A look back at 2011.

It's time for the clip show entry of the year! I made this list at the start of January 2011 (italics were completed):

January:

• Learn how to use sewing machine
• Sew something
• Research organic pest control
• Better tree pruning

February:

• Begin organic pest control
• New raised beds
• Begin testing soil, amending
• Start regular fertilization

March:

• Put in Fence

April:

• Grow own herbs, preserve

May:

• Make a soft cheese

June:

• Sew something better

July:

• Get in summer canning routine

August:

• Better fall/winter garden prep
• Set up grow lights for Spring? - at least Fall.

September:

• Increase pickling repertoire
• Dry something

October:

• Have cold frame
• Make one personal bread recipe
• 70% vegetable growth - through winter

I wouldn't say it's the most accomplished year ever. There has been a lot of thinking and a lot of planning going on in my head this year; there has been plenty of time for thinking.

This year I have worked harder than I ever thought I could without being miserable and losing my mind. The argument could be made of the latter, of course, but overall I think I have managed to hold myself together pretty well. Running has been a large part of that. I don't often write about that here, but I am slowly becoming a runner. I am aiming for miles and I have training programs I am following. I am running on average over ten miles a week now, which to a real runner is peanuts, but to me was unthinkable at the start of the year. It was unthinkable for most of my life. It is something that I don't think I am naturally inclined toward. It is something that I persevered to. It is only through sheer stubbornness that I am becoming a runner, and I can feel the benefits of that, not only physical, but largely mental, spilling over into other areas of my life. Knowing that I can accomplish something if I just keep at it, knowing that slow and steady will get me to the end, becoming strong enough to just sit in the mental anguish of something you don't want to be doing and somehow making that enjoyable. It's been a growing year for me, physically and mentally.

I knit a lot this year. Like, a lot. When I look back at where I was a year ago by skill I have to say I'm pretty impressed with myself. I am mostly fearless trying new things with the needles. I'm tackling lace with a vengeance right now. Fair Isle, though, is something that still scares and intimidates me. Next though, next. Slow and steady. One thing at a time.

I got engaged this year. Crazy, man! I started to feel older this year, more set in a path. I turned 30 and owned a home. I was exploring new things, certainly, but there was a feeling of ease of having finally completed the gauntlet of my roaring twenties and being able to relax into the next phase and then I became a fiancee. Suddenly I am young and inexperienced again. It is just the beginning and an entire new life is laying itself out in front of me.

I dubbed last year "The Year of Frugality". It was, mostly. I have faltered on the frugal-ness of my life the last half of the year. But, monetarily speaking, I am where I should be right now and that feels pretty good. Frugality will continue into next year and there are always areas where improvements can be made. Our biggest splurge is eating out. But, when you get home at 7:30 and have to be in bed by 9:00, sometimes there just isn't enough time to cook. The longer work hours, which bring more pay, just result in spending more money to be able to maintain the long work hours to get more pay...etc... Hopefully next year will bring relief from that vicious cycle.

Next year will be "The Year of Beginnings". I have a feeling a lot of things will change next year that I am not even anticipating right now. But I think choices made in the coming year will set the path for many years to come. There will be the start of a marriage. There will be the start of a new garden (come next Fall). There will be the start of a plan for what we want our life to be. Crazy, man.

My list in progress for 2012:

January

• Remove Trees from parking strip
• Get back room set up for starts
• Get sewing machine set-up
• Research solar panels. Is it worth it?

February

• Replant Trees
• Build Fence

March

• Make cheese - mozzarella, paneer, ricotta
• Rain barrels in front

April

• Landscape back strip with mints, tall grasses
• Get clothes line on patio

May

• Have sourdough starter

June

• Get married
• Run a half marathon

July

• Canning routine (pressure canner?)
• Pickles, pickles, pickles

August

• Greywater for laundry??

September

• Wood floors!

November

• Remove grass from front and side yard

We'll check back in with this list in about a year. Happy New Year!!

Around the House.

The big success of the winter garden: Nantes Carrots. Every carrot is great. They are all large and evenly shaped and very, very tasty.

And a Lemon.

Our "mystery squash" and a store bought pumpkin were Fall decor in front of the fireplace. We ate the pumpkin in a curry the other night, which will get turned into a soup this weekend. There is still half a pumpkin in the fridge that will get turned into puree and then other lovely edible concoctions. I'm thinking Creamy Pumpkin Penne. Yum.

