Homemade Christmas Gifts

Skills strengthened:  embroidery, stitching

Skills newly acquired:  french knot

Homestead points:  handmade, homemade gift

Soapmaking Update

A few months ago, I spent several weeks making large batches of soap for the shop.  It's actually been a fairly smooth process.  There was a lot of drama when I was making the small batches for samples, and I figured out why:  they were small batches.  My larger batches rest longer before going into trace, so I have more time to work with any coloring or swirling techniques.  My biggest problem now is lack of time to make more!

I took an entire pantry closet in our kitchen for my soapmaking closet (I say entire, but it's actually extremely tiny).  I added some spice racks to the door to hold my essential and fragrance oils:

Smell wall!

  

My husband calls it my "smell wall."  I find it efficient.  It's so much easier to make soap when you can find everything easily.  The closet has a shelf for my oils; two shelves for bowls, pots, molds, and utensils; a pull-out bin for butters, waxes, clays, droppers, and pre-mixed colors; and two shelves for curing.  Samples, colorants, color clays, herbs, and anything else lives in boxes on the floor.

In terms of efficiency, I also discovered curing my soaps upright--I stand them on end, rather than laying them down.  I can cure so many more now in limited closet space, so I can make larger and more frequent batches.  The two shelves dedicated to curing are covered with cookie cooling racks and those little shelves intended to maximize your dish-stacking space.  I can fit a good number of bars on all of those.

After curing, I store the soap in shoe boxes or brown paper lunch bags, separated by type, so that they don't mix smells.  These live under a side table in the living room.  I need a better system, but there's only so much I can do in a tiny place.

One of the interesting side-benefits to soapmaking that I've discovered is bartering.  I barter soap for wine, soup, cookies, whatever.  It's a nice way to avoid money changing hands, especially between friends.  I really like the idea of opting out of the whole money-system when possible (and it's definitely not always possible).  But in this instance, it's doable and fun.  I find I actually do more "business" face-to-face than in the online shop.  And boy, is it important to have samples.

Another interesting turn of events?  The majority of my customers have been male.  Online, it's almost exclusively male; in person, it's a little more equal.  I fully expected my customers to be women, so it's a nice surprise that soap is so universal.

At this point, I've sold out of one batch, nearly sold out of two more, and am itching to keep experimenting with more scents, colors, and techniques.  I'm hoping to get some time in January to refill the supplies and come up with some new ones.  It's a small outfit I've got going on, and not my primary focus.  But it's a great way to focus my energy creatively, while earning a little money--or wine--on the side.

This soap is called Emma

Sensual Woodsman--sold out!

Mixed Stone-Fruit Jam

There's something pretty unbelievable about the strawberry-vanilla jam I mentioned here.  Mouth-wateringly unbelievable.  But I most often find myself reaching for the jars of stone-fruit jam in the cabinet. 

I make my jam with peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, and cherries.  The variance gives it a lovely depth of taste.  Buy up the fruit while it's cheap, then process it:  I cut up nice slices for the dehydrater, then save all the chunks for the jam.  The chunks go in plastic bags in the freezer for a day when I am feeling ready to jam.  Spend a little time around the steamy canner, and get the glorious taste of summer in the dead of winter.

Again, the recipe comes from this book.  (It's currently the only book I own on canning, but it's so perfect:  small batches, delicious-sounding recipes, and easy to follow.)

I find this jam sweet but not too sweet; it's perfect in a bowl of plain yogurt or oatmeal.  It's great for gift-giving--if you're willing to let it leave your cabinet.  

Garden End

We are getting our first real snow today. I know winter is unpleasant and last year's winter was terrible beyond reason, but, today, this snow makes me happy. It's lovely and fluffy and not too cold.

The garden is down for the winter. It closed at the beginning of the month. It's so unceremonious--tearing up the twine, clipping plants at the soil line, piling it all up and bagging it to take away. I take so much care in spring to ready the bed, lay out the squares, plant each seed. It's different at the end. Somehow, that unceremoniousness makes me long for a big harvest festival, or a way to thank the garden and the earth for all it produced. Something a little more than clip-pile-bag. 

