8:39 AM  [30 Aug 2007 | Thursday]

Buy Local and Grow Your Own Food When You Can

Late summer is the golden time of the year for me. I can go out in my own backyard and yank stuff out of the ground, put it in the pot or on the grill and cook away. No middleperson between me and my mouth. And that's the way I wish it could always be. There are so many things that bug me about the grocery store, starting with the carts. I can't park because there is a cart in my way. Why do people just let their carts go after they shop, do they imagine they'll go back to the store of their own accord? Do they think they're setting them free to wander the world, but where would they go forever branded with the mark of the store? So I have to get out of my car, move the cart and then park. And that cart is broken. I push it back to the store, it wobbles, it creaks, one of it's wheels doesn't turn because it has goo in it's bearing. I think the cart may have hit a deer because it has severe alignment problems. So I exchange it, leaving it for the next dupe. My new cart has last week's flyer, someone else's shopping list and a lost child in it. But I brave on planning to ditch the child in the frozen food section.

Next headache are all the deals, 20 cents off peanut butter if you buy ten gallons. Three packs of baby bellas for the price of two, are they moldy, tough to tell, they are fungus. Manager meat specials, purple steaks 2 bucks off. There are red tag sales everywhere but I need rain checks for everything I want. How many rain checks do you need? I used to be timid now I say give me as many as possible, I'll freeze the turkeys or I'll throw them at the bears. Just give me a deal to compensate for the outrageous prices of eveything else, make me feel like I'm getting something. It cost three bucks a gallon to get here, I want a deal on spumoni, can't grow that in the garden.

Then the check out, fifteen registers, two of them staffed, one is the express lane, two items or less. I grumble in line with the rest of the suckers angrily eyeing the staff as they laugh about some incomprehensible anecdote having to do with a mix up in shifts, or a party that so and so made a jerk of themselves at. And when they finally wake up and staff the rest of the registers the mad rush begins. You roll over a senior citizen with forty bottles of Ensure and  a stack of frozen dinners, what the heck, all's fair in war. And you ignore the person behind who thought  they could shop without a wobbly cart and wound up with their arms filled with bread, cheese and a two twelves of the beer that destroyed Milwaukee's reputation. Just ignore them, I'm first. Just one person if front of me. Uh oh, the check out person needs a key, not the key! The announcement reverberates throughout the store. Key on one, key on register one. The old lady I ran over to get in this line casts me a smirk as she rolls out the door. I've already loaded my stuff onto the conveyor belt and am writing out my check, which must now include my driver's license number, my phone number and a DNA swab. I can't repack my cart so I wait it out. Now they're squabbling in front of me about expired coupons. I'm doomed, so I while I wait I peruse the tabloids. Out of focus pictures of over the hill glamorous people who stomachs and thighs look like hell now and are all apparently dying of a mysterious disease while their current spouse cheats on them, and there's a photo the cheating couple frolicking nude on a beach I will never be able to afford and you wonder why anyone would prance around in public naked, especially someone famous, at least I think they're famous, I've never heard of them, I don't know why they're famous they look like hell. I'm no Brad Pitt, but I don't drop my trousers in public, anymore.

Finally the argument over the coupons for the smoked oysters has been resolved and it's my turn to check out. Oh boy! I start bagging myself, I can break my own eggs thank you. I'm filling the bags, plastic, when the dreaded words "price check" come up. Now everyone's looking at me like I'm a paroled child molester. The girl asks, "Did you see how much these were?" "I don't know. " "Well are these the South African lemons or the Florida lemons?" "They better be the dammed US lemons, why do I need South African lemons, if they're South African lemons, I don't want them. I don't need my lemons flown in from god knows where. Lose them, I don't want those lemons. I want American lemons!" Oops, I might have gotten to emphatic, oh no, here it comes. "Key on register one!" Ahhhhh!

Why do we have to fly in lemons from South Africa, why do I need red peppers from Chile, brocolli from Guadalajara, don't we grow this stuff here? How much did it take to bring that lemon here. Buy local, grow it yourself, okay in the Northeast maybe not lemons, but surely brocolli, peppers, eggs from someone local with chickens. Local milk. I live in the country, there are cows everywhere. Support your local dairy.

After receiving a long strip of coupons I'll never use for stuff I don't need, I finally check out.  Wobble the cart out to my vehicle, positive I paid too much for that cat food that will probably kill my cat. She eats local, a steady stream of moles and mice.

I get back home, to my garden, my grill, and let loose a sigh of relief. I love going out back and picking my own food. I don't mind the weeding, the bugs, the tomatoes that get sluggified. It's mine. I grew it. And I can eat it whenever I want. I can also freeze it and eat it all winter.

