For this month’s Chronogram article, I took a look at four-season gardening on both a commercial and home-gardening scale. The basics are very simple, and all gardeners in cold climates should seriously consider simple season-extension to get much more food from their plots. There’s a culinary bonus, too; cold-weather crops taste better this time of year. Photo by the not at all cold Jennifer May
Category: Gardening
This post is sort of a response to El‘s comment on the last one. If you’re not familiar with her blog, and you garden, you should be. She’s got an impressive four-season setup in a harsher climate than here, and is self-sufficient in most things. It was a tough summer in the garden; the heat came so early and was so punishing that lots of things got stunted and my timing was thrown off. Among…
We’re lucky enough to have a good venison farm in the area, so those of us who do not hunt have a source for deer meat. Next year may be the one in which I begin hunting, but for now I have to say I’m OK with the steps I’ve taken so far to curate my food sources. Venison is super-lean, flavorful, and, when cooked properly, offers an elegant alternative to beef.
After three days of torrential rain (over four days) which we needed badly, it’s perfect again. The stream rose so high it actually displaced a few of the garden beds, requiring some work today to get things back in place. Besides shifting the 2×10 frames, the water moved some soil around, and strewed freshly-planted garlic cloves in the paths nearby. I got it all back together in short order, and topped up a couple of beds with compost for good measure. The combination of copious water followed by copious sun is having a highly salutary effect on the late plantings; turnips and winter greens are fattening right up. The carrots are great, and the burdock leaves are attaining prehistoric size. It’s been great bread weather.
I soaked some beans overnight, (for once) obviating the need for pressure-cooking, and allowing them to get extra soft and luscious over the course of two simmerings: the first, just with water and a piece of kombu, the second in the company of papaya juice, tomato paste, herbs, maple syrup, three different vinegars, salt, and smoked paprika. As I pondered the seasonings for stage two, I considered the spectrum of beans; a couple of spices…
The garden expansion is not 100% done yet, but it’s close enough to photograph. All of the light-colored beds (along the back and right sides) are new, and the metal fence posts show where I expanded outwards in two directions. There’s a new 4×12′ bed hidden behind the hydrangea in the near right corner, bringing the total to 20 beds (Milo gets a 3×6′ spot for himself, to plant, weed, and tend on his own). Another one (4×9′) is planted to scorzonera and salsify, which John wanted since he has no garden and they’re not easily found in stores. The others I’ve begun to seed with various things, though for most of them I’m going to wait until the end of July so all the brassicas don’t bolt.
I haven’t really been feeling the cooking urge lately. I’m just too busy outside making space for and planting food to be bothered to make very much of it. That will change, though; we have a couple of potlucks coming up, and I’m teaching a class on meat-curing on Saturday, and as the garden gets up to full speed there will be much that needs freezing or otherwise eating. But for now, I’m getting busy with the shovel and such, and then looking around sort of bewildered when I come in at the end of the day, as if dinner is something that I haven’t really considered at all. Because I haven’t.
I haven’t been hitting the blog with due dilligence of late, I know. First, I had an article due, but now it’s done. Second, I have been outside. A lot. The garden expansion is coming up on finished, and will result in a big increase in bed space. That post should be up next week. In related news, I have a major farmer’s tan, only with flip-flop lines on top of my feet. It’s been seriously hot. Now after last summer I am just about the last person you’ll find who will go on record complaining about this, the most perfect spring ever. But the raging heat has fucked up my salads in a big way. “How?” You may ask–and well you may–and here I am, helpfully, to share with you a heartbreaking tale of the ravages of climate change. (I’m not as fat as Al Gore, so you should listen to me).
We’re very slowly getting to the place where more than greens are regular parts of the daily grazing–where what I bring in from the garden is sufficiently varied in color and texture that I can make almost anything I can think of entirely from our own produce. With the new expansion, this should be even better next year, but for now we’re off to a good start. This is what came in the other day:…
The weather lately has been amazing–hot, sunny, and alternating between oppressively humid and perfect. Last night we finally got the rain we’ve been needing, making this year so far the polar opposite of last “summer.” Besides the vegetable garden, which is doing well, I’ve been doing some simple landscaping with fruit-bearing plants to establish low-maintenance, high-yield beds that will provide us with lots of food in years to come. The marginal strips around the edges of our almost acre are pretty scruffy, and inhabited by some pretty scrappy and tenacious weeds. Previous attempts to dig them out and plant have failed, except with big things like lilacs or aggressive things like day lilies. So this time around, for fruit and flower beds alike, I’m just sheet-mulching.
The blackberries going in.