Using Old Vegetable Seeds

This is just what frugal gardeners do, right? We try to use up all of the seeds in a packet, even if that packet is 3, 4, or 5 years old. It just feels wrong to us to throw them away without at least giving them a shot.

Like all gardeners, I have several of those old packets of seeds. I have 4 options with those seeds. 1) I could just toss them and start fresh with new seeds. 2) I could gamble on them sprouting in my garden and plant those seeds directly into the garden soil. 3) I could trial some of the seeds in a damp paper towel inside of a ziploc bag and placed in a warm spot in the kitchen, to see what percentage will sprout. Or 4) I could plant the seeds indoors in small-celled flats, keep warm and under lights, then transplant any tiny seedlings from the batch out into the garden once their big enough to move.

We already established that I'm not about to throw away seeds that could still have life in them.

My garden space is limited, so I don't want to just seed my garden with questionable seeds. If I were to devote a 4-foot square block to beet seeds and only a quarter of the seeds sprouted, I would have wasted all of the little pockets of bare soil in between the tiny seedlings from seeds that did sprout.

While option number 3 is very scientific (telling me exactly what proportion of seeds would sprout, if directly seeded in the garden, and then adjusting the quantity of seeds per planting hole accordingly), it sounds like a lot of extra work, when my aim is just to get some veggies to grow for our table.

Option number 4 is what I went for. I started seeds, old and new, in small-celled containers indoors.

I discovered that some seeds just don't last that long. For example, my yellow crookneck squash did not sprout at all. I planted 8 seeds in 4 cells and zero sprouted. These seeds were 6 years old. I still had about 6 seeds leftover in the packet, so I went ahead and plugged those seeds into the soil that didn't produce any sprouts. If they sprout, then good, I'll have some crookneck squash. But if they don't, I'm not out anything extra at this point. I did have success with my zucchini seeds, which is another type of summer squash, so we'll be fine in that department, at least.

I also discovered that 5 year old beet seeds do have quit a bit of viability. I started the beet seeds about 8 days ago and I have sprouts in a little over half of the cells, starting 1 to 2 seeds per cell (I aimed for 1 seed per cell but sometimes an extra would fall from my fingers). I'll wait another week and then carefully transplant all of the sprouted beet seeds/tiny seedlings to the garden. (You usually don't start root vegetables in containers, as these plants need lots of root space and soil nutrients to grow the vegetable. For that reason, I'll plant these out much sooner than I would plants like tomato or zucchini when started in a flat indoors.)

In all honesty, I think that option 3 is really the "smart" option, starting 10 seeds in a damp paper towel. The humidity is more controlled in a ziploc bag than in an open flat. If zero seeds sprouted, I could conclude that 6-year old seeds of a particular type are likely worth planting in the garden. But, hey, I don't always do the smartest thing. 


I read something interesting in the news the other day. In addition to everything else that screams self-sufficiency, garden centers and seed catalogs are rapidly selling out of seeds far earlier this year compared to other years. It seems that not only are we all baking bread and coloring our hair at home (yes, Walmart suggested that hair color is on the panic-buy list, too), but we are also all growing our own produce this summer. 

Of all of the hoarding or buying certain items when you've never done so before, I think starting a vegetable garden is one of the most helpful for all of us, as home gardens can help take the pressure off of tight food supply situations by creating more supply, even if that supply is private. This means that people who don't have the option to have a garden will have more to choose from in the stores and hopefully won't have to pay crazy high prices for a head of lettuce or fresh tomatoes this summer.

In my opinion, the home garden is so satisfying. Not only does it provide lots of fresh and delicious food for my family, but watching it all grow is exciting, too. Doing this frugally, by trying to use all of the viability in my aging vegetable seeds, was extremely satisfying for this tightwad gardener.

Even with a pandemic all around us, life still goes on . . .

. . . and people still have special occasions in their lives.

Tomorrow is a big day for me. It's one of those milestone birthdays (rhymes with "mixty"). 

Celebrating a birthday during a pandemic poses several challenges, obviously. There's no eating out, no travel, no special delivery from a florist, not even a gathering that would include all of my children. I don't expect any boughten gifts, as no one in my household has been able to go anywhere to shop. That's all really okay. 

