Tag: Kitchen Garden

Slow Food in Context

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date June 17, 2015

Weeding kale produced a peck of leaves for the kitchen. The garden plants are healthy enough I sent 12 kale seedlings reserved as replacements into town for re-distribution. They found a suitable home as I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen preparing dinner.

Yesterday was the first day in a while where life produced time to work in the garden when weather was sunny and without rain. The ground was soaked, making weeding easier. I hardly made a dent in the work, however, a garden waits for no one and there was plenty to harvest. In addition to kale, there were carrots, sweet peas and turnips.

My editor assigned a new story in the morning, so I went to Iowa City to interview the subject. On the way home, I stopped at the grand opening of the new Hy-Vee on North Dodge Street.

It was different from the store where we had shopped for more than 20 years. Expecting the latest in supermarket merchandising I was prepared—for the most part.

My shopping list included one item: a six-pack of beer for a beverage with dinner. Using the latest tactics to resist over spending, I grabbed a hand-held basket instead of a cart. I picked up one extra item, some Iowa-grown Jolly Time popcorn, which is a pantry staple and was on sale.

The produce section and bakery were just inside the front door. I stopped and took it in. The space was crammed full of people and products. About eight people were serving food samples on toothpicks. Management staff was present in abundance. It took me a while to find the regular produce section, which had a misting tube above, giving the broccoli, peppers and other items a shiny appearance, but condemning them to a shorter shelf life. I thought about the scruffy look of the produce I had just picked, and longed for another carrot just pulled from the ground.

It took me a while to find the dairy aisle, which was, of course, furthest from the front door. In all, I spent less than 15 minutes inside, and look forward to returning to evaluate the tens of thousands of items inside when there aren’t so many people.

At home, I put the six-pack of LaBatt Blue in the ice box and brought the garden produce upstairs. I opened a beer.

The concept was a dinner made from locally produced kale, peas, carrots and eggs. I put rice on to cook and got to work cleaning the harvest. By the time I finished, almost three hours had elapsed.

Dinner was the process of preparation—including the trip to Iowa City—and a vision of the final plating.

There were four distinct dishes: peas and carrots; kale sauteed with onions and spring garlic; brown rice cooked in vegetable broth; and eggs over easy. I plated the kale, rice and peas and carrots as above, then topped it with two eggs, sprinkled with feta cheese and a tablespoon of home made bell pepper sauce.

I covered one plate without the eggs and left it on the counter for Jacque’s dinner after work. Mine was too much to eat, so there were leftovers to be made into a breakfast burrito later in the week.

This was slow cooking. More than that, it was a life. A day of retreat from low wage work, doing things that matter. We need a slow food day in the context of busy lives—more than we understand.

Tags cooking, Kitchen Garden, local food, Sustainability

Favorite Places – My Garden

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date June 1, 2015

Our garden is one of my favorite places.

A mature rabbit hangs out in the thicket next door. I see it in the garden often, usually minding its own business—being a rabbit—outside the fences. This year I’ve been pushing the limits of what can be unfenced and survive.

Today, the rabbit was sitting, next to the row of carrots chewing. Luckily, it was eating clover, not the unprotected carrot tops six inches away. My fear is it’s a she and undisciplined little rabbits will ravage the garden until getting picked off by the many predators who live nearby.

Later, the rabbit came back and was eating radish leaves planted between tomato cages. I picked a leaf and ate it—sweet and refreshing. No wonder rabbits eat them. I chased it away again. It ended up munching the clover in a neighbor’s yard, then disappeared in the midday heat.

This is the ecology of my life—living as best I can in the found environment. It’s not a natural place. The forests are long gone, and the weather is unpredictable. The ground is already parched, and nearer sundown I’ll water the young plants so they don’t perish before being mulched.

With a little management, the garden produces more food than we need, but not enough to make a business of it. The seasonality of spinach and inadequate freezer space makes gifts to friends and neighbors. The same will hold true when the kale matures, tomatoes come in, and the fall apple harvest arrives. All are parts of this ecology.

Here, I can forget about politics, society and culture—except maybe for agriculture. The symbiosis with this place is hard coded in me. Not coding like DNA or computer algorithms. More like a recipe made from scratch and varied with each iteration.

