Canning at the Family Garden

Yesterday, my sister-in-law and I blanched yellow summer squash, bottled some sun-dried tomatoes, canned sweet pickle relish, worked on the 8th day of 12-day sweet icicle pickles, made and canned tomato-apple chutney, and made the most beautiful organic golden apple sauce.

We were preserving whirling dervishes!

My brother contributed by clearing a shelf in his historic house's bottle pantry. The family garden is across the road from this historic home on the grounds of what is also a historic property, the Pipe School.

Notice I said "clearing", not "cleaning". The shelf still had plenty of mouse dirt and spider webs to wipe down.

In a historic house such as theirs, the women of the house would have taken in and canned and preserved as much of the harvest as they possible could. The early owners of the property raised sheep. So mutton would have been regularly served in addition to whatever they could fish and hunt.

All of us have been impressed by the beauty of our canned produce lining those shelves and the fresh melons and veggies displayed on the counters.

These days we are simply trying to be gluten-free, and pesticide and herbicide-free. I should not say "simply". It has not been simple or easy to hold my hand from the pesticides when the Colorado potato beetle has found our garden, nor so I like what the cabbage moths have done on our bountiful harvest crop. But we do have an abundant crop.

Now what to do with 25 pounds of cukes every 3-4 days!

Here in Central Wisconsin...

My dad and one of the twins. My nephew is sitting on a tree limb at the farm. The low sprawling limbs on a red ornamental maple shelter a picnic table at the farm. This last week, my mother loaded it down with strawberry shortcake, baked beans, potatoes. We all ate a family meal. It was my mother's 75th birthday. My sister-in-law and brother announced the pregnancy. A momentous day.


I have a sister in Pennsylvania. That Wisconsin girl felt an earthquake earlier this week and now Irene is barreling up the coast to visit. My son says, "Aren't you glad we live in Wisconsin?"

Debio, to the far north, has posted pictures of beautiful sunrises. The sunsets the last few days have been spectacular. Although August's temps have been above normal, because of the lack of humidity, the days have been beautiful, but dry. These have been great harvest days.

I have not gotten nearly enough done this summer. I have just bumped along. The family garden is a bit weedy, but it has not affected the harvest that I can tell. I missed the second pesticide application on my 'Honeycrisp'. I won't have eating apples, but they will make sauce.

I have bulbs I have dug up from various places throughout the summer which I need to replant, but where?

My shrubs need some serious trimming. My electric hedge trimmer is burning up and a nearly purchased pruner keeps sticking. This, before the blade has dulled.

I finally began painting the deck. The paint had almost completely peeled off this summer. With the southern exposure, harsh winters, and torrential rains of early summer, you would think I hadn't painted it for 20 years. My son painted decks for other people this summer while ours went ignored.

Yesterday, I planted yet another patch of mesclun for fall salads. I might have to erect some sort of cold frame over it. Frost date is in possibly just 6 weeks, maybe less.

It seems like summer has gone before it came. My son and I both have school September 1.

Today, my son is with his dad in Chicago. My brother is in Milwaukee. My parents and my son's best friends are covering work at the farm. My sister-in-law and I will can and preserve food all day.

Make good use of your day!

More on Grapes

Grapes at the Chicago Botanical Gardens


The 'Concord' grape vines around central Wisconsin have really set on the grapes this year. In my village it is getting pretty dry. The family garden being just a tad north, 21 miles, got over an inch of rain last week. Here, just spit. Even my shrubs are feeling the hurt. After all the rain in May, June, and July, it is odd to see them drooping or losing leaves prematurely because of the lack of moisture. I have started to drag out my hoses.

Big juicy grapes need plenty of sunshine and plenty of moisture to reach their potential sweetness.

In the family garden, I underplanted them with squash. It was a great idea as we were having an issue with weeds and it really kept the weeds from growing there. As we had plenty of rainfall, moisture was not an issue.

So, in addition to watering, if needed, and they need it here in my yard; I typically prune some of the leaves off the plant that are shading the grape bunches overmuch. I keep in mind that as the grapes begin to ripen they also become tempting to birds trying to load up on calories to make their fall migrations. I don't want to make the grapes too accessible.

Something that reminder me about this fall leaf pruning was some television show. Two men were having a conversation, I think it was some crime drama. Between them were these mature, perfectly grown and pruned grapes strung on wire between posts. Hanging from them were bunches, and I mean loads of bunches, of grapes. This wasn't some prop, a product of Hollywood's imagination, and the fact that they were properly grown was incidental to the scene itself.

I do know if the gardener was the "perp" for which the investigator was looking, that the gardener was so methodical, that he would never have been caught!

Freezing and Canning

The last few days I have spent a lot of time coming up with the best ways to preserve the harvest based on how the families' picky eaters eat.

