(guest post) The Unbumper Crops

Thank you so much for the honor to write with you lovely gals here on Tend. I love checking in and seeing what's going on, reading similar philosophies and approaches to my own way of living. Every post emits a shared coziness and warmth; a breath of fresh air.

See, sometimes my green thumb turns into a green and jealous meanie when I see the many finely edited gardens dotting the internet. I have a hard time keeping my garden envy in check when I see others with bumper crops of vine ripened tomatoes. I immediately compare them to my own Better Boys, split and scarred from the recent onslaught of thunderstorms.

Then, sometimes, I watch my daughter play in the plants. I made up my mind early in my pregnancy that I would embrace her curiosity and teach her to respect the natural world around us. But also, as a mom I devote most of my energy to Mabel, and the gardens don't get the same amount of attention they used to. I plant things and don't mark them, forgetting about them until they produce something discernible. This year that something is beans. I've grown beans before: favas, limas, green beans, cow peas...but this year they came up, started forming beans and I had one of those new gardener moments where I ran inside and showed Charlie and Mabel that I. grew. beans. I had 2 beans in my hand, each bulging with the black eyed peas hidden inside. There were more out in the garden, not quite ready for picking, and definitely not a bumper crop by any stretch of the imagination. Those 2 beans in my hand, though, produced a swell of gardening pride.

I can't really pinpoint the source of pride. I suspect it's a residual effect of motherhood: I can choose to obsess over aphids and soil fertility, or I can choose to celebrate the small wonders that make Mabel ooohh and ahhh over a flower or an interesting rock. Being present in those moments has taught me to appreciate everything I grow, including my 2 pods of black eyed peas--my own amazing unbumper crop.

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Thank you so much Renee for being our guest here today, we're honored! Renee lives in North Carolina and authored the Petals & Pedals series at Modish. Please visit her blog and website, Wolfie + the Sneak for more of her creative endeavors.

(guest post) kitchen gardening

First off a thank you to the Tend team – and especially Julia – for the invitation to join in over here this week.  I am currently up in the woods of western Canada – without dependable internet -  and her patience and understanding has been most appreciated!  When she asked me to write about gardening in California I immediately thought of the challenges of my kitchen garden.  I then entertained thoughts of writing on the transformation of our yard from lawn to California native garden; gardening with kids; or the soon-to-open 8000sq ft edibles garden we built at our neighborhood elementary school this summer.  I came back to the kitchen garden – where I have struggled the most – and have found some great rewards.

A kitchen garden was a constant of my childhood.  I grew up in small-city / big-town Brandon, Manitoba.   The seasons are distinct there – and could be defined by our work in the garden.  .  Our summers would be filled with days at our large community plot, falls of harvesting and canning and winters fetching root vegetables from our cold storage and feasting of canned tomatoes and homemade pickles.  We ate seasonally and locally and I didn’t know anything different.

After graduate school I moved to Los Angeles.  I surprised myself and ended up liking it here – and 14 years into it I call it home.  Gardening here is a completely different experience.  And it took me a good long while to figure it all out.  As I moved around the city I was overwhelmed with the variety at the local farmer’s markets and itched to be growing my own.  Once we bought our own home we dug right in.    Our particular community is considered desert – with triple digit days in the summer, and freezing nights in the winter.  My Manitoba garden experiences could not be transposed – as I soon learned.  I turned to experienced friends to guide me – and finally feel that we have found what works for us.  Greens dominate our winter garden; strawberries, potatoes and peas in the spring; and heirloom tomatoes and green beans for our summer crops.  Having small space has also dictated our strategy.  I am grateful for a CSA subscription that brings us a variety of organic produce throughout the year – grown in the milder coastal climes of nearby Oxnard – and a friend and neighbor with an enviable greener thumb than mine – and a yard dedicated to edibles.

We start from seed each season – in hand-made newspaper pots produced by my daughters.  When the seedlings are ready – they move out to our three raised beds – built by my husband David of 2 x 6 redwood.  This year, two beds have been dedicated to edibles and the third to a cut-flower garden for the girls to plant as they wish (Queen Anne’s Lace, cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers and a mix of herbs are favourites).

 Aside from the raised beds, we have included a few edibles within the landscape of our backyard.  

 I had never tasted a fresh artichoke (or avocado!) until I moved to Southern California.  They are now a staple in our kitchen – and avocados in our garden.  I made an attempt to integrate cooking greens as well, but my pest-management team made short order of them.

We don’t use any pesticides or fertilizers in our garden – aside from compost and a manure tea a friend brings me with the changing seasons.  Pests are to a minimum in our yard – with the help of our chickens – who at this point in time have the run of the yard.   (A rodent has moved in to the garden this year – and has been feasting on our summer crop.  The chooks haven’t been able to manage this pest – and we will have to explore options for its removal.  Any suggestions for rodent control?!)

