trying to be patient.

i still have lots of work to do.

but.

is it spring yet?

i just harvested the last of my large dino kale and decided to make dino kale au gratin (yum).

& my one large cabbage head went into the sauerkraut. i've become obsessed with fermenting & microcultures overnight.

my fall garden wasn't big enough.

i still have some guys hanging on, waiting on the right weather to produce, and i think they will. broccoli, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, rat tail radish, cabbage. though i'm not sure why i'm complaining since i've been harvesting lettuce, turnips, green onions and arugula weekly. and luffa, oh lord the luffa. from three vines grew a monster. i'm still messing with it (and i've started bathing with it too. it's fantastic!). i was warned not to cut the gourds off the vine until the stem at least, had turned brown. in the spirit of experimentation i cut a few (like 25) off too early and they have pretty much rotted. i did leave the rest on and have been harvesting them as they dry on the vine and they are perfect. i've sent a few to friends, and i've saved enough seeds to fit in a quart jar (maybe more), plus threw a few in the woods just for the heck of it. i want to try a different gourd next year but i'm having problems deciding which one....bushel basket, dipper, apple...baker creek seeds has "Bali Sugar Trough Gourd: 20" long and 8" in diameter" are you kidding me? i think we have a winner.

i have a few seed orders in, but i'm not done. yep, always getting ahead of myself.

so, i've been a bit distracted from the garden and my attention has been needed in the kitchen. my husband has had ongoing health problems and we recently learned of his allergies: wheat, soy, sesame, peanuts & scallops. this leaves the packaged foods on the shelves (where they belong anyway) and my butt in the kitchen (where i belong any.....just joking). i've been scrambling to bake the perfect wheat-free bread (doesn't really exist), and why they hell do they put soy in EVERYTHING? he also has high levels of aluminum...heavy metal poisoning....bye bye to my maw maw's magnalites, hello "i have no cookware." and on top of that, sally fannon's nourishing traditions has come into my life and smacked me upside the head. so while i adjust in the kitchen, the garden suffers a bit.

i have managed to set up those shipping crates and a perimeter, creating a path and all with bamboo stakes and butcher twine. my friends said it looked like i was doing voodoo out there. i've added a bit of organic material here and there, collected cardboard boxes and newspaper like a mad woman hellbent on never lifting a hoe. but i'm not where i wanted to be right now. i don't have a genius diy cold frame. i don't have my amendments. i only put in three new trees this past fall (tea tree in the ground! loquat #2 in the ground & mulberry was welcomed to the neighborhood). hopefully what i do have, is enough time (yes, that was a joke).