Well, just a few tidbits, recent pictures since midwinter.  We're now closer to the end than the middle... and I can feel it.  Thinking about projects I wanted to do that I haven't started yet, or just barely anyway...

The chamber is looking good.  Disease is still taking the cucumbers but there's a new crop of seedlings so we'll see how they'll go.  The one Arbason tomato plant that started back in March has come into its own and is producing nice toms... not full size beefsteaks by any means, but not cherries either, and there are more good ones than ones lost to blossom end rot.  So I call that a success under the current regime.  New Gold Nugget cherry toms are growing well, hopefully we'll get some good fruits from them before we leave.  Can only hope that we get some more Chiquita cherry tomato seeds for next season-- they were the BOMB last winter.  Sweet, thick red flesh... y.u.m.

Other fun things, Paramo and Britney bell peppers-- fantastic.  But they're DeRuiter seeds, which has just been bought by Monsanto... so I'm not too psyched about getting more.  Sadly though b/c they're doing great in the chamber.  Stronger plants and thicker walled fruits than the Islander variety that had been the most successful kind previously.  Always pays to do a little 'experiementing'.

Ok so on to the pics.  Plants of course.  But what else?  We had a 'country fair' last weekend, with several booths (reading the runes, a theramin station, I put out my spinning wheel and loom, pop-up card making, and silly photos... then there was a pie eating contest and a chili cook off, then finally an auction with the proceeds going to the fellow who was recently medivaced to Christchurch for an appendectomy.  His medical care was covered but wages lost, and his wife back in the states just had a baby... so we're sure the money will be well received.

Did I say something about pictures?

Oh, we also had a 4th of July celebration with a barbeque in the "heavy shop"... which is our vehicle maintenace facility.  Pictures of this to follow too.  Promise.  Now I have to go watch a semi-final pool tournament match, and drink some home made ginger beer.  Then I'll be back.  If the internet is up.  Stay tuned. 

I also went camping.  For real.  It was -100F outside.  And I was inside of two sleeping bags, with four hot water bottles (ok, five).  And lying on top of two more sleeping bags.  And had 4" of insulating foam below that.  But I was outside the station, and inside the tent.  And my breath was frosting over everything.  In the morning (I stayed out from 10pm till 6am), everything was fully frosted over, had frost falling on my face all night from the inside of the sleeping bag that was covering my face... and my handwarmer packets weren't working but luckily one of my hot water bottles was still dang hot so I cozied my fingers up inside it's insulating cover (one of my grey 'elephant trunk' socks) to get them warm enough that I could function enough to get back to the station to have a real warm up before heading back out to bring in all the gear.  I actually dragged my sleeping bag(s) out of the tent to have that "under the stars" experience at the Pole... but it had clouded over so I got a few stars but mostly mist.  And no auroras either (which I was hoping for).  Got those the night before as I was setting up.  But by god I knew where I was, camping at the South Pole.  Pretty sweet.

OK... pictures.  After the game, I promise.   :)

I'm back.  Game won via a scratch which left an easy ball-in-hand eight-ball shot.  Too bad, so sad.

Right, pictures.  Voila:



"Plate of Noms" by Cynthia Chiang.  This is from the last Farmer's Market event: mango pepper salsa, quinoa tabbouleh with fresh parsley, bell peppers, and scallions, and fresh melon.  Yes, I said melon.  Keep reading.





This is more fresh melon.  Plus prosciutto.  Nothing but the best here at South Pole.  I think it was left over from the centennial schenanigans when the prime minister of Norway visited last summer.



Here is the melon.  Sun Jewel variety-- some asian type thing from Johnny's Seeds.  They're about 7 inches long, and taste like a cross between honeydew and cantaloupe.  Took ~75 days to mature, seed to fruit.  All these fruits were from one plant, which died as they all matured more or less together.





I love these guys.  Easter egg radishes.  Different colors all in one packet.  This is how we grow them-- in individual rockwool cubes in the trays and with enough light they do just fine.



And this is them harvested.  Now all I need to do is carve little faces into them and we'd have a real sweet shot :)



Fun greenhouse tricks.  We've run out of seeds for our spicy globe basil which is the best grower we have-- doesn't succumb to "black leaf" and makes really nice globular plants with small leaves-- you can use the whole plant to blend up into pesto, or pick the small leaves or sprigs for basil lemonade, a favorite here this winter.  So with no seeds, I've started a cutting program to propagate this variety until we get our seed resupply order, hopefully with more globe basil seeds included.  Any member of the mint family will readily root if you put a cutting into water.  These start putting out roots within a week.  Then I just wrap some rockwool around the rooted stem, stick it into a tray, and off they go.  Sweet!



