We’re eating enormous amounts of fresh raw food from the garden.

Daily Harvest

Every day we take a bushel basket and head down to collect the daily harvest; we come back with our bellies full and our basket wanting.  No dishes!  And the kids love it because they think there’s something naughty about ‘stealing’ food right off the plant and gobbling it up before anyone sees.

Just today, the youngest discovered kale; she sat on the porch with a giant curled leaf and pulled off bite-sized pieces to pop in her mouth.  This is much the way I remember eating cotton candy at the Ex when I was a kid (without the stickiness. . .and the toxic overload).

But the fact is, I love to cook.  I won’t even claim to have any talent, but I love to do it.  So, we’re eating plenty of fresh raw food and staying meat-free, but there’s a part of me that likes how the smells of the kitchen meander into the rest of the house, and the gapped out feeling I get while stirring a cream sauce to a boil, and fish!  I really, really love fish.  So I really think I will always eat one cooked meal a day.  (But that’s easy to say when the nights are getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, and there’s a feeling of autumn in the air.  It’s almost stew season.)

So, to recap and bring myself up to speed, in a manner of speaking:

My range shattered early this spring.  I was still able to use the oven.

A few weeks after, I bought a two-burner cooktop to ease some of our burden – boiling pasta, rice, etc.

About a month ago, the cooktop shut down.

Then the computer on the range starting acting up so that when I was done baking, the oven wouldn’t turn off.  A little Fonz action would sometimes correct it, but I got to the point where I was afraid to turn the thing on again.

I received a final kick in the head about 10 days ago, when the barbecue suffered a bad transport and broke into pieces.

The signs were all there:  This girl should just go raw and be done with it.

But it’s really not that simple.  And exactly how stupid do I have to be before I realize that I can’t write a cookbook without some properly functioning cooking device?

So last week I decided I couldn’t take it anymore – it is canning season after all – and I bought a new range.  (Clap hands with glee!)

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Daily Harvest

It’s been a busy summer of gardening, harvesting, cooking and preserving.  This year is, for me, the most productive season I’ve ever had.  The early spring gave us an early summer which, in turn, gave us an early harvest.  The dry start was scary, but eventually gave way to an almost perfect schedule of rain showers; other than at planting, I’ve watered the garden only once.

September is typically canning month, but I’ve been processing my produce for almost three weeks now.  If the weather keeps up as it should, we’ll have the longest tomato season in my personal history of gardening.

First Batch

The pantry:

• • 12 quarts dill pickles
  • 28 quarts whole tomatoes
  • 21 small jars tomato paste
  • 10 pints tomato sauce
  • 7 lbs oven-dried tomatoes
  • Dried basil, oregano, lemon balm, parsley and thyme.

We’ve eaten mountains of ratatouille and countless tomato sandwiches.

We’ve grilled eggplant, zucchini and peppers in ways I never thought possible.

We’ve made zucchini breads and zucchini muffins and zucchini pancakes.

We’ve been eating some form of cucumber salad almost daily.  The beans, after a rough start, are killing us with generosity.  They’re gonna have to go to the freezer.  And finally, we’ve been watching the rabbits, deer and gophers enjoy 5-star meals as well.  I’m glad I planted enough to share.

Tomorrow is salsa day!

Dried Roma Skins

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So our old raccoon is back and, clearly, is no longer deterred by my little green box.  He knocked down half my corn stalks last night.  There were little nibbles where the ear would have developed.  I decided to pull all remaining plants, leaving nothing for the little b—–d to get his fingers on.  I’ve never felt so intensely dark about another living species, but there it is:  I despise them.

Rabbits, less so.  I chased another one out of my garden just before supper.  Pretty bold, for that time of day.  He’s left his mark on an entire row of kale.  I don’t know if I’ll put the row covers back on; I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t just build a greenhouse.

Where are all the predators when I need them?

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June was a blur.  But the garden grows without me, now, so there’s little to do there except wait for the harvest.

The peas are just finishing, the beans are just starting, the greens are continuing, and the tomatoes are full size and ready to change colour.  I have never had such a lush vegetable garden at this point in the season.

On the other hand, the other peas that were to have shaded my cilantro from the afternoon sun never grew, so my cilantro is starting to bolt.  Only a handful of radishes are producing full size roots, the rest are kind of viney.  The cucumbers don’t seem to want to climb the trellis I’ve provided for them – not enough grip – and the tomatoes have two issues:  a touch of blight starting to sneak in, and something new for me – a curling upward of the lower leaves.  I’ve opened up the plants quite a bit to give them better air circulation.  But blight is a little unexpected considering the relatively dry season we’ve been having.  This week, we’re going to see quite a bit of rain, so it may be time for another spraying of neem.

I picked my first sunburst squash yesterday.  It’s the perfect 3-inch size (this year I’m staying on top of it).  Curious thing, though, several blossoms have dropped for no apparent reason.  The plants look very healthy and there are loads of other fruit coming.  Have to look that one up.

