Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Edible Fence

It's late August and time to harvest blackberries, or at least a fraction that are dripping from the thorny hedge that forms a fence between our little farm and the gravel road. We take them for granted. We didn't plan them, and do nothing at all to encourage them, yet they thrive as the invasive weed that they are. As opportunists, we enjoy them all winter with yogurt and granola, in smoothies, and even an occasional cobbler. Before I gave up sugar, I made blackberry jam and jelly.
 Blackberries are considered a scourge in Oregon, at least in the southern part of the state. They'll gladly take over your property, if you let them. But they are pretty good to eat, and they're free for the picking. So we arm ourselves with sturdy clothing and harvest buckets for the freezer. (PK mostly does this prickly chore.)
Berries ready to be frozen. Later they'll go into freezer bags.

The blackberry fence from inside our property.


Blackberry poop, probably raccoons, litters the fence line. Apparently they eat and poop within about four feet of the food source, then go back for more! 

The edible fence on the outside. 

Nasty conditions out there for berries: dust, direct sun in the late afternoon.  But still people pick them from the road.

A small bucket of berries worth about 2.5 frozen quarts. 

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Tonight's dinner

Around the plate, chard sauteed with onions, garlic, and lemon juice topped with Parmesan cheese; cooked beets sauteed in butter with sweet red onions; the first green beans of the season lightly steamed and seasoned with butter and salt, pepper; two broken eggs along for the ride; Sauce on the left is garden chipotle and on the right, garden dill.
PK is outta town for a few days, and you think I'd take a break from cooking. But no. The garden screams. Chard! Onions! Garlic! Beans! Beets! Eat!  This is why we garden.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Garden Show & Tell



Lily in the front flower garden.

Day lilies, woodruff and climbing roses along the garden fence.
Garlic is about ready to harvest and will keep us supplied for a year.

Early summer 2011. Tractor isn't used in the garden, but PK uses it for hauling and mowing.  Yesterday he attached an auger to it  to dig post holes  for fencing a soon-to-be pasture. Livestock may be in our future. 

Roses with hills reflected in living room windows. 
Day lilies and climbing roses.

Lily and purple yarrow.




So-sweet beets.
Beets before harvesting. Roughly a third were taken.
Stir fry tonight!
Onions and lettuce.
Home sweet home.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Volunteers - the garden variety



Plucky Swiss chard volunteer poking through paving stones. 
This photo of a burgeoning Swiss chard thriving between a rock and a hard place illustrates the nature of the volunteers we want, whether human or plant:
  • They show up unexpectedly, but at exactly the right time. 
  • They never leave, except for when they die.
  • They don't ask for anything. 
  • They are endlessly productive and even, sometimes, provocative! (I'm thinking of the voluptuous chard, the stalwart sunflowers, the diligent dill—all in possession of the traits we desire.)
  • They are strong, brave, and nutritious. 
  • They fill in the spaces that might otherwise be barren and boring and prone to weeds. 
This is a now-lowly fennel plant, which will jet to four or five feet and produce marvelously fragrant seed heads and attract beneficial insects. Once the seed heads mature, I'll use the some seeds in marinara sauce.
The birds can have the rest.

Garden volunteers go forward with purpose. They're strong and they replicate. Our garden is populated by volunteers of the most opportune sort. They see a spot and they go for it.
Here we have a happy cluster  of volunteer  chard, cosmos and dill, which have survived thinning, have been mulched, and are now being  cultivated as part of the 2011 volunteer crop. Finches adore chard, so many leaves are filigreed. Still, I have frozen 17 chard meals and, as we speak, have about 10 more harvested and ready to give away or get into the freezer. I'll try for giving away first! Contact me if you want chard. 
I love this volunteer poppy and all of its kin around the blueberry patch. They make me smile. I tried to eradicate them a year or two ago (WHY??!!) but just the right number survived in the nooks and crannies. 
These sunflowers started elsewhere in our garden, planted by birds, but I relocated them to form a fall bird-frenzy area. When the seeds are ready, the birds go crazy. It's a wonder to behold. Relocation also prevents huge sunflowers from shading peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants. Sunflowers are wonderfully tolerant of rough transplanting.

Lastly, a stalwart volunteer outside of watering zones but already forming flower heads.
 Tomorrow I'm going to water this plant and give it encouragement. Come on, baby!
Think of how much fun the birds will have with you come fall!



Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Tourist Territory 2011- Oregon Coast

So many wild irises! We saw them in sun and in shade, in clusters and as individuals.
Coastal wildflowers are abundant in June.
Sister arrives from the Midwest for a week in Southern Oregon. What to do? We've traveled the wine routes, seen Crater Lake, shopped in Grants Pass and Ashland, attended Britt, enjoyed the Bear Hotel, been to It's a Burl, walked to Rainie Falls, floated the Rogue numerous times, and visited the Southern Oregon Coast. Now what?
This is a typical vista along the Southern Oregon Coast. The special part about this one is that my sister and I had to walk about a mile to see it, and we were the only ones. And it was a perfect day. 
One place is always fresh. We sandwiched a couple of days into a busy elderly-mom-entertainment schedule to return to the Brookings/Gold Beach stretch of the Oregon coast. We stayed in an ocean-view, sea-sounds room at the Pacific Reef Resort in Gold Beach and enjoyed a delectable meal at Spinners and a lavish breakfast at the Double D's, both walking distance from Pacific Reef.
Best of all, we had ideal 70 degree, blue-sky, light-wind balminess, which enabled us to hike a few trails in the outstanding area between Gold Beach and Brookings. Any trail could be as spectacular as these, although we did happen upon little-traveled paths, some of which required trail re-blazing. I am inspired to spend more time in this powerful place, even when the weather isn't perfect.
More photos here.