... that's a question that I get asked time and time again. Why do I spend long hours planting seeds, weeding, tending, picking bugs and in the hottest part of the summer standing in front of the hot stove making preserves, stashing away dried and canned veggies. Why do I keep my freezer full to the brim when it's so much easier to walk to the store and just pick up anything you want at any given time? And my answer is simple - you won't understand unless you've been hungry. And I don't mean "I feel like noshing on something so maybe I'll have a snack" hungry. I mean hungry as in no food today or yesterday. As in your stomach is churning in pain hungry. I used to run another blog for few years and shut it down after a while because I conquered one of my mental demons - fear of debt. Debt that I inherited and was never my own, but in the end it was all paid off. One of the entries of the blog referred to my past so I'll copy it here to make it easier for you to understand:
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I wish I could say that I don't know what it is to be poor and hungry but unfortunately I do. I grew up that way. At least we were that way when I was a young child and I remember it very vividly and so does my sister. My mother was sole provider for us and while she tried her best it was almost impossible to have a "good" life. She got paid $60 avans (pre-payment) in first half of the month and $120 (actual remaining salary) at the end of the month. That's considering that she was 5th ranking electrical engineer and was the top of her field at the time and very few men and women could get to that rank. She used to fix electronic machines on the factory and was very much valued. But her salary was just not enough to pay for basics no matter how she tried. Usually every couple of days before she would get paid she'd run out of money. I remember coming home one day and looking in to the fridge for food - there was nothing there. Not just not something I wanted but completely empty. Later that evening mom brought an onion and one head of cabbage and she made stewed cabbage - something I really hated and wouldn't have eaten normally. I waited out until the following day when I was so hungry that even stewed cabbage smelled pretty good, and when mom walked in on me sitting alone in the kitchen and eating it I told her that "hunger will make you eat anything". She remembered those words for the rest of her life and so will I. I remember being awake at night from hunger and having my sister share her portion of a bread so I could go to sleep. I could go on with such examples but it would probably bore everyone else so I'll stop.
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This is why I garden. This is why my pantry is overflowing and why I have at least 6 month of food stored - so I can be prepared. I grew up with one too many "hungry" moments, some due to the political environment and some due to nature like severe floods or droughts that would prevent us from harvesting enough for the rest of the year. So I garden. And I forage in the forest. And I stash flour, salt, sugar, rice and pasta. It's been a long time since we moved to the states - will be 20 yrs in December. But in my head I'm still hungry. That's why the moment anyone comes into my house I will ask "do you want something to eat and drink" - because in my head everyone is hungry. Always. But my garden is also a way of relaxation for me and a way to turn off my mind and focus on positive - all those gorgeous greens and ripe fruit and veggies that I get to pick and hold in my hands. I don't want to eat them necessarily. I just want to have them in the house. At all times. And to share with anyone else.
Harvest summary
Another week and another harvest report. Thought this time mine was scattered throughout the week so for details you'd need to go here: Saturday- 2 lbs and 13 oz of greens; Thursday for 5oz of spinach; and Wednesday for 1.5 lbs of greens and 5 oz of radishes. Overall it was not a bad week. I didn't get to pick as much as I wanted this weekend being down with a cold and trying to pluck around cold soil when you're running fever is not a good idea. Maybe next week will be better.
We have a door!
We have a door!.. to the arbor that is now entry to the new garden. Hubby has been measuring, cutting, gluing and putting it together for past few days and today he got to install it. YAY! No more ugly wire holding the fort down. Can't guarantee that it will hold intruders out but at least it looks pretty :)
And while he's been busy finishing up my garden structure, I was busy in the garden thinning out and picking some of the greens. It's about 3 lbs (2 lbs and 13 oz to be exact) and as you can see from picture I picked dwarf bok choy, sorrel, red and green lettuce, and two types of arugula.
And at the same time I spotted our 'volunteers' in the old garden - few carrots and dill growing much better than anything I planted this spring. Now I'm wondering if I should leave some seeds out for winter and let them grow on their own timescale, because they're doing much better than newly planted items.
Speaking of leaving things to Mother Nature's calendar - this is one item that I'm sad about. My poor cherry had to bloom at the same time as deep frost so we lost all blooms. Only one lonely cherry made it after that frost. Oh well. I hope next year will be better.
But on the good side looks like some of the blueberries made it through frost and we just might have some fresh berries in July and August. Both of us love nibbling on fresh berries and at some point I would love to make our home made blueberry jam but that's few years from now. At least we'll enjoy our snacking in the garden.
Another thing that seems to be oblivious to frost, weeds or anything else are my volunteer potatoes. Last year I had this are planted with purple potatoes which did not do too well, and apparently I left some behind so they're growing and doing much better than my real potato patch. We'll just have to see the harvest come August.
