garden

Garden Economics

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130824 Garlic

This is my garlic harvest for this year.  A year ago about this time I was thinking I really needed to grow some of my own but when I went onto the High Mowing Seed website with the intention of ordering some and they were sold out.  Bummer I thought – then figured I’d order it for this year. Garlic is planted in the fall, like tulips and daffodils, it needs that fall and winter time to set out its roots.  It then blossoms in June or so and is ready to harvest in July (at least here it is).  The seed companies send out their garlic for planting the first week in October.

I moved on completely forgetting about the garlic. A couple of weeks later I received a package in the mail – a pound of garlic for planting from High Mowing.  I had forgotten that I had ordered it with my spring seeds back in February.  It felt like pennies from heaven because I’d paid for it back in February as well.

The garlic I had ordered is called Music.  It’s a hardneck variety which I know seems to do pretty well around here. I dug a nice bed for them in a sunny, well-drained sight and placed each clove about 3 to 4 inches deep, covered it and walked away.  When spring arrived it was the first plant out of the ground.  In June the blossoms, called scapes, emerge.  I pick all of them off – doing this puts the plants energy in forming bulbs.  The scapes are delicious – I chop them and cook them in eggs for breakfast but they are great in all kinds of things.  Two harvests from one plant.

Towards the middle of July the stalks of the garlic begin to turn brown from the ground up.  I’ve heard that timing is everything with garlic.  You don’t want to dig it up too soon- you want those bulbs as big as you can get them.  If you wait too long the bulb will no longer be tight, the cloves will have splayed out – ready to continue growing for another year.  I had to guess.  I waited until the plants were brown half of the way up the stalk and then I dug one out to see.  It was a thing of beauty.  I dug the rest.

Curing the garlic takes another 3 to 4 weeks. The skins dry to that thin paper we are all familiar with.  I just laid the whole plant on paper in the house and waited (of course a couple of bulbs were sampled along the way).  This weekend I cleaned and trimmed the crop. What you see in the photo is what I grew.  This was a pound of garlic cloves.  The cloves are very large on this garlic so it doesn’t take many to get to a pound.  For every clove you plant you get a bulb.

This garlic is so good I vowed to plant 3 times as much next year – the problem?  It would probably cost over $60 for the seed.

Bill and I gazed at these beautiful bulbs and decided that I would use most of what I grew this year as seed for next year.  It made me a little sad to think about not eating most of what was in the basket but I could quadruple the number of bulbs next year just by planting what was in front of me.  It was sort of a no brainer, but all I want to do right now is eat garlic mashed potatoes from the garden.

Wordless Almost

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Sunup

 

And some days you don’t post simply because your head is not in the game.

Good Food

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IMAG0795

My kids call me the doomer.  I try to tell them that I just like to be prepared.  I never want to worry about where my next meal is coming from.  In doing so I have learned to garden in good weather and bad.  This year is one of those years where some things are doing much better than expected while others are an unmitigated disaster.  Every year I seem to say to Bill, “If we had to survive on this year’s garden we would starve to death by February”.  Even though I’m getting better at my gardening and adding more and more perennial beds and plants to the ever changing array of food that I grow I know that it would never be enough for a family to survive on until the next crop comes in.

The main reason I really grow a garden is there is nothing like the taste of a warm cucumber just picked, or that summer tomato.  The real revelation came to me when I grew potatoes for the first time a couple of years ago.  Potatoes freshly dug scream “POTATO” when you eat them.  Something happens to produce the minute it is harvested – the taste begins to wane. There are only two things I grow that improve once picked – pears and long pie pumpkins.

Last weekend we made a spectacular meal of things we have grown (or in the case of the steak watched grow).  These are the meals that are memorable, the ones I like to share with friends and family.  I want them to know their food can be so much better. There is such satisfaction in knowing you started the seeds and nurtured your food.  That there are no chemicals involved in any of the food we ate.  The beef was fed grass and hay from one property, no hormones, antibiotics.  It grew up in fresh air and sunshine.  It tastes like BEEF, not the homogenized red meat you find wrapped in plastic and styrofoam at the grocery store.  There is a huge difference.

