Taking advantage of warm spring days

Let's see, in the back alley garden we planted onion sets and Easter egg radishes and I transplanted the arugula and Swiss chard. I also planted rhubarb inside our back garden in a spot close to the kitchen window. I am not a patient gardener and the thought that it will be two years before harvesting rhubarb is pretty annoying.

Kai and Malin want their own garden plot this summer so they've pulled a ton of weeds in the space next to the vegetable garden. I'd like to build a frame around this area to make the soil a bit deeper so that's a project for the weekend.

Down at the community garden, the snap peas that I've neglected are starting to come up. I planted a bunch more today and have resolved to water them more regularly. I also transplanted Swiss chard and argula and onions down there and planted lettuce seeds.

While I was working there today, a guy from the DC Department of Transportation rode up on his bike. He told me told me that his department was interested in placing four pairs of beehives in fenced community gardens in Ward 6 and was there to check out our garden. It's my understanding that a few years back, some folks wanted to place a beehive at the garden, but others were worried about allergies to bee stings.

As an aside, that sort of thinking drives me crazy. Honeybees don't fly around looking for people to sting. And, it really makes no difference if the beehive is located at the garden or if the hive is a block away, the honeybees will find their way into the garden. In our two full summers of having bees literally above our back door, our family has been stung two times by honeybees in the backyard. The first time, our older son stepped on a bee with bare feet. The other time, a honeybee somehow flew up the leg of our daughter's pants and instead of brushing it away, she freaked out (which was understandable) and it stung her.

Anyway, I outed us as beekeepers on the Hill and he was pleased to learn that there would be advocates for bees at the garden. In the end, however, after eyeballing the space, he didn't think there would be room for a hive. The Virginia Avenue garden is a pretty compact garden and nearly every square foot is used. Instead, his recommendation will be to avoid the politics of beekeeping at the garden and house the beehives in a fenced in yard that is used to store trees ready for planting. It's only a couple blocks away so the garden will still get the benefit of honeybees.

Finally, several of the fruit trees down at the community garden are in full bloom due to the mild winter and really warm days we've been having. Not a honeybee in sight that I could find, but the trees were covered with dozens of fast moving smaller bee-looking insects.

Potato Surprise

Malin and I had a surprise while turning over the garden. I guess I missed harvesting some potatoes last fall.

The peas I planted last month are finally sprouting.

Arugula and lettuce is taking off up on the porch.

And on top of the beehive, we've placed spinach, Swiss chard and tomato seedlings.

Sugar Snap Peas and Beekeeper Meet Up

The unseasonably warm weather continued with a 72 degree sunny day yesterday, and there were scores of honeybees flying around the hive all day. Karl keeps feeding them their own honey from an inverted mason jar with little holes pricked in the lid. They don't seem to be eating it very quickly so I assume -- at least I hope -- they are getting what they need from the few plants that are flowering.

Karl went to a meeting of local beekeepers tonight, and I'll be interested to know what the collective wisdom is about taking care of bees during this last month of this weird, warm winter.

The other rather banal new is that Aksel and I planted Sugar Snap Peas in the back alley garden and I re-potted a bunch of arugula seedlings into bigger pots. Swiss chard and spinach seedlings will probably have to be repotted in the next few days. I wasn't expecting all the seeds I planted to sprout and I know that it's dumb, but it pains me to thin those little plants.

Peas Planted

Aksel and I planted peas in the back garden yesterday. We also started spinach, Swiss chard and arugula up on the porch last week. The arugula and chard has sprouted and is already growing well. With its southern exposure, it must be 75 degrees out there during the day.

Crocus in Bloom

Our neighbor's crocus are always among the very first crocus I see in bloom every early spring. By early February his garden is full of them. I was surprised today, out on a walk in the sunny afternoon, to see clusters of crocus in full bloom. We really have had a warm December, but it's still only December 30th!

I stood around and waited a few moments, and sure enough, a couple honeybees stopped by to collect pollen. While the honeybee was visiting some sort of fly was also hanging out on a flower.

Vanilla Pear Jam

After the family ate their fill of pears, I still had several sitting on the counter from a recent Costco run getting riper and riper by the hour. A little too soft to slice and eat out of hand, they were fine for jam. I followed the recipe on the Food in Jars blog .

The last time I had made jam, I used the requisite amount of pectin and cooked it at a hard boil for a bit too long, resulting in a tasty jam, but with a consistency that was way too hard. This time, I didn't use quite as much pectin and the result is a pretty thin jam. I was hoping to serve this pear jam with cheese and crackers, but I think it's more suited to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pancake topping.

The ingredients: pears, sugar, vanilla beans. Vanilla beans are super expensive. I think a little bottle holding two beans are about $12 at the local Harris Teeter. I bought a package of 30 beans on eBay for about that same price. They aren't quite as plump as the ones in the store, but they are absolutely fine and the price is right.

Mashing everything up...

The finished product...

Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair

A couple of weeks ago on a whim, I entered a contest for the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair. As I understand it, this is a festival of all sorts of crafts vendors from up and down the east coast. This year, they have expanded to a market of culinary crafters with free lessons and tastings and there is a Crafty Food Award competition for home crafted pickles, beer and preserves. I decided to enter Drunken Fig Jam and Spiced Peach Jam into the preserves contest. Much to my surprise, the Spiced Peach Jam made the finals so on October 1st I'll be squaring off against Oaxaca Chutney and Blueberry-Lime Preserves! The fair is in Adams Morgan at the Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th and Wyoming Ave., NW from 10 - 5. The Crafty Food Awards will be at 3 pm. I'll be there!