Parkrose Permaculture

Sour Cherries

A bit late, but here are some pics from our drive out to Sandy Farms last week to pick sour cherries.Â (A big thanks to Chris at Lost Arts Kitchen for letting me know about the good cherry picking there!)

This was the first time I’ve cooked with sour cherries, and we made sour cherry + brandy jam, and sour cherry + rhubarb jam.Â Both were delicious!Â We also started some cherries in brandy and some in vodka, for liqueur making next month, and froze a LOT of cherries for pies this winter.

It seems like the girls and I have been pitting cherries endlessly, but we’ve enjoyed the fruits of our labors –

Not much says “summer” more than a rustic cherry pie (with cornmeal, butter crust), hot out of the oven!

Cherries and Meditation

The early morning was spent preparing a big batch of Hood River organic cherries for the dehydrator.Â Â We ate oodles fresh, and what is left will go in a batch ofÂ sweet cherry brandy (makes the best fruitcake for Christmas).

If you don’t have a cherry pitter, check out this tip, and these, for how to remove cherry pits.Â Â I like the way the cherries dry better when they’re sliced fully in half, but I do pit them when making brandy, pies, feeding them to the children.

Later this afternoon, we’re going picking for sour cherries (more on that tomorrow).Â I’m excited to get some locally – I’ve actually never cooked with them before, and hear they make excellent pie and jam.

I really like preparing stone fruit for jam, drying, etc.Â It’s such a rhythmic, meditative process.Â Â Gives me time to think, pray, while slicing the fruit, removing the pits to a separate pile.Â It reminds me a bit of traditions that use prayer beads. Â It’s a very peaceful thing, really.

Garlic

We’re harvesting 8 types of hard and softneck garlic this week (and shallots, and pulling up spent pea vines).Â Â Despite some of the garlic struggling with rust due to the rainy weather, nearly all of the bulbs are big and well formed and beautiful.

Garlic is so easy to grow, and heirloom garlic come in such an amazing range of subtle and sharp flavors – nothing like grocery store garlic (80% of which is grown in China, btw).Â And shallots – which easily run $6/lb for organic shallots in the store – are even easier to grow (I buy the bulbs for planting at the Asian market for about $2/lb (much more economical than the $10+/lb for planting shallots at local nurseries in the fall – it’s not organic, but then I save some of the harvest for replanting, which, of course, were grown organically.)

We’ll save the best of the bulbs to replant this fall and expand our harvest for next year,Â and also have some to share with BCS Teaching Garden volunteers, so that they can start a garlic patch of their own (the garlic planting class is coming in October – keep an eye out for more info this September.)

And a reminder – we’re having a workshop this Saturday from 9:30-11:30, followed by a potluck lunch – check the info out here ifÂ you’re interested.

Summer Sewing

The past week, we’ve been tackling some simple sewing projects (and I mean simple, and even then my seams are wonky).

Most other times of the year, sewing feels more like an obligation, but it’s really relaxing after dinner in the summer – especially after grubbing around in the dirt in the garden much of the day, it’s nice to sit down with pretty, clean stacks of cotton prints and play, you know?

Last week, on the way to the library, we made an impulsive stop at The Fabric Depot (my first visit, ever), where I happened to find bolts and bolts of fabric 70% off, and therefore spent way more than I had intended – because it was such a good deal!!Â All of the super cute prints were $3-4/yd, and the plan is to use much of the 10 yds (yikes!) to make several of these and these for the girls (they’ve suddenly gotten too tall for all of their skirts!).

With the remnants and also some of my thrift-store fabric stash, the girls and I cranked out a few dollie quilts (especially Firecracker, who likes to sit in my lap and help guide the fabric), and also

made 8 more library/grocery tote bags for birthday and hostess gifts.Â (We cut out fabric for another 8, but are a little burned out, and will probably wait a few weeks to piece them together.) Â The one above is my favorite.Â It’s made from some vintage thrifted fabric for the body, an old 100% cotton sheet (that I tea-dyed) for the handles and lining fabric, and a little piece of that uber-expensive batik-print fabric for the pocket (I sprung for a fat-quarter, since it was so pretty).

I also made some little kid-sized totes (like the one on the right).Â Tum Tum LOVES his sombrero tote and carries all his little toys in it (very handy at the restaurants, church, meetings, etc), so I made a few for my nephew and some friends’ kids.Â (Fabric Depot had some very cute Eric Carle fabric, as well as a fishy/octopus print that worked really well for these).Â The girls each have one, as well, and keep colored pencils, stickers, notecards and cardstock in theirs – which keeps them occupied at boring meetings, as well.

(Little Hen got bored with cutting fabric, and started creating her own fabric art bouquet out of the trimmings and straight pins.)

After a week of non-stop sewing, we’re going to take a little break and hopefully get the front of the house painted and some other summer household projects finished.Â What summer crafting have you been up to?

Wednesday Harvest

A few things from this morning’s harvest.Â Carrots, beets, 3 types of kale, lots and lots of chard, and buckets full of sugar snap and snow peas.

