My Custom Garden Coach! And Garden Ramblings!

Requisite Disclaimer:  I live in Northern California and, yes, Spring is starting to be sprung here!  Glory Hallelujah!

Jeez, a Garden Update...  With no pictures!  (I may need to correct that tomorrow!).

Okay, I have to give a shout-out to fellow-blogger Finnyknits.  She recently quit her job, went back to school, and is starting up her own garden-coaching business, Indie-Farms.

Well, Gawd knows I like supporting local, small businesses.  We all know I love gardening!  And...  Well...  After Finny posted her report card on Facebook (Straight-A's - Friggin' over-achiever!), I noticed that she had just finished a class on Greenhouse Maintenance.  And ya know what?!  I've got a greenhouse that is hellaciously under-utilized.  We originally built the greenhouse to overwinter my Plumerias - but now they're too big to fit through the door!

So I put two-and-two-and-whatevers together and figured "What the hell!"  I know I could always stand to learn more - and Gawd-knows I need some motivation sometimes.......

So Finny came over this afternoon and I got my first Custom Garden Coaching Session!

She looked over my greenhouse, took lots of notes, gave lots of suggestions and followed-up with a summary email - documenting her suggestions (Good Call, Finny!).  Actually, that follow-up email and summary was fantastic because the hour felt like it just FLEW by - with way more information than my brain could absorb!  Much of it, I knew already - but lots of it was new! (Jeez, maybe school is useful after all?!).

Going forward, I think she'll be sending out emails to all of her little Garden Minions, so we'll see how all that pans out.  But I am very pleased with what I learned today.

NOW I just need to set things in motion, right?!  (Ohhhhhhh that!)

This has been a weird year for me (Already!).  See, I love gardening and I have ALWAYS loved that we have this huge yard.  Yeah, the setting-up and putting-away of all the summer furniture is kind of a pain ("Hello Rent-A-Son!").  And the wintertime "haul-away-the-dead-sh*t" routine is certainly not high on my list of FUN activities.  But, honestly, I've always taken pride in the fact that the yard is "My Creation."  And I actually enjoy puttering around in it.  Gardening is like exercise without FEELING like exercise, ya know?!

Well, this year, I had to reluctantly admit that I am just not up to the challenge of tackling all of the winter clean-up chores, due to health constraints (#$%^!!!).  And the extent of the chores goes beyond what "Rent-A-Son-Services" can handle.  I had started to prune one of our peach trees.  I think I got through about 1/4 of what needed to be wacked-off, then I glanced around at all the rest of the fruit trees (and palm trees, and overgrown vines) and decided "to hell with it!"  Seriously - why torture myself?!  Just pay someone and get it done already!

So we hired sumdood with a chainsaw and a wood-chipper to do the "hack-it-down-and-haul-it-away" chores (taming wild vines, cleaning the palm trees, weed-wacking the cannas down to ground level).  That got done last week and the yard looks a WHOLE lot better.

Oh, here are a couple of pictures:

Morning Glories Before

And After...

Mind you, the vines did NOT look like the "Before" picture when sumdood showed up.  I think we had about a week and a half where the temps dipped below freezing, every night, so the leaves had turned to mush.  Oh, but they'll be back!

And, in a couple of weeks, I've got another guy coming over to prune my fruit trees.  O' how it pains me to give that up!  I'll probably end up "supervising" him while he does it - I am such a freak over my fruit trees!

As for the rest of my Gardening Plan - more specifically, the greenhouse - I hope to actually get off my butt and put some of Finny's suggestions to good use!  I do want to start the majority of my veggies from seeds this year and the greenhouse seems like the perfect place to do that!

Hopefully I'll get out there with my camera and post updates as it happens.  We shall see, right?!

Anyway...  If you're in the SF Bay Area and need a good Garden Coach give Finny at Indie-Farms a shout!

Happy 2013 (and 'Twas a Very Spreckles Christmas!)

Wow.  I'm sure glad THAT'S over with!

