Holiday Gifts

Ever since I moved here in 2010, I've made gift bags for the holidays for my neighbors. The content has changed over the years. Since I'm gluten and soy free, this year it had to change a lot. I didn't make fudge for the first time. Cookies didn't dominate the contents either.

I was thinking I could put in a butternut squash if I needed to fill up the space. But it turned out I had a lot of extras in the pantry to give away. Most of the items in the basket have something from the garden in them.

I did end up making some gluten free oatmeal cookies and some cinnamon almonds, but I really like that most of it came from the garden. Not everyone got the same things as I didn't have six of everything. But I had dill relish, peach rum sauce, rhubarb syrup, tarragon and basil vinegar, and gooseberry jam. I also had some dried herbs. I dry a lot of herbs through the year and I went through my spice rack first and took what I needed (especially the sage, which I always seem to run out of no matter how much I dry) and all the extras got put in small jars to give away. This year I had extra of thyme, oregano, and tarragon.

Gleaning

Though I don't often write about it, I have been out gleaning this summer. Today I had to share because it was the most beautiful farm. We were at Hutchins Farm. We had a huge crew with us to glean beets, radishes, and turnips. The assistant farm manager gave us a little spiel about the farm. It was started in 1973, though the land had been farmed previously by the same family. When it was started it was started as an organic farm and remains that way today.

I get to intimately see a lot of farms in the area when I glean. This one is more sweeping and beautiful than most. Many are little tiny tracts of land patch worked together to make the farm. I wish I had taken more photos, but I didn't bring my camera. I took the photos with my phone and I wasn't willing to bring it out once my hands got muddy.

Often when we glean we can take a handful of the produce back. Which is good since now you know what the radishes were like. My first photo of them was without my hand and you couldn't grasp the size from the photo. But with my hand in there you can see they are huge. We were wondering if they were any good this big as in my garden they get punky and gross past a certain size. These were crunchy and sweet with a little spicy kick at the end. Matt, the gleaning coordinator, took out his knife and cut one up so we could try it in the field. Yummy. Now if I could just figure out how they do it.

Boston Area Gleaners and a Few Odds and Ends

Oh my aching back. My husband tells me I'm an unpaid migrant farm worker. But I know the truth. I only picked lettuce stooped over for three hours and not all day.

Today was the first day that the Boston Area Gleaners (BAG) harvested this year. It was at Waltham Fields Community Farm. Matt, the BAG coordinator, and three of us volunteers spent the morning in one of their greenhouses picking baby lettuce. We probably picked around 100lbs. Matt drops gleaned food off at a lot of places that need fresh produce, but this time it was given to Food For Free, which itself distributes the food to many different places that that help those in need. I started volunteering last year and it is fun as we get to visit a lot of different farms through the growing season. City Growers was by far the most interesting as they use vacant lots in Dorchester and Roxbury to grow food.

They are expanding to the North Shore this year. So if you are interested or know anyone that lives on the North Shore that would be interested let them know about it. They have a lot of farms that want to join in, but they need people in the area to pick the produce.

As to my own garden I went out and spent money yesterday. I got two bags of composted manure for the last bed that still needed compost. I almost made enough compost for the garden last year, but not quite. I also picked up some salt marsh hay for my strawberries. I like to keep them thickly mulched to keep the cats out. Sadly it encourages the slugs, cut you can't have everything. I also bought flowers. Yes I plant flowers too, but I don't talk about it as much. This time I got flowers for my front planter. Last year it was pinks. This year I went with salmon colors. Now if I can just keep it watered and alive all summer long. I do so much better with plants in the ground as I can't kill them as easily.

Getting It Done

It has been a good week for cleaning up the garden. Each day except Thursday I was out and cleaned up one full bed. I also got the morning glories cleaned off the compost pile. The above beds were done on Monday and Tuesday. I usually crop off the houses in the distance, but then people get shocked when they find out I live in an urban environment. This shows a little of where we live. My neighbors are pretty close. My last house had a half an acre mostly in woods. This one has 9000 sqft which is shared by two townhouses. Most of my garden is in the side yard. It abuts my neighbors driveway which comprises the whole of their side yard. Interestingly enough our side yard was fairly similar when we bought the house. We had to rip out driveway to put in part of the garden.

These two got done on Wednesday and Friday. Some is still left in the one bed as it is a cover crop of oats, peas, and vetch. It is patchy since I put it in as something was pulled out. The oats and peas will die over the winter and the vetch will get turned under in the spring. You can see in the background the tomato plant still in. I've got to pull that bed. Mostly it is random cilantro and mustards that are growing, but there is a little cover crop and some carrots.

I didn't think these carrots would have enough time/sun to produce. The sections near the fence get less sun than the section near the path. The trees and the neighbor's house shade it much earlier in the fall than the other side. But it is an experiment. I want to see how big they get. If they do fairly well I might be able to use the fence section for fall carrots if I get them in soon enough. My other option is to put some of the fence section in blueberries instead of veggies. They will do well with a little shade in the spring and fall. And I find that my area to grow things is just a little too large for vegetables. I'm allowing sections to be unproductive at times and I just don't care. That means I have too much space. I suppose this isn't a terrible thing. At my last garden I was always wanting more.

Cleaning out the Freezer

My first thought for my Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard post was to talk about my recent trip. I ate out the whole time and with my eating issues (no nightshades) it is hard to find things to eat on the menus. What is the fascination with putting peppers in everything? Normally when I go out this is fine, but this time it meant I had little to no vegetables for five days. I was in deprivation mode. Though to be fair I had plenty of fruit. The convention had marvelous fruit platters and lots of bananas and apples.

So when I got back I had to eat my veggies. Breakfast was veggies with a little egg to hold it together.

I skipped lunch as my system was all out of whack (conventions are germ incubators), but for dinner I had scallops pan fried in ghee. I used the drippings to do my stirfry. At this point on day three of coming back my system isn't screaming for me to eat veggies any more. I still want them, but I like a bit more balance. So this morning I had some cantaloupe with my veggies and eggs. The Ambrosia cantaloupes were sweet as candy, but didn't have the overall flavor as the Halonas. The Halonas were much less sweet, but more flavorful in my opinion.

