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Category: gardening

Jammin’

On August 31, 2010

This year I had aspirations of becoming a domestic goddess by canning all sorts of delicious treats that could be savored during the winter and given as homemade gifts. Two weeks ago I went to a farm and bought two bushes of peaches (two bushels) and three bags of apples along with all sorts of other veggies. My goal was to make some ridiculous amount of items – I think I had 7 recipes all planned out. Let’s just put it out there right away that I accomplished two.

Preserving is hard work. The ladies who lived in Little House on the Prairie times had it rough doing it over a stove because for me, in my un-air-conditioned kitchen, I get a sweaty mess. I can’t imagine making preserves over a fire.

What I accomplished was not the delicious peach jam I intended, nor the apple butter or applesauce. Instead I made peach salsa (which I won’t eat) and peach chutney (which I might eat but is pretty iffy). Good work, Kate!

This weekend I did better, with a great deal of help from Wonder Boy. We harvested the grapes from our backyard and spent the better part of Saturday skinning, de-seeding and cooking grapes. In the end we got 26 jars of jam that I already have people dibbing. (Lesson: Don’t Facebook and Tweet the things you are making and cooking.)

Introduction to Our Community Garden

By Kate

On March 21, 2010

In gardening

I have toiled in my yard for the last many summers growing things and enjoying the experience. I have had particular pleasure with the edible fruits of my labor. Wonder Boy has been a perfect companion in this endeavors. We’ve redone portions of our yard, played with the locations of where we plant certain items and learned a lot about gardening along the way.

One struggle with almost anyone living in a true urban environment is that yards in urban areas are smaller in nature and buildings are often higher which can often mean those small yards have a lot of shady spots. Both of those issues pertain to us. But we’ve made do! We plant a lot of things in pots so the plants can be moved to where the sun is at any given moment. Our yard might be tiny but it is packed with as many plants as can be.

I recently saw a posting in the Mt. Auburn community newsletter that there were openings in their community garden. Wonder Boy and I jumped at the opportunity. We went to a kick-off meeting for the year and were disheartened to learn that this is the final year for this particular community garden, after almost 30 years of use. At that point our sadness was really selfishness. We had stumbled into a chance to get a sunny plot of land where we could grow veggies and learn about growing techniques from seasoned professionals and that opportunity would go away.

Today was the first workday for the community garden and Cincinnati truly is losing something special. There were people outside all teaming together and working hard to make one large plot of land (it could hold 2-3 row houses) ready for the upcoming growing season. The work that has been done over the past 30 years is tremendous. The area is terraced, has running water and carefully segmented plots and the soil and compost are rich.

I know we’re both proud to be a part of something so special. But it would be nice if this sacred little place could become a permanent fixture. Even as the newbies we clearly are, Wonder Boy and I felt immediately included by this large group of people. We were tired and sweaty at the end of the day but our little plot of land looked wonderful thanks to some final effort added by us and four kids who volunteered to help us turn our soil. Does teamwork get any better?