We survived the Mayan Apocalypse *and* Holiday Traffic.  Que Milagro!

Christmas was actually pretty quiet and low-key for us - which is good.  I did bake a simply phenomenal Spreckles Holiday Ham (and I have never ever cooked a big fresh ham before).

Christmas is not a day for documenting recipes, so I'll just kinda cheat and post links instead...

After confirming with the butcher (and I can't tell you how many of my conversations w/them started with "Can I ask you a really dumb question?!"), the ham - having been smoked - was considered "pre-cooked" and therefore only needed to be re-heated.

I lost track of all the websites I'd perused in my quest for "How to cook the perfect ham" - but this is the one I followed most closely: Here.  I put a splash of apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, honey and maple syrup in the bottom of the pan.  As for glazing: I sliced diamonds in the skin and placed whole cloves at each of the intersections. Then I smeared a glaze of yellow-mustard, honey and maple syrup on the ham, let it melt a bit, then - toward the end of cooking - I added pineapple slices, maraschino cherries and a generous dusting of white + brown sugar.  Baked it @ 425* for the first hour, then reduced the heat to 350* and cooked it for appx 2 add'l hours (I honestly don't remember how long I cooked it!).

Yeah, so I stayed pretty true to that recipe - except for the addition of appx 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup.  And, even though that recipe was for a much smaller ham (Spreckle's butt was 10#!), I had plenty of leftover glaze that never even made it onto the ham!

So, to recap, Spreckles before:

A Mighty Fine Pig!

Spreckles during:

Spreckles after:

Yes, Spreckles was delicious.

And my shiny new Henckels knives (prezzie from Hubs) came in MOST handy!  I loves me some good knives - yes I do!

So yeah, we snarfed down most of Spreckles on Christmas, and we had quite a few tasty ham sandwiches.  I still had a big chunk o' ham leftover, so I wrapped it up and tossed it back in the freezer for future meals...

We also had Gulliver's Creamed Corn (orgasmic!), mashed taters, and baked apples.  Oh, and a store-bought Pecan Tart for dessert.

All told, a very delicious meal!

Now, unfortunately, you may have noticed that I've gone a bit quiet, of late.  That's because I'm in the midst of another Psoriasis flare-up and I'm feeling pretty crappy, overall.  In fact, it was bad enough that I had to miss out on our NYE plans - Furthur Concert in San Francisco.  Hubs ended up hooking up with one of his Deadhead Friends, so it's not like the tickets were wasted.  But still, it bums me out in a big way...

I've gone back to the Dermatologist and her advice (now) is to stop ALL drugs - except antibiotics - and wait and see if it clears-up on its own.  There was a "rant" post in the works, but I'm just too run-down to even bitch about it (but I am already thinking about going back to Stanford Dermatology and insisting on a newer doctor).

So there is the Holiday Wrap-Up - such as it is.  Hopefully I'll pull out of this funk soon - and get back to blogging!

Rainy Day Recipe: Sweet Italian Sausage

According to NOAA, this isn't an El Niño year, but looking out the window..?  It sure looks like one!  Holy hell, has it been raining!!!

And, I think it was Friday night, I was lying in bed - trying to fall asleep, when it suddenly occurred to me that - ahem! - Christmas is on TUESDAY and I hadn't procured the necessary ingredients for our Mini-Christmas Feast!

So, THE SATURDAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS, I decided to tackle the grocery store.  I was practically having cold-sweats and heart palpitations in the friggin' parking lot!  Gawd, do I hate crowds!!!

If there are any of you out there who are facing a similar dilemma and have to hit the grocery store these final days, two words:  Protective Gear!  I'd hate to hear of anyone ending up in the hospital due to a dispute over the last can of sliced pineapple!

But I digress....................

I *did* survive my assault on the grocery store and we *do* have everything we need for our Holiday Repast.  Spreckles *will* be served!

