garden
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of mice and moles
Hidee-ho, fellow inmates! Today we have an urgent task ahead of us, which is raising the fence between the garden and rest of the yard. My hens have learned how to fly over and have torn up several vegetable beds in the past week or so. Really annoying, as I watched my English peas, baby collards, sprouting turnips and carrots get scratched into oblivion. I could trim the feathers on one wing of each hen, if I could catch them, but I can usually catch just two of the four (Poppy and Rosie like to be petted). The other ones (Violet, Bluebell) seem to loathe the touch of human hands and…
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return of the blog
Oops — has it been a month? I have been snapping pix and doing stuff and keep planning to blog about it, and then — well, here I am on the road to hell. So here’s what’s been happening on the Little City Farm… Our exchange student, Fabi, joined us about a month ago, and that meant emptying my office/studio and turning it into to a bedroom suitable for a teen girl. Which meant that all that stuff ended up on our bedroom floor. So we tripped over it as I slowly went through it, Freecycled, recycled, dumped, reassigned, sorted and filed. A month later, our bedroom is livable again, and…
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playing with my food
Garden gone wild! I’ve been experimenting with cucumbers and zucchini all day, trying to figure out how to preserve the bounty of these tasty veggies — well, they’re really fruit — in different ways. Why? Because we eat only seasonal, locally grown produce. So when there are no cucumbers in my backyard and none at the farmers’ market, there are none on the table. So that means at least six months a year without cucumbers. I love cucumbers. Cool, neither sweet nor sour, they are one of the most refreshing things I can think of to eat raw, out of hand like an apple, in a salad, with dip. Love…
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and now, pickles
While we were out…the cukes and zukes went crazy. I knew they would. The tomatoes are conspiring to be right behind. But I’ve counted all my jars and it looks like time to pickle. Today: “Sandwich stackers,” they call them at Vlasic. Gonna slice those cucumbers lengthwise and fill two 1/2 gallon jars with refrigerator pickles. I would attempt to seal these jars for shelf-life, but I don’t have a pot large enough for a full water bath. Actually, I do — that’s a fib — but I’m scared to use it. It’s called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and it’s my ginormous pressure cooker [shudders]. Before Cucumbers from the garden.…
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The Longest Night
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preservationista
So — what’s in your freezer? Been busy on the home front, taking care of produce and other food items that come our way. The dehydrator continues, nonstop, drying apples today. Yesterday I dried a few of the farmers’ market nectarines and plums, plus most of a flat of strawberries. They dry nice and chewy and sweet — the best “gummy” fruit you ever had, since it is pure sliced fruit through and through. No preservatives, either. Kid-tested, and she said, “Mmm.” I’m gonna buy another flat of strawberries to dry before the week is up, if I can. I just processed a couple of quarts of green beans for…
