A Bloody Pomegranate in Indiana

The bloodletting is over now, and I’ve wiped the countertop from the red drops, before they stain the cheap Formica.  My fingers are purple, as if I had cut open a beating heart. In the bowl, my work looks like ground meat, fresh dyed from the grocery, and ready to fashioned into burgers, or have herbs, spices and breadcrumbs squished and baked into it as meatloaf..

But we do not eat meat. What is in the bowl is pomegranate. Like other exotic produce-- Ugli fruit, Canary Melons, prickly pear, chayote squash-- pomegranates do not show up in Crawfordtucky Indiana. Correction. They used to be the stuff of magic carpets, movies and far away places, like cinnamon and chocolate before colonization. Then in Harvard Medical News wrote in 2007 “pomegranates may one day have a place in healthful diets” and voila! they appeared. They promised to reduce cardiovascular plague, fight prostate cancer, and prevent deterioration leading to arthritis and Alzheimer's.  The first one I palmed was in a Pennsylvania Wegmans in 2008. I was thirty. As a gastronomic adventurer, I take my husband on dates to swanky markets. I grope the vegetables, squeeze the fruits, and pretend we’ll buy the wines with the hipster labels. He eyeballs the microbrews. Skip the fashion mall. A Wegmans is to me what Abercrombie and Fitch is to a teenager.

I remember the first time we bought one. Having only heard they “bleed” and only seen a whole one, in a movie some years before, I had no idea how to cut one. In the movie, a Persian refugee tries to smuggle into the United States. Customs stops him. His drought of home explodes bloody in his hand, and he is forced to trash it. He had pleaded that he wanted only eat one in his new home, America. I could recall little else than the blood of his hope, staining his hands, and the sorrow I felt with him. It seemed his heart bled out with juice.

The red leather bound fruit I brought home held a hope for me. A rush of something new. What would it taste like? Of course, anticipation sweetens all things. As it was indulgence in our budget,  I planned to save and serve it to company coming in few nights hence.  I hoped for succulent fresh- a field trip for my kids taste buds- and a fine pairing for the fair trade dark chocolate.

As I unloaded groceries, I dithered about stowing my one pomegranate in the fridge. For optimum flavor, most fruits should be room temperature. Foodies insist tomatoes should not be chilled, unless at the last moment, to retain the complex flavors. But I am an American and Americans are hyper about keeping anything from the threat of rot. My mother who garden for years seems to have forgotten that all produce is born of heat, sun, and bugs. She will not leave tomatoes on the countertop anymore.

On the appointed night, I took my pomegranate out of the cold, letting it come to room temperature. I made my bread, pureed my hummus, broke dark chocolate into bite-sized chunks, opened the wine and finally, prepared to cut the fruit.

I prayed it would taste something like the real thing, or that my guests would have no idea what a fresh pomegranate tastes like.   I curled my fist around its red leather coat, then drove my knife into its flesh.  Its blood spirited onto my shirt and face. As I ran upstairs to wash my face and change my shirt, I chastised myself for not buying the expensive Raisinette version of dried seed covered in dark chocolate. No, I committed myself to the foodie foible, serve something exotic, texture of  succulent fresh, and prove I knew my rare fruits and vegetables.

I did not deseed the fruit the first time. I served it in wedges, in the living room, with the chocolate.  We had napkins on our laps and wine glasses on the end tables.

“Oh, I haven’t had a pomegranate in years,” cooed one guest. “Usually we popped the seeds out she said. I stared at fleshy seeds. How did one get the nutty centers out of the red, I wondered, and still have something to nibble? She meant they separated the white membranes and skin from the kernals. i swallowed the membranes like angostura bitters. They stuck in my throat, as I tried to reply, “Oh, really?”  My guest was polite and followed suite.

I haven’t repeated my humbling first serving experience. I learned to seed the fruit. It’s like shucking Indiana popcorn. I use my thumb to pop out the kernels. Brown kernels are a sign of rot. I find them most in fruits I think are ripe, but are actually just old. There may  be a better way to test for ripeness, but I use the ol’ Hoosier peach test. If my  thumb pressure leaves and imprint, and I hear a popping I take my gamble. I don’t buy them off season any more. Too many times I’ve cut one open to bloodless brown kernels. It’s like slicing open a cadaver. Too frequently these days the produce in the market has this pall of death and cardboard. Most produce is picked and shipped long before it is ripe. Bananas have ripening rooms, sometimes melons are spray-treated. Sometimes the fruit tastes unique to its species, mostly, it tastes like something materialized from a Star Trek food-generator.

Pomegranates are in season now, just before Thanksgiving. Or I think they are. They are plentiful and on sale everywhere. I bought two and did not put them in the fridge. For two days the fruit called my son’s name. He loves to crunch and suck on the kernels. He would love to take his pocket knife out and hack one for himself, but I won’t let him. I know the bloody mess he’ll leave behind. Puddles of dirty pink water where he swirled a filthy washcloth to wipe up the red. He’ll leave a dripping knife, red droplets flung around the kitchen and membranes in the dish drainer.

Perhaps I should look up a mess free way to murder one, I thought, as I cut his fruit. I did and it turns out slicing it under cold water, will do the trick. It’s eerie how like suicide it is. Maybe that’s part of what amuses my son and me, that macabre interaction.

It’s a good thing to enjoy the pomegranate. Someday I will go to a place where it is native and discover, like mangoes eaten in their homeland, it more tender and nuanced that I have experienced. I will use my tongue to pop its seeds and the blood will course in me. It’s a flesh alive, bleeding for the purity of those who know it. I’m fortunate to have some experience, but all life deserves honor in its death Part of me thinks, instead of pomegranates, perhaps, I should explore something local, maybe a paw-paw or persimmon.

