Why Pick Your Own?

I went with my kids and a girlfriend to do one of our favorite things-- pick berries.
We picked berries as children.  I loved doing it, but my childhood friend remembers it as an internment in a work camp.  Lucky for me, my two youngest still love to pick berries.
Some may wonder, why pick berries when I could get them at the store?  The reasons are many.

1. The berries we picked today were half the price of the berries I could get at the store.  My girlfriend freezes them whole and uses them in smoothies for her girls all year long.  My kids love strawberry freezer jam, so that's how I use mine.
2. The berries that we picked were grown less than 25 miles from my home, unlike the conventionally grown California berries at the store.  I can't imagine the cost of the fuel that went into bringing those berries to the store.
3. I have first hand knowledge of the fields where these berries were grown.  This is my friends patch of choice.  Its mine now too.  I liked looking for the berries in the weeds.  Those weeds were a sign that these berries hadn't been doused with chemical weed killers.
4. I liked the teenagers who worked the fields.  Next summer, one of my own teenagers could be working those fields.  I like giving my money to someone who spreads it throughout the local community.
5. It is important to support diversified farming.  Relying solely on California strawberries, shutting out local growers, puts all the strawberries in one basket.  A truly bad strawberry year in California would result in no strawberries for the season.  Strawberries grown closer to home reduces the risk of no strawberries at all.
6. It is an experience my kids will always remember, whether they do so with fondness or chagrin.

Good, cheap food, found close to home, that doubles as a way to keep a bunch of kids busy.  What isn't there to love about picking your own?

Crazy?

Something in my brain sometimes just goes "click".
It happens when I see a whole field of berries.  How much do we need?  As many as we can pick.  Winter is coming.
Actually, it is high summer here in zone 4.  A heat warning was issued for tomorrow.  Maybe it was heat stroke that caused me to bring home over 26 pounds of strawberries.  That sounds like a likely excuse.
I did the same thing last year, almost to the pound.  When will I ever learn?
Forty three jars (of a variety of sizes) of strawberry jam later, I can finally take a break.
Really, I only have forty one jars of jam and two jars of "sauce", which is what I call it when I screw up and my jam doesn't turn out right (screw up=failure to follow directions).
My BFF texted me halfway through the whole affair to ask me what I was doing.
"We're Jammin'," I replied.  Think Bob Marley.  I hope you like jammin', too.
I had gone around the bend.
Another trip to the grocery store.  Another ten pound bag of sugar.
Really, I handled things much better this year than last.  First, once I remembered last year's epic strawberry fest, I got my head around what to expect.  I was going to make a ton of jam.  No problem, we will eat it.  We did last year.
Then I thought about all the great berries I could take on our upcoming road trip.  I hate road food and I was really happy to have an alternative.  Many years ago I bought a great item at a Tupperware party, a recommendation from my sister-in-law, another berry queen.  I went to the basement for my Fridgesmart containers and filled them with berries enough to last the whole week.  They will last twice that long in those Fridgesmart containers.  They are shaped very much like the containers that contain strawberries shipped all the way from California.  The containers have an adjustable venting system to help preserve the contents, which last much longer than berries stored in other containers.

This year, I'll be sure to record how many berries we picked and how many jars of jam I made so I can plan better next year.  I'll probably come home with two boxes though, as usual.

Making the Best

Sometimes, its one of those days.
Some days I look around and I can't decide where to start.  I decided to wrap up a few jobs.
In my trip to the hardware store, I came up one item short and the pipe I bought shifted and cracked the windshield.
One item short of one job finished, I decided to weed, always a job that needs doing.  Ten gallons of weeds was the high point.  The low point was my decimated pea patch. 
Another varmint has gotten into the garden.  Its too late to replant peas, but I put cages around the sunflowers that remained and planted more and caged them too.
A low pressure system rolled in and all the kids in the neighborhood began to bicker.
I overdrew the checking account.
I double booked my Monday.

But then my husband rolled in with six catfish on a stringer and an infectious smile.  We called friends and neighbors and had a fish fry.  Someone brought a salad and drinks.  I pulled leftover sides from the fridge.  My son found the recipe for his favorite, hush puppies.  "One of those days" ended on a happy note.
Hush puppies make a fish fry complete.  We fry fish outdoors, over a propane cooker, in a wok.  It keeps the house cool and the fish smell outdoors.  We cook the hush puppies first, once the heating oil temperature regulates, and keep them warm in the oven until the fish is finished.

