Tag: apples

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Writing

First Tomato

Lake Macbride Beach
Lake Macbride Beach

LAKE MACBRIDE— The first two cherry tomatoes were ripe in the garden, so I picked them, along with three meals worth of green beans, two cucumbers, a bunch of kale, two stalks of broccoli and two kohlrabi. In addition, I planted more cucumbers and Swiss chard. There remains plenty to eat in our household.

It’s time to review the seed packets and plan the rest of the year’s planting. July 25 is the traditional day to plant fall turnips, and more radishes, green beans, cucumbers and spinach are in the works. The lettuce seedlings I planted about a week ago appear to be taking, and I’ll plant more before the summer is over. Because of succession planting, the salad days, where we can have fresh salads with dinner, may extend the whole summer. Here’s hoping.

When the morning garden work was finished, I cleaned up and drove to Lake Macbride State Park to sit on a bench and write. On an impulse, I stopped by a friend’s home where he was returning from a neighbor’s home with a bucket of just-picked Lodi apples. Lodi is one of the earliest producing cultivars, and the fruit is used in baking, applesauce and cider making. He offered and I took four to make a dessert. We chatted for a while, and then made arrangements to go foraging for black raspberries after supper.

Black Raspberries
Black Raspberries

With the sun heading for the horizon, we met up and drove a few miles to a mutual friend’s acreage. We spent about 90 minutes trolling the wood line, where all kinds of produce was evident. Wild plums, hickory nuts, blackberries not ripe yet, and plenty of ripe black raspberries. We filled two gallon jugs and split the proceeds.

We toured the property owner’s garden and the apricots were ripe, falling from the tree. Like many gardens in the area, this year it is doing well.

On the drive home, we talked about the Michigan cherries due in at a local orchard on Saturday. I plan to stop by and participate in the summer cycle of fresh produce and the social life surrounding it. Not sure which I like better, and both seem inextricably intertwined.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Wednesday at the Farm

Sheep Looking into the Barn
Sheep Looking into the Barn

RURAL CEDAR TOWNSHIP— A student from Nepal greeted me at the work bench where four trays of soil blocks awaited transplanted eggplant seedlings. She was like so many college students, alert, intelligent, and possessed of the confidence of youth. She asked me a lot of questions: where I lived and about local culture. So many, I didn’t get a chance to ask her about Nepal and her reasons for coming to the United States. She had just finished laying down mulch in one field and planting rows of eggplant in another with a group of farm workers. She was ready to call it a day and go on to what’s next. One of many chance encounters that have made the last 15 weeks of farm work an enriching experience.

When my work moved from the  germination house (formerly known as the greenhouse), to the barn, the sheep and lambs became occasional neighbors. The gentle bleating combined with bird songs made a soothing background while I made soil blocks, planted lettuce and transplanted seedlings. The two dogs hung out with me, napping most of the time. The intermittent encounters with other farm workers, combined with interludes of solitude in the barn—it is life as good as it gets.

Last week I brought jars of home made apple butter for the crew. My apple trees are expected to bear fruit this year, so the old stock needs circulation. To a person they liked it, making me happy to contribute to their farm experience.

There are apple trees on the farm, and if things work out, I’ll make apple butter from the fruit in exchange for some of the apples. My part time work on the farm has become a bartering process that gains complexity as time goes on.

There is something deep in meaning about this work. To see plants grow from seeds to seedlings to rows and then harvest is a connection with life itself. As the Nepalese student asked questions, I felt connected in a way that is hard to describe. Part of a sustainable and hopefully endless cycle of life on earth.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Ely Farmers Market and Garden Update

Apples
Apples

ELY— Two vendors braved threatening rain to set up tables at the Ely farmers market yesterday. I didn’t stop. Our refrigerator is full of leafy green vegetables from our garden and the CSA. This vegetable season will produce an abundance of variety and quantity. Already I have begun putting things up: freezing rhubarb and canning soup stock. We should support our local growers; however, there is a limit to how much one consumer can help. What’s needed is a movement supporting locally grown food. There wasn’t a lot of traffic at the market, indicating local movement in other directions.

It is still spring despite passing two unofficial starts of summer: Memorial Day weekend, and the release of children from school. What that means is the ravages of insects has not begun, and the leaves on the trees maintain their fresh wholeness. It won’t belong before the bugs begin to find the delicate food— there is a sliver of springtime to be enjoyed before summer starts.

I would make a list of all the garden produce and its progress, but that seems too Edmund Spenser or Walt Whitman. English majors take note that every list or inventory is not a good one, and how many times can a person write about the progress of apples in the garden and make it interesting? There is a big difference between spending time in the garden and writing about it, although one should really be an extension of the other. Suffice it to compromise by posting a photo of developing apples.

