Patience

Because you were so patient, I decided to go ahead and load up my riveting photos of yesterday.
These are the spinaches coming up outside the door. In the other pot, I planted a lettuce mix from Burpee.

This is the granola I made. Yummy! 4 cups oats, 2 cups puffed rice, 1/2 cup sliced almonds, 1/4 oat bran and 2T brown sugar. Pour over that a mixture of 3/4 cup pineapple juice, 1/4 cup apple juice that has been reduced to 2/3 cup and then 1/4 cup of honey dissolved in it. Pour the liquid over the dry stuff and mix well. Put on a jelly roll pan (with a little oil or non stick spray on it) in a 325 oven and stir every 5 or so minutes for 25-30 minutes or until things look like they are toasting. Don't let it go too far or it will burn pretty easily. Add the raisins after it cools. Store in an airtight container. I'll be having this with homemade whole milk yogurt and some of the last raspberries of the season for breakfast.

Cho, turn away and don't look. Or at least prepare yourself.
This is a garden spider. I have one in this same spot every year. Normally I see her on the first of September or thereabouts. I don't know if spiders live more than a year. I suspect not, but it is uncanny how it is always there this time of year. It was a good day for this spider because she was munching on something. If things go as usual, we will have an egg case somewhere about before the really cold weather sets in.

I dug out our old compost pile this morning. Wow. Compost is some good stuff - gorgeous and rich and squirming with all manner of life. I mixed it into the beds where I was planting more spinach, some kale and more of the mixed lettuces. Then I did a half assed job of turning more into the bed that is going to get the garlic along with some of the straw leftover from the potatoes. I also put a bunch on my asparagus bed. The asparagus bed is getting special treatment this year as I didn't get any asparagus last year. I think I haven't been feeding it enough. Apparently it is a heavy feeder. So I didn't harvest any of the spindly spears and left the bed alone, other than weeding and feeding this summer. Well, I watered it a bit. I'll try to continue to be diligent. Maybe it will forgive me an send up big fat tasty spears next April.

I am already starting a list of things I need to grow next year. I think I will try sweet potatoes again. I spent some time today working on planning for ducks. I have decided that they need to be in the garden. Or at least that is what I think right now. I think the chickens will be mobile. We have work for them to do in other areas of the yard and having them on the go will be good. I am hoping we can put them to work cleaning up some of the MASSIVE amounts of chickweed (or whatever it is) that takes over our wooded area like a great tide of pale green slime in the spring. It really does have the look of the pond has receded and left this goopy stuff all over. But if it IS chickweed, then what better to do with it than let the chickens scratch it up and eat it. I am all for it.

The Market

I feel the end of the market looming. Mama and I went this AM at our usual ungodly hour. I ran into my neighbor V who introduced me to the LARD. Yes, people, real lard. For biscuits, pie crust and other delights. These of course can be made without lard, but why bother? We also ran into SHG for the first time in many weeks. She of course already knew about the lard. Sigh. In my mild panic about the market ending in a month and a half, I bought enough food for about 8 people. So, if you are around this week and hungry, come on by....

Today I am making tomatillo sauce with one of the few success stories from the garden. I still have lots of leeks and parsley, so last night I used many of my teeny potatoes to make potato leek soup with fresh milk. Deelish. I still have potatoes to dig, but I don't think the harvest will be great (very late and half assed job) and since they seem to still be happy out there and because I don't really have a good place to put them, I am leaving them in the garden bed. We will revisit them later. I am also making granola. I haven't made it in ages, but the rising costs at IY is encouraging me to branch out. The granola I bought for the SB before he took off cost $12. Um. That is too much for cereal people.

My bees are not eating. I went out yesterday to refill the feeder, thinking it would be dry, but it was almost full. Don't really know what is up with that, but my theory is that I must have burnt the sugar a bit when I made the syrup. I had a new batch whipped up so I made a new feeder from a Rubbermaid container with holes poked in the lid. I took it out this AM. I felt like I was going to a potluck with my little container. They seemed a little more interested in this, but I'll have to check tomorrow and see for sure.

