Independence Days: filling the freezer with fruit

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
I'm just happy I didn't kill anything more this week! The container garden loved the heat this week--I can't believe how much the beans grew!

2. Harvest something:
12 qts. cherry plums foraged from a nearby park. 6 qts. raspberries from a pick-your-own farm. Eggs. The last few of our snap peas. The usual garden snacking (Lucy's learned to ask "mint?" just before picking and eating some). Our first grape tomato (which was then cut into 6 equal portions to be shared by the kids at lunch) :-).

3. Preserve something:
5 pts. pickled beets. 8 qts. frozen raspberries.

4. Waste not:
I've started tucking re-usables into my shopping bags so I won't forget them. Yogurt containers and berry boxes go into our CSA bag, because they'll re-use them. Coffee bags go into a specific bag for the co-op, so we can re-fill it. Makes remembering much easier!

5. Preparation and storage:
Our stores are woefully low. We're re-stocking slowly: a few extra jars of coconut oil, a few of peanut butter, a few recycled bottles filled with water.

6. Build community food systems:
I told several people about the cherry-plum discovery. And, of course, being the wacko on the side of the road with a basket always invites looks and inquiries. It feels like my small little contribution to educating the world about the possibilities of foraging.

7. Eat the food:
Lots and lots of popsicles. Favorite flavors this week:
strawberry/yogurt
strawberry/spinach/coconut milk
blueberry/summer squash/spinach/water
Lots and lots of kale. Kale chips, of course. And a surprisingly-good what's-in-the-fridge concoction that all the kids liked (loose recipe below). It was such a hit, I made it again today, and the kids kept saying "this is my favorite rice!" Potato salad, cucumber salad, green salad (salad was clearly a theme this week!). Lots of berries, just straight up. And just tonight, I conquered a fear of mine: I made a pie crust. I know, it's supposed to be easy. But I've always hated things I have to roll out--they get stuck to the rolling pin and rip and break. So I buy pre-made crusts. Or mostly, just avoid anything that requires a crust. But today, I did it! It's baking now, but it looked like it worked!

Spicy Kale, Eggs, and Rice
Chop a bunch of kale into small pieces. Saute in a bit of oil until bright green.
Push kale to the side of pan; break a few eggs into the pan, scramble, and cook.
Add cooked rice. Pour in lots of watery salsa (or salsa+water).
Cook until water is absorbed or evaporated.

Chickens in the garden; shoo, chickens, shoo!

I just went out to shoo the chickens out of our new "garden" (containers on the driveway). I brought my camera along, because I keep forgetting to photograph this garden. The chickens had destroyed the box of chamomile, but everything else survived.

Miscellaneous pots and containers. See the pile of abandoned leaves we never managed to remove this spring? That's what invited the chicken-scratching trouble.

Full of vines that are going to need support soon.

The box that started it all. It's this great old trough-type thing I got at a barn sale once, and have tried to plant before near the house, with little success. Newly-drilled drainage holes and a new spot on this driveway, and it's now full of happy-looking bean plants. Once it was in the driveway, all lonely and small-looking, it needed some company.

I'm happy with my new labels. So far, everything I've tried has become illegible over the summer. But this time I used my new-favorite paint pens (thanks, Carol!) on some beach rocks, and so far, so good!

Returning to the chicken coop, I found no eggs for the day. Uh, oh. What other trouble have you ladies been up to today?

Found them in the herb garden, in the trampled echinacea. Oh, well. I love them all the same.

Independence Days challenge: enjoying the last of the strawberries

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. A few black-cap raspberries. A couple peas.
And this is why I need a farm share! Here's one day's "harvest" from my yard:

Now, granted, this was unusually small (and I could have added some greens, but it was farm pick-up day, so they were certainly not needed). But we don't get a whole lot more even on good days! Still working on that. In the meantime, our "harvest" comes mostly from local farms. At our CSA this week, we picked the last of the peas (not nearly as many as I'd have liked to, as we were on toddler-at-the-end-of-the-day time). And we returned to the berry farm and picked 6 more quarts (would have liked to get more, but the pickins were slim this week). While there, we also gathered some red clover growing in the blueberry-field paths.