Soft Serve and Post Haste Garden Post

World's Best Softserve (Sugar Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free)

Adapted from an idea at ChocolateCoveredKatie
6 frozen very ripe bananas
1/2 fair trade unsweetened cocoa
1/4 c french vanilla so delicious coconut creamer
1/2 c lowfat soy or rice milk
pinch of guar gum (optional) but keeps it soft.

Blend in blender. Pour into bowl and freeze. Use more milk if it needs to be thinned. Eat within two -four hours. Good with blackberry syrup, pomegranate syrup or brandy. Read on for an account of gardening so far this summer.
_____________________________________

Eden Farms, CU, Pittsburgh, the old well as compost pile

If 'post haste' should be the norm for deadlines, I failed this summer.

The colors of the M&Ms but in nature! Spot the Blue!

Do you remember when you bought grocery produce that had to be checked for pests and ripeness? I recall turning bags of apples for the least worm eaten. When was the last time you found a worm hole in a bag of grocery store apples? Does that worry you a bit? What are they spraying that not one apple has a worm in it?

A couple of summers ago I learned about ripening rooms for Kroger. These are for bananas. Want to learn more about them? Click here. I got to thinking about the produce at the store and why, when I buy out of season, I get so many stomach issues. Why when the powdering grey of pesticide is thick, do I double over in pain? Why when I garden even hybrid plant starts do I still harvest decent tasting fruits and veggies? Is is more than heirloom, though I am stuck to beauty, variety and flavor of my Cherokee Purples, Lemon Zebras, Lemon Drop, Chocolate drop, Amish Pasters, Mortgage Lifters, Canary Melons, and other heirlooms? Is it what they spray? How they fertilize? And finally, that they pick and deliver vegetables and fruits before nature's cycle approves harvest. Those skins are as edible as newsprint, or plastic wrap.

I love eating from the garden this time of year. We have had a bounty, thanks to obscene water bills. We shared with our neighbors. While I traveled from the week of July to the third week of August, folks helped to water. My kids covered the cycle. I was able to tour Chatham University's Eden farm and learn about their co-planting garden experiments. Next year, I repeat the cukes but mix with something else. They didn't compliment with the squash. I think a pretty tobacco plant may be in order. Those repel squash bugs, I hear. I may throw in some other heavily scented herbs, lemon verbena, or more basil. We can never have two much pesto in our house. My daughter froze 24 ice blocks of it today. We'll make more in a week or so. Each 2oz block will make us a pasta dish.

One of my honeydew babies!

I was happy to harvest three honeydews from the 75 cent plant I rescued. I harvest too early. My mother used to make me knock the watermelons, which I saw an Indian man doing at the international grocery Saraga last Friday.  I had to sniff the ends of cantalopes for the pungent musk. I hated cantalopes and the ripe smell made me gag. It turns out, we picked the honeydews a bit soon. While I traveled, I asked my daughter to peel and deseed one of them, then freeze it.-- I can smoothy those up. Frozen melon and frozen banana make some great, low sugar 'soft serves.' See my chocolate soft serve recipe below-- Needless to say, progeny of a certain age are almost incapable of following more than 60% of directions, even simplified into three steps.

So I defrosted half an unpeeled honeydew and tried to cut its unripe flesh from the skin. It took this vegetarian momma back to days when I had to butcher and carve chicken flesh. It squiggled under my skin and my knife almost slipped and nicked me.  It was a bit hard to eat.

Ripeness matters.

Even in Pittsburgh the heat oppressed cats.

My mom  used to have me pick the bananas that would turn in a day or so. The sugars were less starchy. We two days of banana eating and the remainders became bread. Mom did buy those often, since bananas were expensive compared to Michigan peaches and Hoosier apples. Nowadays, it's almost impossible to find local varieties. Local means it came within 6 to 10 hours from here, instead of say, Guatemala. When we were down there, we saw vast plantations adapted with North American fruits and veggies that would be harvest just a tad early and rushed north for your local chain store. The less perfect specimens were sold at local auctions. My husband pointed out that the eating at the Hogar Rafael Ayau is much healthier and easier on his stomach than American food.  Perhaps it's because the produce is fresh. Perhaps it's because it's not laced with preservatives when it is prepared. Either way, he got sick with the first meal back in the USA.  Ah, America.

Two weeks ago, Layla replanted beans, which is a first for our home garden. Liam did some peas. I hope to get this rotation habit improved next year. Travel kills several good rhythms in me: fasting, self-control, prayer and gardening.

Recipe:

Summer : Surprises and Salads

Reynolds Summer Salad Recipe Below

It was 11pm when I turned my camry into our narrow driveway. I pulled in to the left, hoping not to run over the crookneck squash plant that is spilling from one of five raised beds along the right of our drive. I slaked around the car in the dark, for the camry has 176,000 miles on it and the usual gremlins of an old toyota, a loss of electrical amenities like overhead lights, has sickened it. I waited for the crunch of leaves. In the eerie city shadows, I could see plants, half-dead. I would have to wait until morning to assess what the 100+ degree days of 2012 had wrecked in the five day absence.  Against all hope, broccoli, spindally and tall enough to tickle my elbow, begged me to break a clump and munch.

Garden fresh broccoli, like any garden fresh veggie or fruit tastes better than the mojo from the grocery.  I wonder what they do to that produce these days. I heartell of ripening rooms in warehouses and stores.  I hear of picking while green and forcing the ripening. This may be why sniffing the belly button of a cantelope no longer yields the musty scent of ripeness. It may be why apples may have rotted guts without a single prick from a very hungry catepillar. I recall examining bags of apples and peaches for the number of items with worm holes, exchanging one item for another in the bag, at my mother's behest. She taught me how to weigh the heads of iceberg, to check for ripe peaches, to assess tomatoes for color.

