every day is a good day
World genebanks hold 40,000 varieties of beans. Every year I try different varieties. Two of the new ones I am trying today are Papa de Rolla, a bean from Portugal, and Zuni Shalako, a bean from Southwestern United States and Mexico. I purchased these beans at the Olympia Farmers Market in June.
It’s a good day when you can pull 9 pounds of shallots out of the ground from a 6 square foot plot. I’m getting 1½ pounds per square foot, so if I want to grow a ton of shallots, I’ll need 1,333 square feet. Round that up to 1,500 square feet or a 15 by 100 foot area.
Shopping for groceries in a supermarket can be stressful. All those people. All that noise. So many decisions to make. Which head of lettuce is the freshest? Which carrots are the sweetest?
Gathering vegetables for dinner in the garden is much less stressful. Few vegetables are so humorous as garlic scapes. They curl into the most curious and funny shapes. Why do they do that?
Going through a garlic field pulling garlic scapes is far less stressful than pushing a shopping cart through a busy supermarket. After pulling a mountain of garlic scapes, it’s on to the cherry trees.
The cherries are ripening early this year, and the birds are leaving them alone for a change. There are plenty for the table and extra to scatter for the chickens. They love sweet fruits. After the cherry trees, it’s on to pick some raspberries and greens. On the way, there is the first Shasta Daisy of the season to smile at.
And here is tonight’s grocery section. It doesn’t take long to fill my “grocery cart”. There’s no shortage of good things to eat tonight.
Washed and ready, there are plenty of good things to make a summer evening meal. There is no going hungry tonight.
So what do I do with garlic scapes? One way I like to make them is to cut them into one to two inch pieces and then sauté them in garlic oil until tender, which is what I’m doing tonight. They are also good roasted, used in soups, eaten raw if very tender, added to omelets, and on and on. What do they taste like? They are like string beans with a hint of garlic.
Of all the chickens, Lucky is the most photogenic, and she seems to know it. She loves to pose. It’s almost as if she is saying, “How about this look? What if I move my head to the side?” She is also the first hen to come check what I am doing in the garden when I go out to weed. See Lucky’s story ~ why we call her Lucky.
On the other hand, brooding hens are in no mood to pose. They stay as still as possible, hoping that you won’t see them, and that you will move on and leave them in peace.
In one of the hoop houses, the squash are starting to set. I”m not sure what kind of squash this is. I bought one several months ago. It was a squarish squash with a bit of a waist. I planted some of the seeds and will soon have a supply to last through the fall and possibly into winter. You can see the waist in the forming squash.
The two mothers sharing two chicks are doing fine. It’s been over a week since their chicks hatched. The chicks go freely from one hen to the other. Sometimes the hens scold each other when they aren’t happy with the other’s child rearing methods, but for the most part they get along.
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The thimble berries (rubus parvilorus) are starting to ripen. This year there is a bumper crop. Chances are, you will never see them in your grocer. They are very fragile and soft when they ripen. If you don’t eat them within a day or two, the berries will droop and then fall.
The best food isn’t purchased, it’s gathered by yourself.