Sweet wee seedlings.  I love these shots.





These Tristan strawberries just keep chugging along.  This plant is grown from a runner-- I cut off the runner when it started to send out root nubs at the bottom of the node, then stuck it in moist vermiculite for several weeks until it had a healthy root mass, then stuck some rockwool around it for structure/protection, then stuck it in a tray and here it is.  Nice 1.5" fruit on that one.  Y.U.M.




Healthy home-made micro mix of greens: pac choi, mizuna, and kale.  Turned out nice.




I think this might be my favorite picture of the season so far.  Colors colors colors.  Healthy greenery.  Happiness.  And, the dang white balance of the camera is spot on for once!




Here's a "check-in" on our carrot project-- planted several varieties in a bin of vermiculite.  We thought it was a bust until we started digging and found these wee nubs.  They're still growing and the Kinbi variety is the winner... will get some good baby-type carrots in a week or so.  Exciting!!!  I tasted one of these wee things and believe it or not, it tasted like carrot.  Big flavor in a small crunchy (ok, one crunch) package.




This photo is cool for three reasons.  Well maybe four.  1) We have a Shrek Pet.  2) His hair is arugula sprouts, not chia sprouts.  Arugula does the same mucus thing that chia seeds do if you soak them for a day or two.  Who knew?  3)  That is corn growing behind Shrek.  4)  The corn came from germinated popcorn kernels that had been soaked-- part of the process for making popcorn here.  Our popcorn is so dried out that it doesn't have enough moisture in it to get hot/steam and pop the kernel.  So we have to soak our popcorn first.  And there were some kernels that apparently hadn't given up the ghost of their former productive lives yet, and sent out some nascent roots.  They were brought oh so carefully, with wonder and awe, to the greenhouse for safekeeping and nourishment.  And thus I encouraged them.  And now we have popcorn plants.  Wonders will never cease. 




Our bumper crop of Arbason tomatoes.  Yay!




And here's the chamber itself.  Front view.  Three systems.  Greens, herbs, peppers, amaranth, eggplant on left and right.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, melon, and taller such crops in the middle.  The hibiscus is now is a bucket out of the system-- wanted just 'new' plants in there, the hibiscus has been growing strong since LAST WINTER!  They're champs.  I"m starting some cuttings of them too-- they'll root eventually if you take a good strong branch and stick it in water-- but keep the water fresh not nasty algae-y (do as I say, not as I do...) 




Left side.  That wilted plant at front left is Tokyo Bekana, a highly adapted radish, and it's got root rot... I'll have to pull it tomorrow.  Forgot about it today.  Today was computer report and staff meeting day.  There's that globe basil in the middle of the upper rack, then kale and eggplant and cutting celery at the back.  Mizuna, chinese cabbage, lettuce, and nursery/herbs at back.




Middle system.  Cucumber seedlings.  C'mon sweeties!




Right system.  Calendula in foreground, then lettuce, then scallions (bunched onions), all the way back to the strawberries.  Pac choi and kale on top foreground, then chard and the pepper forest all the way to the back.  The amaranth is the big bush straining up the back wall.  Weed is right.  And the hayfever-producing pollen to prove it!




Happy pepper harvest.



Well,we're past the halfway point!  This last weekend we had our mindwinter celebration, marked by a big dinner, "drive-in" movies in the gym (projected onto a a big 'screen' made of old sheets on the back wall, plus we move in couches and cozy chairs, have popcorn, and for midwinter-- warm cookies and cold milk... and this was special because it wasn't the watery powdered stuff we usually get in the gally but a secret stash of UHT milk in boxes... not fresh from the cow but as close as we're going to get!), and two days off.  We also had a brunch sponsored by the greenhouse, where an assortment of Farmer's Market type things were served including homemade ginger beer.

Part of the spread for the midwinter Farmer's Market Brunch.

Enjoying brunch and basil lemonade on the 'verandah'....

The pepper harvest before midwinter dinner... wow!  We ate a bunch of that lettuce too.

During our dinner, our station manager read a piece crafted by the station manager from McMurdo which she then worked on to fit South Pole.  A nice representation of this time of the season for us.  We all had a lovely evening, and the moon came up a few days later which was a nice change from the darkness outside.  though right before it came up, I took a brief excursion outside to get rid of some greenhouse trash and took a moment to enjoy the scene-- dark, crisp sky, little wind, and just fresh cold air coursing into my lungs and wakening my face.  Sounds rather ordinary but sometimes you just have to allow the ordinary to become more than that.

