WhiteOak Mtn Journal

Belize arrival

2008-08-24T12:16:00.004-04:00

After the zoo, we hopped in the back of his pickup, and enjoyed the ride across the Belizean countryside. At that point, it had been over 10 hours since our last meal, but our guide was set on us waiting until we reached the market stalls in Belmopan. Belmopan is the capital of Belize after a hurricane trashed over 75% of the buildings in Belize City in the 60s. The "city" seemed like a half-hearted attempt never really believed in. The market was respectable, however. In Belize, the traditional meals consist of beans and rice. We came up to a stall with a woman sorting dried beans on a picnic table and ordered our meals. I had a long-simmered saucy beef dish, while Reb had the chicken. They were incredibly good. Afterwords, we collected a few limes, avocado, etc. at the other booths, and we were off.

After checking out the still, dark, stuffy bunks downstairs of the hostel, our man showed us his 3rd floor rooftop apartment with windows on all sides and gentle breezes filtering through the room with great views across the countryside. We were hooked.

The following day, we went to Xunantunich. Here we are crossing the Mopan River by hand-cranked ferry.

The brief gentle downpour gave way to an excellent day meandering among the 1500 year old ruins.

Belize, the zoo

2008-08-02T20:02:00.004-04:00

So, we just got back from a quick trip into the belize backcountry. We were picked up by our hostel host/guide/writer/organic researcher Ray, from Falconview Hostel. Our first stop on our way was the Belize Zoo. They had a great collection of cats, and the layout of the zoo allowed much more room with a natural setting for each animal. They seemed more content than the typical zoo animals, and we thoroughly enjoyed the park.

Umm. yeah. lettin' it all hang out...

Where have you been?

2008-08-02T19:45:00.002-04:00

That's where I've been. Didn't think a job would take over my life again, but this one is totally worth it. Sometimes I think when I return back home each day, home is the home away from home (anybody get that?). I'm the greenhouse manager (among other things) at a certified organic urban farm. We do all kinds of stuff: CSA, community gardens, u-pick crops, research and education. My passion in life has shifted here. I'll be around from time to time, but I'm a slave to my job. And I love it.

Kohlrabis for the pickin'

2008-04-22T21:01:00.002-04:00

If you happen to know what a kohlrabi is, most likely you'll grow them for the bulb (longer storage). I grow them for the stalks and leaves. A sweet and stringy-less alternative to kale and collards. Munch 'em raw if nobody's looking, or chop and toss in stir-fry. With a little smoked bacon. Oh, yeah. That's good.

Betty

2008-04-14T08:42:00.002-04:00

The last couple of weeks we've noticed a female turkey passing through our yards most every day. A few days ago, I even got to see her roost up in one of our pines in the backyard for the night. Well, yesterday, being on the weekend and all, she brought a date.

Whodini goes on vacation

2008-04-09T23:18:00.002-04:00

It's not easy being the bottom of the pecking order. Constantly getting picked on by everybody is a full-time job nobody wants. So once in awhile I give Whodini a break all by herself in "The Spa". It's the perfect blend of fluffy dirt, sun, and seclusion. Who could ask for a more perfect dust bath?

Oysters and oysters and oysters and oyst...

2008-03-13T19:24:00.003-04:00

Our last trip out before starting back to work at the farm. What a great trip. We rented a cabin on the beach and feasted. And relaxed. And rejuvenated ourselves.

p.s. A half bushel of oysters is just enough for two. Heh, heh.

Cheers

2007-12-31T22:06:00.000-05:00

I have said before that I semi-retired last year, after working for ten years as a fast-food pizza manager. Not quite, but it's an easier explanation than saying I'm homesteading as a career choice. Today's American doesn't understand it. You're doing what?! You have a degree, why don't you use it? Well I say you've got a life, why don't you live it?

In the picture below, you see my new tattoo symbolizing my change. A couple of years ago, I fought my way out of $30,000 of irresponsible credit card debt and rewarded myself with an epic 2 month roadtrip to Alaska. In that trip, which I took alone, I re-found my way. That tattoo reminds me daily of where I came from, and more importantly, what living life is really for.

The picture above shows some rewards to this better life. Eggs (and meat) from our own-raised chickens, homemade beer and wine, 4 year old sourdough starter (with tarragon biscuits), dried homegrown herbs (basil here), jars of roasted red peppers in oil, dried jalepenos and elephant garlic, pickles, sun dried tomatoes, lavender syrup (and dandelion, and violet), blackberry cordial (and cactus pear), pickled baby corns, sweet potatoes, shallots and red scallions out of our garden, and brussels sprouts, shittake mushrooms, red russian kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, and beets from Crabtree Farms, the organic, sustainable and educational farm where I began working part-time this year.

And as I sip some homemade booze, stir a pot of wild chive soup on my wood-burning stove, and think of doing another batch of spicy chicken sausage for that jar of sauerkraut, I can't help but smile on this career change.

Here's to a new year.

Time spent

2007-10-19T22:49:00.000-04:00

I haven't written in awhile. Truth is, I haven't been inspired to. I guess I've been caught up in the mundane routines of everyday life too much. Happiness has been hard to reach. Sometimes the every-day routines need to be purposefully broken, so we can truly enjoy ourselves. And then, after reflection, realize that those every-day routines are something of what our happiness is all about.

We have chickens to care for, and gardens to water because the best tasting food we could ever have is what we have grown and cared for ourselves. We take extra time hanging up laundry to dry instead of using the dryer, not because we haven't a dryer--we do, but because we love that crispness of air-dried clothes and in turn, save a few dollars a month for other things. We spend time each day seperating our recyclables because we like to brag how long it's been since we took out trash to the curb (new record last week--8 months!) And we enjoy making every meal from scratch--nothing out of a box, microwavable, or delivery--because we love food. Because we really love food.

And the best is what you purposefully take the time to do yourselves. Even better if you do these things with the one(s) you love because they love it too. My wife, Becca, just left on a roadtrip with a friend out west. As I relax on the deck with an ice cold brew and a pipe, and I look forward to a whole bed to sleep on, not just that edge she leaves me each night, I'll realize I miss her greatly, and our every-day routines together.

blackberry booze

2007-07-22T20:36:00.000-04:00

Today I finished this year's batch of blackberry cordial. Last year's was so good, I simply HAD to do more. We picked a couple of quarts of blackberries at Crabtree Organic Farms a week ago, and steeped them in brandy. Today I made a simple syrup out of organic cane sugar and added it to the brandy after straining out the berries. Mmmm-wow! It tastes like a light blackberry port. Very nice.

The recipe went something like 2 quarts berries, 6 cups brandy, and the syrup (2c sugar + 1c water). Last year I had made the cordial with vodka, but this year we had been given a couple bottles of brandy from a friend, so tried this one out. Not typically a brandy fan, but this is damn good!

turtle bastards

2007-07-16T13:30:00.000-04:00

Having opted for the "it's too hot and muggy now to be outside and drive posts into the ground for tomato plants" option this year in the garden, I've discovered I have been outwitted by a box turtle. A whole thieving gang of them, actually. Last year, I lost a few before I discovered the culprit. A beautiful tomato from the top view would have the bottom entirely missing, unnoticed until picking. Now, they've turned gangbusters. I'm losing half or more of the bigger tomatoes to the turtle bastards, and I'm thinking of turning redneck--turtle soup, anyone?

Fortunately, working at an organic farm this year, I'm able to more than make up for the losses. This is a pic of the harvest yesterday: tomatillos, red and yellow pear tomatoes, golden jubilee, black plum (very tasty!), black from tula, cherokee purple, fox cherry (also very tasty), peacevine cherry, as well as chinese red long beans, royalty purple podded beans, tiny garlics, shallot, and tiny red cipollini onions. There's more unnamed, and cucumbers to pick today to add to the pickle jars already in the fridge.

And this is what we made out of some of our crop. Homemade sourdough crust, sun-dried tomato, shallots, onion, homemade sauce with zucchini and patty-pan squash, local sausage, the farm's own shittake mushrooms, and who knows what else. Mmm-mmm! The Mrs. and I might have eaten it all in one sitting...

Helpin' hands

2007-05-18T22:39:00.000-04:00

Yesterday after work, the mrs. and I changed the starter on the car together.

One of us mighta gotten dirtier, but a helpin' hand helps keep a smile on your face on a job like that. Thanks m'lady.

Multi-tasking and the art of surprise

2007-05-15T19:10:00.000-04:00

A few minutes ago I was busy outside, doing some transplanting as the cool of the evening set in. I had picked up a marjoram plant, and found the perfect spot happened to have a few garlics in the way. Tonight's dinner would be perfect with some freshly plucked purple garlics, so up they came. Proceeding to dig a hole for the new marjoram, I stumbled upon this little fortress with an evil-looking black furry spider inside.