So grateful for the constant stream of Teaching Garden volunteers today.Â Folks were working hard from 9:30 am straight through to 4:30pm. Â Â We’re feeling very, very blessed.Â Â A big thank you to all of the helping hands!

Late June Garden Update

It’s late June at Salt of the Earth Urban Farm (home of the BCS Teaching Garden)!Â Finally, some warm weather (mid-upper 70’s) has settled in (the tomatoes,Â summer squash and bush beans look much happier) and everything is flourishing.Â

The harvest is increasing – every week, we are taking a few dozen cartons of organic snow and sugar snap peas, as well as boxes and boxes of lettuce, chard, kale, bitter greens, and a few choice boxes of herbs and strawberries to Birch Community Services.Â We are still looking forward to the coming months and being able to take in more and more food to share amongst the families at BCS (loads of organic bush beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and summer squash will be coming soon!).

Here are a few shots from around the yard – mostly in the front yard –

A few shots of the front yard, here.Â Can you believe just a few short months ago, it looked like this? —>

(And a day before this, it was just weeds and lawn!Â Taken late-February 2010.)

Front to back in this shot – variegated land cress, beets (with a few Butternut starts peeking thru on the right and a crate of potatoes to the left), Italian kale, cardoons, salad greens, Oregon Sugar Pod II peas, California poppies and De Milpa tomatillos.

Tomatoes in the front are underplanted with beets and cosmos.Â In the backyard, with nasturtiums and lettuce (the shade from the tomatoes will keep the lettuce from bolting in the July/Aug heat.).

Mature artichokes and cardoons take up a lot of space, but while they’re still growing, I’ve underplanted them with daisies, nasturtium and chives (winter squash, dahlias, sunflowers, fennel, and wildflowers are visible in the background.)

Not shown – I planted an herb bed in the front yard – three types of lavender (two culinary, one for sachets), three types of rosemary (I love rosemary!), tangerine sage, tricolor sage, lemon verbena,and curry plant from starts (when pinching pennies, get the 4-inch pots – they were $3 each, versus $9-10 for the next size up, and $30 for large rosemaries and lavenders in gallon pots.Â They’ll grow big, too!Â Be patient!)Â I also transplanted in two types of thyme, oregano, Greek basil, Thai basil, and Genovese basil that I started from seed a while back (for a savings of about $15 over buying potted starts).

Much of the back isn’t so pretty yet, but here’s a shot of the linear beds near the houseÂ -front to back – garlic; parsnips, kale, chard, carrots; peas and poppies underplanted with kale.Â I didn’t take any shots of the bush bean, asparagus, potato and squash beds, which make up about 60% of the backyard.

Out back, we’re still doing the fairly miserable work of ripping up bamboo (rhizomes and all) for a future raspberry patch (to the left in this picture) and quince and pear stand (where the current volunteer hazelnut currently resides.)Â The far NW corner of the yard (not pictured), which will eventually be our Zone 3 fruit orchard,Â is currently overrun with weeds.Â I did manage to get three apple trees and a Desert King fig planted back there, and my husband expanded the chicken run (while protecting the young trees), so the hens could make short work of the weeds and give me room to underplant the trees with red clover and more lavender.Â We are still hunting for a persimmon, a dwarf apricot, and black currants to put back in that area.

More shots from out back in the coming month – the rows of bush beans and summer squash are quite small, and the limas and runner beans are barely reaching up their poles).

If you’re interested – we’re having a free hands-on workshop onÂ Saturday, July 17th here at the garden from 9:30-11:30 and follow up with a potluck luncheon from 11:30-12:30.Â We will be doing a garden tour, discussing high-summer garden needs and prepping for a fall garden.Â We will be starting seeds for fall crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc), possibly harvesting potatoes, and doing regular garden maintenance.Â Â Bring your garden gloves, shovel, and a dish to share.Â Children are welcome.

Contact the garden coordinator for Birch Community Services, Tiffany, atÂ tiffany.mach@yahoo.com to sign up.

Watermelon Salad

A while back, Sunset Magazine called for summer recipe submissions with 5 ingredients or less.Â I sent in a recipe, and they published it in the July 2010 issue!

It’s a super easy fruit salad recipe based on a dish I make all the time in the summer.Â (It’s a great dish to take to a potluck, btw.)Â I basically use my homemade lime marmalade warmed up to make a dressing, and tossed with any cubed melon.Â (Although, it’s also good with some fresh mint added, or using strawberries and oranges if melon isn’t available).

So, check out the current issue of Sunset for the recipe!

Stone Fruit Cake

Larksong’s Simple Stone Fruit Cake

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup white flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

approx 3 -4 apricots, plums, pluots, etc, washed and sliced, or a large handful of pitted, halved sour cherries

sanding sugar to sprinkle on top (about 1 Tbsp)

Directions

1)Preheat oven to 350F.Â Butter a 9-inch springform pan (or, line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment if you don’t have a springform pan) and set aside.

