Go Green Guys!!!

I asked my students yesterday how many had gardens at home and the number that raised hands was dismal. This is in rural, upstate NY where anyone who wanted one could certainly find a plot! I didn't think much of it in the middle of teaching class, I just congratulated them for being "green."
If I think about it, it is kind of sad though. People don't know what they are missing.

Cultivating a garden is educational for children. There is so much to discuss with them and it is so exciting for them to watch their sprouts come up and eventually bear fruit. When the day comes to make a salad or eat the first radish it is such a feeling of accomplishment and awe at what mother nature provides for us. It is a wonderful way to instill that respect for the environment and the preciousness of life we want to see in our young people.

Gardening is a great stress reliever. Quietly tending the plants, weeding, watering, harvesting and planting are all great times to be alone with your thoughts. The stretching and bending and the distance from the snacks in the refrigerator are all good too!!! I can work outdooors for a good seven hours straight and just stop for water sometimes.

And gardening is good for the environment. More green spaces means less carbon dioxide, more oxygen, more recycling of nutrients and more biodiversity. Think of how much less auto pollution you are generating by growing at home. The vegetables weren't tended by large farm machines burning fossil fuels. No pesticides were used. No trucks had to transport the produce to market. And you did not have to start up your car to drive to the store to buy the tomato. Your own homegrown produce is also fresher and tastes better!

Even if you start small and let the weeds get the better of you, the benefits will be substantial to you. Start a garden next spring and chances are in a couple years you will be on your second or third expansion of your green patch! Go Greener and enjoy the fruits of your labor of love!

Canning and Home Food Preservation

How many people out there are a slave to the garden this time of year? I am! I am past the aesthetic pleasure of watching our cultivated patches of terra firma blossom and into the drudgery of constantly washing or buying canning jars and feeling overwhelmed by produce. And facing the guilt of being too busy to harvest my garden 100% and losing some of it to insects, blight or just letting it get too large. The broccoli flowered almost before the heads truly looked developed this year.

Yesterday I started at 7 AM towards doing up pickled beets. I went out to pick some and wash them. I got into picking a few flowers for the house, had to wash some dishes and then started a huge pot of beets to boil. My canning jars and pickling solution were prepared and waiting.

By 11 AM I was roughly half done. I had to turn over the project to my very capable fiance' to finish because I had to leave for a family gathering!!! I returned to see 5 1/2 quarts of pickled beets were done. That seems like a lot of time for two people to make that amount of product...plus preparing the ground and growing the beets.

I think our tomato sauce is more cost effective but this year I am not sure we will get much. As gardeners in the Northeast know, there is a blight this year that has devastated our tomatoes. The plants got a powdery looking mold and withered overnight. Now, as the tomatoes ripen they are getting soft and rotten spots on the tops. I am down to my last 2 quarts of tomato sauce and I may have to buy my tomatoes this year if I am going to can at all. I am contemplating the idea of going back to Prego for a while.

On the upside, my gooseberry bush put out a record crop this year. I got 2 batches of jelly instead of one. For anyone who hasn't tried gooseberry jelly it is similar to cranberry, but sweeter. It has a lovely deep pink color. I have also made currant and that is almost identical. I would say the gooseberry has a little more tartness than the currant. I personally like gooseberry better.

My other favorite jelly to make is elderberry. That closely resembles concord grape. Don't be afraid to try making it. You don't have to remove each tiny berry when you make the juice. Just clean the whole bunch of berries on the stems and put them all in the pot together. After you boil and mash the berries take the stems out and strain the pulp through your jelly cloth. I don't know how anyone could make elderberry pie. Now that would be a job!

It may sound like I am complaining, but if I didn't want to can or garden I wouldn't. There is a lot of satisfaction that comes from watching the garden grow. It is exciting to see the baby radishes, carrots, peppers flourishing. During the long upstate NY winters it is lovely to make a stir-fry with pepper strips frozen from our crop grown in Earthboxes on the deck each summer.

Sometimes I wish life were simpler so there would be more time to do these things. Then, it wouldn't seem like such a huge chore when canning season came around. If only it didn't have to be done after a long day at work or early in the morning. But, regardless I will make the time. And if I run out of time, I can ask for my Sweetie to help like he did yesterday. Thanks Again Hon.