Anyway I digress. I was going to tell you about all that, but Robin decided to defrost her freezer. Mine was long overdue so I had to. It led to me taking stock of everything I'd stored and what I still needed for the long cold winter. So since I haven't put anything up this last week I'll ignore what I've been eating and give you the state of my pantry and freezer.

Freezer

• Basil, both chopped in oi and whole leaf
• Bok Choy 16 servings
• Broccoli 8 servings
• Carrots none yet, still to go
• Celery none yet, still to go
• Chinese cabbage 8 servings
• Corn 3 servings
• Gooseberries 4 x 1 cup
• Green beans 4 servings
• Spinach 42 Servings
• Strawberries overstuffed gallon bag
• Zucchini 4x 1 cup and 14 x 1 1/2 cup

Canned

• Relish 5 cups
• Pickled bok choy 2 pints
• Dill pickles 7 pints
• Bread and Butter pickles 6 pints
• Rhubarb 2.5 pints
• Plum Sauce 3 cups
• Canned beans 2 pints, will can more when the beans are all harvested and cleaned
• Blueberry Peach Jam 1 cup
• Plum Jam 1 cup
• Strawberry Jam 3.5 pints
• Strawberry Syrup 3.5 cups
• Apple Sauce none yet, still to can
• Tomatoes, I still have a lot of tomatoes canned. I've sent out an email to friends to see who wants home canned sauce, because frankly they shouldn't be in MY pantry

Herbs and Spices

• Mustard brown and yellow
• Garlic powder
• Dill Seed
• Dill Weed
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Basil
• Marjoram
• Rosemary
• Coriander
• Sage, but not nearly enough, it was a bad sage year

Other

This is my freezer area. I hang my storage onions and garlic here. I also have a spot on the top of the basement stairs for a smaller amount that I can get to easily from my kitchen.

• Dried beans, not yet weighed
• Garlic, almost 9 pounds
• Onions, 50 pounds
• Squash, not yet picked
• Sweet Potatoes, I've got my fingers croseed
• Carrots, not yet picked
• Cabbage, not yet picked

So as you can see I still have chores to do. I have carrots and celery to freeze. I have applesauce to can. I might do some pickled onions too. Not on the list is the mustard to make. And of course I need to can more beans. I don't can all the beans I use, but it is nice to have a selection that is quick cooking. A lot of the fall storage crops are still to be picked and stored. I will start picking butternut squash soon though. Many of them seem ready to come off. And the big question is when I harvest my sweet potatoes. Any clue? It is going to get less summer like next week. They need to be cured before eating or storing. Curing takes a hot humid room for a week which we won't have anymore. Should I make a plastic box to put by the window? Hmm I probably have one somewhere. They will be at 100 days of growth on Saturday. Should I can some? Should I freeze some? Will they store long enough in my basement that is guaranteed not to be in the perfect storage range (55F-60F) for most of the winter.

As you can see my kitchen cupboard is filling up. My hope really is to be able to eat a lot from my storage over our winter. My main veggies are spinach (twice a week), carrots (twice a week), brassicas (twice a week), squash (twice a week), onions and garlic all the time, and the new one is sweet potatoes. It would be nice to have those twice a week too. So I'll be green and orange all year long. It would be really cool to have enough to have both a green and yellow veggie from storage every dinner over the winter. It is looking almost doable at this point. But four months is a long time. I'm guessing I'll run out or decide I want fresh veggies and go to the market at some point.

A Garden Overview on a Frosty Morning

Rhubarb

This morning I looked out at the garden and saw frost. Not that this is an uncommon scenario at this time of the year, but I always think it is so pretty.

Peach blossom

Strawberry Plant

I often show close ups of the garden and talk about parts of it, but these next few photos will give you a good idea of my yard and how it is put together. This is a shared yard. There are two townhouses on the property. We bought the units together and we have large door on the inside that connects the living areas. Two parts of the garden are mine to do as I please. The parts inside the fence and the rock wall garden. The rest is shard work and shared harvests and shared costs. That isn't to say I don't share my harvests from the rest, but I get to choose how and when and if I do at all. But I also do all the upkeep and pay all the costs.

Above is my side yard. I have my back to the fence and am facing the front yard. The little Prius at the end is my husband's. It used to have more driveway but we ripped out the asphalt and left enough for just two cars. The rest is garden. It is all raised beds (eight beds all 4'x16') except two strips. One along the house where my sunflowers and some herbs grow in the summer . And one along the white fence in the front. My chamomile and some other herbs and flowers grow along there. I'm trying to grow an heirloom rose up and over the arch. It was planted last year and is only four feet high right now. I'm hoping it makes it over by the end of the year.

This is my back yard. It contains the circle garden and the compost. The circle garden gets hot because the brick path wraps around three sides. The last side has a small stone pathway. The center is a circle that is filled with some commonly used herbs - thymes, oregano, rosemary, chives. It is the view I get when I look out my back door. If you look past the fence you will see the rest of the back yard. There are two dwarf apples along the cedar fence. Along the house are some cranberries and raspberries.

In the front are two peach trees (everything is small since they were all planted last year). Around the peach trees are some low bush blueberries. You can tell where they are because they are surrounded by pine needles and the mulch color is different. To the right and out of the photo are three gooseberries. Across the private road is the rock wall garden. I'll explain the rock wall garden from left to right. The first section which is mostly out of the picture, I use for my summer flowers and my winter harvested Asian greens as it is one of the few places that gets light in the winter. It is a jumbled mass of cosmos and zinnia mostly. Then I have my fruit trees with under plantings of strawberries. The trees are a Green Gage Plum, a Paradisio Fig, and a Brown Turkey Fig. Then the rock wall garden steps up about 9". In the next section is my asparagus.

