As the Garden Grows

I have been so slack in my posting. Probably because there has not been much going on in the garden for too long. We have been having beautiful weather here in the Piedmont of North Carolina since last Friday. This has prompted many bulbs to start blooming and some trees as well. I am hoping that my apple trees will hold off because I know there is another heavy frost coming...maybe as soon as this weekend. I have started tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings inside and they are doing well. I have yet to get out and really get in the dirt because I have been very sick with a crud that doesn't want to let go for going on 3 weeks now. Just when I think I'm getting better, my ears plug up again and the cough just won't go away. It's probably just as well...they are calling for rain and colder weather after today. Many people I know insist on planting early so that they can have tomatoes before July; but most of the time, I rely on my great grandmother's advice that was told to me by my uncle. She said that you should never plant any warm weather crops before May 1st because the soil wasn't warm enough and that if you did your harvest would not be as plentiful; the plantings would be weak and you would have more insect damage. Here where I live we are able to garden well into October most every year and I have had productive gardens still in the beginning of November; so it does make some since. The warm weather plants thrive in the warm soil, they don't like for it to be cool and a lot of the bugs that develop from moth larvae (squash bugs and vine borers come to mind) actually lay their eggs in early spring. In allowing myself that little bit of extra time I have to admit that my garden has done much better. I don't seem to have as many disappointments. Last year my summer squash produced well into fall. I eventually had to pull it up because I had frozen, pickled and canned as much as I cared to. They were becoming baseball bats :~) I cherish this ancestral wisdom not because of the success it has brought me; but because it comes from a fine woman that I never had the chance to meet. I would have been her first great grandchild. I live in the house now, that she once did. I sweep the same floors and prune the same beautiful rose bushes; I use the same garden tools and cook some of her recipes. I can feel her spirit often and feel that even though we didn't get to meet I know her through these things. So, I will be readying the garden beds, tending my indoor seedlings and anticipating the day after the 1st of May when I will tuck them into the warm fertile soil.

Usually, I have no problem being alone. I enjoy the quiet and the stillness that accompanies the fact that no one is at home but me. I even like being outside, in the garden, in the woods; just myself and sometimes my dog (she's a good snake hunter). This gardening has been especially challenging because I have had to do it all alone. Don't take this wrong, I am a very independent person and many a day in the past years, you could find me in the garden by myself or with my cat picking beans, peas, okra, or weeding. My husband was always close by though doing "his chores". He likes to hoe, cultivate, rip out old plantings to make way for new and stuff like that. he also likes to pick peppers, tomatoes, squash and corn but doesn't like the "small stuff" so I always pick those. This year with him on crutches (and surprisingly clumsy on them) the garden is off limits with all it's uneven surfaces and soft soil. It is practically killing him...the day of his accident he was planning on coming home from work to be in the garden but went somewhere with his boss instead. So it is killing him - did I say that already? Yes, but I hear it at least twice every day. I have been so wrapped up in helping him heal his body and taking care of his needs and seeing that he has good, nourishing food to eat that I haven't thought about it much but this weekend, it hit me pretty hard. The reason why I haven't been as gung-ho in the garden this year is not just for lack of time (though that is true too) but I really miss my partner and being able to share the experience of putting food on our table together. It is sad that we as humans sometimes don't appreciate the little things in life until they are gone. I am so thankful that my husband's injury is not permanent and that one day hopefully very soon...We will be back in the garden together, planning, planting and putting good food on our table.

With money so tight these days, (hubby out of work - broke leg - ya know) I have been trying to stretch everything as far as it will go, waste nothing, and make everything I can from scratch. When you accompany that with working a full-time job it is quite exhausting. So these days, I am quite exhausted but also happily satisfied with providing for my family with very little means. I went to the grocery store Tuesday and spent a little over $33.00. I think I can make this last through the weekend and possibly to next Tuesday with the exception of eggs. We are eating squash, zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, onions and peppers from the garden; rice (I bought a huge bag a couple of months ago) and dried beans - I always have at least 3 different kinds on hand. I have been baking all of our bread; cornbread, sandwich loaves, biscuits and muffins. I only add meat a couple of times a week and it is usually in a casserole with vegetables but I am looking forward to roasting a chicken this weekend. That bird will be toast! Bones picked clean. I have also been making buttermilk from culture and regular milk. It has been turning out very well. I always use buttermilk in my biscuits and cornbread. It just doesn't taste the same otherwise. These are just some of the things I have been doing to get by on a lot less. Actually, for poor folks, we've been eating pretty good! And healthy too boot!

Lots of rain is what we've been getting here in the foothills and piedmont of N.C. Every day this week we have gotten a storm in the late afternoon. Some have been hit hard by strong winds, hail and extreme lightening. We have only have some strong winds (that blew down my corn btw). Luckily where we live the really bad weather seems to be north, east and south of us every time. I am very thankful for that. We really need the rain too, since the terrible drought last year had everything here sucked dry.

