Kitchen Garden

This summer Jeff put various plants in all of the raised garden beds we now have in the back part of our yard. Not everything was productive, but overall it is amazing how much food comes out of a few 3x6 foot beds. We have 4 3x6 beds of various heights and 1 3x12 going across in the way back. Jeff did all the planning, seed starting and sowing, and I have been doing most of the harvesting and cooking. We only watered the area about 6 times all summer, and the plants did better than I thought without a daily drink like I give my potted flowers.

In May we enjoyed a few strawberries, and a daily plate of salad greens. We also had spinach in May which made a few salads and 2 meals of spinach calzones.

In June and July we enjoyed several side dishes of green beans, many cucumbers to make several batches of marinated cucumbers and Thai style cucumber salad, and beets to make several batches of Odessa Beets. We have picked many tomatillos and made some great salsas with those.

In August we have been trying to keep up with all of the peppers and tomatoes! We also have had several eggplants. We have had three eggplant meals: two of Eggplant Enchiladas with a red sauce made from the tomatoes and one Eggplant Curry. We have made basil pesto, and this with some sliced tomatoes and a bit of mayo makes my favorite summer treat: Tomato Sandwich. This has been our go to lunch meal many times this month. The pepper plants are also out of control, but Jeff made an 11 pepper lasagna this weekend, and we have had several batches of salsa which is a good use for tomatoes and peppers. Yesterday I collected our weak batch of leeks and made a 1/3 size batch of leek/potato soup because the recipe called for 11 cups of leeks and I only had about 3 1/2 cups. Our brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli plants are huge and leafy but no food produced on any of those plants. We have green onions galore and so I have to think of some way to use them. We also have many shallots but those have dried out well.

Overall we have had a good harvest for the first full use of these gardens, and it is kind of refreshing to know that it is not a huge loss of money or time if a few plants don't turn out like we expected. Our tomato harvest was way smaller than we expected for how many plants there were but we still had so many tomatoes that many of them spoiled on the plants before we could pick them. Is it a saving to the grocery bill? Probably not, but we are eating more fresh and seasonal food these weeks and less meat than usual because having a pile of peppers and tomatoes on your window sills is a lot of pressure to fill up on those while they are right there waiting to be eaten. Now I think I will have a tomato sandwich.



I am really happy with the raised bed/square foot gardening concept. It seems very accessible and easy to maintain and the soil mix that you add to raise up the soil level can be better than the ground soil that some of us have. The whole garden area is only in about a 12 x 16 foot spot by our garage, so it only takes up a tiny part of our modest city yard. Thanks to Moosewood Cookbook for all the vegetable recipes this summer, Rick Bayless for all his salsa recipes, and Dad Groen who worked so hard to build the beds last summer! A kitchen garden is so much fun! Maybe I'll add a few pictures soon.

A new spot

We do a lot of field trips, so I am familiar with many of the natural settings in our area, but this week Friday we visited an NW Indiana beach that is only accessible by boat. Our neighbors the Sandricks took Douwe and me out on their boat for the day and we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon of hot weather and calm lakewater at Boater's Beach a few miles west of Indiana Dunes State Park. Douwe and the boys enjoyed jumping off the boat, swimming back and forth from boat to shore, flowing down the industrial outlet "lazy river" and playing with the beach toys. One of the most enjoyable days of the summer!

Reunion

Our big summer vacation this year was the twice-per-decade Wielinga Reunion which is usually held in Canada somewhere. This time it was in Pinawa, Manitoba, bordering a huge Provincial Park area about 16 hours drive west and north.

We spent the week in dormitory/cafeteria style housing with 160 members of Jeff's mom's siblings and offspring. This was Jeff's 8th Wielinga reunion over his lifetime, Jess's third and Douwe's first. Many fun experiences doing hikes and swimming and 5K and Mini-Olympics and canoe rides
and tubing and outdoor events.
It was also fun to see the slide show which begins with the 1975 reunion and covers each one after. We had many late nights playing games in the common area, it felt like being on a Young People's convention, with several mid-night pranks and all! Douwe and Jess hosted a pre-school story/music hour with our books and instruments each day before lunch so we got to know a few of the children in the 2-5 ages.
We ate like royalty, especially the night we had grilled salmon brought in straight from the Alaska boat of one of our fisherman cousins. Looking forward to 2015, and hoping to see a few of those relatives before 5 years go by again.