Summer Bounty
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009It’s the end of the month (ok, yes it is now the beginning of the next month, but it was the end when I began this entry) and time for another Independence Days update. One of the reasons I keep up with these posts is to motivate myself. I have been feeling distinctly unmotivated in my gardening/farming/cooking efforts of late; I blame the heat, rats, and fire. The heat is fairly self explanatory, who would move dirt in the blazing sun when it is 100+ outside or cook when it is 90+ inside the kitchen? The rats are just horrid little creatures. I know they are cute little mammals, pets even to some but they have eaten all but four of my tomatoes, all of my peaches, and a significant amount of my immature cantaloupe, watermelon, and zucchini. We have declared war on the little beasts and we are not taking prisoners. In the past week we’ve had smoky, downright hazardous air to contend with. Jeff likend the hot, humid, smoky Pasadena weather today to “living in a sauna with a campfire burning in the middle”. Lovely. I am also simply discouraged by the lack of resources to draw upon for growing food in Southern California. I can find lots of books on growing food and many on gardening in hot, dry climates but the food growing books tend to assume that one lives in a place with four defined seasons (one of them cold) and the gardening books tend to concentrate on growing things like azaleas – pretty, yes, but edible, no. So I am making mistakes – lots of them. I tried to chit (sprout) seed potatoes for fall planting this past week and they turned into tiny moldy, shrivled lumps. I harvested our first watermelon before it was fully done because the tendril had dried, however that must have been a result of our extreme heat, not a true indication of ripeness. My attempts at growing parsnips were a resounding failure. So I write these updates, not to brag, but to remind myself of how far I have come from that college girl who used to consider Pasta Roni a delicous dinner and once stated that, “I like nature, I just don’t want it to touch me.”
During August we:
Planted something or take care something you’ve planted:
- Trellised cucumbers
- Trellised watermelon
Harvested something:
- Raspberries
- Strawberries
- Watermelon
- Bell Peppers
- Anaheim Peppers
- Frying Peppers
- Jalapeno Peppers
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Basil
Our total harvest since March 2009: 62 kg (137 lbs )! – Not including lettuce, a bunch of herbs, some peppers, and the countless berries that we have consumed before we ever got a chance to weigh them.
Preserved something:
- 4 pints peaches (canned)
- pints bread and butter pickles (canned)
- 4 cups dill cucumber relish (canned)
- 28 cups carrots, shredded (frozen)
- 16 cups bell pepper, julienne (frozen)
- a whole lot of potatoes (in the fridge, not ideal, but if I leave them out then will turn to mush in our warm house, anyone have any suggestions for how to store potatoes outside of the fridge in a hot climate?)
- 21 jalapeno peppers (dried)
- 1 cup basil (dried)
Waste Not:
- Really working on reducing our food waste by eating up leftovers for lunch, etc.
Want Not/Prep:
- Took out all the boys winter clothes (almost as a plea to the weather gods for some cooler temperatures).
- Began moving soil and compost to prepare the beds for fall planting.
Build community food systems:
- Taught my friend Hannah how to make baguettes from scratch. Anyone else want a tutorial?
Eat the Food:
- A lot of cucumber/garbanzo bean/feta salads
- A lot of veggie fajitas with bell peppers and carrots