I mentioned my garden wasn't what I had hoped for this year. Well, where there's little, somewhere else there's plenty. My sister who loves in the northern end of the county is inundated with beans and she promises to supply me with some this weekend that I will put up by canning. My other sister also has beans that will be ready to pick next week and they will be on vacation, so I'll get to pick those too. Somehow, between my family's small gardens and the farmer's markets we will get the produce that we ourselves hoped to raise this year and put up a nice bit of food for the winter months ahead. Several of the people I work with say to me: "I don't know how you do all the things that you do, I would never have the time". Well, I just make the time. I feel like the gardening, harvesting and preserving of good home grown or wild grown food is something we all should do. It is normal for me to do this every year. Perhaps that is because I remember my mother and us kids raising a garden and preserving everything we could get our hands on back then. I wouldn't feel right not having my pantry shelves gleaming with newly canned jars of the best food around. I enjoy it too. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction. Besides, I'm just carrying on a tradition in my family. That feels good too. I am using the same pressure canner that my great aunt used and many of the accessories are from that era too. I feel like somehow I'm helping keep their spirits alive with this tradition. I can feel their smiling faces while I work. Sorry, but you don't get that from the grocery store.

I'll start off to say that I am missing being in the garden this summer. Things started out very promising and with very high hopes to grow and preserve a large part of what we eat. Then the unexpected happened. My husband suffered an injury to his leg that broke bones, tore the miniscus and did lots of other tissue damage. The result was surgery to repair everything. He can't put weight on his foot for 3 months. He is nearly 2 months in now and starting to get around better but for the last month and a half, I have been very busy just taking care of him. What we did get planted before the accident has been nibbled on by deer but I think that with all the rain we've gotten here lately, they are finding something else to eat because they have finally stopped eating the leaves off my bean and pea plants. All we have this year is peppers, eggplant, lots of tomatoes and squash. The corn may not make it due to a lot of heavy winds during storms. It is laying on the ground right now. But the bright side of things is that this is temporary and as soon as he can, we are going to plant some things for a fall/winter garden and make more raised beds as they would be so much easier to manage. I think this has been a learning lesson for the both of us.
For one thing, we have learned to do without more things since he is out of work and drawing absolutely nothing. The other thing we've learned is to slow down and be more appreciative of what we do have.
I am picking loads of blackberries and making wine and freezing them for cobblers. I have also been processing the apples from our old trees into dried apples, apple sauce, and apple butter. A friend gave me some old honey she found in her dad's basement that still looked pretty good, just a little darker and I am making mead for the first time. I can't wait to see how it turns out. So, if we don't have anything else to eat from the gardens this winter, we will have apples, canned tomatoes and a bit of alcohol to drink ;~)

It has been steadily drizzling rain for most of the day. Should make for some beautiful green in the coming weeks. It will be good to see that kind of drenched green again. I probably haven't seen it since this time last year due to the extreme drought here.

Horrray! The sun did come out today around 2:00. It was so beautiful to see everything still very wet but with the contrast of the Carolina blue sky. It's the kind of thing that really lifts your spirits up, especially after 2 1/2 days of rain.

Now; if the weather holds just for a couple of days, I'll get those raised beds in and the beets, radishes and onions in them.

The newspaper today ran a story about sticker shock at the grocery store and the fact that we haven't seen the worst yet. I am so thankful that we have the space, know how and opportunity to grow a good deal of our own food. In the past, we've gardened just because we enjoy eating fresh and we also like knowing how it was grown. It was always a matter of choice. Now it is becoming a matter of necessity. That's more than a little unsettling to me and I think about how spoiled we are when compared to my grand parents and great-grand parents. When I take stock of the things I have growing now--onions, herbs, snap peas, lettuces; tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings--I do feel some lightening of the load, but just a little. We still have a lot of work to do. This year I see gardening as a promise and if we nurture the soil and the seedlings, we will reap our rewards. So go get going on your own little patch of soil and grow some food...you'll be glad you did!

I awoke Saturday morning to the sounds of rain on the old tin roof that still covers the back side of the house where part of this is my bedroom. I had such plans for the day, mainly to put in two raised beds and plant some beets and onions, maybe a few radishes. Last week was so nice and warm I forgot it was still March. I guess I had my eyes focused ahead to the slightly warm spring days of planting season. My focus was quickly re-adjusted when I realized how cold the drafty old house had gotten overnight and Sunday wasn't any better, maybe worse. I had to light the kerosene heater and leave it lit all day for the house to be hospitable. I still enjoyed being home, making more plans for planting and watching some NCAA basketball on the tube. I have planted about 48 hopefuls for tomato plants. The varieties are: Paul Robeson Purple, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Amish Paste and this year, two new varieties: Spears Tennessee Green and Missouri Pink Love Apple. I bought that last one just because of the name :~) I also planted some Thai Long Green eggplants and Cubanelle peppers. If it doesn't warm up to at least 50 degrees, then I may have to bring them in from the greenhouse for a dose of warmth to help them germinate. Hopefully, the temps will cooperate.
We are planning quite a large garden this year and hopefully it will be a better year for it. Last year with the move and the extreme drought, our efforts were nil. I am catching lots of this rain water that we are getting now just in case. I have 3 fifty gallon barrels that I hope to have filled up to help with watering in the driest, hottest parts of summer. So far the snap peas and lettuce I have planted are doing well as are the onions that I planted a week ago. I hope to get more onions planted this week and also check on buying our chicks.
It has been a long hibernation from my usual gardening and from this blog but I am back for good and I hope to be here documenting my journey of growing more of our food to help sustain us through the hard times ahead and continuing to live simply. It is a joy to be back in the garden, digging once again amongst the worms, in the wonderful dirt.