Building some raised beds

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VonBonfire

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Had a few up already that were mostly lying fallow while I was busy with other projects so I decided to toss a couple more up now that I've knocked out some of the big interior jobs. My garden down the hill became overgrown so I've been filling the raised beds with soil from down there. Work, but the payoff has already begun.

I got rosemary, basil, cilantro, parsley, thyme, and spearmint in my spice beds and I bought two beefsteak tomatoes, a cherry tomato, and a couple different peppers from Lowe's the other day. I added some chicken coop cleanout, some very well composted dogshit, and some ash to the soils over the winter so it should be pretty decent for growing now. I finished up a hugelkulture raised bed I started two days ago this morning and my purple potatoes just showed up in the mail so I'm gonna plant them this afternoon. Looking forward to a modestly reduced produce bill and a fridge full of venison this winter. :yes:

Planning to add more raised beds as I knock out some of the rock work that needs to be finished before it gets too hot out. It's already touching on 90 this week. I'd like to have some onions. Wish I had room for sweet potatoes and squash. Maybe my next couple raised beds should be larger.
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311boogieman said:
Looks great man. Is that a blue jay in the first pic.
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It's just a little resin bluebird of some sort, but I have Carolina Wrens that nest on the porch every year. When I was building I found a nest between some corner studs and was gonna toss it but it had eggs in it and I didn't have the heart. As I closed things in I left the windows upstairs open so mom could deliver food. I came into the cabin shell one day and little birds were on the concrete trying to take their first flight. After a few minutes about four of them flew away. I'm guessing it's their offspring that nest here today.
 
My cilantro has been launching into production. My wife makes killer venison tacos....squeezes lime on the meat to tenderize and flavor it then adds cilantro. We killed the final chunk of veni roast last night. This should work out good this year. Deer meat, cilantro, hot peppers...mmmmm

Anyone ever cold smoke venison? I'm thinking about salting and smoking a bunch.
 
Monkey Man said:
My cousin tried to make biltong with it but failed miserably - way too much salt.
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The salt curing venison recipes are kinda confusing. Like a lost art in the age of refrigeration, which is what I'm trying to workaround. One guy chucks it in a cooler packed full of salt for 2 or 3 days, another guy sets it on a shelf with juuuuust the right measured amount of salt. I tried it once and it was way too salty but then was reading you should just soak it in water to remove some of it. Would rather not do that, and also wanna cold smoke it.

I make a mean venison jerky though. My neighbor for years bragged about his jerky and how people tried to buy quantity from him cause it was "so good". He finally gave me a ziploc with some in it last summer. "I just dip it in brine real quick then throw it in a dehydrator". Talk about bland. It wasn't even on store bought jack links level. You gotta smoke it or it's bullshit jerky.

I just need to expand my expertise into cold smoking. Gonna have to shoot an extra deer and take some risks this year. :yes:
 
It wasn't a salt-curing recipe per se.

As I said, he tried to make biltong 'cause he (and I) grew up in South Africa. He botched it, plain-and-simple.

Given how much I love beef biltong, I can only imagine how awesome the venison version would've been. He shot the deer himself.
 
Monkey Man said:
It wasn't a salt-curing recipe per se.

As I said, he tried to make biltong 'cause he (and I) grew up in South Africa. He botched it, plain-and-simple.

Given how much I love beef biltong, I can only imagine how awesome the venison version would've been. He shot the deer himself.
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I'll have to look into a biltong recipe. Appears it's air/sun dried. I feel like I need to take about two solid weeks next fall just harvesting and processing deer. I wanna have enough for a solid couple years this time. I really need to set up a better processing station so I been working on getting that arranged.

I had thought about buying a cut off/grinding wheel and turning an empty propane tank into a sort of improvised wood stove that I can use to convert the old chicken coop into a smoke house. For cold smoking it doesn't need to get hot, in fact I'm seeing it should stay below 85-90 degrees in the smokehouse. Seems the cooler the better otherwise you're just cooking it when the goal is smoke for preservation, not cooking.
 
Yup.

In South Africa people used to pop wire bird cages over the hanging meat so the biltong could dry without being eaten by the ubiquitous wildlife.

Yup, air and / or sun-dried. Peeps who did it indoors over summer would aim a fan at it.
 
Monkey Man said:
Yup.

In South Africa people used to pop wire bird cages over the hanging meat so the biltong could dry without being eaten by the ubiquitous wildlife.

