Category Archives: Gardening

Friday Morning Garden Report

Posted on July 13, 2012 by AnnieRie

The tomatoes have finally arrived for real. That is, the big ones, and not just the cherry, grape and plum tomatoes. I harvested the first orange blossom and Amish paste tomatoes the past two days.

Now, I just need those chocolate stripes, or the legend, or great white to ripen, to see what will be submitted to the Fair in three weeks. These tomatoes need to move into high gear. I know they shut down and go into survival mode during excessive heat, which is what they did for those 90-100 degree days we had. After a quick start, they are moving along at a snail’s pace. I did get the first of the red fig tomatoes, a very interesting heirloom I bought from the Howard County Master Gardeners on Earth Day this spring.

The rest of the little tomatoes continue to put out new growth and are giving me a few a day. I got the first green grape tomato today, in the middle of the sweet olive, yellow plum, yellow pear and red figs in the bowl, there is a lone green grape, just about ripe. I pick these just a bit early to minimize pest damage, like stink bugs do.

They will ripen on the windowsill. As for other garden goodies, the stealth cucumbers are still out there. This one was hidden down in a crevice behind all the tomato plants. The vine had climbed over the bunny fence and dropped down into the fence post corner, where it hid until it reached mega size for a pickling cucumber.

We are actually attempting to make this monster into a dill pickle, which should be interesting.

On the flower front, the gladiolus plants are winding down, but hanging in there. The first marigolds have bloomed, and this one was saved after the bunnies chomped it off its stem.

Herbs are doing well in spite of the heat. Hope we get a little more rain to get the gardens around here in better shape again. I know there are water restrictions due to the water main break repairs. That doesn’t bode well for gardens in intense heat. Being on a well with a high water table right now, I am thankful to be able to water the herbs in the pots and keep them going.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Howard County, Weather, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, Howard County, spring flowers, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Tonight We Fiddle, Saturday We Farm, Later We Look for Fairy Houses

Posted on July 12, 2012 by AnnieRie

My volunteering schedule is pretty full this week. We held a planning meeting Wednesday for upcoming events at the Conservancy, and this is the busy part of the summer.

Fiddlers and Fireflies, a picnic with music and crafts, is tonight starting at 6 PM. It costs $10/car, and the music is great. Bring a blanket, chairs and a picnic dinner. The event is held in the lower front yard, where the sisters had their garden.

This Saturday, the 14th, there will be one of the monthly Wonder Walks, that focuses on living and farming on the 230+ acre property. We will be leading groups down and around the buildings and talking about what it was like to live here from the early 1800s until the time that the sisters gave the property to the Conservancy.

Naturalists will be leading groups. The event starts at 10 am, and is no cost. I will be leading a group and we will be visiting the out buildings, the barns, the gardens, and take a walk down to the grasslands to see how the farmers used their land to the best advantage to grow crops and keep their farm animals.

A little farther out this month there will be another special event. Looking for Fairy Houses in the forest. It is on the 28th of July. Another free Wonder Walk that is geared towards the little ones, ages 4-10.

It looks like there’s lots to do around here, and I am certainly not bored in my retirement.

hocoblogs@@@

The YEMMies are Coming!

Posted on July 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

What’s a YEMMie? A new term I found reading Barron’s last week. It seems many younger mothers are becoming selective about buying unprocessed and natural foods, instead of highly refined or processed items to serve their families. Barron’s calls them Young Educated Millennial Mothers, or YEMMies.

Updating to say that clicking on Barron’s takes you to a preview page. The article is from July 7th, so you have to click again on the correct date to get it to open.

From Barron’s perspective, it is a reason to seek out investments in areas like Whole Foods and Hain Celestials.

From the healthy living perspective, I know I have seen this attitude in those who belong to the CSA with us. Many mothers making their own baby foods from the organic veggies we get every week. Trading for things like squash and sweet potatoes, to puree for strained foods.

The popularity of smoothies. It is another reason people join CSAs. Organic produce, without waxes or sprays, chemical free, allow you to use the entire vegetable and not lose the nutrients found in the skins. When I make cucumber salad, for example, with my own cucumbers, or those from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop, I can leave all or part of the skin on them, without having to eat waxed cucumber skins.

Organic oranges, lemons and limes give me wax free and chemical free zest.

Later this summer I will be pickling watermelon rinds, and I will also be making preserved lemons. In both instances, I search out organic. Now that Wegmans has arrived, with over 100,000 organic items, they will be my source for what I need to cook and preserve.

