The Home Garden

When you live on the farm, you have to have a family vegetable garden. It's just part of the deal. It really isn't that much work, and it can be quite rewarding. It is really very creative and it helps connect directly to the earth when you experience your food come directly from the ground, plan the seasons, sew the seeds, then directly prepare the dishes with the bounty. A fresh produce store is literally a few steps outside the kitchen. Very fulfilling.

This year, I've been raising everything from seed. Last year, I had quite some challenge getting the seeds to germinate early enough outdoors. This year, I build a cold frame, which is a kind of poor man's green house. It was simple enough (see description below). The cold frame was WONDERFUL. I easily started tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkins, and basil. Not to mention hardened off my new lavender plants, and started a bunch of rosemary cuttings. This was probably the most productive project I did this year.

Right now, the tomatoes are coming in very nicely. But they were a bit too bushy. So I trimmed the leaves at the bottom and centers that weren't necessary to promote fruit development, and I trained some of the vines that were falling to the ground. I had mixed some tomatoes in the Basil bed, so I pulled these back (they were falling in the basil), and tied them up on sticks. They look much happier now. The basil is going crazy. I've been frantically heading off the flowers. But the plants prove very aggressive. It is difficult for me to keep up. I think it might be "pesto time"! I even harvested some basil, tomatoes and peppers. The tomatoes made a beautiful tomato and basil salad. The peppers I will roast tomorrow.

This year I've been working on building enough diversity in the garden that I can make complete meals entirely home grown. A few days ago, I made a zucchini moussaka and Bulgarian sarmi's (stuffed grape leaves, akin to Greek and Turkish dolmas) entirely with vegetables from the garden. The only ingredients that didn't come form the garden were: olive oil (from the Carmel Valley Olive Company about 6 miles away), eggs (from Lizard Ranch right next door), and rice (unfortunately from far away). But the grape leaves, zucchini, garlic, onions, peppers, and carrots all came from the family garden. I also made a yogurt and mint sauce. The yogurt was Californian, and the mint from the family garden.

It is very rewarding to grow a medley of vegetables, that is, enough to make interesting dishes. A few weeks ago, I put in some black beans. This is an experiment, as I have never grown black beans before. But my goal is to make a "black bean felafel" assuming I get a good enough harvest. A few more weeks and I'll start sewing the winter veggies!

More About the Bees

Oh, today I also contacted my bee supplier. I'm going to try to re-queen that one hive. So a brand new queen is in transit down to Lavender Hill. She arrives on Thursday, when I will introduce her to her new minions. I am so hoping she is able to save the hive and get them back on track to survive the winter. I called some other bee folks and am still trying to accurately diagnose the trouble. That's 90% of the battle, knowing what you are dealing with. Right now, the best assessment I have is that the 2008 fire season made for a poor year to introduce new hives in Tassajara. But Thursday, I'll do more investigation when I establish the new queen.

Building a Cold Frame

I made a 10 foot by 10 foot cold frame. The materials were 4 1x12" 10 foot redwood (I would suggest 2x12", but it is quite expensive, so I made do with 1x12" and then put a 2x4 frame around the top where the lid seats). With these, I formed the base. Then 6 10 foot 2x4's made the lid. Four for the sides, and two middle rails. The lid was a little shaky, so I added 4 x 1 foot "corners" (45 degree angles on the edges) for lateral stability. Then I used a superjack actuator (I had one from an old C-Band satellite dish I don't use) and a thermostat to automatically crack the lid when the temperature gets too hot. This is essential if you don't want to cook the baby plants on a hot day (and it gets HOT out here 100+ on some days).