Booty tomato

At least I think it looks like a butt....

The rest of the harvest is yummy, but not as funny

Ok, it's really, really spring now. For real.

Apple tree still alive, unmarred by deer, and
surrounded by violets.

Yesterday, we harvested the first huge bunch of kale from four plants that we over-wintered. This morning we sautéed some and topped toast with our girls' eggs, local salsa from the CSA, and the kale. Add a side of hash browns made from local taters, and it was a great saturday morning feast.

This does make finding a corner of table on
which to eat breakfast a little tricky.

Most of the herbs I was certain had died are looking great all of a sudden, the strawberry plants look ready to get down to business, and I transplanted a ton of healthy tomato seedlings into larger pots this morning. Yesssssssss!

I also dug out my seed potatoes from the back of the fridge, cut the ones that needed separating, and set them out on newspaper to dry. If all goes well, they'll be in the ground in the next few days.

The kitchen is back in production mode.

But perhaps the most spring-y part of today, is that I did our first round of canning. Huzzah! We had a few of the lemons left that Alex's aunt and uncle sent, and managed 4.5 cups worth. I love this stuff, and I love giving it out to people, which means you can never have enough. The curd is yellowier than I was last time we made it because the girls' eggs are so much more colorful than the ones you get in the store. It's gorgeous.

I finally got little jars!

If you are interested in trying it for yourself, the recipe is below. Adapted from Sheri Brooks Vinton's Put Em Up Cookbook because I like my curd tangier and thicker than her recipe suggests.

1.5 sticks of unsalted organic butter
1 c sugar (preferably raw or unrefined, fair trade and vegetarian)
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs (our girls eggs are a little smaller than the store-bought kind, so I add a 5th sometimes)
1 c lemon juice (from 5-ish organic lemons)
1 T lemon zest (or just whatever comes from the lemons you juiced.)

Combine all in a double boiler, and whisk until it's a custard, around 10 minutes. You can store this in the fridge in an airtight container for 2 weeks, or can in a water bath canner for 10 minutes so it's shelf stable for a year. Yumm-o! If you don't have lemons, limes or oranges would work too.

Berry Picking and a Day of Putting Up

As I'm sure I've mentioned one million times, I missed raspberry season this year. It was early because of the heat, short because of the rain, and I just missed it completely. Raspberries are one of my favorite foods, and I used to purchase 20 frozen bags of raspberries per year to mix with yogurt or granola, bake into fruit crumbles, or just eat like candy.

I now understand that these raspberries from Dole are grown in Chile or somewhere equally far from home, by people who make 20 dollars a week, on land that should be used to grow food for people nearby. I understand that the price of 4$ per half gallon is artificially low, paid for by government subsidy and human exploitation.

SO: raspberries have become a luxury. You can imagine, then, how horribly sad I was to have missed them. Particularly because most farmers I spoke with don't expect a fall crop this year either because of weather. I've been calling U Pick berry farms in the county, and most are closed this year because the season is so bad, but I finally found an open one at Reilly's Summer Seat Farm!

Alex and I picked six pints of raspberries today and two pints of blackberries!! It was a berry miracle. It was hard work, so I understand why the berries are so expensive at market. The ones we picked ourselves were still expensive, since these berries are pretty much the only game in town, but so worth it. I made four pints of raspberry jam today (out of half pint jam jars as per usual) and one pint of blackberry. They look glorious cooling on the counter.

I also needed to deal with the abundance I bought at the market yesterday, so I cooked and froze 12 ears of corn (just the kernels,) and put together a pico de gallo salsa for the freezer. I had a lot of cilantro left, so I hung one bunch to dry, and chopped and froze the other in ice cube trays to be added to soups and indian dishes all year.

I still need to deal with another 6 ear of corn we bought today, and a dozen HOT red chile peppers that I think I'll roast and freeze to add heat to dishes all winter. I had a terrible time drying peppers last year - our air is too damp. It broke my heart to toss them when they molded.

Of Toilets and Toil

We have the first row of the retaining wall down, which is exciting. And we've found help to load the gravel when we're ready in the form of an unemployed friend of a friend who needs the money. Lovely.

But wait! Something's got to throw a wrench in our plans. This time, it was our toilet. As though punishing us for cleaning the bathroom, right after we mopped the floor, the toilet started leaking yucky toilet water from the bottom. Just a bit, but any toilet water on the floor is too much.