That "mystery squash" turned out to be a pumpkin hybrid. Squash are notoriously hard to save seed for as they will cross-pollinate if within a quarter-mile of another variety of squash. Whatever this turned out to be must have been a neighbor's pumpkin that crossed with something we planted. Who knows! When we cut into it the flesh was stringy, almost like a spaghetti squash, but not fine enough. All in all inedible, but a neat evidence of the crazy hybrids that came come from poor seed saving, or in our case, compost tag a longs.

And another Lemon.

We bought a tiny tree this year. It's about four feet tall and leans toward the wall at about a 15 degree angle. It's nice and full though, and fits just right in our tiny house. As long as we don't touch it, it shouldn't fall over.

The Knitting Post.

I mentioned I have been doing a lot of knitting lately. I can knit at work when things are slow and I am there for 50 hours a week now, plus commuting time on the train to knit, plus it's cold and dark anytime I'm at home, so I knit while watching TV. Here's what I've been doing:

Rose Bud Beanie. OK, to be fair, I made this in the Spring. It just only made it to its recipient recently and got its photo taken. It was my first lacy project and it was pretty challenging to start. I think it turned out all right in the end.

Texas Sweater. I made my mom a cardigan. She's always cold, but it is still Texas, so it's a nice, light sweater if you leave it draped, or you can wrap it to make it warmer. I splurged on the yarn - it was so nice and soft! I kind of want to make one for myself now.

Hat by Request. I whipped this one up for my sister-in-law's birthday. I had been toying with cables, but this is the first finished project using them. I didn't think it was working very well the whole time it was on the needles, but once I got it off and finished and on a head - it looked great!

Sky Scarf. I posted about starting this one a couple months ago. One row a day, color dependent on the weather. As you can see we've had a surprisingly blue winter. There was that one week in there that was soppy, but we've had no rain and either clear or foggy skies for over a week now. Wacky.

Portland Fog. These were my traveling project over Thanksgiving. I had 10 hours of flying time to work on them. I finished them really quickly, despite being a more complex pattern. It was about 2 good days of knitting per hand. They are my favorite accessory now. I want to be wearing them constantly.

Phew. So, that's a lot of knitting! I didn't even realize it until I put it all in one place. I have several work-in-progress going right now too. "Not So Secret Christmas Hat", some leg warmers for those cold morning bike rides, and a cabled cowl that may or may not ever get finished. I kind of lost my gusto on that one. If you are a Raveler you can find me there as bomburdoo. Happy winter knitting y'all!

A Brief Pop-In.

This is my first year to be on a seed catalog mailing list. Well, a digital catalog anyway. There is a great little seed company just down the road from me in Albany, Oregon called Nichols Garden Nursery. You can find them in a lot of the nurseries around town and I have had really good luck with their seed stock so far.

I've been virtually leafing through their wares and marking things on every page that I want to plant next year. The list will need to be pared down, most certainly, but it's fun to dream right now. I'm getting excited thinking about fresh heads of butter lettuce and how next year I'll successfully grow a cabbage. Excited and nervous. My whole family will be here in late June for the wedding. That garden better be spectacular!

In other news, our garden still has carrots. One thing that went well this year was carrots. I pulled up a few for some Minestrone this weekend and there are still several small rows in the garden. I planted a Nantes variety this year and it has done great. Strong and long carrots with a beautiful color. I know now why it is such a mainstream variety. It will be a standard in the garden for years to come.

I found the cable to my point and shoot camera! That means no more crappy cell phone photos! One of these days I'll get around to getting a nice digital SLR, but it's not on the top of my list. I've snapped a few shots around the homestead and I'll get those up soon, along with photos of all my recent knitting. I've been doing a lot of it.

Planning for next year.

There isn't much happening in the garden right now. Actually, there's nothing happening in the garden right now. It was a bad year all around. The weather was uncooperative and I didn't have the time to devote to it anyway. We do still have a bit of chard and some arugula growing that will suit a meal or two. I have cabbages and brussel sprouts and collards, but they didn't get a good enough start and won't amount to anything I'm afraid. Again, just not enough time to devote to getting it right this year.

Now I'm looking to next year. I really need next year to be a good year in the garden. I need it for my sanity. I need it for hope. I need it for food! We have been talking about tearing out the yard entirely and transforming the front and side yard into an edible landscape. I am just now starting to read up on permaculture and its design principals, which I think is going to be the way to go for us. The key here is that I'm just starting. I also have a job that isn't going to let up on the overtime until well into the Spring and the growing season. Plus there's that wedding I'm planning. Oh, and some fool (me) signed up for a half marathon right about that time too.