So, I'm giving myself a gift. I'm giving myself a couple of days off from work -- from blogging, from earning money online (answering surveys and performing tasks), from cooking (unless cooking would please me), from stress. Today, Thursday, and Friday are just days for me to enjoy life, to cut some tulips from my yard, to eat chocolate, to have brunch and dinner at home with my two daughters and husband, to read a novel, to browse through the pile of magazines that I checked out from the library before they closed, and maybe to watch a movie at home (also checked out from the library back in February). I might have tea on the deck in the afternoon. And I might stay in my cozy pjs for half the day. It is enough to simply celebrate that I am still here and that I am blessed beyond measure in this world. 

When the virus has been suppressed to a level that it is safe again to go out and I can share a celebration with my son and daughter-in-law as well as my daughters and husband, then we'll do something to mark my special occasion as well as my daughters' birthday, Easter, and my husband's soon-to-be birthday. This could turn into a one celebration covers all spring events outing.

So, I'll be gone from my blog for the rest of this week and be back on Monday. I hope you all have a good rest of your week.

Which Ingredients Can Slow the Rise in Bread Dough and Why That Mattered This Weekend

Last week, I wrote about  my success in using half the yeast in homemade bread by "growing" the dough in multiple stages of a sponge. The sponge is the loose dough that usually has just yeast, water, flour, and small amounts of sugar and salt. After the sponge has developed into a bubbly mass, more flour and other ingredients can be added to make a stiff bread dough. My new-to-me method grows the sponge 4 or 5 times over the course of a long day. I keep the sponge warm in the oven with a light on and the door closed, and it takes about 1 to 2 hours to get the sponge super bubbly and ready to add more flour. The post in the link above gives more detailed info on how I've been doing this.

I indicated that one should add some ingredients to the sponge/dough at one of the last stages in mixing, to allow for better growth of the yeast. Today, I thought I'd share all of the ingredients that could slow the rise in the sponge and growth of the yeast.

• fats -- fat coats the gluten particles in dough, making it difficult for the gluten to combine with the rest of the dough. The gluten is what gives bread doughs that stretchy texture to hold bubbles of gas without collapsing on themselves. Too much fat in a recipe will cause a denser, less high loaf. Fat introduced in the sponge period can slow the yeast activity in the dough.
• sugar -- too much sugar can slow yeast activity, according to King Arthur Flour, sweet doughs with more than 1/4 cup of sugar per 3 cups of flour will have slower yeast development
• salt -- if too much added or too early -- too much salt "dehydrates" the yeast, starving it of necessary water for development
• milk -- I've read several explanations why milk may impair yeast activity, from proteins and enzymes, to bacteria present in the milk. Old-time recipes called for scalding the milk before use in yeast dough to counter bacteria. Enzymes and proteins are also changed when heated, resulting in a better bread when milk is scalded. Despite modern pasteurization, many bakeries prefer to use dry milk powder in breads. Dry milk powder also has reduced bacteria and altered enzymes and proteins, simplifying milk additions in the large-scale bakery process.
• whole wheat, specifically the bran in whole wheat -- the bran in whole wheat interferes with gluten development and can impair or slow a good rise in bread dough.

You can still use these ingredients in a reduced-yeast bread. It just may be better to add the bulk of these ingredients toward the end of growing sponges.

Over the weekend, I made our family's favorite holiday bread. The recipe called for 2  1/4 teaspoons of yeast, but I used only 1 teaspoon. This recipe makes a sweet, rich bread, using many of the ingredients on my list above. This is how I mediated those complicating factors and produced a good loaf with less than half the yeast.

I "grew" the dough over several hours with multiple steps of a sponge. I began with only the yeast, water, flour, salt, and a small amount of the sugar. I added the flour in portions, allowing the sponge to rise thoroughly in between each addition. With the particular rise-inhibiting ingredients, I made a few adaptations.

sugar -- I used less sugar to begin the dough, adding more in the last addition of flour.
fats -- I added the oil immediately before the last addition of flour instead of with the flour and sugar at the beginning.
milk -- I used water to soften and activate the yeast, then added dry milk powder with the final addition of flour with oil and extra sugar. The recipe had called for adding cooled, scalded milk for softening the yeast.

