Author: Laughing Frog Farm

Compost tea recipe

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We make compost tea from the worm castings from our vermiculture bins.  We put 10 pounds of worm compost, a half cup of fish emulsion, 1/2 cup seaweed extract, and one cup of molasses in a 55 gallon drum of water from our tilapia tank.  We add aerators and wait 24  hours.  You can then put some of the tea on a slide and check under the microscope to see if it is  teaming with microbial action. Then spray it on the vegetables, fruit trees and bare ground before planting.   Once the tea is made it should be used within a few hours. It is a fungicide, deters some bugs and fertilizes the plants. It increases the microbial action in the soil and is an excellent foliar feed for any plant. Spray in the mornings before the sun hits the plants whenever possible.

Here is a formula for making  compost tea in a five gallon bucket:

Put 4 cups of good fungus rich compost in a cloth paint strainer

add—1  tablespoon liquid seaweed

1  tablespoon hydrolysate fish

2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon of a good sea salt for root vegetables

Fill the bucket with rain water or river water and aerate with an aquarium bubbler  for 24 hours.

The best compost is worm compost, but if you have some good compost you can make it better.  Take a pound of compost, add 1/4 pound of rolled oats, 1 tablespoon each of fish emulsion, seaweed extract, humic acid, and molasses.  Moisten the mixture and let it sit for a week, mixing it every other day.

Greens and cheese pie–a takeoff on spanakopita

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I used to make spanakopita by a recipe and have adapted it throughout the years.  I now use a variety of greens and gave up on the filo dough because it takes so long and I cannot buy it at my local store. So I bake it in a pie pastry.  I use Martha Stewart’s recipe but you can always just buy a frozen one at the store.  I often make it without a crust, so I guess it is then not a pie.

1 pound greens–I prefer spinach, chard, kale, broccoli raab, and napa cabbage.  Whatever happens to be growing in the garden.  A few mustards  will add some zing when combined with milder greens.

5 to 6  green onions or equal amount of chives chopped

1/4 cup parsley minced

a sprig of dill

1/2 pounds feta

1/4 pounds white cheese–ok often I use cheddar because it is what I have handy and you might try riccota

1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano

4 eggs beaten

1/4 cup melted butter

3 tbs olive oil

Pepper

Combine the ingredients in a large bowl and dump into a pie pastry, an iron skillet, or a parchment liked baking dish.  Bake at 375˚ for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Greens grow year around but the parsley and dill die out in our 100˚ summers so I just leave them out or experiment with other herbs.

Glen Miracle

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I am the farmer. I grew up in a rural farming community in Kentucky where getting your vegetables out of a garden was normal.  Almost all of the vegetables that I ate in my first 17 years came out of our yard. Seeds were saved in the freezer in mason jars. The lima beans I grow today are named after my stepfather.  The beef came from our family’s cattle. My grandparents had the chickens and a milk cow. The menu was repetitive and pretty healthy.  The family farmed cattle and tobacco and most of what I learned was how to do physical labor.
Twelve years after leaving home for college I  got my first piece of land in Houston, Texas and started a 10’ x10’ garden.  I decided (at Kenan’s insistence) to try my hand at organic gardening. That was 1979 and organic produce was only, and occasionally, available at The Moveable Feast on Dunlavy at Alabama. On a good day they might have 10 pounds total. I started looking for guidance and found only one book at the store–John Seymour’s The Self-Sufficient Gardener.
I learned a lot from books, lots more from mistakes, but nothing from colleagues because I had none.  But now–30+years later there are many people researching and practicing organic farming and we are all connected through the internet. We continue our education at a rapid rate.
The job that brought me to Houston was art.  First I was a scenic artist painting sets primarily for the Houston Grand Opera, and later I moved into the mural and decorative painting business.
Kenan and I always planned to move to the country and have a small farm, but I wasn’t thinking of it as a business.  I designed and built my own house, became a certified  permaculture designer to help with the farm plan, added chicken coops, greenhouses, fish tanks and barns.  At that point we had about 20 fruit trees and a 1500 sq. ft. garden.
In 2009 I woke up one April morning and decided to make the farm profitable enough to support us. I started adding hundreds of fruit trees and berry bushes, got nursery and aquaculture licenses, increased my planting area to about two acres and packed up every Saturday morning for market.

I have been self-employed all my life, but the farm is different: you can never say that you are off from work because your life and the work have become the same thing.
I’m loving it.

Why did Elvis and McDonalds try to kill me?

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At the beginning of our family life Kenan and I discussed how food would fit in our lives. We decided that the whole family would eat supper together every night, sitting down, preferably at home and we would avoid feeding our children food from chain restaurants, especially fast food chains.  This was a difficult task because I was in theatre and the hours were onerous, but we worked through most of the problems, including two kids in high school, sporting events, art openings and theatre productions with few exceptions to our principles. Often Kenan would make sandwiches and bring the kids to my work so we could eat as a family on a piece of plywood supported by two sawhorses before I pulled an all-nighter painting on the set for Traviata or Nutcracker.

