Amazing Bruschetta

This was amazing - especially using the heirloom tomatoes from my garden:
1 T white wine vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, crushed and then minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1 T olive oil
1/2 cup sliced, diced fresh from the garden tomatoes

Add the first five ingredients together and then slowly add the olive oil while whisking the vinegar mixture. Add tomatoes and mix well. Let sit for about ten minutes. I doubled the recipe and used a varied assortment of colorful tomatoes.

Slice up sourdough bread, brush lightly with olive oil and broil to make toasty little platters for the heavenly tomato mixture. Strong on the garlic but absolutely delicious!

The tomatoes can also be served over green beans or asparagus.
Recipe courtesy of Cooking Light.

Rain - thanks for finally showing up for the party

We're glad that you finally decided to come around for a visit. Even though the invitation was open ended, we didn't expect that it would take quite this long for you to remember to drop by. I know that there were other parties and places to see this summer and yes, those few times that you drove by were refreshing - but honestly, did you have to wait until Labor Day weekend to finally make an extended visit?
No, no, I'm not complaining. The grass is soaking you in and the rhodendrons are hanging on every drop of water that you release. Stay for a day or two, make the visit count and then if you really have to move on for a couple of weeks and leave me with some mild late summer sunshine - I'll manage to get by until we see you again.

Late August

I've been excited by the amount of recipes that use zucchini. Pulling down my cookbooks and perusing the indexes has given me a number of choices. Marcella Hazan apparently loved the prolific little vegetables and has a number of recipes scattered throughout her cookbooks that utilize them. I can only give so many away. I can't imagine that Andy is going to be too happy over the next couple of weeks but perhaps I can keep the zucchini use down to side dish status so he doesn't have to partake.

The garden has survived quite well my absences this past month. As September comes, I've been trying to get into the garden and harvest what I can. The Gravenstein apples are picked and a lot of the asian pears are ready as well. I had another batch of peas but I think I found another reason to keep them as a cool weather crop: caterpillars and aphids. My tomatoes are ripening, the cucumbers need constant watching and (Yes!) I have pumpkins. Those Howden pumpkins grow a bit strangely – they start out yellow and seem destined for odd shapes. The sugar pumpkins – five that I can count – are perfectly round and filling up the space quite nicely. I'm still watching the lima beans to see when they are ready for harvest. All in all, my garden is giving back its bounty and I want to honor that by using up whatever is given.

I want to plant some more spinach and carrots, swiss chard and kale before it is too late. And then it will be time to put this garden to bed for the winter. The new beds need a heavy dose of composted fertilizer and some time to break down for early spring planting. My perennial beds need cleaning out and certain items transplanted before it gets too cold.
This morning there was a coolness to the air that spoke of changing seasons to come. Even though there is technically a month left of summer, the end of August always heralds the closing of the season. The transition from summer to fall here in the northwest can happen abruptly and suddenly those lovely days of balmy 80 degree weather disappear behind clouds and drizzle. In what feels like a blink of an eye, it is October and the evening temperatures have dropped into the high thirties. I can hope for an extended summer but the abundance of heat over the past two months has given me an explosion of greenery, flowers and produce that has to be managed before the weather turns. And the work calls to me – I want to get out there and get my hands in the dirt – even as I take my youngest child school shopping and help my other daughter get ready to travel abroad for five months. There will be time – I'll have to make the time to happily go putter in my gardens.

Note to Self: Never plant more than one zucchini plant in the garden.

Mid Summer Harvest

My pumpkins are finally beginning to send out runners with the possible intention of actually setting some fruit.

There are fewer and fewer cherries on the tree, but those that we picked yesterday were particularily sweet. I've got carrots and beets and more potatoes than I know what to do with. Thank goodness that all of these crops, with the exception of the cherries, will last for awhile.

It's now time to think about my fall planting - what do I want to be harvesting in October? What do I want to overwinter in the garden? I've got some research to do because first and foremost the soil needs to be amended for next spring.
It is always a learning process as I work out in the garden and yet, the results are so satisfying.

