A few pictures and an update

The last of this year's rhubarb harvest. Just a tease of years to come.


I'm saving it to partner with the first succulent crop of strawberries coming soon!




The first of the crisp mint lettuce is up and beckoning to be included in a spring salad.


The sea pinks by the drive are our first real color besides the luscious bits of green popping up all over.


And the dratted finger. Feeling a bit better than a week ago when I got home from the surgery. Looking forward to a week from now when the bandage comes off. For now, I'm a little limited in the hand-use department, and looking a bit like I'm carrying around a chicken drumstick...but on the mend!



And thanks to my wonderful husband, we still managed to accomplish quite a lot. So, here's our Independence Days Challenge update for the week...

Plant Something:
Planted carrots, onion sets, beets and beans. Transplanted more tomatoes and butternut squash, as well a pepper, eggplant and luffa seedlings to bigger pots.

Harvest Something:
rhubarb

Preserve Something:
not this week.

Reduce Waste:
Repaired a reusable shopping bag.

Preparation and Storage:
Did our big once-a-month shop, Added some additional oatmeal, beans, broth, honey, tomatoes, applesauce and seasonings to the long-term food storage.

Build Community Food Systems:
Talked to a co-worker and sent her some links about food storage for small spaces.

Eat the Food:
Sourdough apricot/pecan bread, liver and onions from the spring lamb we bought, more delicious local farm-fresh eggs.

A little hand-work and the IDC challenge update

So, about my middle finger...lots of joking aside (over-use injury, flipped it too many times...etc), I've got a bit of a cyst and some bone growth on the top joint of my middle finger and tomorrow I'm having it taken care of. Sounds like such a small thing really, but this requires some "getting down in there" kind of work so I'll be operated on in the hospital and needing some time to heal afterwards. This all stems from osteoarthritis. Not a term I was hoping to hear for some years yet. But not a surprise with my family traits and my constant use of my hands.

With the "impressive dressing" I've been promised by my surgeon and limitations at least until the stitches come out. I'm looking at some serious down time for any and all kinds of hand work. Now, while this sounds pretty good when it comes to litter box duty and dish washing, it is a serious bummer for my knitting, sewing, cooking and gardening. So, I've been on a bit of a push over the weekend to catch us up and get us a little ahead.

I've been trying to finish up another little sweater for the Goober and started a batch of bread to last us a week or two.

And here's our list for another week of the Independence Days Challenge:

Plant Something:
Planted potatoes and chard. Weeded, planted MANY shasta daisy divides along our fence line. Planted the annual flowers by the front steps. Transplanted tomato, luffa, butternut squash seedlings to bigger pots.

Harvest Something:
Harvested herbs for drying.

Preserve Something:
Made a batch of power bars and packaged for the freezer.

Reduce Waste:
Made a tote bag out of some fabric scraps and remnants.

Preparation and Storage:
Purchased a few medical supplies to add to our emergency supplies.

Build Community Food Systems:
Bought eggs and meat from a local farmer. Making this a weekly habit.

Eat the Food:
Baked some sour dough flat breads. Very good. They've been added to the regular baking list. Made a few batches of cabbage slaw, one with home-made mayo, yogurt and cider vinegar and the other with dried fruit, olive oil and cider vinegar (no mayo). Both delicious warm weather sides.

Time to get out in the garden!

The garden has been beckoning me. It begins. I don't hesitate to grab my beat up jeans and a sweatshirt, throw on boots and head out to the garden every morning and evening. Sometimes there's time for a little weeding or putting in a few things (like a bunch of shasta daisy divides from a friend). Sometimes it's just about looking, seeing what is emerging, what needs doing. At this time of year, my days in a beige office, cube-land, facing a computer for long hours, are intolerable without these morning and evening forays into the green growing, living world.

Here are a few pictures of what I saw last evening and this morning.

The view of the big garden from our upstairs hall window.



A ground level view of the garlic coming up in one of the wedge beds in the big garden.



New canes in the raspberry beds and our first time growing potatoes in bags. They'll fill out as we top of the vines and eventually be brimming with red-skinned caribe potatoes. Yum!



Growing food not lawn in front of our house. We've put in asparagus and rhubarb in a border along the fence and four raised beds across the front of the house for a rotation of vegetables. These two are waiting for beans, tomatoes, peppers, basil and the like.



A look at our second year rhubarb with a few long leggy asparagus going to seed. Since we're only in year two for both of these crops, we can only "pick a few" to let the root systems have most of the energy.



Our raised strawberries overwintered really well and are showing off their new blooms.



Berries won't be far behind!



The golden peas are reaching for their trellises and the lettuce is beginning to show true leaves. There'll soon be fragrant blooms and lots of fresh spring greens here.



Our newest addition, four cranberry bushes in their own raised bed. They should be productive this year and add some lovely color in the fall.



One last look from the window before getting ready for work.



Thanks for stopping by the garden. Come again!

Some sadness and Week 2 of the Independence Days Challenge

We had some sad news last week of a friend's sudden and very premature death. So Saturday morning was spent at a beautiful and sorrowful memorial service for Paul. We had a chance for sweet recollections, a few laughs and some comfort with our music friends. Paul was a loving and generous guy and he will surely be missed.

I find it interesting and very sobering how each death conjures memories from all the other experiences I've had of losing friends or loved ones. This news of Paul's passing was no exception and we found ourselves feeling a little bruised and tender for much of the weekend. Some solace, peace and energy were waiting for us in the garden and I spent a good part of Sunday and this morning there.


