OG Life (Organically Grown, that is)

This past Tuesday, my three-person familial gardening contingent began preparations for this year’s Food Garden Of Awesomeness. It was a quiet, unfortunately dreary morning, so most of our efforts happened under roofs or indoors. We did manage to dig some wild ramps, which grow in abundance in the wooded space beyond the yard to the west of the house. Ramps are a type of wild onion, similar to leeks, and I can’t for the life of me tell them apart from young lilies and other similar-looking plants yet, so thank goodness for my aunt who can spot them with ease. Ramps grow in many parts of the eastern and middle United States and also in Canada. We were careful not to pull up too many. It is important to leave some in the ground to ensure that they will continue to grow.

There was a constant, very fine, penetrating rain, and the temperature was unsure whether it wanted to be warmish or chilly. We started the day by transplanting some recently-started tomato and marigold seedlings into larger containers, which we made out of newspaper by simply rolling it around a drinking glass and using a small amount of masking tape to hold them together. These can be directly stuck into the ground, as they will degrade and decompose easily.

Damp, grey days like this seem to feed a restless sort of inspiration in me, so the rest of the morning was easily spent putting pen to paper & drawing up plans for where we will be putting things when we reach the point of planting, and poring over books about gardening, canning, and the like.

Things that I am most excited to grow this year (all of the seeds I have purchased this year are marked "OG" which stands for "organically grown"):

• Popcorn - I have never grown popcorn before, but I have bought it from the farmer’s market. I’m always hearing how terrible microwave popcorn is for you, and frankly making it from scratch is way more fun. I grew up using an electric popcorn popper and topping it with melted butter, salt or garlic salt, and sometimes nutritional yeast (surprisingly tasty, kind of similar to parmesan cheese in taste). Plus, popcorn on the cob is pretty.

• Brandywine Tomatoes - These are the absolute most delicious tomato I have ever tasted. I am not a plain-tomato eater, I prefer them sliced and diced and thrown in with other ingredients, but this is a tomato I will devour straight up. Just straight into my face. They are super sweet and juicy, and I recommend that you eat one sometime. The seeds I bought for this year’s crop are an heirloom variety.

• Watermelon - I have procured a pack of Sugar Baby Watermelon seeds from Fruition Seeds, a recent addition to the local food & farming scene. Founded in 2012 and based in Naples, NY, they are now beginning to offer organic, regionally-adapted seeds. I am very excited to give them a shot! In the past, we have had difficulty growing melons, but I’m going to do my homework thoroughly this year and see if I can’t coax some melons out of the ground. Fruition's Kickstarter campaign was successful as of July, 2013 and their video for it is worth a watch.

• Jalapeños - I need something to grow at my own apartment, and I have a very sunny porch which will be perfect for jalapeño peppers and Roma tomatoes. I am getting my seedlings and containers prepped & ready as we speak, although the dog destroyed my jalapeño seedlings last week, so I will have to start those over... But once I have some peppers grown, maybe I’ll try pickling them.

• Beets - They are a new infatuation of mine. I used to dislike beets, but my tastes have changed dramatically over the past few years and I now enjoy many foods that I never did when I was younger. Beets are at the top of that list. I love that you can roast the root and sauté up their greens as well, and like many other highly pigmented vegetables they are chock full of nutrients to boot including manganese, folate, and phytochemicals which are purportedly good for liver and heart health.

I could go on. I’m also very pumped about radishes, kale, asparagus, mustard greens, raspberries, potatoes, spinach, bell peppers, and rhubarb. Among other things. Name your favorite veggie, ‘cause we will probably be growing it!

Cracking Into 2014: Earth Day

Earth Day 2014, this past Sunday, was optimistically mild and bright. After the recent long and oppressive winter season, it felt downright magical to soak in the sunlight and breathe the warm, violet-scented air. I had traveled westward from my city apartment to attend dinner on my family’s property, as it was also Easter Sunday. After the family gathering, I found myself wandering around the acreage as I seem to do most every spring.

Something happens to my family’s land around this time every year: it wakes up and turns into Narnia. It recently dawned on me that while I’m sure there are many beautiful places on Earth - a number of which I’ve been lucky enough to visit - there is truly no place quite like western New York State, mundane though it may seem to some. There are a profusion of lakes and many smaller creeks and streams, which causes the area to be particularly lush and green.

To give you an idea, a few years ago one warm September evening, I camped out on the roof of a tall apartment building with some friends in the middle of the city. I recall looking out over the city before the sun went down - it was trees and hills as far as the eye could see, thoroughly obscuring the countless buildings below them. I remember being awed. I had never seen Rochester from that vantage point before, and it was very surreal. It was actually hard to see most buildings for all the foliage even though they were clustered together in every direction beneath me.

And so I have come to equate western New York State with the Garden of Eden.

My family’s property is no exception. There are two houses, one relatively new and one a hundred years old which used to be a farmhouse. There are a handful of very old barns and outbuildings which used to house dairy cows, chickens, pigs, and farm machinery. All these buildings are surrounded by trees except for where the road runs. This was my family’s homestead. Accordingly, I have become ingrained with a do-it-yourself spirit and an appreciation for self-sufficiency.

Among the things my family members have done on this property are maple syruping, planting our own personal Christmas tree farm (of sorts), raising livestock for produce and for slaughter, and a whole lot of fruit, vegetable, and flower gardening (we’ve grown pretty much every kind of vegetable you can think of, along with raspberries, blackberries, cherries, black walnuts, strawberries, and rhubarb). There is even a hive of wild honeybees that has been inhabiting one of the barns for about 20 years and counting, who may at some point be moved into a man-made hive when it is time for the barns to come down.

In recent years, I have completed my own set of projects. I have canned tomatoes, jams, peaches & pears, collected, hulled, cured & opened black walnuts, harvested & candied violets, sewn aprons & zipper pouches, and made my own dog treats. Not to mention assisting with the ambitious gardening ventures that seem to grow slightly more extravagant every year.

I have high hopes for 2014, too. I intend to develop a good handle on flower liqueurs this year, a product that seems fairly obscure and difficult to obtain in this country. But considering that Rochester (the Flower City) is experiencing something of a renaissance on various booze-related fronts including cocktails, craft distilling, and local beer brewing, I feel like this is something I could run with.

Also in the works will be further canning projects such as chutneys, pickles, and fancy fruit concoctions. I may even begin to delve into growing my own saffron, one of the rarest and most expensive spices even to this day. Saffron is made from the stigmas of Crocus sativus (also known as the autumn crocus or the saffron crocus), of which there are only three on each flower. My family’s land has proven exceptionally fertile, and the only thing I think we have ever failed to successfully grow are melons (and maybe we’re just not doing it right), so barring any climatic restrictions I am hopeful about the saffron project.

Time and further research will tell! I’m really feeling the spring fever today. What are some DIY food projects that you are passionate about?