I am hoping to get some more seeds planted over the weekend. And some general yard and garden work accomplished. Of course, it is supposed to be sweltering. I'll try to follow the shade around the yard. I have spinach coming up in one of the former tomato planters. I am cutting out the other tomato today and replanting there with lettuces or more spinach or chard or something. I also need to do some work on my garden pathways to keep the weed barrier in order. Yesterday I was out puttering and pulled a plant that was covered in bugs. I thought, wouldn't the chickens like this? I really need me some chickens. And some ducks. And since we no longer have the raw milk available (ending the last week in September), I REALLY need me a cow. And the truth is that I need to be a housewife. Actually, I really need to be an urban farmwife. All my work clothes will be black.

I'm Back

You thought it would be weeks, didn't you? Admit it. But no, here I am only a few short days later.... Well, maybe a week, but who's counting?

It has been a busy weekend. Friday I had to take off work early so that I could go snorggle some baby ducks. A lady out by the airport keeps runner ducks and she has some ducklings. She let me hold them even though I was very clear that I was NOT going to purchase any. Not even one. Not even all 5 of them. I got to check out the duck layout and see some runners in action. They didn't seem terribly messy, but the 7 ducks have free roam of the yard, and the goat pens, so there is lots of space. They have a solid enclosure that they are comfortable in and I got to watch the ducks put themselves up for the night. Man those baby ducks were cute. Pocket sized. If they were mine, I would make myself a duck apron so I could pop them in there and take them out to the garden with me.

Saturday I skipped the market all together and went straight to the harvest festival in the rain. I thought I was bein' all sly by going in the rain thinking no one else was that crazy. But LO.... Wads and scads of crazy gardeners. Wandering in the downpour. I thought I would have lots of time with the speakers to ask questions and tap into their knowledge, but things were hectic because of all the changes and people were coming and going and everything was crowded. I got a great handout though on winter vegetable gardening and I am scouring it to see what I still have time to put in.

Later Saturday I went to the parent's for a neighborhood potluck. I was sort of all social-ed out by that point so I didn't stay long. Though I had lots of nice garden/chicken chats with my neighbors.

Today was spent puttering in the garden, doing some weeding and trying to figure out where I might be able to put some of those winter vegetables. I washed all the potatoes from last weeks harvest and picked out some to try to save a seed potatoes. We'll see how that works....Clearly, it has been done, I just don't know if there is anything special that has to be done... I cleaned the front bed and planted some kale and arugala. I have teeny spinach coming up in one of the pots that (until this AM) contained my persimmon tomato.

And speaking of fruits, I had the rapturous experience on Friday of tasting my first ever paw paw. I bought some at the market on Wed and forgot about them. They were almost too far gone on Friday when I remembered them. After trying them, I raced out to my paw paw tree to see if mine were ripe, but the are still hard and green. I checked again today and still no. But I am watching them, as I am sure the squirrels and raccoons are. Hopefully, I get there first.

The rest of today was spent with the bees and my bee mentor (who rocks). The bad news is that there is going to have to be some serious feeding to get these guys up to speed before storage activity shuts down in October when the weather gets cold. Like, I have to be ON IT and be sure that their feeder never runs dry. He tells me I am going to have to feed 30-40# of sugar in the next 6 weeks. So tonight, I went grocery shopping and came home and made dinner for the bees. I filled the feeder and took it out at dusk without the smoker, but with my gloves and veil on. That time of night things are pretty quiet so there were no problems. Other than they forgot to tip the delivery person. Ahem. Makes me feel sorry for the Dominos guys.

DANG

Wow. Another long break. I hadn't intended it to be so, but alas.... We got the SB off to school in NOVA. Then back for a long weekend, then off again. Give me strength. These transitions just about kill me, so I am hoping against hope that this is the last year of it.

