her able hands

Gosh, this kitchen garden writing thing really comes to a screeching halt when there’s not much happening in the garden, doesn’t it? With that and the heat, humidity and constant wet, I’m all sodden and useless. I did take some pictures last night for my OLS dinner and from my small harvest, which I’ll post tomorrow. Or maybe tonight. I don’t know. I don’t have time to upload, correct and size them right now.

I have enough ripe San Marzanos to make a small batch of sauce. I’m thinking of seeding, skinning, chopping and oven roasting them with garlic and herbs to serve with grilled sausage, peppers and pattypan over rice. Doesn’t that sound yum? My three basil plants (two genovese, one opal) have made a massive comeback after a hideous encounter with a flock of leaf cutters last month. We’ve been enjoying fresh basil on everything the past couple of weeks. The herbs seem to love the soil by the Icelandic Lily’s, so I think I’ll expand that bed for next season. It’s right by the kitchen door, so I can run out and snip whatever I need without my sauté sticking to the bottom of the pan on me.

The school year is ramping up and this week we’ve had something going on just about every evening. Tyler starts high school next week, and Lila starts at the university Child Development Center. Huge relief that she got in there, and seeing the teachers in action at the two visits we’ve made has made me think more about trying to keep working so we can pay for Montessori school for her, at least for K-6. Cha-ching. Of course, I’ll revise my thinking on that a thousand times. And I need to not do what I did to Tyler, which was to try out every possible education system. Poor kid. He did Waldorf (twice), Montessori, Public and homeschool (twice).

In other news, it had better not rain again before the weekend because we have to move the chickens. They’re running out of head room in the tractor—the straw mat is getting so thick. That’s going to be a stinky, nasty-asty job in this humidity, but looking ahead to the weekend, the overall heat index is supposed to drop about 15 degrees. Phew. I’m going to take that hot straw and layer it immediately with grass clippings and plants I pull from the garden and leaves from last year, get a good compost heap going. I’m so far behind in my compost creation project.

We really need to get a more permanent situation for the girls because we just don’t have the space to do the tractor system properly and keep them hidden from view. I’d like a nice little raised coop with a pop door into a small yard for them. The yard will have two areas, so I can sow clover on one side and let it grow, then switch once it’s ready to eat. Chris mowed the lawn last night, and as he moved things out of the way around the garage, he found about 50 slugs and a ton of giant grasshoppers. You should have heard the happy sounds coming from the tractor after he dumped them all in there.

Okay, end of update. I have a few things I’m itching to write about, but I want to think about them for a little longer: music, singing, old tapes in the noggin, continuing education.

Happy Friday, people! What do you have on for the weekend?

Technorati Tags: chickens, garden, organic gardening, kitchen garden, herbs, education, compost

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