Susiej

When I arrived home for my son’s surgery, I spotted an abundant kale bed, fringed with vibrant green New Zealand spinach in my neglected home garden. The sage was overflowing, and the oregano was just at the peak before going to seed. I neglected the garden again for four days – much more important babies inside to take care of and figured the intense heat and lack of rain would take eliminate the leaves for me and I wouldn’t have to deal with them.

Yet, everyday that bright kale greeted me, undaunted by the heat. Then, I would say to myself, in my insomnia-stressed state, “I really should be making a shake out of that,” but didn’t.

Finally, I gave in and set out to rescue the greens. There was no way I could drink it all, no matter how much I stuffed into my immersion blender. So, I Googled, “How to freeze greens.” There were the familiar steps of blanching; cold-water bath and then storing in zip lock bags. Yet, somehow, the idea of putting soggy, goopy blanched frozen kale into my morning shake (even with the blackberries) did not appeal to me.

So, I dehydrated the greens. Why I didn’t think of this before, because it is so simple, fast, and easy, I don’t know. But it’s perfect. Takes up less space, requires no freezing, and all the nutrients are intact – and not soggy. This powder tastes great, and can easily be dropped into soups, shakes and salads. Now, I have jars of that expensive green powder they sell at health food stores in my pantry. I kept the oregano separate from the sage, but I put the kale and spinach together and called it “greens.” From there, I pulverized the powder with my food processor to make a “stealth” powder.

Wash the greens first, just like you would do as you were cooking them. On Google I learned all kinds of ways to dehydrate food. Some people put them in their hot car! Could work. But dehydrators are cheap, and does it fast. Others use an oven at 150 degrees on screens. Each batch of greens took about an hour to create crispy – and quite tasty leaves. Amazing, to me, how that big bunch of greens dried up into this small little amount. I also learned the zucchini; carrots and beets also do quite well dehydrated… so this might be a new option for me. Of course, there are always tomatoes, which I do in the years when I am blessed with tomatoes. (This might be one of them.)

So, all of you Deceptively Delicious fans, trying to get more veggies in your kids food by doing all that prep work of cooking and pureeing the veggies, might want to consider dehydrating instead. Now, the kids will never know what hit them when I sprinkle some of these greens into their food.

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Diamonds, rubies and jewels are tough to come by at the lake, so when my birthday came last week, the boys had few gifts on-hand. One of the boys knew exactly what I wanted, and he slipped quietly out the door, and collected what was available. In the spirit of Charlotte Zolotow’s, Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present, he visited the lake garden and brought me cucumbers, beans, zucchini, peppers, a cherry tomato, some blueberries

and some flowers, just for good measure.

He handed me the bundle, still covered with dirt, and said, “Happy Birthday,” and took off back to the dock to play.

I was very grateful.

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When you set your dreams high, and you expend energy to do something great, you increase your chances for failures. You also increase your chances for success — but before the big harvest, my successes are still in question. Take for instance my sweet potato project. Over the dreary cold winter months, when I was loosing my mind, I went to the store and dutifully bought sweet potatoes for the boys to be baked, slathered with cinnamon butter and brown sugar.

The boys were contented. That makes me happy.

It didn’t take long for me to get an idea… “What if I planted these myself?”  I have a full sun bed out front, virtually empty, save for the shrubs. Pumpkins grew there once, so why couldn’t tubers? Sweet potatoes are “ornamental.” They look like plants that are simply there to be pretty. No one would be the wiser to suspecting that I am trying to do something as bold as plant food in the front of my house.

Sweet Potatoes (the kind you eat) come as “slips.” Simple vines, without roots, that you plant directly into the garden. The vines grow, with the familiar chartreuse-colored leaves. In the fall, you simply dig up the “roots” which would be the sweet potato tubers. I imagined the golden orbs drying out in the attic, before we would put them into cold storage for the winter.

I ordered 20 slips. They arrived, finally (ordered in February) right before we were leaving for the lake over the weekend. The ground was wet; no time to water them. Yet, when I arrived back home, there had been no rain. The vines looked a little weak; admittedly, my fault. So, I watered. Then, the rains started that night. They continued for two days straight. The vines became perky, and stood tall.

“Maybe I should cover these,” I thought. I’ve heard, bunnies like these. “OK… but, time to cook dinner.”

An hour or so later, I went back outside, just to admire them.

The vines were gone. Nothing was left except a stub of a stem. All 20 were gone.

Over the next few days I began to see numerous bunnies in my front yard. “You can go home now, bunnies,” I told them. “You’ve eaten everything I have.”