3. Preserve something:
Dried 1 pt. red clover and 1 1/2 pts. strawberries. Froze 1/2 pint garlic scape pesto, 1 1/2 qts. veggie stock, and 4 pints snap peas.

4. Waste not:
I seem to always skip this section, because we don't do anything noteworthy, just what's become habit. But maybe it's worth mentioning some of it anyway. What comes quickly to mind: all kitchen scraps go to the chickens; everything we can is recycled (not much, as I try to limit purchases, packaging, plastic, etc.); glass containers are re-used for storage of dry foods and leftovers; kids' wading-pool water is emptied with kid-sized watering cans to water the gardens; "craft supplies" lining the studio shelves are actually beautiful stuff saved from the trash; all laundry is line dried; we use hankies, cloth napkins, rags, cloth pads, and cloth diapers rather than disposables... That's some of it, anyway. I think we do pretty well with this.

5. Preparation and storage:
Did some tag-sale and thrift-store shopping this week and found a few basics: cotton sheets, a brand-new pair of shoes for Lucy when she's bigger, a muffin tin to replace my worn-out one (the old one went outside for the kids' mudpie play).

7. Eat the food:
The kids ate strawberry "pops" for snacks this week (the biggest strawberries, stuck on a stick and frozen), and strawberry-spinach smoothies. We ate lots of coleslaw, salads, and rice with stir-fries (mostly greens). And more radish-butter sandwiches on yummy local bread. Oh, and a strawberry cuppa-cuppa-cuppa. We've pretty much been eating strawberries for every meal.

Friday's Flowers: color!

The garden is finally full of color (in my garden, that means purple, yellow, orange, hot pink, and white). I just barely managed to pick today's bouquet while there was enough light to photograph it--the evening primrose have already closed up for the night--but I think it's pretty all the same.

Blooming right now outside, and in the vase for our dining room table:
hydrangea
day lillies
lavender
evening primrose
rose campion

Want to see more Friday's Flowers? Check out this post at FIMBY.

Independence Days Challenge: garden in pots

Lavender, ready to be harvested and dried.

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
The kids and I planted a garden-in-pots on top of our second driveway, in one of the only tiny bits of frequent sunniness we have. I didn't have nearly enough pots for all the seeds we wanted to plant (our planned-for guerrila-gardening raised bed has been abandoned for now, as the location proved to be much shadier than we'd remembered.) But we made do with what we had, and are trying Kentucky Wonder beans, Moonglow tomatoes, Blondkopfchen tomatoes, Straight Eight cucumbers, Double Yield cucumbers, German chamomile, and Boston Yarrow squash (all of these go toward the Growing Challenge). It rained most of the week, and the beans and chamomile are already sprouting.

Chamomile sprouting. Teensy tiny seeds plus toddler hands equals very crowded seedlings!

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Foraged elder flowers.

The herb garden, picked over by children and chickens (notice the nearly-leafless comfrey--you can tell how tall the chickens are by how high its stalk is bare).

3. Preserve something:
Froze 2 qts spinach. Drying elder flowers.

Our first tomatoes appeared this week.

5. Preparation and storage:
Added several jars of peanut butter and coconut oil to the basement, trying to restore our depleted supplies.

My potted Meyer lemon tree has doubled in size with all this rain.

7. Eat the food:
I finally made kale chips (well, I've made them in the past, but I finally made them without burning them...) and the kids loved them. Sure to become a regular lunch item. I used up some of our many frozen-last-year red peppers to make a roasted red pepper sauce for spaghetti. The kids and I ate bread with radish butter and salt (yummy for those of us who dared try it. Gotta do the 10-times-more thing for a few of them...). We're eating lots of greens, of course: salad, swiss chard, bok choy and (new at the market this week)--broccoli!