Last evening I harvested the rest of the main crop of potatoes. I didn't mean to, but once I started, it was so darned much fun. The soil was so lovely I pretty much dug them all by hand, without gloves. And what I kept thinking the whole time was "Dang, I need some chickens and/or ducks to come and follow me around because there are some juicy lookin' grubs in here" And there were. Fatties. Nasty grey critters. Maybe Japanese Beetle larvae, but other things too. Large and small. Crickets and grasshoppers were hidden in the straw, there were GIGANTIC worms, teeny little ant like things and all kinds of delicious variety. Chick Collective, beware. I have decided that the best of intentions are getting us all exactly no where in terms of chickens. I am hatching a plan to motivate. Stay tuned.

I filled a 3 gallon nursery pot full of potatoes. They are "curing" in the back of the SB's truck. I need to bring them inside in the morning so that they don't start to turn green. I have been eating some of the earlier harvest. These little things are super. They have a stout little skin that is toothy and insides get soft and creamy when you cook them. I roasted some with a chicken and then made and Indian type dish with them tonight. Boil about 1/2 - 3/4 pound of potato bits until just tender, drain and set aside. Saute one onion and 2 cloves of garlic with a 1 inch chunk of ginger (all chopped). Add about a teaspoon each of ground cumin and coriander, chili powder to taste, a few saffron threads, 1/2 t. turmeric and a teaspoon or two of curry powder or garam masala. Fry briefly then add about one cup chopped tomato and either 2-3 cups of fresh spinach or 10 oz or so of thawed squeezed frozen spinach. Warm through, add potatoes and a little water or broth and stir together. Serve with plain yogurt or cucumber raita.

In other exciting news, over the long weekend, the SB and I went to see some ducks. We had a delightful tour of Split Rock Farm from what turned out to be a neighbor of ours that works there. She showed us their amazing and beautiful chickens, and the ducks that were supposed to be runner ducks but they got shipped the wrong thing. Turned out they got buff ducks instead. They are still cute and they are garden loving critters that hunt slugs and eat rotten tomatoes. And not so rotten tomatoes that have the ill fortune of being low on the vine. I am sure they would love the beetle larvae as well. This new neighbor is interested in having chickens - the collective grows. AND she hooked me up with someone who DOES actually have runner ducks and who has invited moi to come and see the new hatchlings. I am afraid to go. I am afraid that I will accidentally bring some home. They might sneak into my purse or pockets or get under the seats in my car. Or something. They are wiley those little ducklings. They can hide just about anywhere. Like the basement. Or my bedroom. Or in the cab of the truck out back. It is soooo dangerous. I will probably go anyway and just make sure that I don't have any pockets or cash.

Tomorrow I am going to the Central Virginia Beekeepers meeting. I am going to be reminded what I need to do to get my hive ready for the winter. There I will also meet with my bee mentor and talk about times to put my wire strung frames into the hive. Which will be SUPER exciting. My bee mentor pretty much rocks.

AND, AND this weekend, I am going to a Harvest Festival. And I am going to attend workshops. And I am going to learn about winter gardening and growing garlic and onions (my garlic arrives in two weeks), and about growing fruit and no till planting. This is all the more exciting because I thought I was going to have to work this weekend, but the event was canceled thanks to a possibility of a hurricane, which may, if it comes, impact the harvest festival as well, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, and did I mention that it is free? At least the majority of it and I am not doing any of the parts that cost $.

Cho-girl and I are going to the Fiber Festival the first weekend in October. Tag along if you like.

Where?

People, where exactly DOES the time go? This is not a rhetorical question so please feel free to chime in. I would really like to find where it goes so that I can go collect it and bring it back. I am hoping it just takes a wheel barrow and a shovel, but if I have to rent some heavy equipment, I am willing to do so.
To revisit... The LB, Cho, and SHG and I all made cheese Oh, about 3 weeks ago. Maybe more. Here are some of the highlights of early in the evening, before SHG went and got her camera.
If you want the play by play of live cheese making, you will have to go here.

