The Brine and the Two-Zone heat method really help this chicken stand out. The Pearsons Premium makes it a star!

Ingredients
-2 lbs. chicken legs
-1-can of dark ale
-1/4 cup coarse (sea) salt
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-Pearson’s Premium BBQ Sauce (heat level to your liking)

Directions
Brine:
– In a bowl combine your ale, salt, and brown sugar
-Put chicken in an airtight box or sealable bag.
-pour the brine over the chicken and seal the container.
-Put the chicken in the fridge for 4-12 hours (the longer the better)
Prep:
-pour off the brine and discard.
-rinse chicken to remove excess salt
-pat dry…the dryer the skin the better the char so don’t skip this step!!
Grill:
-Set up your grill for a two-zone approach.
-Place the dried chicken drumsticks on the direct heat cook each side for 1-2 minutes or until the skin is browned.
-Move the browned pieces to the indirect side (you’re aiming for 250-300 degrees)
-Close the lid and let the chicken cook for around 20 minutes.
-At the 20 minute mark start brushing the chicken with the Pearson’s sauce. Do this every 5 minutes until the chicken reaches an internal temp of at least 165 degrees.
-Pull the chicken off the grill and put them in a pan covered loosely with foil. Let them rest 5 minutes or so.
-Serve with the rest of the Pearson’s sauce.

Click Here for the pdf:
bbq chicken full page

FFP (Filtering Facepiece Respirators), Covid-19, and You.

-What-

KN95 are masks made in China (as are a lot of N95 masks) that have passed the stringent Chinese GB2626-2006 performance standard.

-Are They Good Masks-

The CDC² lists KN95 masks as a “suitable alternative to provide protection during the COVID-19 response when supplies (of N95) are short”

3M³ the manufacturer of many N95 masks has also issued a comparison between N95 and Kn95 stating that “respirators certified as meeting these standards can be expected to function very similarly”.

3M further states that “China KN95…as ‘equivalent’ to US NIOSH N95 for filtering non-oil based particles such as those resulting from…bio-aerosols (e.g. viruses)

-However-

Originally, in spite of the endorsements of 3M and the CDC the FDA refused to approve the KN95 stating:  “They have not been selected by the FDA¹ as an approved FFP appropriate to protect health and safety”.  Their reasoning was tht they had not passed the American NIOSH 42CR84 Approval. But, many were of the opinion that the reason was more political than scientific⁴.

Whatever the reasons, on 4/3/2020, the FDA started giving approvals for specific manufacturers of the KN95 mask.  In their press release they explained why they chose to change their minds saying: “…in response to this evolving public health emergency and continued concerns about filtering facepiece respirator availability, FDA concluded based on the totality of scientific evidence available that certain product classifications for imported disposable FFR’s that are manufactured in China and not NIOSH-approved and for which data exists that supports the respirators’ authenticity are appropriate to protect the public health or safety…”⁵

Regardless of the FDA’s motives what is important is that the KN95’s are available for general use and provide a level of protection for our community, meaning that the NIOSH approved N95’s are at the hospitals where they belong.

If you want to know if the manufacturer of the KN95 mask you are looking at is on the list of approvals check the Appendix listing them it was last updated 4/13/2020 as of this writing and hopefully, it will keep growing so that everyone has access to protective gear.  The list can be found here: https://www.fda.gov/media/136663/download

-Sources-

1. Imported, Non-NIOSH-Approved Disposable Filtering Facepiece Respirators EUA. Issued March 28, 2020. Accessed March 31, 2020 https://www.fda.gov/media/136403/download
2. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/respirators-strategy/crisis-alternate-strategies.html Page last reviewed: March 17, 2020. Accessed: March 31, 2020 Content source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), Division of Viral Diseases
3. Comparison of FFP2, KN95, and N95 and Other Filtering Facepiece Respirator Classes Technical Bulletin issued: January, 2020 Accessed March 31, 2020. https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1791500O/comparison-ffp2-kn95-n95-filtering-facepiece-respirator-classes-tb.pdf

4. Coronavirus Cases Have Surged, But The US Is Refusing To Take The World’s Most Available Masks (Bensinger, Ken) Buzzfeed.News  March 29,2020. Accessed March 31, 2020  https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/coronavirus-kn95-masks-us-wont-import-china

5.Non-NIOSH-Approved Disposable Filtering Facepiece Respirators Manufactured in China Issued April 3, 2020. Accessed April 14, 2020. https://www.fda.gov/media/136664/download

Recently we have been asked a lot about what plants will do well outside versus inside. We were interested in this question, especially when our Garden Gurus (yes, we have two garden gurus, their names are Taela and Sherman) told us that depending on the climate there is no difference!  This blew our minds a little and so we decided to investigate and then to share with you, our readers.  So buckle up for the ultimate fight:

Indoor Plant vs. Outdoor plant!!!!

