"Growing food organically and eating conscientiously are political acts that help establish and ensure social, economic and ecological
justice."
--Wendy Johnson, Gardening at the Dragon's Gate
Book Shelf
Animal Vegetable MiracleIn Defense of Food
The Ominvore's Dilemma
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
Authentic Mexican Cooking
Four-Season harvest
Great Garden Companions
The Backyard Orchardist
Gaia's Garden
Organic Insect and Disease Control
From the Ground Up
The Holistic Garden
The Earth Moved
Flower Confidential
Melons for the Passionate Grower
The Compleat Squash
The Heirloom Tomato
Posted on September 04, 2010
Sharing my Sungold tomatoes with chipmunks is bad enough, but I draw the line at sharing my dining room with them. For the past 24 hours we have had a chipmunk living under the china cabinet.
I have been doing a lot of moaning this summer about all the garden damage done by these rodents. Seems everyone in Nashville has an abundance of the little creatures this year. Usually they only damage a few strawberries, but this year they have sampled everything. They seem to especially love the Sungold cherry tomatoes, which happen to be my favorite. I thought the three foot tall chicken wire fence that keeps the rabbits out would also keep the chipmunks out, but these little devils can squeeze through the holes. So, I have been grudgingly sharing my produce all summer.
Yesterday, I heard an unusually loud ruckus, as my adolescent son's, adolescent cat, came through the cat door. Upon investigation I discovered Snickers with a chipmunk dangling from his mouth. Since Snickers had him by the tail, the chipmunk was unharmed, and quickly sought refuge under the china cabinet as soon as the cat let go. All attempts to scare the chipmunk from under the cabinet and out the door failed. So last night we went to bed with a chipmunk in our dining room.
Note: We finally scared him out a window the next morning.
Posted on August 27, 2010
One of my gardening goals this year (and I had many), was to make good use of every inch of space in the vegetable garden. To accomplish this I used techniques like intercropping and succession planting. When I did not have a food crop to fill an empty space, I planted flowers to attract beneficials or cover crops to improve the soil. Some combinations were more successful than others.
This bed, where walking onions recently sprouted, worked very well. In March I filled it with brassicas like cabbage and broccoli. In late May I transplanted okra between the brassicas. A few weeks later, when the broccoli and cabbage were removed, I planted melons between the okra. Now that the melons are finished, I have seeded lettuce in the cool shade of the tall okra and edged the bed with walking onions. By time the okra is removed, it will be cooler and the lettuce will do fine in full sun. I can harvest the onions soon as scallions, or later as small onions. I will leave a few growing until next summer, to produce tiny bulls for planting next fall.
Posted on August 23, 2010
This year, I am experimenting with a new technique for planting fall greens. Looking for something less time consuming than starting transplants in the cooler-than-outside-house, I direct seeded kale and collards under a shade tunnel. 
Half inch PVC pipe holds up green mesh shade cloth. Since the shade cloth also keeps flying insects out, I closed the ends of the tunnel with row covers, to make a totally pest proof enclosure. Now I don't have to fight off cabbage butterflies and their larvae, which can devour a small transplant in no time.
So far, I am happy with this set up. And when it gets really cold outside, I can drape thick row covers or plastic over the hoops. I have started this experiment with two 13 foot long tunnels, if all goes well, I will add more next year. I know a lot of my plants would have done better during this hot summer with some shade.
Posted on August 15, 2010
I don't fry many things, but I love fried okra. Most of the okra we eat is fried. However this dish may change things.
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 small thai chili, seeded and choppe
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 small onion, minced
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 pound okra, washed and trimmed
In a small bowl, combine the turmeric, chili, garlic, coriander, salt, ginger, and lemon juice.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and add the mustard seeds; fry for about a minutes, or until they begin to splutter and pop. Add the spice mixture and onion and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and okra and stir to coat well. Lower heat to simmer, cover, and cook until the okra is very tender and most of the moisture from the tomatoes has evaporated, 25-35 minutes. Great served with rice.
Posted on August 08, 2010
Look at the melons I grew. The huge muskmelon, called Old Time Tennessee, is very tasty. And I think the little Emerald Gem is just the prettiest melon I have ever seen. I assume the name refers to it's unripe state. 
While most things in my garden either failed to germinate, died or were eaten by pest this summer, the melons have thrived. Usually they do poorly for me, however, to date, I have harvested ten. The biggest problem I've had, is cracking, due to long dry spells followed by gully washer rains. I lost six melons that cracked and rotted on the vines. So I have started picking them as soon as I see cracks, even if they're not ripe. Under-ripe, they're still better than anything you could buy at the supermarket.