Another thing to add to my list of homesteading wishes--garden beds that aren't held to someone else's timeline.  I can go for that second planting of peas or lettuce.  I can really plan out overwintering the garlic or onions.  Someday; on my future homestead.

I've really been dreaming of that future homestead lately. Planning the layout of the beds, the compost piles, the flower gardens, the fruit and nut trees, the greenhouse, the room for wine and beer making, the soap workshop area, the chickens and, someday, the mini-cow. At this point, it's still better to dream and save and wait--and think of how lucky I am that I can even have a plot of soil in the city.

Anyway, before the unceremonious end of the garden, I pulled out the last of the carrots and all the parsnips. My root crops did great this year. A few of the forgotten carrots became monsters.  This was my first time growing parsnips, and they turned out well.  A few were tiny, at least one was giant and split, and most were just right.

I also pulled all the herbs and dried them on the dehydrator. Plenty of sage, oregano, parsley, and chives to share. I had just enough thyme to save and dry too.  I find myself marveling at the ziploc bags stuffed full of dried herbs, and the price I paid for tiny little jars of dried herbs in the store.  Then I imagine the herb wheel I'll plant in my someday homestead….

This snow has me thinking of Christmas.  With the garden down for the year, I'll be working more on indoor projects, including a lot of handmade gifts.  Ornaments, jams, soap, lotions; I'll try to share more on here as they happen.

In the meantime, I'll keep dreaming about my homestead….

Garden Record

I haven't been sharing it on here, but I have been weighing my produce and keeping a record to get an idea of how much I am growing:

9 radishes
1 lb, 4.2 oz peas (shelling and snap)
1 lb, 4.8 oz green beans
3.2 oz zucchini
1 lb, 3.3 oz carrots
5.5 oz black beans
7.5 oz tomatoes
.4 oz parsnips (rest are still in the ground)
.5 oz peppers

I didn't count herbs or greens, the parsnips are still in the ground, and there are more black beans to come, but this is enough to help me plan for next year's garden.

Speaking of:

(Oh yes.  These are the things over which I nerd out.  Seed organizing systems.)  

Just sitting there, waiting for next year….

Strawberries Are My Jam

As part of my fruit hoarding, I saved strawberries with the intent of making a strawberry-vanilla jam.

Now, I know it's become cliche at this point, but local, in-season berries are unbelievable.  Those out-of-season monsters from California can't even compare.  The local ones are smaller, sweeter, and tastier.  And since they only come into season a few weeks out of the year, they are so precious.  (Eating local/seasonally allows you something to look forward to, you know?  I get so excited when I know strawberry season is coming.)  So I hoarded two quarts.  

You may have noticed that it is October, and strawberry season is generally early June.  I processed the berries (rinsed, de-stemmed, sliced in quarters) and froze them until I knew I would have more time.  A few weeks ago, I found the time and made some jam.

Last year was my first introduction to water-bath canning.  Friends of mine were making pickles, and asked if I wanted to help.  I was excited to learn from others who knew what they were doing and could answer any questions.  And I learned important things like why you shouldn't let the pickling liquid cool in the jar before placing it in the canner (we were out of lids and paused the operation; I paused it at the wrong time and a jar or two broke in the water-bath).  

After pickling, I decided to tackle canning on my own, specifically in the form of jam.  I made blueberry jam from the 11 pounds I picked at a U-Pick farm; mixed stone-fruit jam from local peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, and cherries; and a cranberry-apple jam that is perfect for gift-giving at the holidays.  I was never really much of a jam-eater; I don't eat a lot of toast and only had the occasional pb&j.  I don't think we even had jam in the house before I went nuts on my canner.  But we ate or gave away all of it, long before fruit came back into season.  I started putting jam in my homemade yogurt in the mornings--it's like fruit on the bottom, but better, and it perfectly sweetens the sour yogurt.  Same thing with my oatmeal.  And I started eating more pb&js.

