Monday, August 08, 2005

Got to Get Yourself Back to the Garden

We harvested the smallest of the onion beds and got 15 pounds or so of onions. Not bad. A tiny, overgrown carrot bed gave us 6# of carrots. We’ll preserve some by drying, some by freezing, maybe pickle some. We’ve got other beds that should make better keeper onions so maybe I’ll get to braid them, an almost lost art.

But the push right now is seeding. Yep, if you want to eat in the winter, seed in August. A garden is not just three salads and a mess of beans for the year. So, the middle parts of July sees the coles seeded -- cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, kale, although the spring kale patch cut back and dressed with manure will still produce probably all the way through the winter. The early parts of August see the root crops seeded -- turnips, carrots, onions (which will either be green onions or may make bulbs next year if they survive the winter), and also beets, and rutabagas. Parsnips really need to be seeded in about June but gosh, they are delicious. We have a bed that seeded itself so we may get some this winter if it stays warm, but we’ll get some next spring no matter what. A little further on in August, peas will be planted again for a fall crop. And it will be cool enough for the lettuces again soon too.

Yep, we’re hedonists: Even the richest person in the world cannot buy food this good. We’re health nuts: There is no other food in the world that creates the overwhelming health and well-being that this food (and the work it takes to raise it by hand) does. We’re environmentalists, working totally in harmony with and harming the earth not at all. We’re inclusivists, embracing a way to live where everyone can be different and still be community. We’re peace activists for we are actively creating peace in the here and now. We’re mystics, effective in the multiple dimensions.

But maybe Unca Ray says it better in his Gardening for the Revolution. (really, don't miss this link)

7 comments:

justrose said...

being effective in multiple dimensions rocks. and parsnips are the best. especially as soup.

Unknown said...

i had no idea you coul seed onions this time of year. I have a package of seeds in the seed box and I was kicking myself for not putting them out in the spring. i am going to plant those suckers today. There is nothing like home grown onions.

Madcap said...

You've sowed discontent in my soul! I've got climate envy. Humph.

Madcap said...

Walll... Horsebite's one I made up, but it was based on my mis-hearing of an actual town name nearby. If I ever get the naming of a settlement, that's what it will be. Horsebite, Alberta. Check out Newfoundland place names, though, they're truly wonderful. Heart's Desire, Conception Bay. Someone published a book on them, I should look it up again.

We have perennials that survive, like strawberries and rhubarb, but they only produce between late June and the end of July. We need HUGE gardens to produce food for the year. I don't have one - yet.

Anonymous said...

Around where I am we have (actual place names):

Soddy Daisy
Buzzard's Roost
Chucky Doak
Vinegar Hill
Goosepimple Junction
Seven Mile Ford
Mock Knob
Spoon Gap
Dogwood Bench

And not to leave Latin out of it, there's a place called:

Vale Crusis

Jim said...

We had fall seeded green onions winter over in a small unheated hothouse here at our 6,750 foot elevation, where 16 below zero temps and 3 foot snows are not uncommon.
A good book on fall planting is 'Four Season Harvest' by Eliot Coleman, who harvests veggies year 'round in Maine from unheated cold frames and greenhouses

existentialist said...

Wow Ms. Goddess I am impressed and sad. I chose to leave Trout Lake WA for the love of my ex husband which turned out not to be love but infatuation. Although where I live I can see the Golden Gate National Recreation Area from my bedroom window as I type on my keyboard and I can watch the clouds blow in off the Marin Headlands. But I do not have land. It is my hope God will provide a second husband for me and a house and land, or at least a garden.