Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Hail to Thee Oh Kale!

Good Stuff !!!





Harvest for Chef today.
 Arugula, Winter Salad Mix, Tuscan Kale, Parsley, French Sorrel, Carrots, Butternut Squash.
The Artists will not be starving.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Surprise Surprise Surprise! *

Lots of surprises discovered while cleaning out the Long Bed.
Things planted last fall and forgotten.
Love getting older.
Making way for more winter lettuces from the endive mix in starting Bed #5. Its packed.
Thinned and replanted red lettuces from top level.
Dreaming of Valentine Salad.. .

*Remembering Gomer Pyle

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Vigilance

Mornings here at Voss Gardens begin with perusing the garden.
Making the rounds, like a doctor visiting patients.
Sipping coffee and reminding myself to be thankful. Enjoy the beauty before making the" to do" list.
Mostly I inspect for critter activity in the night.
Once you create a piece of heaven pie, everyone wants a slice.
Sure enough, gophers feasting on chicory roots, moles messing up the lawn.
Dang varmints! Must be vigilant!
Cleaned and oiled the traps. Set them. Sorry, you messed with the wrong gal.
Planted out fava beans in 10 gallon pots. Some had sprouted just soaking overnight.
Started lots, not sure how many will propagate. Can always transplant out of pots later.
Cleaned Long Bed to make room for more winter lettuces.
Paging through the new Johnny's Seed Catalog, so many choices.
Like a kid in a candy store...

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Little This Little That

Thinking peas and fava beans. Nitrogen fixers.
Cleaned up front Gabe Bed for pea planting.
(Beds are named after the people who helped me make them.)
Need to get pea seeds, thinking low growing variety that won't block the sun from what's growing behind them and/or taller varieties in cages at each end.
Visualizing lush tendrils on plates with purple pea blossoms that look like mini orchids.
Scotty Bed -weed, clean up chard, Asian greens and spinach, watch aphid activity in the broccoli.
Sam Bed - weed, clean up kale (4 varieties), and chard.
Prepared  a row of 10 gallon pots in front of the New Room for favas.
Soaking own beans overnight in preparation for planting.
Harvested first broccoli. Its whats for dinner with the stew.
Glad to have terraced areas where I can stand up to weed, easy on the knees.
Garden Ergonomics for aging Back to the Landers.
Big day for ideas, they come so easily sometimes....

Bulbalicious

Thinned out the rest of the arugula in the green garlic bed, fertilized and watered the young shoots.
Also fertilized (a mixture of horse manure and magic powders) and watered the tuscan and curly kale, mache, and spinach on the 2nd terrace.
Recovered the compost, the critters dug up some egg shells and old bread.
Planted spring bulbs: crocus, narcissus,daffodils,lily of the valley.
You can never have too many flowers. Flowers feed the soul.
Planted more garlic next to the frisee. It was almost dark. Never tried planting garlic in January.
Usually plant during full moon in October. Its almost full moon now. See what happens.
You can never have too much garlic.
Harvested carrots for stew from New Years Eve prime rib leftovers. Been cooking stock for 2 days.

Friday, January 6, 2012

New Ways

A food collaborator inspired me to revive this blog.
From henceforth it will be in diary form to document the doings of my mountain garden.
Life requires more time musing out in the field than indoors futzing with technology.
A diary will help me keep records usually scribbled on a calendar or random sticky notes.
Perhaps it will educate and entertain others

Despite these glorious sunny days, we need rain. I had to water today. Lots of clean up.
Taking down booby traps rigged for hungry deer last fall, spiffing up Mother Mary's shrine.
Started thinning arugula out of the green garlic bed. Ate it for lunch. The garlic is just poking up.
Thinned out some winter lettuces to make a bed of transplanted frisee, amended well.
Prepared more garlic for planting, just to see what happens.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Peas on Earth




I'll admit I've been remiss in my blog writing but not without excuses. First of all, blogging has no rules, therefore no guilt. Gone are the dark days of winter with oodles of time to muddle the profundities of foodage. With growing season in full swing who has time or inspiration to enter one's musings on a keyboard? At one point I started a post called 'Boozy Sorbets" but alas, got lost in testing the recipes. Perhaps it will be perfected later in the summer. It involves a combination citrus, coconut rum and Campari, but more experimental batches are needed. Tough job but some one's got to do it.



Meanwhile, being more of a visual artist, I'll update with pictures and let my photos be the thousand words. Expect succinct word play, long hours in the garden will do that to you.