Okay, that picture is a little silly especially since all plants are outdoor plants. They all were originally discovered and then cultivated from some plant that someone found and thought was cool (Yes, unless it’s a hybrid but even then it’s parents were outdoor plants). Really, the argument is more about where we live and what grows here natively, versus what can grow here with cultivation, and what can’t grow here so it has to live in the house with us. So first things first:

What is a Native plant and why does it matter?

Native plants are what they sound like if you had gotten here before there was contact with the outside world and walked around the Laurel District you would have seen Oak trees, and tall reeds. The grasses would have looked very different.  There would have been scrub on the hills and some pines, but not apple trees, or rose bushes. There would have been mint, but no lavender.

Simply put a native plant is a plant that has adapted to the particular climate and specific region that it is found growing in.  How these plants spread here, and when, is a matter for Paleobotonists, and not we mere blog-writing mortals (and geologists as a lot of them have to do with plate tectonics and supercontinents).  But what is important is that we know that plants native to our region will do just fine outside. The conditions that make them flourish will be easy to create as they have adapted to be here.

What is a non-native plant?

There are other types of plants that are not native but can be grown with cultivation.  We mentioned lavender above as it seems to be a universal plant in this area.  There is even a large lavender maze over in Santa Rosa (don’t worry it wasn’t near the fire). Lavender is a hardy plant that can grow in many climates, it is native however to the old world.  It naturally grows from Europe to southeast India and down to mid-Africa. That is a lot of land and the widespread nature means that it has acclimatized to many different areas.  It is easy to cultivate, and as long as you have a plant that is “hardened” to your area then it will also do fine if you just plop it outside. But here’s the thing, Lavender will also do well inside. It does well due to its versatility. It is an unfortunate truth that our numerous micro-climates produce less hardy plants and plants like lavender have no issue invading space that can result in the crowding out of more sensitive native plants, but now we are venturing into the world of the Ecobotonist and we really need to stay on track.

What Do People usually mean by “Indoor Plant”?

When people come in and ask for an indoor plant they usually think (as we did before our gurus blew our minds) that they are looking for a:

-Spider Plant

-Fichus

-Tillandsia

-Succulent

-Orchid

-Bromeliads

-Rubber Plant

-Peace Lily

-String of Pearls (the hipsters know what this is)

These plants, while some might be native to a certain extent (we do have some native succulents in the Bay Area) are for the most part tropical plants that require high humidity, low nutrient soil, and specific amounts of light/dark. In other words, these plants have adapted to live in some of the hardest places to live either due to too much/not enough water/resources and if they are jungle plants a lot of competition. So when we bring these super tough plants to our balmy Mediterranean Climate with our consistent temperatures thanks to the Giant HVAC unit known as the Pacific Ocean they tend to be high maintenance.

It is not really the plant’s fault, after all, we as humans are one of the best adapting species on earth and we whine when it gets just out of our comfort zone of 70 degrees to 75 degrees. So the plants which are adapted to a wildly different climate are reacting pretty much how we would if we were suddenly dropped in the artic without a coat or the desert, in a coat.

Can I grow “outdoor plants” inside?

As before stated, all plants are outdoor plants.  But what we think most people mean is how, or can you grow something like a rose bush inside?  The answer is you can.  Like tropical plants, the key to growing a “normal” outdoor plant inside is understanding the environment that it naturally grows in.  Some plants are going to need a compromise, you will need to make sure that they have full access to natural light.  You will need to make sure to check soil conditions as the soil will not be renewing itself if it is in a pot and the plants will thus need to be fed.

However, almost all plants can be trained to be indoor plants. For proof take for instance the local cannabis trade. Cannabis is a plant native to Southeast Asia which has a wildly different climate from our own. However, by learning how to grow the plants hydroponically with sun lamps to simulate the Southeast Asian sun, a huge industry is booming by bringing these outdoor plants inside.

Cannabis may not be the best example however as it is, of course, a tropical plant, no matter how well it grows in the wilds of Humboldt county. But bonsai can be almost any tree and with careful cultivation can be grown in miniature in a pot. So, if you can grow a Spruce in a 10″ pot, then yes, you can bring your rosebush inside.  But please not the Cannabis or lavender (we are allergic to both). (By the way, Bonsai is a really cool way to grow plants with a long storied history, read more about it here.)