Going to the grocery with my mother included learning to read labels for preservatives, transfats, fiber, and protein. It was only a part of our eating structure in my formative years. We also canned up bushels of Michigan peaches my grandparents hauled home in season. We cooked up spiced applesauce: slow stewed apples run through a Vitorio Strainer with a bit of brown sugar and one Red Hot candy at the bottom of the quart jar. We grew and canned green beans, bread and butter pickles, carrots, and so many tomato products that our neighbors thought us oddities. Our corner lot reeked of stewing amish paste tomatoes for days. Later, my mother hung the juiced product in disinfected pillow cases to drain off water and make sauce, then with  more, she let it sit until it was paste.  Our kitchen was a sauna with the whistle of a pressure cooker. We ran outside to collect more scabs on our knees and avoid carrying tomato skins and seeds to the compost pile, or to avoid shucking more corn for the freezer.

On vacation this past week, mother said she and Dad only gardened a year or two. I remember a long stretch of it. I recall being bribed to weed and pick peas. I recall sunflowers that grew so fat their heads could nuzzle mine. I recall a year with the Sweet One-Hundred Cherries seemed to be Sweet One-Thousands. I recall a carrot that weighed a pound and purloining off our monsterous zucchinis on unlucky folks at church.  THat was before we knew to treasure the 'baby' veggies for fine dining. That was when my mother still served canned spinach, asparagus and lima beans. Yuck.

I am sure they gardened much longer, though the efforts grew more modest each year. Gardening is a constant negotiation with the moods of a region. In Indiana this year, we have had over sixteen days of temperatures topping 90 degrees. There is no rain. My garden is going to cost me, just for the water bill. I was more modest with my seed-buying. I followed Dianne's lead and planted 'rescues' and refurbs: wilting heirloom varieties and dying Coral Bells.

When I woke up the next morning and set the sprinkler on the beds, I discovered my tomatoes are plump and ripening fast. I picked a whole peck or more last night, along with a head of broccoli, three fat cucumbers, more squash, though the leaves look to be dying. I found a few more beans and two melons. The sweet potatoes out back are surviving and the first year asparagus starts I'm babying are alive still.

Goodie for me. Goodie for gardening. Goodie for my daughter who wants Summer Salad for her birthday meal and my son, who made it tonight from our krims and mortgage lifters, and those cukes.

Reynolds Summer Salad Recipe

4 cups cubed and peeled cucumbers
4 cups warm, fresh tomatoes, diced
Dressing:
1/2 c greek yogurt
2-3 T Olive Oil Mayo
pinch of cayenne
1/2 t fresh cracked pepper
1/4 t fresh cracked sea salt
2 shakes or pinches of garlic powder

Mix dressing, pour over diced veggies. Serve promptly.

Let's see some pretties from the garden before they all go to flower heaven

Just a bit of summer from my garden to God's eyes.  and yours.  I hope you enjoyed them.  Alice Ann was the photog, she likes playing with her dad's camera.

  Most things are withering away.  I keep watering the newly planted trees, hoping  that they will survive.  We are now about 5-13 inches below normal rainfall across Indiana, worst drought in decades.  My hydrangeas' blossoms may dry before they even bloom.  I have many wildflowers, which should handle the weather, God willing.

A friend just told me her water bill has risen $20 from watering her tomatoes.  If you can't do that,  wash dishes in a pan and dump the water in the garden. The soap will act as a bug deterrent, and it's what my Nana always did.  Some people keep a bucket in the shower and catch what they can to use in pots.  I suppose those living in the desert have many more types of water-saving advice.  Water early in the morning, or late at night, after sunset.  Maria has a timer on her hose, I like the process of watering, so don't mind standing in the bugs with the sprayer.  Watering deeply and less frequently is the key, so that the plants don't develop shallow roots, and are heat-affected more easily.

Dianne, not dirty, can't even get the weeds to come out of the ground. 

Dried Up Garden? Try some free eats

We prayed for rain on Saturday, but the storms passed us that night. Now we wince thinking of the watering bill, since the rain barrels have long since dried up. We're paying for the water to rescue our plants.

It seems like a good day to share two good blogs linked from NPR's "The Salt": Sustainable Eats and Fat of the Land. That reminds me, we picked up a couple of plums, plopping from a city tree yesterday, and noshed on them to distract from 93 degree heat.

Lamb and Morel Recipe

Why should you read from Fat of the Land, a blog about finding free wild food in the Northwest? Some species do grow here-- like morels he uses in the recipe pictured left. I'm not a meat-eater, but the recipes he posts look intriguing, and tasty. He posts loads of links. You'll learn a ton, like what NOT to eat. I cringed thinking that I tasted a 'wild' parsley 'tree' in my back garden bed the other night. Some foods are slightly poisonous!

He's got a book and the blog.

Sustainable Eats has a 10-month challenge right in line with what we're doing here in the good ole' Midwest. Urban Farming. Take this challenge.

We've missed out on some great stuff, including February's Soil building, March's Home Dairy, April's Seedstarting and Gardening, May's Foraging, but there is time to jump in on the herbal infusions of June. Follow this blog for more challenges. Go back to learn more about good soil, free wild food, how to start seeds, etc.

So, we're renaming the blog to make it easier to find. Someone gave me handy feed-back this week. I need to post early and often.

Help us rename the blog by taking the poll through July 20th.

