Summertime in Vermont

 

Summertime in Vermont…

Our old Home 😎

Link to Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA

Happy to find this post by a Master visionary Guerrilla Gardener.
A Great message no matter where you live.
Do you know where your food is coming from and can you grow some?
No wait,
go ahead and grow some.
I remember when Paul cut up the sod in the back yard and he and Mom and ? I was not into that part. They built raised beds in the city. Even with weeds and failures likes Mom's Wisteria bush that couldn't, overall the good memories outweigh the bad when you grow your own food.meg

Swallow re-run & Spring views

Fred snapped the one above last year

sundrops,rhubarb,solomon's seal,bleeding heart
and white violets

Spring

A chilly spring day,
Here are photos from past springs.
Color such a welcome sight after stick season.

and yesterday was
the day i turned 54,
a curious age, the number,
it haunted me,
then it gave me
a reason to research the number.
Significant and not. Haunting and reassuring.
the number laden with "3"s.
3x3x3x2=54
3 to the 3rd x2=54
5+4=9 which is 3x3
and other combo's.
For me a day to recalibrate and consume chocolate at all meals.
Fred's chocolate waffles, sausage and our maple syrup started the day.
3 meals with chocolate in them...
feeling the threes..

Friendly visitor

This morning we had a visitor to the garden.
Was it a turkey?
No, It had a tail like a Pheasant
and a ringed neck.
He strutted down the dormant garden rows
and I followed him with my camera.
He did make a curious call, Pheasant spring.
Spring flowers


one more of our friendly visitor…

Winter Reprieve again

Winter backed off again, the snow melted and we had a nice day to work outside.
The end of autumn again a fuzzy line as warm southern air has been blowing in steadily since
our last Wednesday snow day.
Our broccoli is still producing but has been neatly trimmed by visiting deer.
I boned the turkey and we made 10 TV dinners (and froze them)
with turkey stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, squash.
Our mashed potatoes were from our red, white and blue potatoes.
They came out kind of pink and very tasty.
We are grateful for our reprieve from winter another weekend
and look forward to lighter days in a few weeks.

Processing food

We spent much of the weekend again processing food we grew
in spite of the challenges this summer.
We successfully grew cauliflower, small carrots, onions, a variety of hot peppers.
Fred prepped and canned those in a brine. Should be ripe in a few months.
We also blanched & froze cauliflower and the last of the beans.
We used to process food mainly for the quality and the
sense of accomplishement. Now the financial benefits are also great.
It is like a second job, that we love to do.
The food?
Fresh is the best. And when you grow it yourself, a satisfying taste.

Bright Sunny Stretch

We are enjoying a bright sunny stretch.

Had a couple frosts and now above freezing

for a spell.

This photo from 3 years ago.

We dug potatoes and

froze some broccoli.

Going to do pickled peppers tomorrow.

Some years are better

Some years and days are better than others.
We plant the garden and have good days and bad days
amounting to good years and bad years and OK years.
The plants not so pretty with rot from too much moisture and
winds that blow "swamp gas" from the floods.
I am making my own theory about swamp gas and hope the winter
kills it with a cleansing freeze.
So I found a last year's sunflower picture
since this year is not the same.
Hopefully next year will be better.

Monkton Garden 2011

Monkton Garden 2011
has been rough,
messy,
we planted unconventionally late
and overall was pretty
successful.

Some photos:



Brassica Patch & Zinnias




Sunflowers leaning from Irene
(North is left in this photo)
carrots on the right,
late is OK.
one less weeding planted
mid July




Watermelon
Sugar Baby




Crabtrees,
Some dull color
is beginning

Have a great day!
Cherry tomatoes in the dehdrator. Life is good!
Mary

Garden Update

Back to work again after 2 days flew by.
Weeded the brassica patch, mowed, rested,
happy we got a little rain.

A few pic's of the garden....

Artichokes Monkton,VT 2011

and just heard that Fred Imus left the material plane.

Condolences to all those who loved him,

I am speechless,

another comrade falls,

We will miss Fred greatly.

mary

What a long strange spring this has been, and....

Spring just lingered forever,

which we should be grateful

that it has not been blistering hot until recently.

The broccoli and Brussels sprouts we planted late

went out in the garden,

sink or swim, I bid them luck.

Today, sweat pouring off my forehead until I stop and cool off,

with zero cal lemonade, chocolate and then cold water,

then by running cool water over my wrists and inner elbows.

I am organizing photos for the next Lake Champlain Bridge update.

It was a beautiful day today

and the ferry hustled,

a few more people on board,

concrete trucks,

this ferry will cease soon.

Meanwhile,

will plant seeds tomorrow-last planting of the year.

Difficult long spring.

Garden challenges & Road

The Garden is giving us challenges we have not yet had.
So much snow, then rain, rain.
Last night a heavy dew?
Today, rain this pm.
Some sunlight drifting in from time to time,
makes you squint
since we have been living with the sky in greyscales.
What plants we managed to get out look marvellous,
reminding us that things could be worse,
and the food we grow
and store
becomes more precious
with all these challenges.

how about our road pics?
It is worse than it looks,
the camera failing to show our disappointment
(over $6,000 vt prop taxes due in 4 months on this property)
especially when a river is running through it...
I call this shovel ready,
where is my bailout?



