I missed the OLS posts for the last two weeks. There was much local goodness to eat during that time — kale, green onions, a couple of small peppers, and broccoli from my garden; strawberries, summer squash, and peas from Garwood Orchard; more fresh onions and eggs from the Michigan City farmers market; blueberries form the freezer; meat from Birky’s Farm and Farm Direct Meat; and more. Somehow between camping, guests, and packing up my office I never managed to put together and entirely local meal and post about it.

This week I finally managed to get back on track. In a celebration of summer, I have prepared pork chops from Birky’s Farm along with new potatoes from the Michigan City farmer’s market, first of the season corn from Garwood Orchard. For a sweet finish, there are two kinds of cherries also from Garwoods.

For my week 5 meal, I kept the preparation simple. I  washed the small potatoes on to boil. Next, I coated the pork chops with a bit of oil and herbs  dressing that was taking up room in the refrigerator and then pan fried them slowly. While things cooked, I pitted the cherries. When the potatoes were almost done, I added the corn on the cob and cooked until just tender. All that was left was to pull the potatoes and corn out of the hot water and prepare my plate. To let the taste of the produce shine through I added only a touch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Not Atkins friendly but simple and tasty.

My one local summer meal for week 1 included some “last of” and some “first of” the season ingredients. My options were a little bit limited by the fact that it is still early in the season here in NW Indiana and I haven’t yet found a source of local grain products (other than popcorn). In addition, I needed a way to combine various things at the “use them or lose them” stage so I opted for a crustless quiche as the focal point of the meal.

I started by browning a few slices of bacon from Birky’s Family Farm. When the bacon was crisp I removed it from the pan and added the white parts of the some green onions that I had grown in a container on my porch and several handfuls of mixed kale from my garden. I let the kale wilt a bit and then added the last usable leaves from my baby spinach crop (also container grown) and a bit of thyme from my garden.

While the kale mixture cooled, I sliced some asparagus from Garwoods that had accidentally froze in a too cold part of my refrigerator into a casserole pan. I mixed a colorful assortment of eggs (also from the MC Farmer’s Market) with about 2 cups of milk from Fair Oaks Farms, pepper, and a bit of nutmeg.

I layered the kale over the asparagus and topped with crumbled Capriole goat cheese. Though and Indiana product this stretches local a bit as it is at the other end of the state. On a positive note, it was purchased from a vendor at the MC Farmer’s Market.  Over all of this, I poured the egg/milk mixture. I topped it all with a few whole asparagus spears and the crumbled bacon and put it into a 375 degree oven to bake.

While the quiche was baking, I cleaned a last handful of morel mushrooms for the season. I picked these up when I stopped at Garwood Orchard for a first batch of strawberries for the year. I sauteed the morels along with shiitake mushrooms. When the mushrooms were just about finished I added some garlic scapes and green onion tops. The Shiitakes and garlic scapes were from the MC Farmer’s Market and the green onions were those that I had grown.

To accompany my quiche and mushroom topping, I sliced up the aforementioned strawberries and cleaned a few radishes (from the same market vendor as the eggs and garlic scapes).

The quiche was good but not great; it needed a stronger cheese or more seasonings. The strawberries were very good. The mushrooms were wonderful and I will miss morels until next spring.

Plant something:Finally finished planting the potatoes (better late than never). I have a total of 8 varieties. Potted up the tomatoes and peppers so that I have a little more time to get the beds for them built. Built the first herb bed (approx. 4 X 6) and planted 4 kinds of sage, 2 bee balm plants, 2 plants each of 3 different lavenders, a couple of extra marigolds, three kinds of thyme, oregano, and 4 pepper plants that had lost their label. Built a second bed which is now home to 25 kale plants of 5 different varieties. Put in some flowering plants along the front of the house. I am using that bed as a holding bed until I have others made. Yard is almost under control so there will be more time for gardening.

Harvest/Preserve Something: Harvesting lettuce, spinach, and green onions for salads. Nothing preserved yet; focusing on using up old stores

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle:Traded a work friend a vacuum cleaner I no longer need for a lawn mower she was given and did not need. Purchased a graduation gown from my boss who no longer needs it. I have wanted to own rather than rent one for some time and now I do. On a downside, I gave into a weakness and purchased some magazines while anxious and stressed out. Slowly getting the yard under control and adding grass clippings to compost.