Tell us how often you'd like to read posts. We know you are busy!

Refreshing fruit drink recipes!--Dianne

I just received the latest Urban Farm magazine, and it has a big article on blackberries in it.. It also has a recipe for making blackberry cordial, which rang a bell for me.  Come on, all you romantic novel-reading girls out there, remember in Ann of Green Gables, the incident with the cordial?   Well, I thought it would be a hoot to try to make some.  I looked for the magazine just now, of course it's not to be found, but I found these recipes in the mean time.   Anyone can make these, garden or not.  I'm providing alcoholic, and non-alcoholic, whichever is your style, or both!

This recipe is from the Anne of Green Gables cookbook by Kate MacDonald. "Diana poured herself out a tumblerful, looked at it's bright-red hue admiringly, and then sipped it daintily. "That's awfully nice raspberry cordial, Anne," she said. "I didn't know raspberry cordial was so nice." " Anne of Green Gables chapter 26

This one uses frozen raspberries, sugar, water, and lemon slices.
http://www.food.com/recipe/Anne-of-Green-Gables-Raspberry-Cordial-61879


Here's one with vodka.  It's basically the same one as the Urban Farm article, but it said to let it sit for 2-8 weeks, the longer the better.
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/12268/blackberry+vodka+cordial

• 900g fresh or frozen blackberries (2 lbs)
• 450g (2 cups) sugar (1 lb.)
• 375ml bottle vodka
• Chilled soda water, to serve

• Place the blackberries, sugar and vodka into a large clean glass jar. Seal and invert to combine. Set aside in a cool place, turning occasionally, for 24 hours or until the sugar dissolves.

• Pour the blackberry mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl or jug. Use the back of a spoon to press firmly to extract the liquid. Discard the pulp. Transfer the blackberry cordial to a clean bottle or jar and place in the fridge until serving. serve the blackberry vodka cordial with chilled soda water

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4777290_making-blackberry-cordial.html  This one says you may use brandy instead of vodka....

• Raspberry Swirl  Frappe

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/27301/raspberry+swirl+frappe

• 2 cups frozen raspberries
• 1 1/4 cups apple juice
• 1/2 cup plain Greek-style yoghurt

1. Blend raspberries and apple juice together until smooth. Place 1/4 cup yoghurt in the bottom of each of 2 large chilled glasses. Top with raspberry mixture. Using a spoon, swirl yoghurt through raspberry mixture. Serve.

Call me if you make that one, I'll be right over!!


 Other ideas  for cool, refreshing summer drinks

Use  berry-flavored teabags to brew a tea to which  you add ice, sugar, and some fresh berries.  Maybe even rim pretty glasses with sugar, (a la Margarita) before you serve. 

Make a fruit drink, freeze, and use as slushies instead of store bought popsicles or slushies.  You could customize with different flavors of Kool-Aid. 

I'm sure some of you could add some frappes or smoothies, or whatever. If you have a great idea for one, add it on.  I'm not experienced with smoothies, but I probably should be. 
Does anyone make them with just ice, no ice cream?  or with yogurt? 

Back to gardening....
We have not had a decent rain in weeks.  The grass is crunchy.  The church yard, which my son mows, looks shaggy, but I'm afraid to mow, in case it gets really dried up.  Maybe a run around the edges with the blades on high to knock down the weeds.  My own yard is just covered in clover, which is nice,  the white flowers take away from the fact that the grass is yellowing.

Remember, water deeply, less frequently. 

Dianne, waiting on rain...

Berry pickin'!!!

                 IT'S TIME TO HEAD FOR THE BERRY PATCH!!  --Dianne                        

     I grew up picking berries with my mother.  I have always had strawberries and raspberries at our place.  In the last few years, I have expanded and tried some new things.  Here is a picture of a tired me sitting with a gooseberry plant.  I'm showing you this to give you an idea of how big it gets; this is about a full grown plant.  The other great thing about gooseberries is that they take a lot of shade. This is in full sun in the morning, but by lunch, it is in deep shade for the rest of the afternoon.  Gooseberries grow wild in the woods of the midwest,  you've probably seen them when out hiking, you just didn't know what they were. If you know a farmer with a woodlot, maybe you could ask to dig up some.  I warn you that they are prickly, but not bad,  just don't try to reach right down into them to pick without gloves.

Sitting in my gooseberry patch.  I have two plants producing right now.  I need more. I want to make lots of lovely jam.  I think these could make a great low shade  hedge, or the back of a shade garden, if you have access to pick. 

This is what I picked from one plant.  Now, you have to pick off the ends, it is the remains of the flower, and then stem them if you want jam or for a pie.  I may try jelly, which involves cooking down the berries, without having to top and tail them.  Make juice by putting them into a jelly bag and letting them hang to drip.   The "fruit-jell" box should have instructions for how much to have ready to make jelly.

OH, one warning.  Unless you want to look like the funny guy with the rubber face, do NOT pick these and sample for ripeness.  I figure they are ripe when some start turning red, and they look marble size. I picked them over last night, and then froze them, to make jelly when it's not going to be 86 degrees. I recommend these berries for home gardeners because if you live on a small lot, or have a lot of shade, you can still grow your own berries and make some jelly. AND, another thing.  In our English-heritage family, we say "goozburies",  not GOOSE Berries.

