Now Norma Knits

Terrier Tuesday

Hi Everyone,

Well, here it is, another week already.  I've had so many new experiences this week I can hardly remember them all to tell you about them.

One thing is I went a couple days to day care at a place called the Dog Zone.  They have a doggy cam, so my mommy and my daddy and A.Alpha were able to watch how I was doing on their computers when they had breaks throughout the day. 

It is a pretty cool place.  Kinda scary at first, and some of those big slobbery dogs kind of bug me, but one time when A.Alpha was watching on the doggy cam, I leaped right off the "little dogs" table and scared her half to death that I was going to break my leg or something.  But I was fine.  She really should stop worrying so much.  I'm a terrier!  Doesn't she remember?! I just wanted to follow the other dogs and the nice ladies who work there, and play on all the play equipment like the other dogs.  Criiiiipes. No biggy! 

I figured out right quick that if I get a bit stressed out, I can scootch right under the gate that separates the sections, and the big dogs can't get me, but I can go back in and out whenever I want! That's a pretty cool game, but I did shock and awe everyone there with that little maneuver, I'll tell ya.  I guess I'm the smallest guy who ever went there.  Small?  Who says I'm small?!  It must just be that I'm the most agile.  That's it!  Agile.  And motivated.  And nervy.  And let's not forget smart.  Heh. 

I'm going to go to the Dog Zone at least once a week, A.Alpha says, and next week I'm going four whole days!  She's got a lot of work, I guess. 

I made her laugh this weekend.  She was pulling weeds in the asparagus patch and had me on the leash, because -- pffffft -- she says she can't trust me to stay nearby.  Anyhoo, I was going all around checking things out and I started digging.  Oh how did I dig, and oh was that fun!  I heard her tell my mom and dad that I looked like one of those cartoon characters, with the dirt flying out behind me and all over her.  I like to make her laugh. 

Here she is, telling my mom about it over the gmail chat thingy:

Then she gave me a taste of some raw bison meat when she was getting ready to cook burgers.  

I think she likes me. 

Love,

Mr. J.

Taking A Step Back Off The Soapbox

I have been trying to write a post about red scarves, and it's just not coming out right -- too preachy and soap-boxy and sarcastic, even while I already know I am preaching to the choir -- all my blog readers and the people in the Red Scarf group in Ravelry are the ones I don't need to say this stuff to -- so I'm spending a lot of energy and angst on something that is completely misplaced.  Therefore, I am taking a step back on that, and maybe I'll just let it fizzle out.  Meanwhile, I'm knitting on mine, which is good.  I do really LOVE the color. 

Mr. Jefferies will be here tomorrow.  There will be absolutely no soapbox or preachiness or sarcasm from him, so come on back then, OK? 

This 'n That

I forgot an important "B" the other day -- broccoli!!!!  (What was I thinking?!)

And look how well it's doing.  (So far.  We must not take these things for granted.  Last year they all died a horrible fungal death after giving up their initial head of broccoli -- at least I got something out of them, but I was very disappointed.  This year it's a different variety -- 'PacMan' -- so I hope they'll do better.)

And we've got some good C's coming up, as well:

Love the lacy look of the outer leaves.  Actually, I don't love it at all, but as long as the slugs (or whatever it is that is wreaking this havoc) stay on the outer leaves and leave the heads alone, all's fair in love and cabbage. 

Thanks to all the Michael Jackson video-watching (I almost never tire of watching some of those videos), some good progress has been made on the red scarf.  I do love this color of KnitPicks Swish (Fired Brick), and though this mindless scarf is all I can handle right now, at least it's a little bit of something for this poor little ole knitting blog. 

I've got sort of a busy week coming up, though there is no work-work scheduled.  Tomorrow I provide lunch to the workers at a Habitat for Humanity building site.  You just know they be gettin' some home-grown lettuce in their sandwiches.  I sure do wish I had some of AnnaMarie's homemade bread, but they'll have to settle for store-bought.  It should be interesting for me to manage preparing food for, and serving, a group of people, since I will be on a liquid-diet cleanse that day to get ready for my Tuesday, ahem, medical procedure. Ergh.

