Perfect Summer Meal

DH is on the road again, so I'm eating alone. I am cooking sweet corn, fresh from the garden 20 minutes ago. In a few minutes I'm going to take it out and slather it with butter, add a little salt and some freshly ground black pepper. With the corn, I am going to have fresh sliced red tomato (Mortgage lifter variety, a cousin of Brandywine) and some cucumbers peeled, sliced with a little cider vinegar and few drops of honey. I'm going to have a slice of locally-produced Amish farmer's cheese with some french bread I baked yesterday. For dessert I'm having a blueberry-ginger cake, trying out the recipe for the blueberry festival. The only thing that would make this better would be to share it. Poor hubby - he will probably stop at McDonald's on his way home. It is just so NOT THE SAME.

I had a terrible earache earlier today - the whole side of my face is sore, including the throat inside. I stayed in bed late, then finally dragged myself to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and out to the patio where I sat down in the sun in the zero-gravity recliner, laid back, and shut my eyes. Just listening to the sounds of summer really relaxed me, so much that I was startled when I spilled my coffee all over myself!

I heard the rise and fall of the cicadas singing, the "wheet-wheet" of a robin, an occasional warble from a sweeter bird. Behind the cicadas I heard crickets chirping. And of course, I heard the cars roaring up and down the highway, an occasional motorcycle revving its engine at the local racetrack, and once a semi-tractor/trailer rig going past. I heard the crunch of a car's tires slowly winding down my east-side neighbor's lane. I heard the whine of an occasional housefly or hornet flying past me, and some stupid bug without navigational skills kept plopping into the brick wall - it sounded like a June bug but it's a little late for one of those. I heard the whisper of the breeze tickling the tree branches, and the rattle of some dry leaves blowing across the patio. A little later I heard my neighbor dropping what sounded like rocks into a plastic bucket, making me feel guilty for lying down in the middle of the day. So, I got up and pulled weeds from my flower garden.

Looking for bread recipes in an old Farm Journal "Breads" cookbook, I found this recipe for marmalade: I think I'll make it with yellow summer squash instead of zucchini, and shred the squash instead of slicing it.

Places to visit

Bright Meadows Farm - a winery near Hallifax Virginia. I need to visit, if nothing else, just to buy a bottle of wine with their label!

According to Ben Franklin, "Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance."

Fairs and Festivals

The Richland county fair closed a day early! Well, it closed on schedule, but since I've been coming to the fair for over 30 years I didn't look at the schedule. They have evidently decided this year that closing on Saturday night gives vendors and exhibitors more time to pack up and move out.

Well, that's all well and good. Except that I didn't read the fair book, and when I went yesterday late afternoon to pick up my exhibits, I thought I was in the twilight zone. Nobody was around, the office was closed, the midway was torn down. I stopped by the office today and found that sure enough, they did keep my non-perishable exhibits, so I picked them up. It turns out that the scheduled time for pickup was 8-12 a.m. Don't know if others were in the same boat as me or not! But it was really weird, going to a deserted fairground, and kind of sad.

One of the assistants in the Home Arts department confided in me after the judging was over on Wednesday last week, that someone's quart of peas exploded. The department superintendant and the assistants believe that this person takes commercially canned vegetables and re-cans them for the fair. Hard to believe! But there was the evidence, spoilage in the jar of meat canned by the same person. I am having a hard time trying to understand the motivation of the person who would do that. The assistant mentioned that this person is a home ec teacher. That makes it even harder for me to understand!

When I mentioned that I didn't mind taking third in the black raspberry pie behind the person who won best-in-show and best-in-class (over all baked goods at the fair), my boss mentioned that the Cracker Barrel restaurant sells excellent black raspberry pie filling in jars in their gift shop. He said I should put it in a Pillsbury pie crust and save myself a lot of work. Again, I don't understand the reasoning. Why would anyone "cheat" to win a $3.00 award, when you can't bake a pie for that price? The only reason to even enter is for bragging rights - and how could you live with yourself if you bragged about winning a contest you had to cheat to win?

I did notice that this year most of the winning pie crusts didn't look all that "flaky", they seemed to be finer textured than mine. Since I won several ribbons last year, using the same pie crust recipe, I have to believe it was a different judge.

The Lexington Blueberry Festival is this weekend. They are having a blueberry bake-off. Trying to decide whether to enter or not. It would mean staying home for the weekend, not going to the farm. DH was just there last weekend, so he may be amenable to staying home. There are three categories - pies, quick breads, and other desserts.

I fixed spaghetti-zucchini carbonara tonight, just for me. A zuchini, a yellow squash, an onion, half a green pepper, 1 garlic clove, 4 mushrooms, 4 strips of bacon, 2 tablespoons salad olives, 1 tsp capers, and 1/4 cup flaked parmesan cheese. mmmmmm. A glass of red wine and I am happy! And enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

Ripe for Change (Trailer)

I'll bet $10 there won't be a screening here in North Central Ohio anytime soon!

In my kitchen

Someone asked the question at Mary Jane's farmgirl connection - "What does your kitchen look like?" Well, here's mine - kinda small, but functional. I am sure I will not win any interior design awards, and if anyone has suggestions for eliminating clutter, I'd like to hear them! Just don't tell me to get rid of any of my five spice racks.

How to use zucchini?

Zuchini to Compost today. The foot-long ones. There are more in the garden. Last week I committed zucchinicide - I pulled up three plants that were still bearing. It hurt me to do this, but it had to be done. I couldn't even get to my tomatoes. This was just after I found 8 giant zukes. And added them to the 25 other zucchini that were on the kitchen table waiting for me to make something else. So far I've made bread, chocolate cake, orange squares, pancakes, stuffed zukes, grilled zukes, steamed zukes, deep-fried breaded zukes (ooh those were good) cubed and stir-fried zukes. Needless to say, I couldn't face cooking another zucchini. They sat on the table for a week. Then DH took them to the wheelbarrow outside. That was two days ago. I still haven't done anything with them, so today, he kindly removed them from my sight....

One of the farmgirls posted a recipe for mock pineapple for using in stir-fries:

Mock pineapple
12 cups zucchini, chopped up to resemble crushed pineapple
1 46 ounce can of sweetened pineapple juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice

Put the juices in a large pot with the sugar and bring to a boil. Add the zucchini and boil for 20 minutes. Put in sterlized, hot pint jars and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Makes about 8-9 pints.

I've got cukes, too. I've already made 11 pint jars of dill pickles and 7 pints of bread and butter pickles. This will probably last more than a year. I've still got at least 6 zucchini plants in the garden.

I just ordered a couple of books from B&N - From Asparagus to Zucchini
and Life's Little Zucchini Cookbook The first is a collection of recipes and advice from a community-supported agriculture organization. The second just had nice photos on the cover. Can't wait 'til they get here! It's not like I don't have zucchini recipes already, it's just looking in 100 cookbooks to try to find them.

I've got lots of tomatoes ripe in the garden now too. Looks like I'll be making salsa this weekend. Tomorrow morning I'll go to the farmer's market and get peppers, since the seeds I planted this year must have been sterile - I saved seeds from a purchased pepper and not a one germinated..

Tag, You're It!