Onward to the blackcurrants.  Also not a big plant, but you can get a load of berries from just a few plants.  I have them in full sun next to the asparagus.  Birds like these also, so try to get there first. Blackcurrants are loaded with vitamin C, and are used in Ribena, a popular bottled drink  in the UK.  I have seen it at Meijer, in the foreign food section, or at Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati, the best place to grocery shop in the world!

from the website:

http://www.usagardener.com/how_to_grow_fruits/how_to_grow_black_currant.php

"Black currants are different in their growing habits to the red and white currant, in that the black currant produces most of its fruit on the previous years growth. Thus the bush should be pruned to encourage a supply of new wood each season. To do this, cut all stems of the newly planted bush to about two buds above soil level. New shoots emerge from these in the first season and will bear some fruit in the second. The bushes from a clump of canes which, each season, make new suckers from the base. Once the bush is established, (ie. in the second season), prune out some of the older canes by cutting back to just beyond a strong new shoot near the base to make way for new growth. Leave about six or eight upward growing main shoots to form the bush. Follow this routine each winter. No shoot rising from the base of the plant should remain in place longer than three years. Keep the centre reasonably open at all times. "

Since they fruit on last year's wood, I need to get out there and prune out old stuff, and be careful not to cut new growth. Also, another plant that could be used as a small hedge, AND you get to reap a harvest.  Better than any old evergreen or ugly privet, I say.

 Now to the tomatoes!!  Another fruit in my garden. This is a Red Robin.  I've never had this kind before, so I only bought one.  It is a smaller tomato, but I can just throw some into a salad and be healthy.  All my other plants have been pruned and tied to poles or fences in the garden.   We also bought a "beat your neighbor" plant marked down at a garden shop, ate one big tomato yesterday.  This is growing in a pot right alongside flowers on my deck steps.

The grape arbor has recovered from the early frost, but I don't think I'll have the same yield this year. The raspberries to the left have been covered with flowers, I hope to get a lot of berries this year! I was told the barn would be painted this year.  You can check later when I post late summer pics to see if it gets done.

If you are experiencing drought conditions in your area, let your grass grow. You save gas money, and you aren't stressing the plants.  Also, if you are going to water your lawn, do it about once a week, but deeply, so the roots will grow down, not to the side.  

Happy Strawberry Festival, Crawfordsville!!

Dianne, bugs and all!  (I hates them little black bugses!)





The "Lazy" Gardener's Guide: Foodscaping and Found Gardening

Dianne's sister said something about Dianne that set me free. It was over a month ago and I need to paraphrase, but it was something like: "The trouble with Dianne's way of gardening is that she waits to find plants. She can't plan out her gardens, so ..." There my attention went haywire. Wait!  I thought to myself. That is why I love her gardening.

Before I took off for the first of two  long business trips, Dianne emailed a plea for someone to rescue the bargain she'd piled up at the church gardens. Begonias, annuals of various ilk, and a few other markdowns were waiting to be put in the garden. These days, Dianne's crazy busier than me, or as busy, with her nursing courses. I skipped Bible study and just dug up the dirt wherever, thinking of her 'trouble' of gardening whichever way strikes her fancy. That's why she's so generous with roots and cuts, and said to me last year, "No big deal if you don't like where you put it. Just move it."

I got it! Finally I got that she gardens in freedom and love. Last year, I moved the peony bushes crying about them, because I love peonies and hydrangeas but the darned lead in my soil meant I needed to move those bushes to the front garden, formerly established for foodscaping, so I could foodscape where my daffodils, tulips and peonies once made my blase property look new and quaint.

The front lawn last year before our native soil tested 4000 ppm of lead.

My front lawn this year with donated bricks, starts of pilgrim cranberry, rescued easter lilies, day lilies, transplanted peonies, clematis starts, ivy, columbines, creeping thyme, and later, I hope some sweet woodruff, hydrangea and chives, I hope make this lovely.

This year the front lawn is being re-scaped, but with my anti-grass ethic. I am tired of the 'perfect' lawn ethic. I'm too lazy for hand weeding the dandelions and clover. I'm too anti-pesticide to hire the chemkillers to come murder more than 'weeds.' Weeds, it turns out, have become lunch recently. A little reading has educated me on scavenge eating and forage gardening. Many greens we spray are rich in vitamins and minerals, as well as flavor.

In that spirit I found this article today from NPR's The Salt Blog:
Tired of Mowing Your Lawn? Try Foodscaping Instead

I cannot foodscape here, but Dianne's front gardens are the height of beauty and practicality. I follow her lead. Forced to practice a senseless act of beauty in this front bed, I tip my hat Dianne, my gardening hero, a woman of the free-spirit love of God's green earth. She does not fight God's creation, but remembers that a garden grows under seasons we can n'er control. We will love what we do if garden more like her.  Hats off to Dianne. (No, wait, wear a hat. Ticks are awful.)

Start them early!! Seeds and Kids!!--Dianne

Trying to get your kids interested in gardening????

Right now is a great time to start some seeds.  I put some in peat pots,  squash and cukes, 6 days ago, and they are up with two leaves each.  Both are great plants for kids because they quickly get to see growth and get to eat their crop quicker than most things.  If you get the plants to climb, it's fun to watch daily, or every two day progress.  You could take pictures of them and the plant every 5 days for a fun record.  Have them do some writing along with it. As you can see, one pot didn't germinate, but that's okay, who really needs 12 cucumber plants??  If you come by in about 2 months, I'll load you up with both cukes AND zukes...

Some other fun things for kids to do would be to get a two liter bottle, and when the squash or cuke has started to form a "fruit,"  have them position the bottle so that the fruit grows inside the bottle.  It won't hurt a thing and looks really cool when it grows.

If you are growing pole beans, I recommend Kentucky Pole Beans,  arrange long sticks in a circle, then "tee-pee" them at the top,  that way the kids get a cool tent to sit in as the plants grow.  I did it with sunflowers one year, really fun.  We made a plant "house."   I planted in a big square, leaving room for a doorway.  The kids loved it. 



