Categories
Tag: Kitchen Garden
Categories
Waning Days of Harvest
LAKE MACBRIDE— The abundance of this year’s local food system has been remarkable. The more than adequate spring rain, combined with a late growing season, had everything producing, including the author. The term “local food system,” in this context, means how an individual home cook acquires and produces food for the table.
This year, our food was mostly organic, and if we grew celery, lemons and limes here, we would have little reason to visit the produce aisle at the grocery store, except to compare our produce with theirs.
But the season is ending. Talk turns to cover crops and preparing the fields for winter. Gleaning will begin soon, plot by plot, uprooting the plants and taking the last bits of produce. The gleaning process wrecks the garden, making way for a fall turning of the soil. Seldom have I gotten the garden plots turned before winter arrives. Maybe this year, but I doubt it.
The red delicious apples are ripening, not ready yet, but soon. And so begins the vortex into fall’s final push into winter. Working four part time jobs has been a grind from multiple perspectives, not the least of which has been the wearying effect on my bones and muscles. Four more weeks at the orchard, maybe a job or two at one CSA, and work into October at the other. The four to five hours per week at the newspaper is the only constant: I complete two years there in October.
Whatever the challenges of this life, they are much better than the office work I did for so many years. The sense of creation, and contribution is tangible, even if the pay isn’t adequate to live. There is more work to do before this harvest is closed. I relish its opportunity and the life it engenders.
Categories
Entering September
LAKE MACBRIDE— Dust is still settling on life made turbulent by the harvest, new work, writing and commitments with friends and family during August. Top that off with talk about retaliation against Syria for using banned chemical weapons, and summer is ending with a bang, perhaps literally. It’s time to regroup and deal with the challenges.
A neighbor and I did a deal on raspberries yesterday. He provided eight pints to process, half into a spread for his morning toast, and half into what I want, probably the same, or maybe pancake syrup. After a shift at the farm this morning, raspberries, tomatoes and apples will all enter the canning mix. It’s now or never for the ones already picked. An eight hour canning session begins at 1 p.m. and I’ll locate my second canning pot to process two batches at a time. Times like this, I wish we had six or eight burners on our stove.
The garden has been on its own for three or four days. Tomatoes are ready, and not sure what else. When I return from the farm, I’ll empty the compost bucket and find out, picking tomatoes for sure, and likely Anaheim peppers.
There is a lot more to organize, and the food work is in the must-do, nature-can’t-wait category. There’s more work, my presentations on climate change Sept. 17 and 29, particularly. That’s not to mention finding replacement revenue for when the seasonal farm work ends soon. It looks to be a very busy autumn as we enter September.
Categories
Summer Abundance
LAKE MACBRIDE— There’s a lot of work to do in a summer kitchen. One almost forgets that in addition to preserving the harvest, it is important to cook and eat in harmony with the season’s abundance. Yesterday at the the grocery store there were bags of two large loaves of French bread for sale at $0.99. I bought one, brought it home, sliced and toasted it, and topped each piece of bread with salad dressing, a slice of tomato, salt and pepper. As is said of good and tasty food, Yum!
On Wednesday, we were discussing abundance at the farm. Extra sweet corn, cantaloupe and cabbage were offered, along with small onions, seconds of potatoes and peppers. I took some of each and made a stew for dinner using potatoes, sweet corn, onion, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, carrot, celery and home made turnip stock: a fitting side dish for a meal of corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes. The cabbage was made into sauerkraut, and the cantaloupe were some of the best we’ve eaten.
This is not to mention the apples which are falling from the tree at a rate of a peck every hour or so. I got out the juicer and added apple juice to the vinegar jar, and bottled a gallon to drink fresh and add as the cooking liquid for apple butter— all using fallen fruit. There are lots more apples in buckets and bowls, and on the trees, and this is only the first variety.
In a household-based local food system, we are not consumers. We may purchase items in the grocery store and farmers markets, but the act of buying is not what we are about. It is more the act of processing that is central to a home cook’s food system, and it has ramifications that stretch throughout the food supply chain.