And if you can't grow it yourself try going to a store that buys local or try your local farmer's market, or a food co-op. Farmer's markets connect you with the local farmers and you get to know your food. Farmers make 8 cents on the dollar for food they sell to the big grocery chains. You're paying truckers, oil companies and airlines, not famers when you buy at the chains. You'll still have to make a trip to the local grocery store, let's get real, there's some stuff you can't buy local like drugs, bandaids, mouthwash, bleach, hydrogen peroxide, greeting cards, sugar, cranberry juice, lychee nuts, . But it's time we got back to growing and eating our own stuff, trust me, the grocery stores'll survive and always be there when you need them.

Not if I could just grow my own fuel for the car.

12:36 PM  [28 Aug 2007 | Tuesday]

Beets, Yes!

This is the greatest garden ever for beets. We have phenomenal beets this year, bigger than we’ve ever had. And the great thing about them is, we didn’t do any watering or feeding the entire summer. No miracle grow, no fish emulsion, no nothing. And no water. It actually rained enough for them to happen. Now our onions, that may be a different story, they are looking a little strange. There are dead spots all over the stems. I’m not sure if it’s white flies or thrips but there may be a problem. But with onions you never know until you pull them out of the ground. Our beans are coming on strong, too many to eat ourselves, we’re going to be giving them away. And the tomatoes seem to be working. In the Catskills, for the first twelve gardens we could never get a decent tomato but now, they’re doing great. And the carrots, chard and fennel. While we were gone for two weeks our Japanese beetle traps filled to the brim and a black bear knocked down the fence and tore open the bag only to find a disgusting mess. The good thing is, the black bear didn’t do any damage in the garden, it just left. We do not grow corn and if we did, they would be attacking it. But tomatoes and beets, please, there are plenty of berries for them to eat. There continue to be Japanese beetles eating our stuff, primarily the pole beans but there are still plenty of beans. Our trees have not begun to change color. We have plenty of summer left.

8:31 AM  [28 Aug 2007 | Tuesday]

A Light Gone Out

This summer's gardening was put aside for two weeks in order to attend to a family medical emergency. My mother in law, a wonderful energetic and prolific painter of nature passed away after a courageous struggle with cancer. She died surrounded by family in her house with the evening sun shining on her and the walls adorned with her paintings of birds and plants.  She will be missed by everyone who knew her. We planted mums for fall and bulbs for next spring in her flower garden. She was a force of nature and our lives were enriched by her presence.  

9:40 AM  [06 Aug 2007 | Monday]

You Win Some, You Lose Some

As we dive headlong into August there are certain things that are working and certain things that are not working in this year's garden.

Successes

Beets, beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes (still green but vigorous), fennel, chard, garlic, shallots, cabbage, broccoli, peppers, winter squash (sort of).

Non-Successes

Eggplant, cucumber, melons, zucchini, yellow squash.

How on earth can you not have a decent summer squash crop? That's the one thing we've always been up to our ears in, skip a day and there are a couple of Louisville Sluggers out there, but this year, so far . . . eh. Yes we've had some little ones but I have to wait days for them, days. I had to ask my neighbor for some and she responded with that usual retort, "Have I got summer squash? Boy have I got summer squash!" I blame the cucumber beetles, who've been diligently chomping away on their flowers. The plants are there still so perhaps we'll get some decent squash once the beetles are played out. The cucumber beetles have devastated our cucumbers, there's nothing there, an occasional cuke happens, but the leaves are destroyed. Again my neighbor's share their cucumbers with us, which is nice because they're from plants we grew from seed, so they're varieties we wanted in the first place. It's almost like we grew them. Here is the cucumber patch.

I plan to construct a cucumber beetle trap for next year. It will have the pheromone we received from Johnny's, a clear baffle atop and some kind of dish with soapy water below or a sticky surface. It's a work in progress. The Japanese Beetles are here in full force now as well, filling the traps quickly. There is a weed in our yard they are especially attracted to and I'm not sure whether to pull it up or let them mass there and leave the hollyhocks alone. Does anyone know what this is?

We are on the cusp of a major bean crop just in time for the decline of the sugar snap peas. I thought the beans would come in staggered but they seem poised to hit us all at once. Here are the bean towers and a stand of Masai Bush beans; there are also two other bush bean patches and two pole bean teepees.

The plan is to take the excess beans down to New York City to the Catholic Worker for their soup kitchen. They're always appreciative. We try to do that with all excess vegetables.