Our Food Garden Realized

Most of the gardens are finally planted and burgeoning with new growth. The sod I removed from the newest addition is a distant memory making way for a diverse variety of new plants.

Plants like tomatillos, ground cherries,

and even a few litchi tomatoes.

The sage is all abuzz with nectar seeking insects.

Valerian reaches towards the heavens with lilac scented blooms.

Volunteer tomatoes and sunflowers thrive alongside the onions and flax.

The heirloom Umpqua broccoli plants, whose seeds I am attempting to save, are flowering just as the Russian kale has finished and is now podding up... perfect timing. I was worried about keeping both from flowering at the same time, although crossing these two might prove interesting... perhaps another time.

Thick stalked purple podded peas are standing tall with a little support.

The last two years have brought a plethora of predatory insects, frogs, and salamanders into our gardens to help defend against the bad. I have never seen so many ladybugs like this one gracing some of last years parsnips just beginning flower.


I'm not sure whether our grandson or the robins like the strawberries better. We divided and transplanted over 1,500 ever-bearing plants early this spring and did not expect to get berries this soon, if at all this year. Almost every one has fruit in various stages of development... lucky us.


The tiny English walnut trees seem happy, I planted 50 nuts last fall and ended up with 46 trees in the making.

Purple carrot flowers are most intriguing,

but these Egyptian walking onions have got to be the strangest alliums I have ever seen, tentacle upon tentacle sending feelers in every direction. They arrived this spring all the way from Michigan via my gardening and greenhouse hero and master of all that is allium, El, of fast grow the weeds ... thank you, thank you!


A pox upon my house if I dare forget to mention the vibrant growth taking place with these prodigious tomatoes, some of whose seed I received from Dan & Val of Grunt and Grungy's Garden.


The hard work out of the way, I now look forward to strolling through our little food gardens enjoying the wondrous selection that we are privileged to partake in. Who am I to be blessed with such fortunes while so many go hungry? The world's inequities are hard to understand.

A Lazy Afternoon Spent Gathering Wild Edibles With My Favorite Grandson

It's one thing to force your will upon crops in a garden, provide them with the best possible environment in which to grow and see pretty good results, but gathering wild native edibles is a whole other challenge. It involves a lot of wandering, searching, patience, and of course lots of luck. At first anyway, after awhile you not only have the knowledge of where certain plants are to be found but get a certain feel for where they "should" be located.

I spent the other day foraging with my grandson, teaching him about various edible plants. We gathered wild asparagus and even found a few onions. He was so excited to find the first asparagus, he always (I let him... shh) finds the first ones whether it be asparagus, morels, or some other edible delicacy. The boy can now readily identify, and properly pronounce over
fourteen edible and a few poisonous wild plants, not bad for a four year old (almost five). Will any of this knowledge be of use to him later in life, I have no idea, but it certainly won't hurt.


Flowering wild onions.



Picking asparagus using a two handed approach.


I showed him how to wrap the package using strands of grass so that it would be easier to carry... "Um , that's really great Gramps, now what do I do with it? It's kind of heavy you know."


"Here you carry it."

A young master woodsmen proudly displaying his wares. Actually at this point he was quite bored with the whole venture and wanted to look for bugs under the rocks.


If my only accomplishment in this world is to have imparted some "remembered" knowledge upon this child then I will have lived a full and productive life.

A Shaggy Mane Morning

Ah yes, a shaggy mane mushroom for breakfast... what a treat. They magically appear in our backwoods after spring and early summer rains. Unlike morels, there is a very short window of opportunity in which to harvest them, a few hours too late and they become an inky mess. I only found one this morning, sometimes there are several. Fried and served with fresh eggs... delectable.

Be very aware that this lovely specimen DOES have at least one poisonous look alike, regardless of what some mushroom books might tell you. Often gregarious and always abdominally troubling Chlorophyllum molybdites, or false parasol, looks similar enough when small.

