Tag: testing

July 24, 2025 – The Seed Test

July 24, 2025 /

I have spent some time soul searching and have come up with some answers. A large part of why I failed at getting motivated to plant a garden this year was because I had so few seeds germinate. I had new tomato seeds, new tobacco seeds and and kale that actually sprouted. Everything else was just dormant or dead.

The urgency to get a bed prepared was tempered by the fact that I would have to buy pepper starts and it was too early (at the time). Things remained at a stand still because this weekend was too busy, I’ll think about next weekend until that came and went. Pretty soon it was really too late to get started.

I was looking at my seeds and I was on a kick to pickup free seed packets at the library at one point. Many of the seeds I have, came from that mechanism. Most of them are at least seven years old and the truth is that I have been struggling with successful germination since I have started using library seeds.

I find it hard to believe that they have mistreated their seeds any more than I have the ones I purchased. Before library seeds and my germination station, I used to keep them in my garden shed where it would get to freezing in the winter and 120 degrees in the summer. I never really worried about germination because it was never a problem. Keeping them at room temperature for a year seems like a no brainer compared to what I was doing.

Now I keep them in the basement in my seed starting area. It is always dark and cool varying from 35 – 60 degrees. This should be even better than room temperature at the library. What I really need to find out is if this is a seed viability problem or some other factor. I am going to describe a seed test that I have used in the past in just a second.

But first, is there any other problems to consider? I think possibly yes. One of the things that I have noticed is that I am trying to start a batch of different things with different germination times. I use a humidity dome and heat mat that is supposed to jump start or optimize the process. I usually remove the dome when the first plants start to touch the top. It may be that those longer germinating seeds just don’t have optimum conditions to germinate when competing in the same conditions. Ideally, I would have more granular control over the humidity than all or nothing.

It is quite possible that I am trying to use a one size fits all approach inappropriately. Meaning, I started one tray of different things and they all got the same amount of water, light, humidity and temperature. I do know for a fact that different seeds optimally need different conditions.

What seems more likely to me to be the problem is that the library seeds are just bad. I don’t know their origin, they could have been reject lots that were donated. Given that my new, purchased seeds seem to be viable and my seed collection has morphed primarily to library seeds, this hypothesis is supported by the data.

Like any good scientist, I designed an experiment to test this hypothesis. The apparatus consists of a wet paper towel placed inside of a plastic bag. The seeds were marked as to what they are and I dated the last expected germination date. That bag is placed in a dark and warm spot and left alone. The last time I did this, I put the bags above the refrigerator. This time, I have them on the subwoofer in my office (behind the couch). If they germinate, they are viable and if they do not I am throwing them out.

A proper experiment would use new and old seeds. I did buy some new seeds and I didn’t think that I was going to write about experimental design when I put this together. But, here we are. My plan is to start new seeds if these do not germinate by the date I have on the test card.

End Your Programming Routine: I am not badmouthing library seeds. In fact, I hope that this works and I have some other problem. The library is a great resource and I love the idea of picking up new things that I wouldn’t buy otherwise. Unfortunately, I just have not had good results to date and this seems like the most obvious source given my several years of anecdotal data. Maybe the truth is somewhere between my hypothesis and the other variables. But, it is not how I realistically do things so it would be good to find out what is going on with the seeds from the library.

September 16, 2024 – Right For Me

September 16, 2024 /

***This was last week’s podcast. It published on Castbox and all the usual platforms but I am having a technical problem with Castbox. I have an open ticket, but for now, I cannot copy the code from my host to my site and sync everything as I normally do. I may temporarily move podcasts to later in the week so I can use one of the other players while I sort out the technical issues. Bear with me as things are getting back to a more normal schedule,***

I hit on a lot of different subjects today. This is probably a topic that could have gone on for several more hours. I kept thinking of additional things and different applicable examples that fit in with what I was trying to say. I found that I got results that I didn’t expect both negatively and positively. But, I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t try different things.

July 3, 2024 – The Gear List

July 3, 2024 /

Those of you that have fantasies of hiking the PCT like I do may have a disconnect with reality. As it pertains to gear, we can spend a lot of money on getting outfitted and can easily get lead in the wrong direction. As an example, my wife used to be fairly active in a local kayaking group. Almost without fail, you would see new participants show up with the cheapest possible kayak. They would struggle, get discouraged and quit soon after.