Blanching and freezing many veggies is one. My sister-in-law has a huge nearly empty freezer, which just makes sense to fill to the brim. So days at the family garden are filled with the twins helping me harvest and wash produce. We did a huge mess of gnarly carrots yesterday. Gnarly, because the soil is hard and needs a lot of aeration to produce good carrots. The picture above show nearly perfect carrots harvested from my village potager grown in the sandy loam with lots of organic material of a well-worked garden.

The biggest difference from the potager and the family home garden is, based on veggie plant appearance, nitrogen. The potager grows a lot more leaves on the plants, yet the family garden' plant have set up a lot more veggies.

The 'Siberian' tomatoes, while being among the first for harvest have not impressed me with their size. They are about 1 1/2" inch in size versus the reputed 2"-3". There are lots of tomatoes set on each plant.

Tomatoes are one veggie that even the picky eaters eat so it is important we harvest every one.

I cut open a 'Charentais' melon yesterday only to be disappointed with its lack of ripeness. It is edible, but not with the honey-tinged sweetness I had hoped. The 'Earlichamps' are ripe and we have harvested two. The twins were enchanted with the still hairy, fertilized ovules that may yet mature into honeydew melons.

And I have been canning cucumbers. Pickles. Hamburger dills, Russian dill pickles, sweet pickle relish, and am still working on sweet icicle pickles.

And I have hundreds of pounds of cabbage. Anyone have a good storage method?

Silly Allium

I've been taking stock what spring bulbs to plant where and looking for some nice early purples for a potential client. Needing inspiration, I went back to some pictures I took at the Chicago Botanical Gardens back in June.

The lollipop purple allium are so silly, they made me smile. Here's your smile for the day!

Taking Stock, What News

I have been busy canning and preserving from the family garden. Totals so far: 6 half-pints gherkins, 6 paty pan squash, 6 broccoli, 6 yellow summer squash, 6 patty pan, 6 zucchini, 16 sweet pickle relish, 2 sun-dried basil tomatoes, 1 dried basil, 10 pints salsa, 3 pints stewed tomatoes, 5 quarts of sweet icicle pickles. And there are lots more to do.

We are, as expected, going to have lots of spaghetti and acorn squash, and a smattering of other more unusual squash, Hubbard, Lakota, and even a Butternut or two. The 'Big Max' pumpkins have set at least four whose proportions should be a good size, although not ginormous.

We will have some fall peas, broccoli, and salad greens. I am not sure what we will do with the cabbage!

The potatoes are okay although probably not the 400 pounds I wanted, but the 250 pounds we need for both families.

The berries and small fruits have established themselves very well. The asparagus is over the top for any of my or my sister-in-law's expectations. And we have melons.

My twin nephews have learned exciting stuff about gardening. The raspberries, ground cherries, and potatoes have been their favorites. They have stared into the face of happy sunflowers and told me they are yellow and patted the pumpkins in greeting each day. They have watched as 'Red Norlands' have popped from the ground like little cats pouncing on mice. We have composed a simple song about sweet corn, "Corn, Corn, Pepper, Yah!"

On top of all this summer harvest goodness, my sister-in-law and brother have shared some exquisite news. My sister-in-law is pregnant. This is no mean feat of fecundity. My nephews both spent some small moments in a a petri dish en route to their delivery 2 1/2 years ago.

My sister-in-law suffers celiac disease. Since diagnosis during attempts at conception, I have learned lots about this disease, and her need to be gluten-free. The upshot of this diagnosis and the fact that time marches on, my brother and sister-in-law felt they could not wait a year of two for her body to recover from the total body effects and how it might be impacting her ability to conceive and carry their child. Since then the need to take chemicals, especially hormone disruptors out of their family's lifestyle has been paramount. It is one of the main thrusts behind the family garden, no pesticides and herbicides.

My brother and my sister-in-law have been rewarded. This was a surprise conception. My brother, who I know wanted more kids, but wasn't sure he could support the medical conception price tag, has a bit of the "deer in the headlights look" these days. My sister-in-law is just worn out all the time and has developed more than a bit of morning sickness, and a lot of the traditional chewing on crackers routines are not an option for her.

So, although I thought the theme of this blog might be nurturing, growth, and the passing of information from generation to generation; it is about something the bees knew about all along.

Fecundity.

So raise your glass and celebrate the harvest!

View of a Successful Planting

More from the Waushara County Fair

I always enjoy walking through the exhibits and looking at what 4-H and Open Class exhibitors bring each year. The waxing and waning of different exhibits is interesting. For example, when I was in 4-H, the sewing project was a big deal with hundreds of exhibitors all with a couple entries. This year, any given year of my sewing projects would have easily outnumbered the exhibits displayed on the two small circular racks. The clothing looked less interesting and more dowdy than that on a Goodwill rack.

A couple of categories that have really taken over though are quilting and photography. Baked goods are holding their own, and I know several of the Open class bakers and root for them each year. Again this year, the baking powder biscuits looked embarrassing; and again this year I vowed to my son, I really need to exhibit mine and up the ante.

