{"id":1493,"date":"2011-02-07T18:00:01","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T23:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2011-02-07T19:03:08","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T00:03:08","slug":"the-garden-in-grey-white-time-to-think-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/2011\/02\/the-garden-in-grey-white-time-to-think-green\/","title":{"rendered":"The Garden in Grey & White: Time to Think Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>I really don\u2019t think I\u2019m rushing things. I mean the seed catalogues arrived over a month ago. And so I\u2019ve started to pester Roy about building our seed-starting shelves. I know we really don\u2019t need to start the tomatoes for two months, but, you know, I like to be ready. Yes, it\u2019s hard to think green when the garden looks like it does right now\u2014all shades of grey and white. But I can\u2019t help it if I\u2019m kinda prone to over-excitement. (I got into a lot of trouble as a small child with this\u2014I almost got kicked off a week-long stint on the Romper Room TV show<\/a> in 1966 because I wouldn\u2019t sit still. Apparently an ice cream bribe calmed me down. No surprise\u2014that still works.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Anyway, we are living in a new place this year, and we\u2019ll be able to have our garden right out back. It was a lot of fun being at Native Earth Teaching Farm last year<\/a> (and being near our neighbors, the baby goats), but it was a strain to shuttle back and forth every day. This year, it could be a blessing or a curse, but all we\u2019ll have to do is tumble out of bed, pull on our boots, set the coffee off and head outside. There\u2019s a lot of work ahead for us in preparing the garden here (see above!), but it\u2019s an ample space that’s been gardened in the not-too-distant past. It sits up high and has plenty of sunlight. I can\u2019t wait to work in it\u2014of course after Roy builds the fence! I know, I\u2019m bad\u2014I will help him, I promise.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This year, we\u2019re going to narrow our market crops to just a few things: greens, beans, potatoes, and tomatoes. And I\u2019m going to use the rest of the garden in two specific ways for us. In part, it will be a kitchen garden, with plenty of greens and herbs for our everyday summer eating. (I can\u2019t wait to get Ellen Ogden\u2019s new book, The Complete Kitchen Garden<\/em>.<\/a>) And it will also function as a storage\/winter-eating garden, with carrots, onions, potatoes, beets and turnips for the cold months. I\u2019m not going to grow much in the way of squashes, eggplants, and peppers. They take up a lot of room and we don\u2019t seem to eat as many of these as we do tomatoes and greens. When we need them, it’ll give us a good excuse to go to the farmers\u2019 market and to barter with friends, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For the market garden, I\u2019ve already ordered our tomato seeds and our potato and onion sets. (I told you I couldn\u2019t wait.) I ordered mostly organic from the fabulous Fedco company in Waterville, Maine<\/a>. They have incredible products at great prices. I\u2019m trying out a couple new cherry tomatoes with great names and descriptions (love those seed catalogues!): Honeydrop Cherry Tomato and Be My Baby Gene Pool Cherry Tomato. We joined with our local Homegrown folks (a group of avid vegetable gardeners who meet once a month here on the Island to swap tips) for the potato (also from Fedco\u2019s Moose Tubers division) and onion orders (from Dixondale Farms<\/a>), so we\u2019ll be saving a little money there. I\u2019m trying to do the garden on a much smaller budget this year, so I didn\u2019t splurge too much; I still have lots of viable seeds from last year, too. (At least I hope they\u2019re viable). But since I\u2019m such a nut about greens (both cooking greens and lettuces) and Fedco will hook you up with a small packet of lettuce seeds for less than $1.50, I went ahead and ordered some new lettuce varieties to try, including Flashy Green Butter Oak Lettuce and Speckled Amish Lettuce.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Oh, am I ever excited. I\u2019ll let you know when we start the real work. And I\u2019ll also let you know about the other big excitement coming around here\u2014baby chicks! Future laying hens\u2014at last, we\u2019ll have our own eggs by fall if all goes well. (Of course, Roy is going to have to build a chicken coop, too\u2014but he\u2019s already designed it!)<\/p>\n

P.S. Recipe blogs will return soon. I am strapped to the computer putting the final touches on my book manuscript, which will (please cross your fingers) be delivered to the post office next Monday\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I really don\u2019t think I\u2019m rushing things. I mean the seed catalogues arrived over a month ago. And so I\u2019ve started to pester Roy about building our seed-starting shelves. I know we really don\u2019t need to start the tomatoes for two months, but, you know, I like to be ready. Yes, it\u2019s hard to think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[45,1],"tags":[46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1506,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions\/1506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}