Hush Puppies:

• 1 c. flour
• 1 c. cornmeal
• 1 small onion, chopped fine (1/3 cup)
• 1/3  c. sugar
• 1 t. salt
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 to 3/4 t. freshly ground pepper
• 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 1 beaten egg

1. Mix the dry ingredients together.
2. Add the wet ingredients and combine completely.
3. Let the batter rise for 30 minutes.
4. In small batches, drop by teaspoonfuls into 350 degree peanut oil. Cook until light brown.
5. Keep in a 200 degree oven until serving.

Will Mow for Clippings

Finally, the rain stopped.
My husband called around lunch to ask, "What was the best thing you did so far today?"
I mowed the lawn at the preschool.
The rain did wonders to catch us up on some much needed precipitation, but my mulching system looks worse from wear.  The newspaper is starting to disintegrate and the grass clippings are washing away.
Seems like I am always on the lookout for a chemical free lawn to mow.  I gladly offered to do the lawn at the preschool, for the clippings.
The one thing that keeps me from turning the whole yard under and planting it with fruit trees and vegetables is the fact that I'd miss the grass for mulching.  Grass clippings keep down the weeds and help the soil retain moisture and reduce my work load.
I hear that the neighbor's lawn mower is broken.  Maybe I'll offer to mow his lawn, for the clippings

A Recipe for Compost

There is not much more satisfying than a compost pile that is cooking hot on a cold, rainy day.

Lots have their favorite containers for their compost.  I just like a pile, very economical.
Most things will rot eventually.  With a good recipe, weeds, kitchen scraps, fall leaves, etc. will quickly turn to compost that will enrich a garden beautifully.
I took a wonderful class this Spring, a great overview on biointensive gardening, where I learned an effective recipe for compost.  Build it like a lasagna.
Choose a convenient, shady spot, three by three feet in size, and loosen the soil six to eight inches deep.  Cover the ground with branches, 3/4" in diameter to improve drainage.  Layer the following materials, watering the pile after each.
"Brown" Material:
straw
mowed fall leaves
corn, sunflower, and amaranth stalks, cut up into pieces
"Green" Material:
plant material (weeds)
grass clippings
kitchen scraps
coffee grounds and egg shells (both VERY good for building compost)
Soil:
Think of it as "starter", full of the bugs and microbes needed to transform ingredients into compost.
Again, build it like a lasagna, watering between layers, to three feet tall.  The whole pile can be skewered with a stake.
After four to six weeks, the pile should have cooked enough to turn.  The stake, when removed, should be cool.  Think of it as a toothpick test, like checking a cake for doneness.
Prepare a new pad in the same fashion as the first.
Transfer the contents of the pile from the first location to the second, burying the material around the outside of the pile in the center of the pile.  Secure the pile with the stake to check for doneness.
When the pile has cooled, screen the compost and cover it to dry before use.

My pile lacks stalks. 
I planted sunflowers to feed the compost and chickens.  They make good perching spots for birds, looking for bugs in my garden.  I have amaranth coming up from plants that went to seed last season.  They look great in bouquets.  I plan to follow my garlic with beans and corn.  The corn will never make it to the cob by frost, but it will feed the soil, along with the beans.  Its stalks will go to the compost pile.
My pile does have mowed leaves I saved in leaf bags for it.  It has plenty of "green" material.  I water it regularly, as often as I do my garden.  When I turn it, it is still warm.  Things are cooking.  When the contents of the pile no longer resemble their previous selves, they are ready to be run through a screen, dried, and stored for later use.
Start a pile now.  Use what you have.  Plan for what you will need.  When you give back to the soil, it will give you its bounty.

Essay: Paint Your House!

It’s going to be a rainy week, perfect weather for painting my screen porches.

Three years ago, my house desperately needed a paint job.  It had been ten years since it had last been painted and I started to ask around for prices.

Even though it had been a good decade since I last saw the man who painted my house, I was still smarting from that encounter.  It was the experience that taught me never to pay in full until the job was finished.  Ten years after he started, I was still waiting for the housepainter to come back to finish the job.

All the estimates for painting our house were coming in at the same price as a year at college.  I couldn’t imagine spending that much with a son off to college in five years.

I have painted every room inside my house at least once, so I was no stranger to a brush and ladder.  I wondered… could I paint my own house?

