Wet, and Looks Like Rain (and It Is Sprinkling)

Waterlogged Japanese peony 'Hanakisoi'

A gardener farther to my north has said she is madly searching for those plans for the ark.  I have offered to clean my junk drawers in an attempt to assist in their location.  I'm pretty sure I must have borrowed them sometime this spring.

It is late.  And, it is cool.  And a lot of vegetable gardens are not planted around here.  Food prices are going up.  Salad stuff is starting in the potager and I'm going to have a very nice strawberry crop this year.  The family garden is another story.

'Honeoye' Strawberries

Blackberries are looking good, too!  (Now if the neighbors can run between the raindrops and side that garage!)

In between raindrops we did get it plowed.  Yesterday, on the only sunny day for a week, I managed to till a third of it twice and plant two bags of potatoes (German Butterball and All Blue), two rows of Early Sunglow sweet corn, a row of sugar snap peas, 100 onions, some green beans, mustard and Swiss chard.  I already had raked over a small 4' by 4' corner and planted leaf lettuce, which is up.  This is very late, though.  The soil there is a bit heavier than the sand here in my garden, and so if it rains, there is a necessary time delay between planting.

When I was a young girl, my father would say we need to make hay while the sun shines.  Not so with hayliage, though, which I am seeing cut off from hay fields, I'm thinking to go right into the feed troughs of waiting cows.  There is no hay to be had and the cows that were not shipped to processors because farmers could not afford to feed them, are hungry.  I heard it somewhere, just this week, the cattle herd is the the smallest numbers since 1952.  Our appetite for meat had increased since then.

Typically in the central sands of Wisconsin, I see a huge number of fields row after row filled with potatoes, not so this year, just three 80-acre fields out on a corner where the state high bends north of my parents.  And, surprisingly, because not a lot stops these sand farmers with tractors with big bouncy wheels that almost turn the tractors into hover craft (A car recently drove under one driven by a friend of mine, the car's roof not so good, but the driver while shaken and stirred, walked away-- she said she just didn't see the tractor) and with "walk-around" irrigation that looks like something from a alien mechanized farm world.  Some of these farmers have unplanted fields.

So my dad has his cows out on pasture, and they are wet, wooly beasts slogging through mud making their way to the barn where my son and his grandpa take turns milking them twice a day.   Of course, my dad would like to make some hay, but the sun is not shining.

I would dare say it has rained nearly everyday since the middle of May.  And, the ground was frozen in spots until a week before that.

Smokebush 'Nordine' dies to the ground after surviving a number of years.  No "smoke" this year.  At least the foliage is a beautiful color.

Deutzia, which really shouldn't be able to grow here.

So, garden chores today will not be invasive to the soil, I do not relish becoming a mud puppy.  I will probably spread mulch (where I can reach without walking in my beds) and do some light weeding.  I may try to pot up some containers, but only if my container mix is relatively dry. 

Good news, the color of the neighbor's new siding could have been a lot worse (it's sort of a subdued mossy green).

So there's your farm report and garden report for central Wisconsin.

Checking out the Seed Catalogs with the Twins - 2013

The Twins and I have been busy looking over seed catalogs for this coming season's gardening ideas. Their Momma would like to try cranberries. I'm not sure that will happen. The Twins and I have spent a couple days discussing this.
The one twin is quick to point out the cold snow heavy on the ground. He already feels this might be a permanent condition here in WI. He has felt bad we haven't been able to dig any blue and pink potatoes.

The other twin is much more optimistic. He has seen a plunger-type seed planter resembling a liquid medicine dropper with which he is fascinated. It is a machine. The Twins have motorized tractors that they drive about, farming. The tractors have wagons. They literally load produce and harvest using tiny tractors. However, most of the garden work is done with hand tools or the tiller "Little Man". This seed starter machine looks interesting, the allure of moving parts.

The tiny white 'Lumina' pumpkins have also caught his eye. He has pointed out peaches as a possibility, too.

Baby Gardener simply wants to eat the pages of the seed catalog, given any opportunity. Maybe that's his input that it's all good with him.

My brother, ever pragmatic, asks if we need such a large garden. There was that sweet corn, stalk and all that we cut for the donkeys. What about that bowl of carrots that froze and also ended up donkey fodder. Well, it wasn't wasted, was it? Sister-in-law and I point out. Dear Sister-in-law and I simply look at him cross-eyed. A better balanced garden, yes; smaller, no. I am already out of chopped sweet red peppers. I say maybe fewer Contender bean and gooseberries. He is quick to point out with the terrible weather, gooseberry was nearly our only fruit crop; no grapes, no apples, no cherries because of the frosts.

Sweet potatoes.

Sweet corn, planted in a clump to enhance wind-borne pollination.

Beans.

So. The same size garden for next year.

The Twins have found a picture of a brambled ball of grapevines covered with hanging gourds and squash amidst tall sunflowers in one of the seed catalogs. It looks like a small house. The Twins like to go camping. Each has his own tent. They are continually making houses of sheets, chairs, and clothes pins.