2)In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.Â Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.Â Beat on med-high for a few minutes untilÂ quite fluffy. Meanwhile, sift flours, salt, b. powder and nutmeg into a separate bowl.

3)Add vanilla and slowly add flour mixture until just combined.

4)Pour into pan and arrange sliced fruit over the top.Â Sprinkle with sanding sugar.

5)Bake 40-50 min or until edges are browning and center is set.Â Let rest 5 minutes before removing from pan.Â Enjoy with ice cream or whipped cream.

ENJOY!!

trish fixed pictures!

New Pizza Recipe

The other night we tried out a new pizza recipe from Good Eat’s guru, Alton Brown.

I really liked that the dough is made the night before and allowed to set-up in the fridge – this way, when I’m in a hurry to make dinner the next night, I can quickly take out the dough, stick the pizza stone in the oven, and quickly whip up some homemade pizza.

Overall, I was pretty happy with how the pizzas turned out (one recipe makes two medium pizzas) –

2 chief issues – my husband didn’t love the texture of the dough, and Alton called for flour on the pizza peel – I went against my instinct and trusted him on this.Â Big mistake. Â Using flour made the dough stick to the peel horribly, and, as you can see from the wonky shape of the pizzas, it was a real pain to slide the pizza off onto the 500F stone without destroying the pizza and losing all the toppings.Â Always ALWAYS use cornmeal on the pizza peel, and you won’t have dough stick to it.

The kids had simply mozarella, parmesan and ham on their pizza, and we added red peppers on ours.Â I’m looking forward to having enough basil from the garden soon to add that, and in retrospect, I should have added some kale as well, which crisps up nicely on a pizza.Â But, I used what I had on hand and was in a hurry.

We are hoping to build an outdoor wood-fired bread and pizza oven this summer (not sure yet if it’ll be cob or brick), so that we can continue to bake in the heat (if it ever arrives), and would like to start our own version of Barbara Kingsolver’s tradition of homemade pizza on Fridays – using whatever fresh ingredients the garden or market provide.

Eventually, we hope that the bread/pizza oven would be a place to foster community in Parkrose – folks in our neighborhood could gather and bake bread once a week (just like an article I read in Sunset magazine about the Cully neighborhood’s bread oven).Â I’d let people know that I’m going to fire up the oven every Friday at a certain time, and anyone who wants to bake can come with their dough and we can have tea and chit-chat while it bakes.

In the meantime, we’re still in search of the perfect pizza dough recipe – if you have a favorite, please share it with me!Â Thanks!

Anyway,Â best get out to the yard for a bit while the sun shines!

Simple Baby Socks (No Grafting!)

Another baby wave!Â Lots of friends are having babies in the next several weeks, so every spare moment, it’s knitting, knitting, knitting (I’ve even been knitting in church on Sundays!Â I actually absorb the sermon better – multitasking prevents the mind from wandering!)!

My knitting tends to go in a seasonal rhythm – winter babies always get hats (usually a pixie or a Debbie Blisspattern with little earflaps) and spring/fall babies usually get booties.Â But what to make for summer babies?Â SOCKS!

I found that a lot of baby sock and bootie patterns (you know, the teensy ones) never fit my kids’ feet, even as newborns.Â As a result, I took what I like best about some of my favorite adult sock patterns, and adapted it to a bit larger baby sock.Â It should fit a size 6-12 months.Â If you’d like a larger sock, simply make it a bit longer in the foot, or for a smaller sock, go down a needle size.

Here’s the pattern :

PDF Format

Larksong’s Baby Socks

Size – 6-12 months (for size 3-6 months, use a smaller needle (1 or 0))

Needles – Set of 4 double-pointed needles,Â USÂ size 2

Yarn – any sock or fingering weight yarn, leftovers from adult socks work great!Â (about 100 yds, to be safe)

CO 40 sts, divide over three needles as follows: 20 sts on ndle 1, and 10 sts each on ndles 2 and 3.

For the cuff:

Join (careful not to twist) and knit in K2, P2 rib for 24 rounds (optional – 40 rounds for a folded cuff)

For the heel flap:

Using only the 20 st on ndle 1, knit back and forth as follows –

Row 1 (outside of sock):Â (Sl one knitwise, K1) repeat these two stitches to end of row

RowÂ 2 (inside/wrongside): Sl 1 purlwise, P to end

Repeat rows one and two a total of 18 times (you will count 9 sts on the slip rows on the knit side) ), ending after a (Sl1, K1) row.

Turn of the heel:

Row 1: Sl first st Purl wise, P to two sts beyond center (12 sts total), P2tog, P1, turn

Row 2: Sl 1, K5, K2tog, K1, turn

Row 3: Sl 1, P to one st before the gap (also known as “within 1 st of last turn”), P2 tog, P1, turn

Row 4: Sl 1, K to one st before the gap, K2 tog, K1, turn

Continue in this manner until 12 sts remain (you will end with K2togs w/o a K1 following).

You will have just completed a K row.