The white circle above the spider in its hole is the man-hole cover it had built for its home. It fits nicely over the entrance--I obviously hadn't known the home was there until the lid popped open. A closer view of the spider is below.

Homesteading in action

2007-05-07T08:47:00.000-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been pretty active on the home front. Established beds are filling out (like these Egyptian Walking Onions planted 2 years ago),

the peas are just starting to bloom and bear (like these sugar pod peas planted 3/6),

and I've just filled up one of the new beds with tomatoes (brandywine, red pear, black from tula, golden jubilee, black krim), Black beauty zucchini, straightneck squash, bush sugar baby watermelon, and toma verde tomatilloes.

Of course, the "little ones" aren't so little anymore, either. This last week, one got injured and the rest started attacking it, so we made a fine lunch out of it. At seven weeks now, the cute chick faze is over, and I'm eyeing the fatties for a nice bbq'in day.

Life's abundance

2007-05-05T19:29:00.000-04:00

This last week, I took one more step toward living the way we've envisioned. I took up a part-time job for a local organic community farm. I can't tell you how much I've been anticipating this; to have contact daily with others who inspire you on your path, to learn continually, to share what you've learned so far, and to maybe inspire others along the way--all are reasons I've been so hyped up the last couple of weeks going into it.

These are a few things in season right now there, at Crabtree. Although the radishes come courtesy of a couple who has a plot in the community garden there(they had some extra to share). And that, in essence, is what we seek, isn't it? A little abundance in life, to share with others you meet, and inspire others to do the same.

The unknown is scary

2007-04-17T13:24:00.001-04:00

Back in October, I stepped down from a job I've done for ten years. I'd been planning on the semi-retirement for some time, to take a swing at the unknown. Homesteading, building an apartment to rent, and a chance to spend more time with my wife doing things we've always wanted to do, were all reasons for the step down. Exciting yes. Scary yes, too.

For the last two weeks, the chicks have been planning too. Peeking out the screen door into the outside world, full of wonder. A few would even crane their necks around, looking for a way to get out there. They'd sit up against the screen, just looking outside all day long, dreaming of what life would be like out there.

Well, today is the day to find out. Opening up the door to the pen, I sat back in eager anticipation. And waited. And waited. Everybody taking their turn peeking out, then chickening out. So far, nobody's gotten the guts. But it takes time to get ready for the leap into the unknown.

The unknown's scary.

3 weeks

2007-04-10T14:29:00.000-04:00

Caught 'em nappin'.

Delicious weeds

2007-04-07T11:18:00.000-04:00

Ahh, the dandelions are out and about again. A sign of the return of hot summer and lawn mowers buzzing. Most lawn-abiding Tennesseans are appalled by the sight of yellow dots on their lawns and proceed to spend countless hours and dollars in an effort to erradicate them. I, instead, steep them. Huh? That's right, I steep and boil and reduce. Then pour over pancakes or mix in my tea. If you want the recipe for dandelion syrup, dig in my blog, we made some last year. Delicious.

Saturday night entertainment

2007-04-05T19:00:00.000-04:00

This last saturday I had the privilege of sending a crew of tent caterpillars to their deaths. The chicks at first couldn't figure out what to do with them.

Finally after a half hour of nervous chirping and sideways glances, one finally grabbed a squirming bit of chicken heaven. All hell broke loose on the one chick daring enough to grab it. Every other chick had to have it right then and there. They couldn't get one of their own, they had to have his. With Barry Sanders-like spinning, weaving, and sprinting, each chick got a chance to play keep-away until another stole it. After 6 or 8 takeaways, someone would finally gobble it up, and the whole process would start over. I spent an hour and a half that night taking in the show.

Ahhhh, beer

2007-04-01T13:57:00.000-04:00

I suspect the sedimentary beer is best. I know it hadn't been 10 days of rest yet, but I couldn't resist. The six pack I made from the cheap, old, hand-me-down kit had left me with enough sediment-filled liquid at the bottom of the plastic jug to experiment with. Instead of the recommended 1/4 teaspoon sugar put in each bottle before capping, I put in 3 chugs of Michigan's finest sugar replacement--maple syrup. I don't think brewers appreciate the 3 chug method, but it turned out AWESOME!! With the subsequent warnings of not putting in too much sugar in the bottle lest you have explosions, I decided to crack this one open at two days. Good thing, too. After chilling it, I popped it open and the live action started. Foaming profusely, I drank up the sweet stuff and spurted out, "This's good!" while it dribbled down my chin. Maple syrup pilsner. Mmmmm. This summer's gonna be sweet.

dogwoods

2007-03-27T21:02:00.000-04:00

One of the dogwoods burst open today (that's a birdhouse built by Roger the step-pop). Made me stop in the middle of the franticness of spring to take a look...

Notice Roger's craftsmanship versus mine on the coop. Even a college degree can't help me turn this one into beauty. Gonna need a whole lotta paint and camouflage to save it now.

bottlin' the cheap stuff

2007-03-26T01:39:00.000-04:00

This happens to be my first attempt at making beer. A pilsner to be exact. A friend's pop got one of these brewing kits for christmas and never got around to doing anything with it. The ingredients were so old the powders were bricks. The yeast expired in May 2004. Maybe that's how it ended up in my hands. I figured it would be a good test run before starting my brewing for real (got a 6 gallon kit from Northern Brewer while up in St. Paul MN a couple weeks ago). If I screwed up along the way, oh well, it was free. As the goofy group Da Yoopers sings, "The greatest beer in this whole land is the one you get for free." And, as proof in the pictures, the flavor's turned not so bad either.

They only include enough bottles for making one six-pack at a time (ingredients for 4 rounds). A lot of work and time for one or two buzzes, I'd say. I was able to squeeze a seventh bottle in, sort of a bonus bottle of bottom sediments, of which I put maple syrup into. In 10 days I'll let you know how it went.

spring scramble

2007-03-24T10:38:00.000-04:00

Spring's time for growin'-buildin'-raisin'-makin' stuff. I think there needs to be 4-5 hours tacked on each day to accommodate. We're raising chickens and vegetables, building an apartment and a coop, making violet syrup, dandelion syrup, and beer. These are just a few on the list.Making a shed out of scrap lumber involves a lot of creativity, patience, wrestling skills, and screws. Warped, twisted, chopped, knotted, all combine to require a good paint job and landscaping to cover up the various grotesque imperfections this method includes. But hey, a shed 5'x10' should cost several hundred dollars...mine's free.

The little ones are now 6 days old, down to 48 of the little poopers.

The list is long on the aspirations of a garden this year. Seedlings started so far include:

Tomatoes: druzhba, peacevine cherry, black krim, amish paste, fox cherry, brandywine, cherokee purple, golden jubilee, red pear, yellow pear, black from tula, golden zebra, thai pink, black plum, dad's sunset, roman candle, black cherry, purple russian

Peppers: japone chile, new mexico chili, sweet mini, toro rosso, red ruffled pimento, tangerine pimento, purple beauty, sweet chocolate, red marconi, and red bells from the local produce stand.

Others: sugar snap peas, cascadia bush snap, oregon sugar pod, black beauty zucchini, waltham butternut squash, golden marble scallop squash, straightneck squash, tomatillo, early purple broccoli, bush sugar baby watermelon, vienna kohlrabi, purple of sicily cauliflower, black eel zucchini, caserta zucchini, lemon squash, thai yellow eggplant, rougevifdetampes squash, rainbow chard, lucullus chard, red chinese long bean, yellow beets, dark red beets

Whew. Hopefully the deer, birds, turtles, chickens, dogs, hornworms, aphids, and whiteflies leave us a few.

New tenants

2007-03-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

The whole place is in an uproar from the new little ones.

All huddled up and chirpin' the first day, they're mad-dashing to and fro today. There are 50 in all, half for the freezer, half for egg production, but man-oh-man, that's a lot of chickens. Hopefully I can keep up. In between 4 and 8 weeks from now, we'll have a killin' and grillin' shindig with some of the fellas. At that point we'll find out if we turn vegetarian and have 25 pet roosters, or have a freezer full of homegrown goodness...

Truffles and "port"

2007-01-18T01:11:00.000-05:00

Some days just feel good all over. Yesterday we had a couple friends over for brunch (homemade biscuits and gravy, cheesey grits, and fresh squeezed orange juice...mmm), then I spent the rest of the day with my wife. She sprawled out across the floor working on a new travel skirt, I tinkering with the new wood burning stove. After running around opening windows and doors to let smoke roll out, and cussing at the placement of fire detectors (about 15ft up the cathedral ceilings), the place calmed down and warmed up.

