Little House in the City

Little House in the City

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Here I go! (At least to the garden....)


Ahem.

Ta da! I am officially unemployed--or, rather, officially employed as master (oh, eek--mistress? Really?) of ye old homestead. Wow...my first day of freedom, and I largely spent it chained to my desk, writing away at my last assignment for this semester. *sigh* I knew that it wouldn't get done early, but a gal can dream--and if I would just finish and turn it in, then I'm done until October!
In any case, I managed to get to the farmer's market this morning and did some overdue harvesting in my own sadly neglected beds just a while ago. It is so nice to have a cool day, even if the mosquitoes are ridiculous and I now reek of questionably effective herbal bug repellent. Anyway, aside from grabbing bright red tomatoes when I see them, or the occasional head of broccoli just before it blooms, I haven't been able to get much time in my garden until today. I consider this a pretty voluptuous haul for one day--a big heavy bag of potatoes, scallions, onions, several types of tomatoes, green beans, and a huge bouquet of collard greens! I brought home local bacon, chorizo & jalepeno brats from the market this morning, as well as some peppers, squash, sweet corn, goat cheese, and super-nutty bread. This is, truly, the time of year to luxuriate in the delicious food that is everywhere. (And it is yet another reminder of why those "vine ripe" tomatoes in February are simply NOT worth buying. Sorry, pet peeve of mine, and one that I always break at some point and then regret when I'm trying to swallow flavorless, pale pink, mealy tomatoes.)

This was my first time harvesting potatoes, other than my earlier adventure this spring when I felt around and pulled out some new potatoes (that were absolutely fantastic steamed with fresh peas and a little butter, salt & pepper.) I have learned several key points for next year--mainly that I need to grow them either in significantly raised beds or garbage cans so that I can keep heaping up the dirt around the plants and get a larger harvest. As it is, I need to weigh what I got from the twelve plants that were ready to harvest today--I would guess that I averaged five good sized potatoes per plant, and next time I would give them more space because the ones in the middle didn't produce as heavily as the ones on the ends that had more room to sprawl.

A few nights ago I finally got around to deadheading my calendula and echinacea in the front herb garden, which was a chore that I knew would entail a huge collection of mosquito bites and most of my evening. I was right, but it wasn't too bad, and I have a bunch of dried calendula to make into potions for Jason's eczema. The little cheapo food dehydrator that I picked up for twenty bucks at Aldi did a great overnight job at drying out the sticky flowers--which makes me excited to dry other things like tomatoes and fruit puree for fruit leathers. My garden projects are starting to creep in along the edges of our home: a countertop covered with tomatoes in the kitchen, the patio table covered in collards rinsing off in the rain, the spare bedroom closet a jungle of drying echinacea, garlic, and onions, and the garage floor covered in cardboard and curing potatoes. Now, with time to work, I am so excited to see how much food I can get cheap and fresh--whether from markets or my own garden--to put by in one way or another. How stocked and cozy this little house will feel by the time cooler weather comes!



2 comments:

  1. I'm very interested in reading about what you put by/can/dry for the winter. I've never canned anything, but I've read "Blueberries for Sal" about a million times in the last few weeks to my daughter and we have a blueberry patch nearby-- we might have to experiment with preserved fruit a bit! We have a very small garden (it's ok if you laugh): 2 tomato plants and 2 zucchini. I wanted to start small and keep it manageable so that Natalie, my 2-year old, could help water and watch the fruit grow each day. It has been so fun and makes me wish I had dreamed a little bigger this past spring. I'm jealous of your haul today.

    Also, I was listening to The Splendid Table the other day and heard the term "femivore" for the first time. I thought of you and wondered if you had read much about it. Here's an article link that's kind of interesting: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/magazine/14fob-wwln-t.html

    I think this comment is long enough...happy harvesting, and congratulations on your self-un-employment. :)

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  2. Ah, serendipity--I have Shannon Hayes' book, and to be honest, it is part of what gave me the courage to head in this direction when I knew my office was closing. My mom gave it to me for my birthday this past April, and when I got around to reading it, I had just finished an econ paper on the GDP and how our national accounting system fails to place any value on things like unpaid work in the home or environmental degradation. Uncannily, when I started reading the Hayes book, she was talking about the same things and how their lifestyle is geared to remove them as much as possible from the "extractive" economy...I don't know it was a neat coincidence, I guess. I'm not 100% with all of this, but I am really excited to explore some of her ideas.

    I am so glad that you have some plants and your daughter gets to help and see the whole process. I have wonderful garden memories of sharing sweet cherry tomatoes with my 2yr old neighbor and good friend a few summers ago. She and I had so much fun with the baby plants and the growing & watering--and especially the eating, right there in my sunny front yard.

    I am excited, too, to investigate the different ways of storing foods. I have done a little canning (which was a great day that I will write more about)--just tomatoes--and have made copious amounts of pesto and spaghetti sauces that I've frozen. I've frozen peaches, strawberries, and cherries. Just tonight I had dinner with friends, and we got to have the sauerkraut that she & I started fermenting two weeks ago--so cool. Seriously. Just salt, cabbage and some caraway seeds for flavor...and time. Anyway, enough of a tangent--suffice it to say that I am looking forward to sharing my experiments with you. Thanks!

    oh, and p.s. you should definitely try potatoes in a trash can next year. there is something deeply satisfying and yet almost magical about reaching into the soil beneath the plants--and pulling out these chubby, honest-to-god potatoes. lots of fun for little ones too, i would say!

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