Friday's Flowers: almost too busy to stop and smell the roses

Shew! It's been a hectic week! (Thus the disappearance since Saturday. Sorry about that.) I feel like I haven't stopped moving since we returned from vacation. Lucy and I picked a lovely bouquet for our first meal back, but it died on the dining room table before we sat down there again (and before I took a photo!) The week hurried by so quickly, I didn't pick any more until this evening. Out in the garden, I found we have very little blooming right now. So here's my mini bouquet, in the dying light of the evening, snapped quickly before we dashed out the door again (more on that tomorrow).


Check out other "Friday's Flowers" participants here at FIMBY.

Independence Days challenge: hello, green smoothies

(a spot in our herb garden, with lettuce sprouts and comfrey squished in there; will need to rearrange!)

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

2. Harvest something:
From our garden: Eggs, good king henry, sorrel, lovage, dandelion, sweet cicely, parsley, violets.
From a friend's garden: asparagus, rhubarb, mint, scallions, sorrel.

5. Preparation and storage:
Added 1 more bottle of water to storage.

(I called it lemon balm in past posts, but it turns out to be bee balm. I tend to forget what's in my garden in the winter, and have to re-learn it in the spring!)

7. Eat the food:
I've been serving the kids green popsicles (frozen green smoothies) for two years now, but never really got on the green-smoothie bandwagon for myself. But we're turning over a new leaf here, trying to eat more greens. One problem I've had with smoothies is that when the greens are coming up, I'm just about out of fruit (we're down to a few jars of peaches and pears and have no frozen fruit at all). But I made a smoothie this week using an apple (local, from the co-op), grape juice (our last jar), good king henry, sorrel, lovage, dandelion, sweet cicely, parsley, and violets. It was good! We all drank a glass with dinner, and Lucy was practically licking the glass to get the last drops (admittedly, there is sugar in that grape juice...). A good start, I think. Our greens supply is still low; I used up all I thought I could pick for that one glass each. But there will be more to come. (Edit, later in the week: I made another: grape juice, canned peaches, and all the same greens. Yummy!)
We're getting really low on canned and frozen fruits and veggies; can't wait for the farmer's market to open! Used up the last garlic this week, and have been relying on our small supply of ramps for garlicy flavor. We have lots of frozen red peppers, so we've used those in a frittata (lots of eggs right now!) and in a "lentil enchilada" recipe (yummy, though not a bit like enchiladas). We were lucky to have a meal from a friend's garden today: spaghetti with sauteed scallions and asparagus, followed by rhubarb cuppa-cuppa-cuppa.
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Today...a long walk around town with mama:

Independence Days challenge: everything's coming up!

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge. It's been an exciting week in the garden: suddenly everything is coming up.

(one of the raspberry canes that somehow survived the winter frozen in a pot and is now thriving in the ground)

1. Plant something:

(the lettuce I planted two weeks ago)

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Chives. Sorrel. Good King Henry. Dandelion greens.

(last year's kale, which still looked green when I cleared out the bed this spring, so I left it; sure enough, it's re-leafing)

4. Waste not:
An obvious thing for better cooks than we are, but something I was proud of: faced with the rock-hard leftovers of a loaf of bread, I made a bread pudding of sorts for the kids' breakfast, using eggs, dried blueberries, and dried mulberries. It was a hit. Normally, that bread would have gone to the chickens, or, at best, be used as bread crumbs.

And I cut way down on disposable paper this week by putting a bag of hankies within easy reach in the kitchen: a fresh one handy whenever needed. Now I'm using those for family and the tissues only for the kids in my early childhood program.

7. Eat the food:
I made a yummy end-of-storage-beginning-of-greens meal this week: mashed potatoes (colored and lightly flavored with turmeric) topped with sauteed greens (chives, sorrel, good king henry, dandelion), garlic, and toasted pine nuts, with a peach crisp for dessert. Lucy approved!