I talked to paint store clerks and neighbors who had painted their own houses and I searched the internet for house painting tips.  Then a hailstorm knocked some more paint off the house.  Our house needed a paint job more than ever and the price was still a year of college.

Fall, 2008: I painted the north side!

When I looked at my house, I couldn’t imagine painting the whole thing myself.  But when I really looked at it, I couldn’t do a worse job than the guy we’d paid several thousands of dollars to paint it before.  The worst that could happen would be that it required another paint job further down the road.

So I decided to paint the back of the house.  It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  I figured that I extend my goal and try to finish everything that faced north before the end of summer.  It really looked good.

The next spring, I started in earnest and looked at it as a full time job.  Dad was at work making money, and I was at home, painting, and saving money.  The boys were 14 and 11, old enough to look after their three year old sister.  I came down off the ladder for my union approved breaks and everything on the ground went pretty smoothly.  On rainy days I caught up with laundry and housecleaning.  Before truly cold weather set in, I had most of the outside of the house painted.

I learned to glaze windows and make repairs as I went.  I didn’t paint any windows shut or skimp on paint anywhere.  I was doing a better job than had been done before me. 

I could have worked longer hours and got it painted sooner, but I still had laundry and meals and a family waiting on the ground.  I took last summer off to recover from a snowboarding injury, so I have a few minor details to finish up: interior porches and the garage still need painting.  But the first part I tackled still looks great and I didn’t have to dip into anyone’s college fund to accomplish it.

My point is this:  If I can paint my house, you could paint yours.  All it requires is research, attention to detail, patience, and high quality paint and supplies.  A mantra helps too.  Mine was this, “I’m saving a year’s tuition at college.”  I said it every day.  And I also reminded myself of something my mother-in-law says, “The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.”

Potatoes in Containers

I took advantage of a lovely evening last night to finish hilling all my potatoes in containers. All the plants are up and a couple of them are setting buds. I filled the containers to the tops, carefully mounding the soil around the stalks and leaves of the plants. I topped all of the containers with a layer of mulch, mowed leaves that I had saved from last fall, to help them conserve on moisture.
One drawback of planting potatoes in containers is getting all the soil needed to fill them. I could purchase it, but that would be expensive. I took soil from the area around my compost pile. The soil was nicely amended with the compost that had spilled over the sides of the compost pile.
My husband was pretty dismayed to see all that disturbed soil around the compost bin. With clouds gathering on the horizon and rain forecast for the week, it all looked like a huge mud event, waiting to happen.
I reassured him that all would be well. I raked the area level and I’ll cover it with plenty of woodchips from the free pile at the town dump.
It made me grateful for my compost pile. Much of that soil was last year’s weeds and coffee grounds and it looked much nicer than anything that I could buy at the garden center. The fact that it was full of worms and other beneficial bugs meant that the soil was healthy and a good source of nutrients for my potato plants.
This fall I will empty my potato containers and stockpile the soil next to the compost pile. That soil will be enriched by this year’s decomposing weeds and coffee grounds and ready to hill next year’s potato crop.
Another benefit of composting: the ability to build my own soil from castoffs of the kitchen and garden. I love that kind of repurposing of things!
Between raindrops, mark out a spot for your own compost pile so you can build your own free soil!

The Last Jar of Jam

Panic.

We finished the very last jar of jam.

I really thought we’d make it until strawberry season, but the boys are going through PB&J like there is no tomorrow.

We started the winter with raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, and strawberry jam.  I started making jam about fifteen years ago when we got a little crazy, picking berries.  We picked way too many strawberries to eat before they spoiled.  With all that fruit going bad, I decided to take the leap and make some jam.

Homemade jams and jellies are cheap and easy to make.  Plus, I know exactly what went into those jars of jam my kids keep emptying.

Sure-Jel makes jelly and jam making simple.  There are several recipes for cooked and freezer jams and jellies contained in the box.  Freezer jams require no special canning equipment, only containers to keep those jams refrigerated. 

Cooked jams and jellies are preserved using a water bath method.  Beginning canning kits and jars can be purchased at home or hardware stores.  "Blue Ball Book Guide to Preserving "is the bible of canning and preserving.  It’s complete with recipes and directions.

The strawberries aren’t quite ripe yet, but there is plenty of rhubarb.  I had to hunt a little online for a recipe, but this one turned out great.  We should make it until the strawberries are ripe.