But the bunnies persisted. Soon, I found out why. There was an entire family of baby bunnies living under one of the shrubs. Despite the four boys running around here.

So, I ordered more slips. Sold out. Everyone is. Undaunted, I planted pumpkin seeds in their place. covering these seedlings with window screening.

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I know I promised everyone that we would relax. But who has time for that? Because we have our list of things to get done. You know that feeling of having something just within your grasp… and then you have to let it slip through? I felt that for a few days. How was I ever going to get this work done on just the few days I was given, while recovering?  Well, it just happens to get done. Reluctantly, I’m bringing many of the projects I’ve been working on up here at the lake to a close. Checking my list, I see many of the things I listed are done — plus I accomplished a few extras.

The was last, but not least. I should have just saved this for some other less-hectic time (when I was feeling better), but it was on my to-do list for the week. I canned jam — from berries from last summer. My freezer’s getting full, and I wanted a way to preserve these berries for longer – and store-bought jam is so expensive. I’ve made freezer jam before, but never “canned it.” I used this recipe… from Alton Brown. I watched his  you tube video over and over, and over. Then, I watched some more videos on canning. I was so nervous about it. My aunt’s canner blew up once… of course, she was doing beans, and not jam… but the memory is still fresh. I brought all the stuff up (including the magnetic lid lifter), and started canning at 9 p.m. I tested the last lid at 10:30 It went so much faster on the you tube videos. I got so caught up in timing everything, and watching to make sure I had everything sterilized, that I think I neglected to watch the jam as closely as I normally would have. I don’t think the jam set, as it looks kind of runny in the jar — but it’s good! Next batch will be blackberry jam.

The keyhole garden. I managed to get my teenager to collect the rocks!!! My teenager put his muscles to work and did some heavy lifting and brought me four or five loads of rocks to create the garden. (Thank you so much, and I’m so proud of you.) He brought me enough large-sized rocks to make the five-foot diameter circle — one level. From there, I used the string to lay out the rocks. I used some pine logs (leftover from the electric company that came by and did some trimming) to create the entry. My son even found a heart-shaped rock that I’m using as the entrance. And no, it is not pretty right now. But it will be.

Spring Cleaning. Swept the ceilings, walls and corners to get rid of all the cobwebs and spiders. Then, washed and dusted with peppermint oil to keep the critters out. The place smells clean.

Changed bedding for 7 beds and did lots of loads of laundry.

Took the kids to my favorite store, Rural King, full of all those hard-working American Farmers. This is the only place I know where you can buy burlap bags, (just try to buy a burlap bag in the city!) and chicks are for sale in metal feed troughs. There, I got some burlap bags (for some container gardening plans), chicken wire, onion sets and aged manure.

Ruined that fun moment by visiting Wal-Mart, where at the check out, a girl (a pretty girl, about 22) was proclaiming loudly, with a smile, “Yeah, I just got out of jail! I was in for 45 days!” The boys were so confused. “Why is she smiling? Why is she bragging about that?” I just kept thinking, “and this is exactly why were growing a garden, so we don’t have to come back here.” Then, I thought about going back to Rural King to pick up some chicks so that we could have our own eggs….

Cooked, and cleaned up for these boys all week. What a chore that was… could barely get another thing done!

Wrote my column for the newspaper.

Built a fence for the garden. This was hard, took much longer than I had planned. Of course, the day I did that, the wind was blowing and whipping at my face the whole time. The boys disappeared during this project. At the time, I wished I had a post digger – and real posts. I simply used the chicken wire (which is very hard to keep unrolled) and some big broken branches I collected walking through the woods. The branches are flimsy, kind of tilted… the chicken wire holds up the branches! Then, my son said, “Mom, the bunnies are just going to tunnel underneath your fence and get in.” He might be right? So, maybe my teenager will collect me more rocks to keep them out from the other side?

Made the compost basket for the center of the key hole garden — already loaded with fruit scraps. I used chicken wire to make a circle, and then wrapped it in burlap. Then, I created a hole, and buried it a few inches into the ground.

Organized. Devised a new clothing storing system for the boys. All summer, the boys usually just drop their wet bathing suits on the floor ( leave them) and pull something else out of their drawer. Four times per day. By nightfall, they have no clean clothes left… even though they started with a full load. My “control measure” has been to make sure there is only 2 shorts and shirts in their drawers per day. But, I think by using some open shelving and wire baskets, they might be able to keep things in once place.

De-cluttered, and took two bags full of clothes and stuff to Good Will.