Those of us who have changed our habits to buy more raw ingredients, and cook more from scratch, are finding lots of company among the younger adults. Add to that the resurgence in young farmers and the explosion of farmers markets, and it seems maybe better food and more choice for organic is the result.

If you attend Miller Library or Howard General’s markets on Wednesday and Friday, say Hi to John Dove, of Love Dove Farms, who was profiled in the Howard Magazine lately. He is just one of the local farmers growing things without chemicals. The article mentions TLV and Breezy Willow, two other good sources for veggies, meat and eggs.

It is almost Buy Local Week here. the last week of July. Are you supporting the Buy Local challenge? I am. Make at least one local meal or item in a meal from foods bought from a Howard County Farmer!

Local greens, radishes, cheese and blueberries in salad

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Posted in Community, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Stealth Cucumbers …

Posted on July 5, 2012 by AnnieRie

… again, and other things found out in the garden. I posted a while back about cucumbers having a mind of their own and trying to escape. My garden in west Howard County is a source of many home grown meals in summer. Cucumbers and tomatoes will make great gazpacho, if the tomatoes will start coming in before the cucumbers stop.

The cucumbers are still going crazy, and still trying to escape the garden confines, only now in the back of the garden. This one was outside the fence hiding under a sticker bush.

I get weeds between the bunny fence and deer fence, which I leave alone as a deterrent to little critters trying to squeeze in. This cucumber plant decided to plow through two fences and climb the sticker bush. I didn’t find it until it was this large.

I have others coming through near the gate, and also winding their way into the tomato garden, so this year they are taking over. That does give us enough cucumbers, though, in order to make lots of salads, pickles and to can some. Not a bad year for them.

As for tomatoes, they are getting bigger, and the small ones continue to ripen. They were all lined up on the windowsill waiting to become part of last night’s dinner.

The gladiola have exploded. Never have they given me this much bounty. Maybe two or three per plant, but not there are dozens. In the heat, they will wilt quickly so I have been cutting them and keeping a large arrangement on the table.

Tomato update shows all but three plants with tomatoes, two pineapple tomato plants and one of the great white tomato plants. A few are suffering in the heat. The yellow pear, last year’s big producer, both plants look a little ragged. At least this year, the green grape, sweet olive, red fig and yellow plum plants will keep me in tiny salad tomatoes.

Sweet Olive tomatoes, lots of them

The chocolate stripes are getting bigger. And, on the three plants there are dozens of them.

While out there, I spied a visitor. A spicebush swallowtail. We have one Carolina spicebush, and two butterfly bushes in the yard, so butterflies are frequent visitors.

Plus, one little pest, who is probably mamma to the babies who are eating my herb garden.

At least she can’t get through the bunny fence. Her little ones still do, though, so I have to be vigilant for a few more weeks. It’s not like there isn’t enough other things out there for them to eat. The garden seems to be doing well, so far this year, and I hope to start seeing big fresh Maryland grown tomatoes soon. I will be out there with a bucket of water and a salt shaker soon. Nothing like fresh tomato, rinsed clean and lightly salted, eaten minutes after picking. Best lunch I get in west county!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Locavore, Nature, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, hoco loco, Howard County, nature, photography, spring flowers, tomatoes, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Finally! The Hillbillies Are Doing Something!

Posted on June 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Well, that got your attention. I am talking tomatoes, though. My heirloom hillbilly tomatoes. Part of the slackers in the garden. They finally started to produce.

Two of the four plants now have tomatoes on them. The only hold outs now are the pineapple and two of the three great whites. That makes six plants out of thirty two that have blossoms but no tomatoes. Every year a few of them blossom but don’t produce.

The hillbillies are a new heirloom for me. I saw them for the first time last year at the County Fair. They won, in the heirloom category. According to one of the judges, they are citrusy and full of flavor. We shall see. Not pretty, but supposedly very good.

I put in many varieties this year to see what does best in my garden. So far, the orange blossom and the chocolate stripes are putting out the highest amount of tomatoes. I may enter the chocolate stripes depending on their taste. I am also very encouraged by the amount of Amish paste tomatoes that are growing on those four plants.

I hope this is a good year for tomatoes. It certainly is a good year for my gladiolus. There are at least a dozen stems out there in my cluster of plants. I get new cuttings daily.

