My First Garlic Harvest

As I have noted, it's been rainy around here. I've read that some people have harvested their garlic early for fear of it rotting underground. You are supposed to harvest your garlic when 50% of the leaves turn brown. I planted three different varieties, so as it just so happens they are browning up at different speeds. I decided to harvest my first variety called: Stuil. All of my varieties are hard neck because I had read that these varieties do better in my colder climate. I may try a soft neck variety next year, just for kicks.

Here is my harvest!

My brother Scott (the photographer) quickly printed off directions for braiding garlic off the Internet. If you have ever made a french braid before, that's how you braid garlic. Of course the green / brown stems are stiffer than hair, but after awhile I got the hang of it.

You lay your next stem of garlic down parallel with the next group of stems to be pulled across to the middle.

It may not be the prettiest braided garlic ever, but not bad for my first effort.

I hung it up in my garage, and let me tell you, as you walk towards the garage door, it smells like a garlic festival is underway.

Life is . . .

a bowl of cherries.

This is half of the petite harvest of cherries from our cherry tree. It beats last year, the first year for our tree . . . we had one cherry. They are juicy, sweet and homegrown organic. Wonderful.

Also, after weeks of nearly continuous rain, it has been sunny.

Glory be.

Fragile hope and a commitment to thinning!

I feel like I'm walking on egg shells. I am waiting for 'the other shoe to drop'. I am giddy with excitement when I look at my thriving strawberry plants (thanks to our handy dandy fence that's keeping the rabbits out!), but I am petrified that something is going to come along and ruin everything before they are ready! I am having pest stress! 

Just last night I was examining my fruit trees and found that some of them have been anialated by a small green caterpillar. I tried picking them all off one by one and smashing them to smithereens. But, they were everywhere. Nearly all of the leaves had been destroyed, overnight. Finally I broke down and used an organic BT spray, which is a bacterium that disagrees with soft bodied bugs, on the trees whose flowers had already fallen off (kind of like the milky spore concept that's used for Japanese beetles). I didn't spray anything on those trees that had flowers because there is some talk that the BT bacterium may harm the larvae of the honey bee -- as the bees go right to the flower, take in the pollen and nectar, then feed it to their young -- which is at one point, larvae. 

So of course I haven't sprayed my darling strawberry plants. But they are starting to show evidence that some bug or other is going after them. Argh! Garden Stress! They look so wonderful. So cheerful. So hopeful. I even saw one of my honey bees examining them yesterday. (Granted, one -- but hey! We are getting somewhere!)

My mantra this year is THIN THIN THIN. The sign of a novice gardener is someone who doesn't thin their seedlings. I fall into this category. I find it so difficult to pull out or cut down a cute little seedling filled with promise! This exposes my naivete. Although you might think that you will get more 'fruit' with more plants, if the plants are crowded the opposite is actually true. In addition the plants become stressed and more susceptible to disease. Drat. So now I have been thinning and thinning and thinning. 

I've known this since I was a child and witnessed my father pulling out 'perfectly good' radish seedlings from the ground. "WHAT are you Dooooooing??!!" I said. "Thinning" he responded. It just seemed so wrong. 

Here are my peas. (top and bottom) Two rows side by side 4 inches apart with a trellis in between. Last year my peas were attacked by deer and rabbits. We will see if the peas have better luck this year!

Here are my broccoli and cauliflower transplanted seedlings.

And some lovely lettuce that had been growing in my cold frames -- now exposed. It is pretty exciting to have lettuce ready for picking in early May (here in New England, that's exciting!)

Yum.

And my carrots. Another thing that suffered greatly last year because of Peter Rabbit. 

I've been a good girl and have been thinning them out as need be. 

One small potato sprout. Kristi and I are trying a new fangled potato tower made with wire fencing. Inside I've piled leaves, straw, grass clippings, compost and a little dirt. As the sprouts get taller, you cover up the stems with more of the 'compost cocktail' and repeat until you are at the top of the tower. Supposedly this will create a mountain of spuds within each tower. I am a little concerned about possible light exposure to the potatoes growing inside (on the edges) of the towers. Growing potatoes don't like light, and can 'green'. Time will tell. I'll keep you posted! (My Portuguese husband does not seem impressed.)