I knew I was going to need to make more jam.  And this year, strawberry was at the top of the list.  (I used the recipe from this book, which is incredible.)

Berries macerating in sugar--it tenderizes and releases all the amazing juice

Making jam

The set-up:  small pot with simmering lids in back, jam pot, canning pot

Some tools of the trade and jars just out of the canner

My husband and I listened in silly anticipation for the "pop" when the lids sealed.  We cheered and giggled with each pop.

It turned out absolutely amazing.  Canning might seem like a lot of work, but when it's the dead of winter and you are eating homemade yogurt with the most amazing summer-strawberry jam, it is absolutely worth every second.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Okay, it's been awhile.  And I haven't even been busy (I'm between shows and unemployed).  I just haven't kept up on my posting.

Luckily, the garden seems to feel the same way I do--that absense makes the heart grow fonder.  It's been thriving under my neglect, or at least, what's left of it has.  There isn't that much there at this point.

-The green beans tried to put out a second round of beans, but I was too late stopping the slugs, and the beans were chewed up.  It was a nice surprise that they would continue to produce, though, so I want to remember to really take care of them next year.  It would have been a prolific second harvest, so I will keep it in mind when allotting space next year.  I've snipped these plants off at the base and left the root system to compost the soil.

-The black bean plants were eaten by the slugs as well, but surprisingly, they put out new leaves and new bean pods.  I cut the dead leaves and stems back to focus the plants on the new offerings, and while it isn't a lot, I'll look forward to them.

-Parsnips are still in the ground.  I pulled one out to see how they are doing, and it was still on the small side.  They'll be safe and happy in the ground until I can figure out a better way to know when they are done (I don't think they show their shoulders like carrots)--or until the garden closes in early November.

-I threw in some lettuce, spinach, and radish seed.  Abject failures.  The radishes have kind of yellowed and stunted, and only two lettuces sprouted.  One might actually provide me a head of lettuce, so I am keeping watch.

-The herbs are in wonderful shape.  I've been cutting the lemon balm plant and drying the leaves for tea (I made my own herbal blend from chocolate mint, lemon balm, chamomile, and borage).  The parsley is a giant bush; the thyme is getting more sunlight now and looks great; basil started slow but has provided quite a few leaves (got at least one batch of pesto, and will probably have another); sage, chives, and oregano continue to plug along.

-I got three plum tomatoes this year.  You win some, you lose some.  No slicing.  Less than a dozen cherry.

-The peppers have been awfully slow.  I got one little green beauty (which I sliced up and ate in a salad), and two tiny stunted ones.  The plants didn't flower for a long time, and now they are flowering, but not really producing much.

-The broccoli didn't really produce heads--it started to, then went immediately into flower.  So, no harvest from them, but they stayed alive.  So, win?

-The salad bowl out back hasn't been that impressive.  Not sure what the deal is.  Not enough sunlight, maybe?  At any rate, the chard is doing okay, but not getting particularly large.  I would like to do another planting of lettuce seed (I am always doing more plantings, sigh) and see if maybe this time it turns out.

-The calendula has been ridiculously productive!  I have filled two half-pint canning jars with the flowers.  The same couple of plants just keep flowering.  I plan on infusing olive oil with the flowers to get a lovely skin-nourishing oil.

There is still about a month left in the community garden, so I'll continue to post updates (and hopefully won't be absent for so long again).

Dehydrating Fruit

Another, very simple, method of preserving summer's bount:  dehydrating.  Slice fruit, place in dehydrator, remove when dry, and store in an airtight container.  What could be easier?

