SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2020

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Originally Posted by taboule

Looks very nice. I'd be interested to learn how you make that dream cheese, if you have a few minutes.
Thanks

Sure.
If you do this make sure to use cotton for the cheese, I made the mistake of using nylon, and had a problem with the cheese not drying enough the 2nd hang, well at least that's what I think the problem was.




Dream Cheese







This is my first time ever making cheese.




This can be made with Whole Milk yogurt, Clabbered milk or Kefir. If you use store bought yogurt be sure to use ONLY plain yogurt that has no thickening agents (such as pectin, gelatin or any gums) just Milk and Live cultures only as it will not properly drain and preferably Whole Milk.

• Clean and sanitize nut milk bag (Use a Cotton T): Boil a pot of water, turn off heat and submerge bags for 10 minutes.
  
• Pour the yogurt: Place colander in a bowl, place Nut Milk Bag (Use a Cotton T) in colander, pour yogurt into the bag, I used 64 oz. of yogurt per bag.
  
• Hang the yogurt: Zip the draw strings shut and hang the nut milk bags (Use a Cotton T) over a bowl to catch the whey.
  
  
• Wait. Let the cheese drain for 24 hours.
• Salting the cheese: Open the nut milk bag (Use a Cotton T) and scrape out the cheese into a non-metallic mixing bowl, add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart of original volume. I used 2 quarts per bag so will be adding 2 teaspoons of salt.
• Wait again for 24 hours: Salt will draw even more moisture out of the cheese. Hanging the cheese again is essential for preservation, as it allows that moisture to drain.
• Form your cheese: Roll tightly into meatball or egg shaped balls
  
• Add dried herbs: Time to season, I used a simple Chive, Oregano, Basil and Thyme mix. Roll balls in Italian herb mix and set aside for twenty minute.
• Store and age your Dream Cheese: Pour enough olive oil in a jar to cover your dream cheese by at least a half an inch of oil. Very carefully with a spoon add your dream cheese balls. If you store in the refrigerator the olive oil will solidify and you need to bring the jar up to room temperature to remove the cheese balls. This can also be stored in a root cellar or similar that is a bit cooler. Cheese is best to age at least 30 days.

Here is where it got off track a bit, After the 2nd hang of 24 hours the cheese was still a cream cheese consistency, I believe it was because of using a nylon bag, my only recourse was to grab an old cotton T-shirt, boil it in water, dry thoroughly and moisten with a little whey and hang the cheese another 24 hours in the cotton T.
Well it worked out pretty well. I think the second hanging is fairly dry and the cotton absorbs the excess moisture as opposed to a nylon.

• Not as dry as I would have liked it but it does break as you pull it apart.

[taboule]

Thanks, I thought I recognized it. The first step is what Lebanese call "labne". The extended drying and addition of spices and herbs turn it into "shankleesh." Tasty stuff, we eat it with pita bread.

[NicolasGarcia]

SQWIBB. its publications is a work of art. Thank you

[PhilaGardener]

Looks great!

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Thank you guys.

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March 9th, pm 2020

The weather was really nice so I stopped at Home depot and picked up some peat moss, Black Kow, 10-10-10 and some marigold seeds. UI started work on the ponds, redoing the electrical cords and turning on the pumps, I have a bad pump that needs replacing. Sprinkled a tiny bit of 10-10-10 around the shrubs, trees and flowers.

• Got 4 of my Planters/Raised beds ready for planting.

March 10th, pm 2020

March 11th, 2020

Ran out during work and picked up some Black Kow and Pine Bark Fines from lowes for my Grow Bags and Planters. After work, I installed the new pond pump and fixed the LED tape lights, have you ever tried to solder LED tape Lights, what a nightmare.


Planted a couple of my Bok Choy "Cut and Regrow" plants, a Purple Bok Choy, and a few Shanghai Bok Choy in the Koi Pond planter. Planted some Waltham Broccoli in the new "Root Bed", this bed was originally built for Radish and Beets, I have had no luck with Beets.


