Karen's Garden Delights Journal
4th week of June 2011

1st Potatoes The new potatoes we ate for my husband's birthday supper were simply delightful. One of our favorite ways to fix potatoes is mixing them with olive oil, chopped garlic and a bit of rosemary and roasting them in the oven. Also requested for the birthday menu was steak, shell peas, raspberry cheesecake (Olin and our daughter went out early in the morning to pick raspberries in the woods) and of course, homemade ice-cream. A late June birthday gets to make the most of seasonal delights.

Herbs In the garden, we continue to pull weeds and mulch. After pulling a section of ugly weeds, we added the next planting of green beans. I am spending much more time harvesting these days and a few tasks like staking the tomatoes are getting behind. With a couple of my veggie basket customers on vacation right now, I took several coolers of produce to Local Roots - lots of Swiss chard and kale (which my customers aren't crazy for anyway), some beautiful bunched beets including golden beets, Italian parsley, snow peas and fresh garlic. I am curiously awaiting the report to see how much of it sold this weekend. I also pick up Local Roots items every other week for two Amish producers, Country Cut Flowers and Backyard Herbs, which fills the van with lovely things. With the new cafe portion open at lunch time, things are noticeably busier at Wednesday noon when I drop off plus it smells delightful. If you need a quick hot lunch in Wooster, check out what local goodies the Local Roots cafe is cooking up.

Wedding Trellis We are excited to be hosting an Herb Walk at our farm next week. Roy Hershberger from Charm will be leading it and came up to the farm one evening to scout out what he might find. We made a list of the medicinal plants we knew were growing in the garden and on the farm and were very excited to add a dozen or so more things that he identified in the woods. We learned we have black cohosh, wild yam, all heal, indian hemp, blood root, sweet cicely and more. Click here to see our farm herbs. Now that we know what we have, the next step is learning more about harvesting and using these wonderful medicines the good Lord put right at our doorstep.

The weekend included our second wedding for the season. This time we had 90 degree weather to contend with and scattered thunderstorms. The morning of the outdoor wedding it was thundering and raining. By picture time at 1pm they had to dodge some light showers but thankfully by ceremony time at 4pm the sun was glorious and they had a marvelous summer evening for the reception, all at the bride's home. This was the most involved wedding order I've done so far since it included the bride's and bridesmaids' bouquets, the groom's boutonierre and decorating a trellis. Again, I hired some of my Amish flower friend's daughters for bouquet making but needed to create the trellis arrangement on site. I had to use oasis foam blocks soaked in water and wrapped in chicken wire and made sure I brought along plenty of flowers to choose from. Here is the finished trellis overlooking the pond. These weddings have been quite fun and add nicely to the garden income but I will be ready for a rest!