What I Learned about Gardening in 2020

For this I'm only going to be discussing the container garden and hydroponic garden I'm maintaining at my house. You can watch my vineyard harvest video to see how my year went with that sector.

2020 has been a long year filled with challenge and adversity. But we as a species are good at adapting for the given scenario. Likewise, gardening took on a whole new found interest and popularity with the general populace confined to their homes. But in any case I'll discuss that along with what I've learnt from my gardening experience this year.

Potato Bread

This bread recipe was inspired by the old 18th century cooking that Townsends does. The idea in those days was for the baker to stretch his flour consumption by adding in wheat substitutes to the dough.

The same principle can be applied to the supply chain disruptions due to this year's forced government lockdowns. Flour was one of the hottest commodities being panic bought. Yeast was too. In case you can't source any yeast, you could try to make your own sourdough starter as a substitute. Let's take a look at the recipe adapted to the modern era.

Jigsaw Blade Clamp Repair (U-Shank to T-Shank Conversion)

Jigsaw blades are available in two major styles: U-shank and T-shank.  Unfortunately, I was unaware of this fact when I bought my first jigsaw at a garage sale for $5.  I mistakenly bought a package of T-shank blades for it when it really took U-shank.

Not wanting to admit that I wasted $12 on the wrong blades for a $5 jigsaw, I decided to use them anyways because the package said, "Fits all jigsaws".  The blades did not fit properly and would slip out during use.  I still insisted they were supposed to work, so I tightened the blade clamp harder... too hard it seemed, since I'd cracked it right down the middle.

Small Mill, Big Vise

When I won my $500 All Industrial Supply shopping spree at the Bar-Z Summer Bash in 2018, my first inclination was to buy a Kurt vise for my machine.  However, after looking at the dimensions, it seemed that even the smallest vise was still too big for my tiny machine table.  The bolt locations would not have lined up with the T-slots, and I would've had to make a fixture plate to mount it.  Even then, there might've been an issue with the vise handle interfering with my machine's Y-axis handwheel.  Not wanting to risk all this confusion, I remembered that my friend had won several vises at an auction which he wasn't using.  He was kind enough to let me have the one of my choice.

I ended up spending the $500 on other things.

The vise I chose was this large two-piece one, shown here next to a standard mill vise for comparison.  The thing I liked about this one, aside from virtually unlimited holding capacity, was the height of the jaws. By itself, the back jaw practically doubles as an angle plate!

Apple Pie (from Scratch)

 After spending a good afternoon up in the Apple Hill region near my home, I came home transporting way too many apples and apple accessories (no, not the Steve Jobs variety). What better thing to make with a bunch of apples than Apple Pie?