Something that was not part of the fair when I was exhibiting is the animal market project where the animal is auctioned for slaughter. The prices per pound are incredible as one prominent business after another bid on the animals. Often the animal is served at a company picnic or donated to some food pantry or charity dining event. The company gets their name in the paper and it is great advertising, especially for farm-oriented businesses. For more and more of the animals exhibited, this is their last hurrah. When I exhibited, all the animals had a round trip ticket back to the farm.


Looks like this "ride" should be listed as an addendum to "Manly Plants"!





And who doesn't love chickens having a bad hair day!

A county fair is look into the private lives of rural and farm families. In the commercial displays there was a booth held down by the Waushara county Republicans. This year there was no booth with Democrats. I don't get the "Lego project". The computer project with a project on disc and no projection is another exhibit that is less than charming. There are some great craft projects using wood working techniques. My son always looks for emo and goth artists among the 4-Hers. They are not too thick on the ground among 4-H members, more of those than Democrats it seems.

Visitng the County Fair

Silly pork butt picture at the county fair.



I've spent the last three days at my brother's house and the family garden babysitting the twins while their parents have been on vacation. It has given me some time to can and freeze.

Back at my own home, my son managed to hold himself together, care for Faithful Companion, get to work, and feed himself, barely. Dirty dishes were "neatly" stacked, laundry overflowing, and he only slept one hour on Thursday because he and his best friend went "out" to breakfast at 2 AM.

Hmmm.

So as I work my way through mountains of his dirty clothes and do dishwasher after dishwasher of dirty glasses and plates (Have I mentioned his normal feeding schedule is about once per twenty minutes?, and make and can salsa today, I will mention I made my annual trip to the County Fair, yesterday.

County Fairs are a wealth of resources, particularly, which vegetable varieties have grown well for gardeners in the local area. One of judging rules requires naming the variety, great for me!

So far I have yet to see red sweet peppers for sale at Farmers' Markets. The best sweet red sweet pepper I saw displayed was a green 'Carmen', the variety I planted this year also.

Of the cherry tomatoes, the winner was another variety, of which I have already written, the 'Super Sweet 100'.


Broccoli 'Bay Meadow'


Tomato 'Celebrity'
'Celebrity' was the consistently largest tomato of all the entries.


This tomato, 'German Red', was particularly tastey-looking.


Celery 'XP-266'

Until last year I didn't realize celeruy could even be grown here. Last year a single entry of the variety 'Michigan' was entered. THis year there were many entries, no 'Michigan', but lots of 'XP-266' and 'Green Bay' or "self-blanching". I grew 'Tango'. I didn't see seed for these other varieties.


Celery 'Green Bay'


Grapes 'King of the North'


'Sweet corn 'Ambrosia'

We wanted to stay away from GMO and hybrid sweet corn. I'm not familiar with 'Ambrosia' and will have to check that one out further.

Today it is back to salsa-making.

Tomorrow: More of the county fair.

A Cucumber Soup

My mother makes this. I'm not sure whether you consider it a soup or a salad.

You want to use pickling cucumbers, not those dark green waxed cukes you typically find in chain grocery stores. I don't know what those are; but where I come from, they aren't considered to be cucumbers.

Use three to four medium-sized cucumbers. Cut off and discard each end. As I make any fresh cuke dishes, I always taste the blossom end tip (which I would discard). Sometimes you will find a particularly bitter cuke. These I discard. Peel them.

Slice into as thin of slices as possible. Use a small glass bowl. Chop up a small onion and add. Also add 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. black pepper. Add enough milk to cover cukes and onions. Cover and refrigerate. This is best if it has a couple hours to marinade.

Enjoy!

My Grandmother's Kitchen

My maternal grandmother was an amazing cook. As a child, I liked her cooking best of all the places I was able to pull up a chair to a table. Her fruit pies were incredible, I liked the blueberry best. She made everything from scratch, and she canned.

Recipes were closely held by her. My mother swears her mother used no written recipes at all, that everything was in her head. My mother has some recipes like this, prepared so often there is no need for a written reinforcement, although there are cookbooks and cooking magazines scattered throughout my mother's house. My grandmother's cooking was like a family's oral history, passed from one generation to the next.

Unfortunately, as I child I barely glimpsed at this rich heritage. My grandmother who ran her kitchen like a German battleship, did not deem my mother worthy to inherit. I remember being sent from the kitchen in tears one late summer day after breaking a jar I was filling with sliced cucumbers.

My grandmother canned everything imaginable. She had racks built in her basement to hold this bounty. Going to the basement to fetch a jar of dill pickles was a bit like going to a grocery store, for all the efficiency of her ordered shelving, with jars lined up with precision, neatly labeled.

Her dill pickles were really crunchy, a feat not easy to duplicate, and which I have yet to achieve. Packed with these pickles would be a couple carrot and celery sticks, heads of fresh dill, garlic cloves, red peppers, and onion. In addition to spices, she also used alum.

I asked her what alum was, and I remember her telling me it was the crunch. We shall see.