Rhubarb Jam

• 2 1/2 lbs. red rhubarb, sliced thin, 8 cups
• 1 c. water
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 6 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 box Sure-Jell pectin

1. Put rhubarb and water in a nonreactive pan. Bring mixture to a boil and cook for 2 minutes, or until fruit is soft, stirring occasionally. 
2. Add lemon juice and Sure-Jell. Return mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. 
3. Quickly add sugar to fruit mixture and continue boiling for 1 minute, stirring constantly. 
4. Fill sterilized jars (I sterilize mine in the dishwasher), leaving 1/4 inch head space. Seal with sterilized lids.  
5. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Planting Asparagus

Now is a great time to consider planting an asparagus bed.  There is nothing to compare to fresh asparagus, picked straight from the garden.

I planted my first successful run at asparagus three years ago.  It has taken three years for the plants to really boost their rootstocks.  They are just beginning to produce my favorite springtime vegetable.  I planted more asparagus crowns two years ago, but those aren’t quite ready for prime time.

Asparagus is easy to plant.  My only gripe is waiting for it to fully mature.  My bed isn’t there yet.  I expect that I’ll be able to harvest enough for a daily meal for a couple of weeks each Spring.  Getting to that point may take another two years.

Patience is not my strong suit.  Growing asparagus takes plenty of it.

This is a good time to plant an asparagus patch.  I placed mine near my tomatoes because tomatoes discourage asparagus beetles.  Asparagus does best in full sun.

I dug a trench one foot wide and one foot deep and 12 to 18 inches in length for each asparagus plant.  I loosened another one foot of soil in the trench to provide the roots well-aerated soil.  I filled my trench with four inches of compost and placed my asparagus crowns. 

Some resources like asparagus crowns to be 12 inches apart, others claim that 18 inches is best.  The asparagus farmer I met this spring told me to leave an inch or two between the extended roots of the plants (imagine octopi with LONG legs).  That put the crowns I planted for my father about 16 inches apart.

Asparagus crowns have long roots that should sit in the trench with roots extended in both directions of the trench.  Once placed in the trench, I covered the plants with two inches of soil and watered them thoroughly.

I carefully mounded and covered the soil from the trench.  As the plants began to send up miniature stems throughout the summer, I covered them with more and more soil from that mound until the soil was all used.

The first two years, I let my asparagus plants grow into miniature trees and build their root systems.  This year, I began to pick some of the spears as they came up from the soil.  There is nothing to compare to fresh asparagus.  Mine never makes it further than the garden.  I eat it whenever I can.  I picked my asparagus for a couple of weeks this Spring then let them fully mature and build their root stocks.

When fully mature, I should get about eight spears from each plant.   Next year, I should begin to pull in an appreciable harvest.  A well-tended bed can produce asparagus for thirty years.  My twenty feet of asparagus should be feeding my family for many years to come.  And asparagus cut straight from the garden is so incredibly tasty, nothing like the stuff that is found in the grocery stores.  It is worth the effort taken to dig the trench and the patience required to wait for the asparagus plants to develop.

Asparagus crowns can be purchased at local gardening stores this time of year.  More exotic varieties, like 'Purple Passion', can be found online.

Compost!

I was at my father’s house for the weekend and I think that we are in agreement: it is time to get him a compost bin.

He’s been gardening diligently for three years now and I think that I have convinced him of how his garden would benefit from some of his own compost.  He picked up a flyer from the county for a compost tumbler.

My friend said that she has been trying to convince her parents to set up a compost pile too.  Her father is a life long gardener, yet he never had a compost bin.  But he does complain about how poor the soil is in his vegetable patch.

Some gardeners are blessed with beautiful topsoil, but most of us have to work with what we have.  The act of growing things in the soil removes nutrients from the soil.  Its important to return those nutrients and compost is the perfect soil additive.  Who can argue with free fertilizer? 

Not only is compost good for the garden, its good for the environment.  Everything that goes into the compost pile DOESN'T go into a landfill where it will rot and create methane.  With each trip to the compost, I am reducing waste in landfills and doing my part to halt global warming.

I love taking my buckets of freshly pulled weeds to the compost pile.  I felt awful, weeding my father's garden.  I won't even mention what he has been doing with his yard waste.  I think that it is mildly illegal.

By the time the recycling goes to the bin and the compost is taken up to the garden, I have very little left in my garbage can.  

