Garden
This morning I discovered a small group of pawpaws growing just 150 feet from my cabin! 🤗 I planted 2 in a different spot last spring but these volunteers are growing in the other spot I was considering. Which leads me to think there must be more in the area that I have yet to discover. 🤗
Working on getting my blackberries sorted for the summer. Under the layer of grass clippings are layers of all sorts of paper and cardboard and under that are many very happy worms loosening up the soil. Still have a bit of weeding and transplanting to do.
I was lucky to get a couple of volunteer pumpkin plants this year so for the next few weeks I’ll be making a lot of my favorite winter soup: curry pumpkin coconut vegetable soup! Easy to make. 10 minutes to cube half a pumpkin then about 1 hour total cook time.
1/2 medium pumkin 1 onion Frozen mixed veggies 1 can chick peas 1 can coconut milk 1 cup macaroni or rice (optional) 1 cup lentils
Salt Garlic Curry Cayenne pepper
I cut a medium pumpkin in half. 1 half goes in fridge for the next pot of soup in a few days. The other half I cut up into cubes, remove the skin, seeds and stringy inside stuff. Raw pumpkins are pretty hard to cut and remove skin, be careful! I probably need a sharper knife.
Put in a pot with enough water to cover the cubes. Boil for 15ish minutes. Mash it with a potato masher in the pot with the water until it’s just a kind of mash. Set it aside.
Sauté one onion with a little oil and water till soft. Add it to the cooked pumpkin mash. Add spices to taste. I usually do about a tbsp of salt, tbsp of garlic powder (or 3-4 cloves, maybe more), 2 tsp of curry, 1 tsp of cayenne pepper. Alter as needed.
A half bag of frozen mixed vegetables… probably about 4-5 cups. Use whatever veggies you like… I like the standard mixed veggies because they’re usually the least expensive. Bring it to a boil, turn it down a bit and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
Add in a cup of elbow macaroni or cooked rice. And let it simmer for 10 minutes. Add in can of chickpeas (or whatever cooked/can beans you want). Add in can of coconut milk. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Ready to eat when the macaroni is done.
The soup!
I didn’t have a big garden this year but I was lucky to get a volunteer pumpkin plant and harvested 10 pumpkins. Most of them will be made into pumpkin curry coconut soup over the next couple of months.
I’ve harvested pawpaws once from a few trees on the side of a gravel road. Amazing. A soft banana/mango flavor and texture. Planted a few in my forest garden and waiting for them to grow.
How America’s most enigmatic fruit is making a comeback | The Guardian
Growing in the sunny spots around the garden, garlic chives, sweet coneflowers and western ironweed are current favorite feeding spots for bees and butterflies. 😍
A morning task: transplant 3 small hazelnut bushes. Also, enjoy observing a red ant exploring a garlic chive flower cluster.
Volunteer squash in my garden. I think it’s a pumpkin though I have no idea where the seed would have come from.
Solar punk tiny house! Flowers in foreground: Vernonia baldwinii, the western ironweed is the purple flower. Rudbeckia subtomentosa, sweet Coneflower is the yellow.
Built a new spiral garden bed. Not much planted in it yet: Mint, a purple coneflower and a ground cherry.
In the garden today a great spangled fritillary on a daisy and my finger. Also a bumble bee collecting pollen from a daisy.
I'm not growing a lot of food in my garden but I enjoy every little bit I do grow! Most recently, lettuce and strawberries. And plenty of wild daisies which are edible though I've not tried them in my salad yet.
Spring 2016 Garden Update
Been busy gardening and made a good bit of progress in March and April getting things reestablished. Lots of natives put in for wildlife habitat as well as small food garden consisting of hugelculture beds. The kale and lettuce is looking great. Just got in a few peppers one tomatoes too. Oh, and two blueberries. Not as large as the gardens I had before but a good start at getting things going again. Depending on how my well holds up I’ll consider adding a bit more each year.
The fruit trees I put in back in 2008 are doing pretty good especially given they had little to no attention over the past three summers. Should have a nice crop of peaches, plums and pears. My three female hardy kiwi’s didn’t make it but the male did. Will need to get in some female plants if I want any fruit!
Back at the Lake or Life is like a box of chocolates...
A new video about rebuilding my garden now that I’ve returned to the lake as my residence. It’s been a long while since I felt the need or desire to really write. I think that drought may be over at least for awhile. Really feeling the need to explore and remember a bit about who I am and where I’ve been. No doubt related to what led to my move back to the lake and what my future might look like. More coming soon.
Pigweed!
| Not the prettiest of plants but that's okay, the nutritional content and taste make up for it! This little grouping is growing very happily in one of our swales right between our rhubarb and blueberry. |
We have it growing in several locations around here and it’s no wonder. It self seeds readily and tolerates a wide range of soil. Well, we’ve got pretty nice soil and are happy to let it set seed. In fact, I’ll be doing my best to help it along by scattering seed in various places. The more of this the better!
Big tomatoes! These are some amazing plants we have this year! We’ve got great soil which we’ve made better with plenty of composted goat manure and hay. Really good stuff. No sign of tomatoe hornworms yet but I’m sure they’ll show eventually.Almost all of the tomatoes planted!
All of the tomatoes are finally planted! Edit: we decided to extend the small row and finish off the tray…. so, almost all of them planted!
We had lots of cedar from our observatory project at the top of the hill so we’ve been putting those branches to good use. In this case, a sturdy, tall trellis for our tomatoes.
Crab apple!
2014 Spring Garden Update
We've been making fantastic progress this spring! Thus far: potatoes, rhubarb, comfrey, goats, a new raspberry trellis and duck pond!