Okay – I’m sure I’m due for the bad blogger of the year award but in my own defense we have been incredibly busy for weeks upon end. On top of that I’ve just been feeling a bit rundown. But enough of that – here’s a little of what we’ve been up to. About three weeks ago our local farmer’s market opened up for the season and we were there bright and early with (metaphorical) bells on. I was so glad to see all of our favorite vendors back again and also saw several new ones as well that we will have to check out. It looks like the farmer’s market is really beginning to take off and develop a real presence in our downtown area. Although we normally spend between twenty and thirty dollars each week at the farmer’s market this opening week we spent roughly one hundred! I was a bit amazed myself but there were a few unusual purchases that aren’t likely to reoccur that often. As you can tell from the photo strawberries were a big purchase. We bought two flats – sixteen whole quarts of locally grown beautiful strawberries! Now of course we had no intention of eating only strawberries for the next week so I sliced and froze most of them over the next two days. It took me that long because I kind of underestimated the time it would take away from my other responsibilities that weekend. It was also my birthday and my daughter’s birthday party along with the opening of the farmers market. Throw those events into the mix along with getting some work done out at the garden makes for a very busy weekend. As a quick explanation my little one and I don’t have the same birthday but we have learned over several years of botched birthday parties for her not to throw them in July on her actual birthday. Whenever we have done this it has been a complete and utter failure. Top attendance one year was three girls with the worst being one attendee. We finally decided that we needed to have the party before school let out for the summer to see if that would help. Apparently we were correct because fifteen twelve year old girls showed up for the slumber party this time – a grand time was had by all. As my little one said when it was all over before she passed out to sleep away most of the afternoon – “Mom, it was awesome...”. Well, back to the strawberries. With the help of my eldest we got the first flat sliced and ready on Saturday resulting in about seven freezer bags of strawberries. I had really thought I’d get more than that and it turns out I should have. The next day when I processed the second flat on my own I managed about eleven bags. Somewhere along the way my thirteen year old Ian managed to scarf down about three quarts of berries in my estimation. I tell you, this kid has a bottomless pit for a stomach and unlike myself and hubby who are a bit “round” this kid is lean and wiry. At least it’s only fruits and veggies he’s scarfing down and not snickers bars or we’d have real problems.
In addition to the berries we also managed to bring home a couple of new herbs – some oregano and marjoram for the deck herb garden - other general produce such as loose leaf and head lettuce, spinach, two different kinds of radishes, onions, kale, and parsley. We also bought some other things like a huge jar of local honey (so glad to see this guy back), some yummy cheese straws, a MFM t-shirt for one of the kids and a purely decadent bottle of the most lovely smelling lotion I’ve ever had. I’m not one to normally buy eight dollar lotion but this might become addictive it smells so nice. We also picked up a couple of bumper stickers for the cars and a complimentary copy of the new Edible Memphis magazine.
Whew! What a haul. Not likely to be repeated but this first week out was a bit of a celebration. We all had a blast.
On the garden front we’ve also been pretty busy. Since our plot is located several miles from the house through a pretty messy construction zone it is a bit of a haul to get out there as often as we’d like but we’ve managed at least one weekend day to work and twice throughout the workweek in the evenings to water. So far we’ve planted out all of our tomatoes and peppers that I started in the bedroom plus planted seed for several different kinds of beans and peas. I’ve also got seeds planted for several different types of cucumbers and squashes along with some watermelon and pumpkins. Hubby and I are completely flying blind here and although I have been an avid reader of gardening books all my adult life I am quickly beginning to realize how little actual experience I have. We have a rectangular plot 100 x 25 feet. We’ve put in two long rows along one of the hundred foot sides of our rectangle and then put in lots of shorter rows perpendicular to the tomatoes and peppers. Those seem more manageable to me but we kind of goofed with the first eight or so and made them too close together and hilled them up a little too high. It’s making it hard to maneuver around the rows to weed. We’ve also got tough clay soil – once things are established they seem to grow really well but some seeds were really having a hard time breaking through the surface. We had an old guy at the garden till our plot to start out with and after he did we had a series of really wet days – all the freshly tilled soil completely crusted over and became hard as a rock. I’ve compensated by buying bagged topsoil and using that to encircle any plants I put out and to mark where I plant seeds to keep the soil from crusting up around the seedlings so the water can penetrate instead of just run off. It seems to be working so far.