And guess who woke up? My first runner beans that I planted along the edge of the old garden decided to wake up even if it's a bit chilly. Apparently they loved all that rain and last 3 days of sunshine. This is Blue Lake variety. It's a first time I've planted this type because I usually go for bush beans instead of runner beans so it will be a new experience to try them. At least my honey can help me harvest once they grow and won't complain about bending to pick things.
I'm still taking it easy this weekend after couple of days of fever from cold, so not doing much of what I really wanted to do - still have to do weeding, work more compost into the new beds, plant fresh carrots etc. It will have to wait. I only planted some squash and melons in the seedling tray and will leave it as is for now. No energy to really do much so for now I'll be one of the veggies :)
Around the garden
It's been raining and cold all week and today is a first dry day and supposed to be warming up for the weekend. So of course I had to come down with a cold. Figures just as it gets nicer outside I'm all stuffed up and shivering from fever. Oh well. I did get to work from home today because I was not about to share germs with coworkers in the office, so after I finished everything I went to the garden to catch some of the sunshine.
And while I was there I sniped some spinach for dinner - about 5 oz of it. First for the year. It really grew this week because last week there was nothing to pick really. Must have liked all that rain we had.
And planted my tomatoes. They should be ok since all week we're supposed to be in 70's. These are the "runts" that got sick and then rebounded once I placed them in to the closed porch but they're still thin and weedy so I tried to bury most of the stems inside the soil. Speaking of soil, it must be really bad in nutrients because onions that were planted in March are just sitting there - no change. They should be very large by now. I might as well give up on them. I did add some compost to each planted tomato so we'll see how they do. I'll add more compost over the weekend and will add it to whole bed as well.
And can you believe one of my tomatoes is in bloom? If I got it right, this should be Mortgage Lifter. I guess we'll find out eventually once tomatoes start ripening.
And the carrots that I planted with my first seed mat are awake! It took almost a full month for them to wake up for some reason. The ones I scattered a week after I planted these are way ahead of them. At least it looks like I'll have my snacks after all.
Then I spotted these prints - dratted deer have paid me a visit once again. They are now going through the back of the garden to get to the greens.
This used to be a very lush and green thornless blackberry bush. Now it's striped down to nothing and I'm not even sure if it will come back to life after this because we just planted it this spring. Well I guess no blackberries for us this year.
There are many things are doing well and weeds seem to be even better than what I planted but not much else to pick just yet. Need to find patience.
Possible Community Garden
I finally found a community garden that is just opening up not far from us and I signed up for a plot. It's not going to be large - only 12x15 but it means I should be able to make something out of it. There is a catch of course - they want all gardeners to donate part of their veggies instead of charging a fee. There will be a first meeting on 14th of May where I'll find out exactly how much they want me to donate and all other details. It should still be good to take and if anything I can plant all those extra tomatoes that I have seedlings for, and maybe squashes since they don't allow planting corn (which is what I hoped for) and maybe some more beans. It's also only until October so only warm-loving veggies will go in there. I do hope they have good soil to work with but I guess I'll find out more once I see the plot.
Mid-week harvest
Today I was at a loss of what to cook for dinner so while I was pondering different ideas I went to weed part of the garden. And decided to pick veggies ahead of proper harvest time and just do a quick stir-fry. Here we have baby bok choy, radishes, baby swiss chard, pack choy from hydroponic and a bit of parsley.
The greens weight was about 1.5 lbs total - it's a bit hard to see them because I just piled them all on the tiny scale but they're all there :)
Radishes added another 5 oz to their total for now.
So what did we end up eating? Shrimp with stir-fried veggies.
Honestly it just doesn't get any better than this, when you know you just plucked these greens right out of the garden bed!
Infatuation with soil
... but not just your regular soil that I have in my garden. It's black, rich, silky and smooth and the moment you step on it you just want to dive and roll in it and have it sift through your fingers and of course plant as many things as you can. No, I don't have that soil. Someone I know has it on her farm - Hesperides Organica. I was part of her CSA before we bought home and from first time I touched that soil when I visited her I fell in love. Yes, fell in love with dirt. Whole area is like one giant bowl of super rich compost that was accumulating for many many decades and From time to time Lisa lets me play with it, come and help plant or pick veggies or do some weeding. Last year she let me plant some potatoes but it was not a good year for me because of the medical issues and alot of travel for work I was not able to play as much as I hoped to and then hurricane Irene hit and wiped everything out. That was absolutely heartbreaking to see everything wasted like that and just in prime time for harvest too. All those beautiful tomatoes that were still green, peppers, eggplants, squashes, wall of sunflower. But she's rebuilding. And going to have another CSA this year. And I hope she'll let me play again and help her plant some herbs so I can have that silky black dirt in my hands once more :)
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