Then look to the grassy area to the far right (below the car). This is not regular grass. Well the grass itself is. But it is drivable grass. Since we got rid of a lot of our driveway we had to put in more space for cars. Where the car is parked right now is not our driveway but the road. When the plows come through in the winter we can't be parked on it. Oh and the part of the grass that is near the house is lined with alpine strawberries. I find them a very beautiful boarder in the summer. And tasty too.

We do have some more useful plants here too as ornamentals. We have a witch hazel, some echinecia, some lavender, and my favorite, we have some clumping bamboo. The bamboo lines the narrow and very shady side yard opposite my garden. Supposedly it doesn't spread (lord I hope not) and it grows about 12' tall when it gets bigger. It will have a challenge growing though. The side yard is only about 10' wide there. It has the house on one side and a six foot fence on the other. Over it is some thick pine trees. In front is a bike shed (which is the most important shed on the property since between the four of us we own two cars and bikes are a primary means of transportation). So the shade is very, very heavy. It is a little alley of darkness. The bamboo we picked is supposed to grow in the shade, but this shade is not your average shade. I'm really hoping it grows - but not too much.

My Mother In Law is Cruel

At the beginning of the month I turned 50. My MIL gave me a birthday gift. It was a check for $500 with a stipulation that it be spent on something I wouldn't already buy. Now you might not see that as cruel, but as I'm sure you could guess, my mind immediately went to the garden. I started thinking about irrigation systems. Then I started to think about whether it was really worth putting one in or not. Oh the dilemma. I've been doing calculations and debating this in my head for weeks.

Monetarily it is a bad choice. I did the math. I'm guessing that I water the garden overhead about six times a year. We get rain here. It is not a dry spot. Our average rainfall is 4" per month, with a high of 4.5" and a low of 3.5". So I have to water on occasion, but not a whole lot. A quick back of the envelope calculation says that if I water 6 times a year I pay about $46 per year in water (which I might point out has never been calculated and never put in my tally - ah well I'm not perfect). If I had an underground watering system it may (or may not) save me about half. Say $20 per year. The inexpensive systems will cost me over $200. I haven't done the math there, and it might be more like $400. The plastic only lasts for about 8 years or so left outside. Some of the items like soaker hoses and T-tape lasts much shorter. So it is cheaper not to put one in.

The additional plastic in my gardens is always a negative too. Since it has a real time limit (the T-tape especially doesn't last long) replacements would always be coming. I'll do that for row covers as row covers save me so much time in spraying Bt, but I'm not sure it is worth it for the little watering I do.

In addition it doesn't save me any time. The system requires maintenance and construction. Setting up an overhead sprinkler is so easy. It does help with watering one section more than another. Which right now I can't do unless I do it by hand. Is it worth the aggravation and upkeep? Probably not. It might be worth it to do a small section. The circle garden and the herb garden along the house might be nice. Then I don't have to water the 3' brick path all the time (which had to be done to include that in the watering). So maybe I'll be doing about 1/8 of the garden in soaker hoses of sorts. And I do want irrigation for my rock wall garden. That place is impossible to water and takes forever to do by hand. So I'll probably put a small bit into irrigation. And I'm going to buy a really expensive but highly rated sprinkler whose width can be switched. Then I'll be able to water my whole raised bed area at once (minus the circle garden and the herb garden along the wall). Cost $89. Yes a damn expensive sprinkler. But hey I'm supposed to be buying things I wouldn't already buy.

Then there is the idea of a rain barrel. I've been thinking about a pretty one. They make lovely fake terra cotta ones with planters on top. So pretty. But then I thought about my roof. My roof is an asphalt roof. Asphalt has a ton of really nasty toxic chemicals in it. Do I really want to water my garden with that? Before I bought the house, my dream was a roof that had a material that you could drink from and an underground cistern. But I'm not about to replace the roof. And even if I wanted to, I couldn't get it past my townhouse mates. It would be very costly and their dreams are hardly the same as mine. And what a waste to throw out a new roof. I would only have done it if we had renovated an old house. So anyone know the answer? Is the water coming off an asphalt roof toxic? See the problems my MIL has caused?

An easy thing to spend it on is row covers. I've been drooling over the Veggiecare ones from Australia for years. I'd love to have about three of them for half beds. So three that would cover an 8'x4' bed. Plus I'd love some clips. Price $220 to $270. Now there is really something I wouldn't buy myself. That is a ton of money. Supposedly they last longer (about 8 years). I hope so. I hate the Agribon. With our winds it rips too easily. And the heavier stuff gets too hot in the summer and blocks too much light. This one is similar to Agribon 19 in light transmission. I'll still use the Agribon I have, but I'll use it for temporary things. Things that are there for a long time I'll use the new stuff.

Oh and I'm loving the company already. I asked them which of the clips I should be using as my pipes are not 3/4" or 1". They said they would send me a sample and I should test them. So I will. That is why there are two prices. If I get the Jumbo clips it is much more expensive.

I'm still debating in my mind but for now I think I'll ignore the rain barrel since I don't trust my food to be watered from it. I'll get the sprinkler. I'll get the Veggiecare row cover (and maybe some clips). And I'll start with a small irrigation system for the hard to water rock wall garden and the herb garden by the wall. And I'll think about the circle garden.

What would you all buy if you were given such a nice gift?

A Sunny Day In The Garden

I took these a few days ago and just haven't had a good post to put them up, so I thought I'd just do it now. Thursday was a lovely day. There was an nice cool breeze and it barely got into the 80s. I was coming in from watering the rock wall garden. And saw this.

The garden is really starting to look nice.

And it is almost jungle worthy now. Soon the beans will all be leafed out and every third bed will have 7' tall foliage. The above view is from my front door peeking around the corner over the mailbox.

Trellises

I got a couple of chores done this morning in the garden. My first was to string the last section of trellis. It is over the bed where the spinach grew. Now it is planted in dried beans, corn, and squash. They have already started coming up. The squash in this bed germinated better than the squash in the other bed. I guess that isn't too surprising since the other bed gets a lot more shade.