Here are two photos to show how much the sponge grows between additions of flour.

After about 1  1/2 to 2 hours after
the second flour addition,
all bubbly.

Just after stirring the sponge down.
It's still a little bubbly, but the level in the bowl is
about an inch lower than before stirring the sponge.

Time, warmth, and holding off on the addition of rise-inhibiting ingredients resulted in a loaf of a family favorite bread, using less than half of the yeast.



(Just a note -- for the last couple of months, I've had some significant issues with my aging computer. I think I downloaded a virus and it messed up my storage disk. In my attempts to fix this, I somehow deleted a bunch of stuff related to my various Google accounts. This blog, and a lot of other blogs you may visit, is a Google product. Well, one of the end results is I can't always access my own Google accounts. It's as if Google "forgot" who I was. I even have trouble with my own blog, especially with responding to comments. I was locked out of the comments for one of my posts for several days this past week. I've read that I should uninstall, then reinstall some stuff on my computer, but I need to back everything up first. I'm still at that point in fixing my issues. Anyways, if I were to "disappear" for a few days, it could very well be that my computer died and I can't use public library access during this pandemic. It's frustrating not having the skills to fix this, as I seem to only make things worse with each attempt. But I am working on it.)

An Abundance of Early Spring Garden Greens Made into Soup

Early spring gardens brings lots of greens but not much else. In the last week, I've used these greens in several cream soups. We call them Cream of Green Soup. I've used kale, watercress, radish greens, sorrel, and chives for these soups. All were delicious and a great way to incorporate excess garden greens into meals.

Cream of Green Soup is simple to make. It's just a thin white sauce with steamed greens incorporated and pureed. (I like to thin the white sauce with homemade chicken stock to boost the flavor.) Add a little onion powder/garlic powder and spices/seasonings to taste, and the soup is ready to serve.

No Egg, No Milk Applesauce Cake With Apple Cider Sauce

This cake is one of those great dessert recipes for when supplies are limited. As the weeks pass, I am relying more and more on what is on the pantry for baking, for instance the applesauce that is in this cake. There's a delicious apple cider (or juice) sauce for topping this cake. I used frozen apple juice concentrate. I'll note, my recipe card says that you can also use orange juice for the sauce and then it becomes an applesauce cake with orange sauce. I made a couple of substitutions and will note those in parentheses.

Applesauce Cake

1  2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar (or white sugar with a spoonful of molasses added to the liquids)
1  1/2 teaspoons ground allspice (or cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg or any combination)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vinegar
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional, pecans would also be tasty)

Mix flour, sugar, spices, baking soda, salt, and nuts with a fork in an ungreased 8 X 8 X 2-inch baker. Stir together the liquid ingredients and incorporate with the dry in the pan.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until the top springs back when pressed lightly.

Cool.

Meanwhile, make the sauce in a stainless steel saucepan.

Apple Cider Sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup margarine or butter (I used 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil)
1/4 cup apple cider, apple juice, or orange juice
2 tablespoons heavy cream (I used milk)

--the recipe calls for cream. I found if I use milk, the particles separate. The following starch and water slurry mixed in helps pull the sauce back together.

1/2 teaspoon corn starch
1 tablespoon water

In a saucepan, heat the first four ingredients to  rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. If using milk and the solids separate, stir in a slurry of the starch and water and cook until slightly thickened. Note -- this is still a thin sauce.

Spoon the sauce over individual servings of the cake.

The cake recipe is one of those Depression Era recipes that assumed some folks may have had access to cheap apples (orchard drops or seconds) and foraged nuts, but little milk or eggs. The sauce would make this fancier than an everyday cake. In any case, my family thinks this is a very delicious cake and would never feel they are deprived or living through a Depression eating it.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Homemade Easter Treats: Candy Bird Nests

Making nests, using Wilton pink melting chips (like white chocolate but already colored), coconut, Crisco shortening, and jelly beans.

