According to weather sources, In April 2026 we had 5.69 inches of rain through the 17th. That is between 65% to 95% higher than average. We felt it on our homestead as precipitation kept me from most gardening until Friday when I attempted to put in a plot of cruciferous vegetables—curses, foiled again. A weird combination of changing air pressure, lightning, thunder, hail, rain, and wind persisted from 1:30 p.m. until dusk.
I did get the bed tilled and weed barrier applied. Saturday we had high winds, so I didn’t plant and pulled up fencing instead. On Sunday, I finished laying ground cover and put in the fence posts. Based on the weather forecast, I will plant cruciferous vegetables later today.
Cruciferous vegetable plot on April 17, 2026.
Big trees are leafing out. Both of these have cracks in the main trunk from the 2020 derecho, and eventually will be goners.
Pin Oak Tree on April 17, 2026Autumn Blaze Maple tree on April 17, 2026.
Radishes and turnips broke ground. Here are the radishes.
Radishes on April 17, 2026.
Temps dropped into the 30s over the weekend, so I put a space heater in the portable greenhouse Saturday night. The cold spell lasted through Monday.
I started what I believe will be the last indoors plants this week: cucumbers, squash, collards, and some more cauliflower and Asian greens. From here on, almost everything goes into the ground.
Finally, I cleared the burned plastic off this year’s tomato patch. The weed burn was a problem, as I couldn’t control which plot it burned and fire took out four of them, some with plastic weed barrier. Luckily, the scorched garlic plants have already recovered. Second week in and I’m making progress.
When the heat pads, LED light positions, and folding table in the dining room are full of trays of seedlings, it is time to move the garden outdoors. That means setting up the portable greenhouse. A round of indoor planting has been completed. All that is left is breaking down peppers and tomatoes from channel trays into individual soil blocks, and starting squash and cucumbers indoors when the seeds arrive. From here on, the focus is on planting garden soil.
It took me about 90 minutes to reassemble the greenhouse. I let it sit overnight, then began moving plants from indoors. The forecast is for no freezing overnight temperatures the rest of the week, so it was as good a time to get it up. The forecast Monday and Tuesday is highs in the 80s. Yikes! It’s April 13!
I finished the plot where I started potatoes. Next moving southward are leeks, onions, turnips and radishes. I fenced these in, although I don’t have mulch so I will return soon with the hoop hoe to weed and fertilize.
The roots of the locust tree that blew over in the derecho were finally deteriorated enough to dig them up. Last year I set two brush fires over the stump in an attempt to burn it out. Now the large pieces of root are stacked next to the composter, awaiting disposition. They are rotted enough, and most likely I will take the four-pound sledge to them and work them into the compost. Planting the trees there and leaving them was a mistake that years later has been rectified.
While I was turning soil in the plot for cruciferous vegetables and digging up tree roots, a neighbor walked down the hill toward me from their home on an adjacent lot. She carried a package with pieces of focaccia and sourdough as a gift. We chatted about spring—and the moles in our yards. Moles and voles have spread throughout the neighborhood. It makes no sense to eliminate them in a single yard without eliminating them everywhere. In our country setting, it’s not certain any approach would rid us of them permanently, so live and let live, I say. It’s another part of the habitat.
While moving seedlings to the greenhouse I had a good look at them all. The February plantings are getting big, and this week is time for them to go into the ground. I planted five collard seeds and only four survived, so I planted six more on Sunday. Everything else can use more time in the greenhouse.
I took measurements and decided on a 90″ x 246″ space for the first cruciferous vegetables. That makes four rows spaced 22.5 inches apart with 13 plants per row. Next steps here are to fertilize and till the soil, lay down plastic ground cover and get the seedlings in the ground. There are not enough kale and collard plants to fill all the spots, so I may make two rows of either broccoli or cauliflower or both. I need to count seedlings. However this turns out, the area will get fenced in before nightfall on planting day.
During the first week of gardening, the work simply presents itself. There is no written plan. The seasons of gardening I’ve conditioned into myself over 43 years of growing things on our property guide me, almost unawares.
I had to take a step back from life and noticed it was 3 p.m., the traditional time of Jesus Christ’s death on Good Friday. As has often been the case, everything outdoors was quiet for a moment. Reading the administration’s orders to dismantle the U.S. Forest Service had taken me aback. Find information about it here.
The highlight of Friday was working on seedlings with the garage door open, my U.S. flag on display. From my workbench I could hear the sound of songbirds in the neighborhood. Using my Merlin Bird app I was able to identify seven species in close proximity: American Robin, Chipping Sparrow, House Finch, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse, and Northern Cardinal. The chickadee was browsing around where I planted flower seeds last week. This nesting period is a true harbinger of spring.