We thought it was the wax ring, which Alex has replaced many times in his previous life as a tiler. So we headed to the Lowes, grabbed a 4$ wax ring kit and got down to business. We jockeyed the toilet about a quarter inch when BOTH of the screws holding the tank to the bowl just snapped. Right in half. The nut and the part of the bolt inside the tank was rusted solid, and there was nothing outside. So, back to Lowes we go to get new bolts. On the first try, the bolts leak terribly. On try number three we get it right-ish and put on the wax ring and put the toilet back.

I should mention here that moving the toilet means there is open sewer in your house. It smells as awesome as that sounds. And yucky toilet water gets everywhere. And you have to scrape off the old wax ring, that's been leaking for a little while, so it has some old crap (literally) all over it.

Horribleness.

Anyway, we do all this, and the toilet was still leaking as of last night. This morning the problem seems fixed, but I'm not really buying it, so we're heading back to Lowes again to get the proper kitchen & bath caulk to use around the edge of the toilet.

Bah!

The culprit. After everything's been disinfected and put back together.

In Sunnier News:

Our daily harvest is still looking lovely.

I scored a huge load of perfect peaches at the farmer's market to be jammed and frozen today.

So many early girls that we can't eat them fast enough, and one baby eggplant

A friend bought box of HOT banana peppers that I pickled in return for one jar. We're already out of pint canning jars for the year, so these babies went in 1.5 pint jars. Alex refused to wear hand protection while chopping these suckers and two days later, his fingers still burn. 

Even the worst toilet day doesn't seem bad when I can eat fresh Caprese with Basil microgreens for every meal. And I do.

Updates and Lessons for Next Year

Things are going pretty well. The dried Calypso beans are ready, though a combination of deer, rabbits, and being shaded out by other plants means there will only be a very few of them, which sucks. 

I've been pickling things little by little. Above we have a HUGE cucumber that got away from us, which I turned into sandwich stackers, and two batches of lemon cucumbers I pickled with a jalapeno and onions. All from the garden. Hooray! I think cucumbers and rutabaga are really the only two things we'll truly have enough of to get through the whole year. Tomatoes will be close.

This is what a typical daily harvest looks like now. There are always tomatoes, and either beans or cucumbers every other day. The beans are gorgeous, but we aren't putting any by because we eat them faster than we can pick them. The soy beans did pretty well, but I'll need quadruple the amount next year if I want edamame for the year. I have a serious soy habit.

 The ladies are growing pretty steadily. They are trying to cluck now, which comes out more like a honk, which is pretty hilarious. They are much more comfortable with being petted, and a few days ago one of the girls hopped up onto my arm to perch unsolicited. I didn't even have any treats!

LESSONS I'VE LEARNED THIS FIRST YEAR:

1) French intensive planting is pretty awesome, but for beans the productivity of the plant is lowered since they are so dense. Plant fewer beans per square next year, given them more trellises, and don't do the sisters planting with corn. I need 4-5 times as many bean plants as I planted this year to be set for the year, which is probably not going to happen. I'll try though.

2) Rutabagas are huge, and should be planted much later than I planted them. Same with brussel sprouts.

3) Beets need protection when they are just seeded, because both times, birds ate all the seeds. The few survivors were overshadowed by other plants and then died.

4) Tiger Stripe tomatoes are yummy, but grow too close to the ground. They need to be in a pot so the ripe fruit doesn't rot before I can get to it.

5) I need to start my tomatoes sooner, and not plant cucumbers so close. The cukes are using the tomatoes to grow up, which is great for the established plants, but not great for the little ones I started from seed.

6) Speaking of tomatoes, I need double the amount of Amish Paste tomatoes to make my year quota. The early girls are huge producers, and I want another one next year, even though the tomatoes themselves are not the best, they are still good and I've gotten 30 so far from one plant, no where near done producing.

7) Although the squash worked really well in the raised bed and aren't messing with other plants the way the cukes are, I think I will put them in a separate area next year just for the sake of space. They can go in the new melon mound.

8) Caterpillars are the big April scourge, but now that I have neem I am ready to rock and roll. But the deer have eaten 3/4 of the bean plants, across the board. And all of the Kale. I need to think of a solution for this. More plants they don't like. More of that horrible garlic/egg spray, and maybe a mechanical deterrent, like a motion-detector sprayer.

Summer Routine

Now that the ladies are in their permanent coop, I wake up at 6 and head up the hill to open the door and let them out into the run. I watch them for a little while, worrying that they aren't eating enough, or drinking enough. Then I head back to bed for a bit.