Occasionally we would be at a swim meet or a soccer game where the coach would announce that the team would meet at Fuddruckers or Burger King after the meet and we would succumb and feed the kids, but those were rare exceptions because our kids were not very athletic and the art and kung fu groups met at wierder and more acceptable locations.
But–and there is always a but–in the late 80s we were traveling through Tupelo Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis with a 10 year old and a 5 year old.  We arrived at 2:00 am and spent the night in a less than desirable motel due to multiple conventions in this small city. The next morning we faced a long drive home to Houston and long lines at all the diners.  We just needed something to eat before we hit the road and we looked at each other and decided to do make an exception to our values and eat breakfast at the Mcdonalds across the street.  Entering into the ordering area we laughed at the large glass panels with heads of Elvis etched on them separating that area from the eating area (I refuse to call it dining).  On cue the two people in front of us were discussing their belief that Elvis was still alive and hiding in some romantic location.  We were mocking them and making fun of the “food” we were about to eat when suddenly, without anyone touching it, one of the panels–and these were 8 foot by 5 foot panels of 3/8 inch glass–fell from its hanging wire and landed right by my feet crashing all over my shoes.
I knew that it was a sacrilege to enter a McDonalds, but I wasn’t aware that Elvis was so in control until that moment. My fear of fast food has only grown these past 25 years and I will avoid mocking Elvis yet he might not miss the next time.

Herb vinaigrette

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I make a vinaigrette from local supplies using the herbs in my garden. The recipe varies a bit depending on the season but this is pretty much the basic plan.

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (nothing local, even the ones who say they are)

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I use Texas Hill Country Olive Company)

1 1/2 tablespoons of dijon mustard (so far no local  source)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lime juice

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

one teaspoon of each chopped finely:

Thyme

Oregano

Basil

Mint

Stevia

Tarragon

Persimmon pie

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4 cups of fuyu persimmons that are barely beginning to get soft
1/4  tsp cinnamon
1/4  tsp nutmeg
1/4  tsp allspice
1  unbaked pie shell (I use Martha Stewart’s)
 2 eggs
2   tbls flour

1/2 cup melted butter
1/2   cup sugar

Toss persimmons with spices and place them in the pie shell. Combine eggs, sugar, butter and flour and pour over the persimmons.
Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes and turn the temperature down to 300˚ and bake for about 45 more minutes.  It should be bubbly and the crust brown.

Watercress soup

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We grow watercress 12 months a year.  We mostly eat it raw but we do love this soup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 sweet potato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2  cups chicken or vegetable stock
2  cups milk or coconut milk
1  pound watercress
1/2 cup watercress leaves for garnish

 

This is a good soup to add kale, collards, spinach etc.

Directions

Heat oil medium hot in a large saucepan. Add the potato and onion–stir. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes.
Pour in the chicken stock and the milk, bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Stir in the watercress and cook  for 4 to 5 minutes.
Put the soup in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.    Garnish with watercress leaves.

GMO labeling

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There is a lot of evidence out there that the recent science experiment on the human population with genetically modified foods is a disaster.  It is wrecking our environment and destroying our health. It is also a threat to our seed supply as GMO seed is now interbreeding with heirloom seed. The companies that develop these frankenfoods financially control the elected officials that are supposed to be OUR representatives.  The one chance we have to dull the impact of these dangerous foods is to demand they be labeled. If we knew that a food was genetically modified most of us would not eat it. Most corn and soy that is not labeled organic is GMO, but the problem is that organic is being contaminated by pollen drift and soon we may have no food that is not infected with genes that the human body does not reject.  This is a good article       GMO labeling

Watercress growing organically over the tilapia tank

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I was a bit surprised how well the watercress is growing in our aquaponics system in this heat (up to 108˚).  We run 3200 gallons of water per hour through the gravel lined grow beds to simulate a running stream and filter the fish’s water. Watercress is one of the more amazing vegetables. There are some amazing health benefits of watercress.  We eat it raw on sandwiches, salads, baked potatoes, pasta and–oh, everything.  And since it grows over the tilapia I should try a watercress atop tilapia recipe.  The tilapia are only two inches long right now so I will wait.

fall tomatoes

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Some basic info on growing tomatoes in Houston for the fall garden.
Purchase an organically grown tomato from  Laughing Frog Farm.  I grow mostly small tomatoes in the fall because they are easier to ripen during the short days in November. Put about one tablespoon of rock phosphate or bone meal in the bottom of the hole and bury the plants deeper than they were in the pot.  Spread a thin film of cornmeal around the plant and mulch over that to keep the weeds down. Cage the tomatoes with a large cage, about 2’ diameter and 5’ high for most heirlooms, or stake the plant. Try and shade the plant from the ravages of afternoon sun. Do not fertilize until the plants begin to flower. Use only organic fertilizer like fish emulsion, cottonseed meal, Micro Life, Medina, etc.  Once the plant is a few feet tall remove the leaves from the bottom one foot of the plant to reduce the chance of fungus developing. Water regularly and deeply about twice a week and never water the leaves, only the soil.  Squash lots of stinkbugs/leaf-foot bugs.