You can also make these with chocolate chips and coconut. Here's a chocolate version that I made a couple of years ago.

Some Vegetable Garden Updates

A salad spinner full of over-wintered kale to use in tonight's dinner. Still lots of kale, chives, watercress, and sorrel growing in the garden. I also spied some Swiss chard about to come back from fall planting in one of the beds. This time of year there are lots of greens.

These are my 6 baby tomato plants that I started from old seeds about the first of March. There were a couple of weeks where the plants didn't look very healthy. I moved them to the center of my light fixture and they seemed to perk up quite a bit.

Baby Romaine lettuce plants. I'm hoping they'll be ready to transplant around May 1. That would give us salads by early June.

I check on the rhubarb every day. The stalks seem to grow about 1/2 to 1 inch per day this time of year. I think I'l be able to pick enough for a pie for my husband's birthday around the 20th.

Experimenting With Baking Bread Using Half the Yeast

Yeast is one of the ingredients of which I am a little low -- not about to run out, but I feel like I should conserve. For the past 3 types of bread products that I've made, I've experimented with using less yeast. The first was a batch of hot dog buns where I used about 3/4 the usual yeast. For the last two, a batch of French bread and a batch of half white, half whole wheat sandwich bread, I used half of the called-for amounts of yeast.

Lots of time, lots of attention

• Start early in the day to allow for maximum growth of a sponge
• Feed the sponge several times over the period of the day

I began with the water, yeast, sugar, salt, and enough good bread flour to make a sponge that was about the consistency of thick pancake batter. I did not add any fat at this point. Set it in a warm place, the oven with only the interior light on, and allowed it to develop for an hour or two.

Next, I added about one-fourth of the remaining flour. Stirred it for two minutes, the put it back into a warm place for another hour or two.

Then, I added another fourth of the flour, stirring well, and placed it again in the warm spot.

Repeated the above one more time.

With my dough now expanded quite a bit, I added the oil called for and the last of the flour, stirring well. Again, I placed it back into the warm spot.

When the dough had risen, I punched it down and allowed to stand for 10 minutes. I kneaded the dough thoroughly. I, then, divided it into loaves and put in pans (on baking sheet for the French bread), and placed in the warm spot until risen. Lastly, I baked the loaves.

I was somewhat surprised and pleased that my old recipes could work with half the amount of yeast. The original recipes for these breads come from different sources, written in various decades. 

This method of mixing only a portion of the flour with yeast, water, and other ingredients is often referred to as a long-sponge method. The loose dough is the sponge. My method for using half the amount of yeast, but working on the sponge several times over the course of a day is almost like a condensed version of developing a sourdough starter, growing the dough by feeding the yeast over time. (Only, because I grew the dough over just one day, the bread did not have the usual sourdough tang.) I suspect that this method  that I experimented with was used by many home bakers in times past, when faced with needing to conserve commercial yeast.

Different bread recipes call for different amounts of yeast. For reference: the 2 loaves of sandwich bread used 1 and 1/8 teaspoon of yeast for 8 cups of flour. The recipe in my 1957 cookbook calls for 2  1/4 teaspoons of yeast for the 2 loaves. 

Using less yeast may not be possible with some recipes, especially if they already call for very little yeast. But for my situation, I was able to halve my yeast use and still bake very light and fluffy bread.

Making the Most of Potatoes in Cooking

As we try to make our supplies last as long as possible, I find I am relying on every trick I've ever heard or known, as well as a few that are new to me. Last Friday, it was with potatoes.

I made a potato salad to go with dinner that night, using 2 russet potatoes. I peeled the potatoes in wide and thick strips, setting the strips aside. While the peeled potatoes boiled, I tossed the peels in some garlic oil, spread on a baking sheet, sprinkled with salt, then baked at about 375 F for 12 minutes or so, until browned along the edges. The result was a small batch of tasty tater skins, just enough for one large serving.