I just learned about blog tag: List seven random things about yourself in your blog, then "tag" seven other bloggers by leaving their names in your post, and visiting their blogs and leaving comments for them to find. Once they are it, they do the same, and leave a comment on my blog with their seven taggees. This could spread quickly!


I'll start:

1. I have two daughters and two grandsons. If I can get good pictures I'll post them here.

2. I am married to the nicest man on earth - our five year anniversary is coming up in September.

3. I've worked in IT for 28 years for one of the big three automakers. I'm a certified project manager (PMP), a certified production and inventory manager (CPIM), ITIL Foundations certified, and a certified data processor (CDP). (Yawn...) The system I currently support uses radio communications through the computer to give fork truck drivers information on what they should pick up or drop off.

4. I love to garden (if you read this blog you already know that.)

5. I love to bake. I've got four pies cooling right now for the pie auction at the county fair.

6. I love to knit. I've usually got about 10 projects going, right now I think there are a few more than that.


7. I am a lifetime Girl Scout.



Who are my taggees? Let's see, I'm going to pick by linking through my interests on my blog profile.



http://melodyyarns.blogspot.com/
http://huggyhuggy.blogspot.com/
http://milkhoneyandcider.blogspot.com/ http://homesteadhouse.blogspot.com/
http://sunflowerfarm.blogspot.com/
http://loloschild.blogspot.com/
http://beeyard.blogspot.com/

OK, got to take the pies to the fair, I'll be tagging you all shortly!

County Fair Report

Lots of competition this year at the fair! I got a second on my rhubarb pie, a third on the black raspberry, a second on the honey-pecan pie, a third on the relish display, a second on the jams and jellies display, and a second on the purse. One first-place ribbon on the french bread - but nothing to brag about, I was the only competitor in that class. Oh well, the competition will only inspire me to improve.

I used Paula Red apples in the apple pie - note to myself, the apples were too "crisp", it needed to bake longer or cook the apples in advance. The cherry pie filling was a little bit too runny.

The zucchini- chocolate layer cake took no awards. This year some of the ladies entered their cakes in Tupperware containers and did not follow the instructions to display on a disposable plate or board and cover with Saran Wrap. The judge's assistant said it was a blessing- it was so much easier to open than the Saran Wrap. I'll have to remember that for next year.

Fair entries

I baked pies for the fair yesterday. Rhubarb, apple, pecan, cherry, and black raspberries. Pies, and a chocolate layer cake, and french bread. Took some jams and jellies and relishes. Probably the relishes will be disqualified because I didn't read the rules carefully enough - I used old-fashioned glass tops, which depending on the judge, may not be considered "safe" enough --- (meaning, they can be used over and over again, so we don't have to buy new lids every year). I took some early and some late tomatoes from my garden - first time I've entered the produce show.

I entered the scarf I knit last fall and the knitting bag (called it a purse) I made out of a recycled thrift-store sweater.

The judging started at 9:00 am and should be over some time soon. It's pouring rain here, so the fairgrounds will be a mess. I'll have to take an umbrella and maybe a raincoat. I'm going to visit my grandmother first - they've moved her from one hospital to another. Then afterwards stop by the fairgrounds and see how my entries did.

Local Food, Local Restaurant

I just learned that there is a new chef at the Malabar Inn restaurant. This restaurant is located at the Malabar Farm State Park (former home of Louis Bromfield) and is the restored 1820's stagecoach inn belonging to the Schrack family. I've dined there before, and although they served local food, it was mostly so-so fare. But, my hopes are high for new chef Dan Bailey. The menu is here and looks fantastic.

Hornworms and Dill

Headline News: Dill DOES NOT repel tomato hornworms, at least in my garden! (See post)Look at these guys!

I found 5 of them in the space of a few minutes! If they are this big when they are caterpillars, what the heck do they turn into when they metamorphose? If you dare to look closer, click on the pictures to see them full size. Actually they are kind of pretty, when they are not chomping away on my tomatoes. Maybe I could design a sweater pattern with white diagonals on a green background... hmmm.

Then there is that HUGE gross factor when you try to pull their soft, squishy body off the plant, and they hold on for dear life (which is why I sacrificed a few leaves.)

Yes, that is green worm poop. If you see little balls of black poop or green poop like this under your tomatoes, look above it and you will probably see stems without any leaves, totally defoiliated. It doesn't take long - I didn't see any evidence of these guys yesterday. OK, so now that I know the answer, I find this web site that says that dill is a TRAP PLANT for tomatoes. TRAP PLANT!!!! that means that the fragrance attracts the pests. You're supposed to plant trap plants somewhere other than your target plants! Oh, well, now I know.

Farm Bill

House to Consider FY08 Agriculture Appropriations Bill - a headline emailed to me from congress.org -

This week the House of Representatives is set to debate H.R. 3161, the 2008 agriculture appropriations bill. Issues up for debate include food stamps, crop insurance, and commodities. The House may also consider country-of-origin labeling, as well as an amendment that would prohibit giving subsidies to farmers whose income exceeds $250,000.Let Congress know what you think about the farm bill.

Separated by 182 years, John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, and I share a birthday. He was born in 1774. I just realized this today.

I finished a quick read through Slow Food - A case for taste by Carlo Petrini. (Ha! I even have to read fast!) As I understand it, his vision of the Slow Food movement is
-not to protest fast food but to teach how slow food is better
to educate consumers, beginning with children
-to preserve biodiversity and unique regional foods and flavors
-to provide economic support for local, small food producers

I started thinking about regional flavors in the North Central Ohio region. Among the Native Americans who lived here were the Iriquois, the Chippewa (or Ojibway), Wyandot, Miami, Delaware, Seneca, Ottawa, Hurons. I haven't seen much written about their cuisine, but imagine that wild game played a large part in it. But even they weren't native to this area, they moved west from New York about 200 years prior to the arrival of the Pilgrims. The Adena and Hopewell (mound-building) Indians lived here long before, their primary foods were maize, squash, and beans.

Moving forward in history, this region was settled during the expansion into the Northwest Territories, in the early through mid-1800's, primarily by German farmers - my own family history shows a number of names like Klopfenstein, Ritter, Klahn, Weber, Horning, Kocheiser, and so on.
So what is more German than apples and pork? But then, pondering even more, I realized that this area was once the haunt of Johnny Appleseed - in fact, our football conference here is the Johnny Appleseed conference, and we have the Johnny Appleseed Heritage Center just a few miles away. So I googled Johnny Appleseed and came up with his birth date - couldn't believe it was the same as mine!

And just to complete the circle, I find that Michael Pollan's book "The Botany of Desire" has a Johnny Appleseed reference, and Michael Pollan is on the advisory board of the Slow Food USA organization.

I've seen signs like these all over the place ever since I was a little girl -- I remember especially the DeKalb seed corn signs that a neighbor put up, that advertised the hybrid cross he was using. My farmer dad never put up these signs, so I am mystified - Is this like an advertisement for the variety of seed? Does the farmer get paid for advertising? Or is it just a point of pride, if his corn grows well, to let the neighbors know what he planted? Or, is it a warning, in case the corn pollen might cross-polinate with another variety?

I've seen these signs for so long and so often that I haven't even been reading them -- UNTIL TODAY. Croplan GENETICS. Midwest Seed GENETICS. Does this mean these are GMO varieties?