My canning bible, 'Ball's Blue Book of Preserving' does not include a single recipe with alum. Today, with the Internet, I am able to find dozen of recipes for dill pickles using alum. Although, they will not be my grandmother's dill pickles, perhaps they will be close. I also know it is important to take a fork and pierce the pickles several times with the tines and removing a tiny bit of each end of the pickle is equally important to the crunch.

Today's recipe is a simple one from my childhood, a simple vinegary pickle:

Select a largish cucumber. Slice it into crosswise circular slices, 1/4" thick. Place in a plastic or glass bowl. Cover with cider vinegar. Weigh the slices with a small glass plate. Cover with plastic wrap.

The vinegary pickles will be ready to eat in one week.

Pickles

When I was a kid the word "cucumber" was as foreign as finding a Thai food restaurant in central Wisconsin. Everything, whether the plant, the vegetable clinging to the vine, the slices on a hamburger, or the things stored in huge vats lining many roads in quasi-industrial agricultural areas; was a pickle, brined or not.

The word "pickle" persists in my vocabulary for each of these, and linguistically identifies me as a native of a place and time in history when Wisconsin's cucumber harvest was an important economic feature of our landscape here.

Migrant workers harvested cucumbers, or pickles.

Right along side of them were many white kids, whose parents put in a half acre or acre as a summer job for their kids. Typically, an efficient picker could keep up with the four-day rotation of picking down an acre of well-grown, irrigated cukes. Picking that acre, made me rich in teenage parlance, with a couple thousand dollars in my pocket after spending a few hundred in those days for all the shoes, clothing, and accessories a teenage girl would want, in addition to any original garments I would sew copying Vogue designs from pattern books.

We, my two older sisters and I, would get up about 6:00 or 6:30, and be in the field by 7:00. Our goal was to finish picking by 1:00 P. M. The mornings would sometimes be cool, sometimes in the 50s. As the course of the sun reached its zenith, it would find us stripped down to blue jeans and bikini tops. By 5:00 P.M., we would be sorting our pickles at a huge pickle sorter from #1s to #7s. The #1s would pay as much as $24 per hundred pounds; the #7s about $1.50. Sometimes I would make a couple hundred dollars for a half days work. It was probably the higher dollar per hour rate I will ever make in my life.

Those days are long past. I don't know anyone white kids that pursued the pickle as feverishly as I did. Now cucumbers are harvested once or twice by hand, typically by male migrants (versus whole families of kids 10 and up when I was a kid). Then they are picked by machines that tear up the vines and the harvest is done. The fields are staggered so the human pickers pick numerous field in succession as each comes ready to harvest.

I have three short rows of pickles in the family garden. They are just loaded with blossoms. I think they are probably a higher percentage male blossoms than the vines I picked when young (5% were typically male then as they would bear no pickles). Each four days I pick, and I pick them all in one pass, I get just a 5-gallon pail of pickles. And each four days I have to decide what I shall do with these beautiful pickles.

I have made relish. I have some brined to make sweet icicle pickles. Last Saturday, I decided on gherkins. My son wants some very crispy dill slices for burgers. I have also made a Greek cucumber and yogurt salad.

I can't imagine a garden without pickles. And although they are "really" cucumbers, having not been brined, for me I grow pickles.

This week: My favorite pickle recipes!

Gotta Love Dish Gardens

I'm at a grant writing seminar all day today, as I am a village trustee. I'm sharing some great dish gardens and a faux roof garden I came across last week. Enjoy!

How to Make Sausage Gravy, from Scratch

Okay, today I said I would share my son's favorite recipe for sausage and gravy to go on the biscuits of Hardee's fame. At Hardee's they take expired sausage patties and chop them up grab a scissors and open the dried sausage gravy mix and add water, simmer over a low heat.

Fortunately, for my son and you, that is not how I make sausage gravy. Along the way from there to here, I worked in some excellent restaurants. Most of the work I did was management and front of the house work; but because I was interested, the chefs were only to willing to show me how things were done. I've done my stints as a sous chef as well, but the business management and supervision was always more where my true talents lie.

Now, onto the recipe for scratch sausage gravy!

In a medium sauce pan over LOW heat, melt:

3 T. butter

With a whisk, after the butter has melted blend in:

3 T. flour.

It is important to have a cup of milk measured out and sitting on hand.

What you are making at this point is a roux. You want to bring your mixture to the bubbling point, but not burn it. The flash point between these two options is very thin. Once the butter and flour has been combined and is slowly bubbling, whisk the mixture slowly and add the milk. I use 2%. I tried to use 1% and it was a fail.

During the making of this gravy, preferably after all the ingredients have been added, you will want to bring this mixture to a boil for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. This can happen with just the butter and flour in the pan or after you have added the cup of milk.