Then there's this antique transcript I need to try to get out, assuming I can still read the steno.  Court reporters will love this:  The court hearing was done in 1989.  Yes, I kid you not.  Twenty years ago.  Let me see if there might be any issues with this:  I had just upgraded my computer system at that time, from the old system that took up an entire room in my house and about five laborious steps to create a transcript -- took the whole night to translate a file that I then had to heavily edit.  First it was written on a digital tape, which was put into a tape-reader and put onto an -- are you sitting down? -- 8-inch floppy disk, which took like an hour (which at that time we thought was lightning fast)!  That then was put into a computer to read and try to match the steno to English. Then I edited it -- which was a lengthy and labor-intensive process, and then it was printed on a dot matrix printer.  It took a couple hours to print a half-hour court hearing, and several hours to print a day's worth.  There was carbon-interleaved paper, the edges of which I had to tear off, rip apart each page, take out the carbons, and collate the multiple copies. 

So in 1989, I was now up to a new system that had a five-inch disk and about two fewer steps.  It was a bit faster, but I can no longer read those disks, because since that time I have changed computer systems three more times, and that's not even counting the generations of software.   But also: Since that time, my steno theory was ripped out, stripped down to its nakedness; I was lashed and thrashed and trashed, and lowered to my lowest point; and right when I was at the point where I would almost rather choose suicide than go on, I was retaught how to write, and I have continued to modify it and tweak it and make it the perfect fit so now I can write realtime steno in practically whatever subject you throw at me with only the occasional kooky error such as the other night, "as pennies" came out "aspenis."  The speaker had earlier asked the question, "How many of you pick up a penny when you see it lying on the ground?" and later tied that in by saying that some people treat other people as pennies, i.e., worthless. 

So "aspenis" for "as pennies."  That's a word boundary error.  I had defined AS/PEN as "aspen," and the "-ies" ending decided to translate, in one of those moments of artificial intelligence gone terribly wrong, as "-is" so it almost looked like (but thank goodness it did not, quite) as "as penis," but in any event it translated as a NONword.  Ah, yes, it's always something....that's the third sure thing, after death and taxes.

Anyway, I have procrastinated taking a look at those musty, moldy steno notes that the court sent me because some guy wants to know some little detail in them.  I seriously doubt if I can read them, and I really probably should have just looked at them when they were first sent to me so I could just certify that, "Forget it, bub. It's been 20 freakin' years. Get over it."  So I have to do that this week.

In yet another blog non sequitur, the asparagus from the previously ailing bed continues to grow and produce, and ahhhh, here is a beautiful sight:

 

The new asparagus bed is freshly weeded and OMG, I found all these little asparagus ferns coming up.  After a few rains and some time, and the rock phosphate feeding, it is indeed coming alive.  That is not the 30 roots that I planted by a long shot, but I have confidence that more will come up.  Can I get a woohoo?!  After the weeding shown above, I spread four bags of Intervale compost, some more lime, and some more rock phosphate over and around it, and watered it in.  I am going to get a bale of straw to mulch it, and I think that next year we will be swimming in asparagus. 

I have put in a brand new grow bed:

Ahhhh, it's like a fresh canvas.  I put in a bean tower and planted it with Dolloff beans (a true Vermont heirloom shell bean) sent to me by the Extreme Gardener.  I also put in a fresh planting of arugula, Renee's Stir Fry mix, Romaine, and basil seeds.  When I started, I intended to put in beets and bush beans.  I have no idea how I got off track like that, but apparently the canvas spoke to me.

For the Love of Lettuce

I love it when readers ask questions about the garden, because I take a lot of these things for granted and don't realize they are worth writing about.  When you ask, it makes me realize that there are questions that I can answer, and it inspires a post like this one.  It makes me relieved that I'm not just writing a bunch of drivel into a vacuum.  It could still be a bunch of drivel, but at least it's not into a black hole -- hey, whaddayaknow! Someone's out there to comment and question!

