Gardening and Urban Foraging

The garden out at the farm is looking beautiful, and some of the first vegetables are already full-grown and ready to be picked. Like the turnips, for example. I planted them at the very end of May,  expecting them to mature only after their full growing season of 60 to 90 days, but last week – about 45 days in – the tops were peeking out and looking quite large. With some effort I pulled them out, and was delighted to be holding the most enormous turnips I have ever seen. (I included my hand in the picture just to give you an idea of their size – and I do have rather large hands.) The soil in that garden must be just amazingly nutrient-rich to produce such resluts. I am crediting the chicken manure.

Another crop that is ready here in Wisconsin is the blackcap crop. While out on a recent walk with Dakota, Nick discovered a collection of bushes behind our local high school, loaded down with berries that were just about ripe. We thought it would be an awful shame to let so much good food go to waste, so yesterday the three of us set out with a large bucket in hand to do some harvesting. We now have slightly scratched-up legs and arms, but we proudly carried home two pints of fresh berries, which are now washed and sitting in our fridge, ready for snacking, or mixing with some homemade yogurt, or maybe even making paleo ice cream – the possibilities are endless.

I am sharing this post over at Summer Fun.