We sat back for a moment, went to the cellar and brought up a California "port" from our roadtrip this last summer. The Milat Winery was a little mom & pop establishment in the middle of Napa Valley. Passing by the big conglomerate winery fronts, we pulled into a gravel parking lot hoping for something more authentic. The owner of the winery greeted us with glass after glass of fine grapes. This dessert wine we couldn't pass up. So, after eyeing the one truffle we had left (a gift from the friends of brunch), we knew what we had to do. Sit back once in awhile, enjoy each other, savour the aromas, the textures, the flavours, and live.

Blackberry cordials

2007-01-16T19:40:00.000-05:00

Sunday I had some creative fun. A month or two ago I made a version of Triple-Sec from freshly squeezed oranges-- it was the tastiest sweet booze I've set taste buds to. Along the same vein, I thought a cordial made from local blackberries I bought during the summer would be even better. After thawing them out, I ran them through the juicer, mixed with a squeeze of lemon and obscene amounts of cane sugar, then brought it all up to a boil. After 10 minutes or so, I shut it down and let it cool. Mixing it with vodka made it look like this.

Perfect for a homemade ice-cream topping next summer...can't wait.

Laurel-Snow

2007-01-14T14:45:00.000-05:00

I can't tell you the last time I've gone hiking lately. Been caught up in too much--well, no excuse for it. The Laurel-Snow wilderness area is near Dayton, TN and includes a beautiful hike next to a raging river, caves, and a couple waterfalls (one about 80ft, I think). They used to mine and log back there in the 1800s and early 1900s. You'll see rock walls put together so well, no mortar was needed. A mine shaft/cave is there on the trail, too. My good friend Dirk (who married Becca and I a few years ago) and I went hiking there a couple days ago.

We found a tree with its roots growing through the rock--there were none growing around it.

Don't know yet what kind of spider this is, anybody know?

My Teva's and a $10 shed

2006-12-19T21:03:00.000-05:00

Our well-house had been caving in long before we bought the place two years ago. Built of 1/8th inch plywood and no ventilation, it rotted from the inside out. It also wasn't insulated at all, so every year a handyman was called out in the wee hours of the morning to fix frozen and busted pipes, billing us about $50 each time (split with the neighbor who shares the well with us).

Well, over the last year, I've been collecting scrap lumber from new construction sights. Throw-aways too warped to use for those $300,000 houses, and the scraps from trimming the good ones to size. I bought a couple vents to air it out in the summer, and used 2x4s for the framework with 2x6s, 2x8s, etc for the walls. Some free leftover paint and the remaining metal roofing from my mother's place completed the job. I used recycled nails, screws, hinges, and the old handle, keeping the job down to about ten dollars (from the vents and a few new screws for anchoring). As I was walking away on the second-to-last day of the project, one of my sandals fell apart while walking up the hill. Darnutt. My 6'x8' shed that would probably cost over $800 for a kit, now ran me a grand total of $50.

just chillin' with my best friend

2006-12-15T23:29:00.000-05:00

We're not big fans of the whole materialistic hoopla of the holiday season. Working in the retail business for the last 12 years has brought loathing and dread. People are exceptionally rude during the holidays. Very rude. That's why I'm posting this picture. Reminds me of the best life has to offer...just chillin' with my Becca.

Peace to you this holiday season.

Too good to be true

2006-12-14T23:43:00.000-05:00

This here's Sam's Irish Stout.

For the life of me, I couldn't find a use for a bottle of Miller Lite, but Sam could (Don't know if he dumped it out or drank it). This is a bottle of his own home brew he passed on to me several weeks back. A gift that big takes a special occasion to break out. I couldn't wait. Sam, if you're out there, this is the best beer I have ever drank. Fits perfectly with my homemade 10 bean-fat back soup for the end of cool December day. Cheers!

bluebirds

2006-12-13T00:36:00.000-05:00

Down below our home on the ridge, a creek runs through the valley and joins Wolftever Creek on its way out to Harrison Bay and the Tennessee River. I haven't once thought of a birdbath since the little creek runs year-round. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to put out one with pebbles in it, out on the deck near the feeders. Within 3 days, the bluebirds discovered it. Now, when they're resting from feeding on the orange fruits of the bittersweet vine, they all perch on my deck railing and gutters, and guzzle from the new birdbath. I've seen nine at a time on the bath and railing--only 5-10ft from my window.

Catchin' up

2006-11-16T14:21:00.001-05:00

The last couple of weeks have been a burstin' with activity here, and no computer (again) to write about it all. Hopefully I'll remember the most of it. The last time I wrote, we were making hard cider over at Sam and Jenny's place. We picked up a few bushels of apples at Apple Valley Orchards outside of Cleveland, TN. Since we didn't mind blemishes for cider making, we bought seconds, at $9 a bushel. We ended up using maybe $15 worth, another $5 for sugar, and a bit more for the yeast, caps, and sanitizing. Here's a look at our jug--

Over the next week, the jug was a lava lamp of activity. Not much reason for TV watching when you've got cider brewing! A week later, we came back for bottling. Becca's here squeezing out the cider from the bottom sediment.

We turned out a pleasant, refreshing alcoholic beverage for not much money and plenty of enjoyment in the making--not to mention the drinking of it. We bottled up about 60 bottles, and look forward to many nights of sippin' pleasure.

In the meanwhile, Jenny also surprised us with a box of cabbage in the kitchen for making sauerkraut. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures, maybe when we make our first batch of brats and kraut for dinner...

The good stuff

2006-11-03T16:11:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit gadget-illiterate. I don't have a camera phone, and couldn't tell you how to use one. I am reasonably sure our cell phone isn't one, and have never received a picture with our phone before. So I must apologize for this post.

On monday night, I spent the evening with a couple of friends, a couple of cigars, a couple of beers, and a couple boxes of apples. And a monstrous glass jug. I have a picture of the event somewhere on my phone, but not on the computer yet, so you'll have to wait. And so will we, for our first batch of homemade hard apple cider to ferment, in about a month.

Then we'll spend another night with a couple of friends, a couple of cigars, and one big monstrous glass jug.

Golden-crowned Kinglets

2006-10-25T02:15:00.001-04:00

While washing apples for making applesauce and cider today, I heard a series of high-pitched "tsee, tsee" calls faintly through the closed window in front of me. Fluttering among the mimosa branches were perhaps fifteen or so of these acrobatic creatures. Constantly in motion flipping upside down, hovering in mid-air, and hopping from branch to delicate branch, I'm quite surprised I caught this photo. It's interesting to note that the kinglet lays 5 to 10 eggs at a time in a tiny nest, stacking the eggs two deep. They feed primarily on insects such as bark beetles, scale insects, plant lice (really? plants have lice?), and the eggs of aphids. Hmmm. Eggs of aphids. Welcome Kinglets! All hail the Kinglets!

ps During the summer this year, those same mimosa trees behind the house were crawling with yellow jackets for weeks on end. Probably hundreds of them. Looking up the diet of the common yellow jacket, I discovered they love scale insects and the honeydew from aphids...

Basil "success"?

2006-10-24T03:22:00.001-04:00

Tonight's temperature forecasts call for frost tonight, so the basil needs its last trimming of the year. Stripping the leaves down in preparation for one last pesto-dipping frenzy, I spied this shy basil plant among the towering trees of basil:

This is the one basil plant left over from last year. I nurtured it over the winter, seeing if it would survive the winter and burst into leafy profusion next summer. It survived the winter, barely, with a few tiny bright green leaves showing promise as I replanted it outside this spring. It never forgave me. I hardly plucked a leaf all summer, waiting for the bursting leafy bouquet that never came. I suppose sometimes you need to embrace the changing of the seasons; the death and rebirth of all life in the natural world. It survived these two years, it's true, but the resources of time, effort, and space would have been better used on cool season crops.

So long, sweet basil.

Dragonfruit

2006-10-11T22:44:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I can't resist the exotic. On the way back from the coast, we stopped in to Harry's Farmers' Market in Atlanta. It's now owned by Whole Foods, but they've kept it pretty close to the old Harry's. Here is one of my treats from the stop:

shrimpin' time

2006-10-06T12:34:00.000-04:00

For the last eight years I've made the seven hour pilgrimage to my second home--Hunting Island, South Carolina. It's where I find my soul once again on the deserted beaches and jungle-like woodlands of this state park. Just take a cast-net and a stroll along the beach and you'll never know what you might find. I took a good friend out for his first time shrimping, and he's now addicted too. Blue crab omelettes, shrimp alfredo, and my personal favorite, shrimp grilled over an open fire, are all what makes me dream to return all year long. The above photo is my buddy checking on the goldenness of our freshly caught dinner. Olive oil and garlic salt are all that is needed for finger-licking heaven!

not enough poo

2006-09-30T01:26:00.000-04:00

I was raised in the fertile sandy loam of southeastern michigan. Almost anything would grow successfully. Living now on the side of a mountain made of mostly clay is a distinct disadvantage. In order to find abundance here in the clay, one must choose selectively--or incorporate massive amounts of organic material. This cantaloupe is testament to the lack thereof. Especially poo. Rabbit poo, horse poo, cow poo, it just wanted a good ol' heap of stinky manure!