My carrots, while patchy, are pickable; another week and they’ll be perfect.  There is no sign of any cabbage white butterfly (or anything else) on my cabbages and brussels sprouts.

I never did get a single strawberry from my rockery.  One day, there were loads of huge white berries dangling there; the next day, they were gone.  Could be moles, could be squirrels.  Could even be raccoons.  Which reminds me:  my ultrasonic pest deterrent ran low on batteries and it took me several days to get around to dealing with it.  As a result, some raccoon attacked one of my corn stalks, left it lying on the ground.  It was only a foot high, so I don’t know what he could’ve gotten from it, but that’s the nature of the raccoon.  Seek and destroy and piss off the humans.

Lots of romaine; tomorrow a Caesar salad.

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Miscellanous updates for the past week:

• Fertilized the tomatoes.
• Replanted (third time) yellow beans; eleven of the original twelve plants had been chewed off by a furry foe.
• Lost one pepper plant to some critter that left the plant mostly intact, but nibbled on the stem just enough to make it flop over in despair.
• Planted pumpkins today.  I wanted to use up half a dozen old seeds, so I threw them in where my brassicas had bit the dust (also chewed off).  Only three cabbage plants survived the ambush, but they are doing well.
• The kids’ bed is starting to come alive.  Loads of radishes.  The Rattlesnake Beans are up.  Some carrots too.
• Planted more cucumbers.  Still no trellis for the first planting – several of those chewed off as well.
• Lost a parsley plant; also chewed to the ground.
• Never before seen:  Pea flowers chewed off and left on the ground.
• Most of my beets will not produce anything edible:  the greens (my favourite!) have been almost completely stripped.

As a result of all this unwanted nibbling, I constructed a temporary fence around the border of the four beds with the most damage in them; I used a kind of PVC netting and stapled it to stakes every 8 feet around the perimeter.  Used row cover fabric and shade cloth as barrier systems for two other beds.  All this for the one lone rabbit who barely gives me a nod now, every time I catch him in the garden.  I still use my ultrasonic device for the raccoons.

Almost sprayed the tomatoes with neem oil again ( it’s supposed to rain tonight), but decided I was too darn tired.

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Broken Range

The oven works!  However, we only lasted week before I started shopping for a portable electric burner.  The first one I bought turned out to be a dud; I returned it to the store the following day.

It was another week or so before I found a very funky, but sturdy, double burner, and I snatched it up for twice the price of the first one – well worth it, too.  It’s worked beautifully so far – mainly for cooking pasta and rice.

But I’m loving my new blender.  I can scramble eggs in it, cook soup in it, make compost in it.  It’s amazing.  I am cooking with the blender as much I’m cooking with the new burners.  But that’s to be expected from a blender that costs more than any other major kitchen appliance I’ve ever owned.

I’ve quit using my juicer.  At least for now.  It was really starting to struggle with all the leafy greens and herbs I was jamming through it.  I make all my green smoothies and juices in the blender now; it’s easier and cleaner and healthier anyway.

It may also be time to retire the bbq.  We really don’t use it anymore.  I haven’t bought meat – save fish – in months, and I prefer to cook my nut and bean burgers in a pan or in the dehydrator.  It’s hardly worth it to keep it for veggies, especially when we’re eating most of them raw.

And what about those foil-wrapped baked potatoes?  Well, I decided not to plant potatoes this year.  No particular reason; I just didn’t get around to it.

I guess I should get rid of my foil too.

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It took all winter to come up with a decent garden plan, but at this point, it’s mostly gone to hell.  It happens every year, though this year it’s comical.

The tomatoes are in the general vicinity of where they were planned to be, as are the peppers and summer squash; there are fewer of them, though.  The lettuces, greens and roots are in their allotted beds, but they’re not really organized as they should be:  some are planted in rows, some are broadcast, some are planted “square-foot-style”.  I made a second planting of peas, I’ve doubled my beans, and I’ve planted cucumbers where I have no trellis.  I have way too much parsley, not enough basil, too many peppers, too few onions.

This year, gardening is about mood and impulsive creativity.  Or creative impulsivity.

I may be my own worst enemy, but nature is a close second.  The cabbages and corn were sowed according to plan, but only half of the cabbages germinated, and those that did were nibbled by rabbits; many of the corn seeds were dug up by a raccoon.  My red oak leaf and lolla rossa are patchy, and my mustard is being skeletonized.  It’s also been the driest spring in my gardening history.

Oh, and my toddler raked away half of my radishes.  (Every garden needs a fairy.)

BUT. . .

My tomatoes are stellar!  My beans, chard, cilantro, carrots and squash have all germinated beautifully.  My oregano survived the transplanting, my mesclun is delivering daily, and the peas are climbing high!  I found some well-rotted compost from last year’s pile, and I’ve removed the shims, cans and jugs from the garden.  It’s not even June and already it looks like a productive plot.