This has turned into one heck of a long post.  I've changed the settings on the blog so that my full posts are readable in feedreaders, not just excerpts, so if you must, go ahead and skim or do a drive-by reading.  I don't really like that, because I want you to actually visit my blog, and comment, dognammit.  (We're bloggers.  We love comments.)  The list of blogs that I can actually get to, read, and comment upon has shrunk dramatically, so I'm as guilty as the next person on that score.  I'm sorry about that, and I'll admit to being totally selfish in that regard.   

So I'll try this for a while and see how it goes.  It is sometimes hard to find the time to click in, I know, and yesterday I had trouble getting my own blog to load -- it must have been a Typepad glitch -- and that's why I changed the settings.

Our friend Kim recently asked some good questions about lettuce and when to cut it and how and when to replant it to extend the season. Who knew I could have so much to say about the humble lettuce?  I really didn't realize it until she asked. 

But wait, it's not really so humble, the lettuce.  There are the three or four varieties you find in the grocery store, but that's not the end of the lettuce story.  There is really so much more. 

I love lettuce and lettuce blends.  I like the sweet, the crisp, the green, the pale, the dark, the mottled, the red, the slightly bitter, the buttery, the bland, the exotic, the pedestrian. 

Having the garden inspires so much creativity in food preparation.

Lunch yesterday: Local smoked turkey with mixed greens from the garden, on Ezekiel bread with garlic scape mayo. 

Seanna Lea the other day remarked that she'd need to look up some things, because I keep throwing around that word "bolt" and she has no idea what it means with regard to plants. 

It means that the plant has basically given up the ghost and is trying to send out flowers, then seeds.  That is really what a plant is meant to do, you know -- make seeds for the survival of the species.  When a particular plant has come near the end of its growing season or it undergoes some sort of environmental stress such as too much heat, humidity, rain or drought, the plant sends out -- in the case of lettuce and spinach for example -- a tall center stem with flower buds on it.  Here is a photo of a lettuce plant that is just starting to bolt:

 

This one is still doing fine and is edible and probably salvageable, but that center stem should not be there.  Lettuce should be a nice short, bushy plant (except for tall Romaines, but even they should not have a tall center stem -- unless you want to grow it for seed, that is). 

When lettuce bolts, the leaves are all but inedible -- bitter to the extreme.  So the point with these crops that prefer cooler weather (all lettuces, most greens, radishes, etc.) is to keep them young and keep them watered, and perhaps shaded, so they will not bolt when it turns hot and humid, because they will as soon as you turn your back. 

So plant early and plant often -- I sow a few new seeds every week or two so I have a continuous supply of new salad materials throughout the season.  Even then, there are sometimes high-heat-and-humidity conditions that make it futile.

Some people have the mistaken idea that you should harvest the "outer leaves."  I say bunk on that one.  That just encourages the center to grow up and that is not what you want, especially in lettuce and spinach.  You want to pinch back the center in the case of spinach, and you want to cut the lettuce almost to the ground, like so:

Items in photo are larger than they appear.  These are cut about, oh, 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch from the ground, though some larger pieces of leaves are left.

The ones below are the same variety of lettuce, the seeds were sown at the same time (Hank's garden, remember?), and I cut these and watered and fertilized with Gardener's Supply's all-purpose organic fertilizer, two or three days ago.  See how much bright red regrowth has already occurred? 

 

Here is an older bed of lettuce that has been mature and producing quite a few cuttings already this season.  It is a delicious seed mix of lettuces and greens labeled "Paris Market Mix" from Renee's Garden, though my seed packet was from last year and seems to be lacking the reds that are in the description.  Still, a wonderful salad blend.  I need to buy more. 

 

I cut this one back three days ago, watered it heavily and gave it a feeding of Starbucks coffee grounds, and it's growing back vigorously already. 

