The garden in July - and lots of amazing food!

Our July garden is phenomenal.  Despite the late start of the season, we are eating out of it every day.

There are lots of veggies and of course plenty of unruly flowers happily spreading themselves all over the place.

Let me show you.  Here's the entrance of the garden, protected by poultry netting, because the free-range chickens and ducks would destroy everything in it.  We don't have to electrify the fence, and it works great.

Here's a view of the mallow, borage and calendula flowers interspersed with all the veggies.  Plus the flowering cilantro, poppies and bellflowers.

Why do I interplant like this?

Because it's darn pretty, and because the bees loooooooove the flowers.

Now here's a tour of the veggies.  There were so many, I had to make a collage of some of them.  Below: zucchini, broccoli, kale and peas.

Next up: garlic, onions, and beets.

Furthermore, carrots, cabbage, pole beans.

Also: collards, cucumbers, and of course, tomatoes.  And tucked in the corner of the garden: sunchokes.

It's all about food around here, as usual.

The kids are contributing to the food scene.  Kai's speciality is breadsticks, with lots of butter and garlic powder.  Look at that huge pile in the picture.  How long do you think did it take the five of us to eat them?  Ahem.

I'm just now cutting into some killer Tomme cheese I made last year.  Killer not because we'll die when we eat it (I hope), but because it's just so good.  Creamy, nutty, great texture. 

Wait, am I boasting?  Sure I am.

And look at this cake! Yes, it's cake, albeit decorated with flowers, and I made it for our friend's wedding last week.  It's my gluten free, no-refined sugar sweet potato almond cake, which sounds weird and boring, but is anything but.

Cherries have been coming on strong in our orchard, and we scramble to pick them before the birds do.  

Also, the chickens have been laying eggs like crazy.  I noticed today that my duck is sitting on her eggs, so maybe we'll have baby ducks in a month.  That, or the broody duck will be eaten by raccoons.  I sure as hell hope not.

What can I show you next?  

Ahhh, I got it: home made pasta, since we have so many eggs.  These noodles are always a hit, although you might not believe this according to Eva's grave face.  She was grumpy because it was such a hot day, and I made her help me with the pasta.

You wanna eat?  Then you help.

Also, here she is helping me harvest calendula flowers for making calendula infused oil for my goat milk soaps.

I will leave you with a photo of the moon over the ridge.  Have I told you that I love July?

How about you?

The garden in July, and why we weren't made for California livin'...

Last week, my husband Steve and I attended Mastin Kipp's "Claim your Power" conference in Los Angeles, where we were supposed to discover what our purpose is.  We realized that

1) We are already very much in our power and living our purpose (yay us!)

2) We are not city folks.  Not at all.

Now I admit that Venice Beach, Los Angeles, is not for the faint of heart, what with its overstimulation, platinum-blonde-surgically-enhanced-people, and quite a few people on drugs.  Steve and I walked on the beach every day and could stomach about two hours of this scene, and then we had to go hide in our hotel room, staring at each other going "Woah!"

On the flight home, as soon as the plane approached Seattle with its lovely view of the mountains, evergreen trees, Puget Sound and islands, I teared up with gratitude to live in such a beautiful place.

And once we arrived at our homestead in the wilderness, my heart was whole again and overflowed with gratitude.  Another thing that's overflowing is our garden - the vegetables, fruits and flowers.

This is what we came home to:

Loaded-with-fruit-blueberry-bushes and kiwi vines in passionate embraces...

Cabbage forming heads - sauerkraut, here we come!

Figs getting ready to hit their peak...

Zucchinis happily bursting forth...

Garlic scapes curling into the sky, ready to be harvested for fermenting...

Borage making me happy every time I pass by it...

Onions and lettuce growing visibly every single day...

The goat barn being taken over by climbing clematis...

Flowers holding strong even after days of rain...

Goat babies growing up fast...

Kale and collards cranking...

Brassicas and winter squash taking over...

Borage, cilantro and calendula competing for space...

Beans blooming prettily, protected by netting because the (insert terrible swear words) deer seem to think they are a gourmet meal, to be stolen in the middle of the night...

Tomatoes setting fruit in the greenhouse...

Beets growing big enough to be eaten and soon to be pickled with honey and cinnamon...

Cucumber plants sizing up...

Apples getting redder...

Gorgeous hollyhock that's twice as tall as I am...

Flowers, flowers and more flowers, or should I say drugs for the hummingbirds!

Roses, roses, and more roses...  I can't believe they are still going so strong!

What's thriving in your life?

PS: I forgot to tell you that our garden got featured on the famous and wonderful Soulemama blog!

The garden in July

Although the Pacific Northwest has suffered from record high temperatures and drought, my garden seems happy.  It's cranking out a lot of food - something for every meal of the day.  The still life below shows pesto-in-the-making with a hefty salad.

We grow a large garden, with almost every vegetable you can imagine, except okra and other Southern veggies.  Come to think of it, this hot year would have probably worked for stuff like that.

The main garden is relatively well maintained, although you can always find weeds.  But there is a corner of our land where we planted squash, beans and corn this year, a corner where the goats are fenced close by, but not not close enough to foster frequent weeding and watering efforts by us.

So imagine my surprise when I inspected said area today on my way to leading the goats to pasture.  Zucchinis as big as baseball bats hid in the foliage, and I didn't even know the zucchinis were growing yet!  As big as a baseball bat, I tell you!  It scared me.  Fortunately, the goats considered that thing a huge delicacy and polished it off in no time.

The bean plants, having been so cruelly forgotten by me, had found their way into the squashes, intertwining their tendrils with theirs.  I had to carefully untangle their passionate embraces and tie up the beans where they belong - on the bean pole tipis.

I hope they won't resent me.

Ahhhh, yes, I am grateful for all the lovely, fresh veggies in our garden.  The cabbages are big enough to make sauerkraut with.  The spring-planted garlic is putting out scapes, soon to be made into pesto.  Broccoli is coming out of our ears.  The kids keep pulling out carrots for a snack, which is fine with me.  The beets are large enough to be processed into honeyed pickled beets.  And the tomatoes!  The incredibly flavorful, ripe, red tomatoes!  We harvest a basket full every single day.  And the poppies are going nuts, but I don't use them for anything except beauty!

And of course blueberries... We have lots growing on our place, but we often go to the nearby organic blueberry farm to pick many pounds worth.  It helps to take the kids, since they are a real help, except when they are not (as is the case with Eva and her friend, who would rather stuff berries into their mouths instead of the picking basket).

This summer we are finding plenty of time to go to the river and pond.  There are birthday parties and playdates and blissful days spent eating melons by the water with friends.  I love summer!

And of course cheese making never stops.  Ohh, remember, there are only a few days left to register for my online cheese making workshop!