June

Vermont in June. You can't beat it.

Delicate pink peonies open.
The thimbleberry shrubs are in bloom
Wild strawberries are growing in the field.
Garlic scapes begin to form.
Lettuce is abundant as are the weeds.
Beets are thinned and added to the latest salad creation.
Our sage plant is in flower.
The hops are growing up their string supports.
The dahlias and glads are poking up from the soil.
The lady's mantle has a spray of golden flowers.
The lemon balm and oregano are ready to be trimmed and used in the kitchen.
Tomatoes need to have their suckers pinched.


So much to do, but I love every minute of it.

I'll be back next week with a new book I think you'll enjoy.

planting tomatoes

Things are moving along nicely in the field garden.

We planted our tomatoes at the end of May and almost forgot that our farmer friend had given us some mycorrhizae for our tomato plants. Earlier in the spring, we visited C. and she mentioned that she was planning to dip her tomato roots in a mycorrhizal solution in hopes of lessening the chances of tomato diseases such as early blight and septoria leaf spot. She doled us out a portion and suggested around 1 tsp per gallon of water.




Bone meal and Epsom salts in the planting holes.

Dipping the roots.

A storm arrived in the days following, and we lost 4 of our plants. Luckily, we have extras.

I'm excited to see if the mycorrhizae makes a difference. The four replacement plants won't be dipped in the solution, so it will be easy to see the difference. I'll be sure to report back.

Have any of you tried this? What have you noticed?

The Delights of Mid-May

 Apple blossoms promising a bumper crop this year. We're hoping to make apple cider, apple cider vinegar, and applesauce this year.

 Good old reliable garlic. 102 cloves planted this year plus a few extra in the front herb beds.

Nothing makes me happier than to see buds on our peonies, or

the neon pink tulips around our cherry tree.

 100 dandelion flowers were collected to make a festive spring drink.

 Dandelion lemon soda (Dandelion flowers, light brown sugar, water, lemon) in the works. Recipe from Backyard Medicine, a new favorite herbal.

The tomato seedlings are getting bigger and needed to be re-potted recently. This year we are growing Orange Banana, Mortgage Lifter, German Pink, Indian, Sungold, Amish Paste and Cosmonaut Volkov.

The view of our field garden from above. Look behind the pond on the right to spot it.

Other mid-May delights not photographed:

Eating asparagus, just picked, from our neighbor's garden
The promise of free raspberry bushes from a friend
The first morel spotted
Sweet Pea flowers emerging from the soil
Weekend lunches eaten outdoors
The backyard garden planted with red and golden beets, alpine strawberries, parsley, cress, lettuce
Making a summer salve
Rhubarb, lemon, vanilla handpies from A Year of Pies
Melissa Clark's roasted asparagus with rhubarb puree from Cook This Now

What are your favorite mid-May delights?

the end of april

Well, here are those pretty spring blooms I promised a few weeks ago. In the final few days of April, we are starting to see major signs of spring. Leaves have started unfurling, the grass is greening up and dandelions are popping up here and there. As a studying herbalist, I have a soft spot in my heart for dandelions.

 

 As we worked to prepare our beds this weekend, I dug up all of the dandelions to use in the kitchen.

 


The dandelion greens made it into our first spring salad of the year along with mixed lettuces from the local market, slivered almonds, and a few overwintered carrots that looked a little pale but still tasted fine.

 

We also foraged some wild garlic to add to the salad. It's easy to find this time of year. Please note that if you're not familiar with wild foods, you should always have someone in the know help you ID the plant. Believe it or not, there are poisonous wild garlic look-a-likes, though they don't smell of garlic.

Dandelion greens are bitter, and this is good for the body, particularly in spring after eating heavy food all winter. Bitters are great for your digestion and easy to consume when added to a salad that is mixed with sweet lettuces. I also mixed up a sweet vinaigrette to temper the bitter greens a little.


A Spring Salad Dressing for Bitter Greens:

2-3 TB olive oil
1 TB raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
1 heaping Tsp dijon mustard
1 spoonful of raw honey (Thank you, honeybees!)
1 small tsp. of fennel seeds (also good for digestion)






Our heirloom tomato seedlings are looking good, and that's spilanthes in the front right of the frame.



 Two kinds of peas have been soaked, inoculated and planted: Cascadian snap pea and Laxton's Progress #9. I always like to have both snap and shell peas on hand. We like to freeze the shell peas and reserve the pods for making stock.

 

Our brassicas (broccoli, variegated collards, Red Russian kale, Lacinato kale, green and red cabbage) are planted and protected with their little cutworm collars. We are looking for ideas of something we can interplant between them other than lettuce. If you have any thoughts, do let me know in the comments.

Inching Ahead

We're inching ahead here in Zone 4b after Friday's minor accumulation of sleet and wet snow. I'm happy to have this little lungwort in my front herb bed because it's always the first plant to flower after the crocuses.

It's lovely to see the daffodils and hyacinths (pictured here) poking up from the soil. Promises of yellow and pink to come.

The birds are a little more active. Robins are abundant as are the red-winged blackbirds. I couldn't resist this tiny feather caught on a blade of grass.

My husband built us a small cold frame using materials that we had in our garage--a few pallets and an old window. We decided to take advantage of the spring sunshine and let our leek and brassica seedlings enjoy a little extra warmth.

It's a little tricky, though. We've never used a cold frame before. Today we came home from work to find that the seedlings were a little too warm even with the window propped open slightly. So, we've brought them back in for now to baby them just a little more before we try the cold frame again. Natalie and others who use cold frames, do you have any tips for me? We were hoping to use it to help our seedlings grow bigger and stronger.

We went down to our large field garden this afternoon to see if the soil was ready for planting. Alas, it was too wet. The peas and poppies will have to wait a little longer.