The spread. What is the point of getting together if you can't eat, drink and be merry?


The peach auditions. Three different types of peaches, all likely to be grafted onto rootstock by a local farm and on offer for sale as small trees in the spring. We liked the Beekman. As did my friends the following evening. Deee lish.
Heating the milk with citric acid for ricotta. Someone was watching the temperature, I am sure as it is critical. It must have been the LB. She was SERIOUS about the cheese. She did the research, bought the kit, gathered us, and kept us on task.

Here the curds are being ladled gently into the cheese cloth lined strainer per the directions.

Here we give up on gentleness and dump the mothers in there.

The long and the short of it is that we really need a cow. We are all totally in agreement on this.

The following day/evening/day was spent in Warrenton, visiting some of my chick friends from waaaaaay back. Six of the original 7 of my old supper club got together for dinner, in from London, New York, State College and The Ville. It was pretty near heaven, but way too short a visit.
After that, the SB was home again, and we were off on our usual wild ride of gardening, housework, etc. When he is away, I forget how much time this relationship stuff takes ....

Anyway, from the garden, we snuck out one evening and carefully dug under some of the potato plants to see if we had any new potatoes. We never got blossoms on the plants and I read that is the time you can start harvesting new potatoes. Well, apparently you don't need blossoms. Check 'em out!
These are fingerling potatoes of a variety called La Ratte (thanks Barbara Kingsolver). What do you do with a handful of small fingerling potatoes you ask.... Well, you cut them into more or less even chunks and boil them gently. While that is going on, you saute half a pound of Babe in the Woods local hot sausage with an onion and when things have browned nicely you add in potatoes and a big bunch of chard from the front porch and you add a little white wine or chicken stock and let the greens steam in there for a bit. Then at the end you wonder if there is enough starch in it to keep the SB from having to go for a 2am snack, decide no, and throw in a cup and a half of leftover cooked pasta and warm it through. While it is hot, you plop on top several spoonfuls of fresh ricotta (see above). You watch with delight as your dinner partner snarfs down enough food to feed a family of 8.

There is another small success in the garden in this year of very few real successes.
Some of the tomatoes planted on the hillside have produced! The yellow one is Wonder Light, the two directly behind it is a Tigarella (a little stripey) then there are the Black Plum Paste (with the greenish tops) and Grandma Mary's Paste, the sort of blocky shaped ones. Grandma's Paste is amazingly prolific with a minimum (no let's be fair - ZERO) care. I have been enjoying my potted tomatoes... Crimson Carmello (nice, but not the best tomato ever - the consistency is sort of mealy) and Persimmon (lovely yellow peach and very mild but not a great producer). If we had a little more rain, I think I would have been inundated. Which was sort of what I was looking for, but I am happy, I haven't had to buy much in the way of tomatoes lately.

In other news, we (the SB and I) spent and entire day and *almost* decided to build a chicken tractor. We opted out when we went to Lowes and priced it out at over $100. We decided to scrounge more and go for a permanent structure. Now we may be back to the tractor as the SB is questioning my long term commitment to chickens. The nerve.

We have also been talking a lot about ducks. What we hear is that ducks are messy. Apparently they fling water around like crazy when they eat and they poop. A lot. I am undaunted. I am sure that we can find leaves and chips and sawdust and straw to put down. And it gives me a good excuse to get some Wellingtons.

Try It, You'll Like It

Because it is hot and because just about everything seems like anything else is too much trouble, I will post my summer staple foods:

Requires the stove to be on
Tuna Pasta Salad. Not only cheap, but tasty. This is a variation on a recipe that my Mom has made for ever. Have I posted this one before.... Please tell me if I am repeating myself.