For the gusset:

With needle on, pick up (PU) and K 10 sts on the left side of the heel flap (continuing in the knit direction).Â (To avoid gaps, twist stitches as you pick them up, or K into the back of the stitch).

Knit across needle two (option – continue to in ribbing K2, P2 pattern on ndle 2 only until beginning of toe decrease.Â This will make for a more snug-fitting sock.)

PU and K (again, twisting sts) 10 sts along the other side of the heel flap and then K6Â from ndle 1 to the end of ndle 3.Â (The begging of your round will now be halfway across the back of the heel, and ndle 1 will be the needle on the left side of the heel, ndle 2 will be the 20 sts across the top of the sock, and ndle 3 will be the 2nd half of the heel.

For the decrease portion of gusset:

Round 1: K around (if doing optional pattern, remember to (K2, P2) repeat across ndle 2 only)

Round 2:Â Ndle 1 – K to last three, K2tog, K1.Â Ndle 2 – K across (or, for option, (K2, P2) repeat across ndle).Â Ndle 3 – K1, SSK, K to end

Repeat these two rounds until you have decreased to the original 40 sts

For the body of the foot:

K for 18 rounds (my kids have long feet, and I did 20-22 rounds for them.Â If using smaller needles for a smaller sock, you may wish to do 14-16 rounds, depending on foot size of the infant.)

(Remember, if doing optional ribbing – continue (K2,P2) rib on ndle 2 – stopping the rib at the end of this section.

For the toe (No grafting here!! Woo-hoo!):

Round 1:Â Ndle 1 – K to last two sts, K2 tog.Â Ndle 2 – K8, K2 tog, K8, K2 tog.Â Ndle 3 – K to last two sts, k2tog.

Round 2: K around.

Round 3:Â Â Ndle 1 – K to last two sts, K2 tog.Â Ndle 2 – K7, K2 tog, K7, K2 tog.Â Ndle 3 – K to last two sts, k2tog.

Round 4: K around.

Round 5: Ndle 1 – K to last two sts, K2 tog.Â Ndle 2 – K6, K2 tog, K6, K2 tog.Â Ndle 3 – K to last two sts, k2tog.

Round 6: K around.

Round 7: Ndle 1 – K to last two sts, K2 tog.Â Ndle 2 – K5, K2 tog, K5, K2 tog.Â Ndle 3 – K to last two sts, k2tog.

Round 8 – end : Continue decreasing in the manner above, but every row instead of every other.Â Decrease until 8 or 4 sts remain (your preference, 4 will give a bit pointier toe).

Cut a tail (6 or 8 inches), thread with a darning needle, and sew through the remaining stitches.Â Pull tight and sew in ends.

Block if you desire.

(Note – a baby who fits these socks may be pulling up and/or walking, so please remember that wool socks are VERY slippery on wood or tile floors – if your baby is going to wear these socks without shoes, you may wish to add some puffy paint designs to the bottom for traction.)

This pattern is copyright 2010 by Angela Baker.Â Please feel free to use this pattern for personal, gift or charity knitting only – not to be used for socks made for sale without approval of the designer.Â Â Do not copy this pattern/distribute it without permission.Â Thank you.

Chocolate-Malt Cookies

Well, one upside of all the cool rainy weather is that it’s prolonged the “baking season.”Â It has yet to be so hot that I can’t justify running the oven.Â 🙂

Firecracker and I tried out a new recipe and whipped up some cookies for the neighbors – Martha’s Chocolate Malt cookies.Â Â We’re working our way through Martha’s Cookies book (we’ve made 9 of them, and have loved every recipe so far!).Â We decided to leave out the filling (no cream cheese or chocolate on hand – oops!), and just make the cookies.

The dough was a little sticky, and the cookies baked up thinner than the pictures in the book, so I’m glad I didn’t make any filling – they were just too delicate.

(Please excuse the scorched Silpat – the result of trying a Martha recipe for tofu-fries, which required putting the Silpat under the broiler – I found out later that a Silpat should not be heated above 450F – a lesson not to trust every Martha recipe, I guess…

Anyway, the cookies were still really tasty – I love the addition of the malt flavoring – reminds me of the chocolate malts my mom would make me on hot summer days in Tucson.Â If we ever get any hot weather here, I’ll have to make some for the girls.Â 🙂

What have you been doing to make the best of the perpetual March weather?

Is anyone as excited as I am about tomorrow’s forecast of 80 and sunny??Â YAY!!

Surprise in the nest box

While it’s by no means as big as this monster, we found quite a surprise in the nest box after church today.

Nudge, our Auracana, usually lays a large to extra-large sized egg (the pale green one in the middle (it looks a bit washed out in this shot)),Â compared to our Australorps that lay medium-large eggs.Â However, today Little Hen found that she had left us one the size of a duck egg (far right)!

And just because – to finish up, here are some photos of the chickens that Little Hen took yesterday (our first sunny day in a LONG time.)

Plucky, Sara, and Nudge soaking up some sunshine

Me, holding Plucky.