Some gifts are better than others

2006-09-23T15:06:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you get a ten dollar bill inside a store-bought card. Sometimes you get a store card inside a store card. Most times they come from those who mean well but don't know you that well. These gifts have their place; I've given them myself. But when you're given a transplant for a gift--not even for a holiday or birthday--that means something. My mother passed on some extra butternut squash plants. My sister gave me one heirloom violetta sweet potato plant. Here is the first potato I dug up:

Beautiful, isn't it?

The end days of summer

2006-09-22T00:55:00.000-04:00

My Becca walks among the light and shadows on a cool September afternoon.

Backwoods vineyard

2006-09-15T14:03:00.000-04:00

Last fall, I noticed little bunches of raisins high up in a tree along the driveway. I carefully untangled the network of vines and brought them down to a workable level. This is a photo of the first cluster cut from its vines this year.

I plan to propogate seedlings from this monster vine later this fall, and plant them at the base of the deck. In a few years, we should have ample shading in the summer from its leaves, a batch of wine from its grapes, oven-baked stuffed grape leaves, and wood for the smoker in the winter. Oh the promises of the future!

roasting the bells

2006-09-13T16:14:00.001-04:00

I know I'm well known for preaching about picking the veggies early, for flavor and production. But I absolutely hate green bell peppers. However, if you wait long through the summer, you might get a few of these:

Stuff with some ground lamb, onion, garlic, herbs, and feta, sprinkle olive oil, sea salt, and balsamic vinegar. Roast in a cast-iron skillet in the oven for a few hours, oooh-la-la!

Doves a-flyin'

2006-09-05T02:42:00.000-04:00

Two years ago, I traded a 22 bolt action rifle that I had never used for a pile of maybe 30 or so dove breasts. Wrapped in bacon, fried in a cast-iron skillet, the dove breast became one of the top five best meals ever for me.

Today, a friend and her husband, as well as the dove trader, took me out to my first dove shoot. It was a hot and muggy day, which turned to rain off and on into the evening. The birds weren't interested in flying, and we packed up our guns several times, but as soon as we'd start, out they'd come. Eventually, I brought my first bird down. What a dinner we had tonight. Corn on the cob, fresh steamed broccoli and cheese over rice, and grilled bacon-wrapped dove breasts. A couple of Killian's red bottles later, and we were done.

Tomorrow, my Becca will make some dove jus out of the bones and bits for a few more delicious meals to come. I can't wait.

Abundant summer, abundant work

2006-08-21T23:10:00.001-04:00

It's small harvests like this that pull me closer to the brink.

Becca and I grow close to the time of the good life, stepping down to step up to what is right. Our hours of enjoyment in the good things in life (cooking, growing, building, studying, loving together) have given way to the hours of drudgery in too much Babylonic work. The stress and hours of the lifestyle that is Babylon weakens the resolve and excitement of creating life in one's own soil. Fortunately, with a little effort, we receive reminders of the abundant pleasures in the life we seek.

Summer bliss-I'll write later...

2006-07-16T13:53:00.002-04:00

Butternuts of Beauty

2006-06-25T15:03:00.001-04:00

Here is a Waltham butternut squash off a plant from my mother. She had given me a few of her plants, due to the highly contageous I-got-too-many-plants-for-my-garden-britches virus she was infected with this spring. Can't wait for Becca's butternut bisque this winter...

Our very second tomato...

2006-06-19T17:59:00.000-04:00

Our very second and third tomatoes of the year. We absolutely could not wait for pictures of the first one! These are Druzhba heirlooms. Originally from Bulgaria, they are resistant to cracking and blossom end rot. Having a variety of tomatoes helps provide an extended harvest, and insurance on having crops each year. These Druzhbas may not be my ultimate favorite of tomatoes, but being the first to eat certainly makes them my favorite of June!

Heirlooms of June

2006-06-13T22:59:00.002-04:00

The wife made an amazing dish of these ingredients, raw and in marinade with feta, over a bed of purple sticky rice. You absolutely must try this rice...the flavor! In the picture are a chinese red noodle bean, royalty purple podded bean, crookneck squash, straightneck squash, black eel zucchini, caserta zucchini, rouge vif dEtamps squash, as well as several other kinds of squash blossoms. I hope she does a post on the dish for you over at 100 tomato plants sometime. For those of you that grow squash and zucchini each year, please, for the love of your chosen god, please, start picking early! You are missing out if you wait for them to blimp out! The flavor and texture is SO much better if taken small! Many a child growing up learned to hate big squash and zucches because of you!

Mulberries!

2006-06-07T19:40:00.000-04:00

Mulberries are one of my favorite childhood memories. My sister and I would climb the trees and pick and eat as many as we could. Our hands and face would be stained all purple from the berries. Well, a few days ago, we went up to visit my sister, and we repeated our childhood. After eating---uh, I mean picking a few pints of the purple treasures, Rebecca made delicious crepes with whipped cream made from my sister's goat milk. Oh yeah, that's good!

It was an Eastern Rat Snake

2006-06-07T18:50:00.000-04:00

After Contrary Goddess said the snake in my garage might be a copperhead, I dug around in my identification books and looked closer at my photos. I had thought copperheads were only "copper" in color. Turns out they can be in gray shades also. The pupils are a marker, however. The rat snake has round pupils and the copperhead has vertical pupils.

Juvenile rat snakes will eat lizards and frogs, then predominantly rodents when adults. We have a vole problem (I believe it destroyed one of my blueberry plants by eating its roots), so this constrictor is a welcome guest. Just not so much in my garage.

Surprises of June

2006-06-02T12:06:00.000-04:00

These squashes are among the first of the season and were amazingly delicious (remember, I absolutely hate large squashes, ick). I put a little butter in a pan, sliced them all in half (keeping the blossoms on), and sauteed them with freshly ground sea salt and black pepper. Mmmm--

I decided to build another raised bed yesterday out of my collection of free scrap lumber from construction sights, when I had quite a surprise. Reaching for a 2x2 board leaning against the wall, I stirred up this guy. I might have screamed like a little girl for a moment, but nobody was around so I won't admit anything.

The white patch about 8 inches from his head is not a play on lighting or flash. I wish I knew what kind of snake it was--anybody know?

tomatillo tree

2006-06-02T00:07:00.000-04:00

In preparation of Rebecca's never-ending salsa bowl this summer, we've tried our hand at growing a tomatillo this year (well, one survived from seed, so one plant it is). Good thing we've got only one plant, there must be a hundred blossoms on it.

Tomatillos have a tart flavor that lends itself well to many salsas and sauces. The most common use is in salsa verde. The Aztecs have used the fruit at least as far back as 800 BC. They're quite easy to grow, drought-tolerant, and when you harvest them, just pull up the whole plant and store in a cool, dark, dry area. Pick off the fruits as needed.

garlics

2006-06-01T00:25:00.000-04:00

These are freshly pulled garlics and a few spring onions out on the deck sunning themselves, ready for a delicious feast to come. I planted the onions from seed early last fall. The garlics were part of a bundle of unknowns my sister gave me for my birthday. We put a whole head in our omelettes, along with spring onion, a bundle of fresh oregano, some leftover quail, chanterelle mushrooms we picked last year, and grated Ewephoria cheese found at the legendary Cheese Board in Berkeley (from our trip). Scrumptous. It's impossible to pull these out of the earth and not eat them immediately--so we did, of course!

May's flowers from my home to yours...

2006-05-31T01:23:00.000-04:00

Is it worth it?

2006-05-31T00:42:00.001-04:00

If you've dug deep in my blog, you would know about my ongoing tomato experiment. For the last three years, when the inevitable first frost is called for, I go out in a frenzy to save my tomato plants. This past year, I cut down and hung up plants in the garage to vine-ripen (not nearly as tasty as sun ripened, though). My three year experiment, however, is to save the plant through its suckers. I will cut of as many perfect suckers as I can, then place them in water on the window sill. You'll notice that these suckers, when cut off, look like the transplants you would buy in the spring. By the time of early spring, if the suckers haven't died yet, they'll be full of roots and ready to be planted. These tomato plants have quarter sized tomatoes on them while the other plants have just started to bloom.