The pressing needs of the garden are to prepare another plot for planting and to weed, weed, weed. The first four plots are growing well, and number five has three bur oak tree saplings, the remains of the garlic and bulbs of iris to be removed. It will be a relatively big project to return that space to production. It was also the first one dug and planted when we moved to Big Grove almost 20 years ago. Did I mention the garden needs weeding?

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Frost versus Hard Frost

Yellow Squash
Yellow Squash

LAKE MACBRIDE— There is a difference between a frost and a hard frost, and last night’s temperature dip provided an example of what it means. From looking at the thumbnail to the left, one likely can’t see the frost damage on these yellow squash seedlings. If the reader clicks on it, the damage is evident along the left row.

Frosted Seedling
Frosted Seedling

Try a closer view of one of the plants and see the blackened, frost-damaged leaf. The big picture is that temperatures at ground level are not uniform, and while some leaves were damaged, the patch of yellow squash plants survived the frost as a whole. Last night, when I decided that a 34 degree overnight forecast did not warrant covering the seedlings, I pushed the envelope, but my judgment was vindicated by this morning’s surviving squash patch.

Likewise, the seedlings that matter most to my summer salad plate were safely put away in the garage.

Lettuce, Cucumbers and Tomatoes
Lettuce, Cucumbers and Tomatoes

Apples are another matter. My report is that bees are busy pollinating this morning, and an apple crisis due to frost like last year was averted. There are some blossom petals on the ground, indicating post-pollination, but not many. Today the apple trees were again in full bloom.

Apple Trees Blooming
Apple Trees Blooming

The closeup shows there was some frost damage, but not enough to endanger the entire crop.

Frosted Apple Blossoms
Frosted Apple Blossoms

In the work-a-day world, people may not have time to spend closely observing the garden, and do worry about frost. At the same time, Mother Nature will provide for us, if we provide for her. There is no need to worry, just evaluate available information against one’s experience, think, take action, and live with the results.

If the yellow squash seedlings had all frosted, there is time to replant this spring. If my squash fails completely, other growers provide my safety network. In the web of life, we are never alone to face the frost, and that should provide some comfort.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Apple Blossom Time

Apple Blossoms
Apple Blossoms

LAKE MACBRIDE— Two of the four apple trees are developing blossoms today. There should be plenty of apples this fall if flowers become fruit. The risk is a late frost before they are pollinated. I barely dodged the bullet last year, having good pollination just as the frost hit. The good news today is that I saw a few bees out. Fingers crossed that the blossoms open today or tomorrow and get pollinated. I suppose we can’t rush Mother Nature.

Our home owners association has a rule about cutting the grass. I ignore it completely. Some neighbors have mowed three times already and the border of our properties resembles the scene in The Great Gatsby where Nick Carraway compares his ragged lawn to the expansive and neatly trimmed one of his neighbor. If people pay attention to this sort of thing, one is assured the neighbors are grumbling about my unkempt lawn.

Wildflowers in the Lawn
Wildflowers in the Lawn

I let it go during the spring for two reasons. First, I want to see what wildflowers show themselves— vestiges of the time before we developed the property. Second, the first cutting in the spring makes excellent mulch for the garden. Last year, the drought conditions produced only a scant amount of grass clippings. This year, I am going to take advantage of the rainfall and use every bit of this abundance. If I cut too often, the small pieces of grass blade fall to the earth and mulch the lawn. That’s not bad, but the garden means more to me than a neat and tidy lawn.

Monday morning inspection of the garden revealed that the lettuce looks like lettuce, the arugula is growing, it pays to sow radish seeds properly spaced and one at a time, and there are spinach and turnip plants popping into the sunlight. The spring garlic should be ready to harvest soon. I intend to share that with our CSA and will dig some and take it to the farm on Wednesday for a proper evaluation. The next step is to plant the six trays and five buckets of seedlings. The ground was too wet for that this morning, so maybe tomorrow.

It is a glorious day to be outside working in the yard. There is much to do, so I’d better close for now and get back outside to the garden.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Clearing a Field of Risks

Sheep and LambsLAKE MACBRIDE— A gardener accepts risks. Soil, insects, weeds, temperature variation, hail, frost, flood, drought, neighbors’ pets, deer, and others. No doubt, we will take those risks, and after the season’s promise is in the ground, mitigate them as best we can.