Here, I was cutting up stone fruit (cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums, and apricots) to freeze for jam and decided to stick some fruit in the dehydrator.  I just kind of free-formed the chopping session.  I'd cut a fruit in half, then slice one half for dehydrating, and chop the other half into chunks for jam.  Or I'd cut some nice, thin slices of fruit for the dehydrator and toss the rest of the fruit in the jam pile.  I ended up with enough for two batches of jam and a jar full of dried peaches, apricots, and plums, ready to be enjoyed all winter.

Don't think I don't have another four pounds of stone fruit waiting in my fridge.  It's fruit-hoarding season.

Slugs!

A few weeks ago, I noticed my green bean leaves were suffering a little damage--some holes chewed through here and there. I hadn't seen this damage last year, so I wasn't sure what it was or how serious it was. I peeked under a few leaves but didn't see anything that might be causing the damage.  I didn't worry further.

It then escalated fairly quickly into my black bean leaves, and soon all the bean leaves were chewed through and yellow. While I was planning on letting the black beans dry and die back, I still recognized this was a problem.  And then, as I was pulling out dead pea vines, pondering the damage, I discovered the culprit stuck on my jeans: slugs! 

Well shit.

I didn't have slugs last year, so I decided to research the best way to get rid of the little suckers. I turned to my Fearless Food Gardening book, which made a strong and likable suggestion--beer. 

So I decided to lay some beer traps in the garden. They would consist of solo cups from my cabinet and a six-pack from the store. I will digress here to say that I debated for awhile about whether or not to waste a good beer on the slugs. In the end, I preferred to waste a good beer and have five other delicious beers to drink later, rather than find five bad beers in my fridge needing to be emptied. 

Anyway, I brought my cups, six-pack, bottle opener, and garden tools to my plot and got started laying traps.  The instructions are fairly simple. 

1. Dig a hole

2. Place cup in hole

3. Cut rim of cup down so it sits at soil level (garden shears were effective for this)

4. Put cup back in hole

5. Level dirt to rim so that the slugs can crawl in easily

6. Hunker down and try to clandestinely open a beer in public in the middle of the afternoon

7. Pour beer in cup

See? Easy. I ended up making three of these traps and spaced them throughout the garden.

Since slugs are night creatures, I gave them two nights to crawl to their deaths. Then I checked the traps. The first one had one fly in it. No slugs. The second trap held a stick. I was a little disappointed. But the third trap--oh, the carnage! It was packed full of slugs and centipedes.  I know there's a good metaphor here with beer, frat boys, and mornings after, but my brain is just not functioning enough to come up with it.  Pretend I just wrote something witty.

So, I would count the traps as successful (other than the fact that I waited too long to set them up).  And, of course, I love anything that encourages me to add more beer to my gardening experience. 

Black Beans

Part seed saving, part eating!

I left my black beans on the vines until they got papery.  There is a distinctly different feel between a fully dry pod, and a not-yet-dry pod.  I like when things are simple enough for me to figure out.  I pulled off the dry pods, opened 'em up, and pulled out the black beans.  Any bean that didn't feel quite dry went in the dehydrator overnight.  Everything else went in a glass jar for the corn-and-black-bean quesadillas I plan on making next week....

For real, though.  I am pretty proud of these.  I grew my own black beans!  They look like real black beans!  Because they are real black beans!

+1 to gardening.

Saving Seeds

I love poring over the seed catalogs in the dead of winter, itching to get my hands back in the dirt and watching the green things growing.  Each year, I buy new seeds, ready to try another kind of tomato, or eager to try parsnips for the first time.  I have saved up quite a little stash of seed packets, half-full to nearly empty.  Containers and a 4'x8' plot don't leave me a lot of room to plant, so I can't use much seed, but I use up the seed packets bit by bit.  And each year, I jump with joy with the little seed packets arrive bound up in rubber bands.

But when you think about it, it's kind of silly.  

