What?  What’s a garlic scape? Well, when a hardneck garlic variety reaches it final growth phase it sends up a curly shoot called a scape.  This is basically the garlic flower head and they need to be removed to force the plant to put more energy into making a bigger bulb.   Scapes are edible and I like to use them for Garlic Scape Pesto.  They  have a wonderful flavor that is a cross between garlic and scallion that is just delicious!  After garlic is dug up it needs to cure for several weeks and the scapes are an early treat until we can cook with the bulbs.

 Garlic Scape Pesto:

1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup olive oil
¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano or grana padana
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste 

Method:
Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add cheese to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated

Well it’s been a little over a week since the chicks arrived and they are all doing well. As you can see from the photos, their tail feathers and wing feathers are growing out and they are becoming more exploratory. Most of them can now fly well enough to get onto the white step stool. We’ve also been feeding them some treats such as greens from our garden and the occasional cutworm or ant. We didn’t do this with our first group of chicks but this time around we figure this is what they’d be eating in the wild or as free rangers so it can’t be bad.

They’re baaaaack! And apparently here to stay. Every spring, winter moths and canker worms appear and begin eating their way through the landscape just as the trees and shrubs have leafed out. They are more than a nuisance as they can completely denude an adult tree forcing the tree to produce a second round of foliage. This puts a lot of stress on the plant. Over time this can lead to plant death. My serviceberry seems to be a favorite target as are the oaks and maples.

There’s not much I can do about the adult trees short of calling in a tree service. For my shrubs and smaller trees I have had good success the a biological insecticide called BTK  (Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki ). It is naturally-occuring bacterium that kills specific types of caterpillars but is generally considered safe to other animals, even those that eat the caterpillars. As with all pesticides, you should follow standard safety protocols when using it. Wear goggles, protective clothing and a dust mask and spray on a calm day. There are some groups that question the safety of BTK. A good article from Purdue University on the safety of BTK can be found here. If you search the web on “btk safety” you will find quite a few entries from reliable and authoritative sources.

This product can be found in our Amazon Store.

On a recent episode of a well known home improvement show (one that I respect and watch regularly), the host made the recommendation that every home owner should own a cordless electric drill. I just about fell out of my chair when I heard this. As you might expect of any home handyman worth his salt, I’ve owned both corded and cordless electric drills for years and I gotta tell you, the corded drill wins hands down. Why? Simply put, it works when you need it to work.

Cordless drills are wonderful devices but they’re mostly a luxury for homeowners. The basic weakness of any cordless electric device is its capacity to store a charge. The typical homeowner doesn’t demand much of his or her tools. That means the drill comes out a couple times a year at most which means you’re guaranteed to have a dead battery. So you must either 1) anticipate your need and charge the battery in advance or 2) delay your project to wait for the battery to charge.

I don’t know about you but I’m really bad at anticipating when things are going to need repair or when I’m going to find the time to get the work done. In fact, I’m so bad at anticipating that even when I know that I’m going to spend my weekend building, let’s say, a chicken coop, I still can’t remember to charge my batteries the day before or even the morning of.

The other problem with cordless drills is that, just like you and me, batteries age. And as they age, their ability to hold a charge gets less and less. Then one day, and it’s probably going to be the day that you set aside for some major project and the one time you remembered ahead of time to charge the battery,  your drill dies after the third screw. So there you sit, project stopped,  holding a paper weight.

But hey, you can always run down to the local Lowe’s Expo to buy a new battery right? WRONG! Because when you get there you find out that they no longer stock your particular make and model because the manufacturer has a whole new and completely incompatible line they are pushing. If you’re lucky, you might be able to locate a replacement battery online…for another forty bucks plus shipping. Ouch!

So what’s a home handyman to do? Well, if you follow my advice, you’ll buy yourself a corded electric drill and just steer clear of all the hassles.  With nothing more than normal care, the darn thing will last you the rest of your life.

It’s always an exciting day when the baby chicks arrive. They are tiny, cute and fuzzy and they scoot all around the brood box. Amazingly, unlike other birds which emerge naked and blind from their eggs, chickens arrive fully formed and self sufficient from day one.  They just need food, water and warmth.

This is the second shipment of chicks for us. The first shipment of three arrived last June and we had great success. We began getting eggs from them in December. Being neophyte chicken ranchers, however, we made the mistake of allowing our birds to free range unsupervised on our property. The inevitable occurred in April when a hawk took one of them. In an instant our egg production dropped by a third. So we decided to add to our flock. Since our town allows us to own a total of 10 we decided to go to the limit, but for some reason my wacky wife only ordered 7 so we now have a total of 9.

Having nearly a year of experience under our belts I can honestly say that chickens are one dumb animal. Chickens look at the world one way – “is it food?” And of course, for a chicken, it usually is. I’ve seen them eat plastic, styrofoam, and rocks. They even ate all the caulking from around a window as far as they could reach. As my wife says, just be glad chickens aren’t 10 feet tall because we’d all be chicken feed.

On the plus side they certainly are tame animals and very social. And they deliver fresh eggs almost daily. You can’t really dislike a creature that asks so little of you and provides a healthy and delicious bounty.

