Battleground: Garden

It's bad day in the yard.

I've been saying that this garden is meant to experiment with more veggies than I normally grow - a sort of "practice garden" to try out things I want to grow on a larger scale in a bigger yard. I am having just a few more "learning opportunities" than I wanted just now.

The lush green honeymoon of spring is over, and the long hot summer garden battle is being waged. Drought, bugs, nutrient deficiencies, and wayward neighbors with weed-wackers are all in play.

Yesterday evening, someone came along and weed-whacked the back alley behind our row of houses. Normally, each resident is responsible for maintaining the strip along their back boundary, out to the middle of the alley right-of-way. But SOMEONE thought they should whack along EVERYONE'S boundary. My neighbor and I lost all our spearmint. I also lost iris, salvia, and peony I was planning to transplant on a cooler day. The year's passionflower is probably gone, which will be a huge disappointment to all the solitary bees that loved it last year. I also lost the ripening larkspur seed I was going to save. I usually let the ones in the alley look ratty until I can save seed, so I don't have to leave them looking dead in the backyard proper. I have some seed from 2007 I am going to broadcast instead, to overwinter for next year.

I was at my Mom's when this happened, and my DH was waiting for me when I came home. He looked grim and said, "I have bad news." He and the kids didn't want me to see it unprepared and have a screaming fit. Apparently, the neighbor DID have a screaming fit, in Spanish. I wish I had been there to join in.

I think I saw a Japanese beetle today. I hope I am wrong.

The potatoes look like hell. I may dig some up and see if there are new potatoes, or if the pill bugs have just eaten them all up. The zucchini isn't pollinating - we must be more short on bees this year than last. I am going to try manual pollination. I've only gotten two zukes so far, and I should have had 6 or 8 by now.

At least the celery, parsley, and cowpeas look OK so far. The tomatoes are setting fruit and the eggplants are finally growing and blooming a little. Those mystery "lettuce" plants look more like a brassica of some sort, but they are at least robust in the fish boxes. The onions are looking dry, but that might be normal this close to harvest.

I am going to go buy some fish emulsion, a new hose watering wand, and some more potting soil for herbs. Maybe I need to visit a nursery. Shopping therapy, of the garden geek variety.

Yogurt in a Bag

I'm really liking my new yogurt-making habit. I've refined it from the awkward blanket-wrapped crockpot that I forgot to photograph. I found an insulted silver picnic bag in the basement, and I just used that with nice results. I am pleased to be able to make a quart of yogurt for $1 (commercial milk) to $2 (raw organic milk).

Method: Bring a quart of milk almost to a boil. I suspend a digital thermometer in the milk by slipping it between the tines of a whisk. Stir the milk frequently as it heats over a medium flame. When it hits about 210F, take it off the heat and let it cool down to 120F (took about 15-20 minutes). Put a tablespoon of your previous batch of yogurt in the bottom of a clean quart-size container, and pour in a little of the hot milk, whisking it smooth. Then pour in the rest of the hot milk and whisk to mix. Put on the container lid and pop the quart into the insulated bag. Then fill a bottle or jar with hot tap water and put it in the bag next to the quart. Use a dish towel to fill any empty space in the top of the bag, and zip shut the bag. Leave it alone for 7-8 eight hours, then take it out and put it in the fridge to stop the culturing process. Done!


Later, I will mix in a little honey and some of those cherries or raspberries we picked yesterday.

This morning, the ambient temperature in the kitchen was 80F, and the temperature of the yogurt in the bag was 95F. The water bottle was somewhat cooler at 88F. I don't know if the bag will be enough in the winter, when the kitchen air could be in the 50's. But the bag is simple and easy to store in our tiny kitchen. Liking it a lot.

Local Stirrings

Last night I went to a screening of the documentary Good Food, a film about the growth of organic food community in the Seattle area. Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young directed, and were visiting in our area, so locally-based film distributor BullFrog Films arranged a short-notice screening. Our church offered space and coffee; about 40 people came. The film was released just this month at the Seattle Film Festival and this was the first not-Seattle screening for them. The film is a series of interviews with farmers, produce distributors, local officials, professors, restaurant owners, and farmers' market operators. There were a number of times that the magnificence of the produce made us moan. But as wonderful as that looked compared to our own local disorganization, Dworkin readily admitted that organic production represented only small fraction of the agricultural output in Washington. The film is definitely worth watching, and gets your wheels spinning about what has to happen in a region to start building a better local food culture.

I got to talk to Dworkin, met John Hoskyns-Abrahall from Bullfrog, and met a guy that runs one of the community gardens (70 plots). Hoskyns-Abrahall told me he has heard of a group in Topton that is organizing to carpool for local food shopping - promised to send me an email address.

Lately, there have been a lot more articles in the local newspaper about gardening and stretching one's food dollar. Yesterday, there was a front-page feature about a retired woman that installed solar panels and now a windmill in her yard to go off-grid. She grows most of her own produce on her quarter-acre lot, and I bet she
has a basement stuffed with stored food. The reporter for the article was Michelle Park, and I will keep an eye on what else she covers. Could be a good connection for future event promotion, although the video she did about spending rebate checks was goofy. It would have been better to report on people using their checks to keep their gas and electric turned on.