My learning curve in our garden has been steep – and I have relied on advice from friends and books.  My favourite reads:

Sunset Western Garden Book of Edibles
Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening
Rosalind Creasy's Edible Landscaping

I have to add The Garden That You Are– that is not geared to Southern California gardening, but is a beautiful book, and reminds me that growing our own food is an extension of who we are – and the successes, and failures are to be savoured.

Happy Gardening!

tracy is a canadian prairie girl living in suburban los angeles with her husband, two girls, three chickens a couple of turtles and fish named "rainbow".  she fills her days with her time in the garden (any garden), working on their mid-century modern home, and taking too many pictures of it all.  when she is not digging in the dirt, she manages an artist's estate.  she is a great believer in public eduction and the power of community. and is trying to build a stronger bond with her sewing machine. she blogs at jumilla stories and you can find her on flickr.

(guest post) Saving Seeds

It's so nice to be here today, I'm honored (and a little overwhelmed) to be visiting.

cilantro gone to seed

With many of my crops reaching the harvest stage, I naturally think about preserving and making them last as long as possible. In addition to canning, preserving, dehydrating, and freezing, saving seeds to plant the following year has been a skill of preserving that I have tried experimenting with over the past few years. Saving seeds to me represents the full circle of life. It's spiritual, meditative, natural, and a way to live providently and mindfully.

storing dried seeds

In the years past, I've had success with growing crops from seeds I've saved from tomatoes, sugar snap peas, several varieties of pumpkins and squash, spinach, Swiss chard and beans. This year I plan to try my hand at carrots, basil and several herbs.

allowing a sugar snap pea to dry on the vine

sugar snap pea seeds

I'm certainly not an expert on the subject, so I'll leave you with two of my favorite references:

Organic Seed Alliance
Seed to Seed, which you're likely to find in your local library.

And there are of course countless sources to turn to on the internet.

I encourage you to give it a try. The links above have wonderful information on how to get started. It really isn't as difficult as it may first seem, and once you're successful, it can be such a rewarding hobby!

various gourds grown from last year's seeds

pumpkin seeds

various tomato and tomatillo seeds fermenting

amber shares little bits of her life over at her blog & is the maker behind the beautiful etsy shop, oakmoss. she is a wonderful gardener, artist & mama! thank you so much, amber!

(guest post) Operation Deliberate Neglect: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Operation Deliberate Neglect: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Hi! Shari asked me to guest post, so welcome to my garden! It's basically a front-yard garden (where it gets the most sun) with four very long raised beds, native perennials, fruit trees, berry bushes, and herbs. My zone is 7b, in the North Carolina Piedmont area.

I'm going to confess that I haven't been tending to my garden diligently as I have done in the past. I hurt my back earlier this year and our area has been suffering from a mild drought and record high temperatures. There really hasn't been any watering, weeding, or regular harvesting. So I'm calling our summer garden season "operation deliberate neglect" and in spirit of experimentation, I thought I'd share the results. By the way, I do not recommend this method, especially if you have a hard time growing -- it's just that I live in the South, and practically everything grows like a weed or an invasive here.

Let's start with the Ugly:

1- Stressed trees. They're not really ugly, just mildly fascinating and sad. I don't think consistent watering would have helped the tree, though. This is a dogwood, which was planted two years ago, and is still trying to find its footing (rooting)? Hopefully the stresses will make it stronger over time.



2-The weeds are taking over. This used to be a gravel pathway. To be fair, I was expecting this, because weeding is one of these things that require, in the immortal words of Mad-Eye Moody, constant vigilance.



The Bad:

1-Overripe cucumbers. I like to tell our younger neighbors that they are dinosaur eggs, and generally toss them in the backyard in hopes that rabbits will eat them and that the vines will overcome much-hated English ivy or poison ivy next year. (Note: if you find cucumbers that are just slightly yellow, they are still very edible- just deseed and peel the tough skin).




2-Our tomatoes are literally bursting. However, it also means next year we are going to find volunteer tomato plants all over the raised beds, which is sort of not a bad thing (unless you end up with 50+ of them).




3-I don't think it would be a summer without overgrown, thick, hard-as-a-rock okra. Even when we harvested everyday, we still ended up with a couple of these pods. I've used them as Halloween decorations (they vaguely resemble dragon teeth) and dried them to re-use the seeds for next year. I think I'm going to roast them and use the seeds for a salad or succotash dish.



4- I'm not sure if this is a terrible thing, but there are still a lot of vegetables that are waiting to be harvested, and sometimes they are easier to detect when overgrown. For example, red peppers and dried butterbeans.


(if you look very closely in this photo, you also can find green butterbeans.)



And now, the part you were probably waiting for: The Good.

