I think I’ve got one more cleanup to go until the garden is done. Today is very rainy but it should get up into the mid 60s ahead of a cold front, so Sydney and I got up early and cleaned up the asparagus bed. Getting rid of that 6 foot tall “fence” of asparagus fronds really opens up the garden. I forget what a great view we have from the garden out to the west for the months that the asparagus is gigantic. The main bed is full of mud and water. I think I am going to have to fill that in with dirt and raise it up. It’s just too muddy when we get big storms. I haven’t had this problem until this year, so I’m not really sure what has happened, honestly, but the main bed is a mess:
The Swiss chard that I cut off on November 14 has grown back well and is healthy enough to even eat some small leaves if we want. The arugula and kale and whatever else that Del gave me is also growing from the earlier cutting. Even though much of it has bolted, I think it will be edible because of the frost. The kale is especially good.
My leeks are looking healthy. These pictures make them seem larger than they really are. The biggest leek is about an inch across. I don’t know how deep they go, but I think they may be up to 5-6 inches. A few of the leeks I neglected on the other side of the bed have survived. They are only about the width of a pencil, so I will just leave them over the winter to see what happens. It’ll be interesting to see if they can mature in time for a spring harvest through the winter.
I have been desperately trying to get more Garden of Eden bean seed, and I planted the last seed or two I had down on the end of the bean trellis this year. We tried not to eat anything from that end — it was such a mess that I couldn’t tell the difference between the plants — and today I finally picked out the previously dried (now soggy from the rain) beans to see if I got any Garden of Eden. It looks to me like I got at least five so far. Garden of Eden has an ugly brownish gray seed, and I’m hopeful I can grow enough next year to get them well established. The beans are by far our favorite, and you can’t get the seed anywhere anymore.
We have been glad to have Sydney home. She brings a lot more energy back into the house. We had her do the vaccine study with is hoping she might get the vaccine, too. So far she is doing pretty well. She may have a headache, which is a symptom of receiving the vaccine, but it’s unclear yet. She was grumpy and unwell yesterday, but today she’s feeling better, and I’m not sure what to make of it.
She has been cooking a lot for us while she’s home, and yesterday she and Jared made a piecaken, which for this recipe is a spiced apple upside down cake on top of a sweet potato pie on top of a pecan pie layered with cinnamon buttercream. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when we cut into it.
I started up my research project last week. So far I’ve had a pretty good response. I will push hard on it all of this week, hoping to wrap this thing up by the end of the year.
