Another View

My sweet neighbor took this from her upstairs window. It's two of our 5 garden areas. We have a small bit on the other side of the garage, the small plot in the other neighbor's yard, and a small raised bed in the front. I like how it encompasses the hops, the coop, and the gardens. It's so cool to see your regular view from someone else's perspective.

The tomato plants are huge and jungle-like now. All the rain we've had made them pop up. They're loaded with tomatoes, but at this time, they're still all green.

Cucumber plants just starting to flower now that we've had more consistent hot weather. There are wee little cukes just beginning to grow.

I'm a bad, bad blogger these days. :) I'm a bit more tired and cranky these days by the time my time rolls around to be on the computer. Also busy with the pregnant ladies, and try to get into bed by 9pm in case I get called out at 2am. The garden is doing well all the same. I made my first batch of basil pesto tonight for freezing. Got two good-sized quart bags of the stuff. I adore basil. So nice to eat in the dead of winter, reminds me of fresh, summery herbs.

Finding a Use for Turnips and Radishes

Thanks to the good book, Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich, I found a kimchi type of fermenting for turnips.
It's Korean name is Sunmukimchi, or brined turnips. I added a few bigger radishes to make it a full pound as needed.

Peeled, sliced, and sitting in pickling salt for 3 hours.

Processed the turnip greens to use later.

Water, more salt, lots of garlic, a little sugar and hot pepper and a week of waiting for them to ferment. We'll see if any of us like them! They already smell lovely and vinegary after one day of sitting in the pantry. Will let you know the end results!

I've Been Awarded! Woo hoo!

Mo, over at Green Desert awarded me this fine Honest Scrap Award. What a nice lady!
Apparently, I now need to divulge ten honest things about myself and then pass the award on to "a fellow blogger whose blog’s content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant.”

I'm not very good at these things, but I will give it a whirl...

1. I have a really hard time warming up to a person who doesn't give any details about their life, how they're feeling, their opinions, etc. I try to be compassionate, but ultimately, end up not trusting them much. Honesty lends to much better communication.

2. I really, really love food. I love growing it, cooking it, preserving it, and eating it. I swear I feel endorphins flow as I eat something really wonderful. I also love going out to eat and honestly think that's my biggest vice aside from my love for Dansko shoes.

3. I love getting my hands dirty. I love planning and planting the garden, the canning, the food preparation, the harvests. Being in the air or on the water brings with it a high level of stress. The ground is a fine place to be. Working with the earth brings me a kind of peace I never knew existed.

4. I don't weigh myself when pregnant. Or much at all when not pregnant. Makes for a much better mind-set. Instead I try to eat well, not get sick, and exercise. I'm annoyed that scale numbers affect me so, but there you have it.

5. I have a really hard time falling asleep at night if I can't read for a bit first, even if I've not had sleep for 2 days. Reading takes me out of my head, away from my own worries before slipping off to sleep. Oh, and it must be fiction. No non-fiction before bed.

6. I love getting new cook books. I can read them like novels.

7. I feel incredibly blessed to be called to midwifery. I love my job; the women, the families, the new little babies. It is such an absolute honor to be able to attend births. I pray I will be able to do this work for a long, long time with an open mind and a humble heart.

8. My best and favorite "alone time" consists of driving alone in my car listening to my favorite podcasts without interruption.

9. It's very hard for me to sit through an entire movie, especially if I'm at home. There's always 20 different things I could be doing, and I usually stop the movie or leave the room so that I can do a few other things. Movie theaters would be much more appealing if I could bring a few loads of laundry to fold during the show.

10. I was a punk rock girl for years, and I love music. I miss that old feeling of going to shows and being filled with incredibly loud music in a sea of sweaty bodies. I miss dancing for hours to ska, oi, soul, and reggae. That era ended long ago, and I'm fine with it. I'm content to prepare dinner or clean the house or drive kids to school with all the same old songs quietly chiming away on my iPod in the background. Music calms me (but I've got to be in charge of the play list!).


All right, now I'm supposed to award 10 other bloggers whom I love and read regularly (and there will be some repeat awards b/c Mo and I read a lot of the same blogs!)...

1. Kate at Wading Thru My Head
2. Leaner at Three Snakes and a Rooster
3. Shannon at Nourishing Days
4. Connie at Eat Your Vegetables
5. Grace at Blue Cloud Cloth
6. The folks at Eight of an Acre Bounty
7. Michelle at Sugar Creek Stuff

okay, I have to stop here. My kids need breakfast.... congrats fellow bloggers! I'm so happy you are out there, sharing your life and your adventures!