Gaia is Bountiful

Sometimes I think my vocation is farming. Is it simply the generations upon generations of farmers from which I descend that infuses me with this love of the land and it's bounty? I take for granted my farmer self – this joy of creating an edible landscape. It is a mere hobby, an interest that I dabble in. Sure it is. That's why I spend the daylight hours when I am home out in my garden – plotting, planting, tending and harvesting. That explains the sense of pure contentment when I sit down to eat a salad with my own produce picked about an hour earlier.
Occasionally I have visions of converting the back acre into rows of corn or pumpkins or an orchard of apple trees for cider. And those are dreams that I smile with, acknowledging that part of me that sees the land as a useable pallet for the creation of sustenance. For now, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for the bounty that is spilling out of my beds at the moment. The pounds and pounds of cherries that we've picked over the last two weeks; the tomatoes ripening on the vine and the herbs beginning to flower. Soon I will have beans to eat and dry; cucumbers and zucchini; and of course tomatoes. Carrots and beets are waiting to be picked and canned. The pumpkins are flowering and the blueberry bush is full. And then there are freshly tilled rows waiting for the next planting – the winter squashes and more lettuce.

Acknowledging where my heart is and allowing myself to follow its call is deeply satisfying. I know that with Autumn my thoughts will circle back to other work, other passions. Until then, I can't help but want to step out into my garden and watch the world grow around me.

It's a bountiful summer.

Summer has Arrived

Here in the Northwest we had an amazing run of beautiful weather from mid May up until last week. Summer Solstice arrives and of course the clouds and cooler temperatures return. I can't remember a late spring that I enjoyed more. As a transplanted Californian, my notions of what June should feel like were finally met in the usually wet and cool Northwest.

And of course the gardens flourished – with the exception of my new beds. I am very disappointed with Pacific Topsoil for delivering 8 yards of poor soil. "3-WAY TOPSOIL: Loam soil, peat, and compost processed through a 1/2" screen. Excellent for seeding lawns, sod, flower beds, and vegetable gardens." No, I don't think so. There is quite a bit of gravel in this "excellent soil" and its compost content is extremely low. I've had to amend it already. Sigh.

On the up side – the soil is amendable and new seedlings have appeared.

New Additions:

Hutterite Soup Beans (dry shelling bean from Seed Savers Exchange and delicious)
Weinlanderin Bush Bean (Purple mottling, Swiss heirloom from Abundant Life Seeds)
Lettuce – Super gourmet blend from Territorial Seeds
Mesclun Salad Blend – Abundant Life Seeds
Small Sugar Pumpkins – Territorial Seeds
Henderson Bush Lima Beans – Seed Savers Exchange
Sugar Pearl Tablesweet Corn – Territorial Seeds
Bodacious Hybrid Corn – Territorial Seeds
Evergreen bunching White Onions – Ed Hume seeds
Cucumbers – Spacemaster from Botancial Interests.
Black Beauty Summer Squash – Abundant Life Seeds
Super Rapini Broccoli Raab – from Renee's Garden seeds
Basil of some variety.

Notes on other plantings:

The Cimarron Romaine is very delicate – large leaves with a slightly bitter taste. Not my favorite romaine due to its thin and easily bruised leaves. It is hard to match up these greens with salad fixings that want that stronger flavor. The Galena pea pods are starting to plump out on vines that topped out about three feet whereas the Sugar Snap peas have gone upwards of six feet and are finally putting out pods. I planted way too much Kale, Collard greens and Swiss Chard for a spring crop. First of all, I'm about the only one that eats these greens and secondly, these greens are something that I want in the early winter. There is too much variety right now and I don't feel like cooking the way I do in the fall where these greens would be put to more use. It's an interesting observation for myself and so I'll try some smaller plantings in August to see how these greens act as a fall crop.

Cooking Note:
I had dinner at a friend's house and she made a great pasta dish using swiss chard:

4-5 cups swiss chard, chopped sautéed with ½ white onion and some garlic.
Add in some cream, salt and pepper, parmesan cheese and mix until ingredients are incorporated. Serve over pasta.

Blank Slate

Here's the new raised beds in my garden:

As of today the beds are planted with tomatoes, bush beans, sugar pumpkins and big max pumpkins; cucumbers, onions and a few summer squash plants. The lettuce, spinach, kale, chard and collard greens are all up and doing well. Peas and beets are coming in too. I've noticed that the potatoes are back - whether I like it or not - they are here to stay in that corner of the garden where they were first planted.