Harvesting Volunteer Russian Kale

I have been saving seed from Russian kale for a couple years now and the "missed" seeds come up all over our garden. We decided to let the kale in our strawberry beds grow so that we could harvest them. We love to preserve kale for potato and kale soup... a staple in our diets during the cold winter months.

We picked four large bowls full of kale from our three strawberry beds... we have started selling everbearing strawberry plants in the spring, hence the reason for so many strawberry plants. They were picked in the very early morning while still fresh, crisp, and wet with dew.


The kale was blanched in boiling water for a couple minutes (two minutes for young kale, three for more mature leaves). The leftover water was then allowed to cool and used as an excellent fertilizer for other vegetables.


The kale is then chilled in ice water for approximately two minutes.


Dried on a towel... actually in between two towels.


Then mixed with a hint of olive oil and put into freezer bags using a common straw to remove excess air... frugal vacuum sealing.


Four large bowls made two gallons of freshly frozen kale, it almost makes one look forward to winter meals... almost... well not really at all, as I am just beginning to enjoy the fresh summer abundance.

Preparing For Winter

The gods were obviously conspiring against us as we "tried" to prepare for our first woodcutting mission of the season. Normally we have the whole firewood project rapped up by the end of May, we are a little behind this year... too many projects going at once. I was going to go into a whole spiel about all the issues I had with my chainsaws, truck, and other things but will spare you the dreadful details and show some pictures of todays trip instead.

This dead tree will keep us warm for over a month, providing us with almost a cord of wood.


We rolled the rounds of wood over 200' down hill to our truck waiting below.


My wife readies the wood for splitting.


Only a few more rounds to go!

The truck is fully loaded with about 1 1/4 cords of wood. Now where will I put my equipment?

We even had time to hunt for a few stakes and poles for the garden. :)


Cut, split, and stacked all before noon. Only three more trips to go... but not today, we still have some projects to finish in the gardens. I am most fortunate to have such a great helpmate.

A "No Water" Tomato

I worry that we will someday be faced with a drought situation like the ones taking place in several other countries including parts of the United States. This has lead me to consider various water retention alternatives such as rain water storage, wide spacing of plants, deep planting and so on. While I do not practice every one of these methods daily, I do experiment with them all in order to have the knowledge and experience if the need should arise. I refer you to Throwback at Trapper Creek's blog for some excellent information and real life experience dealing with these subjects Water – harvesting, using, and protecting.

Some of our garden vegetables, once established, can withstand going without much precipitation because they have long roots that are able to seek out moisture. Carrots, parsnips, salsify, various endive, parsley, strawberry spinach, garden sorrel, etc. all seem to do really well in this situation. Many other plants can also survive and produce on very little water, with a little help. The trick, in our garden, is to plant these vegetables as deeply as possible and space them far enough apart so they do not compete with each other for water. Tomatoes and peppers are perfect for deep planting as they will root along the buried parts of their stems.

I have been playing around with the idea of growing plants with no water for a few years now. One of the best candidates for a certain experiment I have been working on has been a cherry tomato plant. No water, as in no water from me after the initial planting. A small cherry tomato plant with a good root system was chosen as it would seem to be closer to its wild South American counterparts and having a smaller fruit would, in theory, need less moisture. Each year I have saved the largest seeds off these plants and productivity seems to be increasing.

In this particular trial a hole around 3' deep is dug in an area of dry hardpacked earth. It is then filled with a bucket of raw kitchen scraps whose moisture the plants roots will reach in about a 1 1/2 months when water is most needed in our area.

A half foot of rich composted soil is then added. The plant is placed into the hole, surrounded with more rich soil, damp leaves or grass are also added to help hold in the moisture. At this point the plant receives the only water I will give it other then what, if any, mother nature provides for it.


More dirt covers the leaves and as the plant grows I continue to add leaves and dirt three or four more times during the first month until the plant has about a foot of this dirt covered mulch above the soil line. The moisture will be held in, the plants roots are deep and as they grow will eventually have access to the moist rotting kitchen waste.