Why can’t I plant my Venus Fly Trap in the garden?

We know that there are carnivorous plants native to California. There are whole meadows of Pitcher plants up in the Plumas National Forest not to mention sundews that trap insects with long sticky petal-like things (that’s the scientific name for them (it’s not, we lied and are too lazy to look it up)).  So, why can’t you plant any old carnivorous plants in your garden?  Well, it comes back to the whole native vs. non-native discussion. Carnivorous plants all develop in very specific conditions where there cannot be too many nutrients in the soil, thus why they have to eat insects.  Simply put, your garden is in too good of condition for a carnivorous plant.

Even the California Pitcher Plant is native to the swampy areas of the mountains, with peat bogs, and freshwater that is not rejuvenated by tidal flow. It is true that in the bay area we have a lot of what might be seen as swampy land, but it isn’t.  We are surrounded by saltwater marshes and estuary.  The combination of the salt and the high level of nutrients brought by the constant tidal ebb and flow make our area unsuitable for a plant that will die if not in an area of low nutrition.

Carnivorous plants are very sensitive, and even when kept inside in perfect conditions can die. These are plants that evolved to always live right on that thin line of life and death, and when we stress them out, they sometimes just throw in the towel. (Not literally, we don’t think they own towels).

If you want a carnivorous plant, please make sure that you obtain one from a vendor that gets theirs from a local nursery where the plants would have been propagated locally (like us, we do that). That will be your best chance of growing the carnivorous plant of your dreams (unless your dreams include du-wop and Rick Moranis because yes, most plants can actually live quite well on human blood, but that’s kinda weird(but we do sell bloodmeal though, because feeding plants with cows blood is less weird))

How do I know if something will do better inside or out?

This is down to a lot of factors, including what kind of care you are willing to give something, where you would be planting it? And where in our land of hundreds of micro-climates your house is.  We highly recommend that to take the guesswork out of it you contact the local Master Gardeners here:  or do what we do, just ask Sherman and Taela!

Yep, in honor of this month of horror, we will be talking about that ever-popular Victorian poison, Digitalis.  AKA Foxglove.

What is Foxglove?

                Foxglove is the common name for Digitalis. Digitalis is a genus of plants that is native to Europe, Central Asia, and Northern Africa. It is called digitalis because the flowers are perfectly shaped in such a way that you can put your fingers in them! For once we did not make that up, the whole genus of over 20 species is named after the fact that you can stick your fingers in them.  (Side note, that though Digitalis has only been known as a medicine since the mid 1700’s it has long been known as a poison and as such is sometimes called “Witch’s Glove” which we like a lot and are going to change all the labels in the nursery when our boss isn’t looking)

You have probably seen Foxglove as we sell it in our nursery, and most people have a plant or two. It is a very popular plant.

Is it really poisonous?

Yes, it really is poisonous. It is very poisonous. We have to admit that our interest in botany began because we read too many Agatha Christie books as a child. Dame Christie loved using poison and digitalis featured in more than one of her murders (check it out here). However, she usually had the poisoner administer it by adding someone’s heart medicine to something as Digitalis, while being a poison to a normal heart, is actually medicinal.

Digitalis is used for Congestive heart failure and when your heart is beating too slowly. So like a lot of poisonous plants, it all depends on the context.

However, yes, your dog, child, rooster, husband can get sick and die if they decide to eat any part of the digitalis plant.

But before there is too much hue and cry, the same thing can be said for poppies, Rhubarb, Daffodils, and peaches (plus many more).  The thing to remember with anything is to be aware of what is safe and what is not. For example Rhubarb and peach pie is amazingly delicious (and appropriate for this time of the year), but if you were to eat the leaves of the Rhubarb the Oxalic Acid in them would make you sick, and if you were to prepare the peach pit a certain way, you would produce a poison much worse than digitalis (no we won’t tell you more).

Why do people grow it?

Digitalis is a very pretty plant. It grows tall and produces the perfect (finger-shaped) flowers on the stalks in pretty bells formations.  It adds great color above lower growing plants and is often used at the back of flower beds for height.  It is also a good pollinator plant, and as before mentioned it is used medically to some degree.  But really people grow it, for the same reason that they grow Belladonna, Oleander, Delphinium, Rhododendrons, Hydrangeas, and Lily of the Valley. These are beautiful plants, and because of their toxicity deer and most other garden vermin are not going to eat them.

How can I grow it?