Then I had to put the diagonal braces on all the trellises. This will make them much more sturdy in the wind when they are covered in foliage. I wanted to find long thin bolts to attach them. Something I could take off and reuse. But go figure, no one sells 2 1/2" long bolts that are only about 1/8" thick. So instead I used some brass wire I had. I think that will hold very well.

Urban Gardening

And as you might have noticed I brought out the sprinkler for the first time this year. I was going to do a drip irrigation system, but never got to it. I hope it isn't a dry year like the last one. I turned over my trash can and put the sprinkler on top. I do it on the trash can so the sprinkler can get up and over the foliage. Right now that means the peas. as they are the tallest right now.

This weekend I need to get in my summer lettuce starts which means picking what is already there. I'll have to mark the couple lettuces that I want to go to seed. If I don't, you just know they will get taken out. Remember this is the gardener that ate her Ottawa Cranberry seed beans and had to have Granny send her some more.

I also have to get the bamboo stakes in for the potato containment. The potatoes are growing very fast. Give them another week and I won't be able to walk down the aisle to pick anything.

The last thing I have to work on over the next week is getting my fall plan down on paper. I have some of the basics in my head, but haven't gotten to writing them down. I need to start transplants by mid June or they will be too late to produce.

Mulched

Yesterday was spent mulching between the beds. And since Ribbit asked and it has been such a long time, I had to go take photos of the garden from above.

The first photo is from my guest room. I have to climb on top of end table and open the window from the top to get this view. If I take it from the bottom of the window a third of each bed is cut off from that little roof overhang. And no I will not go and try to climb up to the attic window for a better view. I will not risk death and a broken leg trying to get a photo.

From left to right. Bed 8 has a modified three sisters planting. The pole beans will grow up the trellis and the corn and squash are in the front. The corn has started to come up already. And I've seen one bean start to push up. It won't be long before the rest of them come up. Bed 7 is my pole garden with tiny little peppers. Bed 6 is under the row cover. That is where all my brassicas and chard are planted. Today I went out and filled in the empty picked spots with some green stemmed bok choy. Other replacements are already growing, but have a couple weeks more before they get in the garden. Bed 6 has or will have my cucumbers nearest the bottom then the melons, then in the top 4'x8' section I have zucchini and more pole beans. Bed 4 The bottom has four tomatoes in the cages and in front are some eggplant.

Moving down and taking the photo from my 2nd story hall, bed 3 is lined with peas on the right side and on the left are a while bunch of other things. From bottom to top are favas, carrots, bunching onions, parsley, cumin, coriandar, leeks, and dill. Bed 2 is my poor sad spinach and radish bed under a cover. Bed 1 is my main tomato bed. It has 17 tomatoes in it plus a few flowers. Our forecast for this coming week is rain, rain, and more rain. Mixed with lots of clouds. Even the long range forecast has nothing but rain it in. So no sun for a while. I wanted my tomatoes to be protected from being wet all the time. The four tomatoes in bed 4 will just have to survive in any way they can as I haven't covered them. The last bed is the driveway herb bed. This bed is right in front of the fence by the driveway and can be hard to get to since the arbor sticks out so far. It contains a bleeding heart, nasturtium, zinnia, cosmos, achillea, chamomile, French tarragon, and anise hyssop (the last two put in today)

Next up is the foundation herb bed (bottom part of the photo). It has my climbing rose, three mint pots (potted up today, but not in the photo), borage, forget-me-nots, rosemary (also put in today), sweet alyssum, dianthus, sunflowers, and sage. Eventually it will also have some black-eyed susans, but not yet. I've been growing them from seed and they are still less than half a centimeter wide so they have a long time to grow yet.

Then my circle garden from the guest room had its photo taken. The center has herbs. To the left are lettuce and garlic. I seeded some summer lettuce yesterday (Red Sails, Deer Tongue, Jericho, Anuenue, Manoa) to fill in when they are picked. To the right of the circle are my onions. Also in this photo you can see my pallet compost bins (behind the reed fencing). I snagged another pallet for the last bin. It now has a full sized pallet in the front. I filled it to the top with leaves that I had in bags.

Yesterday the herbs from the Growers Exchange came. They looked pretty good. I put them in the ground today. Normally I'd let them get used to full sun before planting out, but since we won't have full sun for at least a week, I think they are safe.

A few of the herbs that came went into the circle garden. Now it looks much more like a kitchen herb garden. From the top going clockwise are chives, Arp rosemary, two bunches of bunching onions, sage (grown from seed), garlic chives, English thyme, French thyme, and Greek oregano. I'm not sure you can see the oregano as I grew it from seed and it is still small. But it seems to be happily getting bigger. There is also a borage plant under the sundial. I may not let it live there as I'm not sure there is space for it, but I'll leave it for now.

Trellises

I built some trellises yesterday. The first is to go over the path and have runner beans climbing up it. I'm not sure it is sturdy enough. The issue is two fold. The first is connecting the bamboo together. I can't use screws as the bamboo is too small. Though I could for the big ones if I could find a long and thin bolt (I'll have to look for it next time I'm at the store). You don't want to put too large of a hole through the bamboo as bamboo has a tendency to split. It is not as sturdy as wood. I tried to use my hemp twine to connect it. I made the twine wet. I assumed this would stretch out the fibers and if I pulled really tightly when they dried it would be very tight. But did you know that hemp doesn't stretch much when it is wet? In fact if anything the fibers are looser than before. Hmm. It could be is that all I need to do is use a lot of hemp. I'll see.

The second issue is attaching it to the ground. I figured I'd be able to pound it in enough to keep it from moving. Not so. The ground under where the feet go is close to the brick path. These paths are made to go out about 6-12" to the side so the paths don't degrade. I know this when I dig in the garden and leave that part alone. But it is filled with a material that I can't get through with the bamboo either. It stops dead at the level of the fill. Good for the path, bad to pound in bamboo. I could probably attach the bamboo to the bed itself. It wouldn't be hard. But that isn't the side I'm worried about. That side will have beans growing up it and the beans will be firmly attached to the ground. I've never had a bean trellis fly away from me. However the other side just has onions. There will be no plants holding it down. And that side is brick and not mortared in brick or anything but just a couple bricks piled on one another to make the bed. I'm wondering if it is possible to pound in some rebar and attach the legs to the rebar.