 

Mid-winter Dinner - 2012

by Katie Hess (and Harry House)

 

Mid-winter day is a time of great significance here in the Antarctic and especially at the earth’s axis.  Celestially, on Thursday at 11:09am the South Pole was tilted the furthest away from the sun that we would all winter and marks our steady return to a position where the sun will once again be visible above the horizon.  Early explorers would mark mid-winter with feasts and commemorative toasts to loved ones back home and to each other.  For them, the day provided a much-needed morale boost after many months of isolation. 

Much has changed since the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration, both on the ice, and back ‘in the world’.  There are no Poles to discover any longer.  Now we seek to discover more about dark energy, dark matter and find elusive energetic neutrinos.  Nations no longer wait breathlessly in anticipation of our safe return, carrying word of feats of endurance and discovery, at best a newspaper will print that the fastest time skiing or kite skiing to South Pole has been beaten by a matter of hours.  We can converse with our loved ones back home in real time – most of the time, so our feeling of isolation is much reduced from 100 years ago or even 30 years ago.  Certainly, we now enjoy many of the comforts of home by comparison, though at times we all lose sight of that.  It is easy, and reasonable in many ways, for us to feel our contributions pale in comparison to the legends of the past.  It is understandable that many of us no longer feel any connection to those that came before us, or even to the legacy of the continent of Antarctica.

While all of this may be true, it misses the point.  Having the privilege of working here in one of the most isolated places in the world, where we know that it will be only the 50 of us here together for 9 months, where the weather can disorient you or cause severe frostbite in minutes during the winter, where it is possible to break the world’s coldest temperatures records, this is still one of the most unique opportunities in the world.  Because of this, we are all now members of an exclusive group of individuals that share a common bond.  This bond extends not only with each other, but across all the stations on the continent on this special day.  It transcends time as well.  If the early explorers were alive today, they would be just as interested in our sense of being here as theirs.  They are indeed with us tonight in spirit, and they also would appreciate a place at the table.  Please make room for them if you can.

And so, on this special evening, I propose a toast to all the Antarctic Heroes, past and present and future.

Everyone gussied up and enjoying a social hour before the dinner service.

Robert and I standing in front of the wall of midwinter greetings-- a tradition for all wintering parties to extend invitations to their festivities.  Take a look at ours, and others around the continent, on Robert's website at http://www.antarctic-adventures.de/2012/spole12.html

The galley decorated for dinner.

Enjoying the fine food produced by our fine galley staff.

Our fine galley staff, in regalia espepainted/created by Mel one of the cooks (third from left)

Menu item: Salad of local greens topped by grilled shrimp skewer and creamy cilantro (local grown too!) dressing.

also!  I see the questions that a few folks have posted... I will answer them soon if I can figure out how to do that individually, or will just post the answers in another blog session.  Especially Dani-- sorry I've delayed so so long!

A peek into the greenhouse going-ons... every month I've been hosting a Farmer's Market event-- a chance for folks to taste some fresh goodies while chatting and relaxing in the chamber.  Among the offerings have been Mango-Sweet Pepper-Cilantro salsa; various pestos made from chard (silver beet), radish leaf, and arugula;dill/chive goat cheese spread topped with radish or cucumber slices; hibiscus-lemon balm spritzer; Italian-style pico de gallo (with tomatoes, bell peppers, scallions, and basil instead of cilantro/tomato)... pretty yummy if I do say so myself.  Here are some nice shots of our recent gatherings...

Folks enjoying the humidity and goodies!

 

 

 

Mashing mint and lemon balm to add that fresh pizazz to the hibiscus spritzer.

Strawberries!  My personal feeling of success this season...

Robert in the strawberry zone.

Me very happy about the huge luscious sweet juicy berries.

Back to Farmer's Market goodies-- silver beet pesto, mango-pepper-cilantro salsa, and cucumber-topped chive-goat cheese spread.  Y.U.M.

Our cute radish crop.

More goodies-- arugula pesto, pico de gallo italian style, and dill-radish-goat cheese spread.  No we don't have goats to milk but how cool would it be if we did?!

Written feels like ages ago (maybe a month?), but ran out of internet time before I posted.  Now I'm finally back to post... and will put more up soon, I promise.  Don't laugh or roll your eyes.  I will.  It's totally dark now, and the greenhouse is full after undergoing some serious work.  Stay tuned...