After checking out this website, I can add a few more things to the pile. http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/surprising-compost-items.html  Check it out, but be sure to scroll down to read the comments.  Though the writer endorses adding nutshells, one contributor noted that squirrels continued to look for the nuts in his garden long after the shells had turned to fertilizer.  I'll skip the pistachio shells to keep out the squirrels.  I have enough trouble with them already.

SUCCESS!

Whoop, Whoop!
Finally figured out how to answer Candis' question about turtles!
All I can figure was that I was writing too much.  I talk too much too.

But, seriously, how annoying is something that digs in your garden?
Nothing makes my blood boil like a rodent digging up my peas.  They can't just eat all my pea seeds.  They also dig up everything around it, looking for every pea seed planted.
When I see all those little holes all over my garden, I want vengeance.
Of course, that makes no sense.  I could shoot every squirrel that sets foot in my yard, on my street, on my block, in my neighborhood and more would come.  Nature abhors a vacuum.
And if it isn't the squirrels, its the turtles, or rabbits, or moles.

Once your blood stops boiling, its time to outsmart the critters.  The idea is to make your garden less desirable.  If one trick doesn't work, try another.  Keep it legal, though.  So hard to explain weapons charges to your kids.

Thinking of Screaming

I am not a tech person.

I'd rather weed the garden.

I'd rather weed the garden with mosquitoes biting me until I bleed than mess with formating this website sometimes.

Today has been one of those days.

I have spent a good three hours trying to figure out how to respond to a question posted about turtles digging in the garden.

I went online.  Shockingly, most people think that turtles laying eggs in the garden is a GOOD thing.  These people probably also think squirrels are cute.

Anything that digs in the garden is not cute or cool.  I think I'd even consider taking potshots at a fairy if I found her digging up any of my beds.

My first reaction to things digging in my garden is a violent one.  No one online seems to share my opinion.

I am starting to feel the same way about formatting this website.

So, here's my answer to Candis.  I'll try to get it in the right spot SOMEHOW.

Turtles are tough.  I had a rough time with squirrels this spring.  They dug up all the peas I planted.  In the process of digging up the peas, they destroyed everything else.  For once, I wish I had let my boys have air rifles.  I am sure there is some rule that prohibits hunting squirrels (and turtles) in city limits, but it would make a good "If You Can't Beat Them, Eat Them" post.  I have recipes for squirrel stew and turtle soup.

The fact that the turtles keep coming back to the same place in your yard suggests that there is something about that spot that they like.  When I replanted my peas, I put in temporary protection for that bed.  I covered the bed with chicken wire and held it down with garden staples.  Once the peas began to emerge, I carefully lifted the chicken wire.

Your goal is to keep the turtles from finding your gardens a hospitable place for laying their eggs.  The chicken wire may be just annoying enough to get the turtles to lay their eggs somewhere else.  If your property is big enough, you could prepare another “turtle garden” somewhere else.

Chicken wire is no match for raccoons, but predators, like raccoons, won’t bother digging in your garden if they don't smell turtle eggs planted in it.  Once egg laying and hatching season ends, you can pull up your protection.

It worked with the squirrels.  Let me know if it works with the turtles.

Companion Planting and Replanting

Now that all the major players are planted in my garden, I've gone back and done some secondary planting.
I planted giant zinnias down the center of my pea beds and seeded carrots along the perimeter of the beds.  Carrots do well with peas and the bush beans that will follow the peas once that crop is finished.  The zinnias will attract some beneficial pollinators and add some color to those beds.  Zinnias make great cut flowers, but it can be hard to find those giant varieties in greenhouses.
I think that I may have finally gotten all the lily of the valley and deadly nightshade out of my new center bed.  That bed is at the top of my garden and I had high hopes for it.  The poisonous leftovers from the previous perennial bed and the early season havoc wreaked by squirrels really put a damper on my plans for that bed.  My second planting of peas ('Mr. Big') is finally coming up.  I filled in chard and lettuce seeds were there gaps.  Because of the unusually hot weather, I switched over to Cook's Garden's Summer Lettuce Mix (http://www.cooksgarden.com/vegetables/lettuce/).  I put in the last of my onion sets and seeded scallions between them.
The thermometer says "Late Summer", but here in Zone 4, we are just two weeks past last frost.  There is still time to get those plants in where they may have failed before.  Successive plantings of carrots (this is my third) guarantee that all my carrots won't be ready for picking all at once.  Best of all, planting a few lettuce seeds every few weeks means we'll have fresh salads all season long, especially with a temperature sensitive lettuce mix.