1-We still got a lot of tomatoes.They are still growing strong! Some people even say that tomatoes taste better when you stop watering them because the flavor will concentrate in the fruit.


Imagine what would happen if we actually paid attention to the plants.

2-We got pumpkins, to my surprise. I expected squash borers and powdery mildew to overcome our plants, but I haven't found any. We also planted acorn squash and butternut squash and haven't found anything yet, but it's nice to have pumpkins without much of an effort. These are the sugar baby variety.





3-The arugula that we planted in the spring reseeded itself. I love it when that happens to the right plants.



4- My back is healing nicely, and the sight of brown/dead plants is making me want to clear the beds and start fall planting. Normally, I hate removing perfectly viable plants to prepare for another season.

Lessons Learned:

1-The south can be a wonderful and terrible place for gardening, depending on what you want to grow and how much effort you want to put into it.

2-"Natives" or varieties that grow well in your region will require very little care. For example, okra, butterbeans, southern peas, and sweet potatoes thrive on neglect and extreme heat/humidity.

3-Planting different varieties of one vegetable can be a good thing, as is planting them at different times to ensure a continuous harvest all season (or one big harvest in the end).

4-Not watering constantly, but relying on one big initial watering and mulch and the weather, can be a boon to plants, because it helps with formation of strong roots, which in turn makes for healthier plants.

5-Adding compost or fixing nitrogen in your soil every year is always a good idea. Sometimes that is all you really need to ensure a good crop.

6-Mulch is a lazy Southern gardener's best friend. It holds water in, keeps weeds out, and disintegrates into a lovely soil amendment.

7-There really is no way getting around weeding except weeding.

8-Don't worry if you won't be able to take care of everything. Nature eventually finds a way to take care of it all. And you can use this as part of your ever-growing gardening experience!



Eunice lives in Durham, NC where she walks and trains dogs, goes on bike rides, and chases food trucks. She is long overdue posting at The Accidental Southerner (where you can find seasonal and local recipes) and A Dream of Eu (where she talks more about her garden and books and life ), but in the meantime, you can find her on her Flickr photostream.

ground cherries

have you ever tried a ground cherry? if not you are in for a treat. a sweet treat!

a relative of the tomatillo, they are a little bit smaller than a cherry tomato and when ripe are a pale golden yellow. they have a hint of tomato but are much sweeter and quite fruity.

when i first tried them i was surprised with the taste and couldn’t quite describe it. and then realized how tropical they tasted. they taste a little like a pineapple with a touch of vanilla. i have grown to like them very much and there is something about pulling away that little paper skin, just like a candy wrapper.

harvesting ground cherries is fun and easy. just shake the plant and the ripe ones fall into puddles onto the ground.

today I made a simple salsa with them.

1 large handful of ground cherries cut in half
2 large handfuls of 2 different kinds of cherry tomatoes
1 clove of garlic minced
1 cup of roasted corn
3 or 4 sprigs of cilantro or basil chopped (my cilantro is petering out so I used basil)

combine ingredients.
squeeze juice of one lime over mixture along with ¼ cup olive oil.
Salt to taste.

enjoy!


p.s. i am excited to announce that next week will be a week of guests here at tend.

Okra

This week we've been eating okra almost daily. It is tasty cooked on its own or added to other dishes. A few of our favorite ways to prepare okra are:
* Saute chopped okra in a little canola oil until tender and sprinkle it with sea salt and pepper.
* Dip chopped okra in a beaten egg and then bread it in cornmeal. Lightly fry it in a little canola oil until browned and crisp on the outside. It will be tender inside.
* Add okra to beans, rice, squash and tomatoes.
* Add okra to gumbo.
* And I just came across a recipe for okra curry I want to try soon.

Yet okra grows fast and if it gets over mature it is too tough to eat. If it makes a hard, crunchy sound when you cut into it, then you know it's going to be fibrous. At this point you can either leave other ones you suspect are too mature on the plant to dry and collect the seeds for next year, compost the okra, or use them to make art.

Okra has a beautiful shape and children and adults alike may enjoy printing with them. I use watercolor paint and brush a little color on the flat cut side. Then press it firmly to paper. You can talk about pattern making and counting with young children as they make their prints. Try it!

first tomatoes!

there's really not much else to say besides that.  these are three of my four first full-sized tomatoes this year [we ate the other one before i could get a photo. i might have been the most delicious thing i've ever tasted].

i have never been very successful with full-sized tomatoes [cherry tomatoes, especially amy's favorite sungolds have always been great!]. in fact, last year i only harvested one single tomato from nine plants, so i already know this year is better! i'm already on track for a bit of a bumper crop and i could not be more proud.

whether you grow them yourself, from seed or seedling, or sample some from a local farmer, the first tomatoes of the season are always cause for celebration.