Preparation and Storage:

Build Community: Planted a few seeds about starting a farmer’s market on campus. I think there is a reasonably good chance this could happen for next year.

Eat the Food: Cooked beans from storage with the last of the dried chives from last year and the last of a bag of frozen peppers from the freezer. Eating salad from the lettuce and green onions in the containers.

Skills: Learning more than I care to about poison ivy which is plentiful on this property. Identified lots of waterleaf and garlic mustard that need to be removed as they are harmful to the overall ecosystem here. Identified a hickory nut tree on the property.

Sharon over at Casaubon’s Book has revived the Independence Day Challenge for a second year. She has revised the categories somewhat so that they are:

Plant Something:
Harvest Something:
Preserve Something:
Reduce Waste: (I am going to think of this as Reduce/Reuse/Recycle)
Preparation and Storage:
Build Community Food Systems: (I am going to think of this as building community more generally)
Eat the Food:

I am also going to keep Learn/Try Something New and Improve Skills on my list as Skills.

Planted: In April I planted spinach, lettuce, parsley, tri-color sage, onions sets for green onions, and six hills of rhubarb. I had also started seeds inside for several kinds of kale, broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, calendula, salvia, cilantro, parsley. This week I planted 10 Jersey Giant Asparagus roots after making the bed for them. I also planted more potatoes as well as transplanting kale into containers and tomato seedlings into larger pots. I added parsley, marigolds, and calendula to the asparagus bed. I have lots more planting to do but nee to create more beds. Also planted hostas that were gifted to me.

Harvest: I harvested green onions and lettuce for salad.

Preserved: nothing yet this year

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle: Acquired a second hand washer and dryer from the landlord rather than buying a new one. The bed for the asparagus was created using cinder blocks that were sitting around without a purpose. Gave a home to hostas from a friend.

Storage and Preparation: I am trying to use up things I have and get organized rather than adding new things at this time.

Community: The closest farmer’s market to me opened for the season on Saturday. I wrote about my trip there and my exploration of Garwood orchard in this post.

Skills: I learned about ramps and morels after my trip to the market. I continue to work on identifying the flora and fauna of the property where I now live. I practiced my wallpaper stripping and drywall repair skills.

Eat the Food: I prepared and ate ramps and morel mushrooms for the first time.

I need to buy a mower for the new place or hire someone to mow for me. I am so glad that I have not managed to do either yet (despite the chiggers).  There is some very cool stuff growing in the back and I would have hated to mow it off before I knew it was there.

For my Independence Day Challenge activity for today, I decided to begin to get to know the land that I now rent to see what useful, as well as beautiful, things I might have available.  What I found on a short walk the damp morning was a mix of delight (both native and introduced) and some not so pleasant surprises.  Any help with IDs (adding or confirming) would be much appreciated. With regard to IDs I am in extreme northern Indiana right at the tip of Lake Michigan (shore line is less than 10 miles away).

First there is a large patch of false rue anemone out near the end of the drive on the north side.  Spotting them was the impetus for today’s exploration.  False rue anemone can be distinguished from rue anemone by the five rounded petals on the false rue anemone rather than the 6-9 more pointed petals of the actual rue anemone.There are also some tulips sprouting among them.

Near the false rue anemone is a patch of soft looking fern-like leaves that remind me of yarrow. I didn’t wade into to take a closer look.

Along the north side of the yard and on the campus side of the fence there are lots of a small white flower that I haven’t yet identified and quite a few trillium though I am not sure what kind as they are not blooming yet. [Edited to add: with the help of a friend this has been identified as cut-leaved toothwort.]

This is a view of the mystery flower with the flower stalk bent over so that I could capture the inside of the flowers.

Even more exciting to me are the scattered trillium plants in the grassier parts of the yard. I would never dig them from the wild but I will do my best to save those from being mowed off.

I even located a small colony of may apples along the fence line.

Sprinkled about the more open areas are at least two types of violets.

This photo has two types of leaves that I have not yet identified.

Along the edges of the yard are berry canes and I am pretty sure that there are strawberry plants as well.

