Day 23 (7/7/12): Blueberry Pancakes

After my barn ab routine and a bike ride through the cool, Maine morning air, I came inside for some fresh eggs.  While I was frying them, Kenya walked in with supplies to make blueberry pancakes.  I guess the family has a nice breakfast once-in-a-while on weekends, I just wish I hadn’t gotten a head start on making my own breakfast.  The only obvious solution to this problem was to have 2 breakfasts.  

This morning I showed Jillian how to water both greenhouses and how to turn on the drip line for the tomato (upper) hoop house.  One of the rows of tomatoes wasn’t being properly watered by the dripline, so we watered that one manually as well as the seedlings in the upper hoop house.  My project for the rest of the morning was to rejuvenate the herb garden.  I generously sided the parsley with aged-manure compost.  This compost runs like tea, as the rain falls it slowly steeps its nutrients through the ground to the roots of the plant.  I pulled out the bitter, seeding lettuce and the roots of the harvested pac choi, planting mezclun seeds and head lettuce seeds in their place.  The method of planting both of these seeds in the ground is the same: make a 1”-wide lane along the long part of the rectangular hole in the black plastic, sprinkle in the seeds so that they aren’t on top of each other and roughly 1/8” apart, and cover with the thinnest layer of soil (~1/4”).  I planted dill¹ seedlings in the carrot row, sometimes sharing a hole in the black plastic with dill and carrot, and I planted beet seeds² (they’re huge seeds) in the same row where beets had just been growing and were harvested.  

I had a late lunch at 1:45 of cold pizza, and talked with Kenya about making house rules.  Kenya does most of the chores around the house, and it’s hard to maintain upkeep with 7 people in the house.  We’re creating a schedule for doing dishes, and rules for the bathroom, kitchen, and dining room – main point being clean-up after yourself.  

This afternoon I was to pull up all of the dead peas and toss them over the pasture fence for the horses to munch on.  The sad thing is that all of the shelling pea vines were dead.  Once the vine starts going yellow, shelling peas just do not taste good (contrary to Sugar Anne peas in the next row over that still taste okay with yellowing vines).  I weeded an entire footpath in 80 minutes today, given it was in Field 5 which is so much easier than Field 7, and given I didn’t finish picking up after myself again.  I harvested snap peas, garlic scapes, kale, scallions, parsley, and baby yellow summer squash (they’re growing already!) for a stir fry with chicken and egg mixed in too.  The sweet peppers are starting to grow, and I learned that the yellow pepper is the sweetest, followed by orange, then red.  I also learned that certain plants grow to produce only green peppers, while other plants can grow to produce green peppers then further ripen to produce red peppers.  After dinner, we even got to have one of Mary’s blueberry pies – my first time trying one of her pies, and it was very good. 

That night, I opened my package from Mom and Abigail.  Abigail thoughtfully had gotten me a pair of UVA gardening gloves (how clever) when she was there for SEP camp earlier this summer.  Their so nice, I don’t even want to use them.   

I ended my night on a clean note by taking a shower outdoors for the first time.  We’re setting up a shower stall outside.  The septic tank isn’t draining things properly right now, so Mary is encouraging us to use the outdoor shower since it isn’t connected to the tank.  I had to shower at night time though, since we haven’t gotten a curtain for it yet.  It was so cool showering outside under the moon with all the nighttime noises around me – so exposing, yet liberating.  

I understand that some of you have had trouble posting comments on the blog.  Usually there’s already one comment on a post (thanks Mom), so click on ‘1 comment’ at the bottom of a post that is in light blue print.  Type in your comment in the ‘Enter your comment…’ box and use the ‘Comment as’ scroll bar beneath the comment box to select Name/URL and type your name or alias that you’d like comment under.  Please click ‘continue’ and then ‘Publish.’  You’ll have to prove you’re not a robot by entering a security code they provide for you.  

For anyone who wants to write to me, I’d love to exchange letters!  

538 Augusta RD

Belgrade, ME 04917

¹ Dill (Anethum graveolens) is best grown in a hot and sunny climate.  Dill seeds can prevent flatulence and can be used as a herbal tea (2 tsp per one glass of boiling water) which can be given even to crying infants who cannot sleep because of the spasm of the intestines.  

² The beet we grow, Beetroot, or garden beet, is the plant most typically associated with the word beet – the underground plant that’s deep red and juicy.  Its red pigment comes from the betanin molecule, a fabulous antioxidant.