Foxgloves do well in well-drained loamy soil, and prefer partial sun or shade. Some Foxglove originated along the Mediterranean and so is well adjusted to our climate here.  You can start Foxglove from seeds.  We prefer using seeds from local nurseries like Living Seed Company in Pt. Reyes as we know the seeds will be able to grow in our area.  You can also but foxglove plants in 4” pots from our nursery.  If you are unsure about whether your soil is suitable or not be sure to touch base with our Garden Guru Taela about whether or not you will need to feed the Foxglove plant.

What if, I buy some and then someone knows I have it, and somehow figures out how to use it, and poisons someone, will I go to jail?

Look, we are bloggers, not criminal defense attorneys. You would have to ask one of them.  However, we will give you this advice: If your friends are that sketchy maybe give planting poisons a pass, or you know get less scary friends.

What is mulch?

This seems like an obvious question if you have ever been into one of those big places with stacks of “soil amendments”.  You look for the bag that says mulch.  But actually, the term mulch is much broader than we think.  Mulch is, technically speaking, any organic (we will get to that) substance that is spread on a garden bed.  So, while a lot of those bags say terms like mulch or compost or bark, they are all technically mulch.  The cool thing about mulch is that it can also be made of old cardboard, fallen leaves, or even plastic.  It is the ultimate garden recycling project, and hey, nothing is sexier than being eco-friendly by recycling. You can even use it in your OkCupid profile “Things I Like: Recycling, saving the world, nurturing growth”.

What does mulch do?

Mulch at it’s most basic insulates the ground around your plants.  This can accomplish a multitude of things like keeping water from evaporating in heat, keeping the ground from freezing in a cold snap and keeping weed growth down by limiting open space for weeds to take hold. To look at this fascinating multi-talented product more closely let’s break it down by some basic types.

Types of mulch.

      Wood

For the most part when you buy the bags that are prominently titled “mulch” they are usually something like shredded cedar mulch or redwood bark. Both of these will insulate the ground from both evaporation and freezing. They both inhibit weed growth, and they both have the added benefit of looking really pretty when they have just been spread.  The shredded bark is a lighter cover that allows smaller plants to grow and is great for annuals. If your plants are more established or if you are mulching around large plants like trees or hedges you can use the chunkier wood instead. Ceder is especially useful as it is slow to decay and will not need to be replaced as often as straw or paper. However, the decomposition of Cedar and Redwood can have some negative effects on your plants.  If you are not sure if this is a good option for you come in and chat with us. Bring a soil sample if you want and we can help you decide if your garden has enough nitrogen for the plants you want, and the bark you choose, or if you will need to fertilize your plants.

Death

The specific thing that most cultures find “sexy” (okay that’s a stretch interesting is a better term) about death is the concept of re-birth. This is where mulch comes in. Specifically what we are talking about is fallen leaves and grass clippings. Come autumn, even here we do have some Deciduous trees that shed their leaves which need to be raked and pulled out of gutters and eaves before the rain starts.  We also have higher fire risks as the summer wanes on, and so we need to keep fields and lawns clear and well mowed. But instead of filling that big green can out front, did you know that you can take all those dead leaves, and grass clippings and turn them into mulch? First things first, this is not really an “easy” option if that is what you are looking for. You can put leaves and grass clipping directly on your garden bed, but there is a very good possibility that instead of adding nutrients it will instead rob the soil of nutrients.  It also is more likely to rot things that way. So what to do? Rot it yourself! Yep, composting turns dead leaves and grass into healthy nutrient-packed mulch for your soil.  The best part is you can add things like eggshells and coffee grounds if you want for more nutrition and better trash management in your kitchen. So dead leaves and grass when rotted are actually life-giving mulch and fertilizers which also help lower fire hazard by removing fuel and lessen your household garbage. Yep, this type of mulch is like a Phoenix, and glorious rebirth is sexy (or at least really cool).

Poop

Even we are not going to try and pretend that there is anything sexy about manure.  But, we will point out that various forms of animal waste are very good for your garden, provided that they have been composted correctly. The most common manure mulch you see will be Steer manure.  But horse is also fairly common. Some larger agriculture firms use turkey manure, and of course, there is Bat Guano. You want to make sure that you are getting your manure from a certified organic and reputable place. You see, uncomposted manure can still contain viable seeds and diseases.  The composting process renders the manure sterile while still maintaining its high nutrition value. No, do not think about the words nutrition and manure in the same sentence, we are moving on! Although as a side note, we are told that dried horse and cow manure make very warm fires, and that bat guano is worth its weight in gold, but we don’t want to know how anyone found out.