After a little discussion I think tearing out the yard is off the table for next year. It is simply too much to put on my plate. It will be one more year in raised beds. One more year of limited space. Then 2013 we can go crazy!

One thing I know I will need for next year to really make it more successful is a couple beds with cloche covers. It should be simple enough with some plastic sheeting and PVC pipes. This will keep temperatures in those beds higher than the actual temperature. I might get some decent peppers with this method, better tomatoes and earlier Spring greens and later Fall greens.

The other challenge will be seedlings for next year. The past two years I have grown my seedlings in our great big southern facing living room window with built-in shelves. We are getting our windows replaced this Thursday and those handy shelves will be gone. In exchange we get a modern energy efficient window, instead of single paned glass from 1951. I'm not sure how I'm going to do the starts next year. I could set up lights in the garage and grow them on our work table, but the garage is uninsulated and will be too cold for them, unless I get a heating pad too. I'm also a little afraid of burning down the house this way. I may have to try and set something up in the back bedroom with lights. It's pretty crowded back there already though; it's the catch-all room. I guess I'll figure something out.

I got my first seed catalog in the (e-)mail the other day. It's that time of year where there is nothing but hope and possibility and dreaming of how much better next year will be.

Winter is Coming.

The garden has been given up on, as has any hopes for a social life. My job has finally broken me and I'm just not even trying anymore. Sure, I'm still making bread every couple weeks and when the milk starts to turn I make yogurt. Maybe next year we'll rip out the grass and expand the garden, but maybe not. I'm just not even going to think about it right now. Winter is coming and the biggest thing on my mind right now is knitting and preparing for the long, dark, wet of it.

We are finally getting new windows for the house. It's going to be glorious. We're upgrading from single-paned and aluminum framed to triple-paned and insulated vinyl framed. It should lower the heating bills substantially and make sitting on the far side of the living room bearable without an extra layer.

The cooler and shorter days are making knitting seem much more pleasurable too. I had to force myself to knit through the summer. There were so many other things I could be doing and needed to be doing, but now it seems a lot more seasonal. I'm about three-quarters of the way through my current big project. I've got two more projects in the queue with yarn already bought and I just started up a new experimental project last night. I went a little nutty with the online yarn ordering. It was all so cheap!




I'm starting on a "conceptual knitting" project, a Sky Scarf. The idea is you knit one row every day. The color of that row depends on the color of the sky. I have also seen people do mood scarves, with a different color for each mood and even an exercise scarf, tracking their different activities with greens and reds and gray for days they didn't do anything. That's good motivation - try for as little gray as possible!




For my Sky Scarf I have three shades of blue and three shades on gray. I'll be done when the scarf is long enough to suit my fancy. It will probably be done in the late Spring. I think it will be a pretty cool thing and end up mostly gray in the middle, flecked with short spurts of brilliant blue.

Cheese and Bread.

I discovered a new delicious treat - Fresh ricotta on homemade white bread.

I made ricotta. That's right, I finally made cheese. My first cheese!!

Ricotta is traditionally made from whey, the byproduct of cheese making. It literally means "recooked", as you recook the leftovers from your previous cheese and it makes ricotta. Most recipes you find for homemade ricotta, however, are milk based and don't call for whey. The whole reason I wanted to try ricotta was because I end up with a good bit of whey every time I make yogurt and I never know what to do with it. I've seen suggestions to use whey instead of milk in bread recipes or to water plants with it, but I wanted to try and make ricotta the traditional way.

The whey ricotta recipe I had called for 2 gallons of whey to start and results in a yield of about 2 cups ricotta. The leftover whey from my yogurt making and a little extra milk and cream for volume added up about a quart of liquid. In the end I had about 2 tbsp of ricotta. Not the most triumphant entry into the cheese making field, but an entry none the less. I didn't know what to do with 2 tbsp of ricotta until I put two and two together as my weekend bread came out of the oven. It was amazingly delicious. Warm, fluffy, slightly sweet white bread with a cold, soft, tangy cheese spread. Mmmm...

That's one more check off my list of things to learn this year: Make a soft cheese, DONE.

Small Potatoes.