So, the question still stands -- Are the farmers paid to put these signs up? Or are they a warning? or are they bragging? I will have to remember to ask my cousin the next time I see him.

One more seasonal recipe - read the whole post for my healthier modifications:

Zucchini orange squares

1 1/2 c. unsifted flour
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. grated, drained zucchini
1/2 c. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
4 T. vegetable oil
2 egg whites, beaten

Mix dry ingredients and stir in zucchini. Add juice and oil to beaten egg whites and fold this into dry ingredients. Pour into a 9 x 13-inch greased and floured pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. When partially cool, drizzle with icing made of powered sugar, butter and orange juice, very thin.

OK, I can't resist the challenge. I am going to change this recipe to make it healthier. According to Cooks.com, here are the rules for substituting honey for sugar:

1. Use equal amounts of honey for sugar up to one cup. Over one cup, replace each cup of sugar with 2/3 to 3/4 cup over honey depending upon the sweetness desired.
2. Lower the baking temperature 25 degrees and watch your time carefully since products with honey brown faster.
3. In recipes using more than one cup honey for sugar, it may be necessary to reduce liquids by 1/4 cup per cup of honey.
4. In baked goods, add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of honey if baking soda is not already included in the recipe. This will reduce the acidity of the honey, as well as increase the volume of your product.

and, from an article in Natural Health, here is some information about substituting whole wheat flour for white flour:

"Whole-wheat pastry flour is milled from a soft, or low-protein, variety of wheat that doesn't form much gluten (strong, elastic strands of protein) when it's mixed. It's best for cakes, cookies, pies, and quick breads, where lightness and tenderness are more desirable than strength and elasticity. Regular whole-wheat flour is milled from hard, or high-protein, wheat and is best suited for yeast breads, where it contributes a hearty texture and robust flavor.Whole-wheat pastry flour is milled from a soft, or low-protein, variety of wheat that doesn't form much gluten (strong, elastic strands of protein) when it's mixed. It's best for cakes, cookies, pies, and quick breads, where lightness and tenderness are more desirable than strength and elasticity. Regular whole-wheat flour is milled from hard, or high-protein, wheat and is best suited for yeast breads, where it contributes a hearty texture and robust flavor."

Better-For-You Zucchini orange squares (my adaptation)

3/4 c. unsifted white flour
3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. honey
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 c. grated, drained zucchini
1/3 c. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 t. orange extract (optional)
3 T. vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten (unless you have a use for two egg yolks!)

Mix dry ingredients and stir in zucchini. Add juice and oil to beaten egg and fold this into dry ingredients. Pour into a 9 x 13-inch greased and floured pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 35-40 minutes. When partially cool, drizzle with icing made of powered sugar, butter and orange juice, very thin.

Make this now, and preserve it for Thanksgiving.

Green Tomato Mincemeat

6 c. green tomatoes (should be in your garden now)
6 c. apples (The original recipe called for Granny Smith, but Lodi is an excellent substitute and is in season right now.)
2 c. dried cherries (from Traverse City, order online from http://www.mi-cherries.com/order.htm
1 c. golden raisins )
½ c. apple cider vinegar
1 t. lemon zest
1 t. orange zest
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1 ½ t. salt
1 t. ground cloves
4 T. butter
3 c. sugar

Core and section green tomatoes and apples. Chop in food processor.
Add all other ingredients; bring to boil; cook over low heat for 1 ½-2 hours.
Place in four pint or two quart canning jars. Hot water process in canner for 25 minutes.
When ready to use in pie, place in prepared pie crust, if desired add ½ cup toasted walnuts and/or ¼ cup brandy. Top with second crust.
Bake in 400° oven until brown.
(Note: Recipe for canned mincemeat can be halved or doubled. It doesn't have to be canned even especially if you're making a smaller amount. It will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.)

Just ran into an article about the Blue Tractor - it seems they are devotees of the slow food movement. No wonder the food is so good!

Today I went out and got the yellow squash. Found a few monster zucchinis - I swear they weren't there yesterday! Next, for the cucumbers, which I have been ignoring. Tonight I sliced the ones already in my kitchen sink and put them in brine with some vinegar. Tomorrow I will put them in jars and process them.

I went to visit my grandma in the hospital today. She is 96, and is going through a bout of pneumonia. Up until about 10 years ago she was the best gardener in town, and in the country, too. People still talk about her rose garden, but I remember best the way she shared her produce with all the older people in her neighborhood. She had a huge flower garden in town, and her vegetable garden was about an acre in the country (at our house). We helped plant the sweet corn in those LONG, LONG rows. Some of my most pleasant childhood memories are sitting on the back porch at twilight (no air conditioning then!) shelling lima beans from the garden with my mother and my grandmother, watching the fireflies and listening to the corn grow. I still remember the day she and my mother discovered zucchini. The only way they knew how to fix it, at first, was fried in batter or baked in zucchini bread. I was telling her about my zucchini problem and she suggested a food bank. I don't know if they will want fresh zucchini, can they distribute them that fast? And is everyone else in town trying to get rid of them too? I will call the church office tomorrow.

DH says the neighbor is harvesting green beans, cabbages, and peas right now. I did not plant any of these this year. I was hoping that if I skipped a year the bean bugs will go away (wishful thinking).

Here are some of the QualiT-23 tomatoes. They are a later tomato, but seem to be extremely uniform, and the pests don't seem to like them. I need to check with the seed company (Territorial) just to make sure they're not genetically engineered!

Here is a wider view of my garden. The Hairy Galinsoga is still a pest, thanks to the Propex blanket it is staying at the edges of my garden mostly instead of inside it. And the lawn probably needs mowed. But you can see the difference between this view and a few weeks ago. How productive the soil is here in Richland County!









The blackberry plants I transplanted from my dad's farm last year, thinking they were raspberries, have a few fruits on them. Should I tear them out and plant Heritage? Probably.








This is yesterday's zucchini picking. I can't use this many in a month.

Here I am, on the deck of the winery in Chateau Grand Traverse, you see the vineyard behind me and further back is the bay. The neat thing about the Old Mission Peninsula is that you can look either direction and see water, the peninsula is not very wide. Oh, I wish I was still on vacation! I

I took some pictures in my garden yesterday. The zucchini is going great guns. I have been finding a lot of new zucchini recipes but I fear I am going to still have to put some on the compost pile, or do drive-by's (leaving shopping bags on neighbors' doorknobs after dark, or visiting the local Wal-Mart to find cars that have foolishly been left unlocked, putting them on the back seat!)


The tomatoes are doing well, I saved seed of Bloody Butcher tomatoes last year but feared they would cross with the other varieties of tomatoes since they were not separated in the garden. I was right - I am seeing some tall plants, with darker green tomatoes, a few on each stem, and some short plants with huge clusters of brighter-white tomatoes. Here's a photo of the shorter plants in front, with some of the taller plants behind. The problem is I have no idea which of the 5 or 6 varieties I planted last year these plants crossed with. I suspect possibly one of the two Russian varieties, Silvery Fir Tree. The plant somewhat resembles those plants. I swore I would never plant those again in my garden due to the blight. They are living up to their "early" billing, though. I've picked three already and here's another one, just about ready.








