Harvest and Helpers

Romanesco: an edible fractal

It is raining this Monday morning, July 29, 2019, and while I had a plan and to do list, instead, I have been drinking coffee, listening to the rain on the roof, and gazing contentedly out the window at the lake mist and rolling fog. It has been a busy week and I am tired, too tired to get busy with all the chores and to dos first thing. The weather has changed and there is a touch of fall in the air. The willows around the garden clearing have faded from their vibrant spring green and a few are tinged with gold. I am not quite ready for this changing of the seasons. When the days are so full of activity from morning to night, they march past far too quickly. The rain this week clarified our air and chilled the ambient temperature to a degree where I could almost (emphasis on almost!) consider lighting a little fire. It is hard to believe, when just over a week ago, we were sweating in the 80 degree plus heat. The rain is good for this household. Dishes are caught up and laundry put away. Crafts come out for the kids and vegetables that have been picked are processed. Nearly 2 cases of vinegar dilly beans have been canned and more than 3 gallons of lacto fermented dill pickles are in various stages of fermenting. The bigger green beans have been trimmed, blanched, and frozen for winter soups and stir fries. In the cold hole, cucumbers, cabbage, and more green beans wait in steel bowls to be processed for winter. And of course we have been eating copious amounts of veggies every day. Salad greens, broccoli, and sliced cucumbers are an everyday staple at the moment. My children have been excited that the romanesco is finally ready and two nights ago we consumed our first cauliflower. The head was small, perhaps 4 inches in diameter, but dense and delicious. And the raspberries! Far more are being eaten than put away for winter but it is impossible to resist the indulgence of consuming large handfuls, doled out evenly among the children, of the gorgeous berries.

I organized our freezers and pulled out a coolers worth of uneaten frozen vegetables from the garden last year, much to the delight of the hungry meat chickens. Now there is room for the bounty waiting in the garden.

Scarlet nantes and rainbow carrot blend

In between the rain showers this week, we have been working on building the 5 beds that were to be planted with cover crops this year. Other projects prevailed in June and July and I had nearly given up on completing them in time to plant any green manures. But as luck would have it, River Root Farm in Kenny Lake, offered to share their WWOOFers with me for 4 days. What is a WWOOFer? From their website https://wwoof.net/:  “WWOOF is a worldwide movement linking volunteers with organic farmers and growers to promote cultural and educational experiences based on trust and non-monetary exchange, thereby helping to build a sustainable, global community. As a volunteer (or WWOOFer as we call them) you will live alongside your host helping with daily tasks and experiencing life as a farmer. As a host farm you will open your home to receive visitors from your own country or abroad who want to connect with the land and support the organic movement.” I WWOOFed in Scotland in 1998 for 5 months and had an incredible experience while learning about organic market farms and the Scottish culture. I was excited to have my own experience of being a (temporary) host farm here in Alaska.

The beautifully weeded onion row. There had been a million baby aspens growing here.

I am used to doing things on my own so the magic of having the onions and leeks weeded, raspberries picked, and green beans cut up for blanching while I was occupied in other areas was amazing. We worked together when it was not raining on weeding and rebuilding the 5 cover crop beds and got two planted, one nearly ready for planting, and the remaining area weeded and ready for shoveling. It is a lot of work to build these permanent three feet wide and 100 feet long beds and to have two extra sets of hands plus good company and great conversation made the work far more pleasant than on my own. Thank you Madeline and Mavis! We miss them and all their hard work on the farm already. Hopefully any killing frosts will hold off for the month of August or longer so that the green manures planted this week get a chance to grow. Better late than never!

Green manure rows

Three rows are done and planted with crimson clover, bell beans, and barley. Two more to go, when I can find time. As I used up all my drip tape couplers repairing the tape on these 3 rows I am not sure how well irrigation will pan out on the last two.

I did a little grabbling for new potatoes this week. Grabbling is using your fingers to poke about for potatoes in the soil without removing soil from the roots or pulling out and therefore killing the plant. The potatoes are early too. Already there are good sized taters in the ground.

Grabbled potatos

I have been putting together vegetable boxes and selling them locally. It is time consuming but also rewarding to gather together a beautiful medley of vegetables. The kids and I have been working on some ideas for a self serve farm stand at Strelna Creek for next year.

A collection of vegetables ready to box up and head out to McCarthy

And it is the last chance to get seeds in the ground for an early September harvest. I had some helpers when planting radish seeds.

Help does not get cuter than these two!

It is the busy time of year for sure and my to do list keeps getting longer and very little seems to be getting checked off. Life can feel overwhelming this time of year. I have to force myself to let go of certain expectations and take some time to look around and appreciate what is here. Because while I am never able to complete all that I dream up to do in February…what is created in our short season is pretty darn awesome.

  • February 2019
  • July 2019

Till next week! (I will be in the garden. Weeders and eaters of vegetables are welcome!)

