Today Post::harvest - russet potatoes and broccoli

Big Russets and a serious head of broccoli. I feel like a real farmer. I really enjoy running down to the garden instead of the supermarket! We ate these immediately. Pan fried potatoes, sliced thin and steamed broccoli. Yum!

Today Post::more basil harvested

This is the basil I harvested on Saturday. We trimmed the leaves off the stems, added olive oil and processed it. Its waiting in the fridge now til I buy pine nuts and Parmesan cheese. Then we (i.e. my husband) will turn it into pesto and freeze it. Its a bumper crop this year and should easily last us til next year.

Today Post::honey CSA

I think this may finally happen!

Last year, I read somewhere about a honey CSA. Since honey’s one of my favorite things and since we had poor pollination last year, this seemed like a super idea. I’ve been looking around for a bee keeper and finally came across a woman who maintains beehives and is interested in running a CSA. I am SO excited!

The idea is to set up probably 2-5 hives in a location near the community gardens in Belmont. The beekeeper will decide how many shares to divide the honey into and cost per share. Benefits will be very local organic honey, garden pollination, and an educational component. Interested CSA members can watch, learn, and potentially participate.

I was talking with the beekeeper about where to locate the hives. Bees like warm sunlight, southern or eastern exposure. They should be at least 20 feet from a walking path. We have several possible locations picked out and will make calls to get final approval.

One potential problem is beehives are high risk now with colony collapse disorder. While vegetable CSAs always have something to distribute even in a bad year, a honey CSA has the potential of coming up completely dry. (Kind of like a tomato CSA would have done this year.) But the rewards could be very sweet.

Today Post::marigolds

This has been a fantastic marigold in my garden this year. I don’t know the name, but I think I bought plants at Bonny’s Garden center. I was thinking of collecting seeds, but these may be hybrids, so I won’t bother.

Today Post::garden webs

I hated to ruin the beautiful spider webs as I took down my tomato plants.

Today Post::my popcorn is delicious!!!

I tested a few kernels of popcorn and they popped well we made a batch (1 ear). Small bright white kernels. Add salt and melted butter. First thing, we brought it to my 17 year old. Here’s the conversation:

(I put the bowl down near him…. Munching sounds start…. more munching sounds..)

“Do you like it Sam?”
“Hmm”
(munching…)

“Is it as good as your usual popcorn?”
“Better.”
(munching, I tried to wait for elaboration…)

“Ohh. What’s better about it?”
“The flavor.”

And that’s very true. I completely agree. (And very nice to have such an involved conversation with a teenager.) The kernels are smaller. But they taste delicious. A very subtle nice flavor that tastes like, well, popcorn. (Instead of microwaved Styrofoam with fake butter flavor added.)

So good we made another batch tonight. Its going fast! My 30+ ears definitely won’t last long at this rate. (Another 28 or so days.)

Another definite for next year’s garden!

Today Post::tomato hornworm killed by parasitic wasps

Among many fascinating sights I found clearing out my garden. But too ugly to post a large photo. Garden Rant has a nice post describing these.

Today Post::recent harvests

These are some of my harvests from the past couple weeks.

I picked one small but delicious Sugar Baby Watermelon. I was very pleased with this and will plant these again and try to do better next year. I had two plants and will try 6 next year.

The tiny little melon on the plate with the watermelon is the single cantaloupe I got. A Charantais. Unripe miniature and not good tasting. It was not a good year for melons, and I made several mistakes with this crop. I scattered a few plants of different types here and there in the garden, mostly under things. Under the corn, under the squash. They were blocked from the little sun we got. And they probably needed richer soil. I’ like to try again, and plant them in very rich soil where nothing will block them.

I’ve been harvesting a lot of broccoli shoots and a few big heads now and then - still from my spring planting. I think the shoots are like supermarket broccolini, which I’ve always wanted to grow. I’ve never been able to figure out what broccolini is.

My husband processed the basil into nice pesto. (Here’s our recipe.) That’s about 1/4 of my crop. Its been a good basil year.

