Getting it Done

All gardeners really want is for things to be beautiful, for plants to grow, to sit at the table with a plate of steaming vegetables after a hard days work. I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to put food by, how easy it is to dry fruit—pears?—with a food dryer, to steam and freeze vegetables—if there are any left. Sour kraut from your cabbage—you could still have some cabbage left in the garden. I made sour kraut once. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted. Not like this stuff you buy in a can or in a jar. It was just salty enough and just tart enough. I made it in a crock. I don’t know where I got a crock, but I had one.

It was the first house that Jack and I owned—my first husband—and my kitchen was awful—a stove, a bit of counter, and a farm sink. All this on one wall, on the opposite wall, the refrigerator, the door to the basement, the door to the back porch. The other two walls, door to the dining room and window to the yard. So that was it. My kitchen in the condo has more counter space. I think I had a rolling table, that’s where I kept the kraut, by the window.

So all you do is chop the cabbage and salt it, put it in the crock. I think it makes it’s own juice—cabbage is juicy you know. You weight it down with a plate and wait. Everything has to be super clean. If not, you could grow mold and nothing else. Well it worked, and then I baked rye bread and made corned beef. Jack and I ate this meal more than once, as I grew lots of cabbage. I also made pickles this way. I wanted to farm, but it didn’t work out so well this lifetime. It's just too exhausting.

A psychic once told me that Jack and I had been together for four lifetimes. Once I left him, once he left me, once we stayed for the whole shabang. We were farmers. And here we were in this life, living on mini-farms, making pottery and selling it at craft stores. Up there where the council sits and observes us humans (theoretically) they’re nodding, yes, they did it again.
This sounds weird, but it’s early still, what can I say? I’m tired. Yes, and it’s about time for my spinach and egg omelet. Today is a writing day, tomorrow a garden day. And the weather, still holding.
Ciao! Flower

Virgo New Moon

I like to follow the new moons, full moons, balsamic moons. We just had a new moon last Saturday. Interesting it was the day I moved my final belongings from my marriage house to storage. The new moon signifies a new beginning. Even if one is working on an on-going project, the new moon could be a recommitment, or a new phase of the project set in place. It could be a plan for the next step of the garden. It could be a planting for the fall. It could be the beginning of a new life.

When the moon phase reaches the full moon, this means whatever your project is, you should be seeing it at a more complete stage now and once again, reevaluate—is it going in the right direction? If not, tweak it so it does. There is a great book I read monthly called <a type="amzn"> New Moon Astrology</a> by Jan Spiller. You can make ten wishes each month. Write them in a journal and check back later, perhaps after six months and see what has come to fruition. It completely works.

Now in the garden, some swear by planting by the moon. The Farmers Almanac will tell you what to plant when. I have never done this, but my ex swore by it. He also swore by haircuts on the new moon. I went to cosmetology school, sounds like something in the cosmos, some galaxy, and no one ever said cut the bob on a full moon, a flippy bang on a new moon, on the balsamic do a tint, and when the void of course is for bleaching. No, we just did what came our way. As we do with the garden. And life.

If you want to plant a cover crop, you might try winter rye. Be sure to turn it in before it goes to seed. And if you want to amend the soil, you can use the manure and leaves and blood meal, or you can use my friends technique, lasagna—which is putting a little bit of everything in the garden, recycling paper, food scraps, leaves, manure, cardboard, etc. Worms love it. It works.

All for now,

Flower