Happy first week of May!

We are still working our way through the coldest, dampest April in many years but the garden is growing.
Spinach, lettuces, onions, shallots, garlic,strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are doing well.

We assembled our new greenhouse over the weekend. What a job! Removed sod, chipped mortar from bricks (thank you craigslist) and got it together. 3 ft x 6ft of warmer growing area and the plants are loving it!

Experienced gardeners in our area look to the eastern hills to know when to plant out. If there is snow on the ridge top we wait. So... we are waiting. The greenhouse is stuffed with tomatoes, scarlet runner beans, popcorn starts and flats of seeds waiting to germinate.

The music business is perking along with additional gigs and improving statistics. You can check that out at www.reverbnation.com/tworivers music.

The new Podcast addition is available for listening at http://tworiversmusicpodcast.blogspot.com/

Last week we suffered a huge set back when all the gear from my husband's day job was stolen. He is a professional photographer and this theft put him out of work. We are struggling to move beyond that.
So you can imagine that this past week has been a mixed bag. The photos on this addition, including the cd cover shot, are by Eric Tworivers. You can view his work at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/eric-tworivers.html

Our cd is available for download at Amazon.com!  


Thanks for taking the time to read!

How we meet the challenging economy

By doing it ourselves and being creative. Growing as much of our food as we can. Learning about slow/real food and how to produce it for taste and good health. Working creatively.
As musicians we are greatly effected by the "slow" economy. As TwoRivers Music we teach, perform, compose, arrange and work hard to build a "job" of our own. One method is to host Open Mics in our area.
This last 2 weeks we have begun a new open mic with a twist. We showcase a featured player and, as a value added item, podcast the event. In a world of heavy competition you have to break out of the box. We know from experience that the featured performer format works but are new to the podcast . It has been challenging and exciting. You can listen in at the link below.
 http://tworiversmusicpodcast.blogspot.com/

This week in the garden.

Kale

Lettuces

It rained, poured actually most of the week but we were able to harvest four nice salads from the garden. Three kinds of lettuce, baby spinach and two kinds of kale. Those four salads have almost paid for the seeds we've bought this year.

Transplanted twelve tomatoes, a Sweet Basil and two Stevia plants to larger pots in the greenhouse - still too cold to plant out. Also planted twelve seed cells of Scarlet Runner Beans, Japanese white hull less popcorn, six Jack Be Little Pumpkin, six Sugar Baby Watermelon, twelve Anaheim pepper and six each of Chinese lantern, Snapdragon and Asters. Said greenhouse is getting full! It's a good thing we have a larger one to put up. Just have to dig up a bit of turf, spread sand and lay the brick we got from Craig's list. Might start that today as the sun is shining.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse.

Last week we had a Forsythia bush and two old, ratty Rhododendrons removed. The roots are under the house and sidewalk so could not pull them out. This means constant duty to keep them from growing back but it does give us a bit more space for edible crops.

Other news: First: We-meaning Eric-are working on a podcast! We have a new Thursday evening venue, The Sellwood Public House, where we are doing a showcase/open mic and podcast. AS soon as it is on line I'll post the link here. The talent is amazing! Second: Volume I of our cookbook should be available sometime in May! I'll let you know about that too. Third: Two of my piano students performed for an educators dinner and did very well! It's fun to watch them grow and progress.

I have a review of a lovely book at http://www.examiner.com/organic-gardening-in-vancouver/apples-by-gail-gibbons-review.

It's fun and busy here. Hope your gardening week will go well.

Check out The Examiner

I'm writing as an organic gardener for The Examiner.com. Please wander over and take a peek at what we have going on in the garden.
http://www.examiner.com/organic-gardening-in-vancouver/deanna-tworivers

Oh, by the way...it's raining. Welcome spring! Waiting for a delivery of heirloom tomatoes today, stevia and basil tomorrow and filbert bushes by Thursday! Going to plant watermelons in our greenhouse. Photos by the weekend!

What are you doing in your garden this week?