Okay!  So the shopping (assault) got done and I found myself with an entire Saturday afternoon to kill.  The utterly crap-tastic weather outside severely limited my choices of leisure activities.  :::sigh:::

I had been perusing various recipe sites - looking for New and Exciting Ways to utilize some of the ABUNDANT pork in my freezer.  In fact, awhile back, I found a *most* interesting site on Sausage-Making: Lets-Make-Sausage.  What the hell, right?

About a year ago, I purchased a manual meat-grinder/sausage stuffer.  It was fairly inexpensive (I wanna say around thirty bucks), and it looked a lot like an old meat-grinder that my dad used whenever he had a hankerin' for fresh roast-beef or corned-beef hash.  When my mom died, and we were cleaning out her house, I was really-really hoping we'd stumble onto it - because I really WANTED it.  Unfortunately, it was long-gone.

Anyway, in a fit of nostalgia, I decided to order my own, new, meat-grinder thingie - thinking it would be the same as my dad's.  And yes, it does *look* like it.  But that's where the similarity ends.

Weapons of Spreckles Destruction

Firstly, my dad's grinder had a built-in C-clamp so you could firmly affix it to the edge of a counter-top.  Mine has four legs with holes so you can bolt-it-down.  Somehow, I don't think I want this as a permanent fixture in my kitchen!

Secondly, my dad's grinder could grind meat like nobody's business!  My grinder's box said "Grind 5 lbs of meat in one minute" so, naturally, I thought....  Well...  Let's continue the rambling, shall we?! ("Oh please!")

Okay, so anyway, when we picked-up Spreckles, both Finny and I ended up with something like 10# of Hot Smoked Italian Sausage apiece.  Hubs and I aren't big into spicy so I figured I'd make a batch of Sweet Italian Sausage using my handy-dandy/Just-Like-Dad's meat-grinder/sausage stuffer.

I used the "Gina's Sweet Italian Sausage" recipe from this page.  I'm not gonna bother re-posting the entire recipe, but here is the general gist of it:  5 lbs pork shoulder roast, cut into one-inch-cubes, then ground (I ended up using 2 store-bought roasts :::gasp:::) (Hey, they were on-sale and I wanna save the Spreckles roasts for smoking next summer!).  Then there's the seasoning which I prepared using the following ingredients:

Seasoning ingredients:

• 5 tsp cracked fennel (I found whole fennel seeds and I lightly crushed them with a mortar/pestle)
• 1 TBS salt (I would definitely recommend cutting back on that)
• 1 TBS fresh ground pepper (I think I used about 1/2 TBS - and that was fine)
• 1-1/2 TBS garlic powder (I used 1 TBS garlic powder and 3 large, fresh cloves finely minced)
• 2 tsp rubbed sage
• 1 cup cold white wine (I used Kendall Jackson Chardonnay - but I wonder if a sweeter wine, like a white riesling, might be better)

You can get the step-by-step directions from the sausage site........

Let's do pictures, k?

Soaking the pure hog casings in warm water

(Gross!)

While I was cutting/cubing the roasts, I soaked the hog casings (I bought mine as part of a sausage kit on Amazon).  The really grody part was rinsing the INSIDES of the casings.  We're talking about pig intestines here - just FYI - and they're slithery and slimy!  It was challenging to separate the casings, and then to pry one end open and keep it open under a running faucet to let the water run through it.  Then you have to squeeze-out all of the water by pinching/sliding down the length of the casing...  Yeah!  Gross!

Okay, now back to the meat:

This requires a super-sharp knife!

All ready for the grinder!

All right!  

So far, so good!

Wellllll....  It started out all right, but....  Let me just say this:  Whoever came up with that claim about being able to grind 5 lbs of meat in one minute was - for lack of a better word - full of sh*t!  I suppose if I had bolted the damned thing down, it might've gone a little bit easier.  It's extraordinarily difficult to stuff AND crank AND hold the thing steady (in spite of the fact that the grinder weighs a freaking ton!).  Alternatively, maybe having a second person to turn the crank might've helped a bit as well.  But let me tell you: Whoever has crank-duty had better have Popeye arms!

