The Champion

In a prior post Run Baby Run I talked about my wife training for a 12km (7.46 mile) race. The training went pretty well although we did not get in nearly as many runs as I had hoped partly due to the weather. By the time Sunday's race rolled around she was able to run 5.5 miles with some confidence. In preparation for the event she had a big green salad topped with eggs and potatoes for breakfast a few hours before the run. This is a mainstay in our diet and provides us with all the energy we need to get through the day.

Since eating mostly raw vegetarian foods (we still eat wild game upon occasion) directly from our gardens we have noticed a number of changes to our health. In addition to shedding excess pounds, we have noticed that our energy levels have gone up dramatically. My wife who used to suffer from low blood sugar levels has no issue with this at all anymore. She has been able to greatly increase not only her endurance but strength as well. We attribute this to the nutrient dense foods we have been consuming of late.

Another interesting benefit of our garden diet is that we never get sick anymore and believe me we are exposed to germs on a daily basis. Our grandson spends part of his week in daycare and is always bringing some sort of illness to his grandparent's house.


Not only did my wife run the race and finish in the top 25%, pretty good considering the crowd of over 44,000 runners, but upon arriving home she spent the rest of the afternoon working in the gardens with me. It was a long day for her but she was pleasantly surprised to find herself with still more energy to burn.


Sometimes when you push yourself, as in an athletic endeavor, it taxes your immune system. I had her follow up the race with an immune system boosting concoction of a raw clove of garlic, tablespoon of honey and a handful of sorrel leaves (extremely high in vitamin C). Of course a hot bath, foot rub, and Corona with lime were also in order for the champ...her idea of an immune system booster.

I must say that the best part of the ensuing race towards self sufficiency has been the amazing changes to our health...health is our wealth. Good job honey!

Forced to Operate

We do not normally have any issues with wireworms, the larvae of a click beetle, attacking our crops but I did find these fellows enjoying one of my onions.

The onion was leftover from last year, at fall harvest I often leave the smaller onions in the ground so that they can be used as early spring greens. I was transplanting this one to another location and noticed it had been violated by wireworms.

I was forced to operate.

The onion pulled through but the wireworm's fate was not at all pleasant.

The Secret of True Happiness

I often wonder if true happiness is simply finding contentment. I truly believe that if one can have peace of mind in the moment, content with what is, you will have achieved what people call happiness. Try spending a whole day carefully looking around in utter amazement at the things that are and pondering how they could possibly exist, it is a most interesting place to go.


I always find contentment when I am free from the things of man, although one has to blur their eyes to achieve that these days. We spent a couple hours hiking in the mountains yesterday, here are a few of the things we noticed.

Haughty Asparagus

Looking down on their new relations the snobbish green asparagus was not at all pleased to be sharing its bed with a foreign visitor. "Who are these purple aberrations that have managed the winter and are now attempting to become permanent squatters, disrupting our all green society?" they demanded.


Looking up at their much larger rivals the peculiar purple asparagus respond "We are much sweeter and more tender then you, green asparagus. The farmer says we may stay as long as our performance holds up."


The green ones scowl and make preparation for a most bountiful harvest, "We will show the farmer who is best, we may not be as tasty but are far more productive" they tell each other.

The purple asparagus responds in kind, focusing it's energy on delicate flavor rather than quantity.


The farmer smiles, having overheard the argument, and thinks to himself "Just wait until I introduce the spargel" (white asparagus).

Eternal Kale, Collards, and Chicory

In a previous post, Our Boreal Garden, I mentioned the transplanting of kale rootstock. Kale and collard greens that have been overwintered either in our garden or replanted from the root cellar can be expected to bring forth new growth in the very early spring. One of the advantages of this compared to direct seeding is that one should be able to achieve much larger leaf growth early on as the roots have already been developed and most of the plants energy is directed towards leafing out and going to seed. We usually have a good one or two months in which we are able to harvest the leaves before warm temperatures cause the plants to bolt.


For us, this procedure works one of two ways. In the spring we can plant kale and collards for large winter greens and the plants are normally harvested all the way into January at which time the cold (in our area) often forces the plant into a period of dormancy. We also plant these same greens in the early fall and are usually able harvest the much smaller, less mature plants throughout the winter months as they often retain thier leaves. The smaller kale tend to bolt much more quickly in the spring. Either way they both provide for us much sooner then any plants that have been directly seeded into the cold spring garden.

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The above also applies to the various forms of chicory we grow in our gardens.

The Volunteers are Starting to Arrive

Many plants return unbidden to our food gardens each spring, we call them permaculture plants. Perhaps a slight misuse of the term permaculture but that is how we refer to the many volunteers that grace our gardens if left to their own devices and allowed to reestablish themselves from the prior year. Numerous different plants have returned this spring and I am sure many more will make an appearance as the season ensues.

Hardy green and red lettuce, whose names have been long forgotten, appear each year where their seed stock has fallen.

The same happened with some of last years forgotten spinach

and chervil.

Numerous volunteer tomatoes can pretty much be counted on.

Sometimes I think all we need to do it make a few flats of garden dirt and wait to see how many tomatoes appear, like this nice one in amongst the eggplants.

I think this is my own special brand of Russian kale in our mulch pile.

Dill, or perhaps fennel?

A Dimes Worth of Salad Burnet

Last spring we picked up a couple outdated seed packets stashed in a local grocers bargain bin for 10 cents a piece. One of those seed packets was salad burnet. Having never even heard of this herb before I decided to give it a try and promptly planted the seed. All the seeds were still viable and the plant quickly sprang to life. We found the distinct pungent flavor a most appealing addition to our summer salads.


Salad burnet is a perennial plant, member of the Rosaceae family and relative of the rose. The younger leaves have a light nutty cucumber like flavor and become somewhat bitter as they age, but we find them both to be palatable...especially in a salad. The herb will supposedly self-sow in the garden if left to its own devices, and I am looking forward to seeing how well it performs on that front. Grown for animal fodder in the past, it was most well known for the numerous medicinal properties it is said to possess and was often used as an astringent and diuretic. It is also supposed to be a good source of vitamin C.

For only 10 pennies I have a most impressive plant that has been beaten into the earth by hail last July, left uncovered and neglected in the frozen soil all winter, and was one of the first plants to come alive this spring. What more could I possibly ask for in a plant so obviously well suited for our small Northern garden.