what happened to November?

It seems that November flew by. I was really busy but nothing significant happened and I feel like nothing significant was accomplished. blech. I'm sure I accomplished something...I finished the big/long/finicky lab work, but one of the last set failed which effectively wipes out my sense of accomplishment for getting 11 to work this go round ontop of the 12 that are already at the sequencing facility. another blech.



Thairo was home all month which was nice. He cleaned up the garden and made me coffee every morning-I'm sure he did other things but those two are the most important. He's in the middle of nowhere right now.



We're heading back to my native land for Christmas, so I think that I'll go pick him up from the middle of nowhere then we'll head to the homestead. There are lots of hotsprings in the middle of nowhere-perhaps my interest in driving an extra 10 hours to meet him in the middle of nowhere is increased by the potential for soaking.

Green tomato pickles

We made pickles based on Betty Crocker bread and butter pickles and this recipe.



10 lbs. green tomatoes - sliced 3/8 inch thick

3 cucumber - sliced 1/4 inch thick

3 Walla Walla onions - sliced 1/8 inch thick

6 c. vinegar

3.5 c. sugar

2 t. tumeric

2 t. celery seed

2 T. mustard - used mix of black and yellow seeds



Salt the tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions 4 hours. Drain liquid and rinse lightly. Start water boiling in canner. Sterilize jars 10 min. While jars are sterilizing heat vinegar, sugar, and spices. Once vinegar is boiling add the veggies, return to boil. Pack hot pickle mix into hot jars, top off with vinegar. Boiling water process 10 min. Made 11 pints.

We made 2 batched of vinegar and processed half of the pickles at a time which meant we could pack 6 pints at a time which is one processing load for our canner.

Green tomato salsa

Alright this is more of a record for us for next year. One jar of salsa didn't seal-the lid was flawed from the get go but we tried anyway- which has allowed us to sample fully processed salsa. It's great, really really good heat and flavor if I don't say so myself.



20 c. chopped green and partially ripe tomatoes (~12 lbs)

6 c. finely chopped onions (2 Walla Walla, 3 regular yellow)

14 fire roasted Serrano peppers

1/2 bulb garlic

2/3 can chipotles with sauce

1/3 c. cumin seed

1/4 c. salt

1/4 c. pepper

1 T. coriander

4 c. lime juice

1/2 - 1 c. cider vinegar



We ran the onion, garlic, and peppers through the food processor for a fine chop. Then cooked the tomatoes, onion mix, and spices for approximately 45 min. Just before we started packing the sterilized jars, we added the lime juice and vinegar because I was afraid to cook off the acidity. Process the jars in boiling water canner 15 min at sea level. Made 13 and a bit pints.

We're still working on a name for the salsa and label design.

The results of the end of the year canning.

Green tomato salsa on the left. Green tomato pickles on the right.

Ken Burns is one sexy little elf

Last night and tonight I've been watching and loving Ken Burns' new documentary on the national parks. After a mere 4 hours I'm going out on a limb and declaring it fab-u-lus.
Check it out http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/

Another 14 pounds

I'll post picures from last weeks harvest-I made tomato juice and gazpacho. The tomato juice was incredible but the gazpacho was just ok. I'm trying to decide what to do with this haul. The neighbors took a few pounds but that still leaves a lot of tomatoes. I'm torn between roasting the tomatoes and/or making more tomato juice. Hummm

12 pounds of tomatoes

Here's yesterdays harvest

Tomato review 2009

I'll post some pictures later but since I just ate one of nearly every variety we planted I thought this would be a good time to review them.



Brandywine-best taste, fruit are big (some over a pound) but bruise easily, may be more disease prone

Dr. Wynches yellow - big, lots of fruit that ripened early

Paul Robeson - should be black but only the first few tomatoes were darker than the purple calabash, flavor is pretty bland and texture was pretty mushy

Purple calabash - interesting color and shape, decent flavor and texture

Peach - yellow fuzzy medium-small tomato, very sweet with no core

Green zebra - meaty tasty green and yellow stripped tomato, inside completely green when ripe

Roma - we only planted one which isn't providing nearly enough salsa tomatoes for us, we'll plant more next year, good flavor, very meaty, prolific

Mexican midget - small cherry, great flavor balanced sweet and acid, prolific but not as many here where it doesn't get really hot-this tomato loves heat and sun

White currant - small white/light yellow cherry, very sweet, thin skin, needs to be eaten quickly because the skin generally splits when it's picked



I'm going to try seed saving this year so we'll see how that goes next spring when I plant those seeds. We talked about reducing the varieties of tomatoes for next year but I really like nearly all the ones we planted. The Paul Robeson and white currants are the only ones that I'm willing to drop.