Some gardeners and growers are a bit stressed figuring out what to do with the abundance. Because everyone has lots of tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, etc., selling them would be at depressed prices. It is important for a home cook with a local food system to recognize this happens each year and be ready for it. Unlike city dwellers who escape the summer heat, people with home-based local food systems don’t take an August vacation.
When I use the phrase, “local food system,” it is with a micro perspective. Rather than being a socially engineered process, on a grand scale, that competes with the industrial food supply chain, it means how individual kitchens leverage food availability to stock the pantry with ingredients to use all year. It includes some shopping, but more importantly, gardening, cultivating trees, working for food, bartering and foraging. Food preservation includes refrigeration, freezing, canning, dehydrating and if one exists, root cellaring.
This is not a throwback to the invention of the Mason jar, first patented in 1858. It goes much further back to the cultivation of land and domestication of livestock. It is also a statement of how we live in a post-consumer society. The idea is to live well. If we are lucky, and diligent, we can.
Categories
Suddenly it’s Busy
LAKE MACBRIDE— Part of yesterday was clearing the dead and dying squash plants from the garden and planting turnips and transplanting butternut squash seedlings. It is dicey as to whether the squash will produce because of the timing of first frost compared to the 110 day growing cycle. Too, the abundance of squash beetles have nowhere to go without the zucchini and yellow squash plants, so even though they had not found the seedlings this morning, one suspects they will visit and if they like it, attempt to stay.
In that plot, the Brussels sprouts are thriving, as are the three kinds of peppers, Swiss chard and collards. This is the most bountiful year of gardening we’ve had.
In the cool downstairs await six bins of tomatoes and two of broccoli for processing. This is part of a work for food arrangement with a local organic grower. Combine it with the approaching and massive apple harvest and there will be plenty of work to do.
Yesterday I planted three trays of seedlings: lettuce, kale, broccoli, kohlrabi and squash. There is plenty of time left during the growing season for these crops to mature, and I am particularly hopeful about new cucumbers for pickling.
As summer races toward Labor Day and October frost, there is much to be done in the garden and in life. We have to eat to live, and because of this summer of local food, there will be no shortage there. It’s enough to sustain a life on the Iowa prairie, at least for a while.
Categories
Working in the Onion Patch
RURAL CEDAR TOWNSHIP— The onion harvest is in at the CSA, and more than two tons of white, red and yellow onions have been arranged in the germination house and barn to dry. Today begins the third day of trimming the excess leaves and arrange them for further drying. A few more four hour shifts and the project will be complete. Onions are one of the most popular vegetables, so the shareholders at the CSA will enjoy continuing to receive this bounty in their shares.
I filled the blank spaces in my garden’s cucumber row yesterday afternoon and gave the new patch a good watering. The zucchini are about done, the vines withering and yellowed. Same with yellow squash. There are butternut squash seedlings to plant, although I’m not certain they will make the 90-100 day window needed to mature— another experiment. Next weekend I begin paying work at a local orchard, helping with the weekend surge of city dwellers who come out for family entertainment and apples. That means this weekend will become a working time in the yard and garden, getting caught up on weeding, grass mowing, tree trimming, and preparing garden plots for the next iteration of planting.
Fall crops will include turnips for the greens, radishes, lettuce and spinach for sure, adding to the most prolific of gardening years here in Big Grove. (Note to self: prepare more trays for germinating seeds).
My first crop of apples is getting close to ripe (there will be two harvests this year, plus pears), which means the CSA operator and I have to stay in touch with the work for tomatoes project so everything can get processed as it comes in at the same time. In my garden, the large tomatoes are beginning to ripen. We’ve been eating fresh tomatoes for about three weeks.
In the kitchen the storage space is filling up with onions, potatoes and apples, and the soup stock is getting used, making room for the approaching tomato harvest in a week or so. There is a lot to do before Labor Day.
Categories
Picking Up the Pace
LAKE MACBRIDE— Harvest season is accelerating, and there is more food available than we know what to do with. Through a complex system of work for food, gardening, barter and foraging, purchases at the grocery stores have averaged a ticket total of well under $20 consisting mainly of dairy, canned goods and sundries. It is down from an average closer to $100.