A rare shot of the Speckled Sussex chicks – they love to be held, but are difficult to photograph, because they are fast.Â We finally named them this week (now that we can tell them apart) – Sugarplum (looking at the camera), Kate (eating a cherry), and Bolt (in the background, who, as her name suggests, is super fast).

And with that, we’re going to take it easy and get some real rest for the remainder of our Sunday.Â After a crazy day crammed with hours and hours of yardwork yesterday, the rain today is almost welcome, because it’s forced us to stay in this afternoon.Â I think my husband is doing to finish reading Skulduggery Pleasant aloud to us (while I get some knitting done for friends’ upcoming baby showers!), and then we’re going to make some homemade pizza for dinner.Â And totally avoid all housework until tomorrow.

Wishing you peace and relaxation…

Rummage Sale Score

My husband’s cousin will be visiting all summer (from New York City!), and for part of her visit, she’s going to be staying with us.Â We were worried about her not having a place to sleep here, and have been on the lookout for a used sofa.Â A queen-sized futon has been serving as our sofa for a while now, and if we could find a decent sofa, the futon could go in our semi-unfinished upstairs and give cousin Erin a place to stay (and have some peace and privacy away from the kid chaos).

This past weekend, a church right around the corner from our home had a big rummage sale, and we picked up lots of treasures, including a $3 quilt (above), dress-ups for Firecracker, a new basket to collect eggs in, and many other goodies.Â It was the last day of the sale, and I kept eye-ing a mauve sofa and chair set that had been priced at $100, but just went half off.

I’m no fan of mauve, but I liked the style, they were in good shape, and I figured a quilt thrown over them would suffice for now. Â If I ever get around to teaching myself some upholstery skills, I could recover them in pale turqouise velvet when the kids are older (or resell the set on craigslist long before that…).Â And at $50 for the set, how could I go wrong?

Besides, my sister says it’s perfectly in keeping with my “old lady/grandma style” of decorating.Â 🙂

So, now, we have some legit furniture in the living room, and cousin Erin will have a place to sleep!Â Â (Now to get painting upstairs before her visit!Â We still can’t decide on the colors…)

Late May Garden Update Part II

And here’s the rest of the garden update:

There wasn’t time to get any side-yard shots before the rain started up again, but we now have 64 healthy strawberry plants growing there (many have set fruit already!) and the Christmas limas are germinating there as well.

Out in the backyard – the peas (see above) are as tall as Firecracker!Â Oregon Sugar Pod IIs, Alaska, Galena, and Alderman Tall Telephone peas are all going strong.Â And yesterday Firecracker noticed that they’d begun to flower!Â Soon we’ll have sugar snap peas, snow peas and shell peas by the bucketful!

The first planting bush beans are up all over the backyard, and I expect the second planting to germinate later this week (for a longer continuous harvest).Â These are Royal Burgundy.Â This patch looks good, but unfortunately, most of the bush, runner, and lima beans are all taking a heavy hitting from…

SLUGS!Â Despite daily picking (and feeding them to the chickens), the garden is inundated with thousands of slugs.Â Most mornings the girls and I pick anywhere between fifty and one-hundred fifty.Â Beer traps have only managed to capture a few as well,Â so today I finally resorted to buying some organic, “pet friendly” slug bait in order to save the bush beans.Â Here’s hoping it works, because there is no wayÂ Â chickens freely hunt for slugs in the beds without the baby plants being eaten as well.

This is one little patch of the Red Russian kale, which we’ve planted all over the yard.Â Thankfully, the slugs haven’t bothered it.Â It’s our favorite kale – not only is it beautiful and doesn’t easily bolt, it’s full of vitamin K, vitamin C and iron, and has a mild flavor – we put it in everything from fruit smoothies to lentil curry.Â A definite superfood bursting with nutrition.

This is one of the 25 asparagus crowns in full frond – only two more years and we’ll have a nice crop of asparagus of the BCS volunteers!

Our compost still isn’t cooking well once again (too wet and soggy, too many kitchen scraps (“greens”) and too little “brown” matter (leaves, dry plant matter, shredded paper).Â So, in the drizzle yesterday morning, I got down to the stinky job of turning it and splitting the compost into two separate side-by-side bins, which will get lots of shredded newspaper turned into them this week.Â Â Let’s hope that does the trick.

The hens and chicks were THRILLED to have the compost turned and were scratching about while I was working – finding germinating pumpkin seeds and worms and all sorts ofÂ “delicious treats”.

This is one of the as-of-yet-unnamed Speckled Sussex chicks (or, as Firecracker calls them “teenagers”) scratching in the compost (those three are so fast, it’s tough to get a photo of them!).Â You should have seen the chickens happily clucking and scratching and snacking and clucking some more!

And thankfully, all of the adults are done molting, so those happy hens have started churning out –

– 3 eggs per day!Â Woo-hoo!

And that’s it for the garden at present – thanks for being patient with a long update -Â Hopefully, the warm weather will come back soon and the tomatoes, summer squash, tomatillos, cilantro and basil will really get a chance to thrive.

