The New Wheelbarrow; or, the Perils of a Too-Small Car

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A few weeks ago, we had two cords of wood dumped onto our lawn -- potential energy to provide our winter heat.  Two cords is is big pile and it takes some effort to move.  We started in, piling it into our rickety wheelbarrow, and stacking it.  Until the off-balance wheelbarrow, which we bought second-hand at a garage sale, got a flat.  And not just a flat, but the flat after the flat after the flat that we already fixed.  So, we decided it was time to purchase a new wheelbarrow.

We went to box store #1.  Didn't find what we were looking for.  We went to box store #2.  Found what we were looking for.  Bought it, unreasonably excited to have a new wheelbarrow.

And we couldn't fit it in the car.

We both drive small, economy cars -- we try to be as efficient as possible.  But there was no way that wheelbarrow was going to fit in either of those cars.
A quandary.
Option: we decided to buy online.
Which we couldn't, without paying a huge shipping fee.

Option: get a wheelbarrow that's not assembled yet.
All the wheelbarrows, upon arriving at the store, are immediately put together.
And they can't be disassembled, because the people at the store use a fancy machine to make sure the bolts are too tight to remove.

Option: rent a truck and drive it home.
Really?  We have cars.  Why can't we get an unassembled wheelbarrow?!  We don't even need the box.
Plus, renting a truck for a wheelbarrow ....

Option: find a friend to pick it up for us.
Unfortunately, none of them with big enough vehicles were around at the time.

Option: go somewhere else and try again.
And so we did.  A locally own smaller-box store.  They had what we wanted, assembled, but were more than happy to take the time to disassemble their wheelbarrow, so we could fit it in our car and take it home.
And now, despite having too-small cars, we have a new wheelbarrow.  Soon we will also have marvelous stacks of wood, seasoning in our back yard, readying for the cold of winter.  With this heat potential, I can almost look forward to winter.

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Small-Portions Harvests

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For a variety of reasons, our garden this year (as in many other years) yields "small-portion harvests" -- just enough during any given week to treat us to home-grown fruits and vegetables that subsidize the rest of our meals, but not enough to store away and preserve.  Every year I work towards a more productive harvest, and each year it does get a little bit better (except maybe this year -- drought, ya know).  Nevertheless, despite the frustrations, I am filled with gratitude and wonder at each small-portions harvest that comes from our land.

Isn't it beautiful?  Colours, textures, scents, and flavours....
Four kinds of tomatoes, 2 kinds of potatoes, husk/ground cherries, buttercup squash, and the inevitable egg (though the hens are starting to molt and egg production is decreasing).  Not shown are the Astrakom eggplant and the German Englischer custard squash (which have been suffering mold problems) that we already ate this week.

Many more tomatoes to ripen, more squash and eggplant, and at least 2-3 more buttercup squash on the volunteer vine that this one came off of.  Our best produce is grown from the compost pile.  If only my whole garden were as rich as our compost pile....

(I am considering for next year limiting the scope of my garden, so I can spend more time and have more earth to amending and enrich.  And if there's little planted, I can let the chickens in to help me out with that -- they would love that!)

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For the Joy of Garlic

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I love growing garlic.  If the soil is rich enough, garlic can be a very rewarding (and easy) thing to grow.  Planted in late autumn, it sits in the garden throughout the winter, popping green shoots through the cold earth before anything else in the garden even begins thinking about waking up.  At our house, it begins showing before the daffodils and tulips.  During the spring it grows tall and strong, and when summer hits, it sends out twisting, curling scapes that will eventually carry a large, round, seedy blossom at the end (if not cut down).  By late July or early August, garlic is ready to be harvested and cured.  Right now, we have a bushel basket of garlic in our dining room, complete with scapes and stems and some flowers.  I held out some of the best bulbs for planting in October, but the rest will be used in soups, stir fries, sauces, and more.  Glorious, delicious, pungent garlic.

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Post-vacation Garden

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After being gone for ten days, I returned to a garden overcome with weeds (crabgrass, going to seed!).  So today, despite the withering heat and humidity, I weeded.  And I weeded some more.  Then I took a little time to admire the actual plants in the garden -- the squash plant that ate Hadley, a multitude of green tomatoes in the tomato jungle, a couple of tiny little figs, and an eggplant.  I also did a little potato digging -- my first potato harvest!
We finally got a little rain,and August is good.  Now I wait for the ripening to begin.

 

 

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Easy-to-Peel Hardboiled Eggs

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In the spring and summer, we get eggs.  Lots and lots of eggs.  I am always looking for new ways to fix eggs -- scrambled, fried, poached, in breads, in desserts, in stir-fries, in souffles, in bulls-eyes.  Egg salad is a popular option at our house, but hard-boiling and then peeling the eggs always seems like a lot of work -- especially since fresh eggs tend to be more difficult to peel.

My solution?  Steamed eggs.  They are tender, look and taste fresh, and are a dream to peel.

Here's the deal:
Bring a pot of water to steaming.  Add a single layer of eggs in a steamer.  Cover the pot and steam for ~13 minutes.  In the meantime, prepare a bowl of ice water.  When the eggs are done steaming, let them cool in the ice water and then start peeling.

Don't throw out those shells!  You can compost them, feed them back to the chickens to keep their calcium levels up, or put them around your tomatoes.

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