Ok, ok, ok.

This update is for those scores upon scores of people that have been begging me for any semblance of an update. I mean, two. Two people, not two scores of people. That would have been forty. It's not forty. It's two. So anyway....

I have gone all out again this year, and things are rolling right along. I already have a pretty consistent sunburn on my back and shoulders, I really hate bermuda grass, and my ninety year old neighbors are looking better than me. Some things never change, I guess. My neighbors, the Hardings, were really great to me this year. Mr. Harding let me use his tiller for my garden, which was completely unexpected and incredibly gracious. I guess I earned my chip last year, and I have been helping them out whenever I can, so they repaid the favors and then some. Absolutely great people.

I have put in about 700 square feet of garden space this year, which is a little more than half the space I used last year. I kept it smaller for a bunch of different reasons, but a couple of them were pretty big. I learned last year that too much space is too much work. If I had been attempting to feed a family of ten, I think that I would have had just about the right amount of space. I produced so much more than I actually needed that I couldn't even eat it all. When the tornadoes hit and knocked out our power for about five days, I lost everything that I had in the deep freezer, including a ton of extra veggies that I wasn't even sure I was going to eat. I lost ten one gallon freezer bags of okra, ten of green/yellow beans, about 150 bell peppers, and enough habaneros to supply cantina laredo for a year. The other big reason I cut the size of the garden down was to focus on the areas of the garden that get the most sun. I found that the half I cut out really only got about three or four hours of direct sunlight a day, which was not nearly enough to produce anything but cold weather crops like spinach, chard, bok choi, etc. I can always put that stuff in later in the summer after some of my current crops have died out.

I have a ton more to talk about, including everything that I've planted, so I'll be sure and get some pictures up next time.

What I've been listening to:

Esperanza Spalding-Chamber Music Society
JBM-Not Even In July
Tallest Man on Earth-The Great Hunt
Roman Candle-Oh Tall Tree In The Air
The Seedy Seeds-Count the Days
Beastie Boys-Hot Sauce Committee Part 2

Springing Up All Around Us!

It has been absolutely gorgeous here in northern Alabama this week, and so I started to get busy a little earlier than I had planned. I mean, I've been staring at the garden location for hours now. I know that statement sounds kinda off, but when I start to think about the huge amount of day to day work that was required last year, I start to get second thoughts about going again this year. Between the constant grass and weed pulling, I rarely found enough time to just sit on the patio and enjoy the process. I figured out that I spent about twenty to thirty hours a week in the garden, and of course that was on top of a forty hour a week job. Excuse me if I come off as a little whiny and pensive, but that's just how I'm feeling today.

Luckily, I wasn't feeling that way a week or so ago, and so I started growing some of my plants from seed! I had a few leftover peat planters so, I went ahead and began growing sixteen tomato plants from seed. Yup, I said sixteen. They were the first veggies that I ran out of this winter, so I'm determined to grow a lot more than last year. I have really missed being able to walk a few feet and pick fresh dill and basil to toss in my dinner, so I went ahead and started those guys out with a little rosemary and oregano.

I have gone ahead and taken a week's vacation for this coming week to be able to till up those 1600 square feet in the backyard and begin this year's folly. Believe it or not, I really am looking forward to being outside, having dirt under my fingernails and ruining another few pairs of white socks. Oh, and I'm really looking forward to plucking a tomato off a vine and eating it while it's still warm from the sun! Definitely one of the best experiences one can have. If you've missed out, well......get started you lazy bastard! Go to Lowe's, spend $2.50 on a tomato plant, dig a hole about nine inches deep, and toss that thing in it. Water every couple of days, and get down on what I'm talking about in a couple months. Stop making excuses. This simple act is going to make you feel better about your life, make the world a better place, and ensure that we all have a part in what we eat. If you've got anything growing on, I'd love to know about it! If you want to borrow a shovel, just ask. I've got about five. Have fun, and I'll see you in a couple days-sunburned, sore back, and blisters on my hands. Woohoo!

Just to change it up...

What I've been reading-

The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes
House of Mist by Maria Luisa Gombal
The Great Dream of Heaven by Sam Shepard
True Grit by Clinton Portis
Angels by Denis Johnson

It's Been Awhile...

I can honestly say that it has been quite a while since I have really wanted to even think about digging around outside, but today has been absolutely gorgeous here and I started clearing things out. It's been a cold, snowy, icy winter here in Alabama, and I can honestly say that I'm pretty sick of it. We are supposed to have at least a week of temperatures in the 60s, so I'm going to go ahead and start working a little bit, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself since we will definitely have a hard freeze or two before spring.

