The Old Farmer's Almanac 2015 (7 page)

Don’t stop with these delicious varieties! Experiment with other Japanese greens, Oriental spinaches, baby leaf greens, the spicy and frilly Asian mustards, and colorful Asian lettuces.

Tips for Growing the Best Greens

Asian greens like well-draining soil that is rich in organic matter. Fertilize with light feedings of diluted liquid kelp. Stick to a regular watering schedule; most greens will not tolerate drought, and their flavor may be affected. Water deeply and at the base of the plants, not from above.

Some greens will bolt (go to seed) in sustained heat. To ensure a midsummer harvest, select varieties that are bred for bolt resistance. (Check seed catalogs and packets for details.) To stave off bolting, sow crops in late spring and late summer or early autumn. To extend the growing season, plant cool-weather greens in a cold frame or use cloches as protection during cold nights.

Because Asian greens can go quickly from seed to table—most burst into life within a week or two of planting—sow them successively over the entire growing season. Not all varieties will mature at the same time, ensuring continuous color and texture. Some crops will take longer than others; garland chrysanthemum and amaranth, for example, need time to show off their pretty flowers.

Many Asian greens are “cut-and-come-again” crops: Pick the outermost leaves first; allow the plants to keep growing for a continuous supply of fresh greens. Plants may be harvested before they reach maturity, at the “baby” stage of development (at least 4 inches tall), when the leaves are at their most tender. When you thin plants, eat the thinnings! Just trim off the roots, wash, and add them to salads or sandwiches.

Sheryl Normandeau
is an avid gardener, writer, and blogger in Calgary, Alberta.

There is something about a body of water that breeds a calm state of mind. Yet most of us don’t have 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days to sit beside one and ponder the world and our place in it, as writer Henry David Thoreau did at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, starting in 1845.

However, if your heart yearns for the contemplative influence of a pond, you can build your own, right next to your favorite lawn chair.

It is not necessary to rent a backhoe and hire a fellow with a hard hat to drive it. Most of what you need to provide a hypnotic atmosphere can be found at your local farm or garden supply store:

• a round, galvanized stock tank (4 feet in diameter and 2 feet deep, if possible)
  
• a bag of sand
  
• three or four concrete blocks
  
• water cleansing agents
  
• four or five common goldfish
  
• water plants
  
• rocks
  

Choose a location that is attractive to birds, frogs, and dragonflies and is in full sun that allows for midday shade.

Spread the sand on the ground and use it to level the tank. Check the level with a straight board and a carpenter’s level. A lopsided water garden will interfere with the serenity.

Place the tank on top of the level sand. Fill it with water to within a few inches of the top and, for the health of the fish that you will introduce into it, treat the water with drops of a cleaning agent that removes chlorine and chloramine. The fish will add a flash of color and feast on mosquito larvae, thus keeping these pests at bay, which will also enhance your serenity.

Stand a concrete block on end in the water near one side of the pond and arrange the rocks atop it in such a way that they protrude from the water. This will enable any creatures that are unfortunate enough to fall into the water to climb out, as well as give birds a secure platform for drinking and bathing.

Choose water plants that suit your locality. Hardy water lilies sport astonishing flowers, will bloom until the water freezes, and survive winter in all planting zones. Put a layer of gravel on top of the soil in the pot that contains your aquatic plants to discourage soil from floating out into the water.

Bog plants grow with their roots in the water and leaves above the surface. They provide upright areas of interest and resting places for butterflies and dragonflies. Curly rush, dwarf cattails, and papyrus are bog plants that thrive in a water garden. Underwater grasses such as anacharis and hornwort float below the surface, help to remove phosphates from the water, and give the fish something yummy to graze on.

Set another concrete block on its side in the tank. Put a potted water lily on it in such a way that the top of the pot is at least a foot below the water surface. The leaves of the lily will spread to shade most of the water in the pond and keep algae to a minimum.