I evidently had a moment of forgetfulness this spring. Did I forget the definition of "prolific"??? These yellow squash have been more than prolific. I can't keep up with them. I used one that got too big and hard to mark a low spot in the yard - the bright yellow is the same color they use for caution signs on the highway.

Oberlin Fresh Stop

Oberlin is about 50 miles from here -- not exactly local, but not too far away.

Local Difference. Buying local makes a LOT of difference. While we were staying at the Chateau Grand Traverse, I picked up a flyer from the Michigan Land Use Institute.

Their web site is here.
Taste the Local Difference is part of the Michigan Land Use Institute's Entrepreneurial Agriculture Project , which works to grow jobs, save farmland, and build healthier communities with food that's thousands of miles fresher.

It would be nice to have something like this here.

While on vacation a few weeks ago, we visited a restaurant in Traverse City call "the Blue Tractor Cookshop". (this is their back door) It was WONDERFUL! The food was sublimely prepared, fresh, and seemed to be local. Sure enough I just checked their web site and found this:

" The name is also a salute to today's working men and women of Northern Michigan who carry on this tradition. The Blue Tractor represents the often relied upon equipment that makes it possible for our farmers to provide us with the freshest local product. At Blue Tractor, we are committed to working with local producers and to putting only the finest food on our tables. Enjoy!"

Thumbs up to the Blue Tractor!

Is the 2007 Farm Bill a cushion for the wealthy?

That is the question asked by Kevin Diaz of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It cuts back the limit of GROSS income a farmer can make from upwards of $2 million to just $1 million. It seems President Bush is pushing to make that only $200,000. Remember that is GROSS income. Farmers have big expenses, so they may only end up with less than 10 percent of their gross income, as real personal income.

You can find the article here . You may have to register to read the article.

I have no pollination problems here at home, this is the zucchini I picked today. I have more in the sink, from yesterday, and more in the refrigerator, from a few days ago. I haven't even started picking the yellow squash and the cucumbers yet.

Vanishing Bees - Voice of America

Another view of CCD. I saw my first honeybee here in Ohio this year just two days ago, in a patch of white clover in our yard. This is very unusual. I have noticed a much higher number of bumblebees (which seem to be smaller than the ones I saw as a child, for some reason) and a darker bee about the size of a honeybee, but with no yellow markings, in my garden, pollinating the zucchini.

Honey Bee colony collapse disorder

I have not spoken with our beekeeper at the farm this year to find out if he has been affected by this puzzling disease.

Genetically Modified GM POISON FOOD.

OK, I've been cruising YouTube, because of an email I received from the left-wing "The Nation" magazine. The email mentioned Molly Schwartz and Donna Schaper, and I pointed and clicked to eventually wind up here.

Probably old news to some of you, but I just found this movie posted on YouTube
- it has 7 parts and you may have to search for the additional parts, but EVERYONE WHO EATS FOOD needs to watch this movie. Search for "future of food".

What's the possibility that genetically modified food genes will cross over into non-GMO crops? The end of this movie is chilling - the latest development is a GMO that produces only sterile crops -- Think seedless watermelons?? This is called "terminator" technology.

What if the TERMINATOR technology spreads? What if heirloom vegetables suddenly stop producing seeds? hmmmm.

You need to watch this video by Molly Schwartz.

My grandsons were over tonight - 4 years old and 2 years old. The four-year-old was getting into some trouble (his momma and I and her sister were chatting, and he got bored) so I thought I would take him into the garden and show him a fresh zucchini and some yellow squash. Well, he said they were "ouchy" (they had some spines) and he went off to pick some tomatoes... Mine are still green, so I told him "NO, Aiden, we wait until they turn red.... He thought that was so funny he picked it and threw it like a baseball, up in the air.... And my hysterical reaction "No, No, don't throw it" he thought was extremely amusing, so he picked some more, and tossed them, and ran around the trees -- seven in all before I chased him down and got them away from him....Anyone have a good recipe for green fried tomatoes?

Slow food. Slow living.

Looked at the Wikipedia article on slow food. Didn't want to join the slow food foundation, as they would like a contribution. Found a link to the slow movement. Here are some suggestions for "the way of slow"

The Slow movement advises some ways of slowing down:

• Get a Slow hobby, a leisurely pursuit like reading, writing, knitting, yoga, painting or gardening.
• Spread out your chores; do one load each day instead of all your laundry at once, or dust one day and vacuum the next.
• Stop watching the clock; on weekends try waking up to your body's natural rhythms rather than an alarm, and leave your watch at home
• Shop at a farmers' market
• Prepare a sit-down meal and savour it without watching TV, or reading.
• Enjoy the conversation if you're dining with others, or peaceful solitude if eating alone.
• On vacation slow down; don't try to cram every sight into your must-see list. Visit "slow cities" with local restaurants where you can eat slow
• Prune your to-do list; make time for the people and activities that you enjoy

This sounds like a good list for me!

Cooking well, living well. While on vacation I picked up Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (Julie Powell) at the library. Julie decided to cook every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, her blog is http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/. In a year's time she not only grew as a cook, she also grew as a person, through the experience.

The day I finished the book we went to see Ratatouille, Disney's animated film about a rat who wants to be a chef. Oh, I understood that restaurant critic. The minute he tasted the ratatouille, he was instantly transported back to his childhood and his nana cooking for him.... That happens to me everytime I taste elderberry pie. I remember my grandmother slaving endlessing overy those tiny berries just to give us a special taste of something that we would remember.

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to me to have absolutely fresh food, in season. I think this is a huge quality of life issue for me. I love going out to the garden and picking zucchini, or cucumbers, a fresh tomato, and slicing them immediately into the meal I am preparing.

I went to the library today to turn in a book I found under my car seat.
While I was there, I looked for "My Life in France" by Julia Child. I found it, and sat entranced for an hour or so. I didn't read all of it, but the photographs were charming. I did read the conclusion: "I learned why good french food is an art, and why it makes such sublime eating: nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should. Good results require that one take time and care. If one doesn't use the freshest ingredients or read the whole recipe before starting, and if one rushes through the cooking, the result will be an inferior taste and texture - a gummy beef Wellington, say. But a careful approach will result in a magnificent burst of flavor, a thoroughly satisfying meal, perhaps even a life-changing experience."

Oh, Julia... AMEN!!! I have been learning this lesson for the last few years. And it doesn't only apply to cooking. It applies to everything in life. When I started gardening, I tilled one day and stuck the purchased plants in the ground the next. Not surprisingly, I had a big mess of weeds. Now I take care of the soil first, feeding it in the fall and spring with compost, tilling it in several times, then mulching the whole garden.

When I first started knitting, I wanted only to get to the END of the project - get it finished. If I made a mistake or dropped a stitch, I figured out a way to make it up without going back and correcting the problem. Again, not surprisingly, my finished garments showed my haste. Now I rip out stitches. Half the joy of the work is in doing it correctly.

Household repair projects done with duct tape almost never last.

I have finally learned, and will probably still be learning, that in order to have acceptable results, you must plan the project, use the best available materials, use the right tools, and take enough time in execution to do the job properly.

While at the library, I also picked up McGee's "On Food and Cooking - the science and lore of the kitchen" which at first glance appears to be a chemical process engineer's view of cooking! I spent an hour looking through the chapters on bread, pie crusts, and chocolate.

