A Word About Hostas

They really pretty up a garden fast and transplant like nobody's business. If you know a fellow gardener who has one, and is willing to share, there's no need to spend $10 or more to buy a plant. Take your shovel and slam it into the ground, dig out a small section and transplant it in your garden. You'll have greenery like this in no time flat. This lovely specimen was dug into my garden about four weeks ago. It was an 1/8th of this size, and certainly not symmetrical.

Radishes Or....????

Any idea of what these are? No, they aren't radishes. If you read yesterday's post you'll know I've been mucking around in the nether regions of the potato planter, pilfering early potatoes from the velcro'd door at the bottom.

These are French Fingerlings. Tiny, delicious little nuggets of perfection. Once your potato bush flowers you can dig out a few of these tasty morsels and treat yourself to the thinest skinned potatoes you'll ever eat. Scrub them clean and you are sure to scrub off part of the skin. Aren't these fabulous?

I could not longer resist the turnips either and yanked up this lovely fellow. We ate the turnip raw and cooked up the greens. Tender!

Simply served hot with a squirt of lemon, butter and salt. What could be better? Don't you love this time of year?

The Progressing Garden

A month ago, this section of the yard was useless patchy grass.

Today it is a hotbed of free organic produce. I may not be fully unpacked and properly moved into the house yet (renovations, ugh), but there's food growing in the ground. My priorities are evident. 

The community garden plot is flourishing as well, but more on that later. 

I started out preparing this area with a shovel. But the sod was quite thatchy, so I headed over to Home Depot and rented a Mantis rototiller.

This entire section was completed in under 45 minutes. The Mantis provided a fairly rough chop and my intent was to go over it again to fully chew up the sod, but the tiller broke down and I called it a day. I know I'll be fighting grass throughout the season as a result, but it was more important to get veggies in the ground the same day than to seek some sort of visual perfection.

I highly advise wearing steel-toed shoes when operating power tillers. The Mantis was quite manageable but it would jump occasionally when I hit roots. I found an old pair of Doc Martens in the closet and put them straight on.

My uncle chopped off three toes with his lawnmower, so power cutters of any sort should be handled with care. (Note: never a good idea to cut a lawn in flip flops.) The Mantis sliced right through roots this size. Imagine what it would do to flesh.

I added a mere ten bags of triple mix to the soil and started direct sowing seeds forthwith. Next the seedlings that were started indoors went in.

The raised bed, directly behind this bed, is in full swing now as well. There's been plenty of fresh spinach to enjoy (all eaten and already reseeded) and daily servings of delicious Mesclun salads for over a week.

Yesterday I noticed the first sugar snap peas on their way. It's amazing how quickly a kitchen garden can take hold and start feeding your family.

Will soon be able to dig into these lovely Manchester Turnips. Bet they'll be great roasted or in a stew.

There was even a bit of time to toss in a few flowers in a bed nearby to attract pollinators to the veggies. Hostas, Hibiscus, Gerbera Daisy, Bleeding Heart, Snapdragon, Impatiens, Pansies, Foxglove and some exotic varieties, which I can't immediately recall the name of, were my choices. All pink. It's my girlie section of the garden.

And remember that bag of potatoes I planted May 8th? Well, here it is today. Last night I opened the Velcro door at the bottom of the planting bag and retrieved a few new potatoes for dinner. Only complaint, I wish the bag were taller so I could hill it up more and get a larger harvest, but we'll see what the final count is in another few weeks.

I also container-planted some tiny Pinot champagne grapes and have been enjoying them for about ten days. Tasty!

I love berries of all sorts and was sad to leave a very productive berry bush behind. Starting anew, I've planted a few berry bushes on both sides of the yard. This section has blackberry, raspberry canes (taken from my last yard), honeyberry (aka Haskap), gooseberry and of course wild and ever-bearing strawberries.  Edging will have to come later.

Strawberries are planted throughout the yard, in hanging pots, strawberries pots and even in a broken rattan chair. Blueberry bushes are on the opposite side of the yard.

I'm trying to use every possible inch of the yard for food production, while keeping it semi-attractive and restful to the eye. It's a work in progress. 

Mole Hole

Well I know who was living in my raised bed now. Unfortunately the field supervisor brought this poor little guy in tonight. I saw her skulk past and suddenly noticed something dark and furry in her mouth.

The mole was already quite dead, so no use trying to free it. This is the first mole I've ever encountered in a garden. Its fur was like velvet. They eat primarily earthworms and my garden is rich with plump, healthy worms. Somehow I don't think he is the only mole out there though, because the field supervisor was dying for a second go and quite miffed at being locked in.