Lets just say my trellis isn't ready for prime time yet.

The next trellises that I built were easy to make as I've done them so many times in the past. Notice how I kept the path end a foot away so I could get the poles a foot into the ground. I'll run string or netting (depending on the crop). The closest two will be for my cucumbers and melons. The back one will be beans (one of many bean trellises that will be built) and the empty spot in that bed is for my zucchini. I'd been chitting some early zucchinis inside. One had started to germinate already so I planted that one. I have room for four zucchinis. I figured two would be early and two would be a bit later when it warms up a bit more.

I've got a lot of planting to do over the next couple of weeks. I need to get my corn and some of the beans in soon. Some will wait for the spinach to be harvested. I have so many varieties of beans that I have to organize and figure out what goes in where. But just getting a list of all the varieties I have would be a good start.

Repairing

Yesterday I had a couple of things to fix. The first was two tears in my row cover. I'm using Agribon 15. In the past I've always used 19 which is much sturdier. The 19 would last years. But the 15 is very fragile. We had a very intense wind storm last week and two of the spots that had clips on them ripped.

I played tag with the intermittent rain to get the row cover fixed. I'd go out and start getting rained on then I'd come back in and it would stop. Eventually I fixed both holes by just ignoring the almost nonexistant rain. I wonder if I'm going to be doing this all summer long. The fabric is very light and won't heat up the plants as much, but the fragility might be an issue.

As I was walking through the garden I noticed that some weeds were growing up between the beds and that paths. I figured big weeds would be hard to get out so I'd better clean them out fast. I swept the paths and especially the edges where bricks meet bricks. I got out all the little germinated weeds. I'm going to have to buy one of those thin weed control tools for when I do let the weeds get out of control. I'm sure it will happen. It always does. Maybe not this year, but some year it will.

Then it was the compost pile. The pile was distinctly smelly. It had gone anaerobic. I needed to turn the pile to get some air in it and add some dry leaves to dry it out a bit. I'm shocked it was so wet. We put in kitchen waste and leaves. The leaves that were put in were mostly dry. I would have expected the pile to be too dry and not too wet. This is a covered compost pile so it doesn't get any rain. But blech! Turning over a compost pile that has gone anaerobic is disgusting. But it ought to have solved the problem. I'll have to keep on top of the issue more.

I also found a pack of cheese in the pile. Cheese does not belong in a compost pile. It won't break down and just gets disgusting. So I fished it out and tossed it. Then sent an email off to all the others that use the pile to remind them what doesn't go in it. I'm guessing they already knew that and it was just a mistake or some guest tossed it in, but the email was just to make sure.

Once that disgusting chore was done I got a nice surprise. The UPS man - who is now my friend again - delivered my rose. It is Zephirne Drouhin an old rose that grows on its own rootstock. This rose ought to be perfect for the spot. It is a climber but is mostly thornless, which is good for the entrance to the garden. I don't want to be stabbed too many times. In addition it is a fragrant rose. I hate roses that aren't fragrant. I'll be planting one, but still it is so wrong fro a rose not to smell like a rose. It was in a pot so I didn't have to get to it immediately. I watered the pot and put it outside with my transplants. It will have to go in sometime this week when it isn't raining on me.

Basement Gardening

I'd put it off way too long. We moved last June mind you. But had I put together the gardening portion of the basement? Nope. I just tossed things in the corner. But now that I'm actually gardening, I need to be able to find thing when I need them.

The first order of business was to put together a storage unit to hold a lot of the crap I have. These things go together very easily with two people. With one it is a touch harder, but not too bad. I made the bottom shelf tall enough to hold the bags of fertilizer standing up. We have never had water in the basement, but I didn't want to risk anything so it is now all off the ground except for some tomato cages and some old flats.

OK it doesn't look like much but you should have seen the before

Now I can find things again. Did you know that I have two unopened bags of bird netting? I have a roll of black plastic and a roll of IRT mulch. I have two bags of diatomaceous earth. I found a small bag of bonemeal. Why it wasn't in the blue container that holds my bone meal, I'll never know. Surely I cleaned all this out when I moved.

On the other side in the corner of the basement I have my poles stacked up. They were crying out to be used. I wanted to make an arch over my path near the back with them. I wanted it about 3 1/2' wide and spanning the brick path. I want to grow the runner beans up and over the path. I think it would look really pretty like that. So I got started in making it.

It's not done yet, but the two end pieces are mostly done. They might need more bracing. Before I put them up I'll run string up and down one end for the beans to grab hold of. I hope they can get all the way over the top in a summer.

I didn't spend my whole day in the basement however. I finally got the row cover on my spinach so I won't have to pick off leaf miner eggs. That would be way too much of a chore for this large patch.

Now I have two white caterpillars in my yard. I really hate the look of row covers. If they didn't work so well I'd toss them in a second. Sadly the nasty wind storm of yesterday tore part of my other row cover. I'm going to have to get out and patch it sometime in the next few days.

After I came back in I decided to do one last chore. I seeded the lawn with some white clover. The smallest bag was two pounds. Do you know how much two pounds of clover is. Well way too much. The bag of innoculant was too large for me too. I was only over seeding the lawn a bit. I wasn't trying to cover it all up. So hopefully soon they will germinate and then we will have a nice mix of grass and clover. My townhouse mate was happy when I showed her the first dandelion in the lawn. I know most people hate them, but I've always loved them in the lawn and so does my neighbor. So they get to live happily here.

