Country Mouse Monday: already planning next year's garden!

Just two weeks ago I was exulting in the calm that follows the busy of summer, that nice quiet fallow time when the garden is mostly stripped and dormant, when the compost is where the action is, and when my time is spent much more indoors.  It's such sweet and well-earned rest.

I guess I'm all rested up now.

Let two weeks pass and guess what?  I'm already flipping through my box of seeds, ordering catalogs on-line and planning out next spring's garden, dreaming of how I want it to be, what I want to grow and eat and share. And maybe sell.

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Country Mouse Monday: hurrah, the fallow time!

As much as I love the spring and the young garden, and the summer and its explosion of edibles and flowers and colors, and the fall and heat and tomatoes finally,

oh dear, oh dear, how I love the turning to winter and putting the garden, after months of busy productivity, to a well-deserved sleep.

A point comes every summer -- no matter how many times, every year, I promise myself that I'll work hard to ensure that it doesn't -- when the garden, well-planted, well-composted, well-watered, outdoes me completely, pumps out more than I can keep up with, becomes a riotous happy tangle of vegetation, doing everything I hoped for. 

And always so much more!

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Country Mouse Monday: ratatouille

When I was a child, there were few dishes I loathed more than the dreaded ratatouille that would appear on the dinner table regularly.  It's a traditional and easy dish, but one which absolutely nauseated me as a child, choking down each bite of slimey eggplant and gooey tomatoes.  The texture was altogether off-putting, but not eating what was put in front of us was never an option.

This is not to say that the dish was not cooked to perfection and delicious.  My parents were skilled in the kitchen.  It was just too much for my child-palate, a form of culinary torture.

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Country Mouse Monday: allow me to re-torte

Three weekends in a row, I've made the same simple plum or peach or strawberry torte, the fruit varying based on what I've seen and touched and smelled at the market, what flavor I'm craving. The torte itself is simple, a few ingredients, easy to throw together, not long in the oven, which matters a lot on a warm morning or hot afternoon when I would really rather be outside than standing near the super-heated core of the kitchen.  With a dollop of creme fraiche topped with a pinch of cinnamon sugar, this torte can't be beat as a full expression of the summer feeling that has hold of me right now, at its most powerful, at its peak.

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Country Mouse Monday: reaping, sowing

This year's garden has truly been the best ever.  Since it wasn't a Teaching Beekeeping weekend, I spent pretty much all of this past weekend at home, taking it in, engaged in the work that feels like play, marveling at how well everything's growing.

So very much to look at, and so very much to harvest right now.

I planted deliberately this year, more deliberately and consistently than ever before.  Partly because I had six weeks off in May and June, but mostly because once you get a positive habit going and enjoy some success, it's totally self-reinforcing.  

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