Gunpowder Lane, Monkton, Vermont,US



Potatoes

The Potatoes went in today and thus begins our planting season, better later than never.
I planted some of the bigger pepper plants & immediately a whipping wind came up.
It is not like we can just un-plant them...they were still standing when the sun went down.

We did stop to smell the old roses and cut a few stems for the table.

Next: rest & unconsious muscle repair aka sleep

May Day

May Day

'tis May Day,
And we are hopeful as the flooding rains forced the buds on the trees and shrubs to swell
and burst open,

The road has calmed down a bit, still shovel ready and we will scrape together money
for gravel to replace the stones that washed away.

Nearer the lake and rivers, we hope people take care and don't drive over water covered roads
and be careful of logs and debris in moving waters. The water too can have contaminants, don't go in without
protecting your skin.

Meanwhile it is 7 months until we have to pay the town 6k for taxes.
I just don't see why. We really do not live in a palace.
Will this make people vote, revolt, change the laws?
Planting onions seeds in pots today.

Snow Day, Property Tax reform

Forced at home again by Ma Nature.

So here is a bit of recent rant.
Hope for passage of some reform soon,

http://www.addisonindependent.com/201103clippings-young-voters-have-town-meeting-duty#comment-2634

Town Meeting Day Rag

Town Meeting day in Monkton, Vermont
Will be attended by the usual group of
Yellers yelling Yeah and Nay and
some getting a kick out of kicking
the little people with the little voices.

Is it really worth it to attend a meeting of people
Who will give me that look, the ones
Who have ignored my property tax fight for over a year
oh wait, no they didn't ignore me per se, they voted against me.

I have spent 30 years of contemplating what this place is,
How did I get here,
Retro migrating West to East,
Unlike those in the old cemetery who migrated straight down.

When I hear a noise I cannot explain in this old house,
I want to blame it on the restless dead,
Are they saying "Stay" or are they saying "Go"?
Listen harder, was it "Yes" or "No"?

And did the old people struggle through,
never knowing what to do
when the taxes ate their bread
and look there, they are all dead.

Staying home, my vision crystal clear,
I am envisioning a future, I believe it is near,
Where we keep our bread, we keep our farm
Town Meeting is passe,
There will be no more harm.

03.01.2011
mary gerdt
monkton,vermont

Summer's Hope

Summer holds such hope.
In this case, we dutifully started these onion and tomato plants in little plastic cups and then transplanted into these black plastic covered beds.
Hoping that we would not get a freak frost or chilling wind.
2009 brought late blight to most VT gardeners.
These tomato plants were laden with half perfect/ but all ruined fruit.
They all withered and died in a matter of hours, it seemed.
Reminding us gardeners that nature can take as it gives.
Treasure each fruit.
As tough as winter has been the past week (and worse for those down south),
This picture reminded me that summers can hold hidden darkness.
Now we approach the darkest days.
Treasure each glimmer of light, even moonlight or starlight, as a hopeful gesture
looking forward to next year, next summer, and hopeful planting again.

Gifts

Artichoke Monkton Vermont 2009

I have been wanting to tell about Thanksgiving dinner
where we made a really good dressing/stuffing (Thanks google and Oprah),
We wanted to add some broth and had some from '09 in the freezer.
We use broth to freeze some veggies like leeks and celery because they keep
better that way.
We forgot that in '09, we also did those tasty
and tiny artichoke hearts in broth and found one last container in the freezer.
Which made a very special dressing or stuffing as you might call it.
No artichokes this year even though the plants did OK.
Making that package of artichoke heart broth that much more special.
What a gift.
Thanks, Danke

Late Beets



 Fred is still pulling beets for willing recipients.
Cylindrica, our new favorite variety, is getting even better as the fall
winds down. The colors of beets are richer (? is that the word?) when freshly pulled in November as opposed to earlier. We were happy we planted late and skipped one weed and bug cycle.
Fred washed them in our rack outside and they sparkled. That is real food,
fresh from the ground. I have canned my fill this year and we still have been simply
(just a spray of oil) & roasting them in foil in the oven or on the grill.
The carrots are getting bugs  but sweet still.
Too wet to get to the brussel sprouts but will as soon as possible pick those.
We keep thinking we will be done some week but it keeps going.
Can't kick late beets.

Still sprachlos re:
How people can be like cattle?

They can stand there, chewing their cud, or gum or the side of their mouthes,
Once in while lick their lips, maybe belch, pass gas.
Do they know it looks like they are participating in the moment?
Watching me, is it a message? What do they see?
How do they see me?
Would they have voted for me?
Would even a beef vote for me?
If they all 12 vote exactly 100 % not with me, does that make their positon right?
If I had a sack of grain, would all these beef vote for me?
more spater....