a morning by the garden

Tending to Our Community Garden Plot

Our community garden plot is doing rather well, considering the dry spell we had when we first planted. We have discovered the wonders of mulching around the plants to keep weeds down and to keep moisture in the ground. One of the cool things about having a community garden plot is you get to see the other members plots and their gardening styles. We have beginner gardeners (that's us!) and the masters all in one place. Some mulch, some don't. Some do square foot gardening, some use a mound and ditch system, and someone even has raised beds. We are lucky that all of this is just a few blocks from our house. Urban homesteading opportunities are all over Waukesha, now only if we could have chickens....

Days

Lately our days have been spent nurturing Simplestead Baby, and we wouldn't want it any other way. She is 3 and a half months now. I know how everyone says "enjoy it, it goes fast", it really does, but in a good way. We love that every day our baby girl is growing and discovering new things about herself and surroundings. 

I am truly blessed that I am able to be our baby's primary caretaker, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. We simplified many things in our lives in order for me to be a stay at home Mom. I know it is not for everyone and I know not every mother has the ability to stay home, but this is what works for us. I sometimes feel there is animosity between stay at home moms and working moms. I think neither one is easier or harder than the other. No matter how you slice it, being a Mom is an important and at times difficult job. There are pros and cons to staying at home or working. I say do whatever works best for your family and situation and we should all respect each others as MOTHERS.

During the day, I try to slow down and enjoy my baby, knitting helps me do this. When she goes down for a nap, I will often sit near her and watch her sleep while on work on a knitting project. It keeps me balanced, besides, I would rather make something than fold laundry. I also can't stop knitting her stuff (can ya tell). I keep finding the cutest patterns and add it to my knit list (which is a mile long now). I promised my poor husband a sweater for his birthday and I am not even half done with it. Good thing he wouldn't wear it until Fall anyway so I was able to push back my deadline.

Anyway, enough about knitting, back to about being a Mommy. I really feel in my element as a mother. Our baby has just begun to teach us what really matters. How no matter what you are worried about or how rough the day is going, that little smile can make it all melt away. We are her world, and I am so glad she chose us to guide her through her life journey. 

Let's see, what else.... ah yes, the garden! Everything is pretty much planted. We have two plots this year, one being the community garden plot and the other a plot by my in-laws. We had a dry spell but then we had a few good soakings and more coming up this weekend. We have also been experimenting with container gardening in front of the condo. So far it is going well, we get more morning sun than we initially thought. We've got two big pots of mixed greens, chives, lavender and rosemary. I may add parsley and basil. We figure if we can grow it, it is one less thing to buy. 

We hope everyone is having an awesome Summer! Hit up those Farmer's Markets or go grow a garden or something. Get OUTSIDE and enjoy your mate, enjoy your family. In Wisconsin we drink beer and eat brats, it's a great bonding experience. 

Plotting

Big plans await this space this year. We are so lucky to have a community garden plot a few blocks away. This will be our third year gardening here. This afternoon the Simplestead family took a walk to the plot to scope out the freshly tilled ground. Last week Jake took the compost from our angora rabbits and worked it into our plot of dirt so that it would get mixed in well when it was finally tilled. Planting will commence next week.

We introduced Simplestead Baby and Sawyer to the garden. This will be a space they will learn to love as much as we do.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone! We are celebrating with first smiles from the Simplestead Baby! Today will be spent line drying our cloth diapers,going outside for a family walk, and starting some more seeds for the garden. Oh how we love the simple life!

Starting

I've been so busy being a daddy that I almost forgot to start my seeds for the garden!  There was more prep work that last year because I was going to use the finished product from the worm bin to start them.  I found that the vermicompost was very wet and I had a rough go at sifting it.  I used an old window screen which punched holes in it.  It took damn near 3 hours to get a half a 5 gallon bucket full.  I am thinking that the stuff was just way too wet, but the worms were loving it.  I literally could squeeze the water out of the stuff.

So into the flats the worm casting went.  This year we are planning on having three different types of tomato ( cherry, beef and past).  I have been finding that mixing up the tomatoes so not two of the same kind are next to each other keeps the pests and blight to a minimum.  Also started was kohlrabi, cabbage, bell peppers, and summer squash.  Sure does feel good to get some dirt under the fingernails.  Middle of May cannot come soon enough!

UPDATE:  three days later I get my first germinating seeds!  This is the same flat as above on day 4:

   

Kraut In A Crock

 The cabbage is finally ready to be picked and made into sauerkraut.  Sauerkraut great for the digestive system and is also boosts the immune system.  This was also one of the easiest things to make.  This was our first time making kraut and honestly, my first time tasting it! 

We used 3 table spoons or per five pounds as a starting point.  As we mashed the cabbage we then added more salt to taste.

 

When the crock was full, we covered the soon to be kraut with some of the larger left over leaves and then put a lid with weight on it to keep the cabbage submerged below the juices to keep bacteria from getting in.  After 24 hours we had to add more brine to get the kraut submerged like we wanted.  After 5 days we tasted it (it needed a couple more days) and when it got to the sourness we wanted, it was canned it. 

 

This was just four head of cabbage and really only took around a half hour of prep and another half hour to can over the course of a week.  Easy peasy!  And for my first time tasting it, I can say that I should not have waited so long.

Sauce Makin', Son!

I want to extend a special thanks to my husband's grandmother who so graciously gifted us a huge box of Beefsteak and Amish Paste Tomatoes to make sauce with. Unfortunately with our drought conditions we did not get the yield we wanted from our garden this year but lucky for us we have an extended family who also gardens. Last night, Jake and I peeled, cut and sieved the whole box in one sitting. We were left with 26 cups of red pulpy goodness. I am hoping to get at least 7 quarts of sauce.