Are you growing anything for the Howard County Fair? I am entering tomatoes, herbs, and photographs. I don’t think the cukes will last long enough, and don’t know if the celosia will hang in there long enough either. They are pretty though.

hocofood@@@

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Global Warming

Posted on June 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

It has to be. Why else would I have ripe tomatoes in June? Earlier than I ever have harvested tomatoes? Last year I had yellow pear tomatoes on 1 July. This year, yellow plum harvested this morning. Here is the picture from yesterday morning.

Besides these, I have sweet olive tomatoes about ready. Maybe Thursday or Friday for the first of these.

This morning I went out to look for cucumbers. I had used many of them for salads, pickles and tzatziki for Field Day. I knew there were a few more lurking under the leaves. I was checking on the tomatoes and one of them fell off the vine, so I decided to take them to make breakfast.

I also pulled the last of the spring garlic in hopes of making some pesto. And pulled a few pole beans off. The take.

Breakfast came together easily. Some of those luscious eggs from my friend’s hens. Scapes from my spring garlic and my little tomatoes.

Added what I thought was the last of the foraged wild asparagus, but I found two more today. Trickling Springs butter. Some CSA yellow chard and Boarman’s bacon went in the pan also.

Let everything mix together and add some heels of bread to sop up all that good butter.

Yes, I broke one yolk. Remember ugly food tastes better. I just adjusted what I did.

Here’s to many more local meals from my garden, my friends, and the local farmers of Howard County. Any other tomatoes out there being harvested?

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Foraging, Gardening, Howard County, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, Howard County, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

The State of the Garden

Posted on June 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

Other than slightly wilted. I have been good about watering it. The heat index today will make it difficult to keep the container plants hydrated, but I will get out there and keep them from scorching. I love the celosia that is blooming on the steps and I wouldn’t want to lose them.

I hope the heat doesn’t mess up the cucumbers. There are lots of little ones on the vines and one monster that was hiding under the fence. I usually like the pickling cucumbers smaller than this, but I think a few large dill pickles can be handled.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely. One large Amish paste, and lots of little ones on all four plants. I was worried about them at first because they seem to wilt more, but they are hanging in there.

Both orange blossom tomato plants have tomatoes now. The biggest ones are hidden deep down in the midst of the shady leaves.

The pole beans are over the top of the fence and climbing the extensions and even attaching themselves to fence posts.

With three or four slicing cucumbers ready to pick today and two coming in the CSA box, I think I will be making cucumber salad for the weekend. Hard to believe a few weeks ago the garden was just starting out, and now it is full of large healthy tomatoes, cucumbers, and pole beans.

Time to go mist the plants with a water bottle containing a little dish soap since I found a few aphids on one of the tomato plants. Can’t have them spreading. Have a good Thursday, and stay cool.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Gardening, Locavore, Nature, Real Food, Weather and tagged CSA, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, hoco loco, Locavore, nature, real food, tomatoes, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

The Friday Morning Harvest

Posted on June 15, 2012 by AnnieRie

Ah, the beginning of the garden harvest. Today gave me six pole beans with the promise of a half dozen more tomorrow.

I had to harvest these close to the ground ones. Baby bunny squeezes through my deer fence, and these looked too tempting to leave until tomorrow. With the ones farther up the fence, and bunny proof, that I will harvest tomorrow, I will be steaming green beans to have with grilled petit filets tomorrow night.

I have another cucumber getting closer, and hopefully it won’t get bite marks like the last one. I will leave this one on a few more days to get bigger.

I did check out the asparagus to see what was there. One to cut, and one went to seed.

The herbs are flowering, particularly the varieties of thyme.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely. These are orange blossom.

About five of my tomato plants have tomatoes. All the rest are still in blossom stage. Can’t wait for the first cherry tomatoes to ripen next month. July 4th is usually when I get the first ones.

All in all, a nice Friday morning with a promise of a lovely weekend.

hocofood@@@

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On a Wine Wednesday …

Posted on June 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

Trying to make sense of hashtags? What is #WW? Is it Wine Wednesday? Or Writer’s Wednesday? Or Wacky Wednesday? Keeping up on Twitter is sometimes confusing. But, for me, I think I will consider yesterday was Wine Wednesday.

We have been slowly working through older wines in the cellar. Buying local wines when first released, usually at a good price, and putting them away while drinking less expensive jug and non vintage stuff allowed us to keep some amazing wines stashed away. Out of sight. Out of mind.

We now are in the position of pulling out oldies but goodies, and enjoying that patience of 33 years of putting away more bottles than we drank. It also took organization. I kept an Excel spreadsheet that collated and tracked everything shoved under the cellar stairs in our old house. Now, I am working my way through that sheet.