And my eggplant have beat the Blight and are doing great now. I have big plans for eggplant Parmesan this weekend. (Here’s that recipe.)

Finally, the unripe Butternut squash I harvested out of curiosity. It smelled nice, like a melon when I sliced it. Nice tender skin like a summer squash. Faintly greenish orange flesh. Tender seeds. We grilled it with olive oil and salt. The taste - well, bland and mealy - generally not to our liking. I’ll wait ’til the rest are properly ripe.

Today Post::a beautiful gardening day

Today I cleaned up my side yard garden. What a fantastic day.

Chores:
- Photograph in the morning light everything that was blooming.
- Photograph all the spider webs.
- Harvest basil, soybeans and cucumbers.
- Pull, bag and dispose of all the tomato debris.
- Pull and compost the peas and stack the pea poles.
- Support the garden fence better.
- Trim and adjust the rose shoots.
- Trim the grass/weeds between the garden beds.
- Empty compost tumbler and spread onto 2 cleared beds.
- Dismantle an old decayed compost bin.
- Hand sift compost from bin and spread on the 2 cleared beds.
- Topseed 2 beds with green manure mix (from Johnny’s - a mix of vetch, field peas, clover and winter rye)
- Clean up and have a cranberry martini.
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An aerial series of this year’s garden so far: April through September.

Today Post::bluebirds in the gardens

Bluebirds! Just passing through maybe. Flashes of blue and russet. I definitely saw 4 of them today, and there may have been a whole flock of a dozen or so. They are quite shy and I didn’t have binoculars.

We have a great bluebird restoration program at Rock Meadow. But this year was not its best year. There was only one nest attempt and this one was disrupted by sparrows. The previous year was very successful with (if I remember correctly) 6 broods raised. Bluebirds need mowed areas to forage and there are large areas ready for them now. Hopefully as they pass through, they’ll remember the nice houses and fields and check back in the spring.

Some information on Eastern Bluebirds: They have actually never been on endangered lists, but numbers declined drastically since the early 1900’s when they were one of the most common birds of eastern US suburbs. Probably the most significant factors in their decline were the introduction of House Sparrows and European Tree Swallows, pesticide use, and loss of habitat. Since 1970, bluebird numbers have been steadily rising. The most significant factor in their recovery is volunteerism: putting boxes in appropriate habitat and discouraging House Sparrows. (bluebird history)

It seems a timely topic after the panda opinions expressed today. ABC News report: “Conservationists should ‘pull the plug’ on giant pandas and let them die out, according to BBC presenter and naturalist Chris Packham”.

And are the bluebirds just passing through? It seems they sometimes migrate south and sometimes overwinter in Massachusetts. Depends on the winter weather and the food supply. So maybe they’ll stay around!

Today Post::stir fried green beans

I’m growing four types of green beans this year:

- Shunguang’s long Chinese pole beans (the best)
- Fortex pole beans (very nice)
- Provider green bush beans
- Royal Burgundy bush beans

They are growing in next to my house in reduced sunlight (about 11-3pm). They do well here and are always ready for a quick vegetable dish. I’ve been letting some of the pods mature on the vines recently. I’ll harvest these later and let then dry for seed for next year. I’m thinking I’ll skip the two bush bean varieties next year and only grow the pole beans. They taste much better to me.

This is a quick and easy vegetable dish. I added my garlic and Thai hot peppers. It is delicious served over rice with some roast duck on the side. Also nice with pork fried rice.

Recipe:
1 Tbs peanut oil
1 tsp minced fresh ginger (optional)
1 large clove minced garlic
1 minced Thai hot pepper (use the seeds too)
1/2 lb fresh green beans

To wok, add all of the above. Stir fry for 3 minutes (’til the beans just start to brown).

2 Tbs dry sherry or vermouth
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 tsp cornstarch combined with 2 Tbs cold water

Add all of these to wok with the beans. Stir fry until the sauce comes to a boil and thickens. Serve over rice.