The problem of it all is whiteflies. In the house. Yikes. It's inevitable you'll have an outbreak of the little hellions sometime, and they won't leave. They'll leave little sticky droplets everywhere around the plants, too. So before you think to yourself, "My, what a great idea! I'll have homegrown tomatoes almost all year!" think for a minute. Long tirades of tomato death-threats by my wife "I'm gonna drag them tomatoes outside and let them freeze to death, then I'm gonna burn them to kingdom come!" made this experiment a bit stressful.

Maybe a big, juicy, sweet, blood-red bundle of summertime pleasure might make her forget for awhile...

Green red bell peppers

2006-05-30T12:41:00.000-04:00

Ahhh...the promise of a roasted red bell pepper can't be beat! This is a pepper plant I brought inside over the winter, so it had a jumpstart on the year when I set it out for summer. This first of the year green bell pepper will absolutely not be plucked early. I know, I admit often to picking veggies weeks, sometimes months ahead of the norm, but not these--ever. I cannot stand the flavor of a green bell pepper. When someone has them on pizza, I can't eat the pizza--even after picking of the nasty bastards.

But wait long through the summer, wait until a greeny turns crimson red, that's real cuisine, there! I'll slice a few up, lay in a casserole dish, pour olive oil and balsamic vinegar over them, grind sea salt, sprinkle shredded basil leaves over them, and roast in the oven several hours. Oh man, place a few strands of roasted reds on a cracker with some brie, or dice up and mix in your burgers on the grill, or throw some in a greek salad, or scatter them on a pizza, or in a big, Scooby-doo style sandwich, or, or, or!

squash blossoms

2006-05-29T18:34:00.000-04:00

Being a full-blooded American, I was raised on monster zucchini and summer squash when I was little. Like every gardener in the US, we would grow them a foot or two long, hundreds at a time.

In other places, squash are grown for their delicate, delicious yellow flowers and the tasty little squashes are harvested when a couple inches long. Growing them this way provides more flavorful squashes and an extended harvest months longer than the conventional American way. Being the impatient gardener that I am, this has tremendous appeal to me. We began devouring these gems as soon as we came back from California, May 11.

Most recipes online will tell you to stuff and fry them, although I've never tried that. We briefly shred them and put them in omelettes in the morning, pile them high on pizza (sprinkle the cheese over them), or put them in a pasta dish. I absolutely hate cooked large squashes, but these are slightly sweet and delicious--please trust me!

north coast

2006-05-27T21:40:00.000-04:00

For the final few days of the trip, we made our way up the coast and into the redwood forests where we were married two years ago. Crossing over the mountains from Napa valley, we stumbled upon this motley group of wild boar (if only I could have roasted up a couple of these guys!) munching in a meadow.

We didn't have a feast of boar, however, we found this perfect blonde morel on an ocean walk the next day.

Sauteed up in butter and sea-salt, it was heavenly!

Just being on the shores of Northern California draws you deeper into peacefulness. If only we could return sooner...

Yosemite

2006-05-25T01:13:00.000-04:00

Everyone in America (in the world, for that matter) should visit the splendour of Yosemite once in their lifetimes. If you can get past the crowds and chaos of the valley maze, that is. The views of waterfalls and sheer granite will take your breath away, until the feeling of city traffic leaves you empty and dissappointed.

Fortunately, we chose to jump off the carnival ride. We hiked down to a secluded grove of pines on the bank of the Merced, laid out a blanket, spread out a picnic, and Rebecca got to do her favorite activity--nap.

sf farmers market

2006-05-17T14:01:00.000-04:00

San Francisco's farmers market is among the largest in America, so we've been anxious to go. The bay area had a longer winter than normal, so the turn out and varieties on display were much lower than expected, but we had a lot of fun anyway.

These onions were amazingly good,

Far West Fungi was heaven. I hadn't ever seen pink oyster mushrooms before, beautiful aren't they? We also bought some fresh morels, as well as a few others. The most addicting item on the trip we bought here: truffle infused sea salt (mushroom lover's cocaine).

coastal redwoods

2006-05-17T11:57:00.000-04:00

Following the coastline of Big Sur, we camped among the redwood rainforests. The varieties of plant life among the two ecosystems made me want to stay months there, studying the many species and relationships between them.

On the sea

2006-05-17T11:27:00.000-04:00

The soul bursts with life when near the sea, why has it taken so long to return?

I've been to Big Sur several years ago with my sister on another road trip. I remember all the wildflowers everywhere bursting in bloom--every roadside, cliffside, meadow, and pasture. Returning here and seeing all the beauty as wild edibles was quite exciting. Here is an over-abundance of salad greens, begging to be picked.

Big Sur

2006-05-17T11:03:00.000-04:00

The first days of the trip were spent travelling down the coast of Big Sur. It didn't take long before the stress and troubles of work back home were lost to the rolling tides of the pacific.

Back from California (part one-Big Sur)

2006-05-12T00:39:00.000-04:00

It's good to be back, but I sure do miss the ocean. We had an overnight flight from San Francisco and arrived in time to go to work, jet-lag included. I'm not posting much today (my eyes sting so bad, I can hardly read), but couldn't help but slide some pictures in from the adventure...

On the road

2006-05-03T14:09:00.000-04:00

Just a short note to say we're out exploring in California for a couple of weeks, in case you're wondering. I'll have much to show you when I get back...

April Promises

2006-04-25T12:55:00.000-04:00

trumpet creeper

2006-04-25T12:10:00.000-04:00

Our front yard is littered with fallen blossoms from this trumpet creeper vine nestled in an oak tree. The blossoms you see here are 25 to 30 feet off the ground.

hippy potatoes growing up

2006-04-21T23:18:00.000-04:00

For those of you who remember my posting about the hippy purple potato back in March, here are a couple of the juvenile shoots making me proud. A few came up 3 or 4 weeks ago, and then we had one frost night that killed them. Thankfully, four more shoots came up a week later and they're back in business. Not many of us know that the potato is a perennial originating in the Andes (of which there are about 200 known wild species). Peru currently has over 4200 varieties! Although our most common potatoes today have infertile flowers, some heirlooms can be fertile and produce poisonous green cherry "tomatoes", of which you can save the seed for planting. Being a close relative of the tomato, the base of the potato plant can be grafted to a tomato plant to produce both tomatoes and potatoes. (hmm, maybe an experiment is in order...I'll let you know when I try it)

p.s. The one night of frost cost us most of the first crop of brown turkey figs, too. Bummer...major bummer. We have two left on the tree. Fortunately there is a much larger crop expected in the fall.

Livin' rich on the best of life

2006-04-20T03:03:00.000-04:00

Most people think you've got to be rich to have something like roasted goat cheese and sausage stuffed red bell peppers and local pasture-raised beef burgers with grilled portabellas, roasted red pepper, fresh greens, tomato, guacamole, homemade mayo and topped with smoked pacific sea salt in the same week. Those wal-mart shopping idiots would be wrong.

In the first photo, we paid 25 cents each for red bell peppers at our nearby produce stand, 15 cents for potatoes, 35 cents for the local pasture-raised sausage (don't have to use much of it for flavor), Becca made cheese out of some free goat's milk from my sister, and maybe 25 cents for a shallot and onion, for a grand total of about a $1 a piece. In the second photo, we grilled out today and had some spectacular burgers for similar results: $2 pasture raised local hamburger, $1 beefy tomato, 75 cents worth of guacamole, $2.55 portabella mushrooms, 25 cents in shallots, free greens from the garden, $1.50 for the multi-grain buns and a spoonful of my homemade roasted red bell peppers in oil (not even 10 cents worth)=$8.15 for 3 awesome stacked, juicy hamburgers hot off the grill!

Sappy post--look out

2006-04-16T00:40:00.000-04:00

Our second anniversary is coming up in a day or two, and I hope to see a great many more. These are pictures taken of our wedding in among the redwoods in the Avenue of the Giants of northern California. We didn't know before we left where exactly we would be married, but we knew that a place would speak to us when we reached it. This large, hollowed-out redwood tree is actually two formed into one, reaching up high into the heavens. We had brought along our great friend and common spirit Dirk to do the ceremony. He sanctified the area by smoking sage and spoke of our ties with these great trees, the future, the present, the importance of this day. It's unfortunate we infuriated many family members and friends by leaving them behind while we chose to seek out this day alone, but it was to be OUR day, and the pilgrimage to seek out a spiritual place rich enough to symbolize our love was incredibly important to us.

