Canning Jars Aren't Just for Canning Anymore

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One of the many things I do for the ACE Hardware stores I manage is to update a local shopping site with products we carry (and I will admit, I tend to be biased and post items I personally like - it's handy that I happen to enjoy DIY projects, working on cars and making jewelry, so that my customers at least get some variety). But I digress, I was posting items today and came across an all-time favorite of mine, Ball canning jars.

I have a thing for glass: bottles, jars, vases, trinkets, rings, bowls, stained-glass windows, anything Dale Chihuly, old medicine bottles, beach glass, the list goes on and on. So it stands to reason I like canning jars, and being the artist I am, I also like to use things for other purposes than their original intent.

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In the case of canning jars, I like to reinvent them as water, beer, juice or punch glasses at an outdoor party or barbeque and as candle holders, indoors and outdoors. When I use them as candle holders outside, I choose tea candles so they stay lit in the wind and place the jars all over the yard - on the tables; as pathways; in pretty clusters out and about the space; hanging from the trees or from the hooks we use for hanging Christmas lights from the eves.  They're a great alternative to the paper sack and sand lanterns (though I adore those too) as the jars are reusable and more versatile - hanging the bags from trees is an effort in futility, trust me.

Get your candle holders and new party glasses at any of our ACE stores: Palo Alto, Willow Glen, Half Moon Bay or San Mateo. (You're also welcome to use them for canning, especially if you bring us some of the fruits of your labor.)

- Jocelyn Broyles

California Gardening in Winter

 

This post has been generously shared, in its entirety, by Love Apple Farms, a wonderful organic and biodynamic farm in Santa Cruz. Check them out and attend one of their classes or enjoy the fruits of their labor at Manresa Restaurant.

Originally published January 24, 2012

There are lots of things to do in your garden in late January and early February.   Here are a few ideas:

1.  This is a great time to lay out some new beds or regenerate old beds.  Double digging ensures plant roots have the best possible environment.  Planting beds should be light and fluffy so that young roots can easily push through the soil.  We've got a tutorial on double digging, if you're interested in learning.

2.  Start seeds of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants now.  These heat-seaking summer plants need a long lead time to get going, so now is the time to start them.    Sow seeds in a drainable tray in great potting soil, such as Gardner & Bloom's Blue Ribbon Premium Potting Soil.  Lightly cover with 1/4" of soil and keep moist on top of a heat mat until they sprout.  The heat mat should be set to warm the soil between 70 and 80 degrees and you should get good germination of both tomatoes and peppers within a week, 10 days tops.  Heat mats are available at most good nurseries.  Be careful when using a human-type home heating pad, as they are not water proof and tend to super heat the soil.

If you'd like more tips and tricks on how to start seeds properly (because it IS a bit more involved than that!), consider taking our Growing Tomato Transplants from Seed class, or  Growing Peppers and Eggplants from Seed class this Saturday.  We let students bust into our extensive seed banks and sow a tray of their own to take home to tend.

3.  Start a late winter/early spring vegetable garden.  You can get lots of interesting things growing RIGHT NOW.  Root veggies can be sown directly in a well-prepared bed (double dug, fertilizer and compost added and raked smooth), lightly covered with soil and kept moist until they sprout.  Thin them down so that each root receives a couple inches of space all around it.  You can do the same with greens: mustards, lettuces, spinaches, kales, mizunas are all capable of being sown now outside or in a tray and then transferred outside.  These fast growing, cool weather plants can be feeding you and your family before summer kicks in.  Learn how to do this successfully (and sow a tray of seeds to take home) in our Early Spring Vegetable Gardening class on February 5th or the 25th.

4.  Keep on top of winter weeds.  Don't let them take over your garden.  They steal nutrients, light and air away from your other plants.  And particularly don't let them go to seed and become an even bigger problem.  We've got a blog post about winter weed control, so check it out if you need some help in that department.

