Planting and Reaping
Gardening feeds my soul as well as my stomach. There’s something about growing things–food, in particular–that is satisfying on the deepest, most basic level: Eating is a necessity; gardening fulfills that need. I enjoy the process. I get lost in it and forget about time. As when I’m driving or riding in a car, when I’m weeding, watering, and planting, my brain wanders about, smelling the roses. I get ideas.
While planting another round of spinach, lettuce, and radishes I contemplated the novel I drafted over the winter. I’m eager to get to the next stage with that. While watering, I came up with an interesting design idea and use for needlework. While I was harvesting the greenery, I pondered what the heck a person does with Swiss chard. I like sturdy greens (collards, kale, mustard) in soups, so I expect to steam and freeze some of the chard for winter, but I gotta eat some fresh. Thanks to Google, I’ve discovered that you cook the stalks like asparagus and the leaves like spinach. I love asparagus and spinach; ergo, I should love chard, right? I’ll let you know tomorrow.
Things are growing in spite of our late start. There are even 2 blossoms on a tomato plant! Blueberries are starting to turn blue, but they’re still a long way from ripe. Oh–I discovered a small patch of wild strawberries nearby! The berries are tiny, but yummy.
No moose in the garden since we put up the fence, but the loaner-dog probably deserves more credit than the fence.
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Allura Wrote,
I use chard leaves in quiches and I know folks who put it into pasta. It’s more bitter than spinach, though. I hadn’t thought of treating the stalks like asparagus.
Oh, for a house, for space for a garden…something I’ve never done before, so this could get interesting…
Link | July 22nd, 2007 at 7:47 am
Jen Wrote,
That’s it! I’m making a quiche today. I have fresh thyme from a friend’s garden (now that we have a deck, I’ll do herbs next year), and I love fresh thyme in quiche. Great way to try the chard! Thanks for the suggestion, Allura.
I steamed some stems yesterday and ate them plain. The darkest red ones were tough, so tough I threw some out. The lighter red ones and all the green ones were tender and good. I thought the flavor was something of a cross between spinach and corn. Definitely something we can work with.
We began building in 2004, Allura, and still have a long way to go, but I’m thrilled to finally have a place of my own. We’ve lived a non-traditional life, and this is a HUGE risk for us, requiring many sacrifices, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. We’re doing it all ourselves (which means mostly Mike), one nail at a time, one outlet at a time, one curtain at a time.
Dare to dream!
Link | July 22nd, 2007 at 10:06 am
Allura Wrote,
I’m down in NJ, the land of the overpriced house, and the even more overpriced property taxes. DH loves his job, though, so we’re limited in how far we can go. We’ve got our dreams, though, and we’re working on them. I’m just impatient.
Link | July 26th, 2007 at 6:12 pm