Water Water Everywhere

While at sea there really isn't that much to take pictures of. The first 80 or so miles are through the Straight of Georgia and Juan de Fuca but this cruise it was nearly dark by the time we got out of Saanich Inlet. And I can't get the MIMS fully up and running till we are out of Saanich (the water is too eutrophic and I'm afraid it will contaminate the tubing and membrane compared to the open ocean water), so I'm generally stuck in the lab during the scenic part of the cruise. For the next 2600 km the only thing that changes is the weather. But sometimes that change is pretty spectacular.

The view from the lab on a relatively calm day.

And the view during a storm. Of course a still picture can't capture the feeling of the world around you shifting, occasionally throwing everything that isn't firmly secured across the lab (chairs, boxes, a very large tool kit, compressed gas cylinders eek, other scientists...)

This was the scene at the lab door just before I took the above picture. Generally we don't use the water door between the aft deck and the lab-for one I can't lift the 50L carboys over that sill. However, the storm 2 weeks ago was big enough that we were taking fairly major waves over the aft deck so they put the sill back in to keep the lab from flooding. For reference, in calm seas the aft deck is 10-12 feet above the water.

I'm fascinated with the development of storms out sea. Rather than looking at the sky like you'd watch a thunderstorm develop on the prairies, you watch the water. Here is the beginning of the storm. The ripples on the surface of the water indicate the the wind is getting strong enough to disturb the water which eventually lead to the big waves and swell.

Even though we still we under nice skies, the coming storm is whipping up white caps and driving air into the water changing the color.

Nearly the end of the cruise

The past few days have been great. We had extra time so resampled 2 of the stations giving us another time scale to look at the communities-10ish days after we sampled it last rather than a few months or year later. Yesterday, I was kind of involved in catching the last tuna of the cruise (I held onto it when it was on deck to make sure it didn't go over board). All together we (royal we) have caught 21 tuna, since they're not indigenous to Canada you don't need a license to fish and I'll get to take some home. The fisher people have also caught 20ish salmon most of which the people with fishing licenses will take home, but they have shared and given the galley fresh salmon several times during the cruise so we all get to have some. Last night, one of the guys hooked a squid while salmon fishing so he switched to squid jigging and landed a 4 foot (5 foot if you count the tentacles-I don't know how to officially measure squid) Humbolt.

The third mate suggested that we head up to Hot Spring Cove on the way back because we have a bit extra time. So this morning I got to visit one of the nicest hot springs around-and sample that too. I was too busy parboiling myself to take pictures but I'll try to get some off another crew member and post those too.
Now I just have to pack up the MIMS and get ready to get back to dry land.

filtering and tuna

We're back in internet range-yeah. The cruise has been pretty good-crew dynamics haven't been great but have been good enough to get the job done. The weather was bad for about half of the cruise and the launch pad proved the better of me a few times. On the other hand isn't puking over the side required at some point in a sailor's life? A friend on the boat gave me some bonamine (can't buy it in the US and it's difficult to find in Van) which made me better in less than an hour. Since then I haven't had to take any more and I haven't puked over the sides any more. yeah drugs. Once I got over the seasickness, I could sleep most of the time. I did find that waking up airborn at the crest of a big wave is more frightening than waking up being slammed into the wall (a la the Feb. cruise). Less painful, but much more disorienting.