Last night we made a meal of a big salad that included lettuce, green peppers, kohlrabi, tomatoes and broccoli from our garden. The eggs came from bartering, the carrots from California, canned kidney beans from the grocery store, and everything else was part of my work for food deal at the CSA. That is, except for the dressing— balsamic vinegar of Modena (the less expensive stuff), first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper. It is pretty exciting to have a salad with home grown lettuce in August, which is a result of my first attempt at sequential planting.
At the CSA, I picked half a bushel of ripe apples yesterday. On the kitchen counter a large bowl of them waits to be peeled and cut into slices for apple crisp. The apple harvest is going to be incredibly abundant this year, and will involve a lot of processing work. I am already thinking about grading the harvest into apples for hand eating, apple sauce and apple butter, juicers and livestock feed.
Likewise, with my work for food project with a second CSA, there will be an abundance of tomatoes for canning. We’ve been eating fresh tomatoes for a few weeks, and there is an abundance on the vines. We’ll be in tomato city soon.
The point in writing about this is to organize my thoughts and priorities. Without organization, the summer will be a hodgepodge of inefficiency. Too, if there is a chance to be a food broker, and leverage some of the abundance for sales, now is the time, despite being very busy. Even if a lot of other producers are thinking the same thing.
There is something about the transition of summer from celebration of Independence Day until Labor Day that is at the center of life. With the milder weather this year, cooler and wetter, we’ve had close to ideal growing conditions for home gardening. Every bit of food we can or freeze, is money in the bank. Now is the time to get this work done.
Categories
Reflections on Chicago
LAKE MACBRIDE— After cleaning out my email inbox, catching up on LinkedIn, twitter and Facebook, and skimming the scum from a batch of dill pickles, I walked outside evaluate the garden. Weeds are taking over again. It is disheartening how quickly nature attempts to return gardens to the wild. I pulled a few weeds, realizing tomorrow will be more of the same to preserve the yield. No worries, it’s part of being a gardener.
There were half a dozen zucchini; a yellow squash; peppers ready to pick— two green bell peppers, Anaheim and jalapeno; and stems of broccoli, enough for a meal. Hard to believe I was gone only three days. The cucumber seedlings planted Monday had an 80 percent survival rate, and the remainders will fill in empty spaces. Already a work queue is forming. Before continuing August’s work, for a few brief moments in the garden and orchard, I considered my experience in Chicago with the Climate Reality Project.
I know cults and utopian movements, and the recent gathering was neither. After spending an evening with disciples of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon in Munich, with charismatic renewal congregations of the Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, Mich. and in Belgium, and with the Rev. Tommy Barnett and his Westside Assembly of God in my home town, there aren’t many religious similarities. People gathered around a key speaker, and that’s about it.
These were not Rappites, Icarians, Shakers, members of the Amana Society, or of the Blythedale Farm community. Nor was it like what one finds in science fiction— the technology laden tales of Doc Smith, Walter Miller Jr. or Robert Heinlein. Comparisons drawn from these genres of society fall flat.
A few so-called moles participated in the training, representatives of the oil and gas industry, deniers, and skeptics about global warming. Their reports about the conference have already begun to emerge. What these folks don’t seem to realize is they validate the fact that the Climate Reality Project poses a serious threat to the status quo of the hydrocarbon business. Their presence and criticisms make our group stronger, even if the hydrocarbon industry outspends the Climate Reality Project in its advocacy.
To resist arguments to act on climate change, the hydrocarbon industry has to understand them. Part of our participation includes an understanding that advocating for action about climate change does not occur in a vacuum. As is written in the Art of War, “it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles.” What better way to know our opponents than to have them with us at the conference?
That said, the Climate Reality Project is for the most part about Al Gore and his unique role in 21st century society. A number of attendees with whom I spoke pointed to Gore’s loss of the 2000 election as a reason for becoming involved with his movement. The slide show Gore produced, and is perpetually revising, is not a new story, but it is his story. His closing speech on day two of the conference was a compelling call to help prevent the Earth we know from slipping away from us. It was compelling because of who he is and who we might be.
Attendees agreed to perform ten acts of leadership related to the project during the coming year. Like many who were there, I’ll perform my share and more.