Pasta (penne, macaroni, or something else bite sized) cook this and drain it and run it under cold water. Chop up about 1/4 cup of red or mild onion and mix it with the pasta, a can of tuna (drained) 3/4 of a regular sized cucumber (peeled and chopped) 1-2 tablespoons of capers (drained and rinsed) add mayo until it is the way you like it and add salt and pepper. It is excellent really cold. Mom's recipe is macaroni, tuna, onion, dill pickle relish (instead of capers) and thawed frozen peas (instead of cuke).

Does not require the stove to be on:
One large tomato, 1/2 a peeled cuke, 5-8 olives, 1 inch chunk of feta, 5-6 leaves of basil - all chopped, and doused with about 2T. red wine vinegar, 1/2 t. balsamic vinegar, 1 t. olive oil, salt and pepper.

Let me introduce you to my new favorite blog... One of the residents who trained with us just moved to New Zealand with his wife and two small children (3 and less than 1) for a year. His blog is pretty entertaining. All about culture shock, some professional, but mostly culinary at this point. Check 'em out.

The SB thinks I am crazy for wanting 10 ducks. Actually, he doesn't think I am crazy, he just thinks I am asking for trouble from the City if we have too many. Perhaps he is right, but they have a minimum order of 10. What to do, what to do? Anyone interested in 4 or so ducks? I am already trying to think of names for them. The SB gets to name any cat we have so I think I will reserve the right to name the ducks. I am less committed to naming the chickens, so I can offer him that.

I planted beets and beans and some late season greens. Hoping to get some broccoli started soon so I can get it in as it starts to cool down. The beets and beans are coming up gangbusters and I just put them in last weekend. I want to keep planting more since they are so successful, but I have to reserve some space for my garlic. I can't remember when that is supposed to arrive, but I ordered it this spring to arrive at the proper planting time so that I wouldn't forget. I think it is September.

Still no sign of the battery charger. If I had a camera, I would show you how great my tomato plants outside my door look and how much my wee lemon tree has grown this year and maybe even a picture of the F.A.T. groundhogs that still seem to be infesting the place, though are not currently in the garden. And I would show you the berries that are forming on my raspberry plants.

Tonight we celebrate my oldest nephew's b-day (a little early, but...) He is apparently into chocolate these days, so I will be making chocolate ice cream. I wanted to put coffee in it, but figured since it is the kid's birthday, I should keep to more kid friendly flavors. I do have some hazelnut chocolate nutella like stuff that I am going to swirl in at the end. We'll see how that goes.

Not Dead.

The SB is up in Maryland working on projects with our friend H. The weekend is planned to be 4 guys out at a cabin carving a giant crocodile out of wood and drinking beer. I will not compare this with my more regular like 8-5 government type job, but suffice to say, it ain't like that. I get weekends off, dammit. So there.

In the several weeks he was home he worked like a dog. Unfortunately, that meant I worked like a dog as well. We started his time at home by buying some expensive and useful tools. A chop saw. And a screw gun. Then we went to work on the basement. We crammed stuff into corners and cubbies to reveal wall space and eventually hung two metal cabinets that have been in the way for about 8 years. We then crammed them full of stuff. That took care of about 1/42nd of the junk in the basement. But it is a start.

He also cleared one of the property lines of brush and weeds and has created a new bed for fall planting. The SB, ever vigilant, was able to stop the tree butchers from "trimming" our trees while they were in the 'hood, and even talked them into giving us some of the chopped tree refuse. We now have about 9 cubic yards of mulch piled up. Some of it now spread on the new bed to keep weeds down and add organic matter so the new plantings will have a good go of it.

Next we started to finish the wall around the basement bathroom. Oddly, our basement came with a toilet in it. No sink and no real walls, more like what you would find inside a bathroom... little stall walls with a curtain across the front. Those are all long gone and we found a pedestal sink and put that in. Half of the framing for the wall has been done for about 2 years. The SB put in more framing and hung the door. So now we have an unsheathed wall but we definitely have a door. Which is awesome since it get something else out of the way. More to do on that project, but progress.

