1. Gardens are freaking great. They're like an extra big, airy room of your house.
2. The real fun starts after all the checks are written and cashed.
3. Bamboo is the devil in physical form.
4. If you plant four vines in May, you will be drowning in cucumbers by July.
5. Tomatillos need to be confined like Hannibal Lecter or they take over...everything.
6. If you have a reasonably productive garden, your kitchen will be a disaster from June to October (nobody warns you about this). Don't even bother mopping the floor!
7. Seeds are totally the way to go. They're cheap...really cheap.
8. Tomatoes and garlic are the Idiot-Gardeners go-to. It really takes a lot to screw them up...which I did....blossom end rot is a bitch...
9. Fruit flies are a real nuisance, as well as being kinda gross. I found that a wine bottle filled with two inches of cider vinegar and a paper funnel in the neck is a pretty effective trap.
10. Get used to working on several food-related projects at the same time. Multi-task, baby!
There! Some (not so wise) wisdom from a person who survived her first growing season! There were surprises, both dismaying and joyous. But, overall, it was worth the hard work and money that went into it. Most of the really hard stuff is over and will not need to be repeated next year. The beds, soil, rocks, and chips are in place, just waiting for spring!
One morning's harvest in June:
A typical summer's day in Becky's kitchen: preparing tomatillos for freezing and canning pickles from my own cucumbers. My trusty Ball Blue Book of Food Preserving open to the "Fresh Pack Pickling" page. I've already started to tab certain pages and write notes in the margins...
The finished jars of spears, waiting for their labels..
Fast-forward to August 30th, the day after my highly successful Housewarming Party! We had a pajama day, knitting, talking, cooking, and packing (since Val and I were flying out the next day). It was so great to have a fun day after all those weeks of frantically working to get the garden and house ready for the party. I put the food dehydrator Jan gave me into comission the very next day, drying tomatoes and fruit. That machine has been going pretty much non-stop since I got it.
Here's Mom and Val working on a gezpacho from my own tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.
It was a fabulous weekend and the perfect mental break before a week in Beloit!
1 comment:
Great food porn Becky! Love the story and photos.
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