a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Something so Sweet, so Unknown

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    Get a good husband. You’ll never regret it. My sweet husband was clearing piles of brush we had lying around way too long. He spent all day running the brush through our chipper. I’d mention the make and model, but I wouldn’t want any of you to make the mistake of buying that chipper. At the end of the day he had a huge tote bag, one of those grain bags that hold a ton or more of grain, loaded with the sweetest smelling wood chip mulch I ever saw.

    “What smells so good? What did you put through the chipper?” We went through the list of brush we had: alder, maple, birch, cherry, cottonwood … cottonwood. Yes, that is what made the chips smell so delightful. It’s like wood chips walked on by the angels. Wood chips made from a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, licorice root, and tangerine.

    Wood chips made with cottonwood is one of those life altering discoveries. There’s life before good husband, life after good husband; life before dog, life after dog; life before cottonwood chips, life after cottonwood chips. And yet no one ever talks about cottonwood chips. It’s one of those great mysteries in life no one is supposed to know about. I’ve been to countless hardware stores, garden stores, nurseries, and no one has ever mentioned, no one has even whispered, “Check out the cottonwood chips.”

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    Luckily for me, out in the woods lies the carcass of a cottonwood tree, specifically Populus trichocarpa – black cottonwood, the fantastically tall cottonwood which grows from California to Alaska. They can shoot up to a hundred feet in a few decades. I meant to cut up the cottonwood but had more important things to do, and now a forest of a thousand cottonwoods saplings has sprouted from its many branches.

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    One fully loaded wheelbarrow of cottonwood saplings will produce one full wheelbarrow of sweet cottonwood chips. These chips are so aromatic that I could see stuffing them into a pillow and resting my head on it. I’m sure I could have the most pleasant dreams breathing the lovely scent all night long. This wheelbarrow is destined for one of the hoop houses. There are ten wheelbarrow’s worth of cottonwood saplings to provide chips for garden paths and mulch around some of the trees. So get a good husband. Every day you’ll be thankful.

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  • Out of the Rain

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    It’s a rainy day. There is always food and dry places to rest in the chicken yard, but most of the chickens want to be outdoors where they can see the raindrops falling and see all the action. For a midday break, Tangerine has taken her chicks to a dry spot at the entrance of the wood shed. From their dry vantage point, they can preen their feathers while seeing what is happening.

    Do the neurotic chickens count their feathers? It makes you wonder.

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  • The Benefits of Thinning

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    What are these? These are the delightful leaves of baby napa cabbage. The Japanese name for napa cabbage is 白菜 – hakusai, which translates as “white vegetable”. Baby napa cabbage is anything but white. Like swans, their beautiful white leaves don’t develop until they grow up. What is peculiar is that the word “napa” comes from the Japanese word 菜っ葉 which means vegetable leaves.

    I have these baby napa cabbage leaves on the kitchen counter as it is time to thin the rows of napa cabbage that are growing in the garden. Thinning is fun because you get to eat all sorts of baby greens. I doubt anyone else in the state had baby napa cabbage leaves for lunch today, which made today a very special day.

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    Making this week special is a pullet which started laying lovely light blue eggs. I haven’t seen which hen is laying these special eggs. Why settle for plain white eggs when chickens can lay eggs in so many colors?

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    King Richard is strutting in front of a chicken barn, acting like a royal. He’s trying to impress a hen which is inside checking out the barn. She’s not impressed. He should have brought her a dish of baby napa leaves.

  • Odd Potato

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    Just because a potato is odd doesn’t mean it won’t taste good. It may be that the oddest potatoes have the best flavor. If you want funky, funny potatoes, you’ll probably need to grow them. Funky, funny potatoes don’t make it onto store shelves. Their destiny is compost bins and factory foods. To make it onto store shelves, potatoes can’t look like they have a mind of their own.

    This odd potato ended up turning into hashbrowns for breakfast. Now they don’t look so funky.

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    There are plenty of other odd vegetables in the garden. It’s time to glean leftover vegetables to prepare the beds for overwintering vegetables like shallots and garlic. These odd little onions and carrots, gleaned from a vegetable bed, will make a number of happy dishes.

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  • The Mystery of Kohlrabi

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    Some things are inexplicable. Like why isn’t kohlrabi served at every meal? Why isn’t kohlrabi seen in every shopping cart in supermarkets? Peeled and sliced, it is crisp and juicy, sweet and mild, the ultimate snack food, the most refreshing salad, the optimal side dish to any meal. It is so delicious, parents could use it to make their children behave. “Put that down this minute, or there will be no kohlrabi for you!” That would work one hundred percent of the time.

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