And today, for the first time in three years, I’ve planted melons.  They are close to the house this time, so I can keep an eye on them.  I will succeed.

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All tomatoes are planted – only 18 plants this year, less than half of the previous year – but with a little extra care and diligence I could end up reaping the same harvest.  We shall see.

I lost one tomato to a cutworm, another to a raccoon.  To fend off more cutworms, I decided to make collars for the smallest of the tomato plants, and absolutely all of the peppers.  I also hot-capped half of the peppers with 10-litre water jugs, while the other half got the “shim and can” treatment – not pretty, but undeniably effective.

I read about this treatment in an old tomato handbook I had found in the basement.  The growers were anticipating cool nights and potential frost while going on vacation one spring, so they walled each plant on two sides (north-ish).  I tried this last year when I severely shocked my tomatoes at transplant time, so I grabbed whatever I could find – in this case, leftover wood shingles from our gazebo roof – and shoved them into the ground on two sides of every plant.  Within a few days, the plants had bounced back with a vengeance.  The shingles offered some wind protection while they were still spindly, and trapped some heat next to each plant, giving them a boost while they were getting established.  The difference this year is that I couldn’t find enough shingles, so I took the cans that had held the seedlings, inverted them and sunk them in the soil next to each plant.  Yes, the garden looks like a recycling wasteland, but it’s only for a week or two, then they’ll get boxed and stored until next year.

As for the raccoon, it looks like he dug up the other tomato plant to get to the egg shells underneath.  The tin cans were a bit of an attraction too and some of them had been knocked over, while others had been carefully relocated to a different part of the garden.  (Those little hands can do so many miraculous things.)  But when I saw that two of my corn seeds had been dug up, I got out my ultrasonic device.  This little green box saved half my corn patch last year.  Just half, though; the other half succumbed because I was a little slow to the draw, and then even slower to change the batteries.

So, all is well, thus far.  Although, one of the rabbits is back.  I hadn’t seen him or his buddy in several weeks, and I figured they had become part of the food chain, but I found one of them climbing into my pepper bed a couple of days ago.  That explains why my spinach leaves are half as long as they should be.  Oh well.  The plants have started to bolt anyway, in this hot weather, so I say, let them eat green, baby!

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It’s been an amazing week for gardening, weather wise.  On Monday, I sowed cilantro, green pole beans, yellow bush beans and shelling peas.  I also finally transplanted my ailing onions and leeks, and my stellar parsley; they should have been put in the ground ages ago.  Wednesday, I sowed more beets and carrots; also chard, corn and sunburst squash.

Today, I transplanted a dozen tomatoes, turned my compost pile, and made the decision to plant cucumbers in the whiskey barrels, since I’m not going to plant potatoes this year.  I have some bamboo stakes for trellising them.

Important notes for this year’s tomatoes:

• It was a hot sunny day, but rather than delay until we had more favourable transplanting weather, I erected a shade cloth over the bed to do my work.  (I did the same thing last year, but with less care.)
• I planted the tomatoes trench-style.  In an 8-foot long bed, I spaced out six tomato plants.  I dug the trench about eight inches deep, added bone meal (a handful per plant), blood meal (a spoonful per plant) and crushed eggshells (a handful per plant), then set the plants in the trench, filled in up to the first leaves and watered well.
• I did not bury the bottom leaves.  Because I had potted them up into luxuriously large 28-oz tin cans, they had already developed huge root systems.
• I did not use cutworm collars.  The plants were very stocky and the stems thicker than usual, so I decided to take the risk.
• I did not water with fish emulsion because I did not have any.  I am currently hunting for recipes for homemade fish or seaweed fertilizers, which are considered much cheaper and more nutritionally complex.
• Rain is expected in two days.  I will spray plants with neem oil tomorrow.  I’ve never used it before, but it may help protect the plants from fungal diseases which are my bane.

Tomorrow, too, I will shop for French Marigolds, because my old seeds did not germinate; I’ll need at least a dozen, maybe two.  Also, I’ll plant the cucumbers in the whiskey barrels and nasturtiums at the corners of all trellises.

Then I will play with my new blender.

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Dandy Lion

I cut my first full salad today:  tatsoi mustard, red oakleaf, spinach, cos, and a couple of other lettuces that have returned from last fall.  I added some dandelion greens, chives, lemon balm and three different kinds of sprouts (not mine), then topped it all off with the usual spiced pumpkin seeds, fruit (figs) and cheese (goat’s).

We took a break from green juice today.  Instead, I made a blend from my juicing manual:  orange, pear, carrot and sweet potato.  It was a beautiful peachy colour.  Food should always look that beautiful.

On a sadder note, one of the boys asked me how I was ever going to cook rice without a range.  Hmmm.  A puzzle.  I won’t deny my boy his basmati, so I must find a way.

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