I had to get provisions for the weekend at the grocery store. Traffic along Highway 1 was heavy all the way into the county seat. It was well before the commuting time, so I guessed people were getting off work early for the long Easter weekend. I paid close attention to traffic even though there was a lot to think about.
Fertilizer was on my mind. Midwestern BioAg specializes in locally produced composted chicken manure among other products. While made locally, the disruption caused by the U.S.-Israel-Iran War, and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, has farmers scrambling for alternatives to the types of fertilizer imported from the Middle East (containing urea, ammonia, sulfur, phosphates). Composted chicken manure already has broad application on farms, so it is a good operational fit for large-scale growers. Likewise, while the private equity acquisition of the company in 2020 may or may not be directly relevant, these firms change focus from small seasonal buyers like me to serving large customers. I had to figure out what I’m doing as an alternative since it is not available.
The hardware store sells “composted manure,” so I bought five bags. It was cheap, but after reading the label, it is only ten percent composted manure and the rest “composted natural forest products.” Its numbers are 0.05-0.05-0.05, so very little nitrogen. It is more soil conditioner than fertilizer, and what I need is more nitrogen, as does every farmer in Iowa. Probably the best solution is to travel to a couple of farm stores and see what they have left. Because conventional farmers are scrambling for fertilizer this year, whatever I find will be expensive.
The other alternative is to use the fertilizer left from last year–a five-gallon bucket–judiciously and let the rest go without. Because I have been gardening for decades here, there is likely some residual fertility left in the soil. Not a permanent fix, but it could get me through this growing season. I eventually found a 10-10-10 commercial fertilizer at a local hardware store. That will have to do this year.
Home-grown food will be important in our lives as the federal government cuts programs to the bone and puts people out of work. Eventually they will come after our Medicare and Social Security, so local food is doubly important, as is replacing my source for garden fertilizer.
The next step in the garden is planting onions and leeks. It began Wednesday with burning brush on the plot where they are planned. The weather has been funky, with rain one day, cool ambient temperatures the next, and an 80+ degree day thrown in for good measure. I work in a t-shirt in 45 degree weather, but don’t stay at it for long.
If leeks grow successfully there will be a bumper crop. They are great for soup and freeze well if there are extra. I bought started plants this year, so there is a good chance for a harvest. Onions have been hit or miss for me, although any that grow will find a place in our meals.
Kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kohlrabi, and chard are getting big enough to go into the ground. The plot where they will be planted has desiccated fox tail which needs burning off. It was too windy for that on Wednesday, yet I cleared all the fencing and fabric so the burn would be clean when it happens.
Garlic is up and I crawled through the rows to make sure the sprouts that were not pushing through the mulch were exposed to sunlight. That was not a big job, yet important to having a full crop. Only one or two cloves did not sprout. Perhaps half a dozen had trouble pushing through the matted grass clippings.
Some volunteer garlic sprouted and I used it in making taco filling Tuesday night. There is another bunch and I’m waiting for the right dish to use it.
The two new apple trees are getting big enough I removed the caged and pruned them. It looks like there will be a decent crop on one, and it’s too early to tel on the other. The remaining three legacy trees are in their off-year in 2026. That’s okay because I put up plenty of apple products when fruit was in abundance last year. The pear tree will have blooms again this year. We mostly eat those fresh.
I was fussing around with the extra dirt around the potato tubs. I left it piled up to use in hilling the potatoes once they poke through the surface of the soil and grow a few inches.This year I am going strictly by the book in hope of bigger spuds.
A hill of ants appeared yesterday in the yard. One of them got inside last night, so the problem continues. If we kill them all, they eventually subside. We don’t like using poisons in the kitchen.
On April 1, it’s no joke there is a lot of garden work to do. I keep at it daily in hope of having a crop.
Last six apples from 2025 season in the refrigerator.
Sunday I finished reading A Basket of Apples: Recipes and Paintings from a Country Orchard by Val Archer. I wrote a brief review: “The paintings are gorgeous. The recipes very British, heavy on dairy and animal flesh. If you cook like that, give it a go!”
Planting apple trees on our lot in 1996 was a defining moment in my life. I remember the family gathering at our house after my mother-in-law’s funeral, then leaving for Ames with my father-in-law while I stayed behind to plant the orchard before joining them. Over the years, some trees were lost to windstorms and a derecho, but three of the original six still produce. Today, the pantry is full of apple cider vinegar, dried apples, applesauce and apple butter… plus these six fresh apples.
At a political event on Saturday, a long-time friend arrived with a car emblazoned with promotions of veganism. It got me thinking about why I settled on being ovo-lacto vegetarian. Sunday night our household had a conversation about that and I reached some conclusions:
I won’t give up butter but can limit myself to one tablespoon per day, and some days have none.
There is no reason I can’t limit the amount of hard cheese I consume to one or two ounces per day, or seven ounces per week.
