Thoughts I had while picking + eating these strawberries from our garden:
-I don't care that it hasn't stopped raining. I really want to eat some of these for lunch.
-A penchant toward questioning the meaning of life may be extinguished by eating strawberries.
-The verse...Taste + see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8)...might have something to do with strawberries.
-I wish I could share one of these little treasures with each of you, because then you'd all be convinced to plant some of your own (if you don't already).  ;)

Have I convinced you yet?  :) If you have access to a sunny patch, plant strawberries.  :) It doesn't take much effort or expense...they start like the picture on the left. (Look for strawberry starts in the early spring.) We've even gotten a few strawberries off these starts.

Next year, those starts will have sent off their shoots + filled in + will look more like the picture on the right. All it takes is watering them every so often throughout the summer. We don't cover them with straw or anything during the winter...though it might be a good idea in places where there is more snow or much colder temperatures (though we do get a few feet of snow at a time + very cold temperatures too).

These plants produce fruit for three or four weeks + look pretty the rest of the time. I think they would look nice in a front yard or as ground cover on the side of the house too. I feel like it's totally worth it to devote a little space to strawberries.

If you have to wait until next year to plant those starts, look for a U-pick farm in your area. In less than an hour you'll have enough deliciousness to eat to your hearts content + also to make some jam + to freeze some for later in the summer.

These strawberries are nothing like the ones in the grocery store. They are much sweeter + softer...which is probably why they wouldn't travel well from field to store shelf. I love them straight off the vine...or as a part of my very favorite lunch...with homemade yogurt + granola (homemade or from the bulk bins).

When there are too many to sit down + eat right then (because there will be more to pick tomorrow)...I really feel rich + freeze some. The frozen ones make amazing smoothies or ice cream treats later in the summer!

When Jo ate her strawberries, she mused, "I wonder why more people don't grow their own strawberries!" And I said, "I'm writing a post about that right now!"  :)

Love,
Jane

Today looks to hold a full schedule of rain + darkness. I was planning on tolerating today + looking forward to warmer temperatures (but also more rain) tomorrow. But this morning I decided to get out in our backyard + see what I could just (as Josef Albers said) open my eyes + see.

Rain was just starting to fall + the low light makes for beautiful photos. Isn't that just sort of the way? Sometimes the bleakest circumstances allow beauty to stand out in all its garish glory. Things we may not have taken notice of under normal circumstances conjure deep feelings. This plant weathers the winter + all of the squirrels that share our yard (note the acorn top) + persists with greater strength year after year.

Last year, I thought this plant had died, so I dumped it out + repurposed its pot. Instead of dumping the dead stalk, I planted it where it dropped. I'm a pretty lazy gardener. This year it is a lovely mass of green + flowers. Sometimes a little space + time works unexpected magic.

I thought this bed of strawberries was winding down after a number of years of producing, but it's looking pretty promising. I honestly do nothing for these treasures, besides watering them a bit. Sunshine + rain + plant power know their own way. 

These chives have been seasoning a lot of our meals already this spring + offer the best flowers too. I think those white bits are the seeds forming. These flavorful beauties will multiply endlessly, if we let them.

I can't remember if this is brussels sprouts or cauliflower, but either way, I'm not sure it is going to actually provide before it gets too hot. Gardening offers lots of opportunity to practice not being a perfectionist, to temper our expectations + to realize that we are not in control. I tried something new. I'm learning. I am completely at peace with whatever happens here. 

On my way back inside, I noticed these last two mangos sitting out to ripen. Spring is a terrible, beautiful testing ground...cold + frost + rain + clouds + sun. Somehow delicate seedlings break ground + fluffy bumblebees reappear + mangos juice drips down our chins + we feel the sun on our shoulders again + we see that life is good.

Love,
​Jane

This meal tasted like spring on a plate + I didn't want to forget it, so I thought I'd record it here...

​Spring on a Plate         (serves 4)
1 cup dried brown rice
asparagus, woody ends removed + sliced
4 Tbsp butter
1 lemon, juiced
peas
radishes
fresh chives or green onions
nutritional yeast
cayenne, salt, pepper flakes

Cook rice, adding asparagus stalks to the cooking pot for the last 8-9 minutes of cooking time. Add asparagus tips for the last 3-4 minutes of cooking time. The asparagus will steam on top of the rice (do not stir in). When all of the water has evaporated, remove pot from heat + stir in butter, peas, lemon juice + seasonings. I used salt, cayenne + pepper flakes. Garnish with chives, radishes + nutritional yeast. Enjoy!  :)

Love,
Jane

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.
~Audrey Hepburn

This weekend involved planting a few things for us to eat + a few things to feed the birds, bees + butterflies. I went looking for seeds online + found a bunch of what I would normally have bought sold out. (Amazing!) I was able to find a nursery nearby that is offering a limited selection for online ordering + curbside pickup. One of their offerings was even a potted tomato plant with a cage...perfect for an apartment balcony. I didn't mind the limited offerings, because it made it a little easier to make my choices...cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, peppers, strawberries + a pollinator flower seed mix for now. I also planted some radish seeds that I had on hand.

