The Farm, May 23, 2010Well, here is the Mt. Vernon rose that I rescued from the destroyed wine barrel in the alley behind First and Franklin... quite pretty actually. I'm glad it wasn't that really dark, dull red that seems to be on roses everywhere. That's my least favorite color of rose. It has such a dead flat quality. This one is at least brighter and more cheerful.
The Farm is doing well; this morning I went out early and pruned tomato suckers. The jury is still out for me on suckering; some people say that you should snip them because they don't grow fruit and sap energy from the plant. But I have seen suckers with flowers on them; so that can't be entirely true. Sometimes I trim them just to keep the plant from getting to dense and unweildy. I try to trim off the lowest branches to keep good airflow and stave off fungal diseases.
I also had a brilliant idea this weekend. I'm going to make cold frames that I can just stack on top of my raised beds in the fall so I can grow lettuce and spinach into the winter, among other things. I'll just have the angled side face South to get maximum light exposure. I like the idea.
Still reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle... Absolutely love it. I can't believe I haven't read it sooner! She's truly living the dream... wow. It's so inspiring. I also picked up The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan at Daedalus friday night. Very informative, but I was a little disappointed when they went on and on about the virtues of black walnut trees without any mention of the fact that THEY POISON EVERYTHING. Kind of an important little factoid. She's got a lot of great information otherwise though.
So, all hopped up on inspiration from Barbara Kingsolver, I decided to delve into some baking today. I made a fabulous loaf of foccacia bread, which is already halfway gone. I topped it with garlic powder, rosemary, oregano, parsley, kosher salt and olive oil. I am in the process of making some white sandwich bread, but that one doesn't seem to be going quite as well; it's not really rising how I expected it would. It may end up being really dense and chewy. Oh well, it's a start. I'll have to get some good basic baking books and learn more. Bread's never really been my thing. I am also making a batch of homemade yogurt, so that should be ready in a few hours. I was going to grill some veggies tomorrow night and make some good tahini to go with them.
It's the little things; I've got to start somewhere. It's not really realistic for me to drop everything and go buy a farm. But maybe I can start by making some of my own bread at least.
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