I can just feel a project coalescing around me, something important that I could do. But things are just so uncertain family-wise right now. We have people who need care, people looking for jobs, and I really want to move out of this tiny house as soon as possible. I see us in a city - but what if we don't stay in THIS city?

Independence Challenge - Week 9

It's been a very busy and frustrating week that took me away from home a lot, but we still got a lot done.

Planted: More cabbage and broccoli transplants.

Harvested: From our yard: Beets, carrots, green onions, zucchini, herbs. Black raspberries (5 lb.) that were free for the picking from a Freecycle posting. Cherries from Weaver's U-pick orchard: 5lb. of Ranier fabulous yellow cherries) and 8lb. of dark sweet cherries (all $2.75/lb). We just got back from picking this afternoon, so I see some jelly and pie filling in my immediate future! Some members of the picking expedition ate more than they put in the pail. If you think her teeth are raspberry-colored, you should see her hands:


Preserved: Dried beautiful sage and tarragon from the farmer's market. Dill, parsley, spearmint, chocolate mint, and lemon thyme of my own.

Cooked: Continuing to make my own yogurt and experiment with flavors everyone will eat. DD15 now brews her own sun tea in mason jars. (The rest of us still make ours with hot water). DH is experimenting with sweet potato pie to take to a picnic. He used coconut milk instead of dairy milk, and it was fabulous. I am bringing Pickled Red Beet Eggs, made with my own beets. I am betting I will also be bringing cherry cobbler!

Prepped/Managed: Stocked a year-plus of corn starch, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt. Rumford Corn Starch now boldy reads "Non-Genetically Modified Corn." I bought extra raisins and prunes, but not sure how much we need for a year.

Bought 8' bamboo poles from the herb lady that sells them at the farmer's market; only $1 for four. Good for stakes, bean poles, trellis-making, and for framing tarps and other temporary construction. Will get more a few more sets this summer. When I live somewhere else I can let a bamboo patch spread.

Reduced/Reused/Recycled: I had found 10 berry boxes at a sale earlier this year, and intended to use them as give-away planters. I didn't get around to that, but we did just use them as... berry boxes! I am saving the for u-picking from now on. I also got a nice 5-drawer lingerie chest from the Freecycle list - perfect for a narrow space in DD11's room. Put all our phone and battery chargers on a surge protector with a switch. Cut more grass and mulched with it, hopefully leading to less watering. Wish we could have a water barrel, but we rent and cannot cut the downspout.

Systems Building: An economic justice group at our church is talking about projects, and I've urged something to do with food security. We have a long-standing food pantry that now serves more than 350 people at each monthly distribution. We are an urban church, and I am passionate about increasing food quality and choice for urban residents, which is, after all, the largest concentration of eaters in our county. I believe we will start with a tour of the city's community garden projects with a professional community garden organizer.

Planning to invite some other people to go u-picking with us next week - we can share the gas expense and stop at some nurseries and farm stands I saw today (but was out of cash). Maybe the start of a car-pool for local farm food shopping.

The little girl up the street rushed up to me the other day to tell me that something was wrong with the tomato we planted at her house. Turns out "these yellow things" were her plant blooming. She's never seen a tomato plant in action before. I took her to my yard and showed her the different flowers and explained what the bees do for them. Got her to stand still while solitary bees flew near her in the plants.

Learned: That my beet harvest could have been better with earlier thinning and more nitrogen from coffee grounds. That two young girls and I can pick $40 worth of cherries in about 10 minutes - even tho' we were slowed by stuffing sun-warm cherries into our faces at the same time.

Library: Saving my book budget for the mid-July AAUW library sale here. I am selling a bunch of homeschooling books to raise money for that.

Independence Challenge - Week 8

Been thinking about the conflicts between wanting to stock up, wanting to buy local, and wanting to buy organic - all on a very limited budget. Each of those efforts requires extra spending. I am thinking that all of my spending needs to go toward stocking up, for now. Once I have good tools and at least a few months of supplies, then I can spend more on organic and local sources going forward. I will continue to go to the markets, to garden, and to buy local/organic at every opportunity that does not cost me a lot more. But I am really worried about the effect of the flooding in the Mid-West. I feel like I need to simply get more food put by, faster.

Planted: Planted zinnia seeds in a tray. Cowpeas sprouted within days. With reluctance, I decided not to plant for fall, at least not in the ground. I may have moved by then. Will keep filling movable pots with herbs and greens, and harvest what I already have growing.

Harvested: The first zucchini, and a few young carrots. A black swallowtail butterfly caterpillar from the volunteer dill in the compost pile - for observing, not eating.

Preserved: Dried oregano and sage from the farmer's market.

