We wrapped up April with a very green garden with hundreds of plants in the ground and THRIVING! I asked Art if he thought we had enough room to store all of the food we may produce this year. And without hesitation he said 'nope' and I believe him. We will be daily picking come June through October. We already have garlic, salads, onion and celery ready to pick.
Our planted list for the garden includes the following and 45 varieties:
Bay Leaf
Brussel Sprouts
Bush Beans
Cabbage
Cantaloupe
Celery
Chamomile
Chickpeas
Climbing Beans
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Garlic
Green Tea
Hithra (tea)
Hot