March and April Harvest Totals

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March and April Harvest Totals

Asterisk denotes foraged item.

• Bunching Onion: 24 g
• Carrots (Danvers): 802 g
• *Dandelion (Greens): 74 g
• *Dandelion (Roots): 14 g
• Kale (Russian Red): 1 g
• Kale (Winterbor): 22g
• Pea Shoots: 93 g
• Sunchokes: 2354 g

Total: 3.384 kg

I think it is amazing that I am able to do a substantial harvest total update a full month earlier than last season.  I remember it being particularly cold, and although we had a somewhat delayed beginning to spring this year as well the temperatures seem to be right back on track for everything.  A lot of the substantial stuff on this list was overwintered in the garden from last season.  If you can do that, it can be pretty handy in early spring when you're wishing for fresh veggies!

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Spring 2018 Garden Tour

Those of you who have been following along with my Instagram stories voted that you wanted my next post to be a garden tour, so here it is!  I don't think I've ever shown the whole thing completely like this, so I'm happy that a garden tour was something you all said you wanted to see.  Things are a little bit haphazard, and not completely tidy and manicured, but I wanted to give you a sense of what it looks like in real life on a regular day.  There is a lot I still want to do - and a lot more I would do if we weren't merely renting the space, but for now this is what it looks like.

The area I have for my garden is all north facing, so I am having to be creative with how I arrange it, and what I grow.  I am starting a lot of things inside that my neighbours would normally succeed with by direct seeding.  We've been adding on a few raised beds each season, so the layout evolved organically.  In the photo above you can see the four newest additions.  I think we have room for one more (beside the furthest bin in the left photo below).  Since we are tenants, we wanted everything to be affordable, and easy to dismantle in the event that we needed to move out.  We chose to make all of our raised beds without bottoms or lining of any kind so we can simply unscrew them, spread out the beautiful soil, and reseed with grass.  If you follow me on Instagram you can see the process of how I put them together in my saved stories.  We buy 10"x2"x12' boards from the hardware store and each bin is one board.  It's not the most elegant solution, but it's very affordable, and keeps things in small, manageable sections.  It's also easy to walk across, or stand on their walls if I need to reach something, or don't want to walk all the way around a path.

You'll notice that a few of the beds have PVC pipe hoops over them.  We were planning on doing some poly tunnels over a few of them to extend the growing season last winter but ran out of time.  I'll be using them as trellises for the vining plants this summer, and then we'll do them as low tunnels this coming winter and see what we can overwinter.

So far there isn't all that much planted this year.  I have some perennials - raspberries, bunching onions, strawberries, haskaps, blueberries, rhubarb, mint, chives, hyssop, lemon balm, and yarrow - and a few other things like brassicas that were just put in the ground very recently.  I am excited to see how my haskaps and rhubarb do now that they are well established and in their third or fourth years.  Bunching onions are a recent favourite I got last year from a neighbour who was dividing their plant.  I haven't had very good success with growing regular onions, so having them in the ground, basically ready to eat all the time has been a revelation!  They don't have much of a bulb, so I still buy regular onions, but you can use these any way you would use a spring onion, or a shallot.

In the above photo you can see a few of our bins that don't match our other basic square ones.  The three small ones near the wall were made for me by a friend from Church who had some spare wood and wanted to make some for me.  The really long raised bed is one we did before we realized that it is really hard for me to reach all the way to the back of it - especially now that we have the potato bin and other beds blocking the access from a few directions.  I also filled in the space behind the three small bins with dirt for some perennial berry bushes.  You can see this better in the photo below.

As far as what is growing right now, below are a few snapshots of the perennials (and some overwintered brassicas) coming back to life for the spring.  The one I am most excited for is the rhubarb, but I am also watching the progress of the Bianca hops (top left photo) closely as it is my first time growing them, and I think hops bines are really beautiful. 

As always, I am so grateful for the gorgeous view of the valley I have from my garden.  The best mornings are when I have a mug of coffee, and I get to wander around the garden and check on everything.  We have quite a few birds and other animals that come to visit, so I enjoy watching them and marking the seasons when they come and go.  Right now the warm weather is bringing back the tree swallows, and I love watching their swooping flights.  We have deer, and bears (mixed blessings there as they can also be quite the nuisances), and last year a whole bunch of garter snakes were born right in the garden.  Little forager enjoyed watching them, and I enjoyed that they helped take care of some of the pests.  I love that I have a garden that encourages biodiversity.   

I'd love to hear about your gardens in the comments below.  Or if you don't have a garden talk to me about what you wish you could do if you had a garden!