I'm strong to the finitch 'cuz I eats me spinach!

Yeah, so, 30 minutes later (with sweat dripping into my eyes - EW!),  I noticed that I was turning the crank and nothing new was coming out the other end.  In fact, the stuff I was stuffing into the grinder was simply oozing back out the top of the grinder.  WTF?!!

Yeah, the grinder plate kept getting jammed up with fatty connective tissue from the roast.  Sh*t.  So I had to keep stopping, removing the grinder plate and blade to de-gunkify them (had to use a knife and a strong-stream of running water), then re-assemble the unit.  I repeated that process, several times, and - ohhh maybe after an hour, total - I ended up with a bowl-full of freshly ground sausage. 

(which I forgot to take a picture of - but I think you can imagine it, right?!)

So then I pulled the hog casings from their soaking bowl and began the tedious task of separating them.  I had no clue how many casings I would need, so I started out with five:

Gross, right?!

(I ended up using only one! HA!)

Okay, then I mixed up the seasonings:

The trick - at this stage - is to have the liquid seasoning mixture COLD so that the meat and fat solidify a bit. The other trick is to do your final mixing with your bare (or gloved) hands so that the seasoning gets evenly distributed.

I didn't take pictures during the stuffing phase because I'd need to sprout more arms!  But I removed the grinding plate and blade, and replaced it with the sausage stuffer tube.  I smeared the outside of the tube with a little olive oil so I could more easily slide the hog casing onto the end of the tube.  And it really wasn't easy at all - particularly since my fingers were super-slimy (no way to avoid that!  I think I went through a whole roll of paper towels!).

The stuffing of the casings really wasn't very difficult (after the prep-work was done!).  Pull the end of the casing off the feed-tube and start turning the crank.  The casing fills with air at first, but then the sausage starts coming out.  Right hand gently tugs the casing, guiding the sausage, while the left hand turns the crank.  Once you've got one sausage length, stop cranking, tug the sausage away from the stuffer and give it a couple-three twists.  Then resume tugging/guiding and cranking for the next sausage...

End up with this:

Yummy Sausage!

I ended up with 9 links appx 3-4" long (from one hog-casing).  I could have kept going with the casings, but I actually prefer bulk Italian Sausage (and didn't want to wrestle with more pig intestines!!), so I also ended up with two vacuum-packed 1-lb bags of bulk Italian sausage for the freezer - and one smallish bag (maybe half-a-pound?) that I tossed in the fridge.

I left the stuffed sausages to air-dry on the plate in the fridge overnight (since I don't have a cool dry place to hang them).  This morning, I vacuum-sealed them (2 per bag) for the freezer...

* * * * *

Taste-Test!

I did cook-up one link and some mini-patties for brunch this morning since I was dying to see how they came out.  The flavor of this recipe is good - but not well-suited for breakfast (Hubby agrees!).  I am SURE that this will be awesome in tomato sauce, though...

Now I can't wait to make a batch o' spaghetti sauce with my very own Frozen Squozen 'Maters, home-grown herbs, and home-made Italian Sausage!

So: What's the final verdict on Sausage-Making?!

• I wish I had my Dad's old grinder - This one sucks!
• The fact that it got jammed-up, early-on, meant that the meat inside the grinder got super-smushed.  And not in a good way.  
• So, for Round I of sausage-making, it really didn't have the proper "chunky" texture throughout.
• Sausage-making seems like a lot of work to me (right now) and I am not super-eager to attempt it again anytime soon!
• Bottom Line:  I need a better grinder (and I think I've decided I also need a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer.  Hello Amazon Wish-List!)

I DO have a whole lot of hog-casings to use up, however.  And I DO want to try more of the recipes on the sausage-making site (Mmmm...  Bratwurst!), so I suspect I may end up buying some plain-ol' already-ground-up breakfast sausage from the store (::::GASP:::).  Using the grinder as a sausage-stuffer really isn't all that bad (I might ask hubby to run the crank next time!), so I probably WILL attempt this again.