Meeting the Neighbors

I grew up in the mountains of Colorado where people live on acres but still everyone knows everyone else. If someone moves in. There is a coffee or party or something so you can meet them. My mother is too blind to drive and she gets a ride into the pool every week with one neighbor. Another owns a nursery/greenhouse were you can order plants or flowers. So if I want to send flowers to my mother I always order from her. Most won't deliver up there and she will bring it up when she gets out from work. The nearest bus is two miles away. When I used to walk to and from the stop I would get offers from the neighbors for a ride, so I wouldn't have to walk as far. My dad had a tractor and a plow for it. On the rare times the county couldn't get to our little dirt road for days, he would plow it. The fast internet is a co-op which was started by my dad. The women would gather yearly to make crafts and sell them for money for our volunteer fire department (which at the time wasn't funded by taxes, but that has changed). We all relied on everyone else.

City living is different. You might say hi to your close neighbors, but the ones two doors down, you might not know at all. I'd gotten to know a few of our neighbors, but not many. People really keep to themselves. They will return the hi, but don't want to talk. So this year I made up 10 holiday baskets. It is amazing how people will open up at least a bit when you give them something homemade. It was nice to talk at least a few minutes to those that surrounded me.

One just two doors down is also another MIT couple (both my hubby and I have degrees from MIT). So we chatted a bit. One neighbor I really have been wanting to meet. He composts; he has a garden; he plays with boffers with his son. (Boffers are foam swords and my daughter and I took German longsword classes years ago, so they are well known to us). He must be our kind of neighbor. Right? He lives right behind me, but the fence is 6' tall and we can't talk over the fence. Well we gave the basket to his daughter who answered the door. Then the next day he came to our door with his own home made gifts. Pickled quail eggs and mint mead. We talked for quite a while and I invited him to my birthday party.

Of the 10 baskets only 9 were delivered. The other we could never find. I'm guessing they are gone for the holidays. Do you all want to know what was in those baskets? Well too bad I'm telling you anyway. So here goes. I made blueberry ginger jam, chocolate fudge (Fluff never fail fudge, not the harder to make kind), English Toffee, whole wheat ginger snaps, oatmeal raisin cookies, Russian tea cakes, and snickerdoodles. I have to say. The family really enjoyed eating the last basket.

Daphne's English Toffee

• 2 c butter
• 2 1/2 c brown sugar
• T corn syrup (more or less I never measure this, just a little)
  
• T water (more or less I never measure this, just a little)
  
• chocolate chips
• slivered or chopped almonds (optional)
  

Prepare two pans ( I use either 9x13s or cookie sheets) by lining with parchment paper. Sprinkle with almonds so the pans are just covered. Put the first four ingredients in a large saucepan. Heat slowly stirring until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Cook over medium heat (stirring not necessary) until you reach 290F on a candy thermometer. Now most recipes call for 300F, but if I do that it starts to burn too much. So I go to 290F. Pour half the candy into one pan and half in the other. Let it cool for about five minutes then sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Once they melt spread the chocolate over the top evenly. Let it cool until it is cool enough to go into the fridge. Then put in the fridge until totally cool. Take out and break into pieces.

A Day in the Slow Life

Slow life. Hmmm. Sometimes it doesn't seem very slow when I'm multitasking trying to get several things done at once. But then I go outside and talk to my two remaining bell peppers.

Me: So do you think you could turn red right about now?
Peppers: Don't rush us. There is still plenty of time. See we have a tiny blush on us. We think it looks pretty that way.
Me: You have been green for months now surely it is time to turn red. (I get a very hungry look in my eye.)
Peppers: (Looking worried.) No its not time yet. We just want to sit here and soak up the sun for a few more months. We like green. Green is good. Please don't eat us.

The reality is that I never considered myself part of the slow movement. I never really consider myself part of any movement. Movements tell you what to do. I'm not very good at listening to what others think I ought to be doing. I'd much rather do what I want to. But the reality is that at times it follows the movement pretty well. At times not.

When The Mom at Heather's Homemaking invited me to participate I told her I thought about playing devil's advocate. I'd give her Saturday with me not feeling up to snuff and eating all the wrong food, watching TV or playing computer games most of the day. But no I would be kind. Instead I picked Monday, one of my favorite days. If you don't like your Mondays, maybe you will like mine instead.

Monday October 18th

Last Monday I had to work the store (an artists' cooperative), but this Monday I was free. It was all mine. I woke up at 6:30 which is fairly typical for me. I never set an alarm clock. I just wake up at this time. Well truth be told, my husband accidentally woke me up at 5:15 or so first when he got up, but I went back to to sleep.

6:45 Bleary eyed I went downstairs and logged onto the computer. You would think from my blog that I would be writing my post right away, but nope. I logged onto Runes of Magic, a computer game. I play with my husband, but we also have characters to play with my son and daughter. When they both have free time on the weekend we play together. But this morning it was just me. I make the money in the game for the rest of the family. The amusing part is that I do it by planting and harvesting. Yes I play a hack and slash fantasy game and yet still I plant. I only had to water the plants then, so I did, and logged off.

7:00 Time to write my Harvest Monday post. I try to get it up by 8am EST everyday so people can start linking. First I get the sheet where I enter all the harvests from the last week. I punch them into Excel. Then update my side bar tally. Then I upload the photos and process them in Lightroom. I have it set so it automatically sizes the for me when I save. It makes it really fast. Then I write the post.

Ingredients

8:00 Time for breakfast. The typical breakfast that I eat everyday is eggs and cereal. Usually my eggs are from the Golden Egg Farm at this time of year - free ranged and good, but I forgot to get them last week when I was stocking up on apples for sauce and meat for the winter. So these are store bought eggs. Which is unusual in the summer and fall, but pretty normal for the winter and spring when we have no farmers market to shop at. The vegetables are from my garden except the onion. I was too lazy to go out and pick one of my bunching onions so store bought it is. The jar is my pickled jalapenos and serranos. I love to spice up the eggs. The cereal is a weird mix of two kinds of flakes. One organic multigrained cereal and one non organic oat flake cereal that makes it taste good. I'm lactose intolerant so I drink soy milk with this. I grew up hating milk anyway. And soy milk I love. I buy Trader Joe's Organic plain soy milk. I really don't comprehend the love of sweetened vanilla flavored soy milk.