Now add the additional ingredients:

3/4 cup additional 2% milk
1 tsp. black ground pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1 /2 tsp fennel seed
a dash of paprika
a dash of crushed red pepper
2 bay leaves (Remember to fish these out, they are not a prize!)
2 sausage patties, cooked (I use the microwaveable type), and chopped into 1/4" size pieces

Simmer at the lowest heat you can for about 5 minutes. I typically start the gravy right after the biscuits go in the oven, and turn off the heat to the gravy and cover after it has simmered for 5 minutes.

This is enough gravy for the 12 biscuits you can make from yesterday's biscuit recipe. It should feed 4 to 6 people; unless of course, you are feeding basketball players looking for carbs, like my son.

Enjoy!

My Son's Favorite Meal: Biscuits and Sausage Gravy From Scratch

It seems like a lifetime ago, but at one time I was the manager of a Hardee's. When I was the manager, one of my primary duties one summer was to train biscuit makers. I was running a restaurant that was going through a rough patch at the beginning of its busiest season. That's not the time to be training one of the key personnel in the hierarchy of a restaurant where one of the big day part sales depends on homemade biscuits made from scratch.

Needless to say, I have the recipe for biscuit and gravy etched indelibly on my memory-- the recipe for 20 dozen biscuits!

After a little experimentation I have been able to convert the recipe to a scant dozen Hardee's style and sized biscuits made in my counter top semi-industrial Kitchen-Aid mixer versus a mixer nearly as tall as I am.

This recipe make 1 dozen 4" diameter biscuits, using equipment found in your kitchen, and a Kitchen-Aid mixer.

In the bowl combine:

1 1/2 T. salt
1 T. sugar
6 tsp. baking powder
3 cups flour
1/4 cup vegetable shortening

I mix this using the wire whisk attachment. Then I switch attachments to the bread hook.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Then, I add:

1 cup milk

When this has mixed into a cohesive ball, I flour my counter. I use a air sheet cooing sheet, a marble rolling pin (but any rolling pin will do), and a large wine glass which is about 4" in diameter (to cut the biscuits). At Hardee's they have an actual ring biscuit cutter and a measuring blade so you do no roll the dough too flat. You can eyeball the height and use any jar or glass with a strong, but defined edge. The height of the dough should be about 1/2" to 5/8" tall when you roll it out in preparation for cutting.

You should dust your hands, the glass, rolling pin, and counter before you dump out the dough ball and begin to knead the dough. A couple tips here: If you overwork the dough the biscuits tops will be too flat and the biscuits will be denser. Working in too much flour will also result in tough biscuits. The dough ball should be fairly elastic, but smooth before you begin to roll out the dough. When you begin to lose the elasticity, you have begun to overwork your dough.

When cutting out the biscuits you want to cut out as many as you can in each roll-out of the dough. At Hardee's they only would roll out and cut biscuits twice, discarding any remaining dough after the second cut-out. At home I roll out the dough again and cut out the last one or two biscuits. The final remainder I roll into a flattish ball and bake for Faithful Companion.

When laying out the biscuits I place them touching on all sides in a four by 3 or so pattern on the ungreased baking sheet.

The biscuits take about 15 to 20 minutes to bake, depending on the size and height. They should be a light golden brown when done. Usually I can smell them about one minute or so before they are done. I run a stick of butter over the tops of the biscuits when I pull them from the oven.

Tomorrow: The gravy recipe!

Sunny Sunflowers

Sunflowers south of the village by the industrial park.


The heads are already drooping, heavy with ripening seeds, but the first sunny blue sky day I saw them lifting up their happy yellow flower heads to the sky; it was a dazzling sight!

Beautiful, Bountiful, Brightly-colored Gladiolas and Daylily Hybridizing

I never have enough sunny space to plant gladiolas it seems. Without sufficient sun, they are doomed to flop over. I seldom grow them. I have been fortunate to be the recipient of an armful each of the last two summers from the garden of Dr. Darrel Apps.

I stopped by Dr. Darrel Apps' hybridizing plot to see what was blooming this day in August in the upper echelons of daylilies. Even at this point in August, when nearly all the daylilies in my yard have completed their annual bloom cycle; there is still plenty to see in the plot. In the sub-group of daylilies that includes the rebloomers developed by Dr. Apps, there are a still many lovely daylilies with lots of color and beautiful forms.

Walking through his testing plot, he is quick to point out his favorite breeding stock and what he has been trying to get from them in his offspring trials. Although many of these blooming daylilies have deeply peeled back and recurved tepals and sepals, with wide marked eye zones and frilly chicken fat edging; he is still always looking for good structure ("I walk right past floppy scapes, too hard to correct," after my pointing out a remarkably pretty, small-blossomed daylily.)

"I spend years breeding these, and now everyone wants spiders." He has spiders, those daylilies with long, thin curved and curly petals, some in deep red and purple, others in pale orchid with green throats. Although he does have some very pretty spiders.

The other thing that is difficult to correct, he says, low bud count. "It is always quantitative. You cross a high bud count and a low bud count you get something in the middle."

