Port Potager

At long last, we have broccoli! And not just any broccoli, either. This is the biggest, best broccoli we've ever grown — and we did it from seed!  It may be hard for me to express just how excited we are by this crop, but I'll try to explain. We haven't had much luck with broccoli since we moved here four years ago. Our first fall attempt never amounted to much because we started it too late, and in the summers it was demolished by turkeys , skunks , and groundhogs before we could harvest it for ourselves.  So this year we smartened up and put chicken wire fencing around the cole plots immediately after setting out the transplants . And you know what? It worked. Appropriate predator protection plus a long, cool, wet spring worked together to produce some excellent brassica crops this year.  Now that we're into a sudden stretch of summer heat, we are working to protect our broccoli in a different way: Hot weather can cause broccoli to open ...

We're officially halfway through our money-saving project! To celebrate, I looked back over my previous posts in this series , and in doing so, realized that I could take some of the same ideas a step further. Here, in the first of a summer-appropriate mini-series of sequels, we're going to Cancel the (other) gym membership. I had no trouble letting go of my own gym membership early on in this project, but Kirk felt like he still used the gym enough to justify his membership. He runs road races and triathlons in good weather, but it was nice to have a place to train during our excruciatingly long, snowy, polar vortex-accursed winter. Not so in the summertime. Besides being very busy in the garden and at the theater, running on the treadmill (or so I hear — I've never actually tried it myself) is a total drag. So instead of spending money to do something he hates, we're going to save that money and find some other wintertime exercise that he likes. Or maybe h...

This week is  quick and easy because we are super busy with tech week for our latest theatrical endeavor : This is not unrelated to this post, by the way. We're going to save a little money this week by Adjusting our hobby budget to reflect changes in interests.   We keep a pretty detailed budget for the household, and our current line item for "hobbies" is set for $97.50 per month. This was based on our actual spending on things like road races and triathlons (Kirk), figure skating lessons (me), and production fees for local plays (both of us). (The kids are not included in this, as their lessons and activities are a separate item in the budget.) Since we're adults and no longer actually need to be so very well-rounded in our ongoing education, this is an easy place to cut back. It's also an easy place to double check and make sure the budget reflects our current reality. Turns out, it doesn't. I have stopped skating in recent years in favor o...

We're nowhere near having ripe peaches yet, but I saved a portion of last year's bumper crop  especially for ice cream making. To do that, I puréed a quart of super-ripe peaches in the Cuisinart and put them in the basement freezer until we wanted them. Turns out that since we stuffed our faces with peach pie and chutney and jam all year, we never ended up making the peach ice cream, and the puree just sat in the freezer all winter long. Now that summer is officially here, this is a perfect post-solstice treat. Summer Peach Ice Cream 2 cups milk 1 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. vanilla 2 cups half and half 4 cups heavy cream 4 cups peach purée juice of half a lemon Scald the milk until bubbles form around the edges, then remove from heat. Stir in the sugar and salt until they dissolve, then add vanilla, half and half, and heavy cream. Stir well and chill for 30 minutes. Stir the juice of one lemon into the pureed peaches (unless you alr...

Strawberry season has officially arrived! The Honeoye strawberries that we added to our patch last year are now ready to bear, and they are chock full of big, delicious berries. This variety is June-bearing, so we have tons of berries ripening all at once — more than we can eat!  It's time to start preserving them.  I really want to make some strawberry jam, but the next couple of weeks are just too busy to embark on a new canning project. That's the kind of thing best done once summer vacation has started and I can devote a whole day to the task. In the meantime, though, we have to do something with the four quarts of berries I just picked. The easiest method, by far, is to freeze the berries whole. Here's all you need to get started: Lots of freshly picked, rinsed-off berries, a cutting board, and a knife. (Make sure your knife is sharp and your board is one you don't mind getting stained with red berry juice.) First, slice off the tops of t...

I'm not sure what happened, but all my weekends out in the garden have done a real number on my lips. Lots of sunshine and wind have left them very dry. They are cracked at the corners. Last weekend I put sunscreen right over them, and (while important to keep them from getting burned) it just left them even drier. I don't have a "before" photo of this, and you should be glad. It wasn't pretty. They were so dry that they felt crispy and were peeling, and no amount of lip balm was enough to help. Enter my new favorite medicinal herb, comfrey: Comfrey has been used to heal cuts and burns on the skin since medieval times, when it was known as knitbone due to its healing properties. I usually just use it when I make soaps and lotions , since it is supposed to be healing and soothing to the skin. With my lips in such a state, though, I thought I could see if something a little stronger would help. So I decided to make a comfrey poultice. T...

That home energy assessment we had back in April is the gift that keeps on giving. In addition to the free light bulbs and the low-cost insulation , there was another conservation freebie. We're using it to Save money on the utilities by installing faucet aerators. This was extra cheap and easy because the guy from MassSave did it for us, and gave us the new aerator for free: Our old faucet aerator allowed 2.2 gallons per minute, but the new one cuts that flow to 1.5 gallons per minute. This doesn't feel any different for the washing of hands, and it doesn't look any different, either: Using less water here cuts costs in two ways. First, you save on the water and sewer bill itself. Second, you also save on the electricity used to heat the water. I found a handy  online calculator  to figure out exactly how much we'll be saving in the guest bath now, and it comes to about $30 per year. Not bad for a freebie that required no actual effort on my...