Today Post::Dead Man's Lagoon

Have you ever fallen in love with a place at first sight? It happened to me last week. After we’d gone back to Italy, my son and I went back to Eraclea Mare for a week at the sea. We’d been there last year and loved it (see here), but what we didn’t realise was that we’d missed the best bit.

Eraclea Mare is situated not far from Venice, along the north west Adriatic coast. You probably know that Venice itself is built on a lagoon, but in fact lagoon areas extend much further up the coast. There is one, for instance at Caorle, where we used to spend our holidays until we discoved Eraclea, made famous by Hemingway who used to go duck shooting there.

Eraclea’s lagoon is different. It’s smaller - only two square kilometers, is (thankfully) a nature reserve, and until 1935 didn’t exist at all.

La Laguna del Mort (Dead Man’s Lagoon) was formed when the River Piave, which used to run parallel to the sea for a couple of kilometers, overflowed its right bank, flooded the strip of land between the river and the sea, and changed course overnight, reaching the sea a couple of kilometers further up. The land between the old mouth of the river (pic above) and the new (below) became a lagoon.

Why didn’t we explore it last year? Firstly because we had the rest of the area to get to know, and secondly because I was aching too much after a morning on horseback to contemplate the bike riding or walking necessary to get there. This year all the work in the garden in London must have made me fitter - I managed to do both.

From the village you can either cycle through the fields to the far end of the lagoon, or walk along the paths which lead through the sand dunes and pinewoods which border the wetland area. We did both, several times, and in later posts I’ll blog about the plants and the wildlife we saw there. But for now, just enjoy the landscape.

Why the name? Not sure. If the net is to be believed there was once a corpse in the lagoon which every so often would rise to the surface to frighten passersby. Hmm - none of the local people seemed to have heard of that one. They appeared to think the “death” referred to the death of the river (though I’ve translated the name as Dead Man’s Lagoon, a more literal translation would be The Lagoon of the Dead One, so it’s not impossible). That seems strange though, as the river didn’t actually disappear. I’m keeping an open mind.

We were there at the end of the season, and on a cloudy day. We had the place almost to ourselves. The beach however is well-known for being a naturist beach and (again if the net is to be believed) a rather steamy one at that. Oh well, the beach is separated from the lagoon itself by sand dunes and I guess it’s big enough for both naturists and naturalists. I for one shall be going back.

Today Post::Bright Spots in the Garden

I’ve been back in England for a week, thinking that we might finally get the finishing touches put to the house and get it ready for letting again. But it seems that every time we do one thing, another ten problems arise - and rather than finish off decorating the bathroom this week, we’ve had to strip it down to the bricks and start again. So I’m going to be coming back and forth for most of the autumn ..

But if the house is still a disaster, the good weather this week has given me time to get on with the garden, and it is very gradually coming into shape. But despite the jungle that I found in July, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, even at the start. There were a number of plants which hadn’t completely succumbed to neglect and were bravely flowering on, against the odds. like the roses which, despite being covered in black spot, continued to put out the odd flower.

Then there was the hebe bush. It was already past its best when I got back in mid-July, but you could still see how glorious it had been. The bush self-seeded several years ago, in another part of the garden where I didn’t want it. I transferred it when it was a tiny little twig, not sure if it would take. It’s now five foot high and four foot wide, and was covered in blooms, much to the delight of the local butterflies.

Another bush of about the same size was the fuchsia by the front gate. It’s been there for as long as I remember - at least thirty years, possibly longer. it’s not my favourite fuchsia variety, but what it lacks in the quality of the blooms, it certainly makes up for in quantity.

A number of plants had self-seeded in awkward places, but were doing the best they could. These sweet peas had grabbed hold of the conifer to support them …

while the cracks in the paths had provided a home for the alyssum.

Add to that the hydrangeas which I’ve already posted about, and there was at least a bit of relief from the weeds. More colour was provided by the berries, which are now glorious - but I’m going to save that for another post.