Sunday, June 30, 2024

Food from the Garden, Driveway Repair and Thankfulness

Too much rain, not enough warmth, but the garden is starting to come through.
 

Although my lettuce seems super-slow this year, and none is ready to be picked quite yet, I harvested some nice salad greens yesterday.  Wasabina, arugula and mizuna mustard.  Added to a local organically grown salad mix I purchased at our Co-op, the greens are being enjoyed.
 

Also in our salads are scallions and radishes from the garden.  The first picking of strawberries yesterday was only one pound, seven ounces, but it's a start.
 

Using two cups of those berries, I couldn't resist making the first Strawberry Cream Pie of the season.  (Too bad nobody likes it.)  The remainder of the berries are ready for eating with milk (or maybe cream) later.
 

I've hilled up the potatoes with more soil twice now, but the heavy rains we're continuing to have are washing my efforts away.  I hoed the soil back up and then laid some old straw I had over the mounds to hold the soil in place.  I sure hope that helps since more rain is coming again this week.
 
Speaking of way too much rain, our good neighbor was here first thing this morning to see what repairs we might need on our driveway.  Some folks have had their gravel drives wash out twice now making them impassable.  Ours has held up remarkably well with only a couple of spots showing minor run-off ditches.  That has a lot to do with this same wonderful neighbor who put our driveway in over 20 years ago and keeps a careful eye on it for us.
 
Even with the occasional troublesome weather (drought last year, followed by very little snow in the winter months and now flooding this year) we are blessed, in many ways, to have our little homestead in the area we do. 

10 comments:

Leigh said...

I've been fretting over our lack of rain, and here you've had too much. Too little or too much - neither is desirable! Your harvest looks lovely in spite of it, though. Love the pie, but what will you do with all those radishes?

Rosalea said...

We are also getting an over abundance of rain. Guess it is better than drought though.
Your spuds are looking good, despite the issues. I'm wondering here, if there will be a lot of hollow centres with all the rain.
Wonderful to have such good and skillful neighbours.

Mama Pea said...

Leigh - Ha! I planted more radishes this past week because we've almost decimated the first planting. Guess hubby and I must be the odd ones because we both LOVE them. I can literally snack on a bowl of them taken cold from the refridge. Diced up they are great in homemade kimchi and they add so much to our tossed salads. Here's hoping you get some good rain soon!

Rosalea - Yikes, I hadn't thought about too much rain for the potatoes causing hollow centers. I've never experienced that but I'm betting if that happened, the spuds wouldn't keep worth a diddle. :o(

Tim B. Inman said...

My long driveway washes out too. I use a 'landscape rake' which looks like an ordinary tractor blade except it has tine fingers instead of one single blade, to tend it with my Henry Ford tractor.

This last week, my shop AC needed attention, my well quit and needed attention, and the mowing is just horrendous. It even had me thinking that maybe I should just sell out and move to town. I only thought about that for 2 seconds, and rejected that idea!

Yes, we are fortunate to live where we do = even when poop happens!

Cheeers

Mama Pea said...

Tim - Yep, home repairs and maintenance! It's when several "problems" seem to happen at once that makes us all wonder if life in a condo with maintenance being taken care of by the management makes sense. But like you, I know we'll never choose to go that way. Speaking of mowing, please excuse me now while I grab my weed whip and tackle that mess along the fence line. Again. ;o)

gz said...

Too much rain and not enough sun here too...and my salad crops have gone on strike...only a very few bothered to germinate!!

Michelle said...

If it's not one thing, then it's another. Add 'em all together and you get "average" – at least when it comes to weather! Ours HAS been pretty 'average' this year; luck of the draw.

Mama Pea said...

gz - Germination has been a problem for me here, too, this season. For instance, green beans popped up beautifully. I've had to plant the yellow beans (new seed) twice now and they're still not looking hopeful. Same with my cucumbers, both slicing and pickling. Sigh. Maybe they just need some heat!

Michelle - So good to hear your garden is doing well with the "average" weather you've been having. Keep enjoying it!

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