Acclimate the goldfish, then add them to the tank. Take a seat within arm’s reach, relax, and contemplate the simple life, as Thoreau did. Perhaps you will also discover that the laws of the universe begin to seem less complex.

Martha Deeringer
writes for children and adults from her home on a central Texas cattle ranch. Visit her at
www.marthadeeringer.com
.

Outdoors: What’s Happened to All the Quail?

“I used to hear them all the time,” people would wistfully recall, often following this with their rendition of the distinctive call: “bobwhite, bob-bobwhite.”

In many areas, the once plentiful game bird is little more than a memory. In the late 1990s, studies to monitor the status of northern bobwhite quail were initiated throughout its native range (roughly the eastern two-thirds of the United States, plus extreme southern Ontario). The northern bobwhite is the most widespread of six quail species and one of the most studied game birds. Collected data revealed an 87 percent decline in population over the previous four decades. This coincided with the agricultural revolution that brought monoculture, herbicide and pesticide use, and forestry management, among other factors. However, thanks to coordinated conservation efforts that began in 2002, habitat is being reestablished, and northern bobwhite quail, with their plaintive calls, are returning.

LORE AND MORE

• Ancient Egyptians considered quail a culinary delicacy. The birds were bred on large farms as food for workers and, separately, prepared for the deceased. The quail is a common figure in hieroglyphics.
  
• Quail meat is low in fat, high in protein, and slightly sweet-tasting. Relative to their weight, the eggs are more nutritious than chicken eggs.
  
• Quail eggs are the smallest commercially available.
  
• Research has shown that quail eggs may aid in relief from allergies and asthma.
  
• When quail are heard in the evening, expect fair conditions tomorrow.
  
• To “quail” means to show fear or cower—not what the birds do when startled.
  
• In Austria’s Tyrol region, the number of a quail’s cries is thought to indicate the number of years the hearer will remain unmarried.
  

These shy and elusive birds are ground foragers that thrive in native grasslands and open woodlands and at forest edges. They are nonmigratory, with a natural life span of 2 years, on average (80 percent live less than 1 year). In springtime, hens settle onto grass- or pine needle-lined shallow bowls in the earth, preferably with a canopy of tall grasses or forbs (nonwoody, broadleaf plants) for protection. One hen can incubate 12 to 20 eggs for 23 days, but only about 25 percent of a clutch will be successful, so hens frequently try for a second or third brood.

Chicks leave the nest shortly after hatching and take their first flight at just 2 weeks. They must have access to bare ground where they can move about easily and catch insects. Adult quail consume the seeds of over 1,000 different weeds, as well as a variety of small bugs.

By late summer, as many as two dozen birds gather in coveys of two or more families, in brushy areas such as hedgerows or forest edges that are usually near a food source such as a post-harvest grainfield. The covey roosts in a circle with heads pointing outward to conserve heat and to keep watch. If disturbed, the birds flush, breaking skyward in different directions to ensure the survival of at least some. They reassemble by issuing a special call. When mortality significantly decreases a covey size, the remaining birds join up with another. Spring signals mating season and the cycle begins anew.

Tromping through fields and flushing a covey is a rare thrill. We may never see the rich populations of years past, but by restoring their habitat we can make sure that “bob
white,
bob-bob
white
” will never be just a memory.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

To learn more about northern bobwhite quail in your area, contact your local Division of Fish & Wildlife or the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI):
bringbackbobwhites.org
.

Karen L. Kirsch
lives in Louisville, Ohio, with three dogs, eight cats, two donkeys, a flock of geriatric free-range chickens, and the occasional opossum. She writes about environmental issues for numerous publications and in her blog at
mysmallcountrylife.com
.

Many of us decide how to dress or go outdoors based on information we receive through our meteorologists. Every once in a while in winter in northern states and southern Canada, the local meteorologist’s forecast will sound something like this: “Northwest winds gusting to nearly 30 miles per hour will combine with temperatures near 20 below zero tonight to create windchill values of 50 below.”