He also dislikes muddy colors. He want clear, bright colors. He talks of "cleaning up" a color by crossing it with a near white.

He has a couple different things he has been breeding for recently: deep, deep colors, reblooming in the small clear red, a canary yellow rebloomer on scapes 6' tall, an earliest rebloomer that might make a good hanging basket or potted daylily. Then walking along he will bend over and point out a nice simple bright yellow or red daylilies and say, " I could sell a LOT of these to McDonald's!"

He points our a row of sibling daylilies, seeds pollinated with pollen that developed in the same seed pod. "These need another generation, and then I might have something."

Darrel makes hundreds of crosses each year. He grows out around 2,000 seedlings each year. Other than his breeding stock, he has a couple thousand plants that are two years old, another area with a couple thousand that are one year olds and then a couple thousand still in pots ready to transplants. Those are from this last summers hybridizing. These plants began to germinate in January this year and were grown through our cold winter in the grow room in his basement.

A scant couple handfuls in each bed have fluttering pink tape, slated to be survivors in the breeding crap shoot that is daylily hybridizing. Some already have tiny white tags and swollen seed pods; crosses already taking the traits one more generation down the road.

Today, I find myself pleading that he attach a tape to a plant that last visit caught my eye and today has one of its last buds in full bloom. This bloom has a more intense color, which he admits he does like. The trait that stuck in my mind was how upward facing the bloom is, lifting up its glory directly to my view as I pass. I found that trait remarkable. In my mind, I already have named it.

He mentions another daylily I really like, which he is looking to patent. It sounds like it will be going on the market. It is a really long bloomer. It seems it starts to bloom the very earliest, yet it is still blooming and may bloom as late and as long as 'Dynamite Returns'. It is in a great color for widespread landscaping and bedding out by the home gardeners. It increases easily, and has a nice form. It is a gardener's daylily the way 'Stella' was in the 1990s.

Maybe it will be the hot daylily of a new generation of gardeners. Widespread appeal is what every hybridizer hopes for. I have sat on my front porch and peaked at it many a morning, thinking it a wonderful daylily. It sounds like soon the rest of you will have the same opportunity.

Supersweet 100 Tomatoes

Out at the family garden I have several different types of tomatoes. We have 'Olpaka', 'Roma', 'Siberian', 'Beefsteak', 'Early Girl', and not the least, although decidedly the smallest, 'Supersweet 100'.

I've picked a couple Olpakas so far, but quite a few of the cherry tomato 'Supersweet 100'.

A lot of gardeners have told me, "You have to plant 'Supersweet 100s'. They are so sweet!" Yet not one of these gardeners has ever proffered any so I could sample the proof of the harvest. I wasn't too excited, but someone had given me a seed packet and I did have a cherry tomato started, so I figured, "what the heck!"

I take it back. They are like berries, like a raspberry. Like pure sugar, they are so sweet.

All of our tomatoes have loaded up, incredibly heavy with hanging fruit. Like my 2 year old nephew would say, "So-o-o hea-vy!" 'Supersweet 100' is no exception to exceeding my yield expectations, but taste, too!

Yup, summer can be sweet!

Growing Blueberries

Blueberries growing thickly on a bush at the Chicago Botanical Gardens (CBG).
After strawberries, blueberries are probably one of the most popular fruits people would like to grow here in central Wisconsin. Unlike strawberries, blueberries have very exacting growing conditions and fall prey to a large group of animal pests. Two of my neighbors are very good at growing blueberries. Both have actual cages built to house their blueberries and both have bird netting on the top of these cages. Even here in town rabbits, deer, and finally birds would like to share in our bounty.

Our soils tend to the alkaline pH here and soil amendments is a must. A couple of inch mulch of spaghum peat moss (available in compressed bales wrapped in a plastic bagging)is a must a couple times a year. Mulching heavily, ideally with pine needles is also a good idea.

Blue berries are also heavy feeders and a good supply of water is a must as well.

Once you have tackled all the growing condition issues, it helps to choose the right cultivars. At the CBG, the hands down winner was 'Duke'. I had never heard of that cultivar, and it is possible it would not grow here just 180 miles north. Here, I recommend 'Blue Ray', 'Northblue', 'Northcountry', 'Northsky', and 'Friendship' (a native selection).

Although the foliage turns a nice color in fall and would make an excellent addition to a shrub border or great hedge, I feel you would sacrifice fruit to pests.


Tag on the CBG's most prolific blueberry bushes.


Growing blueberries as a hedge at the CBG. I am sure no rabbits bother these blueberries, nor are they ravaged by roving deer. Note the heavy (at least 4" layer of pine needles (also called pins straw).

The CBG were really good with plant identification tags and tips for the home gardener.



Close-up of blueberry 'Duke'.

Synchronized Summer Squash

It's started. Yesterday, I made sweet pickle relish, recipe straight from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, page 52; and a big hit with everyone in the family. My mother eats it on pizza. I add it to salads, and eat it with hot dogs as merely a chaser. I've also been know to add it to sloppy Joes.