Seedling Progress

As you know I have embarked on this years seed starting. Here is there progress, for your viewing pleasure.

Leeks

(Footnote: leek and onion seeds are only good in the first year. I learned this from Kathy, and then confirmed it for myself. So, go ahead, plant them all -- find a spot for them or give them away. Otherwise, the seeds will just end up in the compost.)

Floppy looking onions. This photo is a week old, they are looking perkier now.

Tomato seedlings. I love several varieties of tomatoes. Not great for seed saving in my smallish garden, but I can't handle just one variety. I went ahead and planted a bunch, many of which are from last year. I don't know if the seeds will last another year, so I went ahead and planted most of them remaining from last year. Gifts anyone?

I was just about ready to give up on the celery I'd planted, when . . . look what I found!

Same thing goes for the eggplant. I was just about to reseed, when . . . 

The more you work with God's creation the more you know He is real.

From the honey bee, to seedlings, it's all miraculous. Truly.

The State of My Garden - Fall 2008

My big project.

A girlfriend of mine was putting new windows into her antique home, so I asked her if I could have her old storm windows to make cold frames -- inspired by Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest.

Frost will be coming soon here in New England so I need to get busy.

In these frames I should be able to grow cold loving vegetables -- especially greens like arugula, spinach, bok choy, parsley -- No doubt this fall / winter will be a learning year, but I'm looking forward to it!

The one remaining loaf from Karen's Homemade Bread Recipe. The problem with fabulous homemade bread ... two huge loaves disappear in 72 hours.

My yard clippings compost bin. As you can see, this three sectioned bin is made with pallets that I was able to get for free. I will put yard clippings, leaves and grass. The leaves and grass should break down so that eventually I can use it as a "leaf mold" in place of peat moss. Helpful when planting seeds. We (as you can see) have a lot of woods in the back of our property -- so excess clippings etc will go in the woods and I can transport them over for "quick" composting that I can easily turn and rotate. I have another enclosed compost bin for kitchen scraps.

Here you can see my leeks are coming along (although more slowly than I would like) and the peas that Ripley helped me to plant in late August are almost ready for picking. Are you taking advantage of second and third plantings? Growing isn't over for your garden once the tomatoes and zucchini are done ... there is so much more that you can get from your garden!

Here are my cold loving greens coming along - two kinds of romaine, bok choy, arugula, spinach and some random peas that were late comers from an earlier planting. I planted some in late August, some in Early September. A lot of the little seedlings were destroyed when we had the left over hurricanes plow through, so I had to replant.

Here are my strawberries. I planted the root crowns this spring, clipped off the blossoms and helped the daughter plants take root when they sprung from the "mother" plant. Now we can't wait for spring! Our asparagus are also looking great and are ready to go next spring. Contrary to what "they" used to say, asparagus actually do better if harvested only ONE year after planting as opposed to three years -- however the first year you can harvest every 2-3 days for 4 weeks. The following year you can harvest for a longer period of time. What an amazing plant.

Fall Harvest

The apples from my three new semi-dwarf apples trees were ripe enough for picking and I decided to go ahead and harvest them. The main reason being -- the cute little things had gotten this far without being totally destroyed by bugs, mildew, rust, scab, squirrels or deer -- let's hurry up and pick them before their luck runs out. This came to my mind yesterday because I awoke to find one of my three sugar pumpkins that pollinated with chipmunk teeth marks! Grrrrr. No big harm done though thankfully. I just need to make pumpkin something-or-other soon. Needless to say, I picked my three little pumpkins before further damage occurred. Speaking of pollination ... have I mentioned that I'm seriously considering keeping bees? (Another idea my sister-in-law Tanya has been tantalizing me with over the past year ... as in "Have you ever considering keeping beeeeessssss???") I have two friends in town who keep bees that I've started peppering with questions. With fruit trees and a big garden, honey bees with help with pollination and produce more fruits and vegetables. In addition, you can reap a harvest of honey. I'll keep you posted!

Star of David Okra

Beautiful, isn't it?

This gorgeous flower blooms large for one day. I think it's lovely. I saw it open earlier today, by the time I got down to photograph it there was a japanese beetle chewing away at it's delicate petals. Shouldn't those awful pests be gone by now? I don't know about you, but for me it's been the year of the pests. I have somehow attracted every possible pest local to this area. Anyway, aren't my okra beautiful?