Hope you've enjoyed my Culinary Mis-Adventures.  I'm not calling this one a "Win" - but definitely worthy of more experimentation - once I get the proper equipment!

And now I will leave you with a picture of a blown-glass snowman that I made at Bay Area Glass Institute a couple of weeks ago:

"Merry Christmas!"

Recipe: Pot Roast - It's a Beautiful Thing!

Urgh!  Winter's here.  And we're getting our first *Official* freeze tonight.  Booooo!!!

But - you know what that means?  Time for "Comfort Food" and that means Pot Roast. Yayyyy!!!

I ♥ My Crock Pot!

Okay, I'm not even gonna call this my own (although I did tweak it a bit).  It's Pioneer Woman's recipe and you can find it over here.

I did all of the initial prep on the stove-top in my dutch oven.  I deglazed the pan with half a mini-bottle of Merlot.  Then I decided to transfer everything over to the crock pot so I could 'Set it and Forget it!'  My stove, even on simmer, just requires too much attention.

My only additions (so far!) were 2 cloves of chopped, fresh garlic: One went in the pot with the "brown your onions" stage - and the other went, raw, into the liquid.

I also opened the freezer and discovered a bag of "Stew Vegetable Mix" (carrots, potatoes, celery and pearl onions), so I tossed that in the bottom of the cooker before I transferred the meat and freshly browned veggies (and beef broth) to the crock-pot...

Mine was a ~3.5 lb "Flat Iron Roast" (which is basically two Flat Iron Steaks stuck together with connective tissue).  According to the package, this is an oven-roast roast, but - since it's basically chuck - I figured I'd better braise it...

Anyway, it's blorping away in the crock pot (I'm estimating 4 hours on 'high') and it smells WONDERFUL :-)

I may end up adding more "stuff" towards the end (definitely more Merlot - possibly more veggies near the end).  If I do, I'll update the post.  I also hope I can snap a halfway decent dinner-plate pic.

* * * * *
Okay, just halfway-decent!

No significant changes to the recipe, actually - other than mixing up a couple TBS of corn-starch with a couple TBS of water so I could thicken the sauce a bit.  Oh, and I dumped the other half of my mini-bottle of merlot into the sauce at the very end...

Excellent "Stick-To-Your-Ribs" kinda meal for a super-cold rainy night....

Enjoy!

A Shiny New Blog :-)

I find I don't yak nearly enough about my "attempts" at Ceramic Artistry over here.  This seems to be more of a Cooking and Gardening and Blathering Mindlessly about Nothing kinda blog!

I really do want to ramp-up the Ceramic Stuff though.  Make more.  Maybe sell some sh*t on Etsy (or something!), so I'm slowly trying to defibrillate my Alter-Ego, NanTiKi.  I've got a webpage (that really doesn't *do* anything!), NanTiKi and now I've decided that I want a Content-Only Blog (HEYYY!!!).

So, if you're even remotely interested in Ceramic Stuff, go take a look at my Other Blog, k?!

NanTiKiBlog.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoy! (And yes, I'm sure I'll still be blathering endlessly over here, too!).

xoxo

-QT (aka NanTiKi)

Recipe: Pina Colada Jam (Super easy!!!)

Okay, so my "old" studio, Blossom Hill Crafts held their annual sale at Los Gatos History Club - just like they do every year...

And, just like every year, there was a gal selling AWESOME jams and jellies...

And, just like evey year, I spent more $$ than I should have - on home-made jams and jellies (given that I have an entire shelf-full of my OWN home-made jams!).  One of my personal favorites is Pineapple Jelly and - seriously - how difficult can that be???

Honestly, the jelly I bought was FAR too sweet - so naturally I decided I'd best make my own, right?!!

So here is what I came up with!