This was the first time I ever tried growing potatoes. They worked, but didn't really grow vertically, which I had intended by making little potato towers. There was just one layer of potatoes on the bottom. And there weren't that many. And they were small.



They sure were tasty though. Next time around I'm sure they will be more fruitful. I think the soil was a little too rich for them. Upon further research potatoes actually like kind of cruddy soil with a lot of sand. So, I won't treat them so well next year. Hopefully it will toughen them up.

Avocado Update.

I'm growing a tree in the kitchen window. The avocado has a root! And, yes, I am growing it in a pickle jar from last year. Those file folder stickers don't come off for anything.

Tomato-Tomato-Tomato.

Tomatoes!!! This is the tomato harvest from last weekend:





There were a lot of tomatoes. I managed to use all of them, but then we harvested again and now we have another box of tomatoes to use. I'm eying this recipe.





I made most of them into fresh from the garden tomato sauce. I was so very, very close to having this entire recipe be home grown. Unfortunetly our onions were a bust this year and we already went through what we had. The onions in this sauce are from, gasp, the store. But the tomatoes, carrot, basil, thyme, oregano and garlic are all from our own yard.





Our peppers were a bust this year too. Need to get a cold frame. But, my future mother-in-law's garden had plentiful peppers and we got share in it! These were roasted and either put into salsa or frozen.




I experimentally canned some green chile sauce and some knock-off Ninfa's red sauce. I also made jalapeno salsa from an actual canning recipe.





I didn't bother to really read up about canning salsa. I assumed peppers were high acid food like tomatoes, because, well, they just seem like they should be. I was wrong. They are not. So, I need to un-can the Ninfa's sauce and the green chile sauce and move them over to the freezer. Or just eat them. The jalapeno salsa I made should be good; since it was prepared from a meant-for-canning recipe it's loaded with vinegar. Live and learn. At least I didn't give us botulism or something.

Sewing.

I don't know how to sew. No clue what-so-ever. There are a couple of things I have "mended" over the years that were great triumphs in my mind, but really, there was no skill involved. I just followed a vague intuition of what stitches are supposed to look like.

I started planning on buying a sewing machine about four years ago. My first project when I got that not yet had machine was going to be an apron. My mom bought me an apron that Christmas because, well, she knew this would happen. I never did buy that sewing machine.

Last year, though, Mike found a sewing machine. That was step one down. Just because I finally had a sewing machine didn't mean I knew anything about it. I had never in my life laid a hand on a sewing machine. So, that found machine sat in a case (and is still sitting in a case) on the floor of the back room waiting for me to figure out what I'm doing.

Better late than never, I started taking a sewing class this month. It's a four-week series and I'm two weeks in. I can....kind of sew now! I at least have enough of a clue that I can start using that machine at home and I'm starting to see all the garments I thought were lost to tears or wear that I can fix or re-purpose now. I'm think about things I can make. It's opening up all new doors of possibility. Who knew sewing could be so exciting.

Random projects.

Labor Day has come and gone, which means summer is over, right? It does mean my work hours are going up again, which means less time to do anything. Thankfully, this is coinciding with less garden chores as summer winds down. I have some other pest extermination experiments to do this week and I've got garlic and shallot planting on the calendar starting next weekend. After that though, what we've got is pretty much what we've got. And then it will start raining and I won't have to worry about watering the garden for like nine months.

Anyway, lingering end of summer projects around our house are....herb drying. I cut a bunch of thyme and oregano to store for the winter. We've got five little bushels hanging to dry. It makes nice decoration.





That's a big 'mater! We have eight tomato plants. About 90% of our tomatoes are coming from four of those plants. The other four are tiny, but cute, and are giving us about 3-4 tomatoes per plant. I haven't counted, but I think the big ones must have like a thousand tomatoes each, or something...

Mike made a jalapeno salsa and I made a Hatch green chile salsa. We're competing. I'm not sure who is winning though. They are both pretty good. I guess I should get more chips and "taste-test" a little more thoroughly.




My newest pet project is an avocado tree. Once upon a time, in a land far, far away I sprouted an avocado seed and grew a tree indoors. It made it to about a foot and a half high. My cat, (then kitten) Tim, chewed on it one night and killed it. I haven't had indoor plants since. When I cut open this avocado the other day the seed was already split and sprouted. I took it as a sign.

The Internet tells me to suspend the seed a quarter submerged in water. The root will start growing into the water and a tree will sprout out the top. Once it's a foot tall or so and has some good roots I can transplant it to dirt.