The truth is we all need something like this garden.

When we planned our move from Indiana we sought a place with enough of a lot to grow this large garden. We built everything on this piece of property to fit our lives. While it is not a perfect place, its lack of perfection is alluring. Suited respite from a society that does not appear to care much, if at all, about anything beyond circles of family and friends.

It is a place to gain strength for the next endeavor.

Tags environment, Favorite Places, Kitchen Garden, Sustainability

Kitchen Garden

Garden Fences

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date May 20, 2015

Here’s what is surprising. The vegetables outside the garden fences are mostly untouched by rabbits, deer and other critters. Some behind fences are getting nibbled.

Who knew I could leave lettuce, turnips, carrots, radishes, spinach and other plants unfenced and the animals would stay away. Maybe I’m just lucky… or maybe someone knows an answer.

Next garden workday I’ll harvest and see how it goes the rest of the season.

Tags Kitchen Garden, lettuce, local food, spring

Home Life Kitchen Garden

Planting Broccoli

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date May 15, 2015

Growing broccoli from seeds is tough without a germination shed and controlled environment. Miraculously, I made it from seeds to plants in the ground, with hope of a crop. I fenced them in before rain came yesterday.

This morning I inspected the plants and all survived. Each has the prospect of a head of broccoli, one of our favorite vegetables. We’ll see how they fare on the next step of the journey, but the hardest part is over.

I also planted several varieties of radishes, arugula and the first eight Amish Paste tomato plants before the rain. It felt as though I got some things done, but not nearly enough. Now the ground will have to dry out before I can get in the garden for the next round of planting.

Someone gave me a treatment to speed removal of mucus from my sinuses, which has been an ongoing problem for the last three weeks. I mixed up a quart of water with two teaspoons of salt and one teaspoon of baking soda and applied the liquid into my nostrils with a turkey baster. I mentioned the treatment to several people, and they all mentioned the neti pot, which was news to me.

I gained a better understanding of what’s going on in my noggin—I never understood it was open space in there. The treatments made me feel better for a while, but the mucus keeps coming. It’s a weird sickness where I feel much like normal, but cough to void the rheum of the mucus presumably gathering in response to an irritation or infection.

So today I am hunkered in with my neti pot substitute, saline solution and lemon water, hoping to get some writing done. Plus there’s the prospect of broccoli.

Life could be a lot worse.

Tags Kitchen Garden, local food

Home Life Kitchen Garden Work Life

Hacking Through

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date May 11, 2015

It’s been a tough couple of weeks complicated by a lingering and persistent impulse to void the rheum of excess mucus. I don’t feel ill for the most part, but the coughing has been terrible.

Missing work without sick pay means less income and a further exploration of the life of low wage workers. Well into the experiment in alternative lifestyle, I don’t see how people can make ends meet, even working three jobs as I have been doing this spring. That said, I won’t give up and expect to continue hacking through this rough patch—literally.

I picked lettuce, spinach and radishes from the garden the last two nights and made a frittata for dinner with greens from the CSA, spring garlic and onions. It was satisfying served with a salad, and there were leftovers. Already garden production is worth savoring. Between now and Memorial Day, the focus is on getting the spring planting done.

For the moment that’s all there is to say except change is coming. To make this life more sustainable, to improve our economic base. How change will look is an open question. I look forward to seeing how it comes together.

Tags garlic, homelife, Kitchen Garden, lettuce, local food, radishes, Sustainability, worklife

Home Life

Punk Spring Day

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date May 3, 2015

A persistent cough prevented me from working at the warehouse Friday and Saturday. My schedule included preparing and serving food, and it would have been bad to go in sick. Instead I felt like crap at home and tried to focus enough to get a few things done, including writing an article for the newspaper, interviewing someone at the Iowa City Farmers Market and planting radishes and green beans in the garden.

Thrill is gone for me at the farmers market. I did not go one time last year and yesterday bought a bag of lettuce for $3 and that’s it. The market has become more of a flea market with crafty stuff, prepared food and vegetables imported from outside the county. It may be a seasonal alternative to the grocery store for city dwellers but unless my garden goes big and there is excess to sell, I have little reason to return.

