The Garden July 15th

It has been a cold spring and summer, which means all the plants are a growing a little slower, but so are the aphids and cabbage moths, so the garden is looking really beautiful right now. I am especially proud of my cabbages, which look like display cabbages they are so beautiful.

Learning to Fly

Polish Rose Petal Jam

Every year, we make a mint rose petal jelly. To do this, we combine wild rose petals and mint to make a tea, and then use the tea to make jelly.

Mint jelly is one of our most popular jellies, so we do a few batches, when the roses are finished. we use lavender as well.




There are lots of strands of wild roses, so we were looking for ways to make just a wild rose jelly. We had tried doing this with the Certo recipe but the roses' flavour is too delicate and the heat destroys it.



This year, scot found a recipe that doesn't use heat. It essentially involves grinding the roses with sugar. The sugar preserves the roses and the roses liquifies the sugar.


When the roses and sugar are completely ground (this is hard work). We put the jelly in sterile jars, turned them upside down to create a vacuum, and stored them in the fridge for good measure.

How to Build a Paper Mache Owl

The starlings, cedar wax wings, robins and crows are fighting over the rainier cherries. We would like to have some too, so we decided to build some paper maiche owls to scare away the birds.

Supplies:
flour
water
salt
newspaper
balloons
notion of what an owl looks like


Step 1.
Use a one part flour to two parts water, but then you need to improvise to find the thickness you like. I found a batter consistency worked well. Add a little salt--the theory is that salt will prevent mold.

Step 2.
Cut up lots of strips of newspaper. You can use a ruler if you want straightish edges. Start ripping. You should rip more than you think you need--try the business section of a daily newspaper-- as it is hard to rip once your hands are covered in batter. You may want to wear gloves as the ink in newspapers are generally unhealthy.

Step 3.
Make a form for the owl. A balloon is easiest and almost owl shaped.


Step 4.
Dip, smear, paste the newspaper to the form.

We painted eyes on the owls. There are a couple of species of birds that have markings on the back of their head that look like eyes, so we painted eyes on both the front and back.

Always something to do Around a Garden

The garden is already producing. Yesterday, I picked quite a lot of chard and kale. Normally, both the chard and kale over winter here, but last year they were nipped off by an early frost. We had to go without last winter, so I decided to freeze some this year, just in case.


I was surprised that the cabbage butterflies haven't found the kale yet. Soon they will get into the crop and it will get pretty wormy until the early fall. Then it will be beautiful again. In the meantime, the chicken have learned to love kale.


I plant all the different coloured varieties of chard, although in the end, I prefer the the white stemmed variety. I find the orange and red, get a little tough.

I quickly blanched the chard and kale in boiling water, and then put it in a cold bath. I always start with ice water, but it ends up lukewarm.


Once they were cooled down, I gently squeezed the kale and chard into balls and placed them on a cookie sheet and put them in a freezer. After about 12 hours, I put them in a freezer bag.

The theory is that I can just take a bundle as I need them.