You can see the split where the roots will soon emerge.





Looking back, last year at this time we were hard at work on our patio. We finished it up (the stones at least) just after Labor Day 2010 and right before I started back to work. I can't believe I've been here a year already!

I really love our patio. It looks great and we have eaten outside almost every night this summer. We've got a few potted plants around and grapes starting at the foot of two of the beams. There are a couple large cedar stumps we saved from last year's firewood that now serve as extra seating for the picnic table too.

My Inspirational Blogs.

Every once in a while a friend will tell me how they find my blog intimidating. How I'm doing so much stuff. I think that's mostly because I neglect to blog about burrito nights. Or about those free irises we got and never planted and are probably dead now. Or the bowls of saved seed pods that have been sitting on top of the toaster for three months that I never get around to shelling or storing. Or the fact that my garden is infested with symphilids (I think) and all my tiny seedlings are dying, slowly being eaten from underneath. We are shaping up for few to no winter crops, again. Next year will be better...next year will be better...

Anyhoo - here's some blogs that I like to read for inspiration and also for feeling bad about my own garden and skills. I think, though, the reason I like a lot of them are because they share the disasters as well as the successes and tips. After all, the best way to learn is by failure.

Throwback at Trapper Creek
This is from a working farm a bit outside of Portland in the Columbia Gorge. I get some great tips for local climate and varieties that do well here. It really makes me want a greenhouse too. Plus they have cute dogs.

Northwest Edible Life
This one is Seattle-based, so I still get lots of great information for our region's specific climate and needs. It's more urban-based too, so it's more on my scale. It's also a little snarky sometimes, which I like.

Root Simple
These guys are as close to celebrities that "urban homesteading" can get. They are based out of Los Angeles and have two books out now. It's an informative blog for gardening, housekeeping and politics. They had a couple posts recently outlining their summer failures that are pretty entertaining.

5 Acres and a Dream
I like this one because it's just about a couple who bought five acres and are trying to make it work. It's like a potential glimpse into my future. Maybe? There is also lots of home repair and remodeling going on here.

Farmama
This is a family in Colorado who run a market farm. I like it because it's Colorado and because they are making it work, also the woman spins her own yarn from her own sheep and dyes it with natural dyes that she grows herself. Talk about doing everything!

How Things are Going in the Summer
If you knit, this is intimidating. I like looking at it though. Plus she started working on a sheep farm and there are pictures of lambs now in addition to really complex knitted items.

hi how are you?
This is a blog of a friend of mine. It's often entertaining and usually inspiring because somehow she finds time on random afternoons to make jam and can on a whim. I feel like I have to plan for a week and mentally prepare to get all of that in.

So, those are a few of the many blogs I read regularly. I find that while I'm at work I need a high-dose of daydreaming and inspiration to keep going. So, thanks to all the other bloggers out there who remind me that there are different steps on a long path and many opportunities in my future if I just keep working at it.

Picture update: August

I took most of yesterday off work to help tend to Mike, who had wrist surgery on Tuesday. He tended to me back when I broke my arm and had multiple surgeries, so now it's my turn. I did a couple things around the house that I normally don't have time to do.

I baked some whole wheat bread. It is quite possibly the worst bread I have ever made. I let it rise too long and it collapsed in the oven. I also used up some old flour and I don't think that helped matters at all.




I finished up some yogurt I started on Sunday night. A half gallon of milk makes this much yogurt:



Tomato season is here!



I learned a new trick from America's Test Kitchen (I love those guys), if you store tomatoes with the stem side down they stay fresh for longer. Oxygen penetrates the core through the stem and this prevents much air from accessing the fruit. Cool!




I did a brief outdoor tour...Bees in the roses.




We might, might, actually get to eat a cabbage from the garden this year. They were nearly dead, eaten by aphids and cabbageworms. I did two applications of castille soap and water spritzed all over the plant and it did the trick! We've got three cabbages (out of six) that survived. Still not much of a head on any of them though.




The squash bed...



There are two delicata squash coming in!




This happened. One of the tomato plants got too heavy and fell over, bending the wire to the cage. We tied it back up as best we could and rigged a guywire system, but now it's falling over in a different direction. Lesson learned. Next year will be heavy on the pruning and probably trying out a different staking system.




A couple big ones...

Fashionably Late.

Two weeks prior to my niece's first birthday I decided I would knit her a garment. I found a simple cardigan and thought at most it would take me three weeks and it would be fashionably late. Well....it's two months later. But it's done!




