Also in The Garden These Days

This year I dedicated one entire raised bed in my vegetable garden to growing flowers. I planted way too many seeds so only the really strong survived. Along with another one of those rogue cherry tomatoes which I did not plant there even though it grew there, the type of plant that Raj calls a "volunteer"; it was very fruitful, and being situated amongst a robust bed of marigolds surely made it the least bugfull new word of any plant anywhere here except indoors.

The sweet peas never really did anything other than loiter and lurk next to the tree they were meant to use as a trellis, and the cosmos did not thrive. The dahlias, on the other hand, and the marigolds are still growing and putting out new blossoms even now, almost Halloween.

A Quintessential Fall Day in New England

The reservoir from Beaver Spit

The sky was beautifully blue, and the leaves were crisply marching as the wind briskly shooed us along. The Bernard family was visiting, and I asked Dean to help me get some of the apples in from the tree. We had a HUGE year in terms of apples; all the apple trees were ridiculously fruitful especially compared to last year when I don't think we got even a dozen apples.

As Dean and I started picking I mentioned that we hadn't had any pumpkins though we do have a large and very vigorous pumpkin vine that has taken over a rowdy, unkempt corner of the garden under the apple tree next to the compost pile, essentially colonizing it. The pumpkin is next to the rhubarb which I never harvest so it is very wild; last spring Dean brought over a morning glory that has taken over his front porch and put it out there as well, and Raj put in a couple of rogue cherry tomatoes hardened by life enough to hang with the other delinquents.

That's SOME Cabbage! -Reprise

A couple of days ago I plucked our largest cabbage to date, which ended up weighing 5 pounds. Raj and I tested it to make sure it hadn't sacrificed taste for size and gotten bitter about life.  But no, our Giant Cabbage was still sweet and crunchy and densely marbled.  It took me a couple days but I did finally process it: we now have 2.5 pounds of Red Cabbage Salad in the 'fridge and 2.5 pounds of Red Cabbage Kim Chi fermenting merrily on the kitchen counter.


I've never made Kim Chi before, and since it is traditionally made with Napa Cabbage and fish sauce, I knew I would be making some key adjustments to the recipe.  For one thing, I have the wrong color cabbage and for the other, not having fish sauce on hand (and being loath to brew a batch up in a barrel buried in our back field), I was going to have to improvise.  I think I'll wait to post my adapted recipe until I see how it turns out; it will be 2 or 3 days before I can taste it. In the meantime, here is the recipe from Epicurious.com I used as a starting point: Traditional Napa Cabbage Kimchi. Please note that I left out the radishes in my version as well.

My Kim Chi will not look like this.

It is Not My Imagination. Those Leaves ARE Starting to Turn! - Reprise

It is warm today, there may be rain, lightening, thunder, it is humid, the sun is out.  But we have had a few cool nights this month, that is, nights where lows were in the 50s, and some of the foliage is responding to the change. We have a Hawk living here on The Fahm with us, in the wild treetops near the Barn. Hawk circles the skies over our fields every day and shrieks a mournful sound that suits our fading summer absolutely.

All of a sudden I have a sense of urgency about getting The Crops In and Processed - that is, harvesting the chard, the carrots, the cabbage, the arugula, the beans, the basils, the berries, the grapes, the tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes, the apples, the pears, the peppers ... all of which seem to be approaching perfect ripeness simultaneously, and all of which must be frozen, pickled, fermented, brined, or submerged in crocks filled with oil or vinegar ...  


...


Geez. What am I doing sitting here blogging?  I've got some REAL WORK to do!

First Harvest: Greek Oregano

Legume Visions and Cruciferous Wishes: Green Tomato Pickles (O Ye of Little Faith!)

Green Tomato Pickles, Before.

Green Tomato Pickles, After.

Don't they look like themselves?

I used much less sugar than the recipe calls for, and added red pepper flakes to give my first batch o pickles a little kick.

Our Marigolds are Very Vigorous - Reprise

I grew these from seed purchased at The Dollar Store (here at The Fahm we try to squeeze our pennies 'til Lincoln screams).

THOSE WITH AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS ARE ADVISED TO HARVEST OR PROTECT TENDER VEGETATION

Rather than sit outside all night long in the garden with a smudge pot, I took the easy way out and opted to harvest the fruits of our labor.  

The last of our spring garden produce...

Acorn squash and tiny misshapen carrots.

Habanero (and a lone jalapeno) peppers in various stages of ripeness; oregano in the background, next to the green beans.

Rosemary.

Beans. 

Tomatillos.

Tomatoes.

Thai basil.

Why Yes, That IS Apple Cider from The Fahm!

Our Mail Delivery Person Refused...