Also tried a new recipe--good for spring with lots of eggs and stored tomatoes--which was a big hit with the kids (it was one of their lunches, with toast and green beans on the side). And I made a not-as-yummy casserole (would have been so much better with dairy!) of potatoes and eggs and ramps. Disappointing, but I was pleased that most of the meal came from our yard.
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And outdoor play? One of today's projects was trying to move this great big log a friend salvaged for us. It's headed back to our digging area in the woods, where I hope to eventually have many more logs for use as tables, chairs, jumping-off places, and whatever else the kids might need.

Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree! Visit the other Great Outdoor Challenge players- lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy

Aiming for a junkier garden

I used to think I hated garden ornamentation. Gnomes and shiny silver balls and most especially, junk as "art," cluttering up the yard. But then I moved to Massachusetts, where the garden is dead and barren for most of the year, and you're eager for a spot of beauty. And I began to see examples of garden objects, even junk, done well. And I started to appreciate it. Even to want some in my own yard.

But I'm not very good at it. When I put things in my garden, they look lonely, out of place, odd. So I've been studying gardens as I meet them, trying to figure out why they work. And for the past year or so, one of my main tag-sale and thrift-store missions has been to find good garden "junk."

On Easter, we went to a party in the yard of a friend who's a master at artfully arranging objects. Her home is a work of art, and I'm so in awe of the beautiful vignettes she sets up all throughout her life. I took some photos of her garden for inspiration (unfortunately, my photos do not do it justice. Trust me when I say it's much more beautiful in person.)

After wandering around her garden, I returned to my garden this week with new eyes. I've been rearranging the furniture, so to speak, moving the bits of things I've had in my garden for years and giving them new homes and new friends. It needs work yet, but I'm liking it so far. I'll share photos soon.
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Outdoors today:

Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree! Visit the other Great Outdoor Challenge players -lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy

Salad in sight!

It's been raining, hard, for three days. We've been out (we always go out), but not really been spending a lot of time in the yard. It was wonderful to take a tour of the gardens today and see what changes the rain has brought. That's the lemon balm, above. We planted it last year in this leaky watering can. A ton of the soil seems to have disappeared, and yet, this plant is happy. In fact, it's coming along much more quickly than the other herbs in that bed; I think the metal can acts as a sort of greenhouse, keeping it nice and warm.

Oh, I do love perennials! I began gardening 12 years ago with a large flower border. I couldn't see myself spending the time, money, and energy involved to fill it with annuals; if I was going to invest all that, I wanted flowers that would last! And what a treat it was to have that garden come back year after year, better each time.

For years, that was it; our yard is much too shady for vegetables. Or so I thought! Then I heard about forest gardening, and it seemed like the perfect solution for me: works in shade and includes perennials for lazy gardeners like me. So I've slowly been working on incorporating more and more food plants into our yard, keeping the principles of forest gardening loosely in my mind.

Now, imagine us at the tail end of the winter, eating stored food all these months. We've been eating well, don't get me wrong. But it's been a long time since we've tasted fresh fruit, or crispy veggies, or greens. There are no frozen berries left. No onions, even. Imagine the thrill when we wander around the yard and find this:

(wild leeks!)

and this:

(sorrel!)

It's just a bit. Enough for one meal, in a while, when the plants get bigger. But it's something. The seeds I planted haven't even poked above the soil yet. But my "forest garden" is already producing food. And it'll only get better every year.
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Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a copy of Spring; I'm choosing a winner on Friday. Your chances of winning are really good!

30 days of beauty, day 9: green

The yard looks very brown right now.
But take a closer look, and you can see it emerging:
green.


daffodils


sorrel


snowdrops, ready to open

The beauty is there. Some days, it's just very hard to find.

30 days of beauty: day 4

Ok, these 30 days don't have to be consecutive, but I've gone much too long! I've been sick and sleep deprived and February's been grey and it's been hard for me to see the beauty. But I'm feeling a bit better today and the sun is out and I decided to look until I found it.

Rosie, enjoying the sunshine and staying near--but not too near--to me and Lucy:



A bright spot in an otherwise dull garden:



Our garden girl, awaiting the summer:



And my very favorite: our new view of Lucy--holding our hand, wanting to walk with us everywhere.