Cottage cheese is less offensive than hard cheese when it comes to encouraging LDL cholesterol production. I consume the regular product, so should limit myself to no more than one cup per day and try low-fat.
Fluid milk is basic in my diet, and I will measure how much I consume. Not sure of a limit, yet drinking 16 ounces per day seems like a start.
Peanuts and peanut butter are a daily menu item. Roasted, salted peanuts for snacks, and Jif-brand peanut butter for meals or evening dessert. Goal is quarter cup peanuts per day and no more than two tablespoons peanut butter in a day, leaning toward one. Natural peanut butter will be for some, but not all of my consumption.
Sodium intake is a constant overage in my diet. Need to continue to reduce how much I consume. That dang brain of mine rewards consumption of salt, so I need to be less “brainy” in that regard.
Promoting veganism.
Sadly this means I won’t be visiting Archer’s book for recipes. From time to time, though, I can remember her beautiful paintings.
After five planting sessions, there are seven trays of seedlings between the heat pad, grow light and table in the dining area. This year, indoor planting is proceeding well.
My foundational experience in gardening improved dramatically during the period 2013-2020 when I worked on area farms. 2026 is the year I introduced artificial intelligence into the process.
The results of ai have been surprisingly good. Because the large language model has so much information in its database, without hesitation, it can give me planting schedule adjustments, ways to use two spots on the heating pad, and two more under LED grow lights. The rest of my process from seed to seedling to greenhouse to planting has fewer uncertainties this year compared to last. Optimizing use of the heating pad has been a boon to productivity.
On the second day of March, I am of to a good start.
It’s cold outside, the kind of cold that stings my cheeks while walking on the state park trail. I’m standing at my workbench sorting seeds for early planting. The heat pad is already plugged in. Grow lights hang overhead. In front of me is a cabinet with last year’s leftover seeds, sorted by variety. On the bench are two dozen packets with this year’s seeds. I’m still looking through seed catalogues. It’s time to decide what to plant first, what to wait on, what to try for the first time, and what to abandon. Each small seed packet represents a choice made long before anything reaches the kitchen.
Every decision reflects a value. Food is no exception. In this series of posts, I will discuss the idea of a “food algorithm” to see where it goes.
Simply put, an algorithm is a repeatable sequence of steps used to accomplish a task. With food, this could be a recipe, yet that’s not what I mean. The intent is to take food from the seed, seedling, or cutting as the first in a series of decisions about what goes on a table.
Agriculture is a large field to consider, but food algorithms are individual. An active agent — a person — decides whether to plant a bean seed, use raw beans from a farmer, rely on prepared, canned beans from a retailer, or use beans that have been prepared with other ingredients. This decision is elemental and part of a discussion most cooks have when preparing a dish. My focus is at this entry point, not to gather and analyze recipes, although one could.
An algorithm is simply a structured way of getting from here to there. We use them constantly in many aspects of our lives. Following food from seed to table is a more comprehensive look at a process we follow, yet do so largely unawares.
I see three interlocking layers:
Biological logic — the natural requirements and rhythms of the plant or animal.
Human practice — the gardener’s labor, the farmer’s tradeoffs, the cook’s improvisations.
System forces — markets, logistics, regulation, energy use, and scale.
By showing how these layers interact, the discussion could make visible the hidden structure beneath everyday meals.
Taking steps in the process from seed to table represents ordinary choices that shape resilience, community, and ecological health. It could create awareness and the quiet power of understanding the paths food has taken before it reaches us.
The adventurer in me wonders what will be next. I hope readers will too.
Although 2025 was an “on year” for apples — all five trees bore fruit — I skipped making apple butter because there were more than three dozen pints in the pantry. I need more uses for the thick, sweet, and tasty condiment than spreading on toasted bread and muffins, dolloping on applesauce cake, and spooning it on pancakes. It turns out there are more preparations I hadn’t thought about.
As a vegetarian household, using apple butter in meat cooking, while popular elsewhere, is not viable. That isn’t the end of the discussion. One must change their way of thinking about apple butter. It is good as a spread, yet can be considered as a fruit-based sweetener, thick apple concentrate, or a spiced apple paste. These considerations open a whole new world. It could be used as a replacement for honey, molasses, or applesauce without much recipe variation. Following are some ideas to try.
The first thing I did was to dish up a serving of plain Greek yogurt and swirl two tablespoons of aronia berry apple butter into it. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before, yet after trying it, apple butter will be a recurring breakfast menu item to pair with yogurt.
We already use applesauce as an egg replacement in baking. Our corn muffins, or any other muffins serve as a useful home for it to replace an egg. The texture is always moist, firm and tasty. I will just substitue apple butter and use a bit less.
