Monday, May 3, 2010

I'm back, with my Independence Days update

I'm back. Thank you for forgiving my absence for a bit; my family had a bit of a crisis, but we're pulling through. And thank you so much for your kind comments; I was amazed at how much it helped me to have sympathetic words from strangers. It's time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge, and that seems like as good a time as any to start again...


(peas, surrounded by branches to keep the chickens from uprooting them; so far, so good)

1. Plant something:
I have been very busy in the garden; more edible-plants orders arrived this week, so I planted a meader persimmon tree, 10 salmonberry bushes, 10 thimbleberry bushes, 3 elderberry bushes, 2 huckleberry bushes, creeping oregon grape groundcover, bunchberry groundcover, more good king henry, roman chamomile, and stinging nettle. And from the farmer's market (open at last!), I added lemon balm and lemon thyme.

(one of the many sticks I planted this week; can't wait until they're more bushy!)

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Good king henry, ramps, garlic mustard.

(my perennial garden, pretty much ignored since I began planting edibles; thankfully still looking beautiful!)

4. Waste not:
Cleared some food out of storage that we're not eating, for donation to the post office's food drive.

6. Build community food systems:
The farmer's market opened again--yay! We got parsnips, leeks, scallions, and--to my great delight--wheatberries (we've never had grains there before; I was so glad to see them!)

7. Eat the food:
It's asparagus season, and therefore we are eating asparagus as often as possible: we've had lots of roasted asparagus and some stir-fried tofu and asparagus. More rhubarb cuppa-cuppa, this time using local honey rather than sugar (mmm...and I think I could cut the sweetner down next time). Roasted parsnips and leeks, wheatberry salad with scallions and sorrel.

4 comments:

Meryl said...

Glad to hear things are going better!

I found some lemon balm in my yard to other afternoon--what do you do with it? I've found that it can be made into tea, but any other good ideas?

Jules said...

Woo Hoo! Welcome back. Good to hear your voice again. We have been planting like crazy people over here and are hoping for some sun. We seem to be dealing with more Icelandic ash this week too! Ho hum.

Luisa said...

Glad your back!
I'm not planting a garden yet so I'm just enjoying everyone else's :))

Lise said...

Meryl,
I added lemon balm to my garden after reading an article about it in Mother Earth News: (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Natural-Health/2007-08-01/Grow-Mosquito-Repellent.aspx). They have a ton of ideas. Looking at it now, I realize I'd forgotten to try it as a mosquito repellent; will do that soon! I dry it for tea (as well as using it fresh) and make a tincture from it which we use for anxiety, stress, or sleeplessness. I've also made a lemon balm tea bread; can't remember what recipe I used, but I found it online. Lucky you to have it already in your garden! :-)

Jules,
Wow! I'm very out of the news loop and hadn't realized the extent of the ash! Hope you'll see the sun soon.

Luisa,
Vicarious gardening; all the fun with none of the filth!