Well, I still need to sew on the buttons, but it's pretty much done! I'm still in disbelief that I actually finished this. About the time I realized I had sewed on the front panels of the sweater backwards I started to doubt my ability to finish and very nearly just went to the store to buy a sweater. Hopefully I'll be able to update with a shot of her wearing it soon.

Mystery Squash.

We have a volunteer squash from our compost. Any ideas? It's starting to look like a pumpkin....but I don't recall having any pumpkins last year.

The Experiment.

I have been wanting to try a little experiment around our house lately. Yesterday we finally started. Once a week in the evenings after work we are going for a no TV-Internet-phones-music environment. We could play the music ourselves, but no turning on the iPod or computer for it.

Then once a month, we're aiming for the last day of the month, no electricity. If that day falls on a weekday, I obviously won't be able to not use electricity at work. I don't think my employer would take that as an excuse not to do anything. But, when not at work that day I will not use my phone, I will ride my bike or walk, I will not turn on the lights, when the sun goes down I'll use a candle, we'll use the BBQ to cook or have a salad. I'm hoping that it's a little bit of a zen practice.

When I lived by myself I got in the habit of being at home in silence. I wouldn't turn on the TV or put on music when I got home. I would go about my business of cooking dinner or reading a book without the noise distraction. I didn't do it all the time. Sometimes it's nice to put on some good music and clean the house and chop and saute. Not having that constant background noise is good for us though. It makes us just be with ourselves, which is something that is oddly easy to avoid this day in age. It's so simple to turn on the TV or fiddle with your phone or hop in the car. Going through every day like that you hardly have to interact with the world at all.

I take the car a couple days a week to work to make the commute a little more tolerable and a lot quicker in the mornings. After driving for two days in a row though, I miss riding my bike and the time to myself that I get on the train. I would venture to guess that most people who have access to a car would not opt for a train ride for a commute as long as mine. I certainly didn't want to opt for that in the start. It seemed like such an inconvenience to bike and ride the train than to just drive. Once I started doing it though it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was nice to get in a little exercise, some fresh air, and a little time to read or fiddle with my phone while the freeway slips by outside the window, none of my concern.

I think if we deprive ourselves of some of those luxuries, even for one day a month or one day a week, that we will come to appreciate it more. We will find that those luxuries aren't really that necessary and we are actually happier without them being so present in our lives.

Last night was our first night on The Experiment. We ate our dinner outside. We walked through the garden and discussed the upcoming crops and pest management. We planned out the fence we want to build and figured out the layout. We talked about our future for the yard as a whole in landscaping and gardening. We talked about what we want to do for the wedding. We talked about what we want to do in the future in the grand scheme of things. We got a helluva lot done! Had it not been an Experiment day we would have watched a couple TV shows and I would have worked on some knitting, but we could do that any day.

COF.

I finally, finally, finally went out and bought fertilizer for the soil. All season I have been planting my starts and seeds with a helping of our homemade vermiculture compost, but I haven't been adding anything to the soil but that. And, what do you know, I've had a lot of crappy and disappointing plants. I bought everything to make Complete Organic Fertilizer as made popular by Steve Solomon. He wrote the bible on Maritime Northwest vegetable gardening, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. Every gardener in these parts knows him and has read his book.

I mixed up a big batch of the COF, 4 parts seed meal, 1 part lime, 1 part kelp meal and 1 part bone meal and put it in an old coffee can. Then I kept my leftovers of each ingredient in separate tins so I can amend on a per plant basis as well.

For example, my beets got about an inch or two high and then kind of stopped growing. I couldn't figure out what was going on; beets are supposed to be easy to grow. Well, as it turns out beets crave potassium and don't do well with a lot of nitrogen. I planted the beets in the bed where we did a clover and fava bean cover crop last winter, which adds heaps of nitrogen to the soil, something that most plants love. So, I side dressed the beets that were there with some COF and gave some to the new seeds I planted for winter beets. I'm also going to add a little extra kelp meal for those guys, as kelp is high in potassium, and hope that it helps even out the high nitrogen in the soil.

There is so much to learn and I'm getting there little by little. I'll report back with (hopefully good) news of the resurgence of beets after their potassium fix.

Picture Update: July

It finally felt like summer this weekend. Two days straight in the 80's with sun and fluffy clouds. It was glorious. Nevermind that it's back to Spring rain and 70's temps now...