Garden Update

Here is the status of my Victory Garden. Aphids are rampid. Today I sprayed the garden with a soapy water spray. Hopefully this will make a dent in the infestation. The deer haven't destroyed anything recently (I am afraid to be too positive), however Thumper and the E.B. (Easter Bunny) have moved in. Tonight while eating pizza on our front wrap-around porch Victor noticed a RABBIT (I think it was Thumper) hopping along like he owned the place. The nerve. My carrot and beet tops have obviously been someones lunch and dinner in spite of being totally surrounded by marigolds. More pepper spray and grated Ivory Soap I guess.

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On a more upbeat note ...

My "Nutri-Bud Broccoli" has performed beautifully. I have always thought that broccoli was tough to grow, but this year it was problem free. I cut off the large center crowns when they were ready and then waited for other smaller shoots to sprout up. I need to replant again as broccoli is content in cooler weather.

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My potatoes are almost ready. My Father-in-law (who is from Portugal and knows a thing or two about gardening and especially about potatoes) told me that potatoes stay in the ground for 3 months, which basically boils down to waiting until the plants are completely done flowering. Then, the plants should be trimmed down --- wait one week --- then dig them out. While I was trimming the tops off I ran into several potatoes here and there, and they looked beautiful! My red potatoes are the most gorgeous red, and the Russian Banana fingerling potatoes look impressive. Of course I will be worried until I pull them all out of the ground that they are half devoured by some pest or other -- but what I saw today looked encouraging. This is the first time I've tried growing potatoes. It seems miraculous to me. Better than unwrapping a gift at Christmastime. Tomatoes, a vegetable I've grown for years, plod along from seedling to plant to flowers to fruit. But, you see the whole thing as it happens. Potatoes do this amazing thing behind closed doors. Wonderful.

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My Siberian Kale is flourishing. I've been making braised mixed greens. Stealing a few branches off of my turnips and beets -- mixing them with the kale. Cover the bottom of a pan with olive oil. Throw in 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of salt (depending on how many greens you're cooking), plenty of freshly ground pepper and a bunch of shakes of crushed red pepper (I like them spicy), thinly sliced garlic and if you have it- some sliced onions -- cook until translucent and slightly golden over medium heat. Then put the greens in -- they should be slightly damp from being rinsed which will help to steam them. Put the cover on the pan. Toss the greens around from time to time. Take off heat when the greens are done to your likeness. Eat!

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A few of the beets that took early in the season were ready for eating. I baked them in the oven the good ole Fannie Farmer way with butter, salt and pepper. They were fabulous.

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My zucchini and yellow squash are only doing OK. Some of the flowers are just falling off (not pollinated?) I should have planted more. That is one thing I've learned. I feared having too many of one thing and therefore planted conservatively with some things. But, invariably some plants get eaten, stomped on, or just don't take. This is true for my zucchini, eggplants and okra plants. Next year.

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My tomato plants are big and loaded with fruit -- but green fruit. As my father was lamenting the other day ... here in New England tomatoes are for August and September and that's it. But, the are worth the wait and the short season.

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I planted loads of peppers. Cayenne, Jalapeno, Thai, Sweet Red Peppers, Orange Peppers ... especially red pepper plants. I've been worried about them because I was pushing the planting season a little, then we had a cold couple of weeks. I read that peppers wont produce fruit if they are "put out in the cold". So far I have flowers and I am starting to see baby peppers peek out. Exciting.

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Alright, I've gone on long enough. More gardening news later ....

Chip and Dale

As in the cartoon show!

I was headed outside again to assess the rabbit situation, and what did I see?! A chipmunk nibbling on my bean sprouts. When he saw me coming down the stairs to the garden he moved on to a rock about 6 feet away and consumed the bean top. Arrgggghh! I confirmed the assault when I looked at my poor bean, it's top munched off, a simple stalk poking out of the ground. Honestly. This is like the cartoon show ... and I'm the poor soul getting laughed at.

Not Bad . . .

Not Bad. Here is my first big harvest of Bloomsdale Spinach and May Queen Lettuce. Wow. Yumola.