As the onions are cooking I clean the kitchen as I do everyday that I cook eggs for breakfast. I can pretty much get it looking nice in the time it takes everything to saute and cook. Though occasionally I have too much to clean and I end up with cold eggs. I'm weird about my dishrags that I clean up with too. I like them small, but I'm too lazy to sew up the edges, so there you have it. Dish rags coming apart at the edges.

Another thing that you don't usually see in kitchens is my plastic jar of egg shells. When I make eggs the shells don't get thrown out. Or even into the compost. They go into their own little container to get dried out in the oven and powdered. It makes wonderful fertilizer for tomatoes. I never plant without it.

8:45 Monday is laundry day. And if you are me or my son as soon as you hear the word "laundry day", you start singing "Laundry day. See you there. Underthings tumbling..." And if you can tell me where that song comes from you are a person after my own heart. Each day of the week has its own chore. Tuesday is the master bath; Wednesday is dusting; Thursday guest bath; Friday sweep and mop if needed. Unlike a lot of people, I don't really mind cleaning the house as long as I don't have to do hours in a day. And breaking it up means that I rarely have to do more than half an hour in a day. You might notice that the kitchen isn't in the list at all. That is because it has to be done just about every day.

I usually have four loads of laundry to do each Monday - darks, lights, towels, sheets. I've made my own laundry detergent but I really don't get the charm of it all and might go back to store bought. I started because no one as selling powdered detergent and I hate the liquid stuff.

9:00 I'm canning applesauce today. The first chore is to clean the stove. It gets hot with lots of pots on high and anything on the stove will burn to it. I'd rather start clean and then clean it up again after. Then I clean the sink with Bon Ami. All the other cleaning was done with a wet dish rag and no cleaner at all, though I do use a 50/50 solution of water and vinegar some days. I have asthma and am not a fan of cleaners with chlorine or ammonia.

After the kitchen is clean, I wash and cut up the apples. I use two pots to boil them down. They could fit into one pot but they are so much easier to stir in two. Plus they cook faster. I don't peel or core the apples. I toss them in quartered.

9:45 The apples are all chopped and bubbling away. I'll let them boil down for about an hour or so. While I'm occasionally stirring I start to think about making soup. I picked some radishes the other day and their tops looked wonderful. So radish top soup is on the menu. I just know you will ask what is in it so here goes:

• 1/3 Vidalia onion
• 3T butter ( I never said it was healthy)
• 3 small yellow onions
• 4c chicken broth
• radish tops lots they filled my colander
• 1/2c cream optional
  

I debated back and forth with myself about the cream part. I love it with cream, but I didn't have any in the house. So I turned off the stove and got my shoes on. The nice thing about my new neighborhood is that you can walk to things. We have a little Greek corner store about 6 or 7 blocks away. It is a tiny tiny shop but carries a lot of nice vegetables and typical items you would need on short notice. In addition it has half the store devoted to things whose labels I can't read or things like sesame seeds in large plastic bags. It is a fun little store. So I got my cream there and was back in 15 minutes from when I left.

10:00 Switched the laundry, started the dishwasher (how I get my canning jars hot). It was here that life got hard. The radish top soup that I make is blended to make it smooth. It doesn't look like radish leaves. It looks like green liquid. I've made radish top soup often enough before in my old blender. Now I have a new one. I brought it out and put in half the soup which filled it up half way. I turned it on and it pushed the lid off and I had chicken broth all over the counter. Sadly the toaster and the small food processor were nearby so it was all over them. I have a line of bottles, red wine, olive oil, sunflower oil, Pam. It was all over them. It was a greasy disgusting mess. I looked at it and told the blender how bad it was. So I got my big food processor down and put half the soup in that. My food processor doesn't have a very sharp blade any more. Too many eggshells have been crushed in it. But it was enough to get the leaves chopped into bits. Then could pour that into the blender to turn it into a liquid. It was annoying but it worked. Then it was back onto the stove. I looked at the counter and started to clean, giving my blender bad looks the whole time.

11:00 The kitchen is clean again. I put the canner onto the stove filled with water. In addition I put on a small pot for the lids. Then I strain the apples into applesauce. I like using the whole apple because I get the core too. The core has a lot of the pectin so the applesauce is thicker. Once it is strained I put it back on the stove and do a taste test. This batch gets one cup of sugar (for about 15 lbs of apples) and some cinnamon. I stir it all in. As soon as the canner starts to boil I start canning. It took two sessions to finish. My canner takes seven pint jars and I ended up with nine.

I'm not just sitting around while I'm waiting the 15 minutes for the cans to come out. Though I love my dishwasher and filled it up easily enough. I still had a lot of things that needed hand washing. I always hand wash my Victorio strainer. Plus all the bigger pots and bowls I use. It is amazing how many things needed cleaning. It didn't help that both my food processors and my blender were dirty. They could fill up the top of the dishwasher with just them.

12:24 The last of the jars get removed from the water bath. The counters get a last wash down. The only pot not washed is the canning pot. I left the water in it to cool down. With the heat on I figure pouring hot water down the drain is a waste. It can get cool on the counter then I'll toss it. The bits and pieces of the vegetables and fruit were taken out to the compost pile. I wash my hands.

12:30 A long morning, but I'm still not hungry. I'm tired and hot. I need to rest a bit before I'm hungry. First I switch the laundry. Then I sit down and respond to some of my blog comments. A little after one and I'm finally hungry. I heat up the soup (which was put in the fridge). I add some cream and some greek yogurt to it. And sit down and have a nice bowl of soup. Of course one bowl of soup is just not filling enough. I want some bread and cheese. Usually I have bread dough in the fridge and can fry some up in my cast iron fry pan fast enough, but I was out. So I brought out the mixer and got a batch of dough made. Sadly frying up dough that hasn't risen is not quite the same, but I'm calling it flatbread. I covered it in some raspberry jalapeno jelly that I canned last year and then added some nice cheddar cheese.