A backdoor in my raised bed.

There's a den entrance in the middle of my raised bed. The garden supervisor found it. This explains why my basil has been repeatedly uprooted. I don't know who it belongs to yet: mole, vole, groundhog or rabbit. I've only seen rabbits in the yard so far.

Good thing I'm digging out more beds.

Digging Dirt

Well, the digging begins and what I am finding below the grass is not encouraging. 

Tree roots galore and hundreds (thousands) of stones, small and large. This is gonna be a chore. Pacing is key. Fortunately I have a few plants in a raised bed already. Part of the bed took a hit overnight from some raccoon shenanigans but I can replant. Plenty of time.

This is the section of the yard I am digging out for now, leaving the other side for the fire pit and grape arbor. Every shovel full is pure elbow grease. Gonna need a lot of amendment I'm afraid. It'll be fun to see how much food a small parcel like this can produce.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Everywhere Tomatoes

On shelves, on floors, in windows and under grow lights. This is just a small selection of what is all over my kitchen.

And this is where they are supposed to go. I haven't had the time to dig out the new plot and the seedlings are begging to be planted out. They keep out growing their pots.

In my utter overwhelm, a certain person, who shall remain nameless, decided to assist me and repotted three dozen tomato plants (Yes, I have that many. I make a lot of sauce, salsa and gazpacho.)

Unfortunately... I neglected to pass on my secret organizational system and all the varieties were intermingled. I now have no idea which plants are Black Russians, Yellow Pears or San Marzanos. Gonna be a crap shoot this season.  It's funny how every season your garden gets away from you at some point. Usually it's at harvest for me. Seldom at commencement.

Growing Potatoes in Bags

This is a potato planter (14 X 20 inches) with a velcro side flap that opens to allow to you pick a few new potatoes at a time so you don't have to harvest your whole crop at once.  To plant, you roll down the sides, add about eight inches of soil to the bottom. Plant three or four potatoes and cover with soil. As the leaves grow, you unfurl the bag a bit at a time and add more soil until fully extended.

The planter has side handles to easily reposition the planter as needed. These are reusable bags and perfect for the small garden (like mine).  The material is very similar to a tarpaulin. It has drip holes in the bottom. Potato planters can also be fashioned from wood with a sliding side door at the bottom to achieve the same aim.

I have planted French fingerlings in this bag. Great for BBQing. I love fresh potatoes from the garden. Teaming with vitamins and ever so delicious. They are a whole food. I already have Russets dug into my community garden plot and purple skinned Russians in another bed, but I want more (always more organic veggies) and this is a solution for me since I am somewhat strapped for land. Too much deck, not enough soil. Veggie and fruit planters will have to populate the deck at my new home this season until I can take the wrecking bar to at least part of the structure. Here is the deck awaiting its fate.

Already strawberries are growing in terra cotta pots and from a Topsy Turvy hanger that was gifted to me.

I wish my property had more land, but there are always compromises. I opted for proximity to hiking trails and waterfront in lieu of more land for now, knowing I could rent a community garden plot and enjoy the weekly farmer's market in my area. Lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle.

Catnip, Herbs and Early Veggies

Lots to do setting up a new garden and starting from scratch. I dug up herbs from my previous garden, transplanted them and added a few new ones from an organic supplier. The herb section is slowly starting to fill in. This year, so far, I have winter savory, sorrel, English thyme, rosemary, mint, curly and Italian parsely, chives,  marjoram and more. I don't think I'm putting in another sage. The last one took over a huge section of the garden. I dried tons of it and find I use it infrequently.

I do always plant some catnip for my kitty though. She enjoys the garden just as much as I do. Catnip is hardy and will come back year after year. Pick it frequently and it will keep producing. 

Here is the first leek of the season. I braised it for a quick side dish.

The flavor was surprisingly strong.

And look who is peeking out from the soil. The first potato leaves. And so it begins... happiness.

Vertical Gardens

I was at a garden show recently gathering ideas on vertical gardening. I have a spanking new circular saw which I intend to put to good use... lord help me, I better watch some YouTube videos on preventing kickback.

Anyway, this project looks totally doable and it's quite attractive. Cedar will be my choice for wood. You never want to use treated wood for vegetables, and doubtless my plantings will be all veg.

Planting Begins

Got a late start on seedlings this year, but happily finally got about twelve dozen peat pots going.

