Green All Over

I'm browsing the NY Times Well blog this morning with some time to read and find three articles of interest. The first a long term study that shows pesticide exposure to a pregnant mom causes IQ loss in the baby. Ouch. Second,UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Public Health is conducting a study to see if eating locally produced food yields better health. Cool. Can I be in it? Third, a New Yorker tries to make it on the 100 mile diet. That one has to be hard because I've tried it and we grow year round Down South. It gets really tough in January when it's greens, greens, greens on the plate and you know that's all there is in the fresh vegetable category.

And green it is in the garden. Everything is up and reaching critical mass. Too much lettuce not enough people, so I'm giving it away. Too much broccoli so I'll be freezing it. Too much mustard, kale and swiss chard so it's already frozen. Onions are blooming so those going in with the mixed greens.

Two cool things: The apple trees are apple-ing and, for the first time ever, the pomegranate is flowering. Lots. And just now I'm wondering if pomegranates and pyracanthas are cousins-thorns, narrow leaves, orange fruit...

Spring at last.

An accounting is in order:
1. Broccoli is heading.
2. All manner of lettuces have been harvested and eaten.
3. Mustard reseeded, is up and is being eaten.
3. Ditto the swiss chard and kale.
4. 'Taters are up man!
5. Peas have flowers
6. Blue Lake pole beans have popped up.
7. Onions, garlic and shallots are "brilliant"!
8. And...drum roll please... the belle of the spring garden, Sage, is blooming!

Duke vs VT

So you can't win 'em all but at least they were in the game...

...which leads me to philosophise about this Winter's garden.

Ouch.

But I'm still in the game. I harvested exactly one mess of collards for the whole winter with some help from Scout, The Puppy, who, it turns out, is quite fond of raw brassicas. (The fortress is getting better with every assalt.) I'm contemplating a summer garden with only butternut squash because they've been the sole home grown food on our plates this winter. On a happier note, lettuces and mustards are up, kale and swiss chard survived and are rallying, and potatoes are planted. We will have onions and garlic and most of the perrenial herbs survived. Thyme, sage, parsley and chives took a hit but they're hanging on.

Game's on y'all!

Snow X 2

Two times in two weeks! Enough snow to play in is rare for us. This two-fer is the stuff of Southern dreams. The winter vegetable garden is a busted up mess and the ornamentals are taking a hit too. No matter. It is beautiful, utter magic, to my inner child.

Stop playing with your food, kids!

I would have to look through hundreds of photos to find the picture of The Squash Baby we created when Jonathan and Katie were wee ones. A gi-normous zucchini sporting a bonnet and bib from Katie's baby days the infant sized vegg was the product of Herb Ireland and Daddy's garden. They offered squash. What I did not know in accepting was that those zuccas would be the size of cord wood. There have been other squash babies over the years one, a hybrid of Mr. Potato Head parts that delighted students and teachers, was ultimately doomed to become chicken feed. Now that's zucca maxima!
Boredom drives the engine of creativity, perhaps. Happy new year to you and yours.

Emory's Gardeners

Cool spaces, tucked into hidden places.












I have vague memories of being hot, not being able to get cool and whining about it all the time. Like, the entire months of June, July, August and September of 2010. Despite the heat I braved the outdoors and struck up a good, old fashioned, conversation with the gardeners of Emory University, Decatur, GA. What a pair of pure genius, good ole boy, garden designers. They love their job and the two are responsible, turns out, for the beauty of main campus. I spent days wandering around campus taking pictures while Katie attended classes. Their design makes a case for the understated beauty of a green, green space. And here on the cusp of the shortest day of the year, wishing for warmth, I look forward looking back.

stink patch-not

If you've ever been near a collard planting on a hot day you understand why old timers called it the stink patch. There's just this high, ever-present, odor of sulfur all around that makes you wonder what made humans eat them in the first place. Starvation, maybe? Mustard greens don't stink, are milder in flavor and are mighty purdie to look at, especially the curly variety.
Scott broadcast some leftover seed from a few years ago and each and every one came up. What do they need to grow? Not much. Water and part shade will work. We've been eating from them weekly for about a month now. Not bad sauteed with garlic and onion and a touch of water (or a glug of beer) if needed. The beauty of the curly type is the stems aren't tough so you just pick, rinse and cook.