Okay, I promise something other than a gardening post coming up soon (although, I don’t know what that will be, since we haven’t had time for much baking or knitting or reading or cleaning house since every spare moment has been spent gardening or researching gardening and chicken keeping!)

If you’ve got a garden going, or even a few tomatoes in pots on your balcony, the girls and I would love to hear about how things are going for you!

Late May Garden Update Part I

The garden has really taken offÂ after a week of hot, sunny weather, followed by lots of rain. (although, the cold nights and wind the past few days haven’t done us any favors).Â Volunteers have been able to start taking in a few baskets of organic produce to BCS, mostly radishes, mustard greens, lettuce, chives, tarragon and baby beets, bok choy, and kale.Â The teeny harvests thus far just begin to hint at the bounty of the coming months.

Between slug-picking and weeding and rain showers, we got a few pictures this morning – (above) The boys in the front yard behind Alderman Tall Telephone peas, mesclun mix lettuce, with more lettuce mix and Oregon Sugar Pod II peas in the background.

– the tomatoes are really taking a beating with the cold (40s and 50s) and hail and driving wind this week.Â We wrapped about half in plastic (and then ran out of plastic!) but can’t see that it is helping them out much – the hail damage is the worst.Â Â Surprisingly, the tomatillos don’t seem to mind the dreary weather as much and are growing nicely

Despite a little slug damage, the cardoons we planted back in February are coming along nicely – the largest are nearly two feet across already.Â (They were planted closely, because about 20% of the seed stock are infertile – they are smaller and weak and I keep thinning them out.Â The hassle of starting them from seed is well worth it – I only used half a pack (@ $2.45/pack), and have 8 strong seedlings, versus paying $7.49 each for large starts from the garden center.)

The Vulcan Red Chard is doing quite well – just a few more weeks until it will be able to be harvested in any quantity.

The mustard greens and bok choy bolted in last week’s heat, but the bolted stalks were fed to some very happy chickensÂ and in the gaps I have planted summer squash (a total of 6 in the front yard, and 19 in the back – a mix of crooknecks, zucchinis, and patti-pans).Â I may eventually need to thin them down, but a few are compact varieties, so we’re hoping they won’t get too crowded.

This is a Golden Hubbard seedling, coming up in the bed closest to the street.Â Winter squash are such a treasure – beautiful rambling vines all season, tasty blossoms to stuff with ricotta and deep-fry, and finally, vitamin-packed, long-shelf-life squash in an amazing variety of shapes and sizes to eat throughout the winter.Â (Since there is limited space, I have only put in my favorite eating squash – Buttercups, Butternuts, Hubbards, Delicata, except along one side-yard, near the house, where the gorgeous – if largely inedible – Rouge Vif D’Etampes has been planted for harvest decorations.)

For everything you could want to know about nearly every variety of winter and summer squash, I highly recommend Amy Goldman’s book, The Compleat Squash.

To keep the neighbors happy, I have planted misc. wildflowers, sunflowers, daisies, and about 50 dahlias in the front beds.Â Add to that those dozen winter squash (to trail out of the beds and along the path), bronze fennel and artichokes, and for good measure, a whole jumbo packet of nasturtium!Â If that doesn’t make for a pretty (but still mostly edible!) street-side bed, I don’t know what will!

(Eventually, the front bed will be mostly perennial flowers, currants, a dwarf plum, and a low fence with a grape arbor and a gate across the path, but it needed something to make it attractive this year, especially with so many folks in the neighborhood stopping by to ask what in the heck happened to our front yard!)

And with that, I’ll save the backyard and the chicken update for tomorrow!

Early May Garden Update

Happenings in the garden this week so far:Â Mustard greens, lettuce and kale are all getting big!Â (Red Russian Kale in the foreground, with Mizuna mustard behind.)

A volunteer and I got 20 tomatoes planted this afternoon – half in front, half in the back.Â (I have room for another dozen or so, but am out of cages and will have to jury-rig some bamboo supports – the cages were donated, and I’m trying do as much free and homemade as possible.)

I got 7 De Milpa tomatillos (they have beautiful purple fruit) in the ground, and am trying to find room for three more in some sunny corner.Â While I planted them, I kept thinking about roasting tomatillos and making purple salsa verde with chips, or chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauceÂ – can’t wait!

Most of the front yard beds can be seen here (I still don’t have good pictures of all of the backyard, since it’s a mess) – beets and chard and peas are really coming along.Â We are harvesting lettuce every day (despite the continuing slug issues).Â Â Pole beans and pumpkins are just beginning to peek up through the soil, and the wildflowers are germinating as well.

Baby parsnips in the backyard are putting out true leaves.Â Only 90 more days or so, and they’ll be ready to eat!

The summer squash in the backyard cold frame is coming along beautifully – looks like we’ll have lot of starts to give away to any volunteers that want them!