It's important, by the way, to cut the lettuce in the cool of the day, preferably in the morning, and water it after you cut it.  Avoid cutting it in the midday sun, and don't water it in the sun, either.  Each drop of water will act like a magnifying glass in the sun and burn the leaves.

A little feeding of liquid kelp or any other high-nitrogen natural fertilizer, given every week or couple of weeks, does wonders, too, as does lime in my soil (your soil may vary).  And this cut-and-come-again culture does not work very well with head lettuces like iceberg or butter lettuce -- they just produce one head per plant and then they're done.  Technically you can do it, but I have found it not worth the effort.  I just plant more.  I find it not that successful with Romaine, either, unless it's cut as a baby lettuce.  

After a while, even the best-cared-for cut-and-come-again lettuce gets tired.  So I rip it out, add compost or a touch of balanced organic fertilizer, and put in new seeds.  These germinated practically overnight this week:

 

They'll be ready to eat in about 3-4 weeks -- sooner if I harvest them as microgreens.  Or maybe not at all if that rabbit finds the garden.  Eek.

Then what do I do with it, you may be wondering.

After I cut the lettuce in the morning, I bring it in the house immediately, before it has a chance to wilt.  I fill a sink with water and pour in quite a lot of salt.  I buy the cheapest salt I can find for this purpose.  The salt pulls the earwigs, caterpillars, and slugs, if any, away from the leaves, and kills them (or at least makes them damn sick) so they wash down the drain.  I swish the salt around in the water to dissolve it, and I usually add some vinegar to the water, as well.  I have no scientific basis for this, but I feel that the vinegar helps to clean the lettuce of lots of undesirable things that might be on it -- it is growing outdoors, you know.  There are birds and dogs and cats, and, well, I just think the vinegar makes me feel better about all that.   

Throw in the leaves and soak and swish them around in the water for a while. 

 

Gently pull them out in handfuls and place in a large bowl or colander while you drain out the first sinkful of water.  Look at the dirt and debris in there:

 

Sometimes there are more bugs and slugs, but this time there were hardly any. 

Now fill the sink up again with just plain water for a final rinse and do the same soak/swish maneuver.  Pull the leaves out.  Once in a while, if there has been a tough rainstorm that has washed dirt up underneath the leaves, you will have to individually wash some of the leaves under running water, but usually the sinkful-of-water method is my only method.

 

Abigail gave me my beloved salad spinner for Mother's Day 1995 or '6.

This thing must have been used 4,999 times so far.  It is the best! I usually take the leaves out of the sink and put them in here, spin them dry, and put the whole shebang into the crisper drawer in the refrigerator.  This works the best of any method I know to crisp up and keep fresh salad greens.  Love it!

Grab greens as needed.

Of course, sometimes there are still greens in this thing and I have more to process.  That's why I recently bought the two Salad Sacs I mentioned the other day.  Still, we are only two people (usually), and that's a lot of greens.  But we do a pretty good job of using them up.  This time of year we eat salad at least twice a day, and not a small amount of salad, but huge dinner salads.  I'm only sad we don't have a longer growing season.

Continuing With Our Gardening Alphabet Theme: B

Sandy, WE'VE GOT BEETS!

A Forest of Bush Beans:

(Pole) Beans, With Their Sexy, Sexy Twining Tendrils:

Basil, which is being munched on by something other than me.  Still, there's enough left for us (we humans) to enjoy, so it's all good.

Blueberries, just beginning to turn from green to blue:

 

Blossoms:

Missing from this post, because I ran out of time:  Bugs and Bees.  They are essential parts of the garden ecosystem.  We don't like the bad bugs, but we like the good ones, and we certainly do like (and need) the bees. 

Can You Stand Another Harvest Photo?

