what is to be done, what has been done and photo tour

 howdy folks!

did i mention wild lupines surround the garden?

 sorry it's been awhile. we have been busy in the garden! and, i'll admit, occasionally  just laying around being very pregnant and cranky (that's me, but conroy has sympathy pains, so i can't exactly exclude him, either).  still, we are so very excited about the garden, and are out there everyday, weather permitting.  
we're planning on distributing first shares next week. it won't be an overwhelming amount of food, but it'll have multiple greens, peas, dry beans and an herb, hopefully. 

to keep you posted, i'll start with what we've done so far.   
so far we have sowed: corn, snap peas, squashes, green beans, edamame,  lettuces, mesculn, arugula, chard, kale, spinach, broccoli, potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, radishes, fennel, flowers and herbs.  most of those we've sowed successive plantings, so we can expect a long stretch of fresh veggies.  basil, leeks, red cabbage, and more tomatoes still need to be transplanted.
also, we've been weeding and hoeing the heck out of that garden - paths and beds.  conroy hilled the potatoes yesterday, we thinned the corn and squash, and have been covering lots of the crops with row covers (remay). and, we made an awesome scarecrow (props to lynn and abby,  the artistic visionaries).


after some seriously finicky (hot, cold, dry, soggy) weather it looks like we'll have a nice warm and sunny front for a stretch, which should do wonders for the crops. of course, we have had a few snafus besides the weather...  we've got a groundhog threatening our snap peas from above, and a vole from below.  so far the vole has taken out many a snap pea plant.  also a snowshoe hare is munching on radish greens and lettuce.   deer have had a walkabout on some of our onions, flowers, and greens. and, we have a skunk - who hasn't done any garden damage that we know of, but is a pain in the ass to wake up to.

what is to be done?  weed, transplant, and harvest!  also, design a shade fixture for greens II.
here's a photo tour for your viewing pleasures:

potato plant

snap peas and greens

tomato rows

potato beds

corn I

edamame I

snap peas

rainbow chard

plug trays!

we've got loads of plug trays with seedlings eager to be transplanted.  above you can see some baby broccoli, kale, leeks, tomatoes, cabbage, lettuces....   the pictures was taken a few weeks ago, so they're bigger now.  we had a slight mishap which involved overheating seedlings in the cold frames one sunny afternoon.  but no worries, 'cause some leaf trimming and compost tea fixed everything. 

above you see the first batch of snap peas.  they're doing great save the vole who's been nabbing the seedlings: note the empty patches.  still they're healthy and bug-free, and we've managed to keep the groundhog at bay thus far.

the fellas checkin' in on the seedlings.

seitan shepherd's pie

a take-off of an old classic.this is how it's done.

boil potatoes with skins. a bunch of 'em. say 3-4 lbs. 

the original recipe calls for slicing zucchini length-wise, frying them until almost cooked, and placing them along the bottom of the baking pan.  i've done that before, and it is delicious (especially for the month of august, b/c it uses up some of the massive amounts of zucchini around the house) but it's also more work.  so i've modified it a tad, and just:

-stir fry all of my favorite vegetables in olive oil: garlic, onions, broccoli, kale, peppers, parsnips, etc.  -then toss in some savory herbs: thyme, sage, rosemary, oregano, parsley...etc. whatever you prefer. add some nutritional yeast, balsamic and sun dried tomatoes if you got 'em (they'll add lots of tang) at the end of the cooking. put the whole mixture at the bottom of the casserole dish.

-cook seitan however you prefer: dry baked, boiled, fried. i usually fry it with pepper and thyme. put that on top of the veggies in a flat layer.

-now, if you have lots of extra veg, place 'em on top of the seitan layer.  if not,

-mash those potatoes in your favorite way.  i usually just do garlic mashed potatoes and add a bit extra butter/margarine and (soy) milk to make the potatoes extra wet (which you need, b/c the whole pot pie will be baked for a good long while, and dry out the potato mash).

bake it all at 350 for 45 minutes.

sprinkle nutritional yeast over the top, and you have yourself a hardy meal.