Cardboard/paper

You can, and many people do, use old paper and cardboard for mulch.  The pros, of course, is that it provides a lot of the same benefits as wood mulch (for obvious reasons) but you generally don’t have to do anything special to it like with composted mulch, and it is usually free. You are also recycling in a way that gives directly back to the Earth. So, if you use cardboard/paper as mulch it means that you are a ‘financially savvy earth warrior’. Try that as your next tagline on Bumble and see the bees come buzzing.  There is, however, one major drawback to this type of mulch, it decomposes very fast. To keep your garden bed looking neat and to keep the benefits consistent you will need to remulch periodically. So while it might be less work up-front, using cardboard/paper will end up as more work in the long run, but hey, nothing is sexier than an honest day’s work…or so we are told.

Straw

Why is straw not part of the leaves/grass paragraph? Well, because usually, this is something that you buy ready to spread and not something that you have prepped yourself.  While you do need straw to start your compost bin, usually when straw is used as a mulch it comes in either a bale or a roll that is loosely held together.  It looks great and is easy to spread.  Also, if you are growing potatoes you can grow them entirely in straw which is a lot cleaner than having to dig them out at the end of the season.  Also, if you buy a bale of straw it comes highly compressed so you can cover a lot of ground with one bale and they are usually relatively inexpensive. But, like using manure you have to be careful about the source. We like to use rice straw because our home backs up to a National Park and as such we cannot take the risk of stray seeds.  If you buy wheat straw there is a higher possibility that it is mixed with grasses or other seeds that will grow as an invasive species. Straw does also not have the more specific nutrition additives of things like composted leaves, or manure so while it is a good easy way to retain moisture if you want a multi-tasking mulch you may want to combine it with compost.

 Stones

You can technically use stones and pebbles as mulch.  This is going to be more useful if you are doing Xeroscaping or planning a rock garden, but you have to be careful if you are trying to do this with more traditional gardens.  Stones, are great insulators and trap heat next to the soil, which is great in cold weather but can burn your plants in hot weather.  Also, to get enough colorful stone to do a decent job can get expensive.  All in all, unless you are planting a succulent/cacti (remember we learned that all cactus are succulents but not all succulents are cactus here). Stones should be used sparingly.  Overall, stones are not a great mulch, but are a great way to show off your artistic talent for borders, walkways, and the occasional rock art, and hey as all actors/musicians know artistic talent is super sexy!

 Plastic/ Rubber

Okay, we promised we would get back to that thing about mulch being organic.  As anyone who has spent a lot of time in the Goth clubs can tell you plastic and rubber are about as non-natural as material can be.  They don’t breathe i.e. all the sweat stays on your skin, and you are usually a good 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the club. They also are impossible to get into/out of quickly as they stick. Mix that with the fact that you can’t actually wash them in the traditional way, and you may well wonder why anyone would want to wear them. We don’t know, and if you do, we are not sure we want to know. But, we do know that the things that make them bad clothes make them fantastic mulch. They are naturally insulating, keep moisture close to its source, don’t decompose or get destroyed by the elements. Usually, when using these as mulch you are using either sheet plastic which is common for crops like strawberries as it keeps the fruit off of the ground while also insulating the soil or shredded rubber.  Shredded rubber is usually used more in industrial applications and is rarely used in a home garden.  For one thing, the rubber will not decompose, so when you want to change the look of your garden you will need to deal with old rubber mulch. Also, while technically using rubber is recycling, neither of these products give anything back to the soil like a good compost will. So, yes, you will see plastic/rubber “mulch” i.e. a product that goes on the ground near your plants to insulate the soil, but for our purposes, we do not promote it as it is not an organic product and we think it’s important that gardening be as natural as possible.

So why is mulch sexy?

Yes, we promised we would convince you that mulch is sexy.  Well now that you know a little bit more about it we can really dive deep into the complexity of mulch as an entity and how it makes us feel, and….sorry, our boss just walked in so instead here is the compressed view:

There you have it. If you want to meet your mulch match stop by the store and talk to any of our helpful hardware team we are always happy to listen in a non-judgemental way on what really gets your tomatoes growing, if you know what we mean. (We mean tomatoes )

They are so powerful that they will last up to 3 flushes after use, and no oily liquid as the mint dissolves completely in the bowl.  So no matter what, the bathroom will always smell better after you use it. The best part is since these are an “after” use product, it doesn’t matter if you were not the one who needed to use them, it’s not too late to make that one work bathroom usable again, no matter who had the extra coffee this morning!