Because of the bad weather we skipped some stations on the way out and are picking them up now. The first of our large volume casts is in the water and by lunch tomorrow we should be done with the big filtering for this cruise.


the water calls-I shall return

Sailing away again to bacterioetiville

I'm back on the boat, ready for the next few weeks. I think. Tomorrow through the weekend are going to be really busy. But we each get 8 hours off a day this cruise. whahoo. The collaborator issues haven't gone away, but I'm trying to ignore them. The post-doc from that lab that is on the cruise with us pushed again today for more sampling (wanted to know why I had given her 8 hours off a day and trying to convince me that she can work 24 hours a day. isn't there medication for delusional people?). She tried to tell me that my PI said "they" were allowed to do more sampling. I really don't know what else I can to to convince this lab that there is no us and them. We're all on the same team and will all work together. I think. The most contentious station is the first one-the one that there really isn't any extra time to sample and process. So at least it will be gone by Thursday.

On to happier thoughts. Such as my own room. The chief scientist emailed yesterday asking if I thought I could handle a room up on the officers deck and if so was I interested. Yes and Yes. The question about whether I could handle it is because this is one of the 2 the most forward cabins on the boat. It's nicknamed the launch pad because there is a lot of movement up this close to the bow. But I think it'll be ok.

My cabin is on the starboard side at the very front-basically just above the "J"

It's kind of funny shaped and the bathroom is really strange because it's up against the angles of the hull, but it's mine.

Pictures from the last cruise

I realized that I never uploaded pictures from the last cruise. So here are a few choice ones.

The carboys waiting to be filled one last time, Papa 50N 145E June 15

Last cruise there were several groups working on iron. Iron measurements on seawater are difficult because the concentration of iron is really low in the ocean and the boat is made of steel (trying to measure a tiny amount of something without contaminating it). Hence the clean room or bubble in the middle of the main lab.

And sperm whales. I was sleeping when killer whales were spotted but was awake for the sperm whales (Our casts tend to be at night since we don't care what time of day they're collected, most of the other biologists are working on photosynthesis so need their casts during the day. Which means that I'm generally sleeping during the day). But I didn't miss the sperm whales. The captain stopped the boat and we floated with this pod of females and calves for half an hour or so.

I love the color of the water in the deep ocean and the gradient of color from the near black-blue of the calm water to the white bubbles coming off the propellers.

The tale of a tomato named Paul

Hi my name is Robeson, Paul Robeson and this is my home.

I have lots of nice neighbors including my friends the Wynches-Dr. Wynche is on the left and her wife is on the right.

This is my friend Brandy Wine. Try not to stare, she was born like that.

Now I'm going to join my friend the Calebash, we're going on a trip to a big farm in the country where we can run and play. Well that's what the green chilies told me.

updates cause I left you hanging

So after the scare last week when the electricity went out while all of my DNA was sitting in a gel, all was well. One sample didn't work very well. But my ridiculous streak of good luck with these samples continued-the sample that didn't work was one that I still had DNA left and it worked when I repeated the proceedure. So now I have 50-75% of my major lab work successfully completed (the range is because we're trying to get approval to run more samples). All the hard work figuring out what the data mean hasn't even begun, but at least the stage where a little bad luck or moment of inattention or both can completely ruin a sample is nearly done.



I'm heading back out to sea Tuesday. The turn around between the June cruise and this Aug cruise is crazy short. Too short for me to have worked up much excitement about going out again, but hopefully that will come once we get everything packed and organized.



Our collaborators have contributed to my near-dread of the coming cruise, we've been bending over backwards trying to help this lab get samples (they don't have any money for sampling). But they keep demanding more and more samples-we're taking 3 people this time because just 2 of us last time was too punishing AND we dropped several of our planned samples. The work that they are supposed to do will be interesting (providing that they can get their methods to work) but they are increasingly difficult to deal with. The collaborator lab is headed by a very young investigator who doesn't seem to realize that we aren't working for them-we're working with them. And we don't need them, there is a lab in our building that does the same type of work with slightly older methods (as in proven methods). However, collaborator lab can't get these samples without us. Yet they still thought that my sampling plan was somehow a negotiation position, that they could just come back with their demands and we'd drop some of our samples (again) in favor of theirs. There were some veiled threats that they may walk if they don't get there way. then they reconsidered. We'll see if that turns out to be good-saving the collaboration-or bad-prolonging the pain of a doomed relationship.



I think that we all realize that ultimatums are not a good way to go. Professional ultimatums probably are going to backfire. Professional ultimatums when you have nothing to leverage are just stupid.

