Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardener

I’ve been waiting for them not- so-patiently. It’s probably been the hardest year in the garden since we moved here - at least when comparing input to output. It’s been a rough year weather- wise, following several years of rough-weather.

This year we had no spring; summer and drought arrived in April; we broiled in July [...]

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Early Girl is blushing!

The rest of them Amish Paste, Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple, San Marzano,White Wonder et all are actually looking pretty good.

Just not ripening yet!

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Yesterday I knew summer was here.

How did I know it? No, not because the temperature was - again! - over 90 (over 32 C) in the shade; 116 (47 C!!!) in the sun insisted the thermometer (wish I misread that). Not because the creek is drying up - although it is and we need rain [...]

Posted in Dairy recipe, Desserts, Fruit recipe, Harvest, locavore log Comments(9)

The June garden can be quite overwhelming. There is a lot to seed still, a lot to rip out, a lot to build, a lot to maintain,  a lot to harvest, and a lot to clear and get ready for the next crop. We plant continuously here at Laughing Duck gardens, and try to put [...]

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It’s sour cherry time - or rather, sour cherries are just over here in the Virginia Piedmont. A kind cherry tree owner offered me their tree to pick, and I gratefully enjoyed the privilege. But as the garden is going gangbusters (with  planting, harvesting, cleaning and maintaining - ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!), I have [...]

Posted in Cookery, Harvest, locavore log Comments(5)

… start a vegetable weekly subscription and make Mongolian-style sauce (lots and lots of it!)
I certainly grow more than we can eat - and we eat lots of veggies! Yet I don’t grow enough for selling at a Farmer’s Market or to a restaurant. But even with all the preserving I do, it’s too much [...]

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I simply love this time of the year when the days are clear, the nights are cool, the maples are blooming, the buds are swelling on the trees, and so many green things - good to eat too - are poking out of the ground, or just starting to grow for real.
Witness:

The acid green of [...]

Posted in Garden Technique, Harvest, locavore log, vegetable Comments(9)

A month ago, we were under 2 feet of snow with night temperatures in the single digits. This week we garden in short-sleeve shirts and harvest mache, baby lettuce, just-emerging sorrel, baby arugula, escarole and… spinach - lots and lots of spinach. Finally!

The spinach was not planted in the hoophouse but outside. Last spring we [...]

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Cost: $100 (mostly recycled materials).Value? priceless.

After a hard day of trampling paths up & down the hill or shoveling the 22″ of snow that have graced us since Friday (or plowing snow for Keith, including the road and the driveway of several neighbors), we have worked quite an appetite. Tonight dinner is homemade pizza (the [...]

Posted in Harvest, chicken, locavore log Comments(3)

2 feet of snow last week-end, temperatures in the lower teens (F/ about -12 C). I have not been in the hoophouse for about a week, and frankly I was not sure how it was going to be in there. Would I have mush? It after all, got cold quite suddenly after a long mild [...]

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