Guest Post: Spring Foraging, by Melissa Keyser

I first connected with Melissa on Instagram, as a fellow gardener, homesteader, and lover of the outdoors. I’ve invited her here today to share some stories of her spring foraging aventures! Make sure to stop by her site, Quarter Moon Living, and say hello!  Melissa Keyser is a writer, naturalist, garden designer, blogger and educator. Growing up without electricity in the central coast mountains of California, she is a lifelong lover of nature and is passionate about self-sufficiency, sustainability, local food, and organic gardening. She encourages people to reconnect to the natural world through slow, simple, and seasonal living. On her blog, she shares recipes featuring truly seasonal produce, gardening tips, traditional food skills, and tips for general wellness. She holds a degree in Environmental Studies from University of California, Santa Cruz, and has completed additional studies in Horticulture and Landscape Design. Currently, she lives in Sacramento, California. 

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In my part of the world, in central California, our spring actually starts in the early winter. After a dry, hot and dormant period of our Mediterranean climate summers, the first rains of the season wake up our parched soils, bringing the earth back to life. And while the branches of the trees are still bare, almost overnight the hills and fields suddenly shift back to green. For me, this is when the spring foraging season for tender wild greens begin.

Elsewhere in the world, the seasons follow a more logical pattern. Spring starts when it’s supposed to, or at least, theoretically. This year, for so many, it seems that winter is stretching on forever. If this sounds like you, just know the Earth has not forgotten you, she is simply sleeping in. But in her slumber, she is gathering strength, and when she emerges, it will be with full force, her lands awashed with bounty.

It will soon be the time for spring foraging.

The first to appear are the stinging nettles.

Urtica dioica might be the best all-purpose wild green out there. They are highly medicinally, good to drink in tea or take a powdered form. The stems contain fibers that can be spun into thread or braided into cordage. They are also highly nutritious (in vitamin A, calcium, magnesium and iron) and, the big draw, they are also delicious!

But, remember, they have their name of stinging nettles for a reason! When harvesting, make sure to wear leather or rubber gloves. Once home, either blanch, steam or dry the greens, which will kill the sting.

Stinging nettles are native to Europe, but have now naturalized throughout most of the North America. Look for them in wet areas, alongside creeks, edges of damp woods, and areas with rich soil. The easiest way to identify them is to brush against them. You’ll know from their sharp sting! Otherwise, you can look for the hairs on the stems and the leaves. They have square stems and opposite leaves, with prominent veins and are shaped like an oblong heart, with the edges sharply toothed.

Nettles will continue to grow throughout the year, and you’ll find them standing tall by autumn, but they are best to eat when they are fresh and young. For the tenderest greens, start harvesting right after the emerge from the ground, snipping off the top few sets leaves. Once they start to flower, it’s best to pass them by.

I love to eat nettles in soup or folded in with cream and butter served over spaetzle. They also make a delicious ravioli filling! I add them to my tea during my monthly cycle to help replenish iron, and my husband drinks them in tea to help with his allergies.

As the days get longer, and the rains have come and the frost has subsided, the wild asparagus starts to appear.

Asparagus is herbaceous, meaning the plant dies back to the ground in the winter, and it’s near impossible to find asparagus spears growing green grass if you don’t know where to look. In my area, I start the process of foraging for asparagus in the fall.

The tender tips have long since grown tall, and are now a bush of fine foliage and the red berries containing the seeds stand out against the dark green of the leaves. Sometimes 6′ tall, these fronds leave no confusion that there is a healthy crown of asparagus growing there. By fall, the fronds start to die back, turning brown and dropping the berries (which are poisonous, so don’t eat!). This is when I make mental note, remembering where to look when spring arrives.

In North America, there is no actual wild asparagus. It’s native to Europe. Any that you find foraging is the same as the stuff you buy in the store or grow in your home garden, it’s simply escaped and is now growing in the wild. Feral, or perhaps rouge, asparagus.

You will find wild asparagus growing in the sun and close to (but not in) water. Look in drainage ditches, edges of marshes, or along river or stream edges. To harvest the asparagus, use a knife or clippers and cut the steam off right at or slightly below ground level. If you don’t have any equipment with you, you can dig into the soil with your fingers and snapped the spears off.

Choose spears that have tight tops and are firm. Asparagus grows fast, about an inch a day, and as the individual stalk starts to age and stretch up, the little triangular leafs tips start to branch out and become ‘looser’. You’ll want to avoid those!

Just like in the garden, asparagus crowns (that’s what the roots are called) will continue to produce spears for several weeks, so return often. Leave several spears to grow up. Otherwise, you may weaken or even kill the plant. If the spear emerges the width of a pencil or smaller, the plant is exhausting itself and you should let it be.