In the end, this movement is not about Al Gore. It is about living in a post-enlightenment society. It is a time when rational arguments have flown the coop, leaving the din of pundits and poobahs, and a dirty environment as a result of not understanding the global consequences of CO2 pollution. We can do something about that, and should. An answer lies in placing a value on carbon, which was my takeaway from the conference. Now the work begins anew.
Categories
Garden Update July 2013
LAKE MACBRIDE— The summer weather has been as good as it gets, a reminder of what it was like as a child, with endless days to play in the sunlight, safe and without worry. This summer has been unforgettable. Besides the weather, it has been a different and somewhat tribal life after turning to those with whom we live out our lives in the neighborhood.
A quick garden update. Removing the green caterpillars with a medical grade forceps did the trick of removing the pest, and the new leaves are growing bug free. The white butterflies are around, so there may be more, and I lost one plant, but the new growth looks great.
Today, I harvested the rest of the green beans, composted the plants, and planted a row of cucumbers from seedlings. I planted the seed in pots on July 13, so they are two weeks from seed to seedling. The benefit of growing them this way is with the wet root ball, they can tolerate diverse conditions better to get off to a good start in the ground. They bring their own moisture with them to the initial planting. I watered them well and mulched. With my newly developed pickle addiction, I may plant more before summer is gone. There were some seedlings leftover from planting a row, so maybe next weekend.
The current crop of lettuce is suffering. Not from the heat, or lack of water, but from disappearing. There used to be three full rows here, and some plants are missing. Not sure what is the pest, but it seems doubtful deer are jumping the fence as there are no deer footprints inside. Perhaps a rabbit, or something else. Whatever is left, will be enjoyed by the humans. The leaves are big enough to pick, so when I return from my trip, we’ll bring some in for a tasting.
Finally, the tomatoes are maturing and three varieties have begun to ripen: two cherry tomatoes and Roma. Tomatoes have been the continuous crop in our garden, since the first duplex where we lived after our wedding ceremony. Perhaps there was a gap in Cedar Rapids, but not much of one. This year’s crop was the first I planted as seeds, and based on the results, I’ll do that next year as well.
The primary concern this year is to finish processing tomatoes before the apples come in. There are a lot of apples. I know what I want from the tomatoes: 12 quarts and 12 pints of tomato sauce, the leftover juice, 24 pints of diced tomatoes, and maybe a dozen pints of hot sauce using the cayenne and jalapeno peppers. Knowing how to approach it is half the battle.
Tonight for dinner, I made a pizza. Thin, wheat crust with tomato sauce I canned in 2011 mixed with fresh basil and salt. Toppings were half an onion from the CSA, thinly sliced zucchini, diced green peppers, sliced green olives with pimiento, halved cherry tomatoes and 6 ounces of mozzarella cheese. It is out of the oven, so I had better go sample.
Categories
Caesura in Big Grove
LAKE MACBRIDE— As July draws to a close, much needed rain came last night, tapping lightly on the bedroom windows. Predawn, the driveway was wet, and the clouds had opened to reveal the waning gibbous moon which illuminated the landscape, reflecting its silvery light in pools of rainwater.
It seems halfway through the gardening season, and the spring abundance has turned to waiting— for the late lettuce to mature, tomatoes to ripen, and four or five varieties of peppers to fruit. The apple and pear trees are laden with fruit, weighing the branches so that I can’t get under them with the riding mower. Biting into a fallen apple, there was sweetness, but also the sourness of immature fruit. Not ready yet, but soon.
One Japanese beetle was spotted on an indicator plant I let grow in the garden, a weed the bugs favor. There was only one, and otherwise, the invasive species has left my apple trees and garden alone this year. Other gardeners and farmers in the area report the same thing. The only thing that changed from years they swarmed is that no one planted winter wheat in our area, favoring corn. This is anecdotal, but there seems to be a connection between winter wheat and an abundance of Japanese beetles showing up in our yard after the wheat is harvested from nearby fields. We dodged the bullet this year, and the apple harvest will be one of the best we have had.
The drama of a great gardening year has paused. We never know what today, or tomorrow might bring, and look forward to seeing how it unfolds as we reach toward winter. Winter. An unlikely topic now. Invoking it reminds us to live as best we can in the moonlight after rain has fallen.
Journey Home 
You must be logged in to post a comment.