Yup, air and / or sun-dried. Peeps who did it indoors over summer would aim a fan at it.
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I love learning methods like those. I'm definitely going to be trying a few things this year to stock up. I know I need to build a bigger smoker because one batch of venison jerky just ain't enough and the time it takes to get the batch finished is too long so I need more rack space.

Fixing up the last of my venison right now. A front leg in a bean soup....gonna cook it down to a bone broth until this evening.
 
@JDs Couch some of the raised beds are pictured in the OP. Most of those rocks came from within 20 yards of where they were built. Not pictured is my little spice garden with basil, german thyme, spearmint, italian oregano, and cilantro. I'll get some more pictures if and when my adirondack blue potatoes come up. I planted them in the empty beds. Check out that parsley though....it's almost three feet across and has survived a couple freezes here.
 
Just saw this - looks interesting/cool. I used to have really good luck with tomatoes and peppers, but the several years have been disappointing. Always planted them in the ground. Maybe need to replenish nutrients in that area? We bought small(ish) raised bed planters a couple of years ago, but the results aren’t much better. Drainage sucked (fixed that) but then, because of the small volume, you need to really stay on top of soil moisture. Tomatoes used to be: plant, water, walk away then harvest. Seems more complicated these days for some reason… 🤷
 
IndyWS6 said:
Just saw this - looks interesting/cool. I used to have really good luck with tomatoes and peppers, but the several years have been disappointing. Always planted them in the ground. Maybe need to replenish nutrients in that area? We bought small(ish) raised bed planters a couple of years ago, but the results aren’t much better. Drainage sucked (fixed that) but then, because of the small volume, you need to really stay on top of soil moisture. Tomatoes used to be: plant, water, walk away then harvest. Seems more complicated these days for some reason… 🤷
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I know you are further north so not sure how successful peppers grow up there. Here they grow like mad with very little effort other than water. Buckets can work well. I had so many peppers three years ago I was giving them away left and right, and had to throw a bunch of them out there were so many. Santa fe hots, poblanos, banana peppers, and huge bell peppers, it was crazy.

I've never had luck with tomatoes so I'm gambling on beefsteaks and a cherry tomato this year. I grew some one year in Florida that actually got to the fruiting stage, and when they were about the size of a half dollar they cracked, the plant wilted, and then died. Really want these to work out.

You might want to start with something very basic like potatoes or sweet potatoes. Often, if you have a compost pile you threw some old ones into you'll find a potato plant growing. You should definitely boost your soil each spring with some fertilizer of some sort, so a compost heap is good to keep. This year I used a combination of well composted dog shit, chicken coop cleanout, gutter cleanout, and wood ash. I guess we'll see how it does.

Another easy really easy to grow one is okra. Very bug resistant. Just harvest the okra pods when they are about the size of your thumb and it'll keep producing most of the summer. Let them get bigger than that and they get real tough and if you let them go all the way, they dry out and you have seeds for next season, but the plant will stop producing. Let them dry out too far and they split and the seeds fall on the ground. You can harvest them when they are full size, let them dry in the sun, and also have seed.
 
We don’t do gardens, per se, just the primary ingredients for salsa, picante and hot sauces. It’s kinda my thing. I’ve had years where a couple of Cayenne pepper plants produced so much that I was able to dry them and end up with about 4 pounds. Something changed and yields have sucked for the last several years. 🤷. Completely dumped the planters a few weeks ago, added additional drainage holes and refilled with a quality soil mix. I have 4 jalapeños, 2 Serranos and 2 Thai chilies in, plus several types of tomatoes, including a San Marzano variety. We’ll see…
 
IndyWS6 said:
We don’t do gardens, per se, just the primary ingredients for salsa, picante and hot sauces. It’s kinda my thing. I’ve had years where a couple of Cayenne pepper plants produced so much that I was able to dry them and end up with about 4 pounds. Something changed and yields have sucked for the last several years. 🤷. Completely dumped the planters a few weeks ago, added additional drainage holes and refilled with a quality soil mix. I have 4 jalapeños, 2 Serranos and 2 Thai chilies in, plus several types of tomatoes, including a San Marzano variety. We’ll see…
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Well good luck with things and keep me posted how it goes. I plan on adding some pics when my potatoes sprout. Still no activity as of this a.m. I do think peppers prefer fast draining soils and tomatoes don't like having wet feet so adding drainage will probably bolster your setup.
 
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