Sowed some Scarlet Runner Beans and De grace Snow Peas along the trellis in the Hugelkultur beds. Dumped the rest of my Aji Pineapple seeds into the seed trays, germination rate has been horrible. I also found some old Datil Seeds from 2016 or 2017 that I am trying to grow out for seeds.


I had extremely poor germination rate on my old (2017) Marigold seeds but pulled a dead plant from the hill and planted those seeds last week and had quite a few sprout.

• I took the Suzhou Baby Bok Choy outside.

March 12th, 2020

Started up the back pond. Pulled out my grow bags and decided which to use, I forget I had this many. I'll probably use the 10 gallon bag for eggplant and a Zucchini and maybe a couple 7 gallon pots for some peppers, 2 in each pot.

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March 19th, 2020

Got some staining done this weekend, Sam and her boyfriend helped out a lot.

Gave up on my Citrus trees and put them outside.

Still harvesting a good bit of lettuce.



Had some issues with the Koi Pond leaking, after several days I found the leak in the lower veggie filter, so I had to drain it a bit and let it dry out then cleaned it up and reapplied some silicone.

I decided to completely redo the two veggie filters.
I changed the upper veggie filter to an up-flow, similar to the lower veggie filter, I will be adding some Bio-Balls and MORE Matala filter pads in an effort to increase biological filtration.


I'm having issues with my hose that feeds the irrigation, I can hear the water running when the hose is charged and the irrigation is off, there must be a leak somewhere in the hose. The hose is buried underground and inspecting it would be impossible. I have an above ground line that I will be using.


Working on my Back Pond pump/filters for easier access to cleaning. I installed a cleanout hose to each of the filters with a "Y" adapter, this will be used to clean the filters and the waste will be used in the gardens.


Planted 20 Chandler strawberry plants on the 18th and Romaine and Butternut Crunch Lettuce on the 14th but forgot about the seeds being in the bed when I was working on the pond and was dumping 5 gallon buckets of water right on top of them, oops!

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March 24th, 2020

I got some work done on the back hill laying pavers cleaning up and staining the retaining wall. I installed a new pressure regulator on the feed line to the beds, I went with a slightly higher PSI regulator. Swapped out the hose as the other hose is leaking.


I fertilized the potted plants with the following mix, just eyeballed the mix, oops forgot Epsom salts, I'll add that next time I fertilize.

• Coffee grounds
  
• 10-10-10
• Garden Lime
• Peat Moss
  
• Black Kow
• Perlite
  
• Pine Bark Fines
  

Mixed up some potting mix for the Aquaponics Small Veggie filter.

• Garden Lime
• Peat Moss
• Black Kow
• Perlite
• Pine Bark Fines

• I Canned my sauerkraut and Laura made an awesome, Butternut Squash Pie, amazing is the only way I can describe it!

Recipe for the pie on my Reaping The benefits page here.







Still working on the ponds as well.

• A few years back my mom gave us a Koi that outgrew her smallish pond, he is not doing good, my daughter has been working with him every day but it don't look good.

• I had a leak in one of my feed lines that feed the main pond from the larger veggie filter and repaired that, after that had cured (24 hours), I decided to remove everything, clean out the filters, and media (scrubbie pads) and redo the filter with additional Matala filter pads for my aquaponics plants. This stuff is very rigid and works great for supporting grow bags or heavy pots.
  

After I had the large veggie filter squared away, I done a 20% water change to the main pond and fertilized the pond plants (Lilies) with some Jobes spikes, I don't add fertilizer to the Irises.

• The smaller upper veggie was redone also, first thing was to remove all of the rock and pea gravel then I put on a fresh coat of stain. The filter was changed to an up-flow filter design, I added the 300 bio-balls and topped with green Matala filter pads, it's much lighter now, lol.

• For the back pond I moved the filter to be a bit more accessible and plumbed the backwash lines both together with a clean-out hose using a brass "T", I'll use this water from the clean-out to water my plants.

• Still eating lettuce from the indoor grow but we are eating it quicker than we can grow it, just wish I had a little more space.

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• Everything is finally budding with the exception of my grape vines.