The garden surplus I will continue to can to use in the winter months.  Peaches and apricots are next on the list and I will continue with tomatoes.  Even with processing the taste of  home canned fruit of any kind is a revelation in the winter.  The first bite brings you back to summer.  That is what makes all the work of preserving your harvest in the summer worthwhile.

Let the Madness Begin

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8460v

 

I made a couple of quarts of dill pickles the other night and was commenting to my sister about what hot work canning is.  I do most of my canning in August when everything seems to come in at the same time in the garden.  This weekend I will probably can some new potatoes.  I’d like to do some salsa but that never seems to make it into a jar once the prep is done, it’s too good fresh.

Peaches are just starting to come in so I may do up some of them as well.  Diced this year, yes a lot of work but worth it in January.  Most of the time I just halve them and pack a jar in light syrup but I’m the only one who ends up eating them and a pint of peach halves is too much for me.  Diced ones I can just throw into my cottage cheese – nothing yummier.

Pesto, tomatoes of every kind, beans, pickles, relishes, these are all the things that I expect to have to eat each winter so the pressure is on now to get it done.

At the end of last winter I cooked a smoked turkey that I had bought from Pekarskis.  There were not a lot of people who were there to eat it and there is a lot of meat on an 18 pound turkey (it was a lovely free range bird as well).  I cut all of the meat off of it, made a stock of the bones and canned it in pints.  There were about 15 I recall.  This canned turkey has been one of the best experiments in canning ever.  I use it in jambalaya or black beans and rice and it is spectacular.  Not only does it taste wonderful with a great texture it is the ultimate convenience food.  This was my first foray into canning meat but will not be my last.

I think anyone who is considering canning should make that leap into a pressure canner.  Yes they are expensive but canning with a hot water bath limits you to high acid or sugared fruits.  I know once I got over the initial fear of the thing my canning options were exponentially expanded, it seems like there is nothing I can’t can now.  Pressure canning is faster and safer and helps you diversify your larder.  There is nothing better that wondering what’s for dinner, opening your canning closet and seeing choices.

Garden Update

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120722 EggplantThis year gardening has been a challenge.  We’ve had weeks and weeks of rain, followed by high heat and humidity.  The weeds are loving it since I simply cannot pull them when it’s 100 degrees in the shade.

I planted my beets twice this year and have two that survived.  The same thing went for the lettuce.  My carrots are spread all over the garden because Chester took a romp through it before I put up my makeshift fence.  Fortunately they are a very recognizable plant and they are growing where they landed.  The potatoes are insanely huge, but they too are growing all over the garden in odd places as well as the hilled rows.  The only squash I planted this year was the Long Pie Pumpkin.  They love my garden every year so I knew I would not have to worry too much about them.

My tomatoes may or may not have blight, I’ll have a better idea when I get up there today.  It’s too bad because they are loaded with fruit.  The most exciting thing happening is the eggplant.  I have never grown them (not sure why not) and they are doing quite well.  I like getting to know a new plant.  I thought I would see fruit before now because it seems like it blossomed some time ago.  Each plant has at least one eggplant on it now so I’m dreaming about ratatouille or moussaka.

Canning season should begin in earnest this weekend.  I used to do jams with spring fruit but have found that we don’t eat it – at least not as much as I can.  Strawberries are frozen for desserts in the winter.  Tomatoes are the big item for me to put up.  I always like to plan on 40 or more pints done various ways at the very least.  I will also be making bloody mary mix as well, hopefully we will manage to keep a couple of quarts until Christmas once again this year.  We always seem to drink it as we make it – it’s so good you can’t help yourself.

I have a few cucumbers – I’ve planted enough to eat fresh but not enough to can.  I always think they are going to yield more than they do.  If I was to grow enough to make pickles I think half the garden would have to be reserved just for them.