QT's Pina Colada Jam (decidedly different from what I bought - but tasty nonetheless!)
Yields 7 half-pint jars of jam

Ingredients:

• 2 x 20 oz cans of crushed pineapple - IN PINEAPPLE JUICE (so that kinda limits it to name-brand Dole!)
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (I got mine at the local health-food store - but you could probably substitute "sweetened" coconut if that's all you can find at your local grocer's)
• 1/4 cup Torani Sugar-free Coconut Syrup
• 2 TBS Coconut-flavored pancake syrup (Optional - we had a bottle that we'd picked-up during our last Maui vacation!)
• 1 tsp real vanilla extract
• 4 cups sweetener (I used C&H Light - Cane-Sugar + Stevia 50/50)
• 7 TBS Low/No-Sugar Pectin
• Opt salt (if it seems too sweet)

Instructions:

1. Put your can-lids into the base of your canner with a little water and start heating them on medium low...
2. Dump 2 cans of crushed pineapple into a large cooking pot / dutch oven
3. Add shredded coconut, vanilla & syrups and start heating on Medium-High 'til it starts to boil
4. Mix Pectin with appx 1 cup of sweetener.  Add to boiling liquid.
5. Stir and add the rest of your sweetener.
6. Give it a taste.  If it seems too sweet (mine did), add some salt.
7. Bring to a hard boil.  Let it boil hard, stirring constantly, 'til you get a good "set" - for a minimum of one minute - (scoop a little into a spoon and place the spoon in your freezer for 5 mins to make sure it doesn't gloop off the spoon).
8. Once you're confirmed an adequate "set" - spoon the jam into heated sterilized jars.
9. Cap and process for 10 mins in a hot-water-bath or steam-canner...

I may, or may not, post photos later.....................................

Okay, here's a photo!

Haven't sampled it yet (except while it was cooking), but I suspect it will be delicious!

Addendum:  I opened one of the jars the next day and I think I used too much Pectin.  I'd suggest cutting it back to 5 TBS (for 2 cans of pineapple) and check for set sooner.  Also, my jam came out sweeter and more coconutty than I normally like (not sure how that happened!).  When/if I make this again, I'll probably eliminate the Torani Coconut Syrup...

Nevertheless, this jam is QUITE tasty with cottage cheese.....................

Garden Tutorial - How to make a super-cheap hoop-house for winter

Oooh!  "Content!"

Okay, so the other day, I yakked about the cheesy POS "mini-greenhouse" I'd purchased, online, last summer.  And how the thing basically imploded after the first big wind-and-rain storm.

Instead, I put this up:

Finny Farm - Getting ready for bed!

Yesterday, I put one layer of Floating Row Cover fabric over the bed.  I don't think it rained last night, but it got pretty dewy.  When I went out to check it this morning, it seemed to fare pretty well, actually.  It wasn't oozing down onto the plants or anything like that - so I think this may turn out to be a Successful Experiment (That's one in a row!!!).

Finny Farm Tent, Day #2

(one layer of fabric - at this point)

So here is my mini-tutorial on how I accomplished this amazing feat!

First off: The raised beds are appx 4'x6'.  We used 2 @ 10-foot lengths of 2x12 pressure-treated lumber to build two of the beds (yes, I know pressure-treated isn't ideal, but that's what was readily available, at the time).  I think the third bed is actually redwood. "Build-a-raised-bed" is a fairly simple endeavor.  Just cut your wood to the appropriate lengths, use flat "L" brackets and BIG screws to hold 'em together, make a big ol' square or rectangle, place the bed wherever you want it, and fill it with good planting mix.

The "Poor-Man's Hoop House" is constructed from 4 @ 2-foot lengths of rebar (per bed).  I think they were appx $2 at Home Depot (just checked - yep, they're $1.98 apiece).  I drove them into the ground, with a hammer, at each corner of the raised bed.  Not *just* into the planting-mix soil, but clear down into the rock-hard clay underneath.  I think I left appx 6" sticking straight-up at each corner.