Swiss Chard of various types, Lacinato Kale, Red Russian Kale, Asparagus

The second planting of peas has stalled at about 2-3 inches tall for the longest time and shows no signs of doing much else.  Since I have a zero-tolerance policy for space hogs and nonperformers (men take note, heh-heh), out they went yesterday.  In the mess that we call a basement, I discovered that I had yet another 6-foot grow bed that I bought at the end-of-season sale last year, so that went in yesterday afternoon, when of course the weather decided to turn Hot As Hades (tm), because really, it seems like it just HAS to be that hot when one does the hefty garden work such as shoveling out the compost bins and filling raised beds.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  And except for the fact that the lettuce and arugula and cilantro and spinach are likely to bolt by this afternoon when I'm at work, and the asparagus is about to go by, I do love it that it has finally gotten above freezing around here.  It would be nice if it didn't go from 55 to 95 in one day, but hey, who's complaining?  

Because I know some of you (you know who you are) have not been paying attention the 137 other times I've linked it, and therefore someone will ask, here is the link for Gardener's Supply, where I buy the recycled black plastic grow beds that I swear by, as well as the red tomato mulch, organic fertilizer, bean towers, and so much more.  Not that I mind linking and relinking and linking again, mind you -- this IS my hobby, after all, this blog thang, not yours, damnit!  Right? 

Yes, I have a fortune in those things, by the way, but it's worth it, and yes, they ought to compensate me for the tons of publicity and endorsements I give them, but they don't.  I am hot and cranky; can you tell?

I'm going to plant this new bed up with all kinds of good things -- more arugula to replace the old which was so danged delicious in our salads the other day, some more red lettuces and more beets, I think.  And a bean tower planted with some very special heirloom bean seeds sent to me by The Extreme Gardener.  I hope it's not too late for them, but I'm guessing it'll be OK, since they are super-hardy for the ... oh, yes, nodoubtaboutit, the extreme ... gardening conditions of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and I'm way over here in the temperate climes with my own little microclimate thingy going on.  In fact, maybe the beans are masochists and will decide they don't LIKE to be comfortable and won't perform at all.  I sure am talking a lot about performing today, aren't I?  Just coincidence, I assure you.

My new favorite purchase is a Salad Sac.  This time of year I have trouble finding refrigerator space for all the produce, and too much of it ends up in the compost bin.  I only have so many Rubbermaid and Tupperware containers, and only so many will fit in the fridge anyway.  Plus, they often don't hold the super-big items like Swiss chard and kale very well.

In the past I have bought those green plastic produce bags, and they are great, but I find that I only use them and wash them a few times.  Something inevitably gets rotten in the bag and I don't want to reuse it then.  So those bags are not as green and economical as I'd really like. 

I've read "helpful" hints that a brown paper grocery bag can be used the same way, but it's never worked for me -- I end up with wilted lettuce and a soggy brown bag taking up too much space in the refrigerator for no good reason.  The Salad Sac is machine washable, really big, really easy to use (I don't have to spin my veggies after washing before storing), and it performs [ok, I've used that word too many times in this post] fills up nicely and fits in the crisper bin of the fridge. The literature that came with it claims that you can put all kinds of produce in the same bag and your lettuce won't, for example, taste like onions.  I hope I will use it and reuse it for many years to come.  No more plastic, no more paper towels!  Yay for high performance!

Today's Entry Is Brought To You By The Letter 'A'

Aphids on the Artichoke

 

 

And ants farming them (scroll down to "Mutualism.") 

Argh. (Let's hope the soapy water does the trick.)

----------------

Abundance of Asparagus

 

(Enough to freeze a quart for the first time ever!  'allelujah for the rock phosphate!)  And the new bed is starting to show signs of life, too.

-------------------------------

Arugula!

Ahhhhhhhh.

Terrier Tuesday

Folks, I'm exhausted!  You'd think that going to the country would be more relaxing than living in the city, wouldn't you?  I thought so, too, but boy was I wrong.  There is just too much to do at the Miller Resort, Spa & Dude Ranch.  There are so many places to walk, and there's the garden hill to climb, and this is one big house for hiding my rawhide chews, I'll tell you.  There's one behind every door, and under as many pieces of furniture as I can manage. I hid one in A. Alpha's luggage the other day.  That was soooo funny. 