Herb Container Plantings for the Patio

 My patio needed some Spring TLC.  I had been so busy in the garden that I had neglected the patio pots.
My patio pots are a motley crew of scrounging finds and garbage sale bargains.  Some are cracked or chipped, but those sides are turned to the back and they usually last a couple years longer until they completely fall apart.  Such is the lifespan of a clay pot.
I used to move them into the garage.  I once employed the help of younger son.  To economize on his time, he stacked the biggest to carry them all in at once.  He dropped the stack and broke them all.  Amazingly, I haven't asked for his help since.  Maybe it was a plot on his part.  I figure they are safer outdoors.
Many of my pots are planted with herbs that I overwinter indoors: rosemary, thyme, sage, lemongrass, and bay all come indoors for protection from the cold.  I also use those fresh herbs all winter long in my cooking. 
I can keep the chives and oregano outdoors all winter here in Zone 4.  I know that the basils won't overwinter indoors or outside, but I plant them anyway.  They are beautiful and tasty.
My largest pots are planted with a combination of tender annuals and plants that will be brought indoors.  The rosemary, sage, and lemongrass are all planted in smaller plastic pots within the larger pots.  My bay laurel is in a medium sized pot.  I plant thyme with the bay laurel to get two indoor herbs for the space of one pot.
Whenever I need fresh herbs I can find them a couple steps from the kitchen and I can enjoy most of them all year round when they come indoors until Spring.
Read more about Herb Container Planting:

Why Grow Your Own?

“Why should I grow vegetables when I can buy them in the store?”

I’ve heard that question before.  There are so many reasons that I can site.  Last week’s news headlines point out another one: food safety.

Thousands have been sickened in Europe due to an outbreak of E. coli.  German officials have identified fresh produce as the most likely cause of the latest outbreak.

This is certainly not the first outbreak of E. coli linked to fresh vegetables and it won’t be the last.

I can’t and won’t stop buying produce out of food fear.  It’s just not practical.  But I can decrease my family’s likelihood of coming in contact with produce contaminated by E. coli by increasing the amount of produce that I grow, serve, and save.

I don’t plan on tilling under every blade of grass in my yard to create my own urban farm either.  I plant what I can maintain.  I do what I can.  By doing so, I know just where my family’s food originated.  I don’t need to check a label or hazard a guess.  I like that kind of peace of mind.

So many Americans plant every spring.  Some Americans buy a flat of begonias to plant along the front sidewalk.  Some pick up geraniums for a pot near the front stoop.  Nearly every big box store has a garden center or a hoop house in the parking lot.  All evidence points towards a gardening public.  Why not make some of those yearly Spring plantings edible?

Fruit and vegetable plantings can be just as beautiful as those of perennial and annual flowers and plants.  Food fresh from the garden is just as tasty as it is beautiful.  Fruits and vegetables harvested from my garden have not been contaminated by deadly strains of E. coli.  Every time I serve food from my own garden space, I am reducing my family’s risk of contracting a food borne illness like E. coli.

Last summer I read Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals”.  It raised some thought provoking ideas about our production and consumption of food.  What I did take away from that book was the reassurance that gardening is good for my family, in so many ways.  I do what I can and my family is better for it.

Rhubarb Pie, Two Ways

Its rhubarb season and I’ve made five pies this week.  My younger son has developed a taste for it and my five year old loves it.  Since the rhubarb eaters now outnumber the rhubarb haters (my husband won’t eat “weed pie”), I make it for all the potlucks and picnics we attend.  My own rhubarb patch is finally coming into its own after being moved a couple of times.

Not all rhubarb is the same.  I have two old varieties in my patch.  One came with my house, a mostly green variety that gets large leaves and thick stems.  The second is a rescue from Homegirl Megan’s yard.  She was selling the house soon and it was so amazing we couldn’t part with it.  The stems are slender and almost completely red to the center.  The mix of red and green make for a beautiful pie.  When I ran through all my rhubarb, I had to raid Homegirl Di’s patch.  Hers is a new variety and established very quickly.  It’s a beautiful red that fades into a nice green near the leaf, long stemmed, and very juicy.