Using it on grilled cheese sandwiches hadn’t occurred to me. It might pair well with the sharp cheddar cheese I use to make them. I make about one grilled cheese sandwich per month, and next time I will spread some apple butter on it to discover the flavor.
We are not big cake eaters or bakers. We do have a recipe for a spice cake. Next time we make it, we will try substituting apple butter for the oil. Based on the experience with applesauce cake and muffins, I bet it will be moist and delicious, as well as change the spice profile.
I found a recipe for a barbecue sauce or ketchup that includes apple butter, tomato paste, vinegar, onion and garlic powder, and spices. There is nothing to lose by making a batch and trying it.
There was a recipe for a salad dressing made from one tablespoon each of apple butter, extra virgin olive oil, vinegar and mustard. Simple. The way we like our recipes.
Substituting apple butter for the sweetened, condensed oat milk I use when making steel cut oats is a possibility. The spices will add a variation in flavor. I make this dish about twice per month and will try it next time.
The next “on year” for apples is forecast for 2027. Hopefully I will use most of the apple butter in the pantry by then and make new.
It was four degrees Fahrenheit and snowy this morning so I’m posting some garden images from 2008 as a reminder of what spring and summer can be. These are part of my larger A Life of Photos project. I did the initial sort of my digital images from 2008 last week. Posts like this one are part of the work product of that project.
First spring flowers.Apple trees blossomed in 2008.Lilacs are a perennial favorite.Potatoes pop through the soil early.When all the apple trees bloom, summer and fall is apple abundance.Summer harvest in 2008.Bowl of home grown apples. Japanese beetles massing on an apple.Apple blossom buds.Farmstead from the state park trail in 2008.
These are tough times for a lot of people I know. Hang in there, folks! The weird weather is causing the ice to melt and maybe some good will come of it. If not, spring is coming.
“Nostalgia in reverse, the longing for yet another strange land, grew especially strong in spring.” —Vladimir Nabokov
This morning I consider my pancreas. Yes, the mixed-function organ that helps with digestion and regulates blood sugar levels. I am mostly interested because of its role in the latter. The pancreas is a key organ in managing diabetes, with which I was diagnosed in May 2019.
I asked my new acquaintance, for which I have not determined a name, artificial intelligence. (NB: The name HAL has been ruled out). “What are two or three dietary intakes a person can use to promote pancreas health. No more than three.” The machine was uncharacteristically brief, taking my request for brevity literally:
Here are three dietary intakes commonly associated with supporting pancreas health:
High-fiber foods – vegetables, legumes, whole grains; help regulate blood sugar and reduce pancreatic workload.
Adequate lean protein – fish, poultry, beans; supports tissue repair without excessive fat stress.
AI apparently did not get the word that according to our Secretary of Health and Human Services, the war on protein is over. Nary a cow or hog product on this list of dietary intakes. Perhaps there remains some science on the internet, the domain of artificial intelligence. Perhaps the secretary and his minions have just not gotten this far in their propaganda campaign. In a throwback to when these things mattered, the machine cautioned, “general wellness guidance, not medical advice.”
As a mostly ovo-lacto vegetarian, I find this a good list. I can figure out where dairy fits in, although I know I should control how much of that I eat. Four dozen chicken eggs per year does not seem like a lot. I consume about two gallons of nonfat fluid cow’s milk per week. Cheese consumption is on the radar screen. I am eating more cottage cheese and it is displacing some of the cheddar cheese. I smear some sour cream on tacos instead of cheddar or Mexican-style cheese, although I do that for the flavor and not the fat content, which is higher. I should and likely will switch sour cream for nonfat Greek yogurt on Taco Tuesdays.
Eating more fiber is always a challenge. I have been tracking that number on an app, and in the first 12 days of 2026 I hit or exceeded my goal every day but one. Fiber is also good for my colon, according to physicians.
Regarding healthy fats, I need some work. The first thing I will do is replace the peanuts and raw cashews I eat with almonds, both raw and roasted. I need, or think I need a salted snack each day. I use about one to two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil each day, and that falls into the “healthy” category, although I use water or broth as a cooking medium where it makes sense. I’m not a big seed eater, yet we have ground flax meal on hand and I could, and hopefully will, add it to more things. Chia and hemp seeds are readily available at the wholesale club, so I may get a bag of each and experiment with them. With regard to nut butters, I use Jif peanut butter, full fat-style, and that is that. Moderation is the key with Jif.
I have been able to reduce my A1C with diet since my 2019 diagnosis. The number went a little crazy when I contracted COVID-19, yet since then, my practitioner said it is managed. The thing is, unless deterioration of the pancreas is caught early and treated through diet and exercise to lose weight, the damage is often irreversible.
I have not thought a lot about my pancreas. Now that I’m living in my eighth decade, it is time. We can either get older and die, or we can get older and wiser. I prefer the latter, hence the focus today on the pancreas.
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