second serving of birthday cake.

TEMPTED BY FRUIT

The temptation to buy begins before you set foot under the white shade structures.

Folks can probably smell the strawberries from the front door of the nearby Sportsman’s Warehouse, wafts of sweetness singing across the orderly rows of vendors on a crisp morning.

Blueberries? How long will those be in season? If I don’t eat them, I can always freeze them.

SMOOTH TRANSITION

In fact, I prefer to freeze fruit because I make the kind of smoothies that could have inspired the folks at Jamba Juice to form a franchise. The fruit is so sweet you can add other healthful items that taste funky on their own, including chia seeds or whey protein.

Last spring I froze the abundance of spinach and kale from my backyard raised bed. If I dig behind the ice cream, I may or may not find a few remaining snack bags filled with greens.

More recently, my friend Samantha, an almond farmer, educated me about the high (fortified) calcium content of almond milk. Calcium, of course, is recommended for women of my age. By freezing the almond milk in ice cube trays, they can easily be added to my morning fruit slush.

Soon summer will end. My classes at Chico State will begin, and three days a week I’ll be in a third-grade classroom learning to become a teacher. If I’m going to be strong and wired on sugary smoothies, I should stock the freezer with as much fruit as the cooling device can hold.

MYSTERY FRUIT

One good thing about being a market regular is first pick of novelty items.

Recently I met Auburn Johnson, who grows colorful food at Canopy Farm on Dayton Road. Right now, the talk of the market is the ground cherries, displayed in their papery wrappers. Auburn offers samples, which light up your taste buds like a handful of Skittles.

The grower said people like to add of the tomatillo relative to jam for a tart burst, or add to meat marinades. She must have overheard LaDona and I talking, because she suggested adding a few to smoothies.

However, most people simply put a bowl of the light orange fruit on the table, then turn around and notice that they have been gobbled, she said.

The fruit provides protein, antioxidants, minerals, and includes B-12 which is helpful for people who follow a vegan diet, she said.

Read more at http://tinyurl.com/yaq8bwhn

Contact garden columnist Heather Hacking at sowtheregardencolumn@gmail.com or follow on Facebook.

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Sow There!: Turning zukes into zoodles in no time July 28, 2017

Posted on Friday, July 28, 2017 by Heather Hacking
Gargantuan zucchinis call for getting creative about ways to gobble all that garden goodness.
Gargantuan zucchinis call for getting creative about ways to gobble all that garden goodness.Photo by Heather Hacking

POSTED: 07/27/17

Simple recipe: slice zucchini into quarter-inch strips, drizzle with jalapeno-flavored olive oil, then sprinkle with crushed pepper.Simple recipe: slice zucchini into quarter-inch strips, drizzle with jalapeno-flavored olive oil, then sprinkle with crushed pepper. Photo by Heather Hacking

If you have attended the Silver Dollar Fair on a hot day, you might recall how lovely it is to enter the Commercial Building and enjoy the combination of oversized fans and the industrial-sized air conditioning unit.

I don’t particularly like shopping, and the Commercial Building is where they sell curling irons, wonder mops and vinyl siding. If you’re patient, you can sample some vegetable juice, if the guy working at the bullet blender booth ever stops blathering.

On this particular day, I was cooling off and gathering free pens when I ran into my friend Richard.

Richard and I soon became entranced by a man with a sharp-bladed, plastic contraption that chopped vegetables faster the chefs at a Benihana restaurant.

My guess is that the pitchman had hoped for a career as a magician, and had likely been a dealer in Vegas. He grabbed vegetables from his produce arsenal, quickly demonstrating the julienne mode, dice mode, followed by thin, uniform slice mode. It looked so easy as his hands glided over produce that would surely take hours to prepare if you ever needed to slice 14 pounds of potatoes for a Girl Scout camping trip.

Richard and I stood with our arms crossed in front of our chests. However, Chopping Chuck kept talking and chopping.

Normally I don’t buy things at demonstrations. When I get home, I fumble around, don’t read the direction and end up donating the contraption to the Salvation Army.

However, the vegetable magician announced that it was late in the day. If he sold all his inventory, he could ride the roller coaster.

“Two for one,” he said.

Richard and I both took the bait and were owners of the quick, safe, easy-to-clean, time-saving gizmo that would hide in the bottom drawer of our kitchens for years to come.

PUT TO GOOD USE

When I returned home from vacation in Costa Rica, I found two gargantuan zucchinis hiding in the raised bed. By the time I ate just one of the tug boats, two yellow crook-neck also needed to be harvested.