Prepped/Managed: Bought food service size canisters of bay leaves and black peppercorns. Bought 6 sizable jars of spices at an estate sale. Includes 2 each of whole nutmegs, ground cinnamon, and ground ginger. They could be years old, but it was 50 cents and I stuck them in my pantry for future testing. Also scored four heavy aluminum cookie sheets. *Just* missed getting a reel mower for $5; a man stepped in front of me and picked up the handle. I watched in case he didn't buy it, but he snapped it right up after testing it in the grass. Darn!

Cooked: Tried garlic scapes from the market - good roasted with balsamic vinegar, like asparagus or green beans. DD15 made stir fry with them, too. Bought a jar of raw honey to try. Made a new crockpot sausage recipe that would also work in a solar oven. Pickled fresh beets from the market (instead of canned), to make red beet eggs (a local PA Dutch delicacy) - good practice for my own beets, which will be ready soon. I might try to pickle and can those.

Finally made yogurt - whoo hoo! The crockpot method worked. I used an electronic thermometer with a probe to monitor the temperature of the yogurt on this first batch. Temp might be harder to maintain when ambient room temperature is below 60 in cooler weather. Used a half a gallon of regular store-bought whole milk and half a cup of organic yogurt as a starter. Next, trying it with lovely un-homogenized organic milk.

System-building: Planted basil, marjoram, and marigolds in another neighbor's front planter. Since I am out of space in my own yard, I have to farm other people's yards! Hauling water may be an issue. The little garden we planted with girl up the block is doing well.

Reduced, Reused, Recycled: Freecycling and eBaying extra junk from cleaning the cellar, recycling cardboard. Electric usage is down a little - the girls finally caught on to using the clothesline for almost everything.

Learned: That I was not doing a good job of growing celery. Read up on it, and have now tied the stalks for blanching and am watering more. Found great jam-making website/guru on my food storage list. Researched Bokashi composting.

Library: Berks County Cook Book of Pennsylvania Dutch Recipes. Copyrighted in 1934 by J. Levan, this collection of recipes "from yesteryear", appears to have been sponsored by a department store, Pomeroy's, which advertised itself as a purveyor of fine foodstuffs. (I worked in that department store when I was a teen - it's gone now.) It promises to be a treat to read. A recipe for Stewed Rabbit starts, "Dress and skin a rabbit carefully." Imagine, it was once assumed that one already knew HOW to do that! This treasure, complete with authentic mouse-chewed corner, cost me 50 cents, along with a book of bread machine recipes. Also ordered a used copy of Kitchen Witchery, at the suggestion of another Independence blogger.

Birthday Excellence

Today was filled with pleasant birthday surprises. I had some business to attend to this morning, but the afternoon was devoted to celebration. DH took me out to lunch at Smokey Bones - I love their smoked turkey, each bite eaten with a bit of baked beans. Then we saw a movie, Iron Man.

When we came home, my mother was there with the girls. DD11 greeted me with her gift, a watercolor garden painting. I will try to scan it and add an image later. It is a very detailed watercolor of gardens and patio. DD11 also spent much of the day secretly baking a cake for me in our neighbor's kitchen. She was helped to bake a chocolate cake with white icing, from scratch, very elaborately decorated with my age spelled out in sprinkles and spiral candles that looked like fireworks.


Mom and I went out to tour the latest garden developments, and she ooh'ed and aah'ed in all the right places, like the celery tied up into little bunches to blanch.


We opened a few gifts on the back porch while dinner was developing. DD15 had sewn me a new tote bag, cleverly made from a pair of black twill capri pants, and lined with grey satin. The pockets had become slots for cell phone and keys. I saw her working on a sewing project right under my nose, but I thought she was making something for herself. My mother gave me very nice Foxglove gardening gloves, and DH gave me a Leatherman Gardening Multitool.


DD15 made dinner - succulent porkchops with horseradish mashed potatoes and peppery gravy. We all enjoyed an episode of Doctor Who, after which I fell asleep in my chair, very satisfied with my day.

June Boom Day Photos

This bloom day seems to come just before a lot of things start to bloom. But I do have blooms, at my house and at Mom's. Larkspur, Coreopsis "Creme Brulee", and two Veronica "Alba" that have gotten droopy. There's a shovel hiding behind the larkspur, where I clearing space for some cabbage starts. Here are some marigolds I grew from saved seed, and some Profusion Zinnia in Apricot, just getting started.



The salvia and my few roses are just ending for now. The guara is about to start, and I see buds in the monarda. The Stellas are really going to town. That stake in the photo is for an eggplant slowly coming up next to it. The Evening Primrose on the other side of the Stellas really had a good year, too.


The Lamb's Ear is just starting to bloom, and the Yarrow "Moonshine" is still holding up nicely. The unknown sedum that I have going from a cutting is starting to bloom already - I left the buds on it to see what it might be.


Mom has a lot of the same stuff I do, and her yard is "between blooms" to a large extent. Her Campanula Glomerata "Joan Eliot" and Snow-in-Summer are ending, daisies mostly not started. She does have some nice lilies starting, and some robust rose campion that did not photograph well. I spotted a great mass of Red Hot Pokers down the block from her. When my yard seems dull, I look at what other people have blooming, and plant some of whatever it is, for next year.