In the garden however, I have been riddled with bugs. I've tried all kinds of Neem spray and an Oil Spray -- however when I realized (thanks to friend Vivian) that I was infested with Potato Beetles, I had to use Seven -- suffice it to say, it's not organic. It's pretty mild stuff, but it was either that or kiss my potatoes, tomatoes and peppers goodbye. (this was even after trying to chase these little whipper snappers around my potato plants -- hats off to those of you who have the time, patience and talent for that. 9 times out of 10 you pull a leaf or two off with a beetle. I looked it up on the natural gardening book I've had out from the library for months it seems and that's what they had suggested. Apparently, Potato Beetles are especially prevalent in the small home garden. Terrific. Anyway folks, I gave up. If anyone has any other ideas -- please let me know. Between my fruit trees and veggie garden I've become a bit consumed by pests. I'm seeing bugs I've never noticed before. As a matter of fact, when walking our little miniature Schnauzer "Church" (weird name, I know) this morning I noticed that our birch trees were being CONSUMED by caterpillars. They blended in so nicely you could hardly notice them -- since I had the Seven all mixed up, I gave them a good blast. Fixed their little red wagon.

My first harvest 2008!

Here is my first small harvest. Bloomsdale slow-bolt heirloom spinach. Spinach is perfectly happy in early spring -- so I was able to plant mine in April. Really, my plants aren't quite ready for harvest, but I wanted to make a certain soup that required spinach. I didn't have any on hand so I decided to go outside and take a few larger leaves of some of the larger plants and thinned a few plants that were too close to one another (I always struggle to thin a perfectly good plant). I ate some leaves right out of the garden after a quick rinse and they were delicious! Isn't it beautiful?! It's not too late to plant your own. Just sow right into your garden. And, because they like the cool weather you can plant in the mid-late summer for a fall harvest.

Now for the recipe ... The soup recipe if from a book titled Seriously Simple by Diane Rossen Worthington. If you don't have a copy you should race out right now and go and buy one. It is fabulous. The soup is Lima Bean, Zucchini and Spinach. It is a lot better than it sounds. It is yummy and healthy. Here it is:

2 T olive oil

3 leeks white and light green parts, cleaned and thinly sliced (I didn't have leeks so I used one large onion)

4 zucchini, thinly sliced (I didn't have any so I used the crown and part of the stem of the typical bunch of broccoli that you'd find at a grocery story)

2 C fresh or frozen Lima Beans

4 C vegetable broth or chicken broth (I used 2 C chicken broth and 2 C water b/c that's what I had)

1 six ounce bag of fresh spinach leaves

1 T fresh lemon juice (I used the zest too ... why not?)

S and P to taste

1/4 cup sour cream (I used half and half b/c that's what I had on hand)

1/4 C freshly grated parm cheese

In a large saucepan heat olive oil and saute leeks for 3 minutes. Add zucchini and saute for 7 minutes. Add the lima beans and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to med-low. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add spinach, cover and cook another 3 minutes. Puree the soup in the pot with a hand blender (if you don't have one - run out and get one right now, cheap and so much easier to use than other options). Add lemon juice, S & P. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and swirl a spoonful of sour cream and a sprinkling of cheese into each serving. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Portuguese Beans

This weekend when we were visiting Victor's parents for Mother's Day my Father-in-Law, who is Portuguese, was giving me a tour of his freshly planted garden. His potatoes are already poking up a good 2 inches out of the ground, as well as his beans. Every year he grows these broad green pole beans that are right from Portugal. They look a lot like a cannelloni bean from Italy. You can eat them when they are young like a regular "string bean" -- they usually cut them in a "French Cut" (but I guess it's really a Portuguese Cut) style, boil them in salted water along with a few eggs (still in their shells). Then, when they are done, the hard boiled eggs are taken out and minced, then mixed with a little balsamic vinegar (one teaspoon or more), lots of olive oil and salt. Pour the egg mixture over the beans. If you're feeling fancy, sprinkle chopped fresh parsley over the top. One of Victor's favorite summer dishes. When the beans are allowed to grow larger, the beans are shelled and dried -- then used in soups all winter long. Yum. SOOOoooooo .... My Father-in-Law gave me a large baggie of his Portuguese Bean Seeds saved from last year for planting. I'm excited to learn from him how he saves his seeds and to do a little studying on my own. He also gave me some bush Portuguese Beans that look like a light kidney bean. I've never tried growing any other type of bean besides your standard bush green bean, so I'm looking forward to getting into it. Especially because they keep so nicely, are a good source of protein, and are easy to grow. Happy Spring and Come Summer!