About the Setup

The box is from Costco and was used to ship grapefruits; last year we used a watermelon box. They are great because they have high sides and can be recycled once we move the chickens to the coop. The bottom of the box is covered in pine shavings which are replaced weekly. They can be purchased at any pet supply or animal feed store. The heat lamp and infrared bulb were purchased at Lowes. They are attached to microphone stand (something we had already) so that we can adjust the heat source as the chicks grow. The thermometer in the corner lets us keep an eye on the termperature. They are supposed to be kept at 90-95 degrees (f) for the first week. The temperature can be reduced by 5 degrees each week thereafter. The white thing is a folding stool, we placed it there to give them some cover and a place to hide. The red thing is a waterer. It’s important to have a waterer sized for chicks so they don’t fall in and drown. The long silver thing is a feeder that allows the chicks to put their heads through so they don’t poop in their food. In a few weeks the chicks will be capable of limited flight so we have an old screen door that we will cover the box with.

For the past few years I’ve watched every spring as clumps of small white flowers emerge from clumps of what looks like waxy variegated grass. I don’t know how they found their way onto my property but they seem to thrive in the semi-shade on the north side of my property under the trees and even in the lawn.  I liked them so much that I dug up several bunches of the bulbs and transplanted them along a stone wall. They are now in full bloom and look glorious. I’ve always wondered what they were so tonight I finally spent enough time at the computer to make what I think is a postive identification. They are Star of Bethlehem.

From Wikipedia -

Ornithogalum umbellatum (Star-of-Bethlehem, Grass Lily, Nap-at-Noon, Eleven-o’clock Lady), is a perennial bulbous flowering plant of the family Hyacinthaceae. It is native throughout most of southern and central Europe (north to Austria and Belgium), and in northwestern Africa and southwestern Asia. In North America, it has escaped its cultivation as a garden ornamental and can be found in many areas.

Apologies in advance to Walt Whitman and Ray Bradbury.  Today I mowed my lawn for the first time this season so I thought I’d take the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of electric lawn mowers.  This is an area where I have real street cred. My father bought an electric lawnmower from Sears back in 1965 when I was in second grade and I began cutting the lawn to earn my allowance shortly thereafter. I quickly became a master of the orange power cord, whipping it around like a rodeo cowboy twirls a lasso. Up one row, flip, down the next, flip, repeat. That lawn mower followed us to four different houses and was finally retired only after my father died because my mother no longer needed it. After 20+ years of service it was still going strong.

When I became a suburban homeowner in 1997 I once again went electric, this time with a cordless rechargeable.  For the most part, it was a perfectly serviceable mower however it had some annoying limitations that eventually led me to purchase a gas powered mower. I used that gas mower for five or six years until last year when something broke on it. Rather than pay to have it repaired, I decided that it was time to return to the future and purchased a corded electric mower. Now every time I mow my lawn I am also reliving my childhood. That’s a pretty good deal.

So why did I go back to the corded electric mower?  Let’s look at at a comparison chart:

The environmental impact of electric lawn mowers depends on the efficiency and fuel source of your local electric power company. You can assume that coal fired plants produce more environmentally harmful byproducts that those fueled by natural gas. But no matter what your source of electricity, use of either a cordless or corded electric lawnmower is better for the environment than a gas powered equivalent.

Electric mowers aren’t for everyone. If you have a yard with more than a half acre of lawn or if you are a lawncare professional, the limitations of both corded and cordless electric lawnmowers will make them impractical.

Finally, I’ve also owned a pushreel mower and would offer up some thoughts based on my experience. I used it a few times and then gave it away. They are simply not a very effective solution for the suburban homeowner with a quarter acre or more of lawn to care for. They only cut grass that is within a certain height range. If you let grass get too long it won’t slip under the mower’s front bar into the blade; the mower simply runs it flat whereupon it immediately springs back up. Given busy schedules and weather, it is nearly impossible to not let the grass grow at some point during the season. Once you do, you’re screwed. And of course pushreel mowers are useless for picking up and composting all those fall leaves which make excellent mulch.

A wide selection of corded and cordless electric mowers can be found in our Amazon Store.

Waddle was a 9 month old buff orpington hen that fell victim to a hawk on April 5, 2009. Waddle was queen of the roost. She did all the pecking but was never pecked. This is daughter Emma’s video tribute. I believe she used every effect available in Windows Movie Maker.

The dear wife is behind on her seed starting this year so I’m trying to hedge my bets a little bit and get an early jump on this warm weather by supplementing our efforts with commercially grown seedlings. There’s not yet much variety at any of the local garden centers but I took a flyer on a couple six packs of peppers – jalapenos and purple bell. Since she has designs on the raised beds I had to find a new location to plant them so I decided to dig a trench a few feet in front of my new grape trellis. It’s a perfect south-facing location that gets a solid 7-8  hours of sun. The soil is all sand so I amended heavily with composted cow manure and peat moss.  The grapes are already going strong and will be well along before the peppers are large enough to cast any shade across them. Let’s just hope the bunnies don’t eat them.

I’ll admit it, I’m a couch potato and I LOVE my big screen TV. But today our family went TV-FREE. The reaons are complicated but it mostly boiled down to having two smart 12-year-old girls with very active lives in and out of school but who are not living up to their grade potential. The only way I could think of to add quality time to our days and reduce distractions was to ditch the TVs and severely limit computer time. I posed it to the kids as an either /or argument: we need to make changes that will help us do better in school, you can either drop your dance activities or we drop the TV. The kids chose to drop the TV. Ironically, I think I may be the one who gains the most from this experiment because I will no longer have a reason to plop on the couch with a beer for a few hours every night. I’m looking forward to losing weight and getting my blog whipped into shape. Who knows how much I can accomplish with a couple extra hours every night but I’ll keep posting about it.