I can't remember the last time that I sat down to write here. I have spent entire days out in the garden, catching up on what seemed to be an endless number of new weeds, things that needed harvesting, and managing pests. Tomato horn worms are devastating my tomatoes.
(wikipedia image)
Despite those massive worms, most everything else is going very well, and coming very early. The lettuce has bolted and the peas are done, the salad turnips and radishes are all gone, but I am picking beets, carrots, beans, cherry tomatoes, kohlrabi, spinach, Swiss chard, hot peppers, bell peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, onions, scallions, herbs and turnips. Only three parsnips survived, and the eggplant is so chewed up by aphids, it probably won't produce (powdered mustard mixed in warm water sprayed on leaves helps, but only if you keep up with it!). Rutabaga, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, pumpkins, leeks, and sunflowers might be ready as early as the end of next month! I have no idea about the sugar beets or melons, they are so small still, but if we have a long season it might work! I haven't checked the garden at my parents' in a few weeks...so those purple beans might be ready soon. At least the dried beans that I planted there will be fine. The good things about those is that you just leave them to dry on the vine, then pick the whole plant! Super easy.
I have been running the dehydrator constantly, and it is still not enough. We have more than we know what to do with. Some things are very easy to store or leave in the ground until we want them, but others, like turnips, just keep growing, and we are sick of them. I never want to see another turnip again. If anyone out there wants turnips, please let me know! Or anything else, for that matter...
Today, I am making oat bread, boiling some lamb bones for broth, dehydrating cilantro, and washing clothes in the tub, Russian style. I am going to the market later to sell yarn, demonstrate spinning, and help Kelly Corner Farm sell their goods. I LOVE the market. There are so many good things to eat! I sometimes get things at a discount, too, because I help as a vendor. Every week I come home with massive cookies, fresh fish, and maybe some blueberry milk or day old muffins. Some vendors are willing to trade goods, too. I feel very fortunate to have access to all of these wonderful and nutritious foods! I strongly recommend going to your local market, make friends, get to know people. Sometimes they might have a deal or opportunity to get something at a discount or in bulk, too. Buying local when you can is so good for the local economy, reducing the need for transporting food over long distances and picking it before it is ripe or letting it sit, the nutrients fading away the longer it takes to get to your table. I think that conventional produce, grown with care and sustainable practices, is much better than organic produce from the big store shipped from the other side of the country. I could go on about that topic for a while...
July is almost over, and I am so far behind. I have jams to make, weeds to pull, veggies to blanch and dehydrate, cheese to make. My cupboards look so bare right now. I am thinking of the winter and what we will eat then. But for now, I need to go put that bread in the oven and mix up some blueberry and blackberry gingerbread, and hang up some clothes to dry, before heading out for market. It is such a beautiful day!
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