My mother’s patch (and all others in our hometown) was more similar to my green variety and prone to being “woody”.  I had to adjust my recipe for rhubarb pie to different varieties of the plant.  It wasn’t difficult, a 2:1 rhubarb:sugar ratio seems to work.  I just had to adjust the amount of rhubarb I needed to fill the pie dish.  The thick green stalks hold up better in cooking and require less rhubarb, but I like the pink color that red rhubarb gives my pies so I’ll pick more red rhubarb for a pink pie.

Rhubarb Pie

• 6 c. diced rhubarb 
• 3 c. sugar 
• 6 T. flour
• 1 T. butter 
• double pie crust

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Adjust the oven rack to the middle position.  
2. Mix diced rhubarb, sugar, and flour and allow the mixture to rest at least 30 minutes while preparing the crust.
3. Fill the bottom crust with the rhubarb mixture.
4. Dot the rhubarb mixture with slices of butter (about 1 T. butter)
5. Cover with the second crust and roll the edges of the top and bottom crust together.  Pierce the top crust to allow steam to escape.
6. Loosely cover the pie with foil.
7. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake and additional 30 minutes.

A pie is finished baking when its juices are bubbling over the side of the dish.  This can be really messy.  Place a cookie sheet on the rack under the pie to keep the sugary juice from burning to the bottom of the oven.

My husband will eat this rhubarb pie variation to humor me.  It is a huge picnic hit.

Rhubarb Custard Pie

• 4 c. diced rhubarb
• 2 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. flour
• 3 eggs
• 3 T. milk
• ½ t. nutmeg
• 1 t. vanilla
• double pie crust

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Adjust the oven rack to the middle position.  
2. Mix the diced rhubarb, sugar, and flour.
3. Beat eggs, milk, nutmeg, and vanilla.  Combine the egg and rhubarb mixtures.
4. Prepare pie crust.
5. Fill the bottom crust with the rhubarb mixture.
6. Dot the rhubarb mixture with slices of butter (about 1 T. butter)
7. Cover with the second crust and roll the edges of the top and bottom crust together.  Pierce the top crust to allow steam to escape.
8. Loosely cover the pie with foil.
9. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake and additional 30 minutes.

A pie is finished baking when its juices are bubbling over the side of the dish.

Picnic Days: Potato Salad All Day Long

They say it takes a village to raise a child. I agree. The more kind and caring adults a child has in his or her life, the more content and well rounded that child will grow to be. I was mentored all my life by a whole flock of my mother’s friends and I was very grateful for them when my mother unexpectedly died. I still am.
I tried to raise my children similarly, as did many of my friends. This weekend we are celebrating the graduation of the oldest of our brood from high school with a big picnic. One of my contributions is the potato salad, ten pounds of it.
This potato salad is the recipe my mother and her mother used. It is great for picnics for two reasons. First, it tastes better the second or third day after its made, so it can be made in advance. Second, because it has no mayonnaise in it, it doesn’t require refrigeration. It tastes best at room temperature.
This recipe works for any amount because all the ingredients are measured according to personal taste. The only portion of the recipe that calls for specific measurements is for the dressing of the salad.

German Potato Salad

• 5 pounds red potatoes
• 1 pound bacon
• 1 pound yellow onions, diced into ¼ inch pieces

For the dressing:

• 1 c. water
• 1 c. vinegar
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 T. flour

1. Boil the potatoes until they can be pierced with a fork
2. Drain and cool the potatoes.
3. While the potatoes are cooling, fry the bacon. Do not allow the bacon drippings to burn.
4. Remove the bacon from the pan and set it aside to cool.
5. Fry the onions in the bacon drippings until they are translucent.
6. Remove the onions from the bacon drippings.
7. Peel and dice the cooled potatoes into a large mixing bowl.
8. Crumble the bacon into the potatoes.
9. Add the onions into the mixture.
10. For the dressing:
11. Bring the water and vinegar to a boil in a medium size saucepan.
12. Carefully incorporate the flour into the sugar. If the two are not completely mixed, the dressing will be lumpy. This is not a total disaster, I have strained my dressing in the past.
13. Slowly stir the flour/sugar mixture into the boiling vinegar water. Boil the dressing, stirring constantly, until it is the consistency of cream.
14. Pour the hot dressing over the potatoes, bacon, and onions, using as much dressing as desired. I mix mine a little on the wet side if I am going to allow it to sit for a couple of days.
15. Salt and pepper the potato salad to taste. My mom used to add some of the onion flavored bacon drippings too.