Also "Conscious Cuisine- A new Style of cooking from the Kitchens of Chef Cary Neff". In the introduction, he gives a brief resume, covering his successes as an assistant chef and a saucier, creating rich and flavorful sauces and stocks, but then goes on to say "I had forgotten that I was taught to cook consciously with the seasons, to embrace the region in which I lived and worked, and to select only the finest ingredients in preparing foods."

It is rather late so I will save the rest of this book for another day. But Cary seems to understand me.

I filled out my fair entry form today and faxed it in. Had a good chuckle, looking at the commercially-produced apple varieties from MSU, and then comparing it to the list from our local county fair in Ohio. The varieties here are:

1. Melrose
2. Ruby
3. Red Delicious (ours are Stark's Crimson)
4. Golden Delicious
5. Franklin
6. Maiden Blush
7. Grimes Golden
8. Northern Spy
9. Rome Beauty
10. Melba
11. Banana
12. Jonathan
13. Stayman
14. Ida Red
15. Strawberry
16. Lodi
17. Courtland
18. Crab Apple
19. Any other variety

I've highlighted the varieties on this list that we have at our orchard in green. These are all old varieties. I wonder if our fair varieties need updating? I will search the OSU extension web site for apples to see what they say.

Apple maturity in Grand Rapids area:

I'm filling in our 2007 Actual harvests north of Grand Rapids:

Normal peak harvest dates for varieties for the Grand Rapids area.

Variety Normal date 2006 predicted date 2007 Actual Date
Yellow Transparent XXX XXX 7-12
Paulared 8-24 8-18
Gingergold 9-2 8-26
Gala 9-10 9-3
McIntosh 9-15 9-6
Honeycrisp 9-18 9-12
Empire 9-20 9-14
Jonathan 9-28 9-23
Jonagold 9-28 9-23
Golden Delicious 10-2 9-25
Red Delicious 10-5 9-30
Idared 10-10 10-2
Rome 10-15 10-9
Fuji 10-25 10-20
Braeburn 10-25 10-20
Goldrush 11-1 10-26

Firecracker Salsa, from the Cherry Marketing Institute http://www.cherrymkt.org/ :

I was amazed to find out that 75% of the cherries sold in the US are raised in Northern Michigan (Lower Peninsula), around the Traverse City area.

1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1/2 cup cherry preserves
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 chopped yellow bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped jalapeno pepper, or to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice

Combine dried cherries, cherry preserves, and vinegar in a small microwave-safe bowl; mix well. Microwave on high (100% power) 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until hot. Let stand 5 minutes.

Stir in red onion, yellow bell pepper, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, and lime juice. Refrigerate, covered, 3 to 4 hours or overnight. Serve with grilled swordfish or tuna. It's also excellent as a topping for hamburgers. (makes about 1 1/2 cups)

Environmentally Verified?
We visited the Chateau Grand Traverse Winery on Old Mission Peninsula while on vacation, and took the winery tour and a tasting. I noticed a sign in the grape arbor - This farm is environmentally verified. I asked about it and the tour guide indicated that it was a step to becoming certified organic in Michigan.

I found this information on the Jackson County (MI) Conservation District web site: "MAEAP is an innovative, proactive, program that helps farms of all sizes and all commodities voluntarily prevent or minimize agricultural pollution risks. MAEAP teaches farmers how to identify and prevent environmental risks and comply with state and federal regulations. Farmers who successfully complete the three phases of a MAEAP system are rewarded by becoming verified in that system."

OK, I can google with the best of them, so I googled MAEAP, and found http://www.maeap.org. There are some interesting Powerpoint presentations on the future of agriculture in Michigan on this site.

WOO-EE! We just got back from 2 weeks of vacation. Before I left I picked all the little baby zucchini and yellow squash, 2 or 3 inches long, and congratulated myself on my foresight in eliminating overgrown squash. Ha! I underestimated how prolific these suckers are. I picked about 30 zukes more than 18 inches long and big around as a football. And a five-gallon bucket of yellow squash.

Who can I give these too? My daughters have already refused to take any. I'm giving the neighbors a few smallers ones. I can maybe give one of each to my parents. I'm shredding some of them right now for freezing using the vacuum sealer, and maybe a loaf of zucchini bread, and perhaps a zucchini spice cake. There's more on the vine.

And, I still have to deal with the bushel of yellow transparent apples I picked at the farm day yesterday, cook dinner, and make a cherry pie for dear, dear hubby.

Here's tonight's dinner:

ZUCCHINI LASAGNA

8 oz. uncooked lasagna noodles
15 oz. carton Ricotta cheese
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley
Dash of pepper1 egg, slightly beaten
2 (15 oz.) cans tomato sauce
2 c. thinly sliced zucchini
4 oz. shredded Mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook noodles to desired doneness as directed on package. Drain; rinse with hot water.
In small bowl, combine Ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, parsley, pepper and egg; set aside.
In 9x13 pan, layer 1/4 of the tomato sauce, 1/3 of the cooked lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the cheese mixture and 1/3 of the sliced zucchini; repeat layers 2 more times.
Spoon remaining 1/4 of the tomato sauce over top. Sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove foil; bake an additional 20 to 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly around sides. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.


Next time I'll share some of the wonderful recipes I picked up at the Traverse City Cherry festival.

Driving through the Traverse City, Michigan area this week, I was amazed at orchard after orchard after orchard of cherry trees, broken only by an occasional vineyard. We learned that 75 percent of the cherries in the US come from this area. I picked up a flyer from a "buy local" organization that covered farmers markets and produce from about a five-county area. Very slick publication. We in Ohio could learn from it!



Cherries are definitely in season here. The tart cherries are just finishing and the sweet cherries are in full swing. I've picked up some recipes that look marvelous.



Also learned a new phrase: "this farm has been environmentally verified".

Blue Ribbon-winning Cherry Pie.

Here is my recipe for Cherry Pie:
2 1/2 cups sour cherries
1/3 cup cherry juice
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons minute tapioca
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 package cherry-flavored no-sugar gelatin mix

1 tablespoon butter
Pastry for 2 (9 inch) crusts

Combine filling ingredients (except butter). Let stand 15 minutes. Pour into pastry-lined pie plate. Dot with butter. Place crust or strips on top as preferred. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, then in moderate oven (375 degrees) for 30 minutes. Makes 1 9-inch pie. (Double recipe if you want to use up all the gelatin, else discard)

Michigan Cherries! Last year we were too late for the tart cherries - we were waiting for our neighbor to tell us it was OK to go pick at his uncle's farm after the tree shakers had gone through. Finally, he said they had finished, and that unfortunately, the trees that they didn't shake didn't have much on them. So we went to buy cherries at a local farmers, and they said that there had been a hailstorm the week before picking that had damaged a lot of the cherries, and they had finished the week before and had a disappointing harvest - sent everything they had to the packers.

Since my husband doesn't want ot miss out on cherry pies this year, he made sure that we called the farmer when we arrived in Michigan. They said the U-pick operation was going Monday and Tuesday this week, and that they were shaking (and sending to the packer) on Thursday, and they would let us "dip" into the tubs on Thursday.