Finally, last weekend, we put in half a patio. Under the porch we have always wanted to lay some paving bricks that we bought about 6 years ago. Over the course of 2 days we moved a lot of dirt and 3/4 ton of gravel and about a billion bricks (most of it more than once) and we are the proud owners of about 100 square feet of patio. We ate pizza on it to christen it last Sunday. Now it is covered in junk, but I am sure we will see it again someday.

I have done almost nothing in the weeks the SB has been home but work on the house, cook and babysit. My apologies to the LB, to whom I still owe a dress. Which I am working on today.

In the success column, yeah Mother Nature, who has been providing me with plenty of blackberries to go in my breakfast yogurt.

Thank the heavens that groundhogs are short, because I have managed to pick about 6 or 7 pounds of peaches from our tree this year. Most of them have a small critter in residence, so I definitely have to cut around them, but it is exciting. They are quite tasty and considering that I don't think I sprayed them AT ALL this spring, I think they have done remarkably well. I'll try to do better next year, but I think you don't get good peaches going the completely organic route. I'll have to do more research. I made peach ice cream yesterday. It turned out to be very good vanilla ice cream with chunks of peach in it. Oh well. Maybe next time I will follow the recipe and crush up the peaches. But actually, I think the beauty of a peach is sort of quashed when it is frozen. The flavor is better when they are warm from the sun. Last year I remember having my last summer peaches chopped up and mixed into hot oatmeal on one of the cooler fall mornings and it was pretty much like heaven. I am now considering a chest freezer and an ice cream maker as my next major purchases.

I planted more kale and chard and beets and some beans. The groundhogs don't seem to be in the garden right now. The potatoes are coming along. I have some teeny weeny watermelons. And I harvested quite a few small onions. Like the SB says. Good thing we aren't subsistence farmers. I pickled exactly one quart of okra pickles yesterday. I suspect some of them will be quite woody, but I thought I would give it a go anyway. If they taste good, I'll plant more okra next year. The groundhogs left it completely alone.

I harvested my first two crimson carmello tomatoes yesterday. To find that they really weren't quite done. But they were fine. I used them to make baked eggs. You cut off the top of the tomato and scoop out the inside and then put a little butter inside the tomato and crack a small egg and fill the center. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper and bake in the oven (or in my case the toaster oven) at 400 for about 30 minutes. I cooked mine too long, but they were still edible. I used the innards of the tomato to make a little salsa-y thing with red onion and vinegar and basil and put that on top with some fresh goat cheese from the market.

I have been dreaming of chickens and ducks lately. I went so far as to go here and fill out an order form for ducks (knowing full well I wouldn't submit it). I have to order 10 ducks though. Which seems like a lot. But, well, I am getting more ambitious. I think I could do 10 ducks - knowing that I would lose a few one way or the other and probably end up with 6. And now I am thinking I need about 6 chickens. I don't want to order chicks though. I just want chickens. Ducklings are another story. I really want me some ducklings. So I may have to wait until spring. The SB hopes to get a chicken house in for me before the end of summer, but I suspect that it will have to wait until winter break for him. He has so much else to do. I already have people lined up to buy eggs from me from chickens I don't even have.

I have lost my battery charger in the current chaos, so no photos. Which stinks, b/c I wanted to show you the patio and the peach tree and the baby watermelons. And I would have loved to show you a picture of the blacksnake we found on Fourth of July. The birds pointed him out as he was trying to climb the tree for the nests, but decided against it when all the attention came down on him. We saw him later crossing the giant field of just laid mulch in the new bed and shooed him into the brush pile to keep him from heading to our neighbors picnic where we didn't expect he would get much of a welcome.

I am going out to check on the bees soon. I haven't seen them in more than a month. I am sure they miss me.