I just read in a gardening magazine about someone who had a forsythia hedge in front of her house.  So when the forsythia had finished blooming in spring, she planted gourds and squash next to them, and used them as a living fence.  Sturdy enough for the new plants to grow up, and they don't rust, or have to be taken in in the fall!

I have three teens this summer, so I keep finding things for them to do.   Here is a great list.

Follow around behind me and pick up the weedings.  Somedays I can weed, AND pick up, but some days I just can't.

Mow, dang-it.
Wash the front porch.  Wash the house on the outside,  reserve for a hot day, and expect some horsing around.  But the house gets clean, so what?  Oh, and get the car and van while you are at it.
WEED!  Here, just this bit, and then you are done.   Give them an area, they have to do a good job within a specified time limit, don't make it too hard.  A homeschool mom told me I should MAKE my kids help me in the flower beds. I told her that was MY hobby ,  not theirs.  I can't think of a better way to turn kids off than to make them a slave to the garden.   Now, helping occasionally can't hurt their future intake of ice cream, and it instills some good work habits they will need as later homeowners.
Please, help me with this big pile of mulch and we'll see if you get something for it later.

If you don't get a summer job, the barn needs painting.  We'll pay. 

Do your own laundry, fix a meal, run the sweeper.  Mom's in school this summer, and needs help. 

Pick strawberries.  Now, I know I won't get a full bowl, but I bet at least two of my kids will have strawberry beds at their own homes later.  Fresh strawberries are a small part of heaven.

Picking tomatoes later is a must.  Sometimes I just don't care about the complaints, it just has to be done.  I always think of all the hard work my grandparents did in the fields of Norfolk, England, before, during, and after WW II, and tell my kids to get on it.

Please admire my garden occasionally, and tell me it looks wonderful, and keep your big-footed friends out of it. 

Dianne, who just scraped off a layer of dirt.

And don't forget Who gives you the sun, the rain, the soil, and the growth.  Be thankful.

Strawberries? Seriously???? in April??? and the new Combs' vineyard --Dianne

Okay, people,  this weather thing has made life very interesting.  Yesterday, just before church, on April 29,  my daughter comes to me and says, "Hey, Mom, red strawberries in the garden!"  So we had to investigate, and sure enough, there were some!!  Alas, some of these have already become one with my insides, and so no longer appear as such.....

I also cut iris at church yesterday, in April!!  Just seems weird!.

I plunked some tomatoes into the garden yesterday from their in/out-the garage wheelbarrow.  I moved the white hooped row cover over some of them.  I am thinking that this year I will use posts for support, instead of my old fencing material.  I never seem to find just that perfect tomato support system. By the end of the summer, I always have a jungle. 

A list of tomatoes I have planted:  Park Whoppers,  Better Girl , Golden.  I still have some more to get into the ground.  I'm not putting so many in this year, I still have boxes of jarred juice in the basement, and canning time will hit right when I start up fall semester.  May hit the Amish auction in Guion, Park County, if I feel the need for large amounts at one time.  I usually get canner tomatoes for $2 a box.   I'm sure that this week they must be selling hanging baskets for about a dollar.   Sounds great until you have to cram a lot of 25 into your car!  Also, bedding plants should be going for very cheap.

Bill's brother, Bob, the engineer, and his family have lived on the family farm since they got married.  Bob decided a few years ago that he was not going to farm any more, and someone else rents the land from him.  However, he and his wife, Debbie, along with lots of friends and family, have been  put in about 600 grape vines for their new vineyard!  They live near the Wild Cat Creek Winery in Clinton County, east of Lafayette, and have decided to become grape growers.  I'm not sure what kind they are growing, but it sounds really ambitious.  We're about to get a bunch of rain this week, which should help with their just-planted vines.

I'm hoping that this on/off spring weather doesn't affect what they already had in the ground.  My big grape arbor looks like someone took a blowtorch to it.  I heard Welch's people on TV last week bemoaning the big freeze in the midwest, and how it will affect their crop this year.   We keep running out with tarps to throw over the potatoes, but I think for at least this week, we should be fine.  I keep my eye on the nightly low temps, and for this week, we seem to be staying in the 50's, hence the tomatoes have gone out.  I put canning jars over some of them for mini- greenhouses.

I am slowly getting control over the weeds that also came up early.  That stinkin' $%#$@# ground ivy  that is the bane of my gardening life has made a grand appearance this year, we have had some vicious wars in the front garden, I can tell you! 

AND, he's Ba-a-a-a-a-a-ck!! yes, that annoying groundhog has shown his face around here again,  having spent the winter rent-free under my barn floor. 
   Sure, eat up, fuzzball, I'm gunning for you, my furry little munching friend.  May you be sprinkled with the pellets from my son's gun so much that you go live somewhere else.  No sweet potatoes for you  to snack on this year, my fine friend!

Oh, and I've been very cautious in the garden, since Oh, Shi===, the snake, has progeny lurking about.  Robbie saw one first,  I could hear him yelling over the noise of the tiller!! 

Just had a wonderful rain, so weeding should be better tomorrow.

Now get out there and get dirty, folks!!


Dianne, Dirt and all!

Coming Soon! Book Review of Seedfolk from Young Adult author

Reading about gardens is as much fun as playing in them. When my student Jennifer asked me to critique an essay for Sylvia K Burdock Award, she introduced me to another book about gardening. In a few days, the award should be announced and we've agreed that would be a good time to publish her essay here.

In the meantime, NPR's Backseat Book Club promoted Seedfolks by Paul Fleishman. Check out an excerpt here.