We ended up buying 30 pounds of tart cherries, and spent half the day pitting them. We've decided that next year we will either buy them already pitted, or else we will have a cherry pitter. Here's one from Lehman's Hardware in Kidron, Ohio. Sure beats the tool we were using...

If you know what the original purpose of this tool was, leave a comment! Hint: I found this piece of equipment in my husband's grandmother's sewing machine desk. I knew right where to go to find it, because as a child when I pitted cherries with my grandma and aunties, they used a similar tool. And these devices were kept in the sewing machine desk drawer. To use it, you use a motion very similar to knitting. First you stab the cherry at the top, where the stem grew, then you scoop around to dislodge the pit, then remove the tool and 95% of the time the pit falls right into your bowl.

Things just did not work out to go to the farmer's market today. We ended up laying a small patio of paving stones next to the larger one, that has been on the list for months! But today was the perfect day to finish it.

I cannot believe how much everything in the garden has grown in one short week. The rain we got a few days ago really jump-started everything. I saw my first little inch-long zucchinis today, and there are a few tiny tomatoes on the Bloody Butcher tomatoes.

I've missed two, or maybe three, Farmer's Market Saturdays. First we were putting a roof on the house, last week didn't have much in the garden. I haven't even made any soap recently. But with yesterday's rain, I think the lettuce has grown quite a bit, I could probably take a cooler or two full of lettuce to the market on Saturday.

Bird's-eye view

Reading from left to right - I have 5 rows of various types of lettuce, 4 rows of sweet corn, 1/2 row of cucumbers, 1/2 row of yellow squash, 1 row of zucchini (I'll probably regret it) 1 row of mortgage-lifter tomatoes, 1 row of bloody butcher tomatoes, 1 row of qualiT-23 tomatoes, some sage, some chives, and some rhubarb. In the buckets are Brandy-Boy tomatoes. It has been so dry here, I am watering with a sprinkler. The hairy galinsoga are back- they are peeking out of every single hole I have punched in the fabric, and all around the edges of my garden. At least there's not a million of them this year, only thousands.

I put the trellis up for the cucumbers today. First I drove a fence post, then attached the pre-assembled trellis to the fence post with wire ties (zip-ties).

After I took the photo, I also put up some tomato cages for the QualiT-23 tomatoes, but I will have to trellis the mortgage-lifters and the bloody butchers.

I took this photo from the top of my roof. I climbed the TV antenna. It was about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and I was barefoot. I forgot that hot asphalt is HOT! I hope the picture is in focus, because I couldn't think of anything else but getting down off that roof!

Yesterday I planted 3 things.. always plant in threes! I planted impatiens around the front of the house, my red morning glories in several locations where they can climb, and then also planted some dill seeds in the holes with my tomato plants. I have read that dill repels tomato hornworms, but also have read that dill and tomato are not good companion plants. No substitute for experience, so I will be finding out for myself.

Today I filled 5 buckets with compost and soil from our compost pile. I used a screen over the buckets as I shoveled them full. My husband made the screen last year from 2x2 lumber screwed together and covered it with rabbit cage wire fence - with 1" x 1/2" holes. I will be planting some tomatoes I didn't have room for in the garden in the buckets. So far I've found five buckets in the garage. He thinks the rest of them are still in the garage. I quit for the day, it is very hot and humid.

We are putting a new roof on the house during our vacation. It is SO HOT. We are working from 6:00 am until 10:00 am on the roof, then knocking off until 6:00 pm and then working again until 9:00. I am really stretching those major muscle groups climbing up and down the TV antenna to get to the roof. (I don't do ladders...)

Good thing the garden is mostly in, because after working on the roof I don't have much energy for gardening. This really makes us appreciate our day jobs!

I went three different places this morning before finding EARLY corn seed. The first was a local garden center/greenhouse that has always carried bulk seed in the past. They had two different varieties of corn, but both were 75 days or longer. Then TSC. They only had two different brands of Silver Queen. I've already got Silver Queen here from last year, but it is 85 days! That's a long time away. Finally went to Target. They had ONE packet of Early Choice. So, that's what I got. They also had two different varieties of mid-season corn (75 days) in addition to the Silver Queen. I looked through the Sean Conway (designer?) seeds as well as the Burpee's. The designer seed was higher priced, but mostly it was the same varieties...
Thought you might like some photos. I've got 5 rows of lettuce in the ground so far. The lettuce seems to be loving it so far, although I worry about heat stressing it. It is SO HOT today, I was planting corn and about 12:30 just had to stop - the sun on that black fabric was really just too much. There's no rain forecast for today, but tomorrow there is a 20% chance of thunderstorms. I think I might go ahead and water the corn I just planted and also the lettuce. I decided to just cut slits in the fabric for the corn - Each slit is 12-18 inches long and I planted 4-5 seeds in each slit. Then 4-6 inches between the slits, to keep the fabric together, then another slit. Far off in th edistance you can see my tomato plants, they are loving the heat. I still plan to plant some in 5-gallon buckets again this year.

Two more rows of lettuce, 3 six packs of cilantro, and a row and a half of sweet corn. I still have 9 six packs of cilantro to go. I need to find some more early corn seed tomorrow. I find after sitting on the ground or bending over to plant I am very stiff.

I planted some Silver Queen (an old hybrid) in the same hole as the zucchini yesterday. In a week or so I will plant some pole beans in the same hole. This is the Native American "Three sisters" method of planting. We'll see how it works.

I looked at my trellises from last year today. I will have to stake the tomatoes somehow. Also I need to fill my five-gallon buckets with compost and plant a tomato in each bucket.

Some mixed flower seed went into the mulch in between the Roses of Sharon. Don't know if they'll grow, but at least the seed packages will stop taking up room in the garage. Any flowers will be a bonus!

So far I have planted 3 rows (about 10 plants each) of tomatoes and 3 rows (about 30 plants each) of lettuce. I put zucchini, yellow squash and cucumber seeds in the ground today. (I bought some fresh seed at the grocery, it was 10 packets for $1.00...) I am cutting holes in the fabric for each plant or hill.

I am still trying to figure out how I am going to plant beans and corn through the fabric.

My asparagus plants, grown from seeds I collected in the wild at the farm, have sprouted. Well, not all of them, but I counted at least 5. Hooray!

I made a black-raspberry/rhubarb pie for this weekend's family gathering.
Dad said it was good, my stepmother said it needed more sugar. hmmm.
I thought it was a little tart, but just what I wanted after a long winter. I also thought maybe I used a little too much flour, as it was kind of thick.

Here is the recipe I used:

Wild Black Raspberry/Rhubarb Pie

2 pints frozen wild black raspberries including juice (frozen with no sugar), thawed
2 cups fresh rhubarb, sliced in 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar (or if you like it very sweet, add another 1/2 cup)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/2 cup flour (would cut down to 1/4 or 1/3 cup next time, depending on how juicy the berries are)
1 Tablespoon Clear-Jel

Mix together, put in pie crust in deep dish pie plate, top with crust, sprinkle sugar on crust, slit and bake for 1 hour at 350.

The nice thing about this recipe is that the black raspberries really overcome the taste of the rhubarb for people who don't like rhubarb, and the rhubarb fills in between seeds in the seedy black raspberries.