This weekend I got to wear a tank top and flip flops and sweat while I worked in the garden. With all this summer veg growing it was like it's actually the end of July!

Summer squash growing...




The first zucchini coming in...





Tomatoes plumping. They already look delicious...





Mystery squash. It sprouted from our compost. It is growing something and it looks like it may be a pumpkin? Maybe spaghetti squash?




Bees doing their thing...





Shallots! A lot of them didn't really bulb out much, but we got some really nice ones too...





I braided some of the garlic. I let the garlic dry for several days before I did the braid. I will not do that next year. The stalks were really hard to manipulate. I should have braided it the first day and let it dry like this. Live and learn...





Mmmm...garlic...

Cherry Mousse.

I got around to doing something with our cherries the other day. I made a big bowl of cherry mousse! It was quite simple, although physically trying. First I pitted and pureed our cherries.



Then I added some sugar and lemon zest to the puree.



Over on the other side I made whipped cream. By hand. With a whisk. I figure I got my upper body workout in with that one too. It probably took me about 15 minutes of 3-4 beats per second (with a few breaks) to get soft peaks forming in the cream.



Then I folded it all together and let it chill together for a couple hours. It was a nice light, sweet and tart dessert for an anti-summer day.



Unfortunately we didn't have enough cherries to make the caramelized cherry surprise that the recipe suggested. Maybe next summer will be better for the trees. Oh, and for all you folks anywhere is the US except here - we're hitting a balmy 71 degrees today. I think summer got called off...

Encouragement.

I've been feeling really discouraged with the garden lately, and indeed with all my self-reliant dreams. I've been on 10-hour days at work for some time; we've just gone back down to 9-hour days, which is pretty awesome. But, with a 1 and a half hour commute each way and unpaid lunches that makes for 13-14 hours that I'm not at home every day, which leaves me with precious little time to do anything productive, let alone manage a prolific home garden.

This spring I had measly crops of radishes and I had completely ruined crops of broccoli, cauliflower, kale and spinach. My squashes, cucumbers and peppers are looking like they might come up the same for summer. Not to mention my dead plum tree. Or the fact that there is only one pear on my pear tree. One pear! And last year all our pears were stolen, so we've never had one of our pears. The cherry harvest is weak where we can reach. The tree is too tall to get a good harvest. I was able to make a mini-cherry crumble for the 4th of July and I have some cherries ready to make into either a pie or cherry mousse. But that might be about it for cherries this year. A far cry from the 6 pints of jam, 6 pints of jelly and 4 quarts of whole cherries I was able to can last year. There are so many things I need to do for the garden to get it producing better. I need to be hand-pollinating but I don't have time. I need to be side-dressing with fertilizer, but I don't have time. Halfway through 2011 I have accomplished almost none of the goals on my list for this year:

Sew something better
Begin organic pest control
Better fall/winter garden prep
Have cold frame
Increase pickling repetroire
Dry something
Grow own herbs, preserve
Get in summer canning routine
70% vegetable growth - through winter
Set up grow lights for Spring? - at least Fall.
Make one personal bread recipe
Put in fence
Begin testing soil, amending
Start regular fertilization
Better tree pruning
Make a soft cheeseese

Granted some of those things have to wait until their appropriate season, but I am far behind. I was starting to feel discouraged, overwhelmed, like I'm going to be stuck in windowless edit suites for the rest of my life because I'm stuck in the cycle of needing the job to support my hobby, but not having the time to practice it because I have to spend all my time working for it. Feeling like I'm not very good at it anyway and I should resign myself to office life.

And then finally - some successes! The garlic harvest was more than I anticipated. And it all pulled out of the ground in good shape. I cleaned up one head that I accidentally tore while harvesting (and then I forgot to take a picture) and it's waiting in our fruit bowl, all purple skinned and plump. The rest are laid out in the garage to dry for a couple days before I braid them for storage (sorry for the blurry pic).



I spent a little time last night gathering onion seeds. Some of last years scallions were left to overwinter and go to seed. We got some awesome onion heads and left them to dry in a paper sack in the garage. I checked on them last night and almost all the seeds had popped out!



I went through and tried to get as many out as I could and ended up with a good chunk of scallion seed. Saved ourselves like $3! It's not much money to save, but it was so very satisfying.




I'm feeling a renewed sense of excitement for the garden and I'm starting get those high hopes again for fall.