Eight point buck

For the last week there have been three does feeding in the hayfield out back around dawn and dusk, so I wasn't really interested when I noticed a large brown presence over the fence this morning.  But then the deer came closer to the yard that the does ever have, and I stopped reading the paper and looked out the slider through the top of my bifocals.

Instead of the shy does, a brave and relaxed eight point buck was just beyond the fence.  I grabbed my binoculars and watched him for a while, then picked up a camera.  He looked healthy and fat, ready for winter.
I know that in some Eastern communities, especially in Connecticut, deer have been very destructive of vegetable and ornamental gardens. But  around here we've got lots of good deer habitat, as well as a healthy population of coyotes, so they are still good company rather than the enemy.  And that's the first time I've seen a buck in about ten years.

The last flowers of the year: Witch Hazel

My fall blooming Witch Hazel began blooming  inconspicuously when the leaves were still on the tree, but now that the leaves are gone, the flowers are still going.  The small clusters of strand-like blooms fill the air by my front door with a delicate citrus scent, and cheer me up when I come home from work in the early afternoon twilight of November.

After the snow

The storm   last week wasn't bad here-- we had only a dusting of snow and did not lose power.
Here's a shot of the
snow:

                                But we got a really hard frost on Nov.1-- just like last year:

But the hardy crops are still going-- chard, lettuce and parsley. 

I also found some overlooked onions re-sprouted as scallions, which I combined with parsley, potatoes and a balsamic vinaigrette for a tasty fall salad.

A storm is coming....

Last year we had  the first hard frost on November 1. This year we had frost on the 27th.  Still later than the old standard for this area of October 15th.  Now a long storm of rain and snow is bearing down on the Northeast and my garden.  My winter rye is sprouting in the barrel by the gate, and elsewhere in the garden.  It will help hold the soil in place during the winter storms, and can survive the cold.

I threw a row cover over the fence surrounding my patch of 'Lucullus' chard, and tucked it as well as  I could, but the winds will be up to 60 miles an hour, and I fully expect to find it either ripped to shreds  or on the other side of the garden, or both, tomorrow.   Or may be not-- the bed is surrounded by fence and a patch of blueberries, which may shelter it.   I did a  pre-emptive picking of both chard and lettuce this morning.  I did not cover the lettuce, but in past years it has survived well when sheltered in light snow.  Update tomorrow, after I shovel!

Fall Greens -- Heirloom pics

Here are two heirloom greens that produce wonderfully for me:

 ABOVE:
Tom Thumb lettuce--- wonderfully tender buttery little heads.  I had a spring crop that was also very heat tolerant, and here's the fall crop.
BELOW:
Lucullus Swiss Chard-- not as pretty as 'Bright Lights', but tender and productive, not to mention frost resistant! I've got them in a small fenced bed that I can toss a row cover over on cold nights. Great stir-fried with tofu and anything else you care to add in a ginger, sherry, tamari and sesame oil sauce.

Good Grass

I like my lawn.  There, I've admitted it!  The large swaths of green are bright and cheerful,  good for playing tag with Sol, and even excellent habitat for many of the  birds, reptiles and mammals who live in and visit my yard.  

There has been a 'green' outcry against lawns the last few years. They use lots of precious water, are treated with chemicals and fertilizers that damage the ecosystyem,  burn fossil fuel when cut,  and could be planted with vegetables instead...  all true in many cases, but not in regard to my lawn. 

I don't live in Arizona, Texas, or another area where the climate is all wrong for growing the typical lawn grass species.  Lawns in temperate climates like mine don't need a lot of water as long as the property owner understands the life cycle, and is ok with  some brown grass in August.  In twenty years I have never watered my lawn!  I have also never fertilized, and never spread herbicides or pesticides, yet my lawn look green and verdant most of the time.  

So how do I keep my lawn this way?  First, I don't worry about some plants considered lawn weeds.  One whole section of lawn on the shady side is really Ajuga, or  bugleweed. It mows just fine, and outcompetes the dandelions. Also, it is a beautiful carpet of blue flowers for a month in late spring. I also welcome sorrel and  clover, which are both  bright green, cut well, and have flowers that bees enjoy.  I will hand dig big dandelions and plantains, but nor obsessively. 

I cut the grass high, and leave some of the clippings in place to fertilize.  When I've let it go too long and the cuttings are thick, I rake them and use them as mulch and fertilizer in the vegetable and flower beds.  I cut my grass with a reel mower most of the time. It's so quiet that I can listen to a book on tape while mowing.  About four times a season the weather or my schedule keeps me from mowing, and I call a family friend who comes in with his commercial mower for a modest fee plus an assortment of garden produce. The clippings from these cuts provide so much mulch I don't have to buy any in-- thus meaning no truck burning gas to deliver.