Speaking of thrill is gone, I was saddened to hear musician B.B. King is in hospice care at his Las Vegas home.

Apple blossoms peaked and their petals are falling into a snowy carpet over the grass. Because it has been warm, calm and sunny for much of the week, I am hopeful the pollination was thorough.

Hardening indoor seedlings began yesterday when I put the first batch for planting in the outdoor sun most of the afternoon. Broccoli will be first to plant, followed by basil, celery and three kinds of kale. The next wave will be tomatoes, followed by peppers.

Two neighborhood kids and their puppy invaded my garage space yesterday. The puppy got loose and decided to see what I was doing. Right behind him a young brother and sister crawled down the retaining wall and chased him behind the table saw without regard to anything else. She collared him and took him home. While they accomplished their mission, my take away was that part of youth involves less awareness of the broad context of our actions. That may be okay for children, but not for adults.

Life has gotten busier. Not too busy to take in the scent of lilac and apple blossoms, touch the soil with bare hands and interact with children, but busy enough.

Tags homelife, Kitchen Garden, local food, spring

Home Life Kitchen Garden

Harvesting Grass for the Garden

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date May 2, 2015

The sound of children playing reached through still air to the parking lot where I distributed shares to CSA members. The sky was clear and children were having fun chasing balls, swinging on a swing set and playing in the grass. It lifted my spirits for that hour.

Lilacs are in bloom and apple blossoms are dropping petals as spring’s course runs through our lives. Flipping the calendar to May, there is much to get done before summer starts in three weeks.

A neighbor noticed I left the grass clippings after mowing. They wondered if they could have them, prompting this response.

Thanks for the compliment on our grass clippings.

I plan to use them on our garden as mulch in years one and two, then as compost after that.

I always delay mowing in Spring until the yard gets green and starts going to seed. Then I cut first with the mower, let them dry in the sun a couple of days if possible, and beginning tomorrow will start picking them up with the grass catcher attachment on my mower, or with a rake.

I admit they are nice, but you and I are likely the only people in the neighborhood who view them as an asset.

Over the years I stopped using lawn chemicals so there wouldn’t be runoff to the lake, and the clippings would be as artificial-chemical free as possible for the garden.

You might notice I stop mowing in October to let the grass get long for the spring mow.

I have been collecting up stuff for compost, and if I find extra, I’ll keep you in mind.

Thanks for asking, and see you around.

It took two and a half hours of work collecting the clippings, including a spate of time tracking down some bolts to attach the top of the grass catcher. I took a bolt, nut and washers into the hardware store in town and said, “I’d like two more of these.” Within minutes, the clerk had them and charged less than three dollars. Once home I made short work of prepping the equipment.

The sun-dried clippings went into the grass catcher easily. The secret to preventing them from clogging the intake is drying them several days and driving the tractor slowly so the right amount go into the mower each pass.

The best part of the work, other than the economics of grass clippings, was the varied smells in the yard. Apple blossoms and lilac; the sour smell of the apple pomace; spring garlic; and the waft of fertilizer from a neighbor’s recently treated yard. Not everyone eschews lawn chemicals, although maybe they should.

Tags homelife, Kitchen Garden, Sustainability

Kitchen Garden

Apple Blossom Time

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date April 29, 2015

It’s apple blossom time in Big Grove.

Conditions are excellent for an abundant apple crop. There are plenty of pollinators, the ambient temperature is warm and the wind is calm.

Already I’m thinking of apple cider, apple butter, apple cider vinegar, apple sauce, and, of course, fresh apples. It is a hopeful time.

This morning’s chores included watering indoor seedlings. They need transplant as some are becoming root bound. Soon—maybe 10 to 14 days—they will be in the ground, so I’m not going to transplant into a larger container in between. The seeds I planted on Earth Day are germinating and it’s all good.

The challenge is finding time to work in the yard and garden—I don’t have any brilliance on that topic.

Working three jobs provides variety in life. For that I am thankful, yet they all demand time.

In between one and the others, carving out blocks of garden work time is important—something I couldn’t get adequately done last year.