After the potatoes were cooked, I salvaged the cooking water, too. Potato water is reported to be good in many bread products, replacing milk in quick breads or adding moisture to yeasted breads. I'd never tried either before. I used half of the water in place of milk in a large batch of pancakes and the other half in place of water for a double batch of French bread. Both turned out very well.

Water from boiling potatoes can be saved in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours or frozen for a couple of months. It can be used in making soups, gravy, and added to baked good doughs and batters. 

Using every last bit of a food means that I can go longer before needing to go back to a store or place an order, extending the days that I shelter in place or have no physical contact with others outside my household.


How is everybody doing? I think my family is doing okay. Mostly, I just feel so sad for all of the lives lost and suffering experienced. Right now, just surviving this period is good enough.

Hanging Salad Bowls?

Maybe you remember two years ago I had pretty hanging flower baskets at my front entry. Then last summer, I decided to plant something pretty and edible, so I bought a packet of nasturtium seeds. Those edible flowers did okay, but not really enough in the way of food. So, this year, I've decided to just go all out vegetable garden in my hanging baskets. After rejuvenating the soil in all 5 of the baskets, I'planted red leaf lettuce seeds. From a distance, I hope the red leaves will just look colorful. Meanwhile, I hope to be able to harvest leaves for our salad bowl. I'll know if this is successful in about 45 days, as this variety of lettuce is supposed to mature in 38 days (and plants always take longer in my yard).

Gardening Therapy

In this very surreal time, I have to force myself to do some of the ordinary things around the house and yard, just to stay sane.

Yesterday, April 1, it was a chilly day with periods of sunshine as well as rain. I had decided that the first of April would be the day I plant potatoes. In addition to seed potatoes from last fall, I also found a few grocery store potatoes that had sprouted to add to the bunch. I don't know how well grocery store potatoes will do in the home garden, but I thought it was worth a try. My seed potatoes are a purple fingerling variety, which are nice, but sometimes I want just a regular old white potato. If the store potatoes work, then I'll count myself lucky. I planted 2 of the 3 rows of potatoes yesterday.

In addition, I moved blueberry bush number 3 (out of 4) to its new, much sunnier spot. I'm hoping it will be much happier and produce lots more berries in this new location.

As I was finishing with the potatoes, a rain cloud burst upon me and watered everything in well.

Over the weekend, I started winter and summer squash indoors. They've yet to sprout, but I'm hopeful. My garden is only so big, so I've been eyeing other sunny spots for some of these vegetable plants. A bush zucchini or two will blend into a bed of perennials. And the vining squash will cover a bare spot near the lawn. A bit of an edible landscape idea going on, here.

What are you doing to distract yourself these days?

Do you use the "Notify Me" option when an item you need is out of stock?

For those of us shopping online right now, a significant frustration has erupted everywhere. You go to a website that you assume "has it all," only to find out that they did "have it all" but now no longer have any.

Many retail websites offer a notification service to their shoppers. When a desired item comes back in stock, the website will send out a quick email to alert a customer of new stock. The box to select this option is often found alongside the "out of stock" notice for the item. You fill in your email and wait to be notified. (You might want to check your spam folder every day, too, just in case.)

In addition to email notification, some websites are also posting what date they expect new stock to arrive. Savvy customers can jot this date down in their calendar, then on that date, check the website for stock of that item. 

There's a lot of competition for some items right now, so it is best to respond to an alert email or check a website on a specified restock-date as quickly as you can.

I'm using these two strategies to fill out my supplies as I run low going into month 2. I wanted you to know this in case you're encountering the same frustration of those out-of-stock necessities online.

Good luck to you as you search for those items that you are most needing right now!

How are you making your resources stretch? Let's share, here

Now that COVID-19 is in every state and province to some degree, many of us are under shelter-at-home mandates by our government leaders. And for those of us who are not, the national government is strongly suggesting that if we don't need to be out, to please not be. So, a lot of us are just hunkering down, trying to ride this out while minimizing any trips to the grocery store.  As we could all guess, this means we'll run out of some food supplies before others. 

By sharing how we're managing our resources, we can bolster each other's efforts during this difficult period. I'll start.

