Harvest…green beans, tomatoes,beets,bok choi, cabbage,broccoli,zucchini,herbs, hot peppers and some luscious raspberries…and for the soul, the lilies are blooming

Preserve…dehydrating herbs..thyme,oreagano,basil,sage. Made dilled green beans,canned dry beans

Waste Not…been eating out of the freezer…all kinds of things I didn’t know were in there…some meals quite strange though….

Want not–working on composting more to improve our rocky soil. Keep diligent eye out for squash bugs, our bane,so we get winter squash this year.

Community…took fresh tomatoes to work for the residents; many gardened all their lives and they love the fresh stuff I bring them. Also took a big Oriental lily bouquet for the desk…hate it when the residents think someone died when there are flowers so vowed to bring new bouquets weekly.

Eat–mostly out of the garden. Plus alot of chicken as we will soon be getting more from our friends who raise pastured poultry. Working on our grilling skills to keep heat out of the kitchen.

Hey,three weeks ago we were whinning about the constant rain…now we really need some so send it down. DEE who wants to know what you do with the tahini/yogurt on the beets????? We love beets ….

Did you see this story on goats?

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/06/29/goat_song/index.html

I’m working on a list of what we should need for the winter, so I know what to can for us. I’m actually looking forward to homemade convenience food – I’ve gotten spoiled with all the good food lately!

Plant something:

Carrots–I know its way too late, but the lettuce barrel was empty….

Harvest something:

Potatoes, beans, more beans, eggs of course, squash.

Preserve something:

Froze several quarts of beans.

Reduce waste:

Salvaged unusable wood pieces to border a new garden bed. Added flower garden weedings to new compost pile. (This is a LOT of material because of all the rain.)

Prep and storage:

Same frozen beans.

Community food systems:

Visited local farmers market.

Eat the food:

Had several meals of potatoes, beans and eggs.

My excuse is I’ve been building my glasshouse, which is now completely glassed. Yay! Time to move the strawberries and last grim hangers-on from the chili pepper population in, before they die completely.

My scorecard:
Plant: Some garlic, a few carrots
Harvest: Some straggly pak choi and some sunchokes
Preserve: Nope, although I should be processing the olives I harvested from my neighbour’s tree (with their consent!)
Waste Not: Nothing special (besides recycling an old glasshouse)
Prepare/Store: Nope

Very hot and humid most of last week. Rain on Friday was a welcome relief. Now we’re into a spell of partial rain days — and it’s a warm rain — the fresh water in my second rain barrel was warm. Anyway some things are showing good day-to-day growth. My tomatoes are blossoming and my red and black raspberry bushes of full of developing-hopefull-soon-to-ripen berries.

My detailed update: http://smallvictoriesgreen.wetpaint.com/page/June+29+09

Planted: nothing, too hot to germinate anything. I tried to avoid working in the afternoon. Started clearing the area for the sweet potato slips. Weeded a little. Tried to keep enough moisture in the soil to allow the popcorn and zucchini seeds from last week to germinate, and was successful.

Harvested: the remaining snow peas, lettuce, kale, collards, young cabbage (not headed-up yet), the remaining bok choy, raspberries, a few blueberries, various herbs including basil, lambsquarters, purslane, the first few cherry tomatoes.

Preserved: dried calendula, lambsquarters, cinnamon basil. The DH bottled the beer he’d started a week or so ago.

Waste not: received empty wine and beer bottles from friends to use for our wine and beer making. Found a music stand for very cheap at a garage sale, purchased and gave it to a fellow band member who didn’t have one and wanted one. Otherwise the usual efforts.

Prep and storage: continuing to work out the design for glassing in the front porch. Continuing to research and think about how to garden more effectively.

Community food systems: answered questions on the cost-effectiveness of gardening in general and in particular the cost of seed versus purchased seedlings for a very small (300 sq ft) garden. Also talked about growing eggplants with someone I met at a campground over the weekend (see below).

Eat the food: we took the last butterhead lettuce with us last weekend when we visited a friend who has a trailer at a campground. Made a salad from the lettuce, dill, and nasturtium flowers from my garden, plus onions, peppers, and zucchini from our friend’s fridge. Took the salad to the campground’s potluck dinner Saturday night. Nearly all of it was eaten – it was almost the only green veggie anyone brought. Still eating salad with the now-bolting, but still tasty, lettuce, and still making and eating stir-fries from the greens.