Here’s hoping the inspiration of apple blossoms and lilac blooms engenders a better garden this year.

Tags apples, Kitchen Garden, local food, Sustainability

Kitchen Garden

Early Spring Gardening

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date April 25, 2015

The fruit trees are blooming. The fragrance is sweet and rare. I stopped to breathe it in.

Pollinators buzzed, providing hope for a good crop of apples and pears, dampened only slightly by yesterday’s rain. Even the diseased Golden Delicious tree is blooming—perhaps one last crop before it becomes firewood.

The newspaper’s freelance garden writer wrote April is the time to get to work in the garden, and so I have. Spinach, peas, lettuce, radishes and turnips are up. The chives and garlic survived both winter and the spring burn. A new pile of apple pomace from the cider mill lies next to the horse manure and grass clippings, ready to turn to compost. There are plenty of weeds starting to grow, needing suppression. If I did nothing else, work in the garden would take all of my time this month and next.

In the bedroom, the tomato seedlings are about six inches tall. Seeds sprouted and are growing so that after hardening outside a day or two, they will be ready for planting.

At the farm there is less worry about frost and a more diverse crop has been planted. Broccoli, kale, onions and others are already lined up in field rows along with rhubarb and garlic that wintered. I spent part of Friday planting leeks in the field and transplanting eggplant seedlings in the greenhouse.

In many ways, April is for a gardener—last preparations for a rush to planting after the last frost. Then a season of replanting and weeding, and eventually harvesting. There are worse things in life than this.

Tags apples, Kitchen Garden, local food, Sustainability

Kitchen Garden

Good, Getting Better in the Garden

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date April 12, 2015

Sunning Seedlings — Seedlings after Watering

In 1983 I became a gardener. At our rented duplex in Iowa City I planted tomato seedlings which yielded some fruit. Every year since, and with every one of our four subsequent moves, we have improved our gardening capacity and techniques.

Our garden in Big Grove is likely as good as it gets. Each growing season has been full of observations, experiments and efforts to improve. I’ve learned a lot about soil, compost, mulch, seed propagation, weed control, pest control and disease. There is a lot more to learn. Hopefully I’ll be blessed with a normal lifespan to pursue improved gardening.

Work in the local food community helped me gain clarity on gardening. Perhaps the biggest change has been growing my own seedlings for transplanting. It opened the door to plant diversity, better germination, better garden plantings and better crops.

This year’s garden may be the most diverse yet. I’m experimenting with multiple crops in the same space, beginning with early lettuce, spinach and peas.

This year’s planting includes two varieties of peas: snow peas and snap peas. Using the SE plot, where I grew tomatoes last year, I removed remains of last year’s plants, turned and tilled the soil around the stakes, and broadcast peas. I replaced the cages to protect the peas from predators. The hope is after the 60 day growth cycle, soil nitrogen will be improved and I can get another crop of tomatoes before the first hard frost. This technique came after research and some creative thinking, although I suspect I am not the first gardener to use it.

I inspected the garden for the first time in several days. Radishes and lettuce in the compost heap are progressing nicely. The broadcast early lettuce and turnips look to yield a crop. The carrots and spinach have not germinated yet. There will be spring garlic in abundance, although the Golden Delicious apple tree looks to be a goner, despite my efforts to save it from disease. The rest of the fruit trees are have leaf buds on them, but I can’t see flower buds yet. I have to remind myself, it is still early—a month before last frost.

We don’t use many potatoes, so I no longer plant them. I grow a patch of spring onions, but buy mature onions on the market. Eggplants are always in abundance, as are zucchini and cucumbers. I plan a row of zucchini and three types of cucumbers, but no eggplant.

The garden is in reasonably good shape for April 12. The next big project is harvesting mulch from the lawn.

Farm work made up 20 hours of my week: planting seeds and seedlings. The high tunnel was half planted as of yesterday. It will be the source of lettuce and greens for the spring shares. Word is onions arrive next week and it will be all hands on deck to get them planted in the field.

When I get my schedule at the warehouse this afternoon, every time slot will have something next week. With local food production in the mix, life is good, getting better.

Tags Kitchen Garden