--A little spontaneous boogying after the ceremony

Pains and aches start to pay off

2006-04-14T22:21:00.000-04:00

It's now been a year since we arrived at our new home. Often I get discouraged by so many projects--both untouched and unfinished. I dream of a place like what's found at path to freedom, so much abundance and conservation. I long for the knowledge found in the essays of eleutheros, to live in independence from the slavery of Babylon. To gather round me and know the indigenous species of our land, like Jim and Peg have done. Alas, but I have chosen to be chained to a job that affords me a few luxuries in Babylon. I don't think I even want those luxuries anymore if it costs me the pleasures of working and studying the land around me.

But that's another story. Stepping back a moment from the mad rush of spring planting, I took these pictures of the butterfly garden in its early stages of growth, and of the raised beds I've constructed from free scrap lumber and I see a marked difference from the past. Evolution cannot be seen much from day to day, and you could hardly compare my spread to the masters mentioned above. But I see the direction life has taken on this little spot of land and I see hope, promise, purpose, and great fulfillment in what I've done this far. I enjoy this walk of life more than I imagined. I'm addicted to its power. And now, back to the hoe and spade.

poppin' up everywhere

2006-04-12T11:43:00.000-04:00

Roger, my mother's husband, rescued me from the black hole of blogging without a camera (thank you, thank you, thank you, Roger!). As you know, ours went kapoot, so he was kind enough to give me a loaner. Here are some things poppin' up around here...

The dogwoods are in bloom,

as are the irises,

wild columbines are too,

and the lilacs,

our front yard is full of fleabane,

and our woods have splashes of fire pinks,

and pink-flowered wood sorrel...

but, of course, the most beautiful thing in all of my one-acre haven has got to be this...

brown turkey figs!

Early purple vienna kohlrabi

2006-04-10T00:53:00.000-04:00

There are a lot people that love the color purple. My sister is infatuated with the food purple. A few days back, she and her husband stopped in to visit. Kam (her husband) had just gotten back from a trip to Thailand and had brought back a few surprises like dried salted sweet plums (uh, what in the world?), fat and delicious cashews, and incredibly tasty dried mountain apples (no relation to apples). Well, I don't think my sister ever made it inside the house. She just had to visit the purples. Here are a few pictures she took of our kohlrabies--

They're not so pretty now, some of the leaves have been snapped off. I sliced them into slivers and imbedded them in some pizza, oh yes, how delightful!

I wish I could show you...

2006-04-05T18:59:00.000-04:00

Any guesses what this picture is of?

Our digital went funky. Perfect timing, really. It's spring and all kinds of stuff is happening here, but no camera to brag about it. Columbines, lilacs, dogwoods, periwinkles, daisy fleabanes, and fire pinks are in bloom. I planted out my first tomatoes of the year. My purple potatoes are up, Rebecca's yellow raspberries are resurrecting themselves. Irises are budding, redbuds are too. Peonies are exploding up out of the earth. The blueberry bushes are loaded with blossoms (I've picked them and am using them for tea). The fig tree is loaded with itty-bitty fruits. Rosemary is beginning to bloom. And I've got a camera that's on acid. Funky, wavy purple streaks make psychodelic, creative pictures, but doesn't help me brag about spring in my white oak mountain!

(the answer is dogwood blossoms)

wild duck leg salad

2006-04-03T11:30:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, a friend dropped by with some wild ducks freshly slain from a hunt down in Alabama. He and his buddy donate most of their birds to homeless shelters (for some mighty fine dining) and impoverished local folks that could use a few good meals. This time, they saved a few for us, knowing we could put them to great use. This meal shown above was such a great one, with fresh salad greens from the garden, our own sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, and feta cheese from our local "mom and pop" middle eastern market in town (they make the most incredible homemade hummus and falafel!).

On a side note, just put my first harvest of tea ingredients for the year in the dehydrator; lemon balm, mint, and blueberry blossoms. The blueberry blossoms are incredible! We planted eight bushes last fall, and it is highly recommended to not let them bear fruit the first couple of years. I couldn't possibly cast them away, so I tried some in my evening tea. Mmmm. The aroma is grande, and the flavor is, of course, blueberry-ee.

dandelion syrup

2006-03-29T01:58:00.000-05:00

We're not the typical Tennesseeans with a need for immaculately perfect lawns, so when "weeds" come up in our lawn, we embrace them (as long as they don't wander into the garden beds). Although most are invasive and not indigenous to our area, we find uses for many of them. This time, after the success of violet syrup, we decided to try out the dandelion variety. Turns out this recipe tastes amazingly like orange blossom honey, perfect for tea.

1. Stuff one pint jar with fresh dandelion blossoms

2. Pour boiling water over blossoms, filling the jar. Let steep overnight.

3. Strain out blossoms, pour into pan, add 1 1/2 cups of sugar, bring to boil.

4. Simmer to thickness you want, pour back into jar and seal.

It's a great match for lemon balm and mint tea.

violet blossom syrup, DEE-lish!

2006-03-27T13:09:00.000-05:00

We have a bank alongside the driveway that has turned purple with violet blossoms the last couple of weeks, so I decided to try out a recipe from my favorite foraging author; Euell Gibbons. This simple recipe for making syrup was taken from "Stalking the Healthful Herbs". Eaten raw in salad is pleasant enough, but WOW what flavor as syrup! I think it tastes a lot like huckleberry syrup, perfect for some waffles in the mornin'.

1. Stuff a jar with blossoms and fill with boiling water. Let steep overnight.

2. Strain and discard blossoms after squeezing them out.

3. For every cup, add juice from 1/2 a lemon and 3/4 cup sugar.

4. Bring to a boil, boil it down a bit for thicker syrup, then put in sterilized jars and seal.

impatience is a virtue

2006-03-24T13:35:00.000-05:00

This Maiskij garlic just got yanked out for early devouring. Planted back in November, it's about 4 1/2 months old. My sister gave me these from www.filareefarm.com for my birthday, they were originally found in an Ashkabad bazaar in Turkmenistan. They're a hardneck garlic with easy to peal cloves (not when you pick this early!) that range from 6 to 8 cloves on a head. It's best to plant them in October.

Lemon Balm Rises Again

2006-03-22T20:24:00.001-05:00

Lemon balm (Melissa Officinalis) happens to be my favorite ingredient in homemade tea. Medicinally, it happens to treat insomnia, it's used for epilepsy, nerve disorders, fainting, hysteria, migraines, hypochondria and vertigo. It calms the stomach and reduces gas, increases blood circulation, and induces perspiration when served hot as tea. It uplifts the spirit, calms emotional upsets, decreases blood pressure and eases menstrual tension and pains. It is antiviral and antibacterial, and has been used to treat herpes simplex (topically), as well as toothaches.

In spite of all that, lemon balm is quite tasty. In the summer I make iced sweet tea out of it, the lemony flavor makes it very refreshing. In the winters, I make hot tea from the dried leaves, the dried leaves from mint, and lavender blossoms. Served with a touch of honey, it will send me directly into tranquility---if not to bed!

Thinking outside the Kohlrabi box

2006-03-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

Kohlrabi is the under-appreciated hot brunette of the brassica world. Such a taste revelation we've had this year with this winter treasure! It's a milder and sweeter version of broccoli in its leaves and tops (you'll never find this portion in the supermarket), and the swollen stem is crispy and juicy like a perfect apple (much less sweet, but awesome sliced for dipping in hummus or salmon dip). One cup has 19% of your daily fiber and 139% of your vitamin C. More importantly for me, it is very easy to grow, very productive, and stores very well. You should make sure to eat them no more than 2" in diameter for sweetness and to avoid a woody, fibrous texture. Since we cannot wait very long on anything looking delicious, that's the perfect size for us as well. One day, when the Mrs. and I were laying on the grass daydreaming next to some kohlrabi plants, she took an inquisitive look at one that had seeded out, then stooped down and took a monstrous bite off the broccoli-like top! She then took another, then another! Not one to be left out, I took a bite as well. MMM...much better than raw broccoli--sweeter, and a slightly nuttier flavor. For those of you less barbaric, try cutting off a few leaves, rolling them up, then slicing them in strips to toss into an omelet, mushroom ragout, or stir-fry at the end, just enough to caramelize...you'll love it.

Stir-fry promises

2006-03-18T10:56:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of some of our seed a-sproutin' for spring. The chinese red noodle long beans are crazy tall in the tin can and to the right of it. The egg carton has our own saved seeds of cherokee purple, black cherry, black from tula, and druhzba tomatoes, as well as other purchased seeds of brandywine, red pear, yellow pear, black plum, purple russian, thai pink, and my sister's golden jubilee tomatoes. The tallest in the back of the picture is a royalty purple podded bean, jing orange okra in front of that, and straightneck, crooked neck and lemon squash in front of that. The orange juice carton has sprouted moon and stars watermelon on the left and charentais melon in the mid-section. Our plan is to grow some of each seed in intervals, we'll be planting more in a couple of weeks.