I will be picking yellow beans this week.  I didn’t plant as many as last year and I have to say they didn’t come up as well either.  Just as well, I canned quart after quart of them last year and it seems like that was the only vegetable we ate all winter.  I’ve had my fill.  The scarlet runner beans never ran.  They too had some issues with the leaves curling up and turning yellow.  I did notice a couple of flowers on them last weekend but they are bushy and only a foot high – quite the disappointment there, was hoping for some hummingbird action.  The new beans I planted this year, Organic Blue Cocoa Beans, I thought were bush beans but it turns out they are pole so I have rigged a trellis of sorts for them to climb.  Had I been on top of my game and actually reread the specs on this bean I might have laid out my garden in a whole different way.  Live and learn – that has to be every gardeners mantra.

After a very slow start my asparagus bed is looking awesome!  Another two years til harvest, isn’t gardening fun?

The garlic looks fantastic and I will be digging that up this weekend.  The onions not so much.  They are small and just don’t seem like they are doing much (probably too many weeds around them).

Last but not least are the rutabagas, my favorite vegetable.  They are doing great.  I should have enough to get me through the winter and share with everyone I know to convince them just how delicious they are.

I picked a few quarts of blueberries last weekend, I will be picking more today.  I like to have some in the freezer for winter muffins or pancakes.  The wild ones have a tartness that isn’t found in the large domestic ones.  There are a number of bushes all over the back forty, I cover only one of them and share the rest with the birds.

All in all the garden is more successful than I had originally thought although the yield is not what I expected.  I will be visiting farm stands for canning this year and rethink how things were planted and dream about next years garden – always thinking ahead.  I keep thinking that one of these years I will hit upon the magic formula that make everything grow to its potential.  Of course, mother nature will have other plans I’m sure.

 

Little Gifts

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130715 Bee Balm Moth

 

Every day I am given little gifts, natures way of showing me how wonderful the world around me is if I stay still long enough to see it.  I plant a lot of flowers (and vegetables) for the birds and bees, both perennials and annuals. Right now my bee balm is in full bloom along with a sea of Echinacea.  These are amazing, vibrant flowers well loved by birds and bees alike – and hummingbird moths.  These moths are something I wait for every summer, they are so much fun to watch going about their nectar collecting business.  There is a bright pink garden phlox planted around the patio in Rowe that these insects just love.  When it blossoms in mid July you can expect to see two or three of them hovering around in the early evening making their way from blossom to blossom.   The Mass Audubon site has an nice description of these furry little wonders.  It’s always difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that they are a moth – they are so fuzzy and bird like.

The Hummingbird moth is something you have to be aware of in order to see them.  I think that’s why I always consider them a little gift.  The first time I noticed them I asked my sister what they were.  She went to a flower and with a gentle hand grabbed one mid flight.  We examined it, she opened her fingers and it buzzed away, truly one of those memorable moments.

Take the time to observe what’s going on the next time you are near a flower garden or a potted flowering plant for that matter.  This time of year there are all kinds of creatures gathering nectar.  If you are still and quiet they very likely will come to you.

Sharing My Garden

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130707 Swallowtail Caterpillar (2)

 

Every year I plant something for the birds in my vegetable garden.  This year it was scarlet runner beans.  Last year, and many years before it was sunflowers.  I love the fact that they always find what has been planted and visit the same time every day to eat their fill.

This year I have unexpected guests, and they are eating my dill.  Had I known they were going to visit I would have planted more, I’m not adverse to sharing.

I originally thought this was the caterpillar for a Monarch Butterfly but after doing a little digging sister Sue pointed out it was missing the telltale black horns.  It’s a Black Swallowtail caterpillar.  Once I looked them both up I have to say that this caterpillar is much more showy. I love the symmetry in nature.  How even the stripes and yellow dots are on its body.  I am amazed at how they will metamorphose into something that looks so  completely different from what it is now.