I am thrilled to find so many interesting things. Sadly this land has not been cared for and respected in quite some time. There is a good deal of this view as well.

I need to do some research about how to go about cleaning up and restoring as much as I can. There are several down limbs and such so I suspect renting a chipper would be a good way to start. The chips could be used to mulch bare areas. Some of the fallen wood could also be used to edge areas that I want to protect.

I haven’t even started to explore the lower level of the property or left the edges of the open area so who knows what else remains to be found.

Even more of what I found today can be found over on flickr and I started a set for garden photos here.

This is probably my favorite photo of the morning. How many plants do you spot?

n addition to the wild flowers I mentioned in my pearlier post, I have identified spring beauties and Dutchman’s breeches.

A great deal has changed since I stopped updating this blog regularly. Professionally my career took an unexpected turn and I entered the world of administration.  I like the new challenges but there is much less flexbility in my schedule than when I was 100 percent faculty.  I have also moved from a small town to a more rural setting into what I think of as my homestead with training wheels. While renting I am getting to try my hand at lots of new things — many involve power tools and adventures with critters.  For example, I learned that bird seed must be stored in metal containers after a mouse left a stash of seeds under my housemates pillow when she was gone for a few days.  The housemate is another change in my life.  After living alone for many years, I am sharing the house with another faculty member though she is only here during the work week.  Those are only the top few changes in a much longer list of things that have shifted.

I think things are settling down and I can get back to some of the things I value that have been on hold. The timing is good as the last week has brought a shift so that it now feels like early spring as opposed to late winter. There are lost more frosty nights to come and probably still snowflakes to fall but the balance has shifted. In fact I consider this week one of the gardening season.  A few nights ago I started seeds for cabbage and broccoli (both mixtures from Pinetree Seeds) also from Pinetree was tronchuda cabbage.  Also in the first batch was some China Choy Chinese Cabbage.

It is nice to have room to start seeds inside.  The light system I have set up is not fancy.  I have heavy duty plastic storage shelves and simple shop lights each with one natural sunshine and one plant light florescent bulb.  I went a bit overboard with order seeds and plants but I have a feeling I will lose some of the harvest to the opossums, squirrels, raccoons, and deer that call the woods around my house their home. I suspect there are other types as well but these are the species I have spotted so far.  My favorite mammal spotting so far are the pine squirrels.

Today, I started clearing some much neglected spaced here at the new place.  I also moved some of the containers that I had over wintered out into the sun.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the garlic chives were sprouting. I also put some bird feeders out today. It will be interesting to see how the visitors differ from those at the old place.  Even without feeders my yard list for the first month here includes a pileated woodpecker, dark-eyed juncos, a pair of Northern Cardinals, American Robins, Hairy Woodpecker, and flyovers by American Crows and Canada Geese.

So here I am settling into a new routine and ready to welcome spring.  Here is hoping the coming season is filled with new discoveries, laughter, and much sunshine.

A yet to be identified sparrow

White-breasted Nuthatch

Swallowtail

The reason I need to learn to like eggplant

• Picking a cucumber and fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden just outside my deck.  Halving the  cherry tomatoes, slicing the cucumber, and mixing the two together. Topping with a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar and calling it dinner.

• Fresh peaches and nectarines

• Corn steamed until just tender and eaten without anything to obscure the taste.

• Watching hummingbirds, swallowtail butterflies, and bees while sipping coffee surrounded by the container garden on my deck.

• The smell of fresh herbs while watering.

• The challenge of photographing butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies.

• Fireflies and shooting stars accompanied by the serenade of insects in the dark.

First the bad news, there is still no sign of the Garlic Guy. I should also note that this was an abbreviated shopping trip. My knee was giving me fits so I grabbed what I needed from some of my favorite vendors and skipped the rest. I am sure I didn’t miss the Garlic Guy because several people were talking about his absence.

My first stop was Farm Direct Meat to say hello to two of my favorite vendors and make some craving related purchases. The hints of fall have me craving pot roast or something similar. I picked up some ground grass fed beef, some chicken breasts, a piece of “beef for boiling.” I’ll be experimenting with the last later this weekend. (total $32).

