food

Well, I've finally got around to writing up the two radish recipes we tried, oh, about a month ago: Radish Curry and Radish Top Soup

I was pleasantly surprised by the soup. It sill needs a little something more, but I actually liked it! The curry was good too, though I didn't pay it the attention it deserved while preparing it and didn't have all the ingredients. I'm sure it could be much better than it was, but it was still pretty good.

I really like the fact that these are designed to use the tops of the radishes which are such a large chunk of greens that might otherwise go to waste.

the garden

It appears a fox has taken up residence in the area. I think I saw him running down the railroad tracks the other morning. That's excellent news because the woodchuck seems to have lost his appetite for the garden. There wasn't much left that he hadn't destroyed, but at least now the damage isn't getting worse every day. Nature succeeds where man fails.

To the good, the garlic seems to be going well still. It's a bit of a mystery how much garlic will result because we shouldn't harvest it until August. The thyme we've planted in various places as edible ground cover is doing well. The blackberries produced lots despite being attacked by the railroad and suffering from insufficient rain. In the last four days I've picked about 3 quarts I think. There's still probably another quart or two on the vines not yet ripe. The red sails lettuce is doing well, which is good because I actually like the flavor of that one. The other two lettuces are lagging behind though they have better soil and a less shady spot. The dill is starting to take off and the pepper plants are tiny but flowering. The other herbs are generally small. The basil is tiny, but already flowering so it won't be good for eating. The bok choy that didn't get eaten by the woodchuck has gone to seed, but it's got pretty flowers so I let it keep going. I don't have much hope for the snow peas or the pole beans because the woodchuck loved them too dearly. The bush beans look anemic but are starting to flower so we might see something from them.

We've got wildflowers galore and yes, we still have plenty of knotweed/bamboo sprouts to pull every day.