a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Month: September 2015

  • Lucky Bean

    Sunflower

    This afternoon I am as happy as a sunflower. The shiro-hana 白花 bean harvest has begun. I’ve been eyeing the massive bean pods hanging from the shiro-hana 白花 bean vines all summer. They are ready to pick when their pods dry and turn fox color. I collected the first test harvest today. Will I make the goal of harvesting a hundred or more pounds? We’ll see. The harvest will last through October.

    ShiroHanaHarvestA
    ShiroHanaHarvestB

    Open a dry pod and startling white giant beans stare back at you. It’s like they are saying, “You can’t just eat one … or I’m to beautiful to eat … or I bet you want to plant me.” I may have enough to sell at Bow Little Market’s Harvest Market on Saturday, October 3. It may be the first time anyone has ever been able to buy them fresh in the Pacific Northwest ever.

    ShiroHanaHarvestC
    ShiroHanaHarvestD

  • Artichokes in the Pacific Northwest

    Artichoke

    Artichokes do grow in the Pacific Northwest. Here’s proof. Artichokes is one of the things customers asked for at the farmers market this summer. Next season I’ll attempt to provide a steady supply from late July onwards. They are a thistle, but the leaves are soft and look lovely in any garden. They are worth growing just for their looks.

  • Luxury Defined

    FreshSaladGreens

    Salad greens picked moments before lunch, one perfect egg laid within the past hour or two to make a silky bowl of mayonnaise, that’s my definition of luxury. Ask your grocer, “I’d like salad greens picked within the last thirty minutes and an egg laid this morning with a yolk as round and bright as the sun.” You won’t be able to get them no matter how much you offer to pay. There are some luxuries even money can’t buy.

    OnePerfectEggFreshMayonnaise

  • Mother Umbrella

    Mother Umbrella

    Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day. Maybe that is what the chicks are chirping as they huddle under their mother and use her as an umbrella. Mother hens make excellent umbrellas. Not only do they keep the chicks dry, they keep them warm, and look, no hands required. Mother hens are much better than plastic umbrellas.

    Unlike baby chicks, cabbages don’t need umbrellas. The rain rolls off their slippery leaves the moment it lands on them.

    CabbageWet
    TokyoAkane

  • Already a Memory

    WoodStoveBurning

    Nothing says summer is over than a fire in the wood stove. Yesterday, to take the chill off, I lit a fire in the wood stove. Summer is over when the hubbard squash are ready to eat. Summer is over when the vine maples turn crimson. In July, summer seemed like it would go on forever. Rain was a distant memory. I began to question if it ever got cold in the Pacific Northwest. Ha! The joke was on me. With a fire crackling in the wood stove, summer is now the memory.

    HubbardSquash
    VineMaplesTurning