Then, for each bed, you'll need 2 @ 10-foot lengths of 1/2" diameter PVC pipe ($1.68 apiece).  Basically, you take one end of the pipe and slide it over the exposed rebar, then bend the pipe and slide it over the rebar in the opposite corner of the bed.  This part's a little tricky because the pipe is bending down at an angle, but the rebar is standing straight-up.  It takes a little jiggering and re-jiggering, but eventually you'll be able to get the pipes to slide *almost* all the way down.  It doesn't have to be ALL the way down, but far-enough that the pipe can't flip-up and "Boi-oi-oi-oi-oing" up and slice your nose off your face!

Hoop-base with appx 2" of exposed rebar
(FF Bed, I was able to get the PVC to go all the way down to the soil)

The trickiest part of all is getting BOTH pipes situated so that they touch where they cross in the middle of the bed.  The next step requires the use of one of mankind's greatest inventions:  Duct Tape!

Amazing stuff!

I honestly don't know if this step is necessary, but I figured it can't hurt, right?  Duct-tape the pipes together so they can't wobble around.  We get some pretty windy storms here, so I figure the duct tape will help add rigidity...

Next, you'll need some floating row-cover fabric.  I used Harvest-Gard HG-50 Plant Protection Fabric ($18.99 from Amazon).  You could probably shop-around and find it for less but I was already placing a big Christmas-Shopping order from Amazon and wanted to take advantage of Free Super-Saver Shipping!  

This is super lightweight unwoven fabric that allows sun and water to penetrate, and will protect my plants from freezes as low as 29* (single layer) or 26* (double-layer).  To be honest, I am less concerned about frosts (we only get a handful of nights where temps dip below freezing), but I am interested in protecting my Brassicas from BUGS!  So there you have it!

Anyway, the fabric comes in 5' widths or 10' widths.  10' would have MORE than covered my raised beds, but would have been rather unwieldy!  So I chose 5'.  The first layer went on the long side of the bed (which is 6' wide), so the first layer came-up a little "short."  I used cheesy-cheap clips, situated about 18" up from the soil level, to secure the fabric.

Cheesy Magnetic Clips (that the magnets fell out of!)

I think they came in a 6-pack from the Dollar Tree!

If you scroll back up to the Finny-Farm Pic, you'll see how the 5' width couldn't quite cover the 6' long side.  Ahh well!

So, drape the fabric over the "long" side of the bed, clip it off at all 4 corners, then attempt to cut the fabric so there is some "overhang" at soil-level.  Unfortunately, I did not take measurements, so I can't tell you actual lengths.

And, BTW, use a GOOD pair of shears to cut the fabric.  This stuff does NOT like to cut in a straight line!

Next, drape the fabric over the "short" side of the bed.  When you do that, you'll have enough overhang at the sides to make-up for the shortfall on the first run!  Use the same clips to secure the second layer of fabric.

It's like a little tent!

The last step will be to secure the fabric down at the soil-line.  You can either use dirt (excuse me, SOIL), or plant-fabric staples, or - ultra-cheesy and über cheap! - get yourself some old wire coat-hangers and a pair of heavy-duty wire cutters to make your own fabric staples by cutting 6-8" lengths of hanger-wire and bending them into 'U' shapes.

Originally, I thought I would use my staple-gun to secure the fabric to the sides of the raised bed - but that would prevent me from easily checking on (or HARVESTING) my veggies, so I think I'll be using Garden Staples (appx $6 for 40 of them @ Home Depot).

The 5' x 50' length of fabric was MORE than enough for two raised beds.  My third bed has a Very Tall artichoke growing in it (and is far too close to a MASSIVE Yucca tree), so I won't be able to construct a similar tent over that bed ("Oh, well!").  

All-told, my "Poor-Man's Hoop House" cost less than $25 per bed to construct. (It'd be closer to $20 if I went with home-made staples).  That is certainly less than the $35@ for the cheesy greenhouses I bought online (that didn't survive one measly storm!).  I actually like the "height" of these houses - more than the $35 greenhouses anyway!

So there it is!  My "Moment" of Ingenuity!  Hope you find this helpful!  And, of course, I'll post updates if anything noteworthy occurs................

-QT