5.  Don't let your garden dry out too much in this weird winter we're having.  The California Bay Area had no precipitation in the month of December, and watering their garden or landscape plantings wasn't on many people's radar.  But a dehydrated plant is more more frost sensitive than their well-watered brethren.  It sounds counter-intuitive, but a plant that has water in it is more insulated from the cold, and can ward off frost damage more efficiently.  So if we go too long without another episode of rain, check your plants for watering.

6.  Start a compost pile.  If this is your garden down-time of year, and you don't have a compost pile yet, consider putting something up that is quick, easy, and inexpensive.  We use free wooden pallets to make our piles.  We just twine four pallets together, place some twigs and branches in the bottom for additional airflow, and start adding layers of green (nitrogen based) plant trimmings and kitchen waste with brown layers (dried leaves, straw, newspaper, torn cardboard).  You'll have some good looking compost come summer time.  If you'd like to sharpen your compost-making skills (and learn about keeping worms as well), our first Compost & Vermiculture class is on April 7.  Come play in the dirt with us out at the farm and see how we build a compost pile from scratch.

7.  Plant a bare root fruit tree or two.  This is the time of year to get a fruit tree in the ground.  Although they look spindly at the nursery, trees such as cherry, apple, apricot, peach, pear and plum love to be planted now.  Just be mindful of how big they will get and where they will cast their shade, as you don't want to end up with a too-shady garden spot for your vegetable plantings.  We can teach you all about fruit trees in our February 19 class.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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I am listening to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech, in its entirety for the first time, and the words that speak most to me ar those that cross all boundaries of race or color or economic status or religious or political belief, (although here they are applied just to whites and blacks), and for me are the words that define how we will come to heal ourselves and the planet: "...For many of our white brothers...have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

- Jocelyn Broyles

Spare the Air Day

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The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued a Winter Spare the Air Alert for tomorrow, Saturday, January 14, 2012, in the Bay Area.

Spare the Air Day

 

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A Winter Spare the Air Alert has been issued for tomorrow, Thursday, January 12, 2012 in the Bay Area.

Wood burning is banned both indoors and outdoors tomorrow, for the full 24 hours.

 

A Blessing of Angels

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I stumbled across (or, if you believe in angels or fate, or faith, or any sort of divine intervention, I was shown) a beautiful little book of blessings, the like of which I have never before seen.

Written by author and poet John O'Donohue, this, in his words, is not a poem, for a blessing, "has an eye to theoutside in order to embrce and elevate whatever is happening to someone. It is direct address, driven by immediacy and care. A poem is inevitably more oblique."

So here, for all of you, is a blessing by Mr. O'Donohue.

A Blessing of Angels

May the Angels in their beauty bless you.
May they turn toward you streams of blessing.

May the Angel of Awakening stir your heart
To come alive to the eternal within you,
To all the invitations that quietly surround you.

May the Angel of Healing turn your wounds
Into sources of refreshment.

May the Angel of the Imagination enable you
To stand on the true thresholds,
At ease with your ambivalence
And drawn in new directions
Through the glow of your contradictions.

May the Angel of Compassion open your eyes
To the unseen suffering around you.

May the Angel of Wildness disturb the places
Where your life is domesticated and safe,
Take you to the territories of true otherness

Where all that is awkward in you
Can fall into its own rhythm.

May the Angel of Eros introduce you
To the beauty of your senses

To celebrate your inheritance
As a temple of the holy spirit.

May the Angel of Justice disturb you
To take the side of the poor and the wronged.

May the Angel of Encouragement confirm you
In worth and self-respect,
That you may live with the dignity
That presides in your soul.

May the Angel of Death arrive only
When your life is complete
And you have brought every given gift
To the threshold where its infinity can shine.

May all the Angels be your sheltering
And joyful guardians.

Spare the Air Day

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A Winter Spare the Air Alert has been issued for tomorrow, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 in the Bay Area.

Spare The Air Day

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A Winter Spare the Air Alert has been issued for today, Monday, January 2, 2012, in the Bay Area.