On the right is a new veggie I’ve never tried before (thank you, Patty!) – variegated garden cress.Â Can’t wait to get it established and try some in a salad!

The first of three potato beds out back are really going gang-busters.Â I have to mulch them almost every day (cutting tall grass from the yard and quickly using up our last bale of straw).Â The second bed planted will soon catch up – the leaves are 6 inches high.Â And the third bed potatoes are just barely peeking leaves up through the straw.Â Â Looks like we’ll need to run to the feedstore for another couple of bales soon!

Not pictured – 3 types of mint planted in pots buried around the garden

-bronze fennel starts and lots of chives transplanted around the garden; cilantro and lemon balm starts planted out as well

– bulb fennel, Waltham butternut and Golden Hubbard squash germinating

-Â Scarlet Runner and Kentucky Wonder pole andÂ 4 types of bush beans planted in the back, along with Christmas limas on the side yard.

-3 dozen Fordhook Giant leeks were transplanted outÂ in the front and side yard and another 30-odd Walla Walla Sweet onions in the side and back (wish I had room for more!)

– And many, many flower starts inter-planted amongst the tomatoes.

And -just as importantly- many, many people have stopped by and talked to me this week about our gardening project – I’ve met a half dozen new neighbors, and am connecting more with many others – the garden is building community, not only amongst volunteers, but also in our neighborhood, and that’s really encouraging to me.

As my next-door neighbor said, “It’s starting to actually look like a garden!”

“Flying Fish” Blue

This afternoon’s project was painting the chicken coop a vibrant blue (although it dried darker).

The girls had a great time, and were sure to get lots of paint in their hair.Â 🙂

Up next?Â A second coat (after picking up a second gallon), painting the trim and posts, and adding a nice bright yellow sunshine in the upper right corner, and this fall, a trellis and table grapes up one side.

Preparing for the duck invasion

After a flurry of chicken-planning activity this winter/early spring, we have our long-dreamed for chicken flock (the three hens, plus three new Speckled Sussex chicks, and three more chicks on order (2 Australorps and a Buff Orpington)).Â And the chicken run is mostly complete (needs a little gussying up, and a grape trellis up the side).Â Now, moving on to the next project, the Baker boys have gone into intense-planning-mode for …

DUCKS!

The boys are a bit so-so on the chickens, but can’t wait for ducks!Â We have room for 3 (and maybe sneak in a 4th?) next year, and all the talk from Daddy is, “Where do we put in a duck box and run? What style?”, and “should we get runners or Khaki Campbells?” Â Tum Tum’s contribution is more along the lines ofÂ “Duck goes QUACK QUACK!”, but he loves to look through the stack of duck-keeping books with his dad.

Did you know that the better duck breeds are more efficient at removing slugs than chickens (a major problem in the NW)?Â And lay larger eggs (sometimes more eggs -up to 300 per year for Khaki Campbells) than chickens?Â And those eggs that produce more substantial whites, which makes for better meringue, souffles, etc!Â And, ducks are darn cute!

So, if all goes as planned, by next year, our little urban farm will be complete when it comes to livestock.Â Except, maybe for future additions of meat rabbits…or honeybees…If you could (or do!) have any livestock on your property, what would it be?

Snack of choice

HUMMUS!Â It’s my favorite, thrifty, last-minute dish when the kids need a savory snack, or we need to bring a side-dish to a get-together.Â It’s always a hit and goes great with crudite, chips, falafel, bagels, you name it!

Homemade hummus is so easy and frugal and delicious, I can’t understand buying a teensy little tub of it at the store for $4 or whatever they charge.Â Â I like a tahini-heavy hummus, and the addition of some smoked Spanish paprika, as well.Â Â Here’s my recipe:

Larksong’s Easy Tahini-Lover’s Hummus

2 cans organic garbanzo beans drained (reserve liquid) and rinsed (Tip: for extra-creamy hummus,Â remove the papery skins from all of the beans.Â It does make a difference.)

1 cup roasted-sesame tahini (I much prefer roasted to raw, which can have a bitter or sharp taste to it)

juice ofÂ one large lime

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive-oil, plus more for garnish

4-6 cloves garlic, minced or crushed

1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika, plus more for garnish

chopped fresh parsley (or dried crushed) for garnish

Directions:

1.Â In a food processor (which I actually don’t own – so I use a bowl and an immersion blender), combine chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lime juice, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp paprika.Â Drizzle in bean-liquid until desired consistency is reached (I like mine quite creamy (hence removing the chickpea skins if I have the time) and I will often add all of the bean-liquid and then a little water as well, so it’s thin enough to dip into easily).

2.Â Transfer into a clean serving bowl, and sprinkle with more paprika and the parsley.Â Drizzle with a bit more olive oil.Â Enjoy!

Setting the twist

The first batch of Easter-egg dyed yarn is off the wheel.Â Not a bad attempt, and I can see a lot of improvement from the beginning of one bobbin to the end of the next.Â And the girls enjoyed drafting from time to time, or putting a foot on top of mine and helping me treadle.Â Little Hen was able to spin some of the scraps by herself (she’s a great drafter), although it’s pretty difficult for her to keep the wheel spinning.