I like my lawn, but I know that as I get older it will be harder for me to keep cutting it with the reel mower.  So I have a strategy; working in from the edges I make the lawn smaller each year.  Here's a picture of the big bed of  ornamental grasses I planted ten years ago just after planting:

 Here's the same bed today:
It requires some weeding, but because I mulch it with the cuttings from the previous year's grass each spring, the weeds are manageable.

 I dug and planted this bed two years ago. It's starting to fill in.

 This shady bed is about five years old. I built the gravel path at the same time.

 The bed in the picture below  surrounds the stump of an apple tree I cut down ten years ago. It's been getting a foot wider every year, and is planted with perennials in the center, and rhubarb and vegetables farther out.  Note the dead patch on the lawn-- I've been monitoring it for a month, trying to decide if I should rake and seed it with grass.  But it is half the size it was originally, so I think I'll leave it to it's own devices for now.

All lawns are not evil, and here in Southeastern Massachusetts  untreated lawns like mine are important wildlife habitat, especially when they border on hayfields like the one beyond my fence. Many species of meadow birds are in decline locally because of the reforestation of the East Coast, and fields and lawns can help them survive.  Did I mention  fireflies? The grasslands are key to their survival too.

Eventually,  I plan to have a manageable section of lawn on view from the slider, surrounded by flowers, shrubs and vegetables; small enough to cut in a day, big enough to host a crowd of fireflies on a warm July evening.

 

Cooking Frenzy

When I graduated from college the job market was tough, much like today. I worked in a video store for a few months, then lucked into a job as a cook at a busy, hip restaurant.  I worked as  a cook for the next ten years,  before moving on to horticulture.   That was a long time and two careers ago, but I still love to cook fast and furiously, making several dishes at the same time, just because I can!   And cooking food I've grown gives me a sense  (probably false, but comforting) of some control over my life. 

Here's what I made today. 

                                Baked Butternut squash casserole with my own squash and onions.

Yet more pickled peppers. No, I don't have a peck, but there are a lot.

Orchiette pasta with fresh lima beans, butter and parmesan and romano cheese.

Here's how I did it:

 First I put a pot of salted water on to heat.  I put bowls of  pasta and raw limas out nearby.

While the water boiled I cleaned the peppers, slit the sides a couple of times, and jammed them into Ball jars.
By then the pot was boiling, so I put the pasta in and set the timer to two minutes.

Next I filled the pepper jars with  cold water,  then poured it out into two measuring cups. There was  about three cups.

My timer went, and I added the limas to the pot of boiling water and put the timer on eight minutes.

I  replaced half the water from the peppers with white vinegar, and put the mixture in a pot on the stove. then I added  three coarsely chopped cloves of my own garlic, a teaspoon of whole cumin, three roughly broken bay leaves, three tablespoons each of sugar and kosher salt, and two tablespoons of  whole black peppercorns.  I turned the heat on medium.

When the pasta alarm rang I drained the lima bean and pasta mix, put it into a reusable plastic container and added a half tablespoon (ok, maybe a bit more...) of unsalted butter, two tablespoons of parm/romano mix, salt and pepper.  Lunch for tomorrow at work!

While my pasta cooled, I turned to the pickling mix. When it had simmered for about five minutes I turned off the burner, let it sit a couple more minutes, then ladled it over the peppers.  I put the lids on and moved the jars to the fridge to cool.

Then I turned the oven on to  400 degrees,  peeled and sliced my own butternut and onion, layered them in a casserole with salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg and some knobs of butter.  Once the oven dinged, I put the casserole on a middle rack to cook until tender (depending on the squash this can be anywhere from  30 to 60 minutes; some squash is drier and takes longer to cook).

While the squash baked I watched a DVD from the library-- a cosy British  detective series called 'Rosemary and Thyme' about a pair of gardening detectives.  I wish I got to take long lunches in the pub with a pint when I worked on other peoples gardens!

After a half hour the squash was tender, so I sprinkled some parm/romano mix on it, turned off the oven, and let it sit in the oven another ten minutes. It smelled so good I forgot to take the picture before I ate some!

Mark Bittman wrote a column recently about how easy it is to cook cheap good food at home.  I agree, but a few years of restaurant cooking sure help with the efficiency.  And I got some cool burn scars too.