In case we start a-wondering why we go through with all this work, a picture of a little of last year's harvest...

Hippy Purple Potato

2006-03-17T21:25:00.000-05:00

This long-haired, hippy potato is the peruvian purple potato originally harvested by the Inca, but now served in trendy high-end restaurants. Of course, the uniqueness of color makes it a conversation piece, however, this potato is quite delicious to me. My favorite recipe is simply slicing them up and frying them in a little butter and olive oil, grind black pepper and sea salt onto them, and mince up lots of fresh rosemary to toss into the fry with the purple gems...guaranteed you will not have enough to please you!

p.s. I somehow managed to save a couple organic ones for planting. By the looks of the size of those sprouts, its a little past time for planting!

Osaka Purple Mustard

2006-03-17T08:42:00.000-05:00

This beautiful mustard green was planted, along with arugula late last spring in our "hot bed", a garden spot about 3 feet square between the garage and house. During the summertime, temperatures probably soared well over 120 degrees there. It then flourished through the winter as well, quite a forgiving plant.

My favorite secret ingredient

2006-03-15T00:42:00.000-05:00

Most of my friends are impossible to feed. Every last one of them hate tomatoes, onions, or mushrooms--or all three. We might just use all three every single meal. For me, each meal typically involves tossing in any or all of said ingredients into the cast iron skillet, then trying to figure out what else will go in and what the end will be like. Maybe an omelet, or ragout, or maybe stuffed dumpling squash. Maybe seared tuna on a bed of mushrooms over salad greens. Little slices of dove breast in a mess of our "holy trinity".

Well, last week I invited the fellas over for a shin-dig. I had acquired a leg of wild venison, and a party was in order. Cigars and pipes were brought out, cold brews passed around, homemade wild salmon spread displayed, freshly baked rosemary sourdough rolls taken out, and old tales told as we slowly roasted the beast all day, slicing off slivers and dipping them in the precious gravy, hour after hour. What a day.

The gravy was made of massive amounts of portabello mushrooms (they reduce down to an amazing liquid) and piles of lovely shallots. That's right, the picture above is a mound of shallots. They also reduce down to a magical sauce, and combined with the portabellos and venison roasting become miraculous. The guys who "gag" at an onion, loved it. The guys who absolutely hate mushrooms, soaked it all up. Chefs the world over long have used the shallot as the magical secret ingredient in their dishes, now you can too.

The tomato experiment

2006-03-12T20:26:00.000-05:00

The experiment started in the fall of 2005 when I read somewhere that tomatoes were perennials if you go down south far enough. Well, that year had been my first garden all my own, and I had discovered the pleasures of fat slices of Brandywine tomatoes in homemade BLT sandwiches. Unfortunately, I rented a small place in the shade, and the plants took all summer and into late fall before they ripened. One day in October, we got hit with a bit of frost, and it wiped out all the tomato plants. Picking through the damage, I noticed a few suckers that were unblemished, so I stuck them in water and put them on the window sill. That old house had no central heat, and at times the indoors reached into the 40's, so I lost all of the suckers except one. In march of last year, we bought our place here in on the mountain and the first thing I did was dig a hole and plant my one brandywine. It liked the new place. Growing seven feet tall (because I stopped it) and seven or eight feet across, it became a monstrosity. In the picture above, you'll see the same brandywine, freshly planted yesterday--the last survivor due to white-fly plague.

In the picture above, you will see my next tomato experiment. Last fall, we saved several batches of tomato seed, which involves a process of soaking the seeds for a few days in water to ferment the slick coating off the seeds before drying. Well, procrastinators we are, and a week later we found several sprouting in the cup of water. Just for kicks, I planted them. When it finally called for frost, I hauled them inside and never watered them, so as to slow the growth. They're now four feet tall and ready for summer, although some of them are struggling to recover from aphid and white fly damage.

Can it be true?

2006-03-11T14:21:00.000-05:00

What? Is that lemongrass coming back to life in zone 7? It's only hardy to zone 9, so we took a few stalks last fall and placed them in water, so we'll have more this year. The other day(you know, the "Whew, I'm tired" day) I chopped the rest of the dry brown grass down and discovered life springing up once again. Yum, can't wait for more thai cookin'.

Waddya do with the compost pile when the compost is done?

2006-03-11T11:50:00.000-05:00

Our dear friend Princess mockingly uttered those words after we ranted to her about re-using and reducing waste. Taking my morning stroll with the compost bucket from the kitchen, I noticed it's about time to build on an addition to my lovely compost bin and retire the present one. Not one of my best examples of craftsmanship, I've gradually hidden it from the house via the woodpile and brush I've stood up vertically for the benefit of the birds. They love the thicket I've created, and use it daily for hopping in and out of the compost bin, picking through the scraps.

This compost bin has been a source of pride for us. Not just because of how beautiful it looks (umm, yeah, right), or the benefits to the garden (nothing, absolutely nothing yet), but by the vast reduction in waste we've experienced this last year. You see, we fill our trash can once every 3 months (working on reducing even more). There are two major reasons for this: first, we compost all compost-able materials to be fed back into our gardens; second, we simply buy mostly produce and products contained in recyclable materials. Nothing is in microwavable throw-away plastic containers. We thought that the biggest reason for choosing to do this is to help the environment. It turns out the foods we eat are SO MUCH TASTIER than the instant meal in a throw-away box, we couldn't possibly return to that tasteless, soggy way of life ever again!

Our broccoli raab in its "last hurrah" stage. The blossoms are amazingly good layered over pizza, mmm...

Whew! I'm tired

2006-03-08T19:30:00.000-05:00

Shakespeare had to have had a garden. The Tempest wasn't about a man and his slave, it was about a garden and it's slave. Why else would he have written, "I'll rack thee with old cramps, and fill all thy bones with aches"?

It was such a nice day, too. Seventy-something degrees, blue skies, gentle winds, birds singing, sun gently warming your face, and a cold beer in hand. Could have went for a drive. Could have went for a stroll. Instead, I went to planting, digging, raking, transplanting, grunting, groaning, and moaning. I'm wooped. Somebody get me another pale ale, will you?

windflower--anemone blanda

2006-03-08T08:20:00.000-05:00

grape hyacinth--muscari armeniacum

2006-03-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

Our purple children

2006-03-05T19:22:00.000-05:00

Seems like only yesterday they were just figments of our imagination, then before you know it, they get all grown up. Is it wrong of me to want to take a knife to them right now and lop off their gorgeous little heads? How can one possibly wait three or four more weeks when one's mouth is watering already? I swear they are begging me to toss them in the cast-iron skillet with some butter and sea salt, stirring them around while they turn green and glossy, then melting some fabulous cheese on top. Why, we'd eat them still in the skillet, never to make it to the table!

The Purple of Sicily Cauliflower is an Italian heirloom variety with sweet 2-3 pound heads which cook to a brilliant green color. The plants are more insect resistant and easier to grow than the whites, and I think make fine landscaping.

Is it summer already?

2006-03-02T21:48:00.000-05:00

An extra warm winter has some advantages, I guess. I fear for a brutally hot and dry summer after this, but you gotta like 70 degrees and blue skies! The middle picture of Early Purple Vienna Kohlrabi shows how they look if you don't keep clipping off leaves for stir-fry.

Time's up for the Fossil

2006-03-01T20:05:00.000-05:00

One of the great ones in my life passed away monday morning.

The "Fossil" was born in Ireland and brought with him the strong work ethic of an immigrant determined to make a better life in America. He brought old-school family values, where parents take responsibility for their children. He brought a sense of family to the community as well. He also brought the legendary wit of an Irishman. I could tell him a one-line joke one day, and three weeks later I would catch him telling a hilarious story 5 minutes long ending in my punch line. Despite several tragedies in his life, he continually lifted smiles and laughter out of anyone he spoke to. He especially loved to flirt with the older ladies, the ones that might not have had anyone flirt with them in 40 or 50 years. They just ate it all up. He could make anyone's day.

Battling cancer and its "treatments" for several years, we could all see it happening. We could see him gradually leaving us. He could, too. Finally it was time, and he bowed out a champion. Thank you for one more lesson in what's really important in life.

So long my friend, so long.