Posted on July 17, 2010
Recently I sent a morning wrapping my melons and pumpkins. No, I don't plan on giving them as gifts; I want to protect them from the critters. I used old pieces of floating row covers. These are the covers I occasionally spread over plants to protect them from insect damage. I loosely fold pieces of the covers around the fruit, so there is plenty of room to grow. Not only will it keep the cucumber beetles from chewing on the fruit, but I hope it will keep the raccoons and opossums from finding the melons. Last year they always munched on my melons a day of two before I planned on picking them.
Posted on July 13, 2010
My son, the future chef, is able to notice the slightest changes to recipes. He can tell when the garlic in salsa is roasted rather than fresh. He loves mild cheddar, but refuses to eat medium or sharp. And he would never consider eating french bread without crispy crust, I have to agree with him on that one. Too bad for him, that his mother loves to tweak recipes. There have been many meals he refused to eat, because I changed one ingredient.
Last summer I made a lot of Blackberry Cobbler, which Isaac loved. If allowed he would have eaten the whole thing straight from the baking dish, not sharing with anyone else. So he was thrilled when I picked the first pint of blackberries last week. Unbeknownst to him I decided to tweak the recipe. Inspired by the blog 101cookbooks.com, where she prefers to use whole grains and unrefined sweeteners, I decided to make a few substitutions to the first blackberry cobbler of 2010. In place of white flour I used whole grain spelt flour. And I replaced most of the white sugar with turbinado sugar.
As I pulled the slightly browner than last summer, cobbler from the oven, Isaac hovered at my side, fork in hand. After he took his first bite, I asked if it was as good as last summer's cobbler. I got a thumbs up as he crammed another fork full into his mouth. I made this new version again last night, and still no one in the family has noticed the changes. Like always the cobbler was devoured before the baking dish had even cooled.
2 to 2.5 cups blackberries
1 cup turbinado sugar
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 sugar (refined)
Pre-heat oven to 350°.
Rinse and drain Blackberries.
Combine 1 cup sugar, flour, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl.
Whisk in milk, then whisk in the melted butter.
Pour into a buttered baking dish, about the size of a 12 inch pie pan.
Sprinkle the berries evenly on top of the batter.
Sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar.
Bake for 1 hour or until bubbly and golden.
Posted on July 10, 2010
Meal planning is hard this time of year. With summer in full swing, I feel like I should be really inspired. However things are just beginning to produce, so I don't have a lot of anyone thing to build a meal around. I start thinking about the evening meal, before breakfast when I head to the garden to weed while it is too hot. Today, I like every other day, I took stock of what was ready to be picked. I had plenty of cucumbers, onions and celery. I had a handful of cherry tomatoes, a half cup of grapes, and a few green tomatoes that I was forced to pick before they were eaten by the mocking birds and chipmunks. How could I build a meal around this?
I figured fried green tomatoes would be a great use of my forced tomato harvest. And I had some monkfish left from dinner the night before. I had been told that it makes great "lobster" salad. So I combined the fish with garden fresh celery, onions, and grapes. To this I added mayo and chopped pecans. I made a second salad with the cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, dill, onion and sour cream. The two salads were great with the fried green tomatoes. For tomorrow, I need to come up with a creative use for a few okra pods, cucumbers and what ever I find in the garden in the morning.
Posted on July 08, 2010
Cardinals are eating our grapes, mockingbirds the blackberries and tomatoes.
Squirrels ate all the apples and plums and are now working on the peaches.
Chipmunks are eating the cherry tomatoes.
Black swallowtail larve are munching on dill.
Skunks visit the compost pile nightly, sometimes dragging watermelon rhines out and leaving them in the lawn.
I have finally created a deer and rabbit proof barrier around the vegetable garden, so now they both happily dine on my ornamentals.
When I first started gardening, one of my goals was to attract wildlife the yard. I was thrilled when the National Wildlife Federation certified my yard as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat. I figured I would just grow extra to share with the critters. Now I am not sure I like sharing.
Posted on July 02, 2010
These three posts, hold up wires that support grape vines in my vineyard. If four grape plants qualify as a vineyard. Maybe it is more accurately described as a grape fence. Anyway the deer don't jump it. This spring, the bird house on the first post housed a family of bluebirds. In the third box was a family of wrens, and a foot below the wren house was a cardinal nest.
On the south border of the garden is a second family of blue birds. Mocking birds are building a nest in a honeysuckle and rose covered arbor. There is a robin nesting in a tree near by and a family of bluebirds in a box in the front. And thoses are just the nest I know of.
This army of birds, replaces pesticides in my garden, eating thousand of bugs a day. Recently I observed, newly fledged wrens, noisily feeding in the vegetable garden. They seem to especially like the purple amaranth, which is infested with flea beetles. Well, I guess I should say, was infested with flea beetles.