Mostly doing OK. Pouring one or two down the drain, but keeping track did allow us to minimize the loss. We bought cases of cheap Bordeaux, years ago. I am talking $65 a CASE for some wines. Those we opened for parties, or with dinner on a weekend.

We joined a few case clubs, or cellar clubs, like Breaux. We get a case a year. Mostly really decent wines. I have posted before about being a “locapour” and choosing local wines to drink when I can. I think it makes eating locally even more fun, when you can pair a local wine with locally grown food. This lovely Cellar Selection Nebbiolo Ice became part of dessert last week, paired with a few slices of Bowling Green Farms Feta. Salty Feta, and deeply rich wine, a perfect pairing. Nice to enjoy while watching sunsets on the porch.

We also have done a few vineyard visits to places like the Finger Lakes, and Charlottesville. Put together a four pack or six pack, mostly of white wines, but with one or two good reds to put away. Our visit to Pearmund last Sunday brought us a couple of Ameritage to put away, and a few Chardonnays to drink now.

Last night we had leftovers, so to speak. I made lasagna the other night, and last night we had part of it for dinner. This was thrown together, no real recipe lasagna. Full of local items, but also using up stuff from the fridge, pantry and freezer.

I used to buy frozen lasagna all the time when I worked. I now make it from scratch, and use whatever is around. I made this “mess”, yes, it looks ugly, but ugly food tastes better, right? 🙂

The meat in this lasagna is South Mountain Creamery pork sausage. Very little of it, but enough to make it tasty. Taken out of its casings, I chopped two links of sausage and mixed with a jar of McCutcheon’s spaghetti sauce and herbs from my garden, and half a container of Pacific Organic red pepper tomato soup. Long on sauce and short on sausage. Below is a staple I buy at Costco, an organic soup that adds flavor to so many of my meals. It even jazzes up my gazpacho occasionally.

I had the last of the South Mountain mozzarella and some Bowling Green Farms cheddar in the fridge. It got mixed into the stack, and I cheated and used no boil noodles found in the pantry. The other item used was chard. Lots of sauteed chard to form part of two layers on the bottom. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but it worked out well. Really had a good taste.

Along with the lasagna, I put together a locally sourced salad. Romaine and orange cauliflower from the Catonsville market. Feta from Bowling Green Farms. Radishes from Breezy Willow. My first cucumber from the garden. Blueberries from Butler’s. And, blackberry splash vinaigrette from Catoctin Mountain Orchards.

I love fruit in salads. Summer berries are so good tossed on greens with cheese and other crunchy veggies. All in all, another relaxed patio meal, with another wine from down the road a piece. I am hoping this lovely weather holds for Father’s Day weekend. It has certainly been nice lately.

hocofood@@@

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Meet Me At the Fair

Posted on June 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

I know it’s summer when the fair brochure arrives in the mail. I go browsing through the home arts section to decide what to enter this year, and check on my tomatoes to see which ones will be the heirlooms to choose to enter.

I picked my first pickling cucumber this morning.

Not to brag or anything, but I put it up against the CSA pickles that came last Thursday. Mine is the big one on the left. 🙂

My husband wants me to make dill pickles like his mom made, and keep them in a crock. I hope my six plants give me enough to put up a crock of them. I also want to do bread and butter pickles for the fair.

In the past I entered tomatoes and herbs. This year I may branch out and do photography. I have lots of cool pics taken for the blog that would work in many categories, like historic Howard County, and animals, and still life (my flowers). Entering the fair is fun. Most of the time I get nothing but I have two ribbons, one for herbs and one for heirlooms.

Purple calabash, in 2010. This year I planted chocolate stripes, amana orange, legend, pink caspian, great white, pineapple and orange blossom. We will see what does best in my soil. I also planted lots of cherry and grape tomatoes. I never seem to do well in that area.

I did get a ribbon last year for my herbs. This year, the new herbs include tarragon and marjoram. I didn’t do stevia again. I did put in a number of lavender plants, and more varieties of basil. Can never have too much basil. Particularly when the tomatoes come in like this.

If you have never entered the fair, it is really easy to do. Herbs are the easiest. Flowers too. Growing enough veggies to meet the minimum in some categories is difficult but for grape or cherry tomatoes, it is easy to get 15 of them. It is not too late to plant a few tomato plants or an herb border in your yard, and you can put together the three herb arrangement you need to enter.