Their Poppa has read them the story of the three little wolves and the industrial big pig. Hmmm.

In this story the little wolves are busy building houses. One of these houses is a house made of flowers. It is the strongest one for some reason and brings peace to industrialized pigland.

So this tiny garden house might be something. We have a spot where a stumpy ball of boxelder root was covered with black plastic. We keep cutting away at any growth, rototilling at the roots. At this point we plow and plant around it.

Baby Gardener enjoying being out in the garden, Summer 2012.

Starting seed for the family vegetable garden is a good two months away at this point. We will continue to ponder this year's garden projects.

End of Summer Party, and Off He Goes...

Yesterday, was a very full day. Faithful Companion was scheduled for surgery to have two masses removed, and Sister-in-Law and I decided my Handsome Son needed a ice cream cake send-off party for college.

We weren't sure whether Faithful Companion would be dog-dog or noodle dog after surgery. She was so happy to see us when we picked he up, we wondered if she was still on happy drugs from the surgery. Today, she is decidedly acting much more low-keyed.

So rarely are so many of us around.

PA Sister was here from the East Coast and leaving this morning, too. She and I spent some time after the ice cream cake (which was the only lure we had to cast to entice my nearly 80-year-old father to join us!) harvesting cabbage, cape gooseberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, including the wonderful orange Amanas, basil, sage, golden beets, carrots, edamame, cape gooseberries, red and green peppers. She is taking the Wisconsin family garden bounty back across country in addition to some preserved pickles as house presents on her return route visits. She brought us her local Chaddsford wines and copies of her soon-to-be-released book about the Schuylkill River.

Brother prepared a wonderful salad entirely from our family garden with leaf lettuce, red sheepnose peppers, green peppers, Amana orange tomatoes, red Olpaka tomatoes. There was pizza from Little Caesar's, one of Handsome Son's favorite take-out foods.

And of course, there was ice cream cake.

And there was time for pictures, although the light was decidedly going by the time we thought of that. Baby Gardener and the Twins, being of that age, has a hard time posing rather than exploring.

Bountiful Garden, Yours in Exchange for a Freezer

The family garden is fulfilling its promise. My brother with his growing family (three boys three and under) and myself and Handsome Son (college-bound), and nominally my parents will all eat from its bounty. My brother has been diligent in his role of chief waterer, an important job this year, to which he has really stepped up.

I'm the grower, and I have been notably successful with everything this year except germination in the garden of spinach (but we will be having a fall crop, rest assured!).

Even with eating fresh from the garden everyday, and my canning and drying and putting up different oils, a lot of our bounty will be frozen. I have hunted recipes for edamame and amaranth. We have a juicer for the grapes. We are already out of freezer space. Time to get a second freezer.

So my brother and I have decided as the family garden is actually visible from a major highway (car count of at least 10,000 car a day, probably a LOT more) with an exit right THERE, that we should sell our bounty, picking it literally in front of our customers' eyes. We take that money and buy whatever sort of freezer we can afford. Future income a better water supply (rather than hoses from the house) and a green house (drool).

My brother, very pie-in-the-sky, decided instead of words we should paint pictures, a picture being worth a thousand words. Pictures with the crunch of a fresh cucumber, the snap of a bean, the juiciness of a tomato...

My brother is a fair artist. An oil he did of his wife hangs in her dressing room. You can see the love with which he captured her expression and you can easily see it is my sister-in-law, but...

So, "Yo!"

"You painting these pictures?" I query.

"No,...I'm just a hack... you are. You have more time."

Ugh. Thusly decided, I was given the job of painting the sign(s). Turns out we need lots of these 10" x 3' sign blanks painted with sweet corn, cukes, peppers, beans, you get the idea.

I wish I had pictures of the others. As my sister-in-law says, "they are so dang cute!"

Maybe I'll take some pictures of the others, I don't know. I spent some time working for a muralist. They are sorta cute, without faces you understand, and easily conveying at 65+ MPH that "we got some good organic tomatoes over here!"

Maybe in a different life I might have made a living doing art or writing, but do you know anyone who really makes a living from their art or words these days?

Faithful Companion, Cinnamon, gets aromatherapy from Handsome Son's athletic shoes and flip flops. She says a few minutes and all the creative impulses pass.

Fused glass buttons, pendants and a dragonfly plate I made in a fused glass class I recently took from the artist of Blessings Glassworks.

Some jewelry I made. You can probably tell I'm self-taught!

A wire-wrapped bead collection that will go into an as yet,unfinished bracelet. Someday the creative impulse will certainly pass!

So if you see the juicy tomato or crunchy cucumber sign, stop and say hi!

Postcard from the Family Garden

Cabbage 'Red Acre' and sage

'yum Yum' pepper

'California Wonder' pepper

Amaranth

Sweet corn 'Early Sunglow'

Amaranth

Leaf lettuce mix

Pineapple sage


Cucumbers and tomatoes

'Contender' beans

Potatoes and tomatoes

Sweet potatoes

Turnip greens

Mizuna

P.S. Wish you were here! It would beat a lousy t-shirt!

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!