Plants make their own seeds.  All they want to do is create more plants, so they provide the way to plant and grow them in perpetuity.  (Unless, of course, you have a Monsanto terminator seed, engineered to do the opposite of what seeds have done for millions of years, or a legal agreement with Monsanto requiring you to buy more seeds every year, rather than saving them the natural way.  But I digress.)  Buy seeds one year, plant your plants, and then you shouldn't have to ever buy that kind of seed again.

This is another one of those common sense things that just took a little extra time to occur to me.  I was used to buying food at the grocery store, not growing it.  It appears there all year round, and I just go buy more when I want more.  Growing food takes a lot more work, but provides more fun, too.  But then I would eat the food, go back to the catalog, and plan to buy more for next year.

This year, I decided I wanted to start saving seeds.  Previous attempts were limited only to that one time I saved those heirloom tomato seeds from a farmers market tomato that made a delicious bruschetta.  (It grew a plant, but since I grew it this year, it was a bit of a failure, as were all my tomatoes.)  I read up on seed saving a little, but since most recommendations involved netting your plants and pollinating them yourself and god forbid never plant different kinds of types from the same family within fifty feet of each other (what am I going to do in a community garden?), I wanted to start small.  So I saved some peas.

Just as the internet advised, they stuck around on the vine until the vine started to dry out and die back.  The pods became paper, and the little peas rattled inside.  I opened the pods, dumped the peas in a plastic baggie, and now I'll have peas for next year.

Simple and yet exciting, right?  And maybe if I glue my own photos on the bag, I can make my own homemade, homestead seed packets to approximate the joy I get from the catalogs.

Too much?

Freezing Green Beans

This will sound silly, but the idea of freezing food was kind of revolutionary to me. I mean, we all buy frozen veggies or fruit from the store--frozen food itself wasn't new, but freezing my own? I just didn't consider it for a long time. We had a small garden for a few years growing up, but it didn't produce enough to save. We didn't go to farmers markets or buy fresh food in bulk, so we just didn't freeze anything. I know it's obvious to most people, but it just didn't occur to me until, one day, I made a smoothie with one of those Trader Joe's bags of frozen fruit. It suddenly struck me that I could make that bag of frozen fruit myself.

Now, I hoard fruit in the summer. I buy in bulk from farmers markets or from my grocery delivery service (local, ethical, and organic!), or pick from organic U-pick farms. I chop and freeze it for jams, crumbles, and smoothies. 

This year, the garden actually produced enough veggies that I couldn't eat it all fresh--specifically my shelling peas, snow peas, and green beans. So I blanched and froze the extra. 

I recognize this is an utterly basic homesteading skill that most people possess--homesteaders or not. But in case you've never done it, or you need a kick in the pants to freeze some of summer's cheap and glorious bounty for use in the dead of winter, here is how I preserved my green beans:

Set water to boiling in a medium saucepan. (This day, I happened to be cooking for the week, and was making a recipe that involved boiling beans.  I decided to be efficient and just chop more than I need, then reuse the water to blanch the extra beans for freezing.)

Grab beans by the handful and rinse. Group them together so the ends are all aligned. Chop off the ends. Turn the beans, align the other ends, then chop those off too. Toss this handful in the pot of lightly boiling water. 

These should boil for about one or two  minutes. I tend to toss in the beans, then grab another handful to rinse and chop. By the time I am done chopping the second bunch, the first is done boiling. They should be a nice, vivid green. I fish them out with a slotted spoon and toss in a bowl of ice water. 

This stops the beans from cooking. (I like putting a sieve in there so I don't have to fish through the cold water later.) Once cold, I put them in a freezer bag. 

This is a very high-tech operation, as you can see. 

The process tends to go pretty quickly and works for nearly any summer veggie, although some need a few more minutes to cook than others.  You can easily find recommended times online.

Happy blanching!

Almost August

Things have continued to be busy lately. I barely have time to clean my house, let alone address any of my projects; it's been more than a month since I have made soap, my quilt has gone a few months without action, and I can barely get to the garden. Preserving the bounty takes more time.