First, I would love to tell you a little bit about how last year's garden finished up. I continued to get okra, bell peppers, habeneros, jalepenos, and poblanos well into fall, and closed the big guy up for the year in early November. I was incredibly tempted to go ahead and plant some winter crops like spinach, carrots, rutabegas, and turnips but I had to make the smart choice and take a break. I was pretty exhausted from the previous six months, and needed a little bit of a break.

I am very happy to say that the amount of food that I was able to set aside has been just about right. I ran out of salsa and frozen squash pretty early, but everything else has held out quite well. I still have pickles, relish, and lots of stuff in the freezer, including peppers, okra, tomato sauce, green beans. Did I mention okra? I have so much frozen okra that I don't think I'll ever be able to eat it all. I probably still have ten one gallon freezer bags of it, and I've had all that I can handle.

I am going to try to be a little bit better about updating over the next few months, so please check back soon!

What I've Been Listening To:

The Black Keys-Brothers
Iron & Wine-Kiss Each Other Clean
The Tallest Man On Earth-King of Spain
Eric Clapton-461 Ocean Boulevard

What I've Been Reading:

Great Dream of Heaven-Sam Shepard
Mystery of Grace-Charles deLint
Christine Falls-Benjamin Black
Baudolino-Umberto Eco

Man, what a summer.

This really has been an absolutely incredible year for my garden. I have spent almost all of my free time either in it, around it, working with things from it, or laying in bed thinking about it. I would say that I've spent at least twenty hours a week for the past five months doing one or all of the above. I would love to say that it's all been great, but it definitely hasn't.

As of right now, I have more grass in my garden than I do in my front yard. Green beans were a huge disaster, for a reason I have yet to identify. I didn't get nearly as many cucumbers as I would have liked. My tomatoes, which came on strong, have just sat there for the past two weeks with little green ones on them and no development. I thought that I had planted too many squash plants, but the fruit has begun to rot on the vine instead of growing to a decent harvesting size. Did I mention there is grass everywhere? Well, that's because I got really tired of going out there and working my way through the garden with the tiller once a week. So I took a week off. So the needy whore made me pay for it. I actually had to use the mower out there this week. That was pretty embarrassing. Lots of things never came up, or if they did, I got nothing of consequence out of it. Beets, corn, basil, rosemary, chard, and more than I can even remember I planted were a huge waste of my time. But......I'm definitely going to try all of them, except the corn, in a massive fall planting. We'll see if I can fall on my face again.

There definitely have been some incredible positives, though. I have more salsa than I will probably be able to eat over the next nine months, twelve jars of pickles, three jars of relish, and one huge jar of pickles jalapenos. I have four gallon freezer bags of yellow squash, four of okra, one of green beans, one of roasted tomato and jalapeno salsa, and one of roasted tomatoes and onions. I still have lots of things producing, as well. If any of those tomatoes ripen, I'll be able to freeze some more of them, as well as possibly make some more salsa. Just today I got fifteen jalapenos, five bell peppers, twenty okra, and two yellow squash. The okra plants have continued to flourish, so I will definitely be able to put some more of those up, and I have high hopes of some sweet jalapeno jelly. Definitely keeping my fingers crossed. I have four cabbages that I have to decide what to do with soon, and all the figs I could ever hope to eat.

I have big plans for the fall, but all that grass is definitely going to sit between myself and progress. I really should just rent a big tiller again, but I really don't want to have to figure out a way to get it here. Decisions, decisions. I'll be sure to share some plans for the fall and winter soon, so come back and check if you happen to be in the neighborhood. Oh, and as always, free veggies to anyone that wants to come and pull weeks. You're more than welcome!

Headphones On:
Maps & Atlases-Perch Patchwork
Tom Petty-Mojo
Yeasayer-Odd Blood
Grateful Dead-American Beauty

They're Everywhere, They're Everywhere!

It's been a good month my quarter acre. I have all the okra, squash, green peppers, tomatoes, green beans, and jalapenos I can eat. I have gotten so much squash, peppers, okra and tomatoes that I've been able to save a ton of it by freezing and canning. If this can keep up for a few more weeks, I'll be able to make it through winter without having to buy much, if any, summer vegetables out of season.

So far, I've put up six jars of pickles, one gallon of salsa, one gallon of squash, one gallon of green peppers, one gallon of okra, and I'm working on tomatoes today. I'm roasting about ten pounds of tomatoes in the oven with vidalia onions, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I'm going to peel the tomatoes when they cool, and then toss them whole, along with the onions, into freezer bags. I've found a ton of recipes that work off of this simple, easy method of preservation. I can make lots of stews, soups, sauces, and pretty much anything else you can think of with this base. I'm hoping to continue getting as many tomatoes from the garden as I can, because I think that this will be a time saver for me.