Weeds are the bane of our existence right now and for a bit the grass was growing so fast and thick it made me just want to give up. We’ve been watching all of our neighbors and their weed free plots and trying to figure out what they were doing that we weren’t and the answer seemed to be tilling. Now I’ve read how you shouldn’t till so you don’t disturb soil health and structure and give dormant weed seeds a chance to grow but that isn’t an option for us as the whole community garden is tilled at one go at the beginning of the season with a huge tractor. Also permanent beds just aren’t possible as they will till again whether you like it or not next spring. So the big tractor tilled it very roughly once and then we had the old timer till it again shortly after the garden opened for the season and since then we’ve gone at it by hand and it seems we’ve done little else but weed. If my goal was to grow a great lawn I would be well on my way but since it isn’t we were beginning to get very discouraged. We gave in about two weekends ago and bought a small tiller at Lowe’s. I have to say it has really helped. Steve tilled the section that we hadn’t planted yet and that’s where I put in another four rows of tomatoes along with the pumpkins, squash and watermelon. So far that area is doing really well. Weeds are re-emerging but they are manageable. The squash is going gangbusters and all of the pumpkins and watermelon seeds have sprouted and taken off. The tomatoes are coming along but are a lot smaller than many of my neighbors who from the looks of the plastic markers got most of their seedlings from the local Lowes or Home Depot. They are monsters compared to mine and some already have blossoms. I started mine from seed and they look so much more delicate than those other guys out there – the others look like tomatoes on steroids. Now I know I was a bit behind in starting the seeds and my seedling nursing skills may leave a bit to be desired but sometimes I get a little discouraged. I am determined to stay the course but I think this will be the season of mistakes. There’s already so many things I’d do differently – things I will change next year. This is not how we want to garden in the long run but while we live at our current house it’s the best we can do. I’ll am happy with that. Next post I’ll have to include garden pics.
I’m going to call it quits for today and get this posted. I’ve got several links I intended to use today but I will have to insert those later as I’m running short of time here. I’ll edit later to add those...
Hope everyone is well!
In other news I picked up a new knitting project this morning. I have been looking at Ann Budd’s “On Your Toes” toe up socks using the Eastern cast on method because I have a yen for some comfy knee socks. Now that the weather has gotten chilly I have pulled out all the hand knit socks I have but I noticed that knee socks are something I’ve never bothered to knit. Not because I don’t think I’d have the patience but because I never really run across knee sock patterns when I’m looking for new socks to knit. Since I wear skirts most of the year the shorter socks are just not cutting it when the wind blows around my ankles. I’ve had some brown sheep sport weight yarn in a lovely grey languishing in my knitting chest for a couple of years now and I thought this pattern would really fit the bill. I actually checked my gauge over the weekend to find how I liked it knit up – this is something I never do for socks – I don’t really know why since I religiously check gauge on most everything else but I usually don’t bother on socks. This morning after figuring out my gauge and foot measurements I cast on for the first sock. I am not really sure how I feel about the new (to me) cast on method. I thought it was a bit fiddly but very clever. I flubbed it a couple of time but managed to get it accomplished eventually. After working several of the initial increases to form the toe I can tell the original cast on stitches seem a little loose. I’ve tried to tighten them up a bit using the tail but it doesn’t seem to make much difference. It’s not very noticeable but is something I’m going to try to improve. I made it through most of the toe increases and should start the main portion of the foot this evening. Will post photos of that later. 
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