Friday Favorite: Garlic Harvest
There’s something about harvesting things that are buried underground. It’s like a treasure hunt. You never know quite what to expect when you plunge the spade into the ground.
This year was especially exciting because I followed a friend’s advice. Susan from Moonlight Mile Herb farm mulches her garlic with litter from her chickens coops in the spring. She spreads it right on, straight from the coop. It’s always claimed that this should NEVER be done, because chicken manure it way too hot to put directly on crops. Let me me tell you, it’s the perfect mulch for garlic!
The chicken litter mulch provided some of the best moisture retention I’ve ever had with mulch. The fertilization was perfect as well. My garlic is AMAZING this year!
Another benefit is that the chicken litter kept the weeds from germinating as well, perhaps it heated up the soil enough for them to germinate under the mulch? You can bet I’ll continue using this method for years to come. I’ll also be experimenting with using fresh chicken litter on other crops (nothing that gets eaten raw within 3 months of application though).
What’s your favorite crop to harvest?
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Friday Favorite: Vegetable Soup
Since the garden is bursting with fresh vegetables, I’ve been making pots of vegetable soup. The soup gets ladled into wide mouth pint mason jars and tucked away in the freezer, ready for quick meals come cold weather. We eat some in the summer too, last night I made a pot of minestrone and we will be enjoying that this weekend. It was filled with: potatoes, cabbage, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, green beans, and herbs from the garden.
I make soup with whatever vegetables are ready to harvest, curried broccoli, tomato, vegetable, etc. It’s nice to know that there are instant meals ready for fall days when I’d rather spend every drop of sunlight working in the garden. I also love using up all those bits of vegetable peels to make vegetable stock for all these soups. I feel like I’m making the most of the bounty of summer.
What’s your favorite kind of soup?
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Friday Favorite: Photos
I almost always have my camera with me to take photos of anything and everything I come across. The result is that each year I take around 15,000 photos. Every now and then, I have to look through all my photos when searching for something specific for a client. It’s never a chore, in fact it’s something I rather enjoy doing. Yesterday I came across a few gems from the past, I’m so glad I take so many photos, there’s really no better way to record life!
None of these images are amazing or dramatic, but each one is connected to a memory that brings up strong emotions. This is why I take photos, not just to capture the beauty in the world around me, but to capture the memories and those little pieces of life that might otherwise be forgotten with the passage of time.
Are you in the habit of collecting images of life?
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Friday Favorite: Harvest Season
I love this time of the year when the garden is in full swing. There are things to harvest daily, not just in small amounts like in spring. It’s the season for harvesting armloads of garlic and buckets of potatoes, both of which I did yesterday.
All the spring planted beets are coming in, ready to be pickled into delicious goodness. I’m always in full swing of planting for fall harvest, loads of lettuce, broccoli, peas, cabbage, scallions, and herbs are germinating in soil blocks to be ready when there are empty spaces in the garden. It truly is a wonderful time of year!
What are you harvesting right now?
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Friday Favorite: Watching Things Unfold
One of the great things about gardening is that it’s new every year. I know the peonies, hydrangeas, poppies, and other flowers will bloom, but I’m always surprised by their intricate beauty when they do. It’s like receiving a wonderful gift over and over again.
I’m reminded of this quote “Mostly what’s on my mind right now are the falls colors. I go around gaping, as if I have never seen anything like it before. Perhaps I haven’t, I’m never quite sure. I could see this display every year and not grow tired of it, like seeing the flight of geese, or hearing the bird songs in spring. I remember, and that might reduce the amazement. But I don’t remember the edge–the vividness of the spectacle.” -Bernd Heinrich (A Year In The Maine Woods)
Each year I’m amazed by the beauty of the garden, it’s like I can’t quite remember it in all it’s beauty. The truth is that a garden is always slightly different each year.
Do you feel like things are new every year in the garden?