Reading One Fifth Avenue. (What a contrast this was!) The big city version of Little House on the Prairie – a narrative how-to for surviving the Great Plains, only for the concrete jungle. How to buy an apartment, even though you have the $20 million, but you just don’t know the right people, and why you still won’t get the parking space. How to work around historical codes so that you can have an air conditioner installed in your high rise building (cut out the bottom of the French doors), and how to get in to an invitation-only funeral. And, if you’re a pre-teen, how to set yourself up as the resident computer expert, and earn $100 an hour. The career paths of investment bankers, movie stars in their waning years, best selling authors and full-time socialites who live and die by the pages. Plus, what to do when all that money no longer seems to feed the soul. Amazing book, and the characters make  it impossible to put this book down. I can’t imagine living so high up in the air all the time, surrounded by concrete. With kids, too? I sound so provincial.

Checked the Farmer’s Almanac calender and found that I had one more day for planting before it was time to leave. So, I planted the onion sets, the beets, carrots and spinach. The wind was blowing, it was raining and cold, but I got them planted, just before sunset. Then, the next morning, I realized I could plant my seed potatoes… in burlap bags… more on that later.

Quickly transplanted a lilac bush. This one particular perennial garden bed always bugs me – it just doesn’t look right, and it leaves mud all over the sidewalk. With the bush moved, I dug up the perennials (moved some of the bulbs) and replaced everything with new sod (from my garden spot). Problem solved.

Reading The Hardy Boys… to the boys at night. We have no TV. I’m the entertainment.

I read until my voice hurts. They sit so quiet… my favorite part of the day. I always end with a cliff hanger — they hate that!

The funny thing is, if I had another week here, I’d find the some other similar list, and be just as content doing it all over again.

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Looking back, I can say that my greatest memory of last summer was not developing goose bumps waiting behind a boat, but rather, feeding friends and family directly from the garden. Now’s the time to start this summer’s crop.

The Farmer’s Almanac has a handy-dandy calendar available for free that has already calculated the phases of the moon to tell you exactly when you should be clearing ground, and actually planting seeds. Pay attention — some days actually say “seeds planted today tend to rot.” (Why wouldn’t we plant by the moon? Just check the hospital birth rates during full moons!) Today and tomorrow are good seed starting dates, and so I prepared in advance by making these gorgeous, recyclable origami newspaper seedling pots. Like peat pots, you simply plant the entire pot in the ground when you’re ready to transplant to the garden.

It’s getting difficult to find a newspaper made of entirely black ink — but that’s OK, because all the inks tend to be made with soy now. The one thing you must try to avoid is the glossy pages.

There are quite a few video tutorials available to show you how to make these origami newspaper seedling pots– but this one below is the only one that has the camera positioned at just the right angle to actually let you see how to make the “flip.” The only adjustment I made was to use a double sheet of newspaper, folded in half. Makes a sturdier pot.

Unfortunately, my newspaper is a bit shorter than hers, so I could not make the fold over flap. Instead, I had to use tape to seal off the pot.

These are great pots, they’re free, and they hold lots of water, and then dry out. The nicest thing is that they are quite large, making it less likely that your seedlings will grow out of your pots.

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Peas love cold weather, and I would have planted them by now if not for the icy mass of snow covering my garden spot. At the same time, I was thinking about all that money I can’t resist spending on that first pack of cool-season annuals – petunias and violas for my flower pots. (Which are edible, too, by the way) So, instead of planting those pea seeds in the garden, I decided to spend just a few dollars and plant those pea seeds in the flowerpots that sit at my front and back doors — the only snow-free spots around. Here’s a photo from a Container Garden Book that inspired me.

Those pretty flowers are actually sweet peas (seed packs available everywhere for under $2) that are mixed with the snow peas, which we’ll soon be eating for dinner.  Growing this is just as simple as it sounds. (Can I just tell you how great that dirt smelled?! Almost free winter therapy!) My containers were already empty from last fall, sitting in the garage, just waiting for spring. I filled the containers with potting mix, planted the seeds, and watered. I did not skimp on the seeds — they’re cheap, I want a full, lush basket, and I can always give away the extra seedlings if I have to.

Photo of nurturing gift to myself for the week.

This may not be necessary, but because it’s still very cold, just to be safe, and to give the seeds a head start, I covered the pots with plastic just to get them going. (See the snow in the background!)

There are actually quite a few cold-season varieties you can start planting in your pots — broccoli, spinach, lettuce, arugula. More photos from the book for inspiration:

Tulips, lettuce

Onion sets and spinach

When the weather warms up, and as the peas are done, I can begin planting the next crop of food:

Nasturtiums and Peppers. (Pepper plants will either be bought, or started from seeds indoors.)

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