Last week when A. A. was gone, I went to a sleepover camp with two nice young people, two NICE dogs, and two nice cats.  It was so much fun, but I gotta tell ya, it just about wore me out!  Since A. Alpha's been back, I've been doing a lot of this:  (Please excuse the blurry cell phone photos, but I didn't want her to disturb me to get the real camera.)

I'm still not totally caught up on my sleep.  Honestly, these people are running me ragged! 

You might notice that my hair got cut.  I asked for a buzz cut, because I wanted to look quite butch, you know, but the lady went a little bit too short.  I kinda like the shiny, smooth way it looks, but have you checked the temperature lately?  I'm COLD, people!  Not cold enough to wear my sweaters, though.  The weather has just been weird -- too cold and yet too warm -- crazy!  So I asked A.A. to get me just a little something to take off the chill -- you know, like a t-shirt.  Well, she went looking, but all they had were girlie things and polo shirts.  Polo shirts are just way too preppie.  I was thinking more along the lines of a wifebeater shirt, and not with any twee logos or pretentious labels.  But she said there were none to be had -- only girls' tank tops.  Not fair!  So I guess I just have to snuggle with her more (oh, darn) and wait for my hair to grow out a bit. 

Tonight I'm busy studying for my entrance exam for a new day care that I will go to when the other nice family can't take care of me during the days when A.A. has to work long hours.  We're being interviewed tomorrow, and I don't know what they might ask, but I'm quite confident that I'll ace it, and I do have personal references should they require them.

Wish me luck!

Your Faithful Pal,

Jefferies  XO

Greens Overload

A gardener is not allowed to leave for a few days.  Or if she does, she must be prepared for the consequences. 

In this instance, I came home to too many greens. (File this under the category, "There Could Be Worse Things.")

Greens in the refrigerator:

Greens to sauté:

Got enough salad for a week and a day:

Greens in the spinner:

Greens in the sink:

Excuse me while I pause to enjoy a green drink:

Greens for the neighbors, my mom and my sister. 

My cutting-knife thumb is developing a blister.

Greens for the man, the woman, the dog:

I could probably feed everyone reading this blog.

So it's greens in the compost:

and greens in the loo. 

Be thankful I didn't photograph that for you too.

I've come to the end of my rhyme for today.

P'raps my readers will continue in a poetic way.

 

Write haiku or limerick or poem or song,

Have a great Monday, and now move along.

Life Is Like A Bowl Of....

.... strawberries?

I've been gone for a few days.  I had some fun times with some OFA people, which explains why the red scarf knitting came to the fore in the last few days, eh? 

It's always amazing to see how much the garden grows in my absence.  I came home to these sweet, juicy, succulent strawberries and soon-to-be-overgrown asparagus that I had to rescue; to find that some of the peas have blossomed while others seem to have stopped growing altogether (I might just rip them up and forget about it); to find that the beans have taken off, and all number of other things.  I was too tired to take it all in and quickly got overwhelmed.  I'm getting a bit of a cold shoulder from Mr. Jefferies, and I'm woefully behind in the blog-reading-and-commenting and answering-emails departments.  Blast that mini computer.  It's so slow it's not worth bringing with me.  I feel like I threw money at the wind in buying it, and I'm not going to bother lugging it around anymore.  Even though it's tons lighter than my regular laptop and I do not want to take my regular laptop traveling because I can't risk getting it damaged because IT'S.MY.WORK.COMPUTER, the mini is hardly worth the space it takes up.  So screw it.  Screw the blog and screw emails when I'm on the road, except for what I can accomplish with the beloved Blackberry, which isn't a whole hell of a lot except to read the emails and comments and smile or chuckle, thank you in my head, and then ignore.  You don't mind, do you?

 Anyhoo, after I sleep on it, I should be better able to tackle it all.