I don’t necessarily think that inexpensive will lead to failure. Nor do I believe that trying something for the first time warrants buying the top of the line. But, what it does mean is like all things in life, you need to apply critical thinking about it. Start small or reasonable. Maybe even borrow things rather than investing in a failure to launch. Once you get to know what you like and not, then you can start personalizing the things you want versus what you really need.

I have or can find any of the gear that I really need for my trip. I have been on a weeklong hike before. That part I am confident in. But, now that I have some means I am likely in line for some upgrades. I would say that we had top of line gear in the early 1990s. But there have been some significant technological advances since that point, primarily in weight.

Most of the trips included my brother. We had a two man tent. One of us would pack the tent and the other would pack the stove as an example. That tent probably weighed ten pounds and strictly speaking a tent is not required. But, I want to be able to get out of the weather if necessary and I am a little worried about being eaten alive by bugs. That puts the tent on my list of wants.

Part of the reason for me to put this gear list together is that I need to start practicing. I want to know if my current gear is adequate or not. I want to start planning so that I don’t end up buying things all at once and give me some time to practice and make decisions. I want to know what doesn’t work as well so I am not stuck out in the wilderness with something I have never used.

My existing pack is an external frame pack from the late 1980s. At the time I purchased it, it has a lifetime warranty. My recent research has revealed that the company has gone out of business. Not from making poor products but from having poor company management. It is an age old story of company sold and run into the ground by the new owners.

Now that I am freed from that life long warranty, I can admit that newer designs and materials may have advantages. But, I want to take some hikes with this old pack. It has seen plenty of use but I want to determine if this fifty year old can tolerate 1980s technology. My son has also been using it for Boy Scouts. I may want another pack if he decides to go. But, at this point, there is no reason to rush out and spend $300 on a new pack without determining if what I already have will serve. Even if my boys decide not to go or they cant, I still might want to have some practice hikes including them. Upgrading my pack remains to be seen.

Certain costs on my list are unavoidable. I am going to need to eat on my hike. I might be able to mitigate some of that cost by bringing my own homemade granola or trail mix or dried fruit. I figured that I would put worse case scenario down and have an entire menu of freeze dried food. For budgetary purposes, I have a cost of my meal plan.

That of course will be purchased before the hike. But again, it may be worth trying some of this stuff out. I remember that I thought freeze dried food was pretty good when I was a teenager. But the stuff that I have eaten lately has been terrible. I want to try some different brands and entrees to determine what I like best.

I came of age in an era that believed ankle support was necessary. If you look at the NBA today, nobody wears a ‘high top’ shoe. Hiking boots with heavy waffle souls were the trail preferred footwear. But plenty of ultramarathoners wear a trail running shoe for a 100mi race. It is no wonder that Cheryl Strayed threw her boots off the mountain as they were the cause of the pain, and not the resolution of it. The most important footwear is the one that you can walk all day and be comfortable.

In my running days, the common mantra was about 200mi per pair of shoes. I found that after a few months, the padding started to break down causing me knee pain. When my knees started hurting, it was time to get a new pair of shoes. I want to make sure that I am comfortable with my footwear before my trip. The last thing you want are blisters foot pain for a week on the trail.

As with all things, all gear is in degrees. I could choose a much cheaper water disinfection rather than filtration. I probably want some wardrobe upgrades with specialty clothes. I even have some optional items that I haven’t totally settled on. This trip isn’t about how much I can carry but to be comfortable with what I am taking.

End Your Programming Routine: All things considered, outfitting for $2500 is not an outrageous vacation. That would be if I bought all of the options. Plenty of people have a $1500 rifle for hunting and then add all the other gear you are probably topping $5000. As you should know by now, I don’t want to buy stuff just because I can. I have plenty of useful gear already, let’s see if it still works for me.

June 26, 2024 – Proving That I am Not a Purist

June 26, 2024 /

Not that I care about judgement, but I do want you to know that I am a normal person. I don’t always hold true to my beliefs. One of my beliefs is avoiding processed foods. We were experimenting with a ‘boxed dinner’ as they say in Canada. This was to see if this was something that we wanted to use to get by when we are staying up in the hospital.

Back in my early life, before I really started to challenge myself cooking we used to eat these boxed dinners. They were right sized for the two of us, the were cheap and easy to make. I shifted away from them as we started to work toward healthier choices but I remember thinking that they tasted pretty good.