Visa Card and The American Dream

2006-02-25T23:56:00.000-05:00

I can't say when it exactly started, but I know exactly when it ended. May 1998. It all came to a screeching halt when I bought my shiny red, jacked-up, over-sized mud tired, awesome looking, pile of crap for $4,000 most people would call a Jeep. I bought it with a credit card check. Back then, it ran me 18% interest. I think that old beast ran about 18% of the time too. It came as an epiphany to me soon after I bought it...in the form of a credit card bill. I realized suddenly I had $30,000 in credit card debts. I bought (charged) things according to how much the minimum payments would be, not if I could afford it. It suddenly occured to me that a pimply 15 year old flipping burgers at McDonald's for minimum wage actually made more money than me. He might take home $150 a week. I had $100 a month after bills. That's for gas, food, shampoo, etc. Now, I don't have any excuses either. I graduated from university with a degree in business. Took classes in investing, budgeting, and accounting even. Procrastination and the need for instant gratification doomed me.

I realized my life was that crappy Jeep. Sharp, good-looking, and cool on the outside (I thought); nothing but shit and promises on the inside. I was more concerned with trying to look the american dream than with trying to live it. My back was against the wall right there and then. Anything would have broken me then. I decided to give myself six months to start turning my life around--then file bankruptcy if I couldn't. But there was a catch. If I paid it all, I would take an epic road trip. One I've dreamed of all my life. I would go on a Great North American Roadtrip, ending in Alaska. I buckled up, moved out of my townhouse and rented one room. I vowed celibacy until debt free. I sold all my stereo equipment, television, etc. I knew nothing around me was mine. I wrote out all my bills and their amounts in a notebook, I knew how much I owed to each, and I attacked. That first $1000 I took off took forever, but it happened. And I was excited. Another $1000, and another. Faster and faster it came down, I didn't care about ANYTHING else but dropping it another $1000. A little over 2 years later, it was over. I was victorious. The single most crowning achievement I have ever done. I not only got out of debt, I awakened to a new life, and became someone I could be proud of. And if you ask me sometime, I might tell you of Alaska.

tetons '99

2006-02-25T02:56:00.000-05:00

I found an old two-tracker on the way to yellowstone I just couldn't resist. Blame it on the idolization of Indiana Jones as a kid, always adventuring, anxious to see around the next corner. Unplanned, unexpected and free, this place is still among the best campsites I've ever been to. The Tetons in the distance, a pond nearby, coyotes howling, skeletal remains of an elk found, sage grouse passing by, and no one else anywhere in sight. Beautiful. I still remember cresting over the hill and seeing the tetons for the first time. Wonder if I could find it ever again?

snowy range mountains '99

2006-02-24T00:48:00.000-05:00

Thursday evening, 9/9/1999

Throwing our packs on our backs for our first backpacking event of the west, we hiked a half mile across a meadow, strewn with ghost-white rocks, pink boulders, scores of wildflowers, and a true sight to behold above us…the Snowy Range. Fish in the lake were literally leaping out of the water, many at a time, pleading me to bring them to the frying pan. Searching quickly in my pack, I noted I had forgotten my fishing rod in the car. The day was dying, so I must run back. So I turned and headed back, but something blood-curdling stopped me frozen. The distinct call of wolves sounded off a mere ½ mile away, and in the direction of the car. The calls were deep, and with purpose, growing closer together and closer to us. We dove in our tents, seeking protection in this remote land, miles from anyone. We crashed early, layering heavily for the imminent cold of mountain night. We listened to the eery howls of the wolves as they moved through. We listened to the distant bellow of bull elk sounding in the distance. And so we settled on a chilling night’s sleep.

The morning sunrise was brought to us unseen in the wilderness, but instead on the mountain range above in deep crimson, with the lake mimicking their colors. Only precious few minutes passed before the glory was gone and the day began in full. How many years has it been since I’ve seen back-to-back sunrises and in turn sunsets? The grayness of the sameness in 11am rise to 11pm work has tainted me. How can I return to that boringness again? How long will it last before I turn once again to the events that bring life to me?

huckleberry eatin', trout catchin', bikin' good time

2006-02-23T01:06:00.000-05:00

My Mrs. took off with the digital camera for a trip up to wisconsin and minnesota, so I thought I'd relive some history this week. Click on the scenic picture to try to find me riding my bike. Oh, the sky was a cheap camera, accidental double exposure by my sister...sweet, eh?

Breaking down camp that morning before dawn, we hit the Turtle Rock Loop Trail for some singletrack riding bikers can only dream of. We rode past aspen, beaver ponds, magnificent rock formations and awesome views. Stopping for a breather and a drink, we spotted some wild huckleberries to gobble up. Some movement in the tiny creek nearby caught my eye, and I noticed a trout maybe 10 inches long with his head under a rock overhang. Since he couldn't see me, I got real close and in a lightning strike from above, I plunged my hand down into the waters and grasped the base of his tail. "Yes! I got h...wait...darnitt!" I, uh, didn't think about actually catching the thing and what to do with it once I had. Would have been nice if I would have slung 'em to the bank. Oh, well.

My first out-west roadtrip

2006-02-22T22:59:00.000-05:00

Thursday morning, 9/9/99 7:45 a.m.--
Here I sit, on a boulder just east of Laramie. The Indians considered this place mystical and holy. Hallowed ground. We can see why. The rock formations here are arranged like the hand of God himself constructed them as a fortress to protect those who seek solitude here. Chipmunks, tails perfectly erect, seem emboldened by the power of the rocks, warding off intruders by their high pitched squeals and thrashing about. Aspens, not daring to present themselves in the open country surrounding us, have taken hold of the valleys in this place. Rabbits are less flighty than found elsewhere, almost daring you to pet them.
And then there are the pines. I’m not sure the kind, but a scraggly, rough, cowboy-type of pine that seem to will themselves into being. Individual and determined, they make their living on nothing but the rock they are gradually splitting open. Only two feet tall, it casts a bold shadow on the landscape below. It lends the fresh split of the rock to prairie grass, and it inspires every living thing to rise up and take root on the essence of life. Living fully, giving to others, making a better place.

Coffee and oatmeal must be the breakfast of the gods, for I feel it today. Rising up before dawn, we witness the creation of a new day. Stars set high above us, we see the pre-dawn reds appear over the vast prairie and begin to light up the magnificent rock around us. Then a subtle wind rises through the trees, birds awaken to sing, chipmunks sound off, and rabbits rustle about. It is a dawn of a new day-a new world to us. The night out of Tennessee brings us through endless towns all the same. Texaco, Mc Donald’s, Super 8. Texaco, Mc Donald's, Super 8. A subtle change begins after crossing the sluggish Mississippi. Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska pass before us with buttes, canals, prairies full of beef cattle and horses, farmlands and farmers harvesting, dust clouds and terraced hills-sculpted by cattle and bison thousands strong years ago. The Missouri and the Platte rivers, the Oregon Trail and Pony Express each crisscross our path. Then we reach the promised land. Wyoming. We pass by the visitors centers because something inside tells us this voyage is our own. Not another’s already plotted out, highlighting their favorites. This is our adventure, as Lewis and Clark had done long ago.

"There! Over there! Antelope!", my sister cries out. The sight will burn forever in my mind as clear as this sunny day. Pronghorn antelope, maybe a dozen in two seperate groups, were grazing on top of a knoll. Many more followed. Scores of them emerging at the beginning of the end of a long day.

Awake by sheer willpower after 23 ½ hours on the road, we decide the first exit with a campsite would be the resting spot for the night. So here I sit on this massive boulder in Vedauwoo, warming in the morning sun, and overlooking our campsite, our sunrise, our dreams becoming reality. The rock I sit on, as the rock surrounding us here, appears to be of a crushed pink quartz in a cement-like gray mixture, with gold and lime colored lichen clinging to it. This must give the florescent color to the rock at rise and set of the sun. And now, off to do the dishes.

cold, rainy, sleety days are made of this

2006-02-18T15:28:00.000-05:00

Hot raspberry, lemon balm, and honey tea, smoked atlantic salmon, double cream brie, homegrown sun-dried heirloom tomatoes, olives, freshly plucked pomegranate seeds, and a good book. The dreams of distant places, past memories, future plans...

The daffodil, the narcissus

2006-02-18T02:14:00.000-05:00

The last two days have seen temperatures in the mid 60s, and the signs of spring cannot hold off any more. The daffodils have come, adding life and color and promise to our home of better days to come. This flower of spring has a long history among many cultures for thousands of years. The Egyptians used them in funerary wreaths and the Romans raised them in greenhouses and set them out for banquets. As far as medicinal uses, the powdered flowers are used to induce vomitting. There are cases of eventual death by paralysis of the nervous system. My, how they do smell lovely, though...