Then, think about how gardens grow even where unbidden. I am enjoying the prospect of scavenge gardening, even as the rabbits have threatened my tomato, bean, pea and carrot starts. I lost most of 8-ball and melon starts in this wonky spring that turned warm, then snapped windy and cold. They were not in ground yet. They might have been safer there, where their lusty root system, pushing out of the pots wanted to crawl out. I was worried about the cold snap. I left in them the portable greenhouse which tumbled in gusty winds.  They were weary of their confines and gave up their lives in that last hurdle. Now we shall have to buy starts and plant seeds in a week or so for late rounds.

Care to make the most of your local plants? How about this. I learned Stinging Nettles, blanched in water, become delicious pesto. I think the economic downturn has made us all be a bit more creative. No dumpster diving yet, though I've thought about it. Instead, the growing season brings hope for yummier days.  Enjoy this link to NPR's "The Salt" blog for an affordable spring pesto.

yikes, we've been frostbitten!!!--Dianne

Here in Indiana we have had a wacky late winter/spring.  80 degrees and trees almost fully leafed out.  Flowers blooming 2-4 weeks ahead of schedule.  Lots of things blooming at the same time that usually never do....

After recovering from midnight Paschal service yesterday, April 15, I was up and  out trying to spread some mulch around in a front flower bed and found that my hostas got very frostbitten in a couple of frosts last week.  Their cells literally exploded in the leaves.  The leaves look watery, limp, and pale.  They feel almost slimey. 

I have hydrangeas that are blackened, all new growth has been killed off.  Several other shrubs in the garden are looking bad, like Rose of Sharon.  The newest leaves on some plants are dead, crispy, black ick on the ends of branches.

I had put out some early crop broccoli along with cabbages.  They are showing some stress, as in light patches on leaves.  I believe they will recover, since we had a nice rain in the night Saturday.

I have been researching what to do with my frostbitten plants... 

A) Leave trees alone.  They will put out new growth, and push off the deadened leaves.  Do NOT fertilize.  Do NOT prune heavily.  You may do some light trimming back of damaged leaves, but no heavy branch trimming.  Give it time to recover.

B) Hostas and other smaller plants, it is okay to trim them back.  They will also put out new leaves.  Do NOT fertilize.  Fertilizing them now puts extra strain on them to put out leaves while they are recovering.  It could overwork the plant.  In fact, what I read said not to fertilize them at all until next year. Tomatoes will probably not recover if frostbitten.

C)  Make sure your plants are getting enough water to continue new growth. It has actually been dry here, and I had been watering anyway.  Now I must continue, to reduce stress load on recovering plants.  

Having married a former corn/bean dairy farmer,  I have learned to "farm" as we drive around.  We inspect fields, and he tells me yet again what has been chisel plowed, but not planted.   Two weeks ago, as we drove to Lafayette, and a grain truck in front of us drove over the center line and then off the side on the right.  I was freaking out!  I screamed at Bill, "What's he doing up there?"  Because NO one wants a fully loaded grain truck to spill in front of them!  Bill swerved a bit too, and replied, "Well, he probably just saw that guy over there planting corn the first week of April."   Sheesh...See what happens when the weather warms up?

This appears to be a 5 row planter.  Some can have many more attachments on the back and plant huge fields in much less time.  See the fertilizer tank on the front of the tractor?
So, last week, driving back from Indy, I actually saw corn up about 3 inches in a field.  I hope it survived the frost.

Here's a picture of frostbitten corn, about the same size that I saw. 

Like last year, I have repotted tomato plants in a wheelbarrow, and have been dragging it in and out of the garage everyday.  No frost bite and the plants are doing well!!

woohoo!  Just received my new issue of Urban Farm in the mail, time to find and pass on the last one to Maria. 

I hope you have all found an allergy medicine that makes you feel better with this early onslaught of every freakin' allergen in the world that has descended upon us early this year.  Every morning I have to pry my eyes open, and then they are swollen most of the morning.

Happy Gardening!! 

Dianne, dirt, allergies, and all

You might be a ....

A Grass to Gardens Fan if you are muttering "Die Grass Die" to the grass you are trying to hoe and handtill from your front lawn.

So I won third place in the Holland Bulb recipe contest:
http://www.bulbblog.com/3rd-place-winning-recipes/


I won 25 buckaroos, which are now coming in the form of White Clematis, a Francoise Ortegat Peony, and Columbines to join the creeping thyme and Pilgrim Cranberry creepers for the front lawn.

A Scavenge Gardener if your husband sauteed Dandelion greens, you hunt for fiddleheads and have stared down at weeds while walking hand-in-hand with your hubby, looking for purslane in the past year.

Make the recipe at the previous link and here, from Food and Wine Magazine.


The ultimate recycler/Portandia Fan, if your husband jokes,
"I see you pickled the {torn} mat to the dismantled trampoline" because your are using it around a tree to choke out the poison ivy.


In the clip below, they pickled the unsold Farmer's Market cukes.
Here's what I've been pickling:

1. The stems to broccoli.
 See this Wegman's link for some great Japanese pickling recipes.
2. Five-year aged Garlic Heads with peppercorns, balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar and sugar.



Check out the humor of pickling all veggies and food, as well as CD cases. Warning about the ending!

Hello, my little Chickadee!

What do you do when spring comes early? The cold crops got a good dose of 80+ degree weather in the past couple of weeks. The late starts got too much heat too early and are going to resent the cool snap starting tonight.