The Spring Foraging season is rounded off with the wild greens like dandelion, dock, chickweed, and my personal favorite, miner’s lettuce.

Miner’s lettuce, known in Latin as Claytonia perfoliata, gets its name from the miners of the California gold rush. They ate the wild green in order to prevent scurvy, which they learned from the native peoples. These are a great source of iron and vitamins A and C.

This was first wild green that I learned about as a child, because they are incredibly easy to identify. Just look for the round leaf. When they first emerge in the spring, they are somewhat spade-shaped, then later form the circle as they mature. Each plant grows in a clump of about 5 thin, smooth stems, each with the single round leaf on the top. The flower stalk emerges from the center of the circular leaf and is a delicate, nodding cluster of small, white blooms.

Once you find one, you’ll find many. They grow by reseeding and you’ll find entire hills and meadows filled with them. I spot it most frequently in woodland, forest or riparian ecosystems.

Miner’s lettuce has a delicate flavor and crisp texture. The leaves hold lots of water, and make it almost succulent, slightly like purslane. It lacks the acid that many other wild greens have, making it buttery, tender, and sweet. The stem, leaf, and flower are all edible, and you can enjoy at any stage in its growth cycle. However, they are best when harvested in the spring during cool and wet weather. I like to eat them while hiking as a trail snack, or bring the home and add to salads or use on a sandwich!

Seed Storage Makeover

I've been sitting around here waiting for the snow to melt, so with the time that I would normally be out in the garden I've been working on various other projects.  I've been storing my seeds in an old ammo can that I got from an army surplus store, and overall I really like how practical it is (so durable and fairly watertight).  I never cleaned it up much, and it is starting to look a little rusty and I thought I'd give it a bit of a makeover.

I wanted to try painting it.  I like my chosen seed storage container, but I'm not emotionally invested in it or anything, so I felt fine with experimenting and painting it.  I knew chalk paint would be a good candidate, but Annie Sloan wasn't in my budget at the moment, so I thought I'd give Rustoleum's "Chalked" paint a try because it is actually half the price.  Above you can see the "before" photo, as well as what it looked like after just one coat of paint.

Materials I Used for This Project:

The paintbrush is not the exact one I used but is similar.

This is basically what it looked like after all the coats (but before I applied the sealing topcoat).  I have a lot to learn about painting items like this, but I think it came out ok!  It's not all 100% perfect, but overall I like it better than it looked before, so I'll count that as a win.  I really like the quality of the Rustoleum paint, but I am not totally thrilled with the topcoat.  I have another item to try the paint on that I'll likely post about later on and I'll give it another chance there before I give the final verdict.

How do you organize your seeds?  I like this little box since it is small enough to be portable and the durability just can't be beat.  I'm not sure if my old case is 100% watertight, but it is still pretty good, so that's definitely important for storing seeds.  To keep things organized inside I use a combination of accordion files, the little tins that some David's Tea came in, empty spice containers, and the tiny plastic bags you find spare buttons in when you buy new clothes.

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To support my blogging endeavours, this post contains affiliate links from which I receive a small commission if you make a purchase.  This post is not sponsored by or affiliated with Rustoleum.

Friday Favourites

Grow

• Really great video with ideas for planning your garden from Lavender and Leeks
• How to install a drip irrigation system from Garden Betty
• Getting your tools ready for spring from the Impatient Gardener

“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.”

— Cynthia Occelli

Find

• Lots of information about Birch trees from Eat the Weeds.
• Melissa Keyser's take on foraging for stinging nettles.
• If nothing is growing in your area yet you can still make this Pine Tea from How to Cook a Weed

Eat

• Make some Chimichurri from Food in Jars if you have some herbs already starting to grow in your garden.
• This recipe for a braised lamb pie from Dinner with Julie sounds like the perfect way for me to use some of the lamb I've still got in my freezer!
• Use the last of your fall produce in these Caramelized Turnips and Apples with Thyme recipe from Northwest Edible Life

Make

• Modern Pegboard DIY from Remodelista
• These labels from Raggedy Bits will help you organize your life and make it pretty too!
• DIY milk glass cake stands from Vintage Porch

Misc

• These amazing sandals with rubber soles made from upcycled worn out tires.  They also help provide work to people in the Dominican Republic.
• Keep your life zero waste with this amazing, Canadian company that makes cloth diapers and so much more!

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Some of these links are affiliate links for which I will receive a small commission from any sale made.  Any product linked here is something I have tried and would absolutely recommend from my own experience with the company.