After setting the twist and hanging the yarn up to dry, my bathroom smells of wet sheep (thank you, husband and children, for not complaining even once about the “Eau-du-wool”!).

(There are many methods for setting-the-twist in handspun yarn – some involving vinegar or weights or dishsoap and potato mashers, but with my spindle-spun, I’ve had good results with soaking in hot water for 20 minutes, shocking in ice cold water for ten, whacking the skein against the shower wall a few times, and hanging it up to dry, so that’s what I did this time.)

A bit underspun (this picture was taken while plying on the wheel), but I’m learning, and it’ll make some nice little socks for Firecracker.

On to the next batch from my stash – 1/2 a lb of purple-grey merino that will eventually be a vest for Little Hen.

Garden update

Slowly, slowly, things are taking shape in the garden.Â Last Saturday, 9 volunteers came to help pot up summer squash, plant potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and continue dig up bamboo for the future raspberry bed.Â Â And earlier, I was able to get 25 donated asparagus crowns planted.

Baby leeks, onions, basil, cilantro, parsley and thyme are all happily growing in their pots, and I put in rosemary, lavender and tarragon plants in the front yard.Â Â I still have to figure out where to put some mint (in pots!) and add several more herbs, but it’s a good start.

More and more the yard is looking less like a disaster zone and more like a garden.Â Â The front yard (stage one) is complete, and over the coming year, we will move on to stage two, adding grape arbors, perennial fruit bushes/vines/trees and herbs and perennial flowers.

Two large swaths of the backyard have become (for the time being) annual veggie beds, with the section sloping downhill designed with swales the catch and conserve water.Â Much of the back still requires major work, however,Â including finishing the chicken coop (running grapes up the side), building a shed (with trellised plants – hops and roses, most likely), finishing the small “lawn”, building a bread oven, removing the remaining bamboo to plant berry canes, and planting more fruit trees (persimmon, fig, apricot, plum), blueberry and currant bushes and maybe even some cranberries.

One side yard is 90% complete, but the other is barely begun (where the shady natives garden will grow thimbleberries, huckleberries, Oregon grape, etc).Â But there has been so much progress, and we are going to be able to produce an amazing amount of food for BCS this year, I am sure.

I’ve given away twenty or so, but the remaining 50-plus tomato-lets and little tomatillos are outgrowing their pots, anxious for the frost-free weather, so they can go in the ground, and out of my living room at night.

The tulips are fading, but the peas are slowly reaching up and grabbing their supports (and the Tall Telephone peas in the backyard are twice as tall as these Oregon Sugar Pod II‘s).

A third load of mulch, and 20-odd tomato cages were delivered (we still need 15 or so more).

Baby poppies are taking hold between the lettuces and mustard greens.

And most exciting to the children – the first signs that there will be fruit this summer (Quinalt strawberries in flower, as are the other varieties and our early blueberries, and our red currant has set fruit already.)

What plans/hopes/dreams do you have for your garden this year?Â If you’re in Portland, we’re always willing to help out with garden work,Â just let us know (many hands make light work)!

On the wheel, on the map

We’ve been studying a lot about map reading and map making, and yesterday afternoon I brought out a huge sheet of posterboard and let the children create and label their own “treasure map”.Â (Little Hen’s idea is to re-create the map in real-life in the backyard and then use their map to find the “treasure”. Â Pretty clever idea, actually.

My only concern is creating the “grape soda lake” they drew on the map…Â Â 😉

If the rain holds out, I think the girls will have a great time with their treasure hunt this afternoon.

I was feeling a bit under the weather, so while the kids worked on the map, we all listened to some Grimm’s Fairy Tales on book CD, and I had a chance to sit down and rest and work on the wheel.

The roving is some Brown Sheep mill-end roving we dyed with leftover Easter egg dye (for instructions, see here.)Â I’ll ply the singles and it’ll make a nice pastel sock yarn.

Here’s what I got done yesterday.Â Not too shabby for my second attempt at using the wheel (after some serious practice with scrap roving), don’t you think? Â Â I hope to get some more done later today as we listen to the rest of Grimm’s:

A budding artist

Look who decided to help himself to the craft supply box while I was attempting to make dinner (and the girls were having a tickle war).

It’s hard to believe that Tum Tum will be TWO next month…he’s outgrowing so much of his sweet baby-ness.Â I loved watching him drawing intently and singing to himself all the while – he’s growing into such a big boy so very fast…bittersweet, really.

A little comparison

On the upper left, a “cage-free organic” egg from the grocery store.Â On the lower right, an egg from Plucky, one of our hens.Â (I’d hate to add in a factory farmed egg – it couldn’t hold a candle.)

Now, which one do you think is the way a chicken egg is supposed to look?Â Which one is shown to be more nutritious?

We love our three hens and can’t wait to add three more, so all of our eggs can be real food – just as beautiful and healthy as the one above.