Where have I been?!

I forget every year how much work is involved in springtime. Now, not only do you have to keep up the inside of your house (which I'm not doing a very good job at), but now you're also enjoying the great outdoors and the beauty of spring while tidying up the outside of your house. This spring has been a different year altogether. Over the past month we have almost completed adding wood chips to our side yard between our yard and the neighbors to cut down on weeds. We do this about once every 3 years and this was THAT YEAR. We had a 20' x 40' garden added to our yard and we had 2 apple trees, 2 pear trees, 2 peach trees, 1 cherry tree and 6 blueberry bushes planted into our side yard -- eliminating two huge areas of grass that no longer will need to be mowed. Lucky Victor. Me on the other hand ... I've been hard at work. I planted several perennial plants -- which like the fruit trees will produce in time, but need some work in the beginning -- including 5 rhubarb plants, 20 strawberry plants and the 30 (yes 30) asparagus plants (from Seeds of Change) that Victor gave me for Valentines Day. I also planted seed potatoes (a first for me) including heirloom Russian Banana, Yukon Gold and Reddale -- all ordered from Abundant Life Seeds. Yesterday I also planted my broccoli and broccoli rabe spoutlettes in addition to more seeds. All of these things could have gone in earlier, but I had to wait for my garden to be put in. I did a lot of transplanting in my perennial garden as well. Not only did several of them need to be split, but I'm making room for a larger kitchen garden for my basil, chives, thyme, oregano, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, etc. This area is right off my front wrap-around porch, so it's very convenient and leaves more room for vegetables in my larger garden. Already growing in the raised beds I've had for several years now are snap peas, shelling bush peas, 1925 heirloom bloomsdale spinach, May Queen lettuce, rare Scottish Macgreggors favorite beets, Rote Kugel beets, Dragon Carrots, and Chantenay Carrots. Happy Spring!

The Blues

Or more appropriately, The Greys. I've made it until April this year, thanks to my vitamin D supplements -- but I'm finally at that annual point (after a hum-dinger of a week ... Benjamin got strep throat, week of rain and cold, that "time" of the month, then I got strep throat!) where I start asking myself ... "Why in God's Earth do people choose to live in New England?!" Yeah, yeah, yeah ... the coast is beautiful, the topography is beautiful, the annual turning of leaves (which I have to admit I view in part like a funeral ... welcome grey), but seriously, How about Virginia? I went to college there and even though my family was living by the coast in Southeastern Massachusetts where it's milder, I had two complete springs every year. One in Virginia ... and one in Massachusetts when I came home IN MAY!! Sheesh. If I was on that Mayflower boat that was meant to land in Virginia ... I would have said "Let's go south! It's too dang cold here!!" A case in point ... I took the opportunity to record this grey 40 degree and rainy last day of March and at least show you where I plan to plant my fruit trees! (poor things only have two months of good summer ... ) Thankfully, "they" are forcasting 60 degrees tomorrow ... and rain, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose.

My Victory Garden - Beginnings

A 21st Century Victory Garden: Victory over Factory Farms, Victory over Chemicals and Pesticides, Victory over gas and pollution used to carry my vegetables all the way from California or Chile. Victory over wasting perfectly useful land on grass (we have a sizable front yard for outdoor sports), Victory over mowing large patches of grass - wasting fuel and polluting - when it's not being used. Here are the beginnings of my Victory Garden. On the left are my first seedlings. Broccoli and Broccoli Rabe, and two varieties of Leeks. Broccoli is a cold weather plant and can be planted here in Southeastern Massachusetts in mid-April. Leeks are a slow growing vegetable and need to be started early in order to be ready before snowfall. They can be "over-wintered" - which means covered with straw, protected from the elements, they go dormant and you can uncover them, pry them out with a pitch-fork and PRESTO fresh leeks in the winter. Cool. The picture to the right is the location of my new garden area (I currently have two raised beds). It should be ready by mid-April. Exciting.