...to accept the tomatoes I thrust upon him earlier this week when he came by on his daily round of dropping off bills cards and letters. In fact, he not only refused our largess, he actually smirked at me and laughed a bright little laugh as he sang out, "Nooo-oooo-oooo!" before barreling back up the road, weaving to and fro.  Should I be offended?

Desperately Seeking Cider Press

We have at least 4 apple trees here at The Fahm; some have tongue-twistingly tart golden apples, some red.  The thing is, while we only have 4 trees, we have about a million apples, apples that are so ripe they fling themselves off the trees just to get our attention. We don't know how long the apple trees have been here though they are huge in size. Even without fertilizer, competent pruning, or attention for a couple of generations, our trees, being the hardy New England type, are very...FRUITFUL.


Last year I made prison apple jack and apple butter from one small harvest of about 20 end-of-season apples. This year I've got much, much bigger plans:  apple cider, hard apple cider, apple cider vinegar, apple sauce, apple butter, apple pie filling, apple-concord-grape juice ... I think you can see where this is going.  


I plan to put myself into direct competition for resources with Our Bear who (apparently) snacks from our apple trees and poops in our fields and woods with impunity. If anyone is going to be doing that around here, it's gonna be me. 


ANYBACKTOTHEMAINPOINTWAY


Do you have a cider press? Do you know anyone who has a cider press?  May we use it? Can we trade some apples to do so?  Failing that, can we just give you some apples? 

This Morning I Harvested 20 Pounds of Tomatoes, Reprise

...and then had to come inside for a little light reading:

How to Freeze Garden Produce Without Rendering It Inedible

Preparing Fermented Foods For Consumption Without Unfortunate Side Effects

Safe Home Food Storage Without Pestilential Interference

So far I have only processed about half the tomatoes from this morning despite having been in the kitchen all day; I need to increase my output or I am going to lose the advantage over all our rapidly ripening Love Apples...

Today I worked up Gazpacho, Oven-Dried Tomatoes, Stewed Tomatoes, and a low(er) fat clone of Marie Callendar's House Salad Dressing; tomorrow, at the very least, more Oven-Dried Tomatoes, as well as freezing whole tomatoes in sheer self-defense.

Every Garden Should Have One

...don't you think?

Do You Think It's Ripe Yet?

Chop Wood, Haul Water, Plant Seeds, Grow Food, Repeat

An unexpected benefit of life at The Fahm is that I am certainly developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set... 

A Grape in the Hand Beats Two Chickens in a Bush

Our friend Eli was visiting and discovered that a highly regarded and costly mushroom, Laetiporus, aka Chicken of the Woods, was growing from an old oak tree here at The Fahm. Eli, demonstrating proper technique for 'shroom removal, cut the giant yellow and mango-colored monsta out and took it with him to sell at the Farmer's Market in Northampton where his father, coincidentally, sells the mushrooms that he cultivates (on purpose) on his farm. Eli offered to sell more of them for us if we can find them, so yesterday I went into the wild(er) areas of The Fahm with knife and collection bag, looking for Chickens in the Woods.


As often happens, I got distracted from my appointed task ("Oh look! A butterfly!"), although this time I was distracted by something useful, that is, a multitude of purplicious Concord Grapes across the road.  I immediately abandoned Chicken Hunting in favor of Grape Gathering, believing, as I do, that a grape in the hand beats two chickens in a bush any day. In less than an hour I collected just over 5 pounds of fruit which I dragged back across the road and into the kitchen to show Raj, who was appropriately impressed.

 Aren't they gorgeous?

New England Fahm Fields...

...are renowned for their magical abilities to grow ROCKS; I dug a wagon-load out of our sledding meadow last week and dragged them up next to my haystack so everyone can admire The Fahm's yield.  Impressive, don't you think?

I'm going to use them for borders in our gardens...

Mon Petit Chou Chou

A Haystack of One's Own

I am now the proud recipient of My Very Own Personal Haystack!

It's a lot like getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with the major difference being that the bullshit around The Fahm is real, actual *Bull Shit* while the bullshit in Hollywood is, shall we say, a little more theoretical.

Suffice it to say that I find I am leading a very grand life here on The Fahm - after all, what could be a more charming Gift for a Radical Homemaker? Thank you very mulch!

Blackberry Picking Runs in Our Family (ApPARENTly)

This from an e-mail my Dad sent Joe after hearing about our recent adventures:

" In Arkansas...when I was growing up the family always went blackberry picking on the Fourth of July in the morning and then we drove in to nearby Maynard where there was a Fourth Celebration that included speeches by local politicians and usually free watermelon slices cooled in tubs with ice. The parents visited and the kids ran around having fun..."