Recipes are to Cooking what Etiquette is to Living

Yesterday, I made pickles for the first time.  ...could not find the recipe I wanted  ...my cucumbers did not fit, whole, in my 1 qt jars   ... And I did not have dill called for, and could not bear the idea of a trip to the grocery store.

“One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.” 
― Julia Child, My Life in France

I improvised:  Quartered the cukes before brining them.  Ignored the dill that was called for.  Threw in a small amount of mustard seeds, coriander and, in some of the jars I hope I can identify later, a few fenugreek seeds.

We'll see what happens...!

Mid-Fall Crop Preparation

I have been working on preparing a few areas of the garden for Winter and Spring crops.

Yesterday, I worked in the Plumeria Garden (just off our back porch) and did the long-overdue fertilization of our pineapple (the only one in the ground anyway).  Its growth has been a little thwarted by lack of feeding, I believe, and probably lack of water also.

The problem with fertilizing is that since I started to do it organically, it seems that just about anything I can use appeals to Lola and Ethel, our dogs, who can barely wait until I'm finished to go eat the dirt, and dig around the plant.

I've resorted to different methods, and am working on more.  When I have enough vermicompost from my little red wiggly worms, it's not going to be quite as bad, even though they do like that stuff too, if it's fresh...

But that's an issue I'm working on.  When fertilizing plants does not involve as many workarounds and time, it will be done more regularly and plants will not only grow better but I believe will resist disease and pests much better also.

Plus, once I manage to run a few water tubes to the various areas, waterings can be done more easily and/or automated, which will prevent plants from not being watered enough, especially during the "baking season" aka the Summer months.

It's all a process and it will all get done in the end.

A week ago, I sowed cauliflower seeds (purple of sicily) and fresh garbanzo beans that I bought at the grocery store (still in pods.)  The cauliflower seeds started emerging early in the week and almost all of the little pots have at least two.  The garbanzo beans however have been slower.  Perhaps I planted them a little too deep.  But I see an ever-so-small green spec in one of the pots which looks like a garbanzo bean leaf about to emerge.

Today, I continued the sowing of seeds: 2 different kinds of broccoli (8 pots of each, to start), and 16 romaine lettuce pots.  I will probably be sowing a good amount of lettuce on a weekly basis so that we have continuous supplies through the Winter.

I have many other seed packets to tear open and peat pallets to puff up with water in order to sow more seedlings, and should be able to get a number of them done over the next 2-3 days.

Inevitably, the timing won't be perfect for all of them, but it's all a big experiment, and I think that our large garden has enough microclimates going that I should be able to grow a number of different things as long as the Winter is not too severe.