Independence Days Update: The Eat Your Weedies Edition

Greens as of 5/13/12

I told you'd I'd planted a lot of peas. This is part of one of the three beds. They're starting to bloom!

What a weekend! I feel so content now. A good chunk of writing done on the rewrite of Knowing the Ropes–I was hoping to get it done this weekend, but at least I’m much closer. (Lori Perkins, if you’re reading this, it will be heading your way shortly. Turned out I had a bit more that needed rewriting than I remembered.) And the garden…ah, the garden.

I still have two dozen tomatoes, some eggplant, and a few random tomatilloes to plant–and I’m not sure where they’re all going to go, honestly. But I made so much progress this weekend that I can stop having Garden Panic Attacks. (Anyone else get those? They’re not as  bad as Writing Panic Attacks, but sometimes I do lie awake thinking about the baby plants in my keeping and what I have to do to keep them healthy and happy. There’s a reason I never had children, people. I’m way too neurotic to cope.)

So what all did I do in the garden? Here’s the update:

Plant Something: Tomatoes (transplanted); potatoes; black Tuscon kale; bush Blue Lake, Romano, and Rattlesnake beans;  mizuna; cucumbers; lettuce. I also planted totally unanticipated zucchini and yellow squash. I was gifted with a few seedlings that I had no room for in the main garden. But they were so big and healthy, and as mentioned before I’m neurotic about my plant babies. They’re now ensconced in a pile of dirt left over from filling the raised beds, over on the edge of the yard. I’m not sure how they’ll do, but at least they have a chance now.

Harvest Something: Lettuce; kale; mizuna; tatsoi; bok choi; cutting celery; pea tendrils; Chinese kale-broccoli; lemon thyme; flowers; lamb’s quarters (edible weed); dandelions (another edible weed)

Preserve Something: Dried cutting celery

Eat the Food: white beans with home-canned tomatoes, kale, dandelions, and lamb’s quarters (“eat your weedies”); stir fries with Asian greens; braised greens; salads. Still eating the food from last year as well: peppers and Thai basil in the stir-fries, canned tomatoes, homemade stock, pumpkin pie, and more

Waste Not: Had a yard sale last weekend and will donate most of what didn’t sell. Collecting compostables from the woods behind the house. All the usual. Made a batch of stock.

Want Not: Nothing unusual.

Support Local Food Systems: Gave seeds to a friend and got plants from her. Looking forward to seeing what the CSA provides. It starts the week of May 23.

Skill Up: Really working on the composting.