---------

My have things changed since my last post.  It's just about dark now, though when I went for a ski yesterday there was a lovely orange glow still on the horizon, while on the opposite side of the sky the full moon presided, the light from the old sun and the new moon competed for what was going to give off the most shadow.

No more pictures from my bedroom window-- all windows are now covered with cardboard to minimize the amount of light from the station leaking outside... there are cameras on the roof of the station that pick up auroras and are very sensitive from any light that might escape from the station.

We had our sunset dinner to celebrate the coming darkness-- a lovely event with spectacular food.  The greenhouse provided some fresh flowers and greens for centerpieces as well as a yummy salad for dinner.

On a little walk about about a week or so ago... nice sunset light, shadows, pink tones...

Sastrugi-- the wind blows and makes ripples, humps, ridges, valleys in the snow... reminds me of blowing sand dunes and sedimentary rock formation... can get some really neat shapes and etchings.

Attempt to document myself, not just what I'm interested in taking pictures of, at the South Pole.

But here are a few pictures that folks have taken over the last couple of weeks.  It's been a beautiful time-- we didn't see the actual sunset, but about a week after the sun went below the horizon the weather cleared and what we did see was sunlight refracted through the Earth's atmosphere that was then reflected off of clouds near the horizon, and it looked like the sun-- an intense globular area of fire red peeking out at the horizon between the clouds-- but it was just intense reflection off of the clouds of the refracted light.  The sun was more than three degrees below the horizon at the time... some of the "old timers" say that's the latest they'd ever seen sunlight like that after the true sunset.  We even saw some green and blue light along with all the reds and oranges in the refraction spectrum.  Pretty cool.  OK then, on to the pictures:

First, Robert's shots.

A chillly station...

One of the science outbuildings-- the Dark Sector Lab with the 10 meter South Pole Telescope that looks at light/heat signals from the earliest origins of the universe to help explain how the universe is structured.

More sastrugi... not so easy to walk over, nicer with skis but you still have to watch your tips!  Science outbuildings in the background.

Happy two-day weekend!  We normally work six days a week, nine hrs a day, but once a month we get a treat and have a two day weekend.  A welcome respite for sure.  And a nice way to mark the beginning of the slow-down... things have been pretty crazy since I arrived at Pole (5 Feb) and even since the station closed for the winter (15 Feb).  But am finally feeling more caught up with things in the chamber, moved into my room, even taking time out to do some yoga!  Things look good in the greenhouse, harvesting and eating lots of locally grown produce... and the people keep wanting more so it looks like I'm in for a good time of it this winter.  Here are some recent shots from the chamber:

The food production part of the greenhouse: there are lettuces in most of the side racks, and tomatoes, cucumbers, and a couple zucchinis in the middle system.  At the back wall, melons are training up the twine in the middle, with malabar spinach coming in from the back corners.

This is the hobby system, located in the front room of the chamber.  We call it the "happy room" because there's a couch and a nice place to spend time reading, soaking up the light and breathing in the humid, plant-scented air.  There sunflowers, nasturtiams, chamomile, hibiscus, and red runner beans growing out here at the moment.

Happy colors-- calendula doing quite well at its present location in the back of the chamber, getting plenty of air flow and light.

Some of my babies in the nursery... radishes, spinach, cilantro, tomato, melons... lots of newbies to grow up a bit before getting moved up into their own big-boy-and-girl spots to grow grow grow!

The wee babies... seedlings just coming out in one of the germination trays.  The basil really does well here, and am hoping for good success with oregano and parsley this season.  So are the chefs!

Final shot for the day... wee baby cucumber!  These plants are so amazing... they start producing fruits before they're even two inches high these Jawell cucumbers.  We pluck off the fruits and any suckers (new stems growing from the leaf axils) for a while until the plants are well established (otherwise they'd be using their core energy for both growing strong and tall AND making fruits), then let the fruits start to set when the plants can support them.  A few weeks from now I think we'll start chowing on our own cukes.  Can't wait!

Arrived at Pole!  All is well, settling in amidst the hustle bustle of end-of-summer crazy pace... turnover with new crew, finishing last bits and pieces of projects, waiting for important cargo to arrive before the last planes... anticipation rides high.  Harvested the first greens of the season yesterday-- all is looking good for a winter full of fresh veg at the bottom of the world.  Here's a view of the chamber as of now:

chamber on 4 January with most plants started around 11 November

That's all for now-- once I get more photos sorted I'll post some more specifics.  Today the weather is pretty balmy... only -25F or so... hardly need a jacket to take out the trash!  :)