I didn't always understand what people meant when they said it felt good to get their hands in the dirt. But now...I like to move soil with my hands...to tuck each seed or seedling in...skin to dirt. It feels like I'm connecting with my food right there at the beginning...like I'm tucking love + hope in with them. It feels good to get dirt under my fingernails...sun on my shoulders...wind in my hair.

Zero-waste may not be practical in every way at the moment, but I love that garden-fresh fruits + vegetables are still a great way to eliminate food packaging, transportation + even viruses.  :) 

Love,
​Jane

Once upon a time I read books about homesteads + small scale farming. I scoured the area for homes with land...just enough to sustain us. We looked at an old house on one acre of land. The sellers had a few sweet cows in the small barn. I read books about suburban families who grow enough food to sustain them on their suburban plots. We attended classes about backyard chickens, visited working farms + went to hear Joel Salatin speak. Midway through this studying + dreaming, we finally had some space to start a garden of our own. 

My current gardening strategy is not to stress out about growing all we need (though I admire that greatly). I focus on growing the most expensive things that grow well where we live (+ that we love to eat). For us that means tomatoes, peppers + strawberries. We grow other things too, but tomatoes are my main priority. Fresh tomatoes are a highlight of many summer meals. Tomato sauce is the base for soups, pasta sauce, salsa + other meals all year round. We avoid all the transport, the cans + lots of expense by growing our own. 

This jar held the last of the tomato sauce from our 2018 home-grown tomatoes. I used it this week, and it's almost time to start picking this year's tomatoes.  :)

Love, 
​Jane

Tidy landscaping is not my forte. My preferences lie with nothing but beachgrass...like some of the homes near the lake where I grew up...or a front walk surrounded by nothing but a tangle of wildflowers + a back yard filled with nothing but vegetables. My gardening leans more toward wild...with nature firmly in control.  :)

Wherever we find ourselves, I try to plant native plants that are about as thirsty as the conditions provide for. Growing things in New Mexico is quite different from growing things in London, but I've attempted it in each place + learned by trial + error...lots of error.  :)

We have a big planting bed on the side of our house in which I've tried everything from tomatoes + cucumbers (not enough sun) to potatoes (not sure about the work to yield ratio) to a butterfly + hummingbird garden. I prefer plants that produce food to purely pretty things, but food for butterflies, bees + hummingbirds makes me happy too. This year I wanted to have a view of the flowers + their visitors, so I devoted the backyard bed closest to our kitchen window to them as well.

Lately it seems that a new type of flower pops up every day or two in this well-rained-upon tangle of color. The bed hums with bumble bees + I'm keeping an eye out for the first fleeting hummingbird sighting of the year.

Love,
​Jane

It's been raining for weeks, but today the sun was shining when we woke up. I couldn't help but smile. There's nothing like a garden to make us realize just how dependent on the weather we really are. Too much rain can wreak as much havoc as too little. My tiny stakes don't begin to compare to a farmer's, but they do open my eyes to the enormous effects of climate change on our food supply.

Eating food fresh from the garden is pretty amazing! Never are the radishes so spicy or the chives so pungent as when they've been harvested minutes before that first bite. 

Planting + watering + caring for + harvesting + tasting our own food just must be one of the best ways to share a connection with our planet...with our children. I felt it imperative to be able to let my girls pull a carrot out of the soil...pick strawberries off the vine...dig potatoes out of the ground. I'd done it as a child + there was just no way to explain the pure magic of it to them. Before having our own garden, we made sure to find pick-your-own apple orchards and strawberry + blueberry fields. We ate things straight away, and we made jam + apple sauce too. Establishing connections between the land + weather + farmers + our bodies is crucial. These connections form our thoughts + attitudes + actions...and the connection is there whether we acknowledge it or not.

Love,
​Jane

If I could only choose one spice (other than salt), it would be pepper flakes. We love them sprinkled into + onto most everything savory. From avocado toast to soups to grain bowls...we like them all a bit spicy. So last summer, after growing peppers for years + eating them all fresh, I was scared/inspired into trying to make pepper flakes out of some very spicy peppers that burned my hands when I cut them.  :)

Those pepper flakes lasted all year + were so good! We are still using up the very last of them. So, of course, we're at it again with this year's spicy peppers. I've found the best way for me to dry the peppers is just to put them in the oven on low heat (I've been putting them in at about 270F) until they become brittle enough to crack. I check on them every hour or so + remove the dry ones from the pan. I'd rather hang dry them (to avoid the power used for the oven), but my attempts last year made me realize that it is just too humid here to avoid some going bad in the process. Oven drying lets me avoid losing any of my precious peppers!

Once all of the peppers are dried, I crush them with the bottom of a jar (to avoid getting stinging pepper hands) + put them into jars. (This step involves a little sneezing, no matter how hard I try to avoid it...but confirms that this is good stuff!) That's it + we have spicy, zero-waste goodness enough to last another year!

Love, 
​Jane