To The Surbiton Manor Born

This, above, is the kind of harvest we are getting every other day here at Steepmeadow. It is challenging to keep up with processing it, eating it, freeing it, giving away. I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but we've had to invest in a freezer. We've discovered techniques of blanching, using the vacuum sealer, trying to extend the remarkably short life of this veg. Today was also the last really long run training for the Mill City Marathon in scenic Dundas, MN. 22 miles of running doesn't exactly prep you for more work. While processing vegetables and preparing for a marathon, I've been using the all-important month of September to rip out weeds and plant the "poor man's bee lawn mix" in the front yard, for all to see.  The thing is that we have something to prove. I want to show, by example, that you don't need to use a bunch of poison on your lawn in order to have a nice one that is insect friendly. It is sort of intended as a demonstrati...

It is an exceptional year for garden productivity. I'm currently reading William Alexander's Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World , and learned that some in Renaissance Europe would refer to the reviled tomato as "Galen's wolf peach," a poisonous fruit described by Galen of Pergemon [the second century AD doctor who expounded on Hippocrates' theory of "humors" and human disease] as a lost, poisonous fruit...possessing strong smelling yellow juice. Tomatoes are a much loved food here. But we now have so many of them, that we were forced to buy a deep freezer to process them. As soon as you get one batch processed, another one comes in. In spite of eating tomato sandwiches, tomatoes as snacks, tomatoes with mozzarella cheese, more just keep on coming, like hordes of orcs at the siege of Helm's Deep, only much more delicious. Same thing with zucchini. And beans. And banana peppers... No more time to write. Time to harvest.