Karen's Garden Delights Journal
January 2011

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We are in the deep days of winter and I am savoring the respite January provides from busy summer life. On my reading stack are seed catalogs, of course, along with books like Teaming with Microbes, Radical Homemakers and The Flower Farmer. We also just watched Cindy Connor's excellent DVD on garden planning which inspired our daughter to draw an elegant garden plan, prompted our nine year old son to ask for a bigger garden space and even the two year old piped up and stated, "I need a garden!" I was inspired to do a better job at record keeping this season and need to start on my proposed garden lay out for the year and include more cover crops. One seed order is off in the mail but I won't be starting any indoor plants till early February. The one indoor thing I'm tending right now are weekly batches of salad sprouts growing on top of my refrigerator. Pictured are radish sprouts and a spicy sprout mix along with lacto-fermented kim-chi and dilly carrots. These are excellent sources of raw goodies in January. I am picking small salads from the greenhouse weekly and here is a stir-fry featuring a fresh picked bok choy along with grass fed beef, peppers from the freezer and plenty of shallots and garlic. The storage onions had problems with rotting this year so I only have shallots for the winter. They are delicious but their small size makes peeling a chore for large quantities. From the freezer we are especially enjoying various berries. Blackberries and strawberries in smoothies, blueberries in pancakes, raspberries mixed with yogurt and tangy currants in our coffee cake.

Other winter past-times in our home include playing chess, practicing piano and guitar, knitting, drawing and watching the birds. Here is a scene from the bird feeder that includes the neighborhood peacock partaking in his share of the treats. Other birds that come regularly to the feeder to entertain us are cardinals, blue-jays, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and sparrows. The children are hoping for large snow drifts like last year to make houses and such, I would be content with just a few inches of white to keep my plants well insulated but not enough to make shoveling difficult and driving a hazard. A challenge my daughter and I are taking on this season is learning German and Pennsylvania Dutch. We are thankful for some simple readers and the weekly lessons with our Amish friends. I will probably never achieve fluency but will hopefully at least recognize some words in conversations. In exchange for the lessons, we are teaching them to make yogurt and cheese. The gals have also been helping make homemade paper for me and are interested in helping in my garden this summer.

Though winter is providing a break from physical labor, there is no lack of activity for inquiries to schedule speaking engagements, wedding flowers and other events. It feels strange to be scheduling things for June while the snow is still flying. The Events page has details for classes, speaking engagements and book signings already confirmed. Sometimes I'm not sure which gives me more pleasure, growing things myself or teaching others to grow. A thoughtful e-mail I received recently was from someone who attended my cold frame seminar on the farm in August. He started by saying, "As I survey our backyard in the Medina City limits there are some new things on the horizon...." He included photos of his new home built hoop house and a happy report of abundant fresh salad. From the picture of his greens bed, I'd say that he did his homework well and passed the class with flying colors. Perhaps the satisfaction in teaching comes partly from knowing that others are experiencing some of the pleasures our family has learned plus I also feel relieved that one less family will need me to grow their veggies. I am still pondering the challenge of encouraging people who are still grocery shopping at big box stores to think about the source of their food and take steps toward eating locally. That is the thrust of our Local Choices book and I'm hoping for opportunities in 2011 to share that message.