Long Between Posts

My first love is living my days following our little journey and second is writing about it, and I miss when life becomes too hectic to do either of those things. But do the gardens and fruit trees permit excuses? No.  To catch the worm, I need to find the time to be ready when they say it's time.  The slavedrivers.

The 2nd harvest, 1st pick of figs happened a few weeks ago and from them we made jam. A couple of weeks after that twelve more quarts of figs were picked, which became whole fig preserves along with fresh munchies and a bunch brought to work.  The last of the figs should have been ready last week, and a lot were, and dried, and today I just checked the tree and more are ripening. Alright already!

Garden Chili Verde sauce

So in spite of intentions to hang out on the blog, I was canning and preserving continually after work, fell into bed, and was up and at it again the next day.

It has been a fantastic bumper tomato crop - and yes, Heirloom makes a difference in the taste and quality of the fruit - and also the garden has done well with salsa peppers, green peppers, Japanese eggplant and Armenian cucumbers. I think we have 10x more eggplants than last season just by putting up a trellis that shields them from a little of the afternoon sun.

We've put up quite a few quarts of Gardineira and dilly beans, plus a jalapeno/wax/green/salsa/garlic medley that looks interesting. It was another disappointing yield with zucchini, and I'm inclined to skip it altogether next year.  Our tomatillos are fruiting but they are small - we will trellis them next year and see how they do. They made a really good chili verde sauce base, along with some of the green tomatoes and salsa peppers - and we like knowing it has no preservatives. And now I'm experimenting with ChowChow with green tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and a lot of interesting spices including mustard seed. Will let you know how it goes.

Garden vinaigrette salad

 The full sun artichoke cannot tolerate full sun. It leaves me wondering why local nurseries sell it with those tag recommendations when they know better.  Seymour is too big to transplant, so I took cuttings and planted his offspring under the shade of the olive trees, where they seem to be doing well. He'll be coming out in the fall.

That little spindly leggy Pomegranate out back turned out to have the only beautiful pomegranate of the season: the other big tree produced a lot of small and dry fruit that opened months early and spilled out for the birds. Nothing gets wasted but we were disappointed. But that one pomegranate was harvested and trickled in a salad with friends and we enjoyed every kernel.

Pickled raw veggies

We received a 13 gallon kitchen garbage bag full of fresh basil and made pesto to share - how easy and delicious to whip that up with a Cuisinart, fresh garlic, olive oil, fresh parmesan and pine nuts. We traded it for a couple of pickled veggies and a bowl of tomatoes. Pine nuts are big $$ so we are trying out roasted almonds, roasted walnuts and (hopefully soon) roasted pumpkin seeds.

I am looking into a good salsa recipe now that we are quickly exhausting the tomato options with spaghetti sauce, freezing them whole, eating them in Caprese salads, stewing them and constantly eating them as part of my lunchtime vinaigrette salad.

Garden Pesto

Tried out a new recipe yesterday, a corn, cilantro, fresh tomato, lime and avocado salad.  Super easy, super good. It's a keeper.

Mexican Salad with Honey Lime Dressing (FB)

Salad:  (prep this in a bowl and squirt a little extra lime juice and coat everything so the avocado doesn't turn)
1 pint cubed tomatoes, fresh
1 avocado, ripe but still somewhat firm
2 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
2 ears fresh sweet corn, cooked al dente or raw - cut the corn off the cob and with the back of the knife scrape the cob to get all the juices.

Dressing:  Juice of 1 lime; 3 T. olive oil, 1 teaspoon honey, sea salt and lots of cracked pepper, 1 clove fresh garlic minced, and a dash of cayenne.  (Mix these ingredients and whisk; set aside)

Saran Wrap cover and store in the fridge until ready to serve. Great over broiled fish. Great as a pico de gallo alternative with chips. We loved it as a side for our breakfast omelet this morning.

Being in the kitchen seems to relieve some of the day's stress. Now if only someone would clean up the mess ...

Work in Progress

 

There is something beautifully unkempt about a work in progress.

The dust that clings to our boots as we tromp through the yard is tracked back into the house.  The weeds we appreciate because at least something's green on the back grass. Everything partners here and everything plays a role.

There is beauty in incompleteness.  The weeds jockey for position all spring and summer, being pulled and mowed down, and springing up to make another run. They stand now brown and reedy, giving up in the heat of summer, completely unaware they will be back. 

Change is indiscernible, and I'm more than ok with it. There is no stopwatch here, no big fancy event we need to host. In these rambling thoughts, I look out at the tangible changes we have forgotten about, the workshop and garage, irrigation out front and gardens out back with a rinky-dink drip system that criss-crosses the yard and keeps things alive.  

The work part of 'work in progress' seems to involve thinking and talking out where the wildflower garden should be with the butterfly bushes, and how to devise a seasonal greenhouse over the garden. Should we or should we not invest in gutters and rain collection barrels? What are the pros and cons of solar panels? We seem focused on 3 things: what do we need, how do we get there, and when do we start. It seems we are working towards becoming honest and true self sustainers.

Before all that happens, we are collecting unusual bottles for the bottle wall, and wondering if this climate zone can sustain a Pistachio tree and Lemon Eucalyptus. We walk around framing in squares with our hands: here is perfect just as it is; here will be the deck, and here someday a porch room to sit out in the evenings and look at the stars.

Part of this involves trusting things we can see (the little blue Well) and things we can't see (the Septic). We drive by fields of alfalfa that are being overwatered and furrow our brows in concern. We look for, and miss, the Great Horned Owls and wonder where they are raising their baby. I'd have never given any of that a second thought in the city.

The feral cats are fed and watered and all we hope is for whatever they can give back.  Just like the land, slowly but surely, we feel ourselves as magnificent works in progress, too.