Hiking with technology

Thairo and I went down to Olympic np this weekend for our first (hopefully not last) backpacking trip of the season. While I've always had technology in the backcountry with me, previously I've had the excuse of having to carry gps/palm pilot/cell phone or radio because of work. However this trip I have yo admit that I carried my phone for me. And for the new app I found-topos2go. It allows you to download and display and mark georeferenced topos. Yeah. It came in really handy when we got to the ranger station and were told that we could hike where we planned because it was too crouded-but no problem cause I had downloaded all the topos for the park.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to try out my previous favorite utility app-distant suns-because it was overcast the whole time. No stargazing on this trip.
But we didn't get lost

It was all going so well...

Lab work has been going really well on the samples that I collected last cruise, starting with getting lots of DNA because we filtered lots of water. I've made fosmid libraries for 8 of the 12 samples that we wanted from that cruise and started the last 4 last night. The I go to school this morning to start the 12+ hours of processing the sample today, only to find that the building has been shut down due to a blown electrical transformer. So, right now all of my precious DNA is sitting in the size selection gel degrading as the lab gets hotter and hotter. No electricity means that our beautiful building with it's huge glass windows and skylights is now a giant greenhouse. AAACCCCCKKKKKK

Garden update round 146

It occurred to me that I've only posted overview pictures of the garden for quite a while so here are a bunch of more detail pictures.

The herb square. We've seriously tried to keep up with the herbage including cutting a lot of tarragon last week to make vinegar (the oil experiment was tossed after a week because it was cloudy and I'm afraid of being the microbiologist who gives people botulism), cutting savory yesterday to dry, and putting parsley in pretty much everything we've been eating. The rosemary and chives are finally coming up in the center but you can't really see them in this picture

The main bed

We pulled the peas this past week and most of the kohlrabi so there isn't much going on in that bed other than baby edamame. We've replanted peas for round 2 in September and are still trying to decide what do do with the kohlrabi squares.

Dr. Wyches Yellow tomatoes

Purple Calabash, yippie. We lost all of the Purple calabash last year to curly top virus, so are excited to have healthy "ugly" tomatoes this year.

Speaking of ugly tomatoes, this was one of the first brandywine tomatoes to set. It's a mutant conjoined tomato but I expect it to taste just as good as the prettier brandywine...and it's huge already.

And finally, the midgets are starting to ripen.

Blackberries

Our breakfast in pictures. Walk to back yard:

Place in blender:

Yummmmmmmm:

I really like this city. The fact that blackberries are feral all over the place, including our backyard, is just icing on the cake.

Tomato pruning

We did some serious tomato pruning while we tied the new growth up. They look really good. It was hard at first to cut off perfectly healthy but it doesn't seem to beharming them at all. And the pruning has kept the plants from becoming an impenterable jungle which is should provide some blight resistance.

The plants are generally loading up on tomatoes (still not ripe). I can't say that there's any obvious difference between the number of tomatoes in the plants that have only one square foot opposed to two. There is a significant difference in the depth of the compost from west to east which complicates the comparison of the effect of space- the tighter spaced tomatoes are in the deeper soil. So is the apparent similarity in productivity due to unequal soil depth? Beats me. I do think that we'll change the layout next year so we don't have 2 rows of tomatoes adjacent to each other. It may not impact the productivity but it does make it difficult to see what each plant is doing, which is a big chunk of the fun.

Paaarrrrrttttyy

We finally had a party last night. Been meaning to do that since we moved here but between our work schedules just never got it done. Till now. Thairo got to show off some fancy grilling and made really good ribs.

Very very clean DNA

Alright, lab work is finally going well-based on field work having gone well last month. I didn't sleep much during the cruise but at least I got good samples. Here's a picture of that DNA-each tube has DNA from one of the depths at one station. The DNA is the bright band about 2/3 of the way down the tube.

Another garden update

It's been a week or so since I posted the last picture. We've picked a pint of raspberries basically every day this week. The peas are still producing but I expect them to start slowing down soon. The falls are mild enough here that we'll pull these peas and plant a second crop just before my next cruise (mid Aug). Every tomato plant has baby tomatoes-yippie. And I think that the peppers and chilies will flower this week.

The herbs are doing great as well. Actually they're doing too well, the chervil and cilantro had to be pulled because they bolted. We've ut the tarragon and are going to try to make herb oil. Stay tuned for the out come of this trial.