Time to Take Stock

The growing season has past the halfway point and at this time of year with fall looming in the near future, I am trying to take a moment to pause and appreciate how far the garden has progressed. It is hard to do because there are so many other things that need doing. The peas are overdue for picking, the harvested green beans need to be processed, cucumbers need to go in the brine, the yard and perennial garden need mowed and there are always weeds trying to go to seed. On the other hand, it is amazing to compare where the garden is now with where it was 2 months ago. The early cabbages have tight heads and are ready for harvest and the late cabbages have huge leaves. The broccoli is the best I have ever grown, so sweet. Some heads have not gotten very big but the side shoots are enormous, mini heads themselves. The kale is vigorous and the 5 varieties I planted make a beautiful garden bed mosaic. The brussels sprouts are already forming little sprouts. My cauliflower, unlike the bumper crop last year, has withered in the heat regardless of how much I water it. I do not expect much but there is still time and there are tiny heads forming within the swirl of leaves. My romanesco is heading up and will be ready soon. We are overcome with peas and green beans, baby lettuce and head lettuce. The carrots are the size of pinkie and ring finger already and so unbelievably sweet. Zucchini triples in size seemingly overnight and I am harvesting cucumbers from the main garden. Cucumbers from outside! (Technically they are in a low tunnel but I did not cover them for the first three weeks of July).

Main garden “national pickler” cucumber

The potato plants are 3 feet tall and densely in flower. My daughter asked me what beautiful plants these were as she ran her hands down the row of white, purple, and pink flowers. She could not believe they were potatoes; she did not recognize them in their height and blooming glory.

French Fingerlings in flower

The white currants are nearly ready though I am hesitating to pick them due to the beautiful funnel web spiders that have created incredible webs to catch insects. I like to check on them and see them crouching at the bottom of the funnel. But as we also really like to eat the white currants, these spiders will probably have some rebuilding to do. 

We picked our first handful of latham raspberries for dessert on Sunday night. Even though the raspberries have not been irrigated all summer (they are at the bottom of the sloped garden and in a usually damp area) the berries are perfect in shape and plumpness. The red currants have turned matte red and the black currants are blushing black but they still have awhile to go. What a berry year! We have over a gallon of frozen strawberries for winter smoothie treats even after eating them fresh for weeks. Not bad for our two raised beds. I did not weed them this spring as weeding horsetail often seems futile. The horsetail grew bushy and erect and the strawberry plants stretched a bit for the sun. The blossoms were visible and visited by many bees but the berries dropped below the horsetail when they started to put on weight and we had the least damage from birds ever this year. I think I will not weed my strawberries until after berry season from now on!

  • Latham raspberries
  • Latham raspberries
Winter treats: bagging up frozen strawberries

My greenhouse is full of cucumbers of all sizes but my peppers, ground cherries, and tomatoes are still in the green stage of fruit growth. Every week or so I have to tie the new growth up to the trellis so I can get in to check on things and water the center pots that are not on the drip system.

  • Looking West
  • Looking East

Sure there have been some failures because of the heat, two of my plantings of brassica greens bolted early on and I did not bother to replant radish as they got too spicy for the kids before they were eating size. And the flea beetles ate every single one of my spring turnip seedlings. I also have my own failures: cover crops that did not get sown (yet), perennial beds that have not been completed (yet), succession plantings not started (yet). But regardless of how you might personally feel about the rather intense heat of this summer, as long as you could irrigate, so far it has been an amazing season in the garden. 

A long time and dear friend came for dinner last Friday. Summer is so busy in the north that often you have to be intentional in stopping your projects and going to see someone or before you know it a few years have gone by without a visit. I feel so fortunate that Denise made the time to do just that! It was hot and we picked vegetables for her to take home and even Tim helped harvest. Normally, we wear a lot more clothing when harvesting for customers. 😉 How we ever forgot to take a picture of Denise in the garden though I do not know! Garden visits with friends are the best!

You know it is hot out when I am in shorts and Tim is half naked… (Denise J. photo credit)

Sunday was a turning point in our summer season for my family. My husband headed out for his annual two months away from home running his hunting guide outfit up north. His departure means saying goodbye to the horses as well as they head to the Brooks Range to go to work. I miss the horses terribly. Every morning when I went down to open tunnels or let out the chickens I would run my hands over their sleek, plump bodies and scratch under their manes. Our horses are inquisitive and friendly and they stand by the garden blowing warm air from their wide nostrils. This summer I taught the kids to lean down and gently blow back. The mingling breaths cement a relationship as the horses recognize your scent. Growing up horse crazy, these horses have fulfilled every girly horse dream I had. They are horses that you can ride bareback, swim with, lounge with as they snooze in the sun, explore the backcountry with, and they come running when you call for them. But they also have to earn their keep, so off to work they go. I look forward already to when they will come back home next spring.

Goodbye Copper! He is unashamedly my favorite.
Sylvia bringing the last horse, Taiga, to load up in the trailer.

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week have been decidedly cooler, not surpassing the mid seventies. This morning I woke up to the sound of drumming rain on the roof. It is a beautiful and hard rain that the dry ground is soaking up greedily. There are puddles for the first time in months. Yesterday we had a “small” town day, up to Glennallen. (“Big” town in Anchorage or Fairbanks; “small” town is every other town that has a few stores.) And newly fortified with some supplies, I will make dilly beans today. Leaning over the stove with the scent of dill and vinegar in the air on a cool rainy day actually sounds fun!

Till next week…