There is something different about this garden then those that have come before. In years past, I enjoyed the planting and the harvesting but I never asked myself the question: what if this was the produce that you were going to sustain your diet on? Instead of having my garden supplement my grocery shopping - this year it feels like my grocery shopping is going to supplement my garden production.

We'll see how it goes.

Spring Garden Planting

The soil dried out enough that I could actually create some rows and get my spring vegetables planted. It feels a bit late and yet I'm cautiously optimistic that we've seen the last of the snow. Silly, I know, but we gardeners have to dream about something.

Sugar snap peas
Galena shelling peas
MacGregor's Favorite Beets
Touchstone Gold Beets
Nelson Carrots
Nantaise Narome Carrots
Erste Ernte Spinach
Cimarron Romaine Lettuce.

Now the trick is to keep bunnies and kittens out of the garden.

The other issue that I'm dealing with is water. The soggy months have made it obvious how much water is actually moving underneath certain areas of my garden. We tried to redirect a lot of that water that moves along the hard pan and yet it is clear that a large section of my garden is very wet just below the surface. I dug a hole and watched it fill up. Three of the garden beds need to be raised – no wonder anything that lives longer than a season dies off. They drown. All of which has given me the opportunity to redesign a bit and I'm going to come out of the deal with an extra raised bed. How exciting is that? I am having visions of pumpkins and cucumbers trailing their huge blossoms out onto the gravel paths.

Garden Planning

It is officially spring, the swallows are back - and it might snow again this weekend. Luckily, perennials don't mind the cold and already are swarming back to life. My delphiniums and monarda are putting out new sprouts and I've already begun transferring the nepata (catmint) to it's new location. It's so hardy, nothing will kill it.

I couldn't resist ordering some new perennials to fill the nepata holes left in my perennials bed. I love Bluestone perennials and the plants should arrive over the next couple of weeks.

http://bluestoneperennials.com/

Here's a sampling of what is coming:

Pacific Giant mixed delphiniums

Sundown Echinacea - check out that color

And Heliopsis - I love having the bright yellow mixed in the dark blues of my spiderwort and penstomen

Winter leaves slowly

It's cold outside. 23 degrees f. and a crystal clear sky. The sun isn't quite up yet but the world is a frosted landscape that smirks – 'winter ain't done yet.' With a forecast of possible snow this weekend, I'll just keep my garden plans on hold for a while longer. The seeds arrived from Abundant Life Seeds and I have garden beds to till. I have rabbit fencing to put up and perennials to transplant. I'm feeling patient this year or perhaps I'm simply unwilling to tear my hair out again as I felt like doing last year after that late April snow.

I'm looking forward to the season of tomatoes and cucumbers and fresh greens from the garden. Even though the markets are full of fruit and produce from Mexico south, I've made a concerted effort to eat produce that is grown only within a three state radius. I'm lucky because that boundary includes California. And still, I notice how resolute I need to be in order to turn away from Mexican asparagus or green beans and go grab another bunch of swiss chard or beets. It is much easier at the fish counter as I look at the dull 'previously frozen' salmon and pick out some delicate fresh dover sole fillets.

Shifting my eating habits to appreciate the seasons isn't always one hundred percent successful. I feel better knowing that I am trying. I like knowing that I've found new recipes and new favorites in the produce aisle that support eating seasonally. I am appreciating the art of looking forward to something as opposed to the instant gratification shopping I have done in the past. I've begun to crave spinach salads with beets and goat cheese or sautéed kale with garlic, wine and some lemon juice. And as summer rolls around I'll savor my summer favorites all the more.

It is thirteen days to the equinox. Winter still rules this part of the world and spring will come soon enough.

 

Spinach salad with Chevre and Beets

Spinach leaves
two beets – roasted for ½ hr. in the oven, covered with foil
goat cheese
red onion to taste, sliced paper thin
a handful of dried cranberries

Cut beets up into bite size pieces, assemble salad. Dress salad with favorite balsamic dressing or simply olive oil and vinegar. My favorite vinegar – Pelindaba lavender infused vinegar