Quote of the Day: Solon Robinson
Everyone who is so happy as to live in the country, and can gather vegetables from his own garden, knows the difference between them when gathered thus and properly cooked, and those which has been picked and kept for the market even one night.
Solon Robinson, Facts for Farmers, 1866
found in This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader
Exactly the reason I’m growing more and more winter hardy vegetables each year! This is my first year with a good harvest of leeks and scallions for the long winter months and I’m certainly enjoying them to the fullest. The scallions are being used in batches of kimchi and the leeks I’m using in all sorts of recipes, most recently leek and potato soup made with ham stock (adapted from this recipe).
What’s your favorite food that’s in season in your area right now?
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Quote of the Day: Jessica Prentice
For many of us, our interest in seasonality is somewhat selective. We want the warmth without the cold; we want the long days without the long nights; we want the abundance without the scarcity; we want the birth and growth without the death and decay. But without the death and decay there is no rebirth.
Jessica Prentice – from Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection
I was thinking about the rhythm of the seasons earlier this fall as I spent time clearing out the garden. The lush productiveness of high summer, turned into the damp decay of fall, which has now turned into the quiet slumber of winter. Where once there was green, followed by yellow and brown, now there is starkness. Where plants carpeted the earth, the soil then laid bare and in the blink of an eye, it’s now covered in a thick blanket of snow.
The rebirth that occurs because of winter happens not only in the garden, but also in the gardener. We awake in spring with renewed energy and vision for the coming seasons. I for one, am enjoying the small bit of rest that winter provides curled up in my favorite reading chair, cup of coffee, piles of books, seed catalogs and my computer by my side, planning what new and glorious things will appear in the gardens of Chiot’s Run during the coming year.
What are you dreaming of for the coming gardening season?
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Choices, Choices, Choices
A gardener who hopes to find the answer to all his needs within one catalogue might be able to, if these needs are not to special.
Katherine S. White from Onward & Upward in the Garden
There are some gardeners that can look through one catalog, make a list, place their order, and never even crack the cover of another seed catalog. That is not me!
When it comes to seed catalogs I find myself inundated with choices, as you are as well I’m sure. My first year of serious vegetable gardening, every seed packet came from Baker Creek. I had a small garden and didn’t have space or the knowledge to try anything out of the ordinary. As my garden space grew, I found myself reading more books and finding new things I wanted to plant. These items could not all be acquired from one company and the number of catalogs I ordered from grew each year along with my garden space. Trying new things is also something I really enjoy doing; after all, you’ll never find a new favorite if you don’t branch out. Renee’s Garden was like this for me, I ordered one year and I was hooked. This year I’m really excited to try the new ‘Wasabi’ arugula from Renee’s because the spicier the better is my motto for this green.
If you’re in need of seeds for make sure you check out the Heirloom Seed Company List I’ve been compiling here. You might even be able to find a small local place that specializes in region specific plants! I’ve also been collecting Seed Potato Sources if you’re in need of those. It’s always wise to order your potatoes, onions, and seeds early to make sure you get what you want. There have been a few times I’ve missed out on being able to plant what I want because I waited too late to order.
This week, my goal is to get all of my seeds ordered, I actually don’t need too many this season. For some reason I’ve been dragging my feet on getting my seeds ordered, perhaps I’m just not ready to admit that spring will be coming sooner than I’m ready for it!
Do you order from one main source each year or do you have a variety of places? Do you have your 2012 seeds ordered already?
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Quote of the Day: Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd
There is, as well, something deeply comforting about a winter larder, connecting us with ancestors who either provided for their own needs or went without. The question, “What what shall we have for dinner?” thus becomes not a matter of pleasant choices among options within close proximity, but also a realization of some vital link, historically and spiritually, with our own past.
Finally, there is still something living about vegetables one gathers out of storage. Chicories have actually grown, prodding fat witloofs deep beneath a thick layer of peat, signaling their readiness for the table by snouts poking barely into the air. Cabbages and brussels sprouts are stored with their roots and outer leaves, from which they still draw sustenance throughout the winter. Carrots, beets, and winter radishes, pulled from the damp sand, will display frail white whiskers of root, and may ten have produce a tuft of new leaves, not an unacceptable addition to a winter salad.
All this, with the smell of life still on it, reminds us, if with a difference, of the pleasure of the summer garden, and of harvesting from a medium closer to life than a plastic bag.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
There are no words I can add that will expound on the simple beauty of this passage.
Do you have a larder, pantry, root cellar? What’s your favorite shelf-stable winter vegetable?
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An Inspirational Tale
Mr Chiots and I have been spending a little time each evening watching through the Lord of The Rings Trilogy. I bought him the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions on blu-ray for Christmas (well worth purchasing if you’re a fan). He’s a HUGE fan, having read the books a few times and all the related books as well. I like the movies, but haven’t been able to sit through the books for some reason.
I find myself paying close attention to words and quotes as I watch movies. As I do when I read, I’m always writing down quotes and this movie has some great passages. A few times Mr Chiots had to stop it, rewind and let me listen to the quotes a couple times to make sure I got them down just right. Here’s one of my favorites sections, inspirations words to remember:
Frodo: I can’t do this Sam.
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.
I like to pair quotes with images too (hence the quote calendar), I thought this image from yesterday’s post was perfect for the last part of this quote:
This is a winter tradition for us, after we’re done with the 007 Days of Christmas, we move on to the Lord of the Rings. One of the things we really appreciate about winter is the little extra down time we have. We sometimes use this to sit down in the evenings to watch something entertaining. Now that this series is done, there’s nothing on our list. We don’t have cable, and we live in a rural area so our antennae doesn’t work so well. We prefer waiting till shows are over and on DVD to watch them so we can get through them quicker.
Do you have any great recommendations for us of interesting documentaries, movies, TV series that we should add to our list?
