Garden blues

I've got a case of the garden blues.

I can't believe garden season is already over. I know some of you who have large gardens are probably excited and happy that things are winding down, but for some reason I'm not. I feel like I was just ramping up. I'm starting to learn more about things and I actually finally have things ready to pull up and eat. I actually kind of understand how things are working too. It's kind of sad that I have to stop soon and wait for the cold weather to go away and for the snow to melt before I can really even start thinking about the garden again. Combine that with a Monday and here I am.

I’m waiting for the spinach and arugala to come up for some tasty dishes. Those are great with eggs and I think I’ll freeze some up to add to soups this winter. I’ll be planting the garlic this week if it ever stops raining. I’ll keep harvesting whatever I can get off the plants but I’m not expecting a lot as the temperatures wind down.

If I can come up with the resources I’m hoping to double the size of the garden next summer. That will take a lot of work so we’ll see if I can get it all together or not. It’ll involve ripping out some existing plants and digging them up and building some new raised beds over the tops of those spots.

We had a busy weekend. I attended a renewable energy expo in nearby Solon, IA. I took copious amounts of notes and I’ll write those up shortly. I was both happy and disappointed with the expo, which I’ll discuss in more detail in my post.

We also put up even more food. What space I had in the freezer is now gone. I was only able to get 5 lbs of green beans, all my carrots, a dozen ears of corn and 9 zucchini fruits (is that the right term??) put up this weekend. I still have 3 lbs of green beans to do but I think we might just eat those this week. I hope more peas come in. When they were plentiful this spring we were eating them faster than I bought them so not very many were put away for the winter. I was also planning to do up some applesauce but time constraints kept me from even picking up enough apples. Perhaps this week I’ll get that done. I used the Food Saver this time around when I bagged them so they would stay fresh until they are needed in the late winter. It was nice to use it again since the first month I got it about 5 years ago. I hope the pears at the neighbors are ready soon. I definitely want to make up some pear sauce for this winter.

In other news, my most recent Adventure Cycling magazine has a review of the Surly Long Haul trucker touring rig. I’ve been salivating over this bike for the better part of 2 years. They gave it a glowing review as a touring or all around bike. I expected as much from what I had heard from people who had them. Perhaps someday I’ll get one.

FGLB