I am a big fan of Crocodile Dundee. He has a famous line ‘you can live on it but it tastes like shit’. After eating one of these, I kind of know what he means. Mushy noodles, thin sauce with a slight chemical undertone. It certainly was easy to make and it definitely filled us up but boy it was not good.

Unfortunately, I bought several of these. Maybe the kids will eat them while we are gone? I doubt it since they didn’t grow up with it and my younger son is a vegetarian. But I will continue to side with Crocodile Dundee.

As I stated on the title, I am not a purist. While I would not like to recommend this as a diet plan, I think that there is a time and place. A good time would be a camping trip or being stuck at a hospital with limited facilities and options. Based on my exposure to freeze dried meals, I don’t think that this is any less bad. This was another thing that I used to think tasted much better.

One of the things that we used to consider gourmet in the early years was a boxed pasta. We would also buy some fish parts that were off-cuts of salmon considered cheeks and odd bits. I would grill them on a tiny barbeque and then serve them with fettucine. We thought that was kind of high society. At least it wasn’t ramen like we were eating in college.

Talking to my wife’s insurance company, they have a benefit for meal planning and food drop off. There is more on that to come but it sounds like they are going to suggest a menu and then drop off the food too. It will be interesting to see what they suggest. One of the restrictions on her recovery is that food cannot be over two days old. So, there is only so much planning we can do. I am thinking maybe those frozen stir-fry packages might be a better option than boxed dinner.

End Your Programming Routine: Well, we have this in our back pocket as an option. I am hoping the meal planning provides a better solution but I am also glad that we tried. It just reminds me why we left these behind. Sometimes we need reminders of why we make the decisions that we make. It is almost like you remember why taking tequila shots on Thursday night is not a good idea on Friday morning.

June 2, 2021 – Recipes and Lies

June 2, 2021 /

In my recent stint of ethnic cooking and looking at recipes I have noticed a theme about times and how they are portrayed. They always seem to be way too short.

For a long time, I have subscribed to and enjoyed the podcast ‘Harvest Eating‘. Way early on, probably within the first 20 episodes, Keith talks a little about the process of testing recipes. This was in the context of producing the cookbook and how recipes had to be tested multiple times to validate everything was correct. He never went in depth about the process and I always wondered what the process was about.

My technique for making something new includes trying to find three or four recipes and look for the similarities. If most ingredients and proportions seem to agree, then I generally consider the premise reliable. Sometimes I am looking to add the outlier ingredients and sometimes I am looking to skip them, it depends on what I am trying to use up or not have something that has very little future use.

I suppose that it goes back to simple/easy conversation a few weeks ago. For the most part, recipes are a collection of steps that build on each other. Those steps can be both simple and easy or one or the other but rarely neither. One of my problems is that often I am looking at a blog on my phone and ultimately goes blank and then I have to scroll through all of the pictures to get back down to the recipe.

But also, I question the twenty minutes of prep that seems to be ubiquitous. Rarely do I see something that is less or more than that. Last week, I made a vegan Bahn Mi that contained tofu, yam. taro root and egg plant. That recipe’s prep time was also 20 minutes and I don’t think I had everything on the counter and peeled in that time. Additionally, cook time was twenty minutes which included frying all of those roots, then braising them with the softer and more fragrant items like eggplant and lemon grass. Needless to say, it took more like an hour and a half to get everything done.

It seems like when chef’s test recipes, it may be coming from someone that has done it a dozen times or more. In addition to that, they likely have a vast experience base of culinary skills and tools. It also might be that they don’t care how many dishes are used to make the dish (I try to minimize the number of bowls, utensils and tools that have to be washed at the end, I think that might slow me down some too). This was my first time using taro root, I wasn’t quite sure how to approach it.

We are having Indian tomorrow, and the Aloo Gabi is on the menu because it is vegan (so my son will eat it) and sounds good. I will give it a test and see. I have to peel potatoes and break down cauliflower as well as get all the spices gathered up. I can be kind of a risk taker when it comes to food and cooking Indian never having done it is one of those things. I will start right after work and we will see if I get it done in time for dinner.

One more quick tip I use is you can reduce cooking time by getting everything out of the refrigerator and allowing it to come up to room temperature (while prepping). It also tends to cook better and more consistently. There is nothing worse than trying to cook something that is almost ice cold with a stir fry technique.

End Your Programming Routine: For making something new, exotic or unknown, I would plan on at least doubling the total time of a stated recipe. Using the concept of Mise en Place you can always delay cooking until everything is staged, but you cant get time back if you start too late.