Today, though, the topic is squash. I planted a couple hills over the ten-year old box elder stump at the bottom of my garden. I like yellow squash sauteed with a bit of butter. I like them young, before seeds have formed and really tiny sliced into fresh salads. Just now, when I mentioned "tiny", the idea of dilly squash (they are a member of the cucumber family!) came to mind. How about pickling them with strips of red pepper when they are about two inches long?

Truth is, I am going to be inundated with them. Even splitting them with my sister-in-law's family and handing a couple to my mother, and maybe Andrea, the non-gardener with four children under 10, will not take up all the slack.

I need to come up with recipes that have my teenage son eating them. He is the principle eater in this household. So breaded and fried, a few in stir-fry (possibly cut in strips, blanched, and frozen) are all ideas I need to explore.

If you have a yummy recipe, let me know. Today, these summery yellow beauties will be swimming in boiling water for three minutes to blanch them on their way to my freezer.

But... there will me more to come...

Welcome to My Garden

The beginning of August is typically sort of a down time in my garden. A couple days ago, though, one of my neighbors came to my door to tell me how much my front yard means to her. She is the mother of four children under 10 years old. I can't imagine how she juggles her life. Some days when both my two-year-old nephews are in my care are taxing and I always find the days I substitute for kindergarten and first grade wearing. I don't know how she does it 24/7 and remains so upbeat.

Andrea, the inspiration for this share is all on you!


A borrowed view of my neighbors' Queen Anne.





Some wave petunias I planted by my blue hosta' Abiqua Drinking Gourd'.




This is the path to my side yard.

This pot on my front steps. With the rain and the heat, I have yet to give a few things their yearly coat of paint; this front step included.






This is my side yard. The forsythia will take over unless I cut it back. If you can think of a flower it is probably in this side yard border (seriously!). Not all the plants are happy or bloom here. You have to be mega invasive/aggressive to make a go of it under these conditions.


This pot has pink Dragonwings begonias. It sits in front of an akebia quinata and a nice Fried Green Tomatoes Hosta.






Rattlesnake Master on the left, the Ironweed is taller than the photo.

This my Austrian Black Pine. I choose it for my yard because unlike a white pine it retains its lower limb. Unfortunately it was the victim of a sapsucker this last winter. A lot of the lower limbs have needles that are half brown and half green. I don't know if it will make it. I try to give it an extra drink when we don't get regular rain. To illustrate how stupid that sap sucker is I found it going after my treated two year old pergola which is painted with solid color stain.
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The tiny orange flowers are belcamda lilies which I grew from seed. The blue are an old-fashioned tall balloon flower.
Sedum 'Matrona' and daylily 'Apricot Sparkles' are also in this picture.

Just a short tour of some areas of my garden from which I typically don't post pictures. My lot is 44' by 140' and bordered by street or alley on three sides. My house is tiny so a cottage style is more appropriate. Not pictured are the areas in which I grow veggies, nor the edible landscaping and screen hedge where I have asparagus, an espaliered cherry tree, my grapes, a pear tree, rhubarb, and asparagus.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Slaw, Slaw, and More Slaw

My sister-in-law and I have stumbled upon some great new takes on the summer classic slaw. Something we have been very successful with growing this year is cabbage. We are growing three different kinds: a mild Savoy, a pointed Wakefield, and the traditional cabbage of numerous sauerkraut recipes.

We really like the Savoy because it is mild. My sister-in-law's mother prefers the traditional head because of its sharp cabbage taste. However, for making a quick summer slaw in our minds, nothing beats the Savoy.

Simply quarter a head of cabbage. Then soak in a saltwater bath for a half hour to remove any bugs that might have beaten you to the cabbage (a couple tablespoons of salt and enough water to submerge the cabbage,we've been going pesticide-free). Rinse off the cabbage and remove the core. Then shred cabbage into 1/4" slices and toss with an instant dressing like Marzetti's Original Slaw Dressing (start with about 1/2 cup), and you have slaw.

Savoy cabbage, unlike the traditional cabbage, has a nice light green color throughout. Along with the mild flavor, this gives you a lot of flexibility in your slaw making. My sister-in-law added sliced apples with the peel and raisins for a fresh fruity slaw that was not overly sweet.

Today, I made a slaw with chopped cucumbers (1/2 to 1 cup) and onion (1/4 cup) and threw in a half a cup of dried cranberries, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper.

When I was young slaws always had fennel seed, carrots, onion, a traditional green cabbage base, with a bit of shredded purple cabbage for color. People fell into two camps: slaw eaters and avoiders.

If you prefer to make your own slaw dressing, there are numerous recipes, over half of which start with some sort of mayonnaise base. Curious about Marzetti's, I tasted it before adding it to my chopped ingredients and found the similarity in taste to my deviled egg salad recipe astounding.

