October 23rd, 2017
Well, I did my end of year cleanup this weekend and I made another batch of Bio-Char, using, pallets, cardboard, junk mail, documents, dog poo (only what was collected this week), Bones, woodsy plant trimmings, some hardwoods and the tomato plants.
I tore out all the summer veggies with the exception of a Box Car Willie tomato plant, a celebrity, Matts Wild Cherry and a Corno Di Toro Giallo.
The Corno Di Toro Giallo peppers are from one plant
And I had 2 surprise Eggplants that were growing through the fence on the neighbors side in the side Hugelkultur bed. The two big ones will be fried, the little ones go in the Jambalaya.
My compost bin has been kicking @ss this year, the lid wouldn't fit on this 4 days ago.
Cleaned out the freezer and tossed everything on top, yes I tossed in meat like, pepper steak, chicken noodle soup, old chicken breast, cheesey dishes like stuffed shells etc...
This is the only problem with composting any type of meats and cheese. I could have burned these foods but wanted to try them directly in the compost bin first, the dog was up there before I could even get the lid on.
I start off with a few pallets with all the junk then started tossing on hardwoods to make my end of year Garden Jambalaya. Preheating with oil.
While the pallets and junk burn down, I started making some ABT's to snack on. I just cant believe I got another 32 peppers off of this plant, this is the 4th harvest.
Separated the peppers, some for pickling and some for stuffing.
My basic "Chicken Taco ABT's". Boiled Chicken breast, three cheese blend, taco seasoning, chili powder and a bit of chicken broth.
ABT's are tossed into the smoker with some Apple wood
Tossed in some Poblanos, these will be fully dehydrated in the dehydrator for later recipes. (Awesome in my Baked Beans)
Added the rest of my Tabasco peppers to my Tabasco sauce that has been resting on charred oak over a year now.
OK, time for the jambalaya. preheated oil, Chicken thighs, Hot Sausage, ground meat, onions and eggplant.
Corno and Anaheim peppers.
Roasted tomatoes from earlier in the season, can of crushed tomatoes, Montreal steak seasoning.
While that simmered I installed a rack for my garden tools.
Barley.
I snacked on some ABT's, sampled a bowl of the Jambalaya, then the rest was put in containers and placed in the freezer.
After I was done making my Garden Jambalaya, I spent a few more hours burning up some hardwood. When the last flame flickered out, I busted up all the hot coals, let it burn down a bit more, then covered the coals with some potting mix from a 10 gallon Air Pot of spent potting mix, perlite, peat, potting mix.
The next day I mixed the rest of the potting mix in with the coals real well, dug it out and put about 20% in my raised beds and the rest in the compost heap, then poured 3/4 gallon of urea on top of the bio-char in the compost bin.
I made sure to cover the top of the compost bin with the Bio-char and urea to keep critters out, on the other hand my dog was quicker than me.
I know that there is going to come a time when I will have to stop adding bio-char, but for now, a half a dozen fires a year should be OK for the next 10 years... I still have an entire front yard to do.
This end of season clean up works out well for me because, I get to clean out the freezer, clean up the gardens, add to my compost bin, use up all my extra veggies, have lunches at work for a month and have an excuse to hang out all day by the fire, listening to music, smoking, cooking and tossing back a few beers.
My daughters car blew up on the turnpike.
So what do we do?
We go out to eat of course.
A few more turtle rescues being rehabbed.
And I fear this may be my last tomato, a Box Car Willie, we will see, I left the BCW in the bed. (Roast beef is from Manday 6 cook)