So today I am making the sauce before I go to work and will can it tomorrow. I find it is less overwhelming if you break up the workload over the course of a few days and it helps if the entire family can pitch in. Plus Jake and I actually enjoyed peeling tomatoes together. We put the music on and just got to be next to each other and talked about the baby and whatever else came across our minds. It was so nice to unplug and just be with each other for a while.

Everyone's getting in the action.

It seems that Denali, one of our Angora Rabbits, figured the compost needed to be turned one more time before going on the garden.

 

Don't worry, the pile here has already been broken down and had been sitting for a month now.

Seed Starting

Throughout the winter I had been dreaming of this day.  Seed starting day.  I made it a goal for this year's garden to start as many of my plants as possible.   Well I can scratch that goal off the list.  I used an awesome FREE garden planner called Smart Gardener to plan this year's garden.  It was a one stop shop place for me as I could chose my conventional, organic and heirloom varieties and the tool would place them next to other plants that play nice together. To top it all off, you can then buy those very seeds from Baker Creek, Southern Exposure, Peaceful Valley or other suppliers straight from the tool!  I will go more in depth in another post, but for free I couldn't have been happier.

As this is my first year starting my seeds I do not know what kind of germination rate I should expect so I planted three times as many potential plants as I need and placed two seeds in each starter and pluck out the weaker of the two if both germinate.  Just typing that made me realize that what I did was probably overkill.

I had picked up a Burpee's starter tray that had these disks that will expand with the addition of water.  They worked well as long as the disk was the right way, otherwise the disk would expand sideways and I had to break up the compact disk.  Besides that, they worked out great.  With the clear shield on and out of the sun, I should start seeing my little guys popping up any day now.


I am also working on a basement grow light and watering system that will help give my little guys the best shot they can. Blight and beetles be damned!

Ain't that the Truth!

Back to Eden

One of the lasting observations from last year's garden was the fact that as the summer months wore on, the ground became so hard and compact that I could barely scratch the surface. Weeding was near impossible and I could not imagine how that was affecting the growth and production of the vegetables. The soil was also light brown and not the dark brown and black that I knew described healthy soil. I began thinking that there must be a better way to garden and not have the soil pay dearly.

Thanks to Jack Spirko at the Survival Podcast, who in turn pointed me to Paul Wheaton at permies.com, I was turned on to permaculture. Using the natural processes found in forests and bringing them into the garden is an extraordinary idea and frankly was one of those "duh" moments for me. One of the core ideas behind permaculture is to keep the rain that falls on an area for as long as possible.

At permies.com, this movie, "Back to Eden" is found all over the forums and I just had to check it out. The movie showcases Paul Gautschi in Washington state and his wonderfully simple idea of using wood chips to do all of the work for him the garden. The wood chips continually nourish and hydrate the soil to create near ideal conditions to grow. The same process can be found in any forest as the dead trees, dead branches and leaves continually lay down a layer of mulch which turns the soil into a huge sponge. This simple idea makes land that is both drought proof and flood proof.

Something like this is so simple that I have got to try it out for this year's garden. Hopefully this will be the cure for the peas wilting in the first heat of summer and keep the blight off of my tomatoes. I do not have to rely on this food yet, so I still have time to experiment. As Joel Salatin says, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing wrong." You can't be afraid to try something different. Frankly, I don't see a downside to trying this.

From the garden to the jar

Thanks to my husband's hard work this year in our first garden, I picked a plentiful harvest of tomatoes and green peppers. I'm so proud, he really put his heart and soul into making this garden work. Overall I say it was a success, I'm sure he will later elaborate on the trials and tribulations of the first garden.

I have been dreaming of making some canned pasta sauce to better preserve our bounty so I had been gathering supplies (large canner from a thrift store, Ball canning utensil set, jars from the grocery store). I have to admit, I was very nervous about my first ever canning session. I had watched my in-laws can pickles a few weeks ago and I was quite intimidated by that. However, I knew that the only way I was going to learn was to just go ahead and do it. And if I failed, at least I would learn from my mistakes and try again.

I found a simple recipe here. I kind of made it my own since I like a lot of flavor, plus I am part Sicilian so if it calls for garlic, I at least double the amount. I actually used garlic powder since what I thought was garlic from the garden were actually premature white onions (I failed to consult my husband on which row was what), live and learn I guess. The sauce tasted pretty good when it was done, and when it came to canning it, it luckily went pretty smoothly. I found that the canning utensils I had purchased came in handy - like the magnet on a stick that fishes out the lids from the boiling water. My mother-in-law had told me to make sure that the lips of the glass jars were spotless before I put the lids on, otherwise they would not seal in the canner. I was very anal about this step but it paid off because all five jars of sauce sealed.

Yes, I said all five jars. It takes a lot of tomatoes to make sauce.


But it is five less jars I will have to buy at the store, plus it is made from fresh, hand-picked tomatoes that we grew ourselves and that in itself is well worth it. I feel I will taste our whole experience when we eat this sauce come winter. I just hope it does not spoil, I know all the lids sealed but sometimes even sealed stuff can go bad. I guess only time will tell.

If anyone is interested in canning, my first suggestion is to find someone you know who does it so you can see it in real life and get those great tips that you may not find in books or online. If you do not know anyone who cans, books and websites may be your only resources and that is okay, we all have to start somewhere. The initial set up cost seems pricey but in long term you save, plus you'll have good food all year long! Also check out thrift stores and rummage sales for used canning supplies. These items have changed very little over the years and you can score some good deals on used goods.

Stay tuned for future canning adventures!