This is July folks. If you planted zucchini and squash, it’s time to get creative about ways to gobble all that garden goodness.

My favorite recipe is to slice zucchini into quarter-inch strips, drizzle with jalapeno-flavored olive oil, then sprinkle with crushed pepper. Salt is optional. I use a cast-iron pan which means the entire batch is warm in three minutes.

Yet, you can only cook zucchini the same way so many times before you’re perusing AllRecipes.com for something more creative.

My friend LaDona recently served a pleasant lunch of cold cucumber soup. Yes, there are recipes for cold zucchini soup as well, but unfortunately, this requires cooking.

ZOODLES

A cooking-free alternative is “zoodles,” which means using thinly-sliced zucchini the same way you would use pasta. This opens up an entirely new world of red-sauce enhanced food choices. Another enticing idea is the zoodle Greek salad, with zoodles instead of lettuce, http://tinyurl.com/GreekZoodles. Add cucumbers, Greek olives, red onion and feta cheese and you’re slurping down oversized zucchini like Pericles and Pete Sampras.

QUICK AND EASY

I can see into the future, and my future includes at least six additional yellow squash in the next three days. If only I had a safe, easy-to-clean contraption to prepare mounds of zoodles in minutes.

It was easy to find the long-forgotten slicer/dicer, tucked away in the bottom kitchen drawer with the air popper and the 2-in-1 citrus tool. I’m happy to report that except for some mangled zucchini edges, I transformed produce into zoodles without drawing blood.

NO GOOD NEWS

Part of the reason I haven’t been eating large amounts of zucchini is that I have been consuming gallons of ice cream. That’s what I do when I’m depressed and I’ve been bummed since my Feline Unit went missing.

On a tip from a gal on the lost-cat social media website, I cruised down to the dry creek behind S&S Produce. I walked slowly through the bushes, whistling the two-tone sound that usually makes my kitty race toward my ankles.

Kitties peeked from behind bushes. They looked up from garbage they were nibbling.

Several felines gave me alluring glances and one looked like she would be willing to fold into the cat carrier on the back seat of my car. Hoping to find your lost cat at a known lost cat hangout is a lot like going to a singles bar hoping to bump into your long, lost love.

A few folks on social media websites have offered replacements. I’m sure these adorable feline units would be great additions to my empty home. But they are not my Feline Unit. I’m holding out hope that she is trapped in somebody’s garage. Soon she will lose enough weight to squeeze through a hole near the bottom of the sheetrock, and race toward her familiar cat door.

If anyone comes across a friendly, calico kitty with a Manx tail, please send me a note and I’ll reward you with a bowl filled with zoodles.

Contact garden columnist Heather Hacking at sowtheregardencolumn@gmail.com or follow on Facebook.

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Sow There! – Why aren’t my plants producing squash? July 28, 2016

Posted on Friday, July 28, 2017 by Heather Hacking

July 28, 2016

As it turns out, growing squash is not as easy as I had hoped.

Several weeks ago I wrote about summer squash and how it grows so easily people are giving it away.

Two coworkers came to my desk and asked if I could share the squash overflow.

I would if I could. However, our squash plants have turned out to be duds.

When it comes to gardening, my boyfriend and I divide the labor. He takes care of the vegetables growing in the black plastic truck bed liner filled with soil. I take care of the potted flowers in our outdoor sitting area.

We were super excited when we had dozens of bright yellow flowers among the giant squash leaves.

Squash plants produce both male and female flowers on the same plant. Male flowers are longer and produce pollen. Female flowers are shorter and have a little round fruit at the bottom. If the plant only produces male flowers, you have a predictable problem with production.

We did manage to harvest about two mature crook-neck squash, however just as many shriveled in the sun.

“Can you please call one of your sources and find out what is wrong with our squash and zucchini,” my boyfriend said calmly and with clarity.

A case for the experts

We literally had a team of Glenn County Master Gardeners trying to problem solve this question.

Bob Scoville, my good buddy at Glenn Master Gardeners, asked his plant horticultural friends for ideas.

In general, squash problems include too much water, heavy soil, uneven watering, excess nitrogen, too few nutrients, squash bugs, lack of mulch … Another possibility is the lack of bees.

This made us think hard. You don’t notice the lack of bees if the bees aren’t there.

Now that we thought about it, we can’t recall seeing bees on the squash. Bob said if a neighbor had been using insecticides, it could have impacted the bees on my block. The yard next door was zapped with herbicide, but that was once and several months ago.