FROST WARNING TONIGHT!!!!!

It is cold out now, a little breezy, and the noaa.gov web site calls for patchy frost after 4:00 a.m. I am SO GLAD I haven't planted anything yet, it will all go back in the garage tonight. No fair, because our last frost date is May 15. This has really been a strange year for weather with 70 degree days in January and late frosts!

The year after Franco died, I spent a year in Segovia, Spain, as a foreign exchange student. One of the friends I made was the "ajero", a young man whose family sold garlic at the market on Thursdays. His life was hard. It's no wonder they call a region of Spain Extremadura (extremely hard) the life is also hard in Old Castile. During my many walks through the town and through the countryside I learned a little about the way farmers live in Spain.

I received an advertisement in my email today from "la Tienda". It wasn't spam, as I had signed up for their newsletter. Today they have a touching story about a man who plows with mules for recreation in Old Castile. He raises saffron, the most expensive spice in the world, in the traditional way in the La Mancha region of Spain. You can read the article here. The tag line? "There is something very reaffirming when you spend a few hours with people of the soil." Well, we knew that!

Finished cutting and layout of the Propex today. I secured it all around with landscape staples, then just to make sure added some paving blocks at intervals. A light breeze was blowing it up and twisting it, so without the pavers I am afraid it would blow away in a thunderstorm.

Planted another tray of lettuce on one side and catnip on the other a few days ago. So far no sprouts. Yesterday my 3-year-old grandson "helped" me water the plants. He is SO PROUD of his watering can. What difference does it make if a few plants get drowned? He is just precious. I hope he is as interested later in weeding as he is in watering!

I planted a flat of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Purple Basil and Green Basil a few weeks ago. So far very few rosemarys and only a few sages, although everything else came up great. I was hoping for a "Simon and Garfunkel" six-pack for sale at the Farmer's Market this year but that may not work if half the plants from the song are missing!

The weather has been awfully variable. Last night's low was 40, tonight it is supposed to be 58. Tomorrow's high is supposed to be 84! And 80 percent chance of thunderstorms tomorrow night.

I stopped by Home Depot tonight and bought a "commercial pack" of landscape cloth staples to hold down the fabric. It is quite thick as you can see from the photo below. I am sure I will find some previously unforeseen problems with using this as I experiment with this fabric this year. For example, how am I going to plant radishes? Maybe I will cut small rectangles in the fabric for closely spaced crops. Corn might be another problem. I could cut it in strips, then plant the corn seeds between the strips. Or just leave the section of the garden with the corn uncovered. I see it working best for tomato plants and peppers. Just cut an "x" and pop the plant in the ground. Scissors do cut the fabric but I think I will also try a sharp utility knife.

I called about the Propex fabric from work today. Mary Jane Butters recommended this as a weed barrier for a garden in her book.

The highway construction firm I called does have remnants, and they were willing to sell me one. I took off a little early so I could drive up to Wadsworth, Oh, to pick it up. It is a wonderful thick fabric on 12-foot wide rolls. I finished tilling the garden tonight and then starting rolling out the fabric. That is when I realized my garden is not perfectly rectangular. Hmmm. It got dark before I finished, I will try and take a picture tomorrow.

Tonight it only took me about 10 pulls to start the rototiller... Then I realized that I hadn't set the control to "start"....duh!

The air smells like a storm is coming tonight. It was actually almost muggy when I left work, coming out of the air-conditioning.

I made my rounds after work, visited my 96-year-old grandma, then visited my brother's neighbor who was rumored to have robin's egg-blue Aracuana eggs for sale. She's been giving them to my brother as a "new neighbor" gift. I've been looking for a regular supplier of farm-fresh eggs since the lady I was buying eggs from gave it up, so I was delighted to make her acquaintance. She also raises Komondor puppies and is evidently one of the top breeders of this rare breed.

So, then had to stop by my brother's and admire the new shower stall he and DH are installing in his new house. Drove home and on the way couldn't resist going down the country road a few miles from home to check out how the strawberry U-pick operation there is doing, since my strawberry plants are in bloom. I think the couple who owns the farm are fairly elderly, and I am always afraid some day they are going to give it up. Fortunately, it doesn't appear to be this year! They had irrigation going all over, there were sprays of water all over several acres.

So, turned around and came on home. After checking emails, went out and moved around about 20 things in the garage to get out the push-mower to do some trimming. It is old, old, old, and tired. My father made me mow the lawn 40 years ago with the very same model of Craftsman mower - It's red, and has a row of white "teeth" at the front. DH retrieved ours from someone throwing it away, gave it some TLC, and so now that is our push-mower. It hasn't been used yet this year. It only took about 35 pulls on the rope for me to get it started. I mowed a few places I missed last night on the riding mower, but when I got into the heavy lawn near the road (hasn't been trimmed yet this year) the mower stalled and I could not start it again for anything.

So pushed it back up the hill and moved a few more things in the garage around and got out the tiller, to give the garden a good going-over before planting. The weeds are sprouting. It must really be comical to see me operating this tiller. It is a Troy-Built Junior, and it is just a little bit too much for me. It is fine on soil that is loose and already worked up, but when the tines hit some compacted soil, that tiller just yanks me along like a rag doll, hanging on for dear life.

If I have a choice, I use my Mantis for tilling. It just takes a lot longer because the tines are so much narrower, and it works differently, and I have to make a lot more passes to get as much acreage covered.

My optimum choice is to have DH do the tilling!

I did manage to get 3/4 of the garden tilled before it got too dark to see. Luckily the rain held off. Put the tiller back in the garage and locked everything. There's a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms every day through Friday. If it rains it might be hard to plant on May 15, our official frost date.

Tomorrow MUST follow up on the Propex, I received a call that they did have some remnants after all.

A GARDEN OF HOPE
Plant three rows of peas;
Peace of mind
Peace of heart
Peace of soul.
Plant four rows of squash
Squash gossip
Squash grumbling
Squash selfishness
Plan four rows of lettuce
Lettuce be faithful
Lettuce be kind
Lettuce be happy
Lettuce really love one another
And NO garden should be without turnips;
Turnip for service when needed
Turnip to help one another
Turnip the music and dance
Water freely with patience and Cultivate with love.
To finish our garden, we must have thyme;
Thyme for fun
Thyme for rest
Thyme for ourselves.

This post is going to be about as exciting as dirt. Well, even if it's not exciting, it's still going to be about dirt. Well, actually, about soil. We visited the farm this weekend and as you can see, there has been enough rain and snow melt this year to overfill our pond (fondly called Lake Catherine) beyond the normal banks. The ducks are loving all the grassy area that is underwater. Even with all the rain, though, the field where we planted alfalfa, timothy and clover last year still is not green. Perhaps you can see that the field is roughly divided into three areas - the area along the road that is gently sloping (toward the right side of the photo), the area where I am standing that is almost completely barren except for weeds and moss, and a third area bordering the creek, at the bottom of the hill (toward the left side of the photo). We planted the entire field using the same seed and the same methods. I believe what happened is that on the top of the hill, without a lot of organic matter in the soil, the wind and rain has washed away any topsoil there might have been. What is left is a sandy, desert-like area. I did spot a few red clover and alalfa plants in this area, they are quite spread out, however. We are hoping that they self-seed and their roots will stabilize the soil, and add organic matter. It may not be apparent from this photo, but if you look, there is at least one clover plant here. This is encouraging. A few feet farther away is another spot where you can see nothing at all is growing - it really looks like a desert. Hopefully the photo shows the sand and rock. DH suggested that we ask the dairy farmer a few miles down the road to come and knife in some of his excess organic material. I think that would possibly be a great idea. Probably he is not an organic dairy farmer, but if your soil won't even grow weeds, you need to do something kind of extreme. I haven't formally studied the geology of western Michigan, but have visited the beach at Muskegon and seen the signs in the yards of the people who live there - FREE SAND! We are at least 30 miles east of the beach, but over the millenia, I guess the sand has blown away from the beach (unless the coastline of Lake Michigan has shifted!) The deer leave their footprints in the soft sand. They are also making a trail across another field (this field more protected from the wind), heading for the orchard.