Productivity is less then if it was watered regularly but our plants have grown tall and healthy producing exceptionally sweet cherry tomatoes. It is a little more effort to plant this way, but I do know that if faced with a water shortage I would still be able to grow tasty tomatoes.

I am also considering trying some small water wicking beds for certain crops on the outskirts of my garden. There is a lot of information on this creative subject at http://scarecrowsgarden.blogspot.com/search?q=water+wicking+beds.

One of the best books that I have read on the subject of growing food with little moisture and many other helpful topics is Steve Solomon's book "gardening when it counts." I highly recommend it to everyone.

The Other Roots

Two of the lesser known root vegetables that we grow are salsify and scorzonera, these winter hardy perennials are just beginning to flower in our gardens. The salsify has a long light colored root and pretty, edible, purple flowers. Scorzonera has a dark black root and bright yellow flower heads that exude a pleasant aroma redolent of sweet chocolate... really they do.

Both roots are white inside and delicious steamed, roasted, or boiled and mashed. We don't peel ours as I think the skin, as with a potato, is most nutritious. They are both referred to as "oyster plant" but do not really seem to impart the flavor suggested in that title. They have a sweet, almost nutty taste like a sunchoke and texture similar to that of a parsnip. We sometimes eat them grated raw over a salad and also use the young leaves in early spring salads as they are one of the first greens to emerge.



I had a difficult time getting a picture of the flowers as they open in late morning and close at midday. The scorzonera in the picture above is preparing to close for a long afternoon nap.


The roots in the picture don't do the plants justice as I chose a couple of small plants. They will get much longer and at least twice as large in diameter. The roots store well covered with dirt in a root cellar but we find they are best overwintered outside in the ground. They are most interesting plants and certainly a worthy addition to one's garden.

We also grow, or I should say control the growth of, horseradish, another perennial plant used for its roots. The plant has lovely white flowers this time of year that send forth an odor that only a bee could love. The roots are white inside and depart a very strong, hot, pungent taste.


We used to savor the freshly grated root as a compliment to roast beef. Rarely eating meat anymore, horseradish has become a bit if novelty in our gardens for the time being. I am contemplating a horseradish sauce used as a dip for vegetables though. This root will lose all flavor if cooked and raw must be used right after it is grated. It does store fairly well in the refrigerator and can be grated into vinegar and stored for some time.

I originally had a difficult time getting the first two roots to take hold in our garden as they were slow to germinate. The first year I planted them nothing came up, but now that they are established all I need do is tend them properly and protect them from voles. Horseradish on the other hand is hard not to establish and spreads easily if not kept in check. All of the above roots do well in a dry climate once established. The long tap roots allow the plants to mine deeply for water making these vegetables ideal for the outskirts of the garden.

Harvesting and Preserving Cilantro

We were able to harvest 2 1/4 gallons of cilantro leaves (coriander) today. Cilantro is a delicious annual herb, member of the parsley family, and an essential ingredient in our diet that we use weekly in various salsa, quesadilla, and veggie burger recipes.


As we only allow a small area of our garden for this plant, if lucky, we are able to get three good cuttings that provide us with around 6 frozen gallons. Surprisingly, both cilantro and basil freeze very well. After cutting the leaves, preferably in the early morning while they are freshest, we mix them with a small amount of olive oil... just enough to coat the leaves. They are then packed into freezer bags and frozen for later use. The olive oil makes it really easy to separate the frozen leaves and also adds an extra flavor to the mix.


This works marvelously with both cilantro and basil, we may also try using olive oil on our frozen kale this year. Frozen basil does lose it's color but the essence remains. The trick is to use it quickly as it becomes quite limp and hard to work with once it begins to thaw. In our house basil is used for various tomato dishes and is especially good in homemade pizza sauce and on bruschetta. Frozen kale goes great in a potato and kale soup that we make in the winter when greens are hard to come by... so good.