Finally, We Have a Garden!

Well, I thought our garden would just never happen. First of all, unlike all the smart people, we didn't put cardboard down all winter over the spot where we wanted to put our plot. Instead, we had to dig up thriving grass, by hand. During all of that digging, we found that our soil was about 25% rock (really, a very modest estimate.) We double- dug our bed by hand, and I'd say that was easily 50 hours of work-- so we feel like we got a pretty late start on actual gardening.
I did do a lot of starts, but the neighbor's cat came and knocked all of them off of our porch repeatedly (I guess this had been its favorite lounging spot when the previous cat-loving owner was here.) The ones that survived the cat did not survive Amelia's curiosity, and so they were all destroyed in the end. You must understand that we REALLY DO NOT have a good place for these, it wasn't just a stupid place for them-- it was the only place! Next year we'll get one of those flimsy greenhouse shelves with a cover-- lesson learned.
I had spent a modest amount of money on organic, open-pollinated seeds with all of those other virtuous qualities, and hadn't planned on growing much else besides what was in these packets. But then a pipe broke under the sink where I was keeping them, and they got soaked. I figured I could still plant them, as long as I did it soon, and so I put them in the oven to dry. I mentioned this to J, but in the morning brainfog he forgot and baked them at 350'. Luckily, I had found someone to trade seeds with on CL, and had an egg carton of 12 kinds of seeds separated in the little compartments with a little label. I put these out of Amelia's reach, so I thought, but she must have grown a little taller and she managed to get ahold of these and jumble them all up! All of this happened in a couple of days mid-April, when I was finally ready to sew seeds in the barely-ready garden plot.
So I have bought starts with money I made selling yard stuff on CL. I actually planted some of the baked seeds and picked out the jumbled seeds that I recognized, and so we do have some things sprouting from seeds as well as some vigorous, purchased starts. I am happy. I thought it just wouldn't happen after all of the hassles, but here we are, growing food!
Our yard is in a state of overhaul, and actually looks pretty bad. The long-term plan is to do as much edible landscaping as possible. I am particularly excited about the artichoke plants that we're growing-- they are beautiful all year. We just took a big hedge out from under the kitchen window in a full-sun spot, and my plan is to plant that bed thick with all kinds of culinary herbs.
Here are some garden shots:

The main garden plot-- notice we're "making lemonade" with all of the rocks, using them as borders. We have three long rows and three square plots, the last one is still being dug/sifted for the second time-- hopefully plantable this weekend.
Just a portion of the rocks we took out of this plot! We plan to use them for pathways and other landscaping purposes, since we don't know what else to do with them.
A favorite: Nicoise salad green blend with chicory, dandelion and mesclun.
Something new-- we're growing potatoes this year. When I planted them, I didn't really realize what growing them entailed, namely building a mound of dirt higher and higher as they grow... I need to get some wood frames to put over this plot so I can build some height.
Some of our edible landscaping over by a lilac tree. Guess what our biggest garden pest is so far? Squirrels! They dig up the newly placed plants and then bury their nut, and fill in the hole! You can see a mound of dirt here, they dig holes all over the beds. The ones in our neighborhood are very cheeky, thanks to a squirrel-loving, semi-crazy neighbor who feeds them and lets them in his house.
We never really intended to have a lawn, so I figured I was off the hook for lawn care, cutting grass, etc. What I completely forgot about was the fact that things grow anyway! These weeds are shoulder-high. At least they have pretty flowers, and smell nice too. We are borrowing a neighbor's weed whacker this weekend, and need to use it all over our entire yard-- it's looking pretty ridiculous.

Items planted so far:
Veggies-
Salad greens of all types
Kale
Cabbage
Broccoli
Carrots
French Green Beans
Cauliflower
Asparagus
Artichokes
Red Peppers (3 kinds)
Tomatoes (3 kinds)
Cucumbers (2 kinds)
Eggplant (2 kinds)
Potatoes (2 kinds)

Herbs--
Basil (3 kinds)
Oregano
Thyme (3 kinds)
Rosemary (several starts for landscaping)
Garlic
Onions
Chives
Lavender
Lemon Balm
Sage
Parsley
Cilantro
Dill
Mint (2 kinds)
Nasturtium

Fuit--
Strawberries (25 plants!)
Concord Grape
Figs
Apple-- Espalier style, with four varieties, not quite in the ground yet.

We are really hoping to make a dent in our food bill this year, and plan to preserve as much extra produce as possible for the colder months ahead. We spend a lot of money on produce throughout the year! I can't even imagine how much easier next year's spring planting will be, after all of the work and lessons learned this season. Whew!

Local Find

Our financial constraints have made using local resources really challenging. We were buying eggs and milk from the farm we support, but they cost3.75/ dozen of small eggs, and the milk prices doubled for the winter, making it impossible to keep buying from them. I recently found a family selling free range, organic eggs on 30 count flats for 7.50, or $3/ dozen. The eggs are large, and the fun part is that they are a mix of green, brown and white. I am happy to buy from them weekly, and it's only a few miles away. I think we'll go back to buying milk from the farm again when the prices go down, but I'm really the only one drinking it, and having to drive half an hour each way to pick it up each week, then driving about three to four hours once a month to do our share of the pickup duties seems like way to much commitment for a gallon of milk. We'll see if we end up getting produce from the farm-- our hope is that our garden will be almost enough for us. We'd like to keep supporting the farm, but I'm not sure we are getting enough out of it to continue. I'll keep you posted.

Local, Seasonal and... Ethnic?

For a long time, I have wanted to become proficient in Middle Eastern cooking-- beyond falafel, tahini and tabouleh. I almost never follow recipes, though, so I've been stunted in my abilities to learn from cookbooks, and usually just try to replicate flavors from restaurants. But I have decided to devote myself for the next couple of months to a really wonderful cookbook about authentic Arab food. So far, I have made a couple of the recipes, and it has been really exciting to cook using different techniques than I have tried before.
Tonight I made a meatball and rice soup, and it was really nice.

There are a lot of types of cuisine that are counter-indicated for eating locally in the Northwest-- especially Asian food, with all of the tropical produce, and special ingredients. But Middle Eastern food, I have realized uses lots of fresh herbs that are growing in my garden as we speak, plus lots of other staple grains, legumes and nuts that can be bought locally. Even feta cheese is made locally, and California isn't too bad of a source for olives. Extra bonus: it's my very favorite kind of food.

My plan is to make every effort to blog about the Arab foods I'm cooking, and if there is interest, I'll share recipes. I am really a terrible food-tographer, but I'll keep trying. I am always so curious about what other people eat. I'd like to blog a solid week of dinners, and I'd like to encourage anyone else that wants to, to do it with me-- I'd love to see and hear about everyone's meals and kitchen activities.

Tonight it was Shorabat Ruz Bi Lahim, or Rice and Meatball Soup. I had to make beef stock, which of course was more effort than usual for a dinner, but now I have a couple extra quarts for the week. Besides the stock, it was really pretty simple, attractive, and very very tasty. We have a lot of ground beef in the freezer, the remnants of a portion of a grass-fed cow-- we preferred the steaks and roasts-- so now we need to come up with some great ways to use the ground beef.
I added chopped kale to make it a more complete meal, and it was a really nice, light but satisfying dinner.