Wind-pollinated tomatoes

Our tomatoes are doing just fine, with or without bees, because they are pollinated by the wind.

Plus, I tickle the flower stems on a regular basis, which helps the pollen jostle free.

Squash, on the other hand, has very sticky pollen and won’t be jiggled loose with wind or tickling.

Michael Ann Foley, Glenn master gardener, suggested we try hand pollination. Here you take a Q-tip or small paint brush and brush the longer male flowers to collect pollen. Then rub the sticky pollen on the pistil of the female flower. Remember that the female flowers are the shorter blossoms, with the itty-bitty fruit on the bottom.

You can also remove the male flower from the plant, fold back the petals and rub the sticky pollen from the male flower into the female flowers.

The flowers are only ready for pollination for that one day.

Another master gardener, Pam, explained that sometimes a squash will start to develop and then shrivel. This is often because of incomplete pollination, or it could be due to an attack by squash bugs.

More on squash bugs from the University of California here, http://tinyurl.com/hsd7ytk

Blossom blessing

Many people love eating fried squash blossoms. Here’s a video how-to: http://tinyurl.com/z2graxa

Early in the plant’s growth cycle, all or most of the flowers are male, which provides blossom-eaters a bonanza. As the plant matures, the female flowers arrive.

You can read more details about squash, the problems and the triumphs, in this publication by the University of California: http://tinyurl.com/j9ryvee

More free advice

Those helpful folks in Glenn County provide a lot of opportunities for free advice. You can walk in from 2-4 p.m. Wednesdays at the office in Orland, 821 E. South St.

 

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Sow There!: Following tips to find lost cat July 21, 2017

Posted on Friday, July 21, 2017 by Heather Hacking
Feline Unit still hasn't returned home yet.
Feline Unit still hasn’t returned home yet. Photo by Heather Hacking

POSTED: 07/20/17, 10:26 PM PDT | UPDATED: 2 WEEKS AGO

0 COMMENTS

Despite many kind advice and a few tips, the calico Manx kitty is nowhere to be found.Despite many kind advice and a few tips, the calico Manx kitty is nowhere to be found.Photo by Heather Hacking

It’s normal to feel a bit of a let-down after the return from a sun-filled vacation. Yet, the main reason for my doldrums is the fact that I have not found my cat.

Thank you for all of the kind advice shared via social media, NextDoor during talks with neighbors in front of their garage doors. The search has felt a little all-consuming, mainly because putting up flyers and driving slowly through the Avenues helps me feel like I’m doing all that I can.

It’s a cat, friends have said. She’ll probably come back. They do that.

After several days of consuming way too much medicinal ice cream, I realized that my overwhelming feeling of distress is cumulative. I lost the cat. I lost the Handsome Woodsman. Both events were sudden, unfair and completely out of my control.

NEAR MISS

A wonderful family sent a note on NextDoor and said they believed they had my cat. They saw my article in the newspaper and spotted a calico with a bobtail. That’s a rare combo, and they were certain they had scored the lost prize.

As it turns out, the man of the household was once the adviser to my housesitter, Thor, when Thor was working on his Master’s thesis at Chico State University.

I didn’t respond quickly enough to the message from the family, and they put the cat in the garage when they had a big birthday bash.

Many sources on scared cats state that cats will hide, even if they hear the familiar voice of their owners. I sat in the family’s darkened garage, whistling the two-tone whistle that should have triggered the kitty’s brain to run to me from the rafters. I thought I heard a rustle, but I’m guessing I heard only squirrel on the rooftop. After prayers and tears, I set a humane trap in the family’s garage and the trap was empty in the morning.

The next day I knocked on doors in the neighborhood near Bidwell Mansion and met a nice woman who recognized my description of the cat. A calico Manx kitty, which looked amazingly like the photo on my flyer, lived across the street. The cat’s name is Lola and has lived there for years. Poor Lola.

The nice family most likely trapped her in their garage, where she was unnecessarily traumatized. I envision Lola squeezing through a tiny crack in the garage and running for dear life toward her home two blocks away.

Lola, I’m so sorry. Maybe you’ll stay closer to home from now on.

However, the misidentification by the family shows that people are looking out for my cat. As I continued to lament and worry, I know I’m not alone. There are lost dog and cat posters on many telephone poles throughout the Avenues, and more adoptable pets at the Humane Society than any cat or dog lady could possibly hoard.

I haven’t given up hope, but resignation is beginning to creep in.

RABBIT REWARDS

Weeks ago, my friend John mentioned he has rabbits and asked me if I wanted a bag of rabbit droppings. Indeed I did.

