Those cukes keep rolling in… thus far I’ve given away several pounds to neighbors and I’ve got about 10 more pounds in the fridge. We’re having a pool party tomorrow, so cucumber salad and cucumber water are on the menu! I sampled the sandwich pickles I made not long ago – I made buttermilk no-knead […]
I don’t know if I’ve posted about it before, but I’ve been frustrated with the performance of the chicken tractor so far. Not because the hens are unhappy – on the contrary they seem to love the grass and clover and bugs they get to scarf.* Not even because it really is a pain to […]
Our mint and oregano have been starting to flower this week; it was high time we harvested them. Sofía and I went out with a pair of scissors this morning and filled up an entire grocery bag – almost a pound of fresh herbs! Last year I hung the herbs to dry, but this year […]
There’s nothing quite like sitting down to a meal that came entirely from your own garden. Tortilla española and garlic-sauteed beet greens. Simple fare though it might be, everything was picked at the peak of freshness and flavor. The main ingredients – potatoes, eggs, greens – were actually harvested just this morning while Sofía slept. […]
I made a mistake when I planted these beans. I was supposed to plant them around the corn, so they’d have something to support themselves on. They’re vining beans, you see; only the bush beans were supposed to go in a bed by themselves. But of course I only discovered that I’d grabbed the wrong […]
I harvested about 2/3 of the cabbages last week in anticipation of this brutal heat wave. They had filled out their bed with spreading, luxurious leaves, and I had high hopes of cabbage enough to last us until Spring. I was so disappointed that when I took them in and undressed them, most of the […]
Tomatoes aren’t the only fruit slowly ripening in the garden. The peppers all look very healthy this year, much better than last year. Perhaps because I remembered to include an eggshell in each planting hole (they need calcium). The stink bugs are better this year so far, too. But I haven’t gotten a ripe pepper […]
As I mentioned previously, last week we dropped $400 on 10′ tall T-posts and deer netting. If that seems like a lot to you… well, it seems like a lot to us, too. An awful lot. But I’m so tired of investing all my scant time and energy and labor into the garden, only to […]
The wildflowers I sowed are finally flowering… some of them anyway. This patch of loveliness is actually the space between the two beds that I sowed them in. Except… I sort of forgot that I’d put them there, and ended up covering those beds with an inch of topsoil. So, no flowers there. (I could […]
Tomato season is almost upon us! I keep checking and rechecking the tomatoes to see if any of them have begun to turn the slightest bit red. So far, none have. I’m so eager for fresh tomatoes I’m considering harvesting them green and making chicken tortilla soup. But there will be plenty of time for […]