The brown stuff is leaf mulch - our dirt is black

My second wake up comes around 7 or 7:15, when my tummy starts rumbling and the sun is too inviting to ignore (if I've slept with my contacts in, this comes sooner, because I can actually make things out when I open my eyes lazily.) I head downstairs and make my morning drink: sun tea, or hot water with lemon and mint leaves. I take my mug out with me to the garden, where I check on all the plants. Morning is the best time to harvest, to I gather anything that looks too good to pass up. Today, I picked a ton of spinach (at the end of its rope), some kale, chard, and a tiny bit of basil and blueberries. Normally I'd water the plants, but the two thunder storms yesterday took care of that for me.

My favorite is the 6 blueberries!

I bring any grubs or worms I find and any crummy leaves I've snipped off to the chickens. They seem pretty excited about it, so maybe that'll make up for my manhandling them twice yesterday to protect them from the storms.

I take my veggies inside and wash them all thoroughly and send them through the salad spinner. This morning, though, the kale and chard leaves are too big. I don't feel like cutting them, so I decide we should eat them right away. I whip up a frittata of:

-peas (from VA farmer's market)
-spicy red onions and their green tops (VA farmer's market)
-basil, oregano, rosemary (from my mom's garden)
-dill (VA farmer's market)
-Chard (my garden)
-Kale (my garden)

The makings of a delicious breakfast

It sticks to the pan a little, but it's glorious with some gluten free toast spread with peanut butter and our homemade strawberry jam. Alex is up by this point, so we eat together on the porch.

I then spend about 30 minutes tidying the kitchen, hanging herbs to dry, emptying the dish washer, and trying to ignore the floor which I haven't cleaned in 2 weeks. Time for house chores! This morning I get down to sanding the floor while Alex helps his brother with tax stuff via the phone. I make it 40 minutes before the battery craps out. Luckily we have two. On the new battery, the sander is overheating and the plastic paper holder is burning up. I get a little scared and decide to do something else. I gather all the supplies to do touchup painting in the hallway, but the fancy new painter's tape won't stick to anything. It's either crummy, or the issue is the layer of sawdust that's everywhere. Regardless, I don't feel like dealing with this by myself and head upstairs to check e-mail and blog until Alex is done. This may seem specific to today, but it's a pretty common scenario. It's hard to stay motivated when doing stuff on your own.

But blogging doesn't pan out either, since none of the photos I took will upload from my stupid (haha)  smart phone. So I bite the bullet and head back down to sand some more. After the second battery goes, I take an air break, check on the chickies, and decide to start on lunch. Faux meatballs, quinoa noodles, homemade yogurt cheese, rosemary, and soy milk don't sound like they'd be good together, but they are an excellent pasta dish. Alex is finally ready to begin house work around the time that I'm totally ready for it to be over, and heads out to weed whack the front yard. He eats when he's done, and we hang out for about 20 minutes before he heads to work.

I occupy myself with e-mail, work stuff, and playing with my new juicer that my totally awesome sister got me for a housewarming present until I feel guilty, try some more sanding, and now it's 5:30. I pulverize a bumper crop of mint in my handcrank blender and freeze the pulp in ice cube trays to use in cocktails and tea later. Then I get down to business r.e. figuring out what's wrong with my idiot phone, and finally post this sucker.

Milestones

Yesterday the chickie babies turned 6 days old. I thought they deserved a treat, so while I was digging the Amaranth Patch, I saved all the gross little grubs I found and gave them to the ladies for a snack. At first they were a little confused, but soon they got the idea. One chick would grab a grub in her mouth, and then the other two would chase her around the box trying to steal her catch. The whole thing was hilarious, given that there were four more grubs squirming, fearing for their lives just a few feet away.

The girls are already getting pretty good at flying, so starting next week we'll stick an old window screen over the top of their temporary home. They're noticeably bigger (though maybe not in pictures) and their wing feathers are filling in nicely. We are very proud parents.

We also hit two milestones this morning. First, ALL THE GLUE IS SCRAPED IN THE DINING ROOM!!!! This is, in and of itself, cause to rejoice, but additionally, we harvested our first little basket of greens. Lots of spinach, one lettuce leaf, two arugula leaves, and two baby kales. It's enough for one tiny salad, but I think we'll use the bounty to dress our BBQ chicken (and faux chicken, in my case) sandwiches this evening.

We (and by we, I mean Alex) have also almost weed whacked the entire yard. It looks amazingly tidy, but I know by the time he finishes, he'll just have to start over again. The plan is to slowly fill the whole yard with fruit trees, and raised beds so there isn't any grass to speak of. It's gonna take a while.