Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Raredog- man those peppers sure look good. Maybe you should make a hot sauce! I'm going to have to try using some of my landscape companies always available compost material to make a bed like you did.
Well done.

I need to do that type of bed as well. We've got to diversify into anything that will increase our food production. We're currently hovering at ~ $500 per month for food according to my better half. On top of that, the food from the store is tasteless and full of who knows what

I make a lot of hot sauce. This season I made a strawberry habanero, peach bhut(neighbors peach tree) with all my home grown ingredients. Those were vinegar based. I also made some fermented sauce with carrots, garlic, onion, aji limon a few supers and ginger. I have a grocery bag full of supers, habs/seraono's in the freezer to experiment more with fermented sauces.


I also made a bunch of powder and smoked powder. Everyone runs away when I break them out lol.







I have my grocery bill down to 100 a month for a family of 3 plus maybe another 50-100 for milk, eggs and other perishables. Granted, I'm a hunter and venison burger, sausage and roasts are a big part. Sorry if that offends you but elk make me drool lol. I work backwards from what I have growing or in the freezer to make meals and come up with recipes. Sourdough and bread making also plays a big part.



Well said! I watch people come and go from these garden type forums. Most are looking for answers on how to self sustain, grow organically, supplement or whatever. Trying many things and finding what "sticks" is the key. It always makes me feel like they want to follow some gimmick and spend money. Then they end up disappointed and give up. You don't need to go the the big box lumber store and spend money on raised beds, soil, AP, SF gardening and such. It seems to boil down to keeping up with the Jones' and impressing the neighbors. It doesn't have to look good to produce well. A well manicured yard and pretty beds is just fighting mother nature when you put yard clippings and leaves on the curb. I'm rambling.....but thanks to the Aussies and others I can grow stuff cheap!

Burns just looking at the pictures. I gotta try some hot peppers

When I get more then enough peppers for my hot sauce, I'm going to smoke some...great idea. How long do you smoke them for? 50-60 minutes?

+1

Great idea

2-4 hrs, 2 pans of soaked wood between 120-140f. Higher temps and length don't make much difference but too much wood can make them a little bitter and too smoky. I prefer Pecan but Cherry and Hickory are good as well. They still need dehydrated or you can finish them off in the oven on lowest setting until they crisp up and crumble in your hand. It can take a couple days in high humidity....like FL.

I use a cheap dedicated coffee grinder...4 bucks at Goodwill. The powder floats in the air much worse than the vapors when making hot sauce so do it outside or in a well ventilated area. Bump the grinder until desired consistency. Let is sit for a bit. Open the lid and walk awayyyyy. Come back and dump into bags/container and walk awayyyy.....you get the picture. LOL Good luck.

Good advice. When I grind my fresh peppers up and dump them from the processor to the pot, I hold my breath. Then, don't ever use hot water when washing out the pots. It's like you pepper sprayed your kitchen.

Rairdog if you are still having pH problems try buying an RO/DI filter and using it to make water to replace the water in your system. I have one that I spent about $180 for a top of the line system for my saltwater fish tanks and it makes perfect 7.0 pH water.... You do lose the beneficial nutrients using Reverse osmosis deionized water though, so maybe it's a trade off that you might have to add nutrients back in...

I tried a small RODI but it wasted too much water and kicked my well pump on too much. The M. Acid made everything taste salty. I used rain water this past season to top off and it really improved the plants and taste. It really made the lettuce, chard and other greens taste much better. I haven't lost any fish since I quit using the MA as well. I think it was just bouncing the Ph too much which killed all the gills the previous 2 seasons.

I finally shut the system down a couple days ago when it started dropping into the teens. The celery survived until about 1/13. I was nice to get a 10 month grow season this year.

End of year pic



Followed up with some home-brew and smoked shank consolation...



I am starting some cabbage and other brassica's today in the seed chamber in hopes for my normal 3/15 system start-up. Cheers!!! ...and there was much rejoicing!

Hey Rairdog,

....do you still have some of the limestone in there or did you change the gravel at some point??

Cheers,

thjakits

There is still some limestone from the pea gravel I mixed in with the expanded shale. There was also some limestone that was mixed in with the shale when purchased from being stored on top of limestone. I have picked most of the larger pieces out over the last couple years.

Once I quit topping up with tap water and used rain water my ph problem went away.



UPDATE 2016 SPRING:

The system has been running since mid Feb and I am started to fill in the beds with greens that were started early Feb. This is 3 weeks earlier than my normal 3/15 start-up.

Bed 1 - lettuce, kale, michi cabbage and spinach


Bed 2 - lettuce, kale and some african daisy cuttings


Bed 3 - spinach, red cabbage can celery bottom


Bed 4 - lettuce and celery bottom


Seed chamber has onions, kohlrabi, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, celery, parsley, bok, chard and others ready to go.



It supposed to drop in the low 20's f over the next week. Hopefully I have not jumped the gun and everything pulls through.

did everything make it RD? We seem to be past the worst of the cold now, looked like there is still a slight chance of snow in our 15 day forecast but the lows were looking like they were mostly staying above freezing, fingers crossed we don't get a shift in the weather for April... it has been absolutely beautiful here the last couple of days. Yesterday was in the low 70's here... unfortunately I was sick the last two days otherwise I would probably be out working on starting my foundation for the greenhouse (might still go pick stuff up tonight to be ready for it if the weather continues to cooperate...)

Just caught up on the last few pages of your thread, RD. Love the huglekulture bed and peppers, great job. A a lover of peppers you have inspired me to get into it once again and especially the chilli powder and smoke ideas.

cheers

Looks like you've stopped using the DE for seedlings?