Risk management is also part of most people’s lives. In the middle of the economic spectrum, people spend a lot of money managing risk in the form of insurance. Health insurance is the biggest monthly expense in our household, and if one adds in auto insurance, dental insurance, home owner’s insurance, life insurance and others, insurance payments dominate household expenses.

Most people I know, who buy into the consumer society, are not very good at managing risk, even if they are adept at apples to apples comparisons between competing insurance policies. Gardening represents a chance to learn how to take risks.

Evaluating the weather and making decisions about when to plant specific vegetables seems part of the living dynamic of being a grower— large scale or small.

What are the risks, in life and in gardening, and are we willing to take them? For a home gardener, the risk of making a mistake is high, but the cost of mistakes are mostly very low— time spent, opportunities missed, labor invested, and the cost of seeds and seedlings. With little to lose financially, the social aspect of gardening becomes more important in risk taking.

Yesterday, I asked a grower her thoughts about planting with the current 30 day forecast. She would wait until the weekend to put squash, tomato and other seedlings out… because of the potential to reach the mid-30s later this week. “I wouldn’t risk it,” she said, mentioning the traditional May 10 last frost date. Her farm operation has a lot at stake in making the wrong call, and she exhibited a conservative approach, her judgement tempered by decades of experience as a farmer.

Getting better at risk management takes practice: studying opportunities, evaluating data, considering our experience, making informed decisions, and evaluating results. A garden, with its low financial investment, is the perfect field to get practice managing risk.

If one lives, there is risk and living is something no insurance policy can adequately protect. As a gardener, we go on living, mindful of the risks involved, but being willing to take them.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

My Vegetable Life

Dandelion Greens
Dandelion Greens

LAKE MACBRIDE— For the first time in a few days, the concrete driveway was dry when the sun came up this morning. Temperatures are in the mid-30s presently, with a forecast of snow and/or rain, and a high of 43 degrees today. No planting in the garden for now.

I failed to notice the dandelion greens while shooting the photo of the culvert at the end of our driveway. They are at a stage ready for salads and cooking. The wreck that was the contractor ditch work last fall yielded something positive, at least in a culinary way. When the rain abates, I’ll repair the ditch damage, but today will be harvesting the greens. There is a yellow squash from the grocery store in the kitchen, so maybe a side dish of squash sauteed in olive oil, with onions and dandelion greens. Mmm.

My work at the CSA earns me a share of the vegetable harvest, so we should have enough vegetables to use fresh once the shares start coming in. Likewise, my relationships with other growers, combined with our home garden should yield enough to put up some items for winter. I have been avoiding this planning of the garden for too long.

Garden Seedlings
Garden Seedlings

Immersion in the local food producing culture means my focus in the home garden can be on a smaller number of vegetables. Items like kohlrabi, cabbage, potatoes, sweet corn and fresh tomatoes can be outsourced to others who will provide them in abundance as part of the normal process. My space can be used for items that more closely integrate into our garden kitchen, which serves two purposes, cooking fresh and local ingredients, and putting up vegetables as specialty items for off-season.

In practical terms, this means an expanded herb garden, more leafy greens, different kinds of tomatoes (the CSA will provide heirloom and Roma), and more onions, turnips, broccoli, bell peppers, cucumbers and squash. I will also plant some different kinds of hot peppers. The intention is to use all of this fresh, with some of the spinach leaves frozen whole, and any excess either given away or sold at a farmers market.

On my canning repertory is: vegetarian soup stock (using turnip greens, and the green parts of leeks if I have them), various tomato products (diced, juice, sauce), an annual garden ends salsa (sweet and savory types), sauerkraut, pickled hot peppers, apples (sauce, butter, juice), and some other items. Notably absent is pickles, and I have not found a recipe we like. Whatever I grow in my garden plots will also support the canning effort.

Under overcast skies, there are greens to harvest, and much more planning to get done before spring bursts on the scene— which should be soon (we hope).

Categories
Writing

Bottling Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple Cider Vinegar

LAKE MACBRIDE— The aroma of evaporating apple cider filled the pantry for months. Today it was time for the sampling and the apple cider vinegar came out delicious. A renewable ingredient for our kitchen was born today.

Unlike anything I have tasted before, with an initial taste of apple followed by the twang of the vinegar, I’ll look forward to using it in salad dressings— bottle-by-bottle. If there is enough, the golden liquid will also be used to make apple butter during the harvest season.

When we talk about local food, this is it. The mother of vinegar came from a neighbor who said it has been in their family for more than a hundred years. The apples came from the back yard. Renewing the recipe is easy— just add more fresh apple juice to what’s left in the container.

Sometimes things work out better than we had planned.