Things are beginning to take off in our garden. The raspberries overwintered well. And we've got lots of new growth and clusters of buds all over. We saw the first blooms in the strawberry patch so we're beginning to anticipate all the lovely bounty to come from there. The garlic has been shooting up and looks a bit like a gangly bunch of teen-age boys out there. I'm looking forward to the scapes that we'll be harvesting to make some nice early summer pesto. The peas are reaching for the trellises and the lettuce is showing true leaves so it won't be long before we have some nice fresh greens for the table.

So, here's our list for week two of the Independence Days Challenge:

Plant Something:
Weeded and cleared in the garden. Turned over a few beds. Planted chard, marigolds and more lettuce outside and seeded a large array of seeds in the basement...tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, eggplant, kale, broccoli, basil, flowers, etc.

Harvest Something:
Harvested our last asparagus - year two, pick a few. Also harvested our first rhubarb, more chives, some overwintered sage, thyme and oregano.

Preserve Something:
Picked some herbs for drying. Must set up some drying lines on the front porch or in the pantry.

Reduce Waste:
Used egg cartons and toilet paper tubes cut in half for seeding cells in trays. Much better than spending money on peat pots.

Preparation and Storage:
Uploaded Open Office to my home computer to put our food storage, shopping and inventory lists on a database for easy sorting, creation of shopping lists and storage.

Build Community Food Systems:
Talked with the green team at work about building some raised beds at the office.

Eat the Food:
Baked a honey rhubarb coffee cake with the first of the rhubarb, used some of the freshly picked herbs in a big pot of beef stock I made from beef bones frozen after a meal last week. Used the last of the asparagus with home-made sourdough and cheese for a delicious pizza.

What could you do this week?

In on the Independence Days Challenge

I recently came across the blog Casaubon's Book and have been inspired, engaged, challenged (and even sometimes a little scared) by what I've read there and where it has lead me in a quest for a better handle on where we are in the world and what we can do to help ourselves and our communities. Sharon's approach has inspired me to think a little bit more about how to deal with the scary stuff instead of just trying to ignore it or shrug my shoulders.

She organizes an Independence Days Challenge that seemed like just what I wanted to keep me moving forward with our efforts to reduce waste, grow more of our food, reuse what we have instead of buying new, prepare ourselves better for the coming years and the economic distress that we're all in, etc.

So, I've joined her challenge and will be posting my little "report" of what we've accomplished every week in seven general categories. If you're at all curious or interested in getting involved, check out her site. That's also where you'll find the longer clarification of each of the categories that I'll be reporting on.

So, here's our first list:

Plant Something:
planted parsnips, turnips and radishes outside. Prepped some indoor seedling trays. Built, filled and planted a raised bed of cranberry bushes

Harvest Something:
Cut chives from the herb garden for egg dishes and salads
Harvesting asparagus as it shoots up

Preserve Something:
A little intimidated by this. One of our challenges for this year.

Reduce Waste:
On our last roll of paper towels with no plans to buy more. We're replacing with baskets of clean rags and cleaning cloths in strategic places.

Preparation and Storage:
Expanded our basement pantry and updated food storage inventory. Located an old storm door and some plans online for making our own food dehydrator

Build Community Food Systems:
Talked with a few friends about how to take the next step with organizing their pantries and expanding them. Helped a friend plan her first vegetable garden.

Eat the Food:
Ate all the asparagus that we've harvested so far. Loving the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies from Cynthia Lair's "Feeding the Whole Family" great food storage cookies. And a very tasty treat!

What could you do this week?

Some lunch box crafting

I finally found some nice sets of cutlery at the thrift store (knife, fork, teaspoon and soupspoon) for $1. The stainless steel is nice and sturdy and has a good weight. I've been wanting to make some designated cutlery roles for our lunch bags so that we wouldn't risk losing our everyday to the office when and if one of us forgot to bring them home. We try to avoid using disposable plastic to save on landfill. So now that I had the cutlery it was time for something to contain them. I took a little piece of a landscape print from my stash (a reject sample for the kitchen curtains) and matched it with some heavy upholstery linen remnant that I picked up for .25¢ a while back. stitched a little forest green twill tape into one of the rows of stitching and we now have neat and tidy silver-ware rolls that live in our lunch bags. Next on the agenda may be some little scrap muslin bags to toss the dirty silver-ware in when bringing it back home. I'll have to check the stash.

All in all this was a very easy project to whip up with no pattern, and we've both gotten lots of good use and nice comments from using these. And it makes for a little bit greener world to boot!

Time in the studio (recording that is)

A belated post about a little project Michael and I recently completed. We put the finishing touches on our new Demo called "the Circle", which you can download for free from my music site. It's a song inspired by our visit to the Carter Family Fold, the home-place of a lot of good, old-timey music. It was originally the home-stead and little store that A.P. Carter ran after he left singing with the original Carter Family. And has become, with the care and management of his daughter Jeanette and then his grandson Dale Jett and granddaughter, Rita Forrester, a wonderful locale for old-time fiddlin' buck-dancing, clogging, flat-footin', good music! Here's the link.

We really enjoyed writing this song. From the original notes sketched out on the car ride home to the fine tuning of lyrics, melody and harmony over the span of time since then. When we finally came to record it, we were very pleased to have the help of our talented friends Gail and Allen Wiegner on vocals and bass and Jackie Damsky on fiddle. We're pleased with the recording and hope you'll enjoy it too!