Garden ahoy

I've decided this is now the ahoy and aarrrggg blog. Enough of this nonsense. Check out the garden, it looks great and the lettuce and peas are yummy. The raspberries are going nuts and the blackberries will follow in a few weeks.

Land ahoy

We're back in sight of land. Here's the west coast of the island.
We'll be pulling into dock sometime tomorrow morning

Trooper and filtering

With only fear and good judgement

Holding us back

We sailed out on the Northern Sea

With a boat load of crazy people



I have no idea what that song means. It goes on to talk about a sardine boat and a shotgun-neither are very Canadian subjects. But I have to say that it's one of my favorite Trooper songs and the beginning fits this trip really well.



Today was better than the last 2 (or has it been 3 or 4??) days. The first 2 stations we worked for 22.5 and 22 hours respectively with 12 hours off to sleep in between. Today has been much better with the other post doc not taking any samples at all and actually being able to help me with my sampling. I'm hoping to be done filtering by morning which will make today only an 18 hour day. We're bringing a 3rd person on the Aug cruise because I refuse to do this again. I know I said the same thing after the Feb cruise and I did seriously trim the sampling scheme but not enough for it to be a 2 person job. hence another person, to guarantee 8 hours off each day or I'm finding a union rep and doing what ever it is you do with a union rep.





The first mate shouted from the crow's nest

I think I might see land out there

But nobody moved

From where they were laying

Cause nobody really cared

steaming

We're currently somewhere just east of p14-if you look at the posts from January Thairo posted a link to a site that tracks my boat-if you're really that interested. We (the other post doc and I) have been filtering pretty much non-stop since sometime sunday. Which isn't quite as much fun as it sounds.

Today I saw a black footed albatross and a pod? of Dals porpoises. and some kind of crazy invertebrate was growing on the end of the ziptie that's holding a tube in place in the overflow bucket in the sink. alright by the end of that I was just trying to see how many prepositional phrases I could have in one sentence. I think we'll lose internet sometime late tomorrow or early the next day so I may not post again till we're on our way home

ok found the link for tracking the boat
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=CG2958

After

Ok it may look like it's messier in the after picture but it was solid
boxes about 5 feet high

Before

Finally set up

We're off to the middle of the ocean. So far I haven't felt sick.
We'll see how long that lasts. The waves here in the straight aren't
big but they did make me a little queasy in Feb

Here is a before picture-just after unloading the van AND pickup. And
another showing how it looks tonight.

Last garden update for a few weeks

I'm currently waiting to board the ferry that will take us to the ship, so won't be seeing the garden for a few weeks. Before thairo left for the field earlier this week, we took out the little cold frames and put in the supports for the tomatoes and edemame.

Retreat? Never

The institute that is funding my postdoc has a retreat every year. This year it was north of town in a cute little resort. It was really nice although this picture doesn't really capture the hum of the mosquito.
I came back to town earlier today to get the last minute things done for the cruise. We were supposed to load the boat Sat. And sail Sunday but now are trying to sail by noon Sat. I think we're nearly ready but loosing a day does cause a bit more stress. I'll try to get a few pics up while were at dock.

Garden update

Everything is growing just fine, except for the one Paul Robson that
looked nearly dead when we planted it

Storm watching

Last night in NM, sitting in my advisers backyard watching a
thunderstorm. I tried to get a picture of the lightening but missed.
Oh well

NM beer

Yup we're back in town for gradumication. This is a lovely pair of
Marble IPAs. I'm thinking that tomorrow might be a good Joe's/geckos/
monte vista night. Anyone in?

Temporary tomato and pepper tents

Pretty much what the title says

Sickly seedlings

Our nursery was looking so good for the first month or so...but now, not so much. I think that they are seriously nutrient deficient. Yellow leaves indicate too little nitrogen and purple veins and stems low potassium?? We got some liquid plant fertilizer and are giving them a little each day, trying not to shock the plants anymore than they already have been. Any one have any other suggestions?

Pink snow

Our street has been really pretty for the past few weeks and I kept meaning to post a picture. Then this afternoon there was a little storm which caused lots of petals to fall. I couldn't get a decent picture of the petals falling, so these will have to give you a taste of the pretty.