Store the potato salad in an airtight until the morning of the picnic and serve it at room temperature.

The Art of Scrounging

scrounge: to gather together by foraging; seek out

I am a scrounger. That sounds better than “garbage picker”. Essentially, it is the same thing. One man’s trash is my treasure.
Today’s score: two rusty urns that will look great in the entrance to my upper garden.
I like the term “repurpose”. It’s my contribution to landfill overcrowding.
It has taken my husband years to come to terms with it.
Picking through the rubbish of others can be a real money saving technique. All of the tomato cages in my garden were someone else’s cast-offs. I have a great street sign that needs a hefty metal post. I found an old clothesline pole on the terrace. It’s a perfect fit. My potato bins were all procured for less than $5 each. Most of them were garbage picking finds. Tomato cages at big box stores are $5 each. I don’t want to sink good money into those. I could plant those potatoes in half oak barrels at $40 apiece. I have so many better ways to spend money. My son’s teeth extraction comes to mind.
If you are not a scrounger, give it a try. Go scrounging with a friend and make an adventure of it. Make a list of the things that you need. Ask garage sale hosts if they have anything on your list. Let your friends know what you need. Watch neighborhoods to determine trash days.  People purposefully leave their still usable items on the terrace to be taken and used by someone else.  Do your bit to save the environment and repurpose something!
WARNING: There is a fine line between scrounging and hoarding. Take only what you immediately need and leave the rest.

Book Picks:
“Into the Beautiful North” by Luis Alberto Urrea. Trash pickers (and librarians) are guardian angels.










“Inherit the Land” by Jack Lueders-Booth. Chronicles the lives of professional trash pickers in Mexico.

Mowing the Lawn

Don’t say anything, but I like mowing the lawn, especially on the sunny, cool days of early summer.
There are plenty of good reasons to enjoy the job. First, its great exercise, especially mowing our hill. Second, it’s a job that gets me out into the sunshine. I’d much rather mow the lawn than clean the bathrooms. Once the lawn is mowed, it doesn’t need to be mowed again for several days. The bathroom is a wreck again mere hours. My kids always moan when they are assigned the job. It’s not too hard to get them to switch jobs with me, they are happy to swap my inside jobs for their lawn mowing duty. Plus, it impresses my husband. I throw a load of laundry in right before he returns. I look like a wonder woman and I had fun doing it.
My favorite part of the job is the multiple duties I can accomplish with the mowing of the lawn. I bag all my clippings and mulch my vegetables with them. I put down a thick layer of newspaper, water it, cover it with three to four inches of grass clippings, and water it again. This method of mulching accomplishes two goals. The newspapers and clippings keep water from evaporating from the ground surrounding the plant and this deep mulch keeps weeds at a minimum. Once I have mulched the whole garden this way, I start back at the first bed I mulched and pile on more clippings. At the end of the season, I carefully pull back the layers of grass clippings and paper, run them over with the mower once more, and bag them for use in the compost pile. They’ll make great “brown” material in my compost mix. Then I can top dress by beds in preparation for winter. The job of mowing the lawn becomes much more of an accomplishment when I think of it as mowing plus making mulch, conserving water, deterring weeds, and collecting one of the essentials for a successful compost pile. Add to those benefits exercise and a pass on inside work on a lovely day, and I’d say that mowing the lawn is a great job. Just don’t tell anyone that I said so.

Seed Starting, from Scratch

A week and a half after I built my basement greenhouse, things seem to be going well.  I do have to remind myself to check for moisture.  The grow-light is located in the same room as our heavy duty dehumidifier and those starts need consistent moisture.  I admit that it has been easy to check on them.  I love watching their progress.

We had take out for dinner last week and my husband caught me in the act of washing the take out containers to use them as mini greenhouses for starting seeds.

 “Why are you keeping those?” he asked.   “You won’t be planting seeds until next spring.”

Not entirely true.  I plan to follow up one of my pea crops with kale and flowers later this season and I’d like to start those plants in the basement.

“What if you die before then?” he protested.   “I’ll be stuck with all these leftover carryout containers.”

Like the most shocking thing about my untimely death would be the deluge of repurposed carryout containers and what could be done with all of them.  Seriously?

So add to the list of items to scrounge:

1. some plastic takeout containers with clear tops
2. divided plastic plant containers in a variety of sizes

For the sake of your surviving mate, neatly put them some place logical and label them, “In the event of my untimely demise, TOSS”.