I followed their trail into the orchard, and ended up on the other side where our beekeeper has evidently taken away most of his hives to pollinate commercial orchards in the area. Bees are in danger- "During the months of October, November, and December 2006, an alarming number of honey bee colonies began to die along the East Coast of the United States. West Coast beekeepers are also beginning to report unprecedented losses. (see the press release at http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/pressReleases/FallDwindleUpdate0107.pdf ). I am hoping that by allowing him to keep his bees in our relatively unpolluted area, without any heavy use of agricultural chemicals, (which may or may not be a cause of this problem) perhaps we can somehow contribute to reducing this concern. At any rate, it was so pleasant to walk along the edge of the orchard on a sunny morning and watch the bees buzzing in and out of their hives. Standing there and listening to them buzzing by is like hearing a symphony. Notice that one of our trees is totally in bloom, the others have only just begun to spread out their petals to the sun.

It is that awful in-between season - the weather is almost warm enough to trick you into planting... but you just know there's going to be at least one more frost. Or a thunderstorm with high winds, or hail.... Today I put my seed trays outside while I was at work, hoping they wouldn't dry out too much and kill all the delicate little seedlings. It's a terrible choice, leave them inside under lights and let them get leggy, or put them out in the wild world where almost anything can happen to them.

I did have a small tray of tomato seedlings - only six - six packs, 36 plants - they were on the back patio on top of the hot tub. Sure enough the wind whipped something, and they fell off the hot tub, just like a piece of buttered toast always falls with the buttered side down- that's what happened to the seedlings, green side down... I scooped them up and rescued about half, hope they live.

Here is a closer look at the light stand my wonderful husband made for me: The shop lights are suspended from a dowel road with nails in the end. The nail heads fit into links of the chain that runs up and down the side, so the lights can be moved up or down easily as conditions warrant.

I had a complaint today: that I have not updated my blog for a while.... It is not because I have given up farming/gardening, by any means! I have been busy starting seeds in my garage under lights. The weather here has been very nice the last few days so I put the trays outside for the weekend, it is chilling down again tonight, so back under the lights they go.

This light stand was made by my husband for me as a birthday gift before we got married. He hates carpentry but I am thrilled with it. The plans were from a Reader's Digest garden book. If we were to do it again, or build another, I would make the size of the trays different. It is wider than one standard tray, but to short to turn the trays sideways as I have done here, because I don't have enough space for all my trays.

I have many Mortgage Lifter and Brandy Boy tomatoes, and a few salad tomatoes that I saved from last year. Several different varieties of lettuce, mesclun, and roquette, some marigolds, some dill, some combo packs of culinary herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme... and purple ruffles basil, and some regular basil. I have an entire flat of coriander (cilantro) started - that's 72 plants, from seeds saved by a co-worker. I planted some saved green pepper seeds, they've been in the flats for 2 weeks so far, and not a single plant yet. This weekend I planted some asparagus seeds that I saved from a wild plant at the farm. It will be interesting if it sprouts, I will need to find a protected area to plant it here.

So far I have only planted saved seeds and seeds from prior years. Big departure from prior practice - previously I bought seed every year. I had to re-plant the roquette, evidently the first package I tried was too old, but the second is coming up great.

I had planned to till the garden again tonight but we got a thunderstorm this afternoon that drenched it again. The ground is still quite wet.

I called this morning about the Propex 4554 fabric recommended by Mary Jane Butters for weed barrier. The construction company I talked to said they don't have a lot of remnants for that fabric, they sell it mainly in whole roll quantities to road construction companies. They did have some lighter-weight remnants that would probably be equivalent to the fabric sold in a garden store. hmmm.

Cleaning up I found one more seed catalog I had overlooked. This one is

Wildseed Farms - www.wildseedfarms.com - exotic garden varieties, herbs
features wildflower mixes for specific regions of the US.

Christmas is past, the feverish rush of sock knitting has slowed down, and it is time to start looking seriously at the seed and gardening catalogs. I promised myself earlier that I would order something from each one, but at the rate they are coming in I don't know if I will be able to afford that or not! Here's what I've gotten so far (no order except maybe reverse chronological of date received): I've included the "tagline" if it is conveniently posted on the outside of their catalog.

Farmtek Grower's Supply - www.GrowersSupply.com - we are the leading manufacturer of fabric structures and greenhouses
American Nurseryman - www.amerinursery.com - books software DVD's videos
Raintree Nursery - http://www.RaintreeNursery.com - The best old and new fruit trees, berries and unusual edibles from around the world
Henry Fields - www.HenryFields.com - includes varieties especially adapted to southern climates
Gurney's - www.gurneys.com - America's most complete seed and nursery company
Abundant Life Seeds - www.abundantlifeseeds.com -protecting the genetic diversity of rare and endangered seeds since 1975
Gardens Alive! - www.GardensAlive.com - Environmentally responsible products that Work!
A.M. Leonard - www.amleo.com - Horticultural Tool and Supply company -All these pros have one thing in common- they all rely on professional grade supplies guaranteed by A.M. Leonard!
Seeds of Change - www.seedsofchange.com - 100% Certified Organic Seeds - A feast for the senses
Grandma's Garden (Underwood Gardens) - www.underwoodgardens.com - a compendium of hard-to-find, open-pollinated and heirloom seeds
Wood Prairie Farm - www.woodprairie.com The Maine potato catalog direct from our organic family farm
Totally Tomatoes - www.totallytomato.com Long before purple, yellow and pink gormet tomatoes started appearing in supermarkets, they showed up on the pages of Totally Tomatoes
Pinetree Garden Seeds - www.superseeds.com - Over 900 Seed varieties - Bulbs, plants, tubers, garden books, and garden products
Territorial Seed Company - www.territorialseed.com - Seeds and plants for wherever you live - vegetable, Flower and Herb seeds, premium plants, growing supplies
Burpee - www.burpee.com - Discover over 60 NEW products inside
Jung - www.jungseed.com - "We are firm believers of the principle that no firm is or can be a success unless humanity or the country is bettered by its having existed...Our business is our pleasure, profit alone is not our only aim....... (It is their 100 year anniversary this year) Your complete home garden catalog.
Thompson & Morgan - www.thompsonandmorgan.com - Quality English Seeds since 1855
Shumway's - www.rhshumway.com - free seeds for orders by 3-15-07