So Much Spinach Cooks Down to Nothing

This year I grew spinach in two long rows, maybe 28 feet long. Seeing as how we can't keep up with it by eating enough fresh salads, and it was beginning to get bolty, I decided to process it. I left a 4 four section of the row in place, so I could still eat a little of it fresh in the next week or so.
You can't tell by this picture, but there really was a lot of greens here.

Again, the picture does no justice, but this is a HUGE bowl. This is the same bowl my grandma and mom would use when canning or making huge batches of food for some wedding or shower.

Here's me in my not-so-fabulous maternity swimsuit blanching, chilling, bagging. G had said, "We've only got 3 freezer bags left. You want me to run to the store?" My answer, all of this spinach will only just fill two bags.

Chilling. And I was right, we only filled two bags. That's fine. I've got loads of chard and collards getting ready for the same.

I'm actually going to try some seed saving this year. I saved a load of coriander from last summer, and that's growing now. If I can stand it, I'll let more things go to seed. It's hard when you have such limited growing space. Instead of pulling out a plant to plant something else, you leave it be for weeks. That feels so wasteful! Now I have to decide what will replace the spinach space...

Garden Update

Lovely radishes. Not too hot, delicious on greens (of which there are oodles).

Dee Dee, Dexter, Dotty, and Spot enjoying their dappled sunlight, and various grubby things.

Turnips and collards growing well.

Swiss chard just beginning to fill out and grow taller. So pretty.

The hops beginning their travels across the twine to the big tree. They're already beginning to flower! I don't know if it's all the rain we're having or what. Seems they usually flower in late July or so.

New Doucmentary: Food, Inc

Check out this trailer for Food, Inc. Looks like a good one, folks!

Gardening When It Counts- A Brief Book Review

Gardening When It Counts- Growing Food in Hard Times
by Steve Solomon

I borrowed this book back in April from our library. I found the title interesting. In the beginning, Steve Solomon talks about how we need to get back to growing our own food as the world slowly runs out of fossil fuels and the world of Cheap Food Fast will inevitably start to crumble and fade. I get it. However, the book never again really touches on that aspect of things apart from the first chapter.

It's okay though. The next impression one gets is that this dude is cocky. Well not cocky maybe, but like he's your old, sometimes abrasive Grandpa telling you to get your head out of the clouds to "get back to work!" That was a little off-putting at first, but you soon learn that this man has earned the right to speak so. I've been wishing for a farm apprenticeship for years--this is as close to one as I can find time for right now. Apprenticeships can be difficult because you're learning what comes as second-nature to your instructor. You have to deal with their personal opinions and biases and figure out what is useful to you and the way you are in the world. I found this book to be a lot like the apprenticeship process: difficult at times, but always worthwhile.

Steve Solomon has been a farmer for years. He started (and has since sold) his own seed company, has gardened in many different environments (he currently resides in Tasmania), and has followed nearly every garden trend possible over the last 30 years or so. Even though he gives his opinions in a nearly cranky way, he does explain well why he does or doesn't like something, leaving you to at least respect his opinion even if you don't agree. After all these many years, he's come down to this: plants need space to grow well.

Ta-da! But wait, I like this bit and I'm not being sarcastic! After spending the last 5 years or so reading books and trying out various forms of urban gardening, square-foot gardening, intensive gardening, etc. this made sense to me. Plants need space to grow well. They need adequate space to establish a good, deep root system. Without this, they don't produce as much fruit. Plants need water, and not just a little bit to get the top soil wet (he's turned me off from my previously much-coveted drip irrigation system). Plants get more when they're properly spaced and don't have to fight for water and much-needed soil nutrients. This was validating. The old-school way of gardening: rows, plants spaced far enough, the way I've been composting, and my watering system has worked far better for our garden output as opposed to the times I've tried intensive planting or square-footing it. And believe me, I loved Gaia's Garden as much as anyone else. It just didn't work as well for me.

I learned loads more about composting, fertilizing, manure, and soil microbes from Gardening When It Counts. The book gets a bit in-depth about soil nutrient ratios. I admit to eventually skimming this bit because I stopped absorbing things myself by this point. G however, loved this part of the book and understood it well. (I love it when he agrees to read a book I've read. It's so nice to have another person to bounce things off of.)

We ended up checking out this book from the library 3 consecutive times. I can't say I absolutely loved it, but I did gain a lot from it. Steve Solomon is definitely a little prickly as a writer. I can see folks not liking this book at all for that. But if you can overlook his curmudgeonly attitude and are serious about producing food for your family, this book will leave you with more than one or two nuggets of gardening brilliance.