So far I've seeded mesclun greens, three types of tomatoes (Black Krim, Marzano and Yellow Pear), beets, turnips, ground cherries, spinach, snap peas, parsley, basil and cilantro. All my seeds were Non GMO (non genetically modified), organic and heirloom. Very happy about that!

Today I took it outside and planted one bed of Russian Blue potatoes using seed potatoes from last season's crop.

It may just look like a patch of dirt to some, but to me it looks like the fixins for summer BBQs.

Silver Maple Syrup

I've been off the blog grid for months. You know how it is, life conspires. Goals and plans get rearranged. I came to terms with the reality that my little - "one day I'll have a hobby farm" dream was still years away. So I moved yet again and have a much smaller garden now, but also, a new community garden plot. Community gardens are awesome in so many ways. The word, "community," is the operative word. 

My new home has three silver maples, which I decided to tap for syrup, just for fun. Silver maple syrup is lighter and more mellow than that from the robust sugar maple.

The syrup is light and delicious and SWEET, and gets gobbled up right from the pot before any can be used for pancakes. This sugaring off operation is so tiny it is being done (with great trepidation) in the kitchen with the exhaust fan running. You wouldn't want to reduce sap in great amounts inside your home because your walls and ceiling would be crusted over with sugar residue from the evaporation process. Hence the exterior sugar shack.

~~~ AMENDED~~~

After a comment from a reader I decided to amend this post to show how much sap it took to get a few tablespoons of syrup. This first pic is the amount of sap I get daily from just one of the trees.  A full pot. Here it is a full boil.

Here it is at the midpoint of boiling down. You can see the amber sugars starting to form on the side of the pot.

Almost done. It's thickening fast. Have to watch or it'll burn (like my first batch.) Heartbreaker.

And here's the final result of what's left from that full pot of sap.

Not much, but it's 100% pure goodness. This batch strangely tasted nothing like maple syrup. It was exactly like honey. Still delicious. And gone in seconds.

Ode To Putting Up

I love Greg Brown's music so much. Enjoy this, fellow canners.

Canned Goods.

Pickled Cauliflower

Cauliflower spoils so quickly we seldom get a whole head finished before we tire of it and it starts to brown, so in the spirit of frugality I've started pickling half of every head, and it is so easy to do. 

I was thrilled to find Andrea Chesman's Golden Spiced Pickled Cauliflower recipe in her wonderful book, The Pickled Pantry. She uses turmeric, a spice I utilize a lot when cooking cauliflower. It's on Page 97 for those who want to give it try. Use the "look inside" feature at Amazon.com to navigate to the page for the recipe. (I adjusted the recipe slightly and you can too if you want to put your own spin on things. Just use her recipe as the base.)

The Pickled Pantry on Amazon

If you prepare a bottle this week they'll be ready in time for your Thanksgiving table. It takes 6 weeks for the pickles to fully develop their flavor.

Pickles have really come back into fashion and I am filling my larder with a wonderful variety for the winter. What are you pickling this season?

Seizing the Dream

Ever thought of becoming an organic farmer? These folks did something about it.

To Make A Farm

Click on the link to watch the documentary about suburbanites turned farmers.

I Brake For Farm Stands

You can make a pretty good homemade carrot soup with just a few carrots, an onion, chicken stock and some grated ginger. I also added zest of an orange in this batch for an extra kick.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Yes, it's carrot season and the farm stands are packed with plump, juicy, sweet carrots. I cannot resist a roadside farm stand, and feel great about supporting farmers.

I recently bought 3/4 quart of Maple syrup from a business at $23. A week later I drove past a small farmhouse selling their own syrup and picked up a full quart for $17.  Quite a savings, and the flavor was far superior! It was so delicious that I slurped it up by the spoonful. There is nothing like maple syrup. Nothing!

But the best part of that second transaction was hearing all about the product. The farm wife's eyes brightened as she told me she had made maple syrup since she was a child and "loved it. Just loved it." She and her husband tapped 120 trees on their land and this batch came from a rather modest "three day boil." It was a small crop due to last year's mild winter.

The woman predicted a more "normal winter" this season. "The caterpillars are changing color," she told me, and her father always said, "Watch the caterpillars, they'll tell ya what's in store." Apparently she saw a caterpillar that week that was almost white. Get out the Uggs.

Further down the road I collected some Cherokee Chocolate tomatoes. It's a very popular tomato with celebrity chefs these days and was also a favorite of the grower's. I mentioned that I'd never grown a chocolate before and was told to save some of the seeds from these and I'd have them in my garden next year. Don't you just love farmers?

Here is one of the Cherokee Chocolates next to a beefsteak from my own garden. Very exotic.