To make a Marzetti-like slaw dressing combine:

1/2 cup of mayonnaise,
1 teaspoon of yellow mustard (like you put on hot dogs, not Bavarian-style, or Dijon, just plain old yellow),
1/4 teaspoon of sugar,
1/4 teaspoon of salt,
1/4 teaspoon pepper,
and a dash of Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce.

You might combine sweet red pepper, raisins, and cabbage. Or maybe jump off into a whole different group of sweet slaws with mangoes, pineapple, and blueberries. With the availability of ready-made slaw dressings, the possibilities are endless. Find a slaw you like and make it your own.

Have fun with this taste of summer.

Golden Beets

If you haven't eaten golden beets rather than the typical red beets, I recommend you sow some now for late season harvest or pick some up at your local farmers' market. I had the first of mine from the potager and they were very tasty.

My sister-in-law has been picking up these baked veggie chips containing sweet potatoes, golden beets, eggplant, potatoes, and green beans. They are probably a lot better for you than deep-fried potato chips. I do have a saying, though, if you can deep-fry it salt it, and put catsup on it you have a culinary hit with the American palette.

So, it should come as no surprise that I pulled a couple golden beets, some 'Little Fingers' carrots, and a couple potatoes scrubbed with skins on and deep-fried them for my son and myself for supper yesterday. (Out on a job site, I skipped lunch; my son spent 7 hours at a basketball camp.)

As a kid I never like how red beets would bleed into my mashed potatoes (which my mother served with every meal). All veggies were over-boiled, and accompanied a piece of grisly, fatty meat. No culinary treats at my mother's house, her cooking skills only covered calorie-laden desserts.

The golden beets were a hit. I am a convert, at least deep-fried, with salt, and catsup!

The New Green Movement

With the global economy frayed, everyone is looking for ways to personally dig themselves out of this mess and come up with a newer, and greener world. For years, we here in America have sent materials to landfills that have no place there. Batteries, plastics, metals, yard waste; the list is endless.

It comes down to following the money trail. What is cheapest? National Geographic has for years printed pictures of developing countries' small children pulling copper and gold wiring and other precious metals from old electronics juxtaposed in front of towering piles of sludge and old computers and puddles of undrinkable water.

Recycling. We don't always do it at home. We outsource even this.

So it should come as no surprise that for years when we reshingle houses they go to landfills where they are buried and forgotten; except that the petroleum, mercury, asbestos, benzene, fiberglass and polycrylics, and other chemicals are all leaching into the groundwater.

It should also come as no surprise that the Wisconsin DNR want to do something about this situation.

Enter asphalt shingle grinding technology that has advanced to the point that these shingles can be ground to a consistent size and used as a filler in hot mix asphalt for road construction. Recycling, new job development, re-use of petroleum products; sounds like a big win, huh?

Not if one of these grinding operation is slated to begin operation in your neighborhood.

The EPA and OSHA have declined to rule on the health effects of asphalt fumes, pending decent studies of risks. The CDC has collected a small inconclusive set of test results without decent control on lifestyle habits such as smoking, the majority of which were done before 1988. One of the other problems are there are a lot of different chemicals in shingles depending on age and manufacturer.

There are three or maybe four of these operation in Wisconsin. One is in the bottom of a quarry. I don't know the location of the others, but I would bet not within a municipality's boundaries.

Noise. Heat. Towering piles of ground shingles. Asphalt fumes. Possibly mercury and asbestos.

The CDC has stated though the typical risks, of sensitivity, rashes, pulmonary complications, renal, bladder, and lung cancers, right up to and including DNA mutagens.

But hey, it will create jobs. And, although Wild Rose does not have the infrastructure to provide good, dependable, cheap Internet and cell phone service to our residents or the type of DSL that would lure companies like call centers and light manufacturing; we can compete with developing nations by being a dumping grounds for nasty waste products.

Hooray for the green movement!

Harvesting Dill

Dill can be easily grown from seed. Mine in my garden was seeded as soon as the ground could be worked. Dill takes about 3 weeks to germinate. It grows quickly from germination. By 60 days, you will have some florets with seeds ready to dry and the lacey foliage will be beyond collecting for dill weed. You will still have flowering florets to use for canning at 60 days.

The ferny leaves can be harvested green as they grow for dill weed and used either dry or fresh. Dill weed and dill seed is the ultimate added touch by a cook to make the recipe their own. I like it in potato salad, tuna salad, egg salad. My sister-in-law uses it in sandwiches and scrambled eggs.

I don't actually know any recipes other than canning recipes that actually specify dill weed, dill florets, or dill seed. I prefer the florets that have just bloomed and are fresh for canning. It is a necessity for dilly beans, dilled pickles, and any other veggies 'dilled'. Dried flower heads can be used as well as dried seed heads as well. I like to chew on it when fresh.

It makes a great fresh-cut bouquet adding a dilly fragrance to your dining room or kitchen.

Once you have grown it fresh you will find the dill available at Farmers' Markets and dried in the seasoning aisles of your grocery store lacking!