As for the garden, I think mine has peaked for the season. I am a little disappointed at my hot plants. Many other folks in the garden have bounteous tomato plants, so I can't blame the cold summer. It could be that they stunted from the cold just after I set them outside; I will take more care next year. 

The zucchini and cucumbers have powdery mildew. The zucchini is yellowing and dying. I never foiled the stem, so coild be squash bugs. The cukes just seem a little weak. 

Black beans are drying on their vines. There are a ton of fat little pods. I can't wait to see what happens. 

Green beans are done. I left a few to dry on the vine for seed. 

Shelling pea vines are all dried. I pulled the dry pods left on the vine, then uprooted the dead vines. Still waiting on sugar snap peas to dry. 

Broccoli is alive, but no heads yet. 

I cut several stems of the borage after they yellowed, to let sun get to the plants below. I planted too much this year. Now that I know how big they get, I can plan better for next year. 

Peppers are alive, but not producing. Same for eggplant. 

My carrots grew big and beautiful this year! I pulled a couple and they are long and fat and a lovely orange. Can't wait to see the parsnips. 

I pretty much ignored my bowl of greens. A few of the lettuces died, and a few grew big. The chard is really starting to pick up, and so is the purslane. 

I've harvested quite a bit of calendula and several chamomile flowers. I cut off the flower and the plant sends up more. 

The mint likes a lot of water, so it droops a little when I ignore it, but perks up again with a little water. 

I am considering overwintering some things--onions, carrots--in my windowbox, but I think it is too exposed to offer much protection against a brutal midwest winter. 

Otherwise, things are pretty much winding down. This is the time when the preserving begins....

Shelling Peas

Busy Busy

I have been so busy getting my show through tech and opening that I have failed to update on my garden progress.

The weather has been unseasonably cold--in the seventies most days, instead of the eighties or nineties. We have also had a ton of rain. I have been stopping by the garden for maintenance rather than watering, and so have been going less frequently than last year.  My cold-weather plants are loving it, while my hot-weather plants look a little small this year.

The radishes finished producing and went to flower.  I pulled most of the them out, but lazily left a few to re-seed.  They share their square with the parnsips, but few parsnips are actually growing there (and I may have stupidly pulled out some plants when pulling the radishes).

I harvested my shelling and snow peas.  The snow peas matured first, with the shelling peas a week or two behind.  They've mostly stopped producing, and I left a few on the plants to dry for next year's planting.  The snow peas were huge producers--a ton of pods on each plant, and each pod was giant.  The shelling peas just didn't produce as many pods per plant, and it seems like a lot less once you shell out the peas.  I also decided to shell any snow peas with giant peas inside.  I blanched and froze most of these.

Oregon II, Sugar Snap Peas (more like snow)

Green Arrow Shelling Peas

I'm picking tons of green beans.  The plants stayed so small for so long, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Then they shot up, developed little purple flowers, put out a small pod from each flower, and now I have more green beans than I ever expected.  I have blanched and frozen most of these.

Black beans are fattening up in their pods.  My plan is to leave them on the plant until they turn yellow or papery or something other than green and firm.  Then I will have dried black beans, according to the internet.

The eggplant is a little sad; it's been covered up by the borage and black beans and cucumbers and isn't really getting much light.  I hasn't died, but it hasn't produced more leaves either.  I might give up on this, and that's okay.

I just picked two tiny zucchini today.  This is a welcome change from last year's 0 squash.  I am seeing male and female flowers, and the bees are taking some time away from the borage to visit and pollinate.  As the weather starts to get warmer, I think this will pick up.  I have to be on the watch for squash bugs, however.

I have one tiny cucumber on the vine so far.  One plant (competing with borage) got huge, while the other one remains a little smaller.  I am excited to see how these do.  The bush plants in my window box never grew, so I am counting on the ones in my plot.  Last year, these died fairly early on, so I am putting these in the success column for still being alive and producing a tiny cucumber.