Actually Tuesday's lunch as I forgot the photo on Monday

I sat down at the TV to eat it all. I usually eat breakfast and lunch at the TV. I like to watch the "news". Which means the Daily Show or the Colbert Report. What can I say? It is much more fun to laugh at the news than to cry.

2:15 Switched the laundry.

That bed won't fill itself

2: 30 Got changed to go outside. I've been working to get my new garden up and running. After the move I just had a little rock wall garden and I wanted a big garden. Bigger than my old one. In fact this one will be over twice as large as my old garden. Next spring I'll be saying to myself, "What in the world was I thinking?" But for now I'm finishing up the last of the beds. I couldn't get wood for the last bed. Home Depot had run out. But I had all eight of the others built and made. I had seven of them mostly filled with the dirt. Some need a bit more, but mostly done. I just needed to finish filling up the eighth bed today. Ok I did a bit more. I filled up some of the other beds a bit more. I leveled off one area at the end that will be an herb/flower garden. I measured out where the last bed will go.

Finished for the day

4: 15 Shower. Then read blogs. I probably switched the laundry again. But who knows when. It isn't on my paper anywhere.

4:45 I start thinking about what we should have for dinner. Chestnut Hill Farms was selling some smoked chicken breasts and I wanted to try them out. If we like them, I can stock up on more before winter hits. So I made chicken, hmm lets call it focaccia even if it isn't, and some salad for dinner. Yes the bread is the same that I had for lunch and will have all this coming week when I want bread. This time I brushed it with olive oil and put on some herbs and freshly grated Parmesan cheese then I baked it in the oven. The salad was made with things just from the garden. The dressing was made by my townhouse mate from basil and parsley from the garden. She made it last week and I've been slowly eating it up. I only have one salad left with it.

6:00 Dinner time. I think. Maybe. I quit writing down the times. We often have dinner at 5:30, but I think he was late.

6:30 Exhausted. Tired. My feet hurt (though I'd have to give you Sunday to really show you why). I was just dead tired. I got myself a glass of scotch. Yes, I'm a scotch gal when I'm being bad. I drink wine when I'm being good. But right now I'm being bad. I went into the cabinet where I put the Halloween candy. I took out two little Snickers bars and ate them. Scarf. Mmmm. Yum. Yum. Don't look at me like that. They really hit the spot. Spiked my blood sugar. Raised my insulin levels.... Well at least they were yummy.

I thought about reading blogs. I hadn't read much of the Harvest Monday blog posts yet. I also thought about all the other things I didn't get done today. I hadn't done my Spanish homework. I hadn't made the pickled peppers out of the pepper harvest I just had. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time for it all. So I put my feet up in my reclining chair and turned on the TV. I watched things off tivo for an hour and a half. Until 8pm. Then hubby and I went upstairs to read. Since this is a PG blog, I'll leave it at that. But maybe I wasn't as tired as I thought. Or maybe it was the Snickers bar.

Why Oh Why

I'm always struck by why people garden. Today I was reading a post by Laura at The Modern Victory Garden. Her preamble to her "Day In The Slow Life", talked a bit about why she gardens. She gardens to eat locally and to avoid factory farming. And to eat more healthfully. But she also gardens for the process itself. To get away from the noise of a modern high tech life and for physical exercise.

I've been a crafter for years now (though am having to give it up because of repetitive strain issues, but that is another story), so getting away from the high tech life isn't really an issue. I never really bought into cell phones or being constantly connected. I have one mind you, but those that have my phone number are told to only call on my cell if it is an emergency. Mostly it was gotten for meeting up with my kids. I've found it good for meeting up with others too. But I don't gab on it all day long, nor does my phone ring every three seconds. People can call me at home. If I'm not home, then I'm out busy doing something. I'm not free to talk.

I appreciate local, organic food, but I can buy it at the farmers' market easily enough. I like to exercise, but there are a million ways to do that that I love. So why do I garden?

I think I garden for the feeling of the miraculous. For the feeling of beauty. For the feeling of wonder. I know in my logical brain - that very important part that lets me plan and keeps me organized - that gardening is unnatural. It is a warping of nature. Agriculture is humanity forcing nature to do its bidding. Even organic agriculture. Even sustainable agriculture. Even hedgerow or diverse forest agriculture that gets about as close to nature as you can get and still be called agriculture. The logical part of my brain is the pessimist. It knows not everything I plant will live. It knows I'll forget to water sometime when I should; that a disease will come through and kill something; that a groundhog will eat all my squash.

But I don't garden for the logical part of me. I garden for that emotional side. The spontaneous, irrational side of me. The optimist in me. The part in me that built a circular bed outside my back door, when the logical side just told me why it wouldn't work as well as the rectangular beds. That part of me thinks that every seed I put in the ground will be a perfect plant. That part of me that sees my garden as an extension of nature, despite the weeding required or the raised beds that contain it.

Every seedling that pops up awes me. I'm always amazed every time the seeds come up. I've done a lot of things over my life. I've been in the computer industry and I got a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. I've crafted, which sometimes come closer at least for my art pieces. But only raising my children have surpassed the feelings I get from my garden.

Every seedling is a miracle. Every tomato harvested is an amazing gift.

The groundhogs might have eaten most of my squash, but the one that was left was a wonder to me. I could grow flowers and I do, but they don't give me the same feelings as growing food. I think growing food adds to the feeling of wonder as it is part of the web of life. Part of something greater than just beauty. Part of something magical.

So I confess to not being an altruist in my gardening. I don't do it to save the world, to eat locally and use less fuel. I don't do it to save money even though I keep a tally. I do it because I'm drawn to the marvel of nature. I want to be a part of it all and to see it all happen before me. I do it for selfish reasons. If I'm ever stressed out, all I need to do is go into the garden and listen to the bees hum. I do it to be connected.

So why do you garden?