130707 Swallowtail Caterpillar (1)The Black Swallowtail caterpillar is also known as the Parsley worm due to their affinity for everything in the parsley family.  Dill, parsley, cilantro, fennel, they love them all.  These caterpillars go through 4 molts of their exoskeleton before it builds a chrysalis.  These caterpillars are in their 4th stage.  As they grow their small yellow dots turn more into yellow ovals.  I fully expect them to be gone soon, they will be spinning a cocoon on some stronger branch.  In about two weeks they will be beautiful butterflies.

When they emerge from their cocoons they will look like this –

Black SwallowtailHow amazing is that?  We always have a lot of these butterflies around the yard.  They are beneficial pollinators so I don’t really mind sacrificing the dill for the butterflies (although all of the pickle eaters in my family might disagree).  Next year I will plan on planting more dill, parsley and cilantro in a different garden to see if they will concentrate somewhere else.  Or I will just plant a lot more so we can share.

 

 

Rain, Rain, Rain

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130701 Crocs

 

This photo says it all.  I wear these crocs when I work in the garden in the summer.  They are easy to slip on, hose off.  After working yesterday I hosed them off as usual and left them on the patio to dry.  They may have dried but it started raining in the late afternoon and continued off and on through the night.  The forecast for today – rain.

I managed to get half of the garden weeded but really need to get out there again and finish before the weeds take over.

All this rain has wreaked havoc for farmers of every variety over the whole of New England this year.  It’s been one of those years where you think you have the right combo of things to plant because they have grown so well in the past only to find no matter how many times you plant the seeds the conditions won’t allow them to germinate.  I’ve planted beets twice so far this year and have had one sprout.  It’s not a matter of bad seed either.  I’ve planted two varieties, new seed.  I will plant them one more time, if they grow great, if not I wait until next year. My carrots are sparse, but the rhutabagas are fine.  The potatoes are finally going after a very slow start. They are also sprouting all over the garden – apparently I didn’t dig up everything last year.  They’ve survived tillage 3 times so I guess I will just hill them where they are.

The beans are a bit disappointing as well, they have had a tough time starting.  There will be a few more seeds planted there as well.  Although my tomatoes had a rough start they are looking pretty good at the moment.  I need to tie them up for the second time this week.  Onions and garlic are very happy.  There are blossoms on my cucumber starts but I’ve come to realize that I don’t plant enough to really put up so they will probably be eaten fresh and I will have to visit the local farmstands to make pickles. My long pie pumpkins look great, they are one of my favorite varieties and they are great keepers.

The potted flowers have never been happier.  Every summer for the past few years I’ve had to have someone water them on the days when I’m not here.  No problem this year.

One of the biggest problems that has occurred this year is with haying.  It’s has rained every day for weeks, for hay you need at least a couple of dry days (dry, not exorbitantly humid like it has been).  With the weather pattern that we’ve been in the hay has been in the field too long so the quality of the feed suffers.  I’m not sure what the answer is here.  There may be more steers going to the auction in the fall because there won’t be the hay to feed them through the winter.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Farming is such a difficult way of life.  You are dealing with the unknown on a daily basis.  Each week the weather is bad you adjust your expectations for the off season.  This is something that hasn’t changed since the dawn of agriculture but each year when it happens to me it is deeply personal.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

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130630 Morning Mist

 

There is nothing better than getting up just before the sun peaks over the mountains to the East.  The mist rises off of the back field and the sunlight begins to shine through it sending it’s rays to the ground.  This is the first day of our staycation here this summer.  Quiet, drinking my morning coffee in the field with the birds, once again connected with the earth and nature around me.

The dew is thick this morning and the one thing that keeps me from being relaxed is as the sun casts its light on the dew covered plants it accentuated every weed in the garden.  So after that quiet little interlude, soaking it all in, all I could think about was weeding the garden.  Sigh.