My second stop was a small grower and maker of pet treats. I bought 2 dozen eggs ($2 each), some small onions, and a bunch of celery (to be used in the beef for boiling experiment). She also had a variety of other things. I think I remember okra. I know there were tomatoes, basil, various greens, beans. My grand total there was $6.

Next I stopped at Lehman’s Orchard for fruit. I said hello to my other favorite vendors. I purchased my first pears and Gala apples of the season ($3 each), another basket of Red Haven peaches and a basket of nectarines (also $3 each). My final item there was another pint of their wonderful blueberry honey. Grand total there was ($18). They also had raspberries and blueberries (I think), donut peaches, and dried products.

My final stop was a seller who has both local and non-local items. From there I purchased two heads of read leave lettuce (2 for $3), six summer squash of various varieties (2 for $1), 6 large heads of garlic (3 for $1), 6 ears of corn on the cob (also 3 for $1), a cantaloupe ($2). My grand total was ($12). They had lots of other things peppers,beans, and tomatoes which I have in my own garden. Peaches, apples and pears. Potatoes, garlic, greens, watermelon, and several other things. By the time I stopped at this booth my mind was on coffee and the start of the LSU football game. Go Tigers!.

I have decided to add my garden notebook entries to the blog.  This will allow me to keep track of them and others who container garden may find something useful in them.

• I pulled the carrots today. There are enough for one meal and leftovers. The small amount of carrots is better than the beets.  I gave up on entirely and pulled those out a few weeks ago.  In general, I am not sure root crops are worth the space in my container garden. I will give them one more try and do a better job of thinning them. I think I will try them in the box shaped containers on the deck rail next time.

• My spring crop of peas was a wash.  The first bunch didn’t sprout.  The second planting produced a handful of peas before fading in the heat.  Though they are not organic, I think I will just buy spring peas from Johnson’s in the future.  Earlier this month, I planted the remainder of the packet of seeds for a fall crop.  The germination on those was excellent and they are off to a good start.  The carrots I pulled today were replaced with peas. I also tucked pea transplants around the rhubarb and into a couple of other corners in pots.

• I started a fall crop of spinach and lettuce.  I have missed those during the hot part of the summer.

• The green onions haven’t done as well in the past two months as they did in the spring and early summer.  I started another wave to see how they do in the fall.

• Kale remains the big winner of the year.  I transplanted 6 slightly overgrown seedlings back on May 4.  I thought it might be too late for them but this year has been about experimenting.  The three seedlings that were tucked in among other plants were cut back after I harvested the young leaves for several weeks.  Two of those three plants have sprouted and are producing young leaves once more.  The three plants that were in a container (a wire basket with a coconut fiber lining) by themselves have done well all summer.  They now look a bit like something from a Dr. Suess book as I have been harvesting the bottom leaves as they grow.  They now have long spindly stalks.  I need to work out a companion planting that will hide those and better utilize space for next year.  Other than the spindly stalks the kale has made an attractive as well as tasty addition to the deck garden.

• I recently started seeds for more kale and those seedlings are just starting to get their first true leaves.  Next year I want to try more varieties especially open pollinated ones.  I have added the very young leaves to salads and chopped older leaves to add to scrambled eggs, quiche, pasta sauce, and quesadilas over the course of the summer.  I have also dried leaves and added them to a jar with other dried greens; I plan to use the resulting mix for soups and beans this winter.

• The eggplants are attractive and doing very well. I have picked five so far and there are more than three dozen in various stages on the three Little Fingers plants.  Those were purchased at the Valparaiso Farmer’s Market.  The plants I started from seed (a mixed packet) are just starting to produce. It is a shame I don’t like I eggplant more as they are doing well and are quite attractive. I particularly like growing them up on the deck rail.  The leaves and fruits are showcased that way.

• Sungold tomatoes are not something I want to grow next year. I don’t care for the taste of them and they don’t keep as well once picked. Next year focus on trying open pollinated cherry and paste tomatoes. I won’t be growing Juane Flame tomatoes again either as I found them to be sour without enough complexity in the flavor — they were just plain sour and nothing more.

• The peppers are doing much better than last year when my entire pepper harvest was three small peppers.  They are just beginning to ripen.