Some peppers are flowering, and some are not.  I haven't gotten any fruit yet, but I blame the lack of hot weather.  Peppers love the heat.  Last year's peppers were planted late, so I don't think I got the full experience of growing the Italian Sweet and the Healthy peppers.  Both of those plants have grown somewhat tall so far and look healthy.  The mini pepper plants look smaller than usual this year.  I am hoping we get some heat to perk these up.

Unfortunately, it's the same with tomatoes.  My plants are barely two feet tall.  My Gold Nuggets are normally my "workhorse" tomatoes--those things produce early and often and just keep going.  This year, they are small plants with just a few fruits on them.  I have a fruit or two on the heirloom and Silvery Fir Tree plants, and a few Roma tomatoes on the vine.  I think tomatoes are the thing I look forward to the most, so it's a little sad to see them underperforming this year, especially after last year's aphids, blight, blossom end rot, and everything else.  Again, maybe the heat will perk them up?  I've been staying on top of blighted leaves too, and they are staying pretty healthy so far.  There just aren't that many leaves to blight.

The shoulders of the carrots are starting to pop up.  I haven't seen anything from the parsnips yet, but they take longer than carrots, and their leaves are looking lush, so I am not worried.

The borage is insane.  The plants are giant and produce so many flowers.  The bees couldn't love it more.  I've been pinching off the flowers and a few of the young leaves and drying it for tea.  I never take all the blooming flowers, though; I leave several on each stem for the bees.  It's still plenty, and I can see there is a ton more waiting to bloom.  I'll have more tea than I can drink if I dry all those suckers.

Borage also doesn't like to be touched; its prickles caused a little irritation where I had to push it around to get to my green beans and other plants.  And a little goes a long way; I don't think I'll grow so much next year.  But certainly a +1 in the gardening column!  

Calendula is blooming wonderfully.  Another surprise for me.  I grew this from seed as well, and just didn't expect much.  Instead, I've harvested probably ten flowers at this point.  I plan on using them to infuse oil, which I can use in lotion and body butter this winter.  Calendula is supposed to be a very soothing and gentle oil for the skin.

The basil is somewhat producing.  Some of the lower leaves look yellow and blighted, but the newer leaves look nice and green.  I'd really like to get some pesto made and frozen this year, especially if my tomatoes aren't going to produce enough for sauce.

The lemon balm started to go to flower, so I cut it back.  It's now bushing out nicely again.  I dried some leaves for tea, and I also made a pretty delicious strawberry and lemon balm flavored water with the fresh leaves.

The oregano went to flower and I left it alone.  The sage is plugging along and smells great.  I cut back some borage leaves to find my little plot of thyme.  It's still going, and I hope the extra sun helps.  The dill has just taken over, so I pulled some out and cut back some of the stuff that wanted to flower.  I really want it to time out with my cucumbers so that I can pickle with fresh dill.  The chives  are still growing, as far as I can tell (I don't know that I could find them at this point, they are so buried).  The parsley looks lovely.

So, basically, everything is looking great!

Clockwise, from left:  lemon balm, borage, calendula, parsley, green beans, one snow pea, shelling peas.  Up top:  dill.

OMG PEAS

Mid-June

-Peas are in strong flower, and it looks like I have sone buds starting on the beans. 

-My first borage flower opened today--what a beautiful violet those are! The flowers are edible, and I've read you can freeze the flower in ice for a beautiful ice cube for lemonade, tea, or other flavored water. I am considering drying them for tea in the winter. 

-Speaking of flowering, several of my radish tops went to flower without producing much of a root. Considering whether I want to pull or allow to flower and go to seed. 

-Speaking of tea, I bought some nettles from my grocery service last week. Interested in drying them for tea also. I heard it's a good tea for PMS. Also a green you can sautee and eat. This is my first time with nettles, so we'll see. 

