2019 Spring Garden - May 6 update

It's time for my annual Cinco de Mayo spring garden update. Here's how it goes: I have two square food gardening plots measuring 4x16 feet. Each year at this time, I take a photo of the TPC plot (tomato-pepper-cucumber) which alternates each year between the two plots. I then compare the current photo to past photos to determine the progress of the garden.

If you look back at the post from May, 2018, you'll see that this year's crops lag behind those of last year. Last year we had record cold and much below normal temperatures that delayed the planting until late March. This year, we had a much milder winter, but it was a sustained cold. We had two nights of frost the first week of April.

But it's rainfall, not temperatures that are the main culprit for this year's underperforming veggies.  We've had 144 percent of normal preciptation so far in 2019. Great for ducks, crawfish and mosquitos. Not so great for gardens.

According to multiple sources, too much rain and overcast skies can slow a plant's growth as well as leach nutrients from the soil. For that reason, I've taken to adding Jobe's Organic Fertilizer to the TPC plot in the last week. As poor as my plants look now compared to past years, they REALLY looked poor prior to adding the Jobes. It's made a big difference.

Then last night, I added earthworms to the garden. While there's already a few in the beds, my experience is that adding worms greatly boosts plant and fruit production.

Sadly, the weather prognosticators are predicing heavy rainfall over the next several days. Seems like we can't get a break here in Louisiana.

Easter Sunday 2019 - Beer Can Chicken

We had a big family gathering at the homestead for Easter Sunday. Two of our kids, all of my wife's siblings and their husbands and kids, her father, my sister and her husband, and my mother.

My wife picked up a pork roast to cook in the oven, but she knew that wouldn't be enough meat for everyone. So she asked if I'd do a chicken on the grill. Well I decided to do two chickens. Better safe than sorry. Besides, when done right, there are never complaints about having beer can chicken (BCC) for leftovers.

I've done BCC many times, so I thought it would be nice to share my method.  Preparation begins with fresh-picked rosemary from our herb garden, mixed with Balsamic Vignerette salad dressing. The bird is saturated with this mix, then placed in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

On early Sunday morning, I took the bird out and lightly washed off the rosemary, then rubbed the bird down with salt, cayenne pepper and a light dash of olive oil.

I don't use beer cans, but rather a product called the "Chicken Tipper" made by a sheet metal shop in my hometown of Cecilia. The aluminum is much thicker and heavier than a beer can and can support a large chicken. I place the Tipper in a pan - with a little water in the pan - to help catch the drippings for gravy. The water insures that the drippings won't dry up.

Inside the Tipper I add grape juice. Most recipes call for wine or beer, but I find that juice adds more flavor while not drying out the meat. There are many, many opinions on this, but that's my observation.

I preheat the Akorn grill to 325 degrees, and set the temperature probe into the thickest part of the bird, with the alarm set for 165 degrees. Once the internal temperature is reached, I wait a few minutes to take off the grill. Then I place the bird in an aluminum pan and cover with aluminum foil.  This was a technique I read about in one of the grilling forums. Seems to extend the "internal cooking" of the bird but without drying out the meat.

The marinating and seasoning of the bird helps in the flavor. But anything you cook on an Akorn, Big Green Egg, Kamado or other domed charcoal grill will have that great smoky flavor that brings folks back for seconds.