After the Storm

Our basement's water level peaked at about 3 feet(1 meter). Needless to say, everything is very lush.

My prostrate rosemary is filling out again. I poked an italia pepper in its pot. The small mint pot looks less pale, my tarragon is doing all right and perhaps my yuzu citris will do better this year.

 

A few sunflowers fell over during the storm but I righted them and they seem ok. The black and blue salvia are hummingbird magnets and everything else up there is growing all right.

 

My ground tomatoes are growing up well though they look slightly paler than the box tomatoes. I keep trying to equalize that with fertilizer and a bit of lime. Almost all of my tomatoes have small tomatoes growing now. I am denuding the stems somewhat and reducing their tendency to branch out like crazy. There's a whole lot more going on in this picture. There are 2 varieties of beans, some basil, nasturtiums, kale strawberries,and garlic.

 

I have 2 cabbages that are growing monstrously. It sorta amazes me how many people walk by and ask me, "Is that cabbage?" That's one reason why I feel like I should stay in an urban location, just to set an example and to just help people understand what vegetables actually look like, rather than finding 1-5 acres out somewhere. I am somewhat inclined to take over the small yard of the apartment building next door completely, but I must conquer my back yard first. Alas, it doesn't have the light that the front does. I could grow some wonderful tomatoes next door, and cabbage. I have enough to deal with here.

 

Turkey Leek Fennel Wild Rice Soup

So the other week at my local farmer's market they had an extra turkey. I know it's early but I LOVE turkey so I got it, about 11 pounds maybe. I did the standard stuffing, but with some home grown leeks.

Here we have a gratuitous picture of leeks mixed with some other stuff from before the frost. I love leeks. I fell in love with them when I started my kitchen garde research and found Creative Vegetable Gardening: Accenting Your Vegetables With Flowers by Joy Larkcom. One place referenced by Larkcom and others is Villandry. Villandry is a chateau built during the Renaissance that was restored last century including a fabulous potager. Leeks and cabbages are pretty prominent in the squares.

I won't go in depth about it just now, but my aspirations are kinda like it. Visit their website, the design is just amazing if you haven't heard of it. So the leeks there were part of a square design I had that I let go a bit.

Anyhow, when I make turkey, I try to when the 1st meal is over to clean all the meaat off the bones. Then I put the bones in a huge pot of water with all the good stuff you need to make soupstock. Usually for poultry that includes celery and celery seed but in this case I threw in some fennel stalks with a bunch of fennel seeds left on. There's also as you may see some carrots and some parsley(not really visible. Anyway, I hope that that's a good self-portrait. This is simmered overnight which makes the house smell great.

The soup is delicious. If anyone shows an interest I might post my recipe.