-Honey-oatmeal-almond milk soap turned out kick-ass.  I adjusted the formula for my soap and think it's pretty great--good, creamy lather with big bubbles and lots of moisturization. I am happy with the new formula, but it's hard to not keep playing. I keep thinking there is a "perfect" formula out there, but there isn't one. There are many fantastic ones, and I happen to like my simple one. 

-I picked up a lotion base from brambleberry, because I am not quite ready to begin experimenting with lotion recipes. It's a whole other animal, especially when I am still perfecting soap techniques. Lotion involves water, which gives it the potential to mold if you don't have enough preservative. Body butters are just oils, which are shelf stable and don't need preservative. So I bought a premade base; all I have to do is add scent. I can't wait to see how it turns out. 

-The garden is otherwise doing surprisingly well; we've continued the trend of hot and chillier weather back-and-forth. Today it's quite warm, but there's a breeze blowing off the lake at least twenty degrees colder. Everything looks pretty lush. Looks like flowers are just beginning to form on the peppers and zucchini, the broccoli is getting bigger, and the tomatoes are making small gains. The eggplant is just hanging in there; not a lot of growth yet. 

-I am keeping an eye out for pests. I want to get some aluminum foil around the base of the zucchini, but haven't done it yet. I am watching the tomato plants for sign of bliggt--any yellow leaves are coming off immediately. 

-I think I am sold on companion planting. Comparing the cucumber hanging out in its own square with the cuke competing with the giant borage shows the competing cuke to be much larger. I think that is fascinating. My garden is packed this year, but seems happier. 

Anyway, those are just some tidbits from mid-June. Now, a photo:

Pea Flowers

Current harvest count:

1.3 oz lettuce 

9 radishes

The lettuce leaves are still baby; I haven't seen fully matured or colored leaves yet. Because I am growing such delightfully named lettuces as Flashy Trout's Back and Frizzy Headed Drunken Woman, the salads tend to be visually interesting as well as delicious. I am also growing a few mixes, which contain Devil's Tongue, red Ruffled Oaks, and Speckles. Apparently I am drawn to red-hued lettuces. And heirloom lettuces with interesting names. 

Most of the spinach has bolted, and much of it did it very quickly. "Bolting" is the plant going to flower--it shoots up tall pretty much over night and develops buds. At this point, the leaves are bitter and undesirable. You can let it flower and go to seed, but it's recommended to do this with your last plant to bolt, so that you grow plants that are more bolt-resistant. Bolting is generally caused by heat and sunlight, and certain varieties do better in the heat than others. I believe I am growing Bloomsdale, and it doesn't seem very bolt-resistant at all. Maybe it's more of a fall spinach? I will plant again in the fall and see. 

Kale and chard are slowly maturing. I don't particularly like kale as a tough, mature plant, but the baby leaves are much more palatable in salads and smoothies. I do like chard, but again, there's a lovely sweetness to the immature leaves. This is one of the benefits to growing greens, which are fairly easy to grow (once you get your sunlight needs pinned down)--harvest at your preferred stage of growth. Other benefits include taste (did you know lettuce can have a taste?!), variety (so mant more types than Iceberg or Romaine) and the ability to cut-and-come-again (harvest the outer leaves, not the whole plant, and it will continue producing fresh salads when you want, instead of trying to eat a whole head before it goes bad).

I just saw the first few pea flowers. I am excited to see what happens, since I haven't grown peas before. 

Everything is looking really great so far. This feels like a period of suspended animation. Things are growing and looking lush, but there isn't much to harvest yet. I kind of love the watching and waiting. 

Photo dump!

Garden

Tomatoes and borage in the front, radishes and green beans in the middle, and peas in the rear

Peas

Black beans, with some tiny eggplants, chives, and surprise dill in front.

Green beans and sage

Parsley, cherry tomatoes, peppers, lavender, calendula, and oregano

Peppers, chives, dill, tiny eggplants

Zucchini.  Needs lots of space

Cucumbers

Borage gets big

Parsnips

Carrots, surprise dill

Radishes

Broccoli, amazingly still alive