There is so much to do. The Pilgrim Cranberry bushes went into the ground last week as did several Brussel Sprout plants. Already the lettuce and arugula have taken off and my husband made the most of my travel time. He jiggered the spouts into the rain barrels, scavenged from the dandelion greens for a stir fry, and did a bit of this and that. Now it's time to locate more dirt for our raised beds.

I brought home six pullets just now, cute little drops of Easter chicks. They are peeping in fresh cedar up in my garden room, next to asparagus and broccoli starts. When they can hen peck back at the last two Rhode Island Reds from last year, we'll move them over to the chicken coop. Oh, how wonderful are these early days of spring, as E.B. White noted in Charlotte's Web.

Pictures will be posted soon of the three new species of chicks. The worm farm is outdoors now. I'll post pictures of our rain barrels, raised beds, cold frames, current bushes, and hopefully some scavenged raspberry starts. I bought the rooting hormone this afternoon and will return from my 10 miles in the morning with a quick trip to the nearest patch to cut some starts. In the meantime, here is how to convert some

Food grade barrels into recycled rainwater repositories

Tires to into Worm Farm

Happy Easter, Happy Spring, Blessed Pascha.

TICK on me!!!!!--Dianne

This is a tick, it is NOT your friend.

This is a tick burrowing into someone's skin.  Also, not your friend.

This is how big they actually are.

Wow!  took a shower, and was drying off, and felt something under my hand, looked in the mirror, and it was a brown thingie.  looked down, and it was a tick!!!  I may have to have Bill look me over like an orangutan before bed to see if I have any in my hair.   Be careful out there, people!

So, what's going on in the garden today?  LOTS and LOTS of seeds that survived our mild winter are now sprouting into young tree seedlings.  After some rain tomorrow night, I'm going to have to go out and start pulling them up, or I may have to rename my garden "The Haphazard Arboretum!"

Also, I talked about this last year, and it seems to be working for me.  I went out with a bag to the garden to pick all the dandelions I could find.  I don't like to spray if I don't have to, and this is a great way to get in all those squats I don't want to do for exercise class.  I don't have nearly as many as I had when we first moved here.  It takes a while to get down your numbers, but at least they aren't taking  over the garden.

My strawberries are blooming now, and should be fertilized tomorrow, before it rains. This is about 2 weeks early, just like everything else around here.  I hope you are all enjoying the beauty of the flowering trees through the fog of allergy eyes.  I nearly scratched mine out this evening. 

Maria said that one of her sisters was asking for recipes.  Today I ate some fabulous tabouli at a Mediterranean restaurant in Indy, Khouri's , over by Glendale Mall.  $7 lunch buffet.  yum. 

Tabouli---
couscous, cooked and cooled
finely chopped tomatoes
parsley , chopped
mint, chopped
olive oil
salt , pepper
chill when mixed

It is a light, refreshing salad.   I could see adding chopped cukes. Or, really, any crispy raw veg that you like.  The mint adds a zing that makes it perfect for a hot summer's day. It would be great as a side with a pita sandwich in place of chips.  Add some honey-drenched Middle-eastern dessert, and you are very happy. 
I also ate baba-ganoush, which is made with eggplant, something else I need to get into the garden this year.
I have tomatoes in pots,   brocs and cabbages in a newly turned garden.  It is a spot that I heavily composted and grew potatoes in last year, I can't believe the difference in the "friability" of the soil,  it practically runs through my fingers, as opposed to the clay from the foundation digging that was originally there.    Keep composting, it works!!

Seems like with a warmer winter, the garden jobs are just piling up.  Remember to keep the pain reliever handy, and drink water frequently.  Oh, and occasionally, a cold "liquid bread"  (beer) helps to make me not feel the aches and pains.  And maybe a Tom Selleck movie. 

Dianne, dirt and all

pictures from my garden

Pictures from my garden, on a sunny day in MARCH!

I know it's really crazy, but here they are, flowers in full bloom on March 24, in Indiana!  We have had some spectacular weather here, and everything has been coming up early, and blooming! I even have lilac blooming, started yesterday, I'll have to add them in later!

These are the cerise colored primroses, they grow abundantly in English woods, they grow in my shade garden in Indiana, and can be a bit picky about their microclimate.

These are some white wildflowers from the woods,  I think I have named them incorrectly, as woodpoppies, so I'll have to go back and find them in a book, they open up as beautiful white, single-petal wide flowers.

 And who doesn't love redbud?  the ubiquitous Indiana spring flowering tree!

Oh, and so lovely, and usually the first to show it's lovely blossoms, I introduce you to Bleeding Heart. I just bought some Dutchmen's Britches in white yesterday, they are cousins to this plant.  This tiny plant will grow up about a foot tall and two feet across and be covered in blooms.  The first plant I dug up and moved from the other house.

 OH, and another spring beauty around here, my daughter, Alice-Ann, turns 16 today.  She had "glam" photos taken at dance, so we kept the make-up on for another shot.  She's prettier without it.

 The Harbinger of spring, the dainty, dancing daffodil!   Who doesn't love these babies?

 The white wildflower, just coming into its own, with a little warmth, and a little sunshine!

Alice-Ann took all the pictures, she's the official photographer of my side of the blog.  She at least gets stuff in focus!

Have a beautiful week, and look towards the glory that is the Resurrection!! 

And Happy Annunciation Day!  This is the day celebrated by the Church to remember when Gabriel came to Mary, and she freely accepted the will of God in becoming His mother. 

Today is the beginning of our salvation and the manifestation of the mystery which is from eternity. The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin, and Gabriel announces grace. So with him let us also cry to the Mother of God: Rejoice, thou who art full of grace! The Lord is with thee.

Hallelujah!  Sing to Jesus!

Dianne, unworthy sinner