1) You know from my post yesterday that I'm using eggs sparingly. Last night I baked a pumpkin pie using 1  1/2 eggs instead of the usual 2 eggs. That 1/2 egg saved may not sound like much. However, I intend to make a dessert for my family using that 1/2 egg instead of the usual whole egg in the next day or two. To compensate for the half egg less, I reduced the milk for the pie by 1/4 cup. The pie set up nicely and was delicious. I'll also add that this was perhaps the least extra flour I've ever used to roll the crust out on the counter. There was no leftover flour after rolling the dough, and I had to very carefully peel the rolled dough off of the stone counter to place in the pie plate. 

2) I made a large chicken and rice casserole using 1 chicken leg quarter (chicken drumstick and thigh) to feed the four of us. 

I didn't have any canned cream soup, so I made my own cream soup, using some of the stock from simmering the chicken, milk, onion and garlic powders, fresh onion and celery, seasonings, and a bit of flour to thicken. 

I simmered the chicken for a couple of hours before taking the meat off the bones. Afterward, I put the bones and skin back into the simmering stock and left it all to cook in the crockpot overnight. 

Your turn. How have you been stretching your resources?



I want to add this: a completely voluntary work-from-home began in the Seattle area almost immediately following the first death in Washington state (and the entire US). That first death was reported over a weekend and by Monday, my husband reported that all of the commuter buses he took to and from work that day were half full (usually standing room only). By the end of the week, the big tech companies were all requesting employees to work from home. By Friday, March 6, the local news had showed photos of downtown Seattle looking deserted. Although our governor mandated we all stay at home just last week, a large percentage of the Seattle population had begun social distancing by mid-March. And now, some experts are suggesting that social distancing may be working, as they can see a flattening of the curve beginning to develop in Washington state. We still have a long ways to go, here. But it has been gratifying to hear that our collective efforts may actually be making a difference in my state. Washington state was hit earlier than other states with COVID-19. So, we've been at this social shutdown for just a tad longer than many regions of the US. 

If you are wondering if staying at home will really make a difference in your area, I'm just saying that your efforts could help flatten the curve so that medical resources could be available to all who need them in your state and not overburden the doctors and nurses in your community. 

Staying at home for my family means that we're not going out except to fill prescriptions (and those we do in the drive-thru at our pharmacy to minimize interaction). We're choosing to do this not only for our own safety, but also to reduce the overall spread of the virus with hopes to spare more lives while we wait for effective treatment or a vaccine.

I've been experimenting with using half an egg in recipes

In addition to hoarding toilet paper, flour, baker's yeast, and canned goods, Americans apparently have been hoarding fresh eggs, pushing prices on eggs higher. Egg prices came close to $5 per dozen in one store in California late last week. Fresh eggs are no where near that price in my area. However, the news also reported that in order to meet the current demand in stores, the inventory that was being held back for the upcoming Easter holiday week were released for consumer purchase in the past couple of weeks. This means that those super deals on eggs may or may not happen in the second week of April, as many of us have become accustomed to over the years.

In addition, as I'm not going out to stores right now, I have limited access to buying more fresh items, such as eggs. So, I've been experimenting with baking without eggs or with half the amount of eggs. This past week, I cooked/baked two items using a half an egg in each recipe, bean burger patties and a batch of oatmeal cookies.

I simply broke the egg into a custard cup and beat it before spooning out about half the beaten egg for the first recipe, then covered and kept the remaining half egg in the fridge until I baked the other recipe. The end products for both recipes turned out well. With the bean burger patties, I didn't alter the recipe in any other way. And with the cookie dough, I added about 1  1/2 tablespoons of milk to make up for the lacking moisture from using only half an egg.

I still have a few dozen fresh eggs in the fridge. I intend to stretch out their use over the course of a couple of months, if possible. In the next week or two, I'll be freezing some of the eggs to further their safe-to-eat life and provide us with eggs for cooking into the weeks of May.

In addition the using half the usual amount of eggs in cooking and baking, I've also been using egg substitutes, such as ground flax seed and a pinch extra of baking powder. Here's a post from a few years ago that outlines which substitute to use based on the function of egg in different recipes.

I hope you're all doing well.