Thank you for your support! Keep gardening!

 

Rain and Fall

I haven't posted in a while because the  summer has been intensely busy. We, TwoRivers Music, have played all over Oregon and Washington this summer and have shows booked "away" through October.

The weather has kept things interesting in the garden. We have discovered that our front garden in really a wind tunnel-part of the "gorge effect" I'm sure. High on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River the wind comes zooming from the East, up the street, across the front garden and through the back gate. Our tomatoes suffered from this and it actually took out our trellis of Scarlet Runner Beans. Ah, live and learn. The front garden in a different micro climate from the back. The back gets sun all day and is much more sheltered from the wind. Next year tomatoes will go in the back. Basil growing in the back is also much happier than in the front so...Basil in the back next year!!
We've canned applesauce and peach butter, frozen lots of cubes of basil for winter use. There will be more of that as the basil in the back is still producing!!

Next project: we started a no/low cards/ no wheat way of eating. I won't call it a diet because it's a change of lifestyle. I've lost 11 pounds and quite a few inches (yay!) and my partner has lost 20 pounds (!!!). We both feel much  better. When it came time to add carbs to what we eat we considered how best to do it. Didn't want to eat processed foods to the extent that we did and the wheat free breads are very expensive in the local stores and the variety is very limited. After research and consideration we sent for a packet of dry sourdough starter from San Francisco and bought spelt flour. By feeding the spelt flour to the starter we now have a 99% spelt starter. Have a lovely ceramic pot with sealing lid from Value Village for the starter. Had one misadventure with the bread. We bought a used clay baking pot and it cracked and fell apart with the first bread baking.  Very disappointing. Next trip to Value Village we got a Corningware pot and lid. It works really well. The bread is dark, rich, moist and very sour! Makes great toast and is good with Eric's home made egg salad!! Last night after work (full day teaching piano and voice lessons, accompanying a church choir at rehearsal) we made our first trial at sourdough, spelt chocolate chips cookies. End result, very tasty, 8 dozen cookies mostly in the freezer. Thank you Eric for doing all the work and clean up!! You have the master's touch!
For those who might be interested all these experiments will result in a cookbook.
Canning tomatoes today thanks to a friend whose garden is not in the wind tunnel!! Playing music at a retirement home. No watering the garden today as the fall rain is taking care of it. We have green beans, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, broccoli, basil, carrots, chard, onions and more still growing. Starting the fall clean up and planting. Got a mini green house to set up and much organizing to do.
Happy Fall!

Windy morning!

The raspberries are now in a planter box. We inherited two of these when our neighbor moved. Both filled with really lovely compost. Through freecycle we have dark blue paint for trim but I'm hoping someone has some white, gray, or light blue exterior paint to get rid of. Send me a note if you do!!!

It's supposed to get to 63 degrees today! Wind is gusting though. It's tempting to set out tomatoes but I'm afraid they would a) blow away, b) break under the force of the wind. Oh well. We're still not quite out of frost danger.

Cinnamon basil  and cilantro have sprouted. Nothing showing in the culinary sage or white swan echinecea. Started sunflowers, dill, green beans, two kinds of sweet alyssium, and marigolds. More in the laundry room/pantry. I will have to rethink that setup next year.

Parsley and chives look happy.

The neighbors thing I'm a bit odd. I've been out pouring boiling water on weeds around the rock borders. It's a slow but very efficient way to kill the nasty buggers.

We are in an area that has been a river bed for millenia so I have access to all sizes of river rock. I don't think this will be an easy place to grown root crops with out lots of work so they may go in pots. Anyway, rock borders are one way to go.

Our last trip to the Goodwill bin store was productive. We got 2 HUGE planters for around $.85 cents each. If you plan to go, take a friend or two as the price per pound goes down from $1.69 to $.89 when you reach 20 pounds of goods. Go with a plan but be open minded. It's amazing what other people throw away.

Happy gardening and happy thrifty hunter gathering! Enjoy the sunshine!