I still have over a dozen okra plants that seem to be just getting warmed up, so I know that I will have all the frozen okra I can handle. We had some pretty big rainstorms here over the past couple of days, so the bermuda grass, clover, and other weeds have really gone crazy lately. I will have to spend about a day with the tiller, and then a couple more days cleaning, clearing and plucking. Sunburn, here I come again!

I have been listening to the new Maps & Atlases album for the past couple of days. It's called Perch Patchwork and definitely gets my seal of approval. They sound a little like Mumford and Sons, so if you're a fan, you should check em out. Happy week!

That, sour disgusting smell of vinegar.

I had an absolute blast today! I channeled my inner old person and canned me some pickles! I turned twenty cucumbers into six pint jars of Ross's Dickles! I've got friends to thank for that one.

Yeah, that's a lot of slicing alright. A couple of months ago, I was really considering picking up a mandolin, but, figured that I wouldn't need it. WRONG! After this much slicing, my hands hurt in weird places. I sliced 'em up, tossed them in some brine to get them pre-soaked, and then started packing clean, hot jars. I made my canning liquid in a tea kettle with apple cider vinegar, peppercorns, a little salt, and a few cups of sugar. After heating it, I poured the mixture into the jars, stuck a plastic spatula in each one to get the air bubbles out, and then dropped them in my canning pot. It's a big mutha, and was able to hold all six jars at once. I boiled them for an hour or so, pulled them out, and listened for the snap that says, "Yo. I've got a good seal over here." All six jars are resting on wire cookie racks right now while I wait for them to cool off. The whole process took a couple hours, which is much quicker than I thought it would.

After getting these processed so quickly, and, to all appearances, so well, I am feeling pretty confident about getting even more things from the garden canned. I've got a ton of okra coming up, but I've never been a big fan of pickled okra, so I'll have to figure something out. I also have a ton of tomatoes still coming, so I'm definitely looking forward to pasta sauce, and maybe even some tomato soup. I found a pretty good website that has a lot of really good canning recipes. If you're interested, check out canning-recipes.com It's got a lot of really basic stuff on there, including a recipe for catsup that I'm more than a little pumped about trying to figure out.

I listened to the new Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album while I was working today. It's called Mojo and it definitely has my seal of approval.

Canning Like a Grandma!

I think that I had more fun yesterday than I have in a long, long time. Before I went to work last night, I spent several hours heating my kitchen to about 85 degrees and "putting up" veggies for the long, harsh winters that we get here. Ok, so that was a little extreme, but I really did get to do some preserving, which was incredibly fulfilling.

Squash I chopped about fifteen squash into half-moon shapes and froze them in a one gallon freezer bag. I'll be able to thaw them out, and use them in soups, stews, casseroles, or anything else I can think of. I've frozen squash before and discovered that they really aren't of a consistency to eat by themselves. They get a little slimy. Gross, I know, but they cook up just fine if they're in something else. I've got a couple really great crockpot and stew ideas, so I'm not worried about it at all. I'm getting several squash each day, so I have no doubt that I'll be doing this some more. I also have plans to make a squash relish that I found a canning recipe for, so I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Green Bell Peppers I cored, sliced and blanched about ten peppers and filled a one gallon freezer bag with these guys. I have absolutely no idea how they'll taste, but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to figure something out. Worse case scenario, I can cook them in some stir fry, beef stew, anything. I've got at least another fifty little peppers coming up on my plants, so I have a pretty good feeling I'll be getting even more.

Tomatoes Salsa, baby, salsa! I found a great Rick Bayless (my hero, in case you didn't know) recipe for Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa that can be made in huge batches. I didn't have a whole lot of confidence going it, but man it turned out great. I mean, incredible. It took about three or four pounds of tomatoes, five jalapenos (also from the garden), one onion, some garlic, salt, vinegar, and cilantro. Roasted them all in the oven, blended together in stages, mixed in a huge metal bowl, and voila! Magnificent! It made over a gallon! Rick recommended freezing it over canning because of the low amount of vinegar in the recipe, so I froze a one gallon bag of it. Since I still had more left over, I filled one pint jar and took the rest to a vegetarian friend at work. This was pretty time consuming, but man it was worth it. It tastes amazing, and I can't wait to bust it out in the middle of winter and relive the awesomeness. Yes, that's a word.

I plan on beginning the great pickle canning fest in the next couple days, so I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. I've got about twenty cukes ready to go, a new canning pot that holds eight jars at a time, and twelve jars to fill. I may work on it tomorrow, we'll just have to see.

There's a ton of really fresh, local produce at farmer's markets around the country right now, so go and get some! It's cheap, and if I save it, anyone can.

I've been listening to the new Jack Johnson album and an older Ugly Casanova album. Really good standing up and sweating music. Enjoy your weekend and go outside!