I went on vacation and since then he has been carrying the poop around in his car.

Rabbits digest lightly and the manure is known for being “cold.” Unlike chicken or steer manure, rabbit poop won’t burn plants when added to the soil. Ammonia in rabbit urine can be harmful, and garden sources I perused suggest waiting for the remnants of the rabbit cage to dry before adding to your prized plants.

By the time John and I made the exchange, his gift was ready for use in the garden.

He suggested I make a rabbit dropping tea, which was easy enough to do by adding the poo to my watering can and waiting a day or two. Some rabbit keepers in New Hampshire, Netherlands, http://tinyurl.com/rabbitTea, also give the precaution to avoid adding fresh manure to a vegetable garden. An alternative is to add the rabbit byproduct to the compost pile, for use later.

Rabbit poop contains phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen, as well as trace elements of other things good for plants, (see more details on a website named Imperfectly Happy Homesteading, http://tinyurl.com/MoreOnRabbitPoop).

Alfalfa pellets, before being digested by rabbits, are often used as a soil amendment for roses.

I neglected to ask John what he feeds his rabbits, but I’m confident the mix is just dandy for my potted plants.

Contact garden columnist Heather Hacking at sowtheregardencolumn@gmail.com or follow on Facebook.

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Sow There! Wandering and whistling in search of much-loved cat July 14, 2017

Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2017 by Heather Hacking
Feline Unit has gone missing.
Feline Unit has gone missing. Photo by Heather Hacking

POSTED: 07/13/17, 8:52 PM PDT | UPDATED: 3 WEEKS AGO

1 COMMENT

Still holding out hope the calico kitty will return.Still holding out hope the calico kitty will return.Photo by Heather Hacking

Nothing ruins a post-vacation buzz more than returning home to an empty house. My sister and I spent 18 days in Costa Rica, and my kitty decided to go an adventure of her own.

My gracious friend Thor endured a Chico heat wave to watch over my house while I was gone. I left him a color-coded map of plants to be watered, and he planned to play his guitar in between long, playful moments with the cat.

At my request, he sent comforting photos of the Feline Unit sleeping spread-eagle in front of the air conditioner.

But then something happened.

About three days before our return flight, Thor said the cat had stopped her hops through the cat door and had left her food bowl untouched.

The night I heard the potentially heart-breaking news, I was sleeping next to my sister at an AirBNB in Alejuela, Costa Rica. In my dream, the kitty jumped up on the bed to snuggle. I reached for her and grabbed my sister’s kneecap.

Why did she wander off just days before I returned?

The kitty was probably just hot and found a shady place to hang out until my return, friends said after I posted a worried lament on Facebook. I was certainly grungy enough after 14 hours of travel, wouldn’t she come running when she smelled my dirty socks and heard me whistling at the back door?

Apparently not.

GONE TO DUST

There were a few other losses during my absence. I should have moved the potted Japanese maple to the center of the shaded picnic table. The dogwood tree, a gift from Mark Carlson in April, looks like someone left it in the bed of a truck in Arizona. Yet, there are small shoots struggling for life at the base of the dried, dead trunk. People who live in Chico when its 108 degrees should expect a few plants to do a death dance when they’re take a long vacation.

I don’t have room in my heart to worry about a few dead plants. My mind was fixated on the more important thing that was not within view.

Feline Unit is not at the Chico Humane Society. I was there when they opened the gate at noon Tuesday. The website, (https://buttehumane.org), had a picture of a cat that I was certain was my undersized Manx calico. However, the beautiful cat in the cage was twice the size and has a tail.

I was mad at myself for lingering at the cuteness of the other confined critters. It felt disloyal to be looking at other cats when I am holding out so much hope that Feline Unit will find her way back home.

Angie, the wonderful woman who works at the shelter, wrote down all the local social media lost pet Facebook pages. Following her suggestion, I also moved the dirty cat box to the back porch, hoping the cat will recognize her personal stench from blocks away.

Meanwhile, my luggage remains unpacked and I’ve been wandering my neighborhood making the two-tone whistle that usually brings the Feline Unit running for a dollop of wet food.

If there is any upside, I’ve met several of my neighbors, a few who saw my post on the NextDoor neighborhood website. My new friend Lollie and her 3-year-old sidekick pointed to the empty lot in the avenues where many cats are known to kick it on lazy afternoons. Another woman, who lives in an alley, recognized the cat from the photo I showed her on my cell phone. She said it had been about three days since she last saw my scampering Feline Unit.

Needless to say, if someone sees my cat, please call the phone number attached to her collar.

For now, I’m trying to shake off terrible mental images of the sweet Feline whisked away by an angry mob of magpies or stuck at the bottom of a dry storm drain. Other times I’m angry that some wet-food endowed, soft-hearted family has decided my calico kitty is a perfect complement to their cream-colored furnishings. Or maybe she wasn’t really all that attached to me after all. She was the Handsome Woodsman’s companion before she knew me. Maybe she wandered away due to a broken heart.

For now, I’ll continue to hold onto hope and to wander the streets whistling.

Contact garden columnist Heather Hacking at sowtheregardencolumn@gmail.com or follow on Facebook.

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Sow There!: An adventurous start to a trial-run retirement July 7, 2017

Posted on Friday, July 7, 2017 by Heather Hacking
The much-recommended Osprey Farpoint 40 backpack.
The much-recommended Osprey Farpoint 40 backpack. Photo by Heather Hacking

POSTED: 07/06/17

Pssst. I’m officially unemployed. It’s weird. It’s great. I’m glad it’s not permanent.

My parents are both retired, and they highly recommend their lifestyle choices. For a few years now, Dad and Lynda have sent me pictures of their feet, usually with a sunset, beach or the Bellagio fountain as a backdrop. Mom and Steve send images of calm lakes and shorelines, without pictures of their feet.

When I decided to quit writing for the newspaper and return to college, I gave myself several weeks for “me time.” So far, this has included cleaning out my shed and planning a trip to Costa Rica with my sister.

You would think planning a trip would be more joy-filled. However, my sister and I have vastly different ideas about just about everything. She wants peaceful accommodations away from other people. I would prefer a lively hostel where we could meet travelers from around the globe.

Also, I was just being crabby while trip-planning. Finally, I realized that none of the trip-planning ideas sounded ideal because ideally, I wished I was planning the trip with my Handsome Woodsman.

I have 100 percent confidence that once my sister and I get our backpacks moving, we’ll have a trip to remember until our retirement days. We may even send our parents pictures of our feet.

PACKING TIPS

When we bought our matching Osprey Farpoint 40 backpacks, my sister sent me a link to the “Hey Nadine” video blog. This young gal has traveled to more than 49 countries (many of them solo) and looks like she still gets carded at the bars.

Of particular interest was her packing tips — how to leave most of what you think you will need at home.

We took notes, downloaded her list of essentials. We placed everything in plain view on our beds, ready to cram our recommended items into the backpack Nadine had recommended.

After the first test zips, we both still had many must-have items remaining on our beds.

What the heck? Nadine’s bed was covered with stuff and we watched (in fast-motion) while she expertly shoved all those girlie things into her backpack.

“Heather,” my sister said gravely. “Nadine is a size 1. That means all of our clothes are at least twice as big as her clothes. We need at least two backpacks each.”

Don’t worry. I made sure the rubber chicken will be onboard.

The big problem is the liquids. We’re heading to Costa Rica, which means we will be dousing ourselves in bug spray morning and night. We’ll also slather our alabaster skin with suntan lotion. Both of these protective items are extraordinarily expensive at 10 degrees from the equator because Costa Ricans know blonde chicks will be miserable without these liquids.

So much for the easy-lifestyle backpacks. We’ll be huffin’ it with our Osprey Farpoint 40s on our back and a bag filled with liquids grudgingly passed from sibling to sibling.

WHY COSTA RICA?

Folks have asked me “why Costa Rica?” Here’s the honest truth. I put a post on Facebook asking friends where I should travel this summer. My original choice was Sud Tyrol (at the border of Austria and Italy). However, my travel companions changed their mind.

My college buddy Patrick had suggested Costa Rica. In fact, when I did not choose Costa Rica as my first choice, he was really mad. He lectured me. He told me I was making the wrong choice. He made me feel small and unadventurous.

Plan B is Costa Rica. Coincidentally, two tickets to Costa Rica costs half the price of one ride to Europe.

Meanwhile, I’ll miss my summer garden. Green tomatoes, zucchini, and squash will be bountiful about 10 minutes after I board the plane. However, my house-sitter, Thor, will be here to send me pictures of the harvest. If he kicks back in the green resin lawn chair, he might even include a picture of his feet. He’s helpful, but I don’t expect him to shred the excess zucchini and tuck it into Ziploc bags to freeze for my return.

My sister and I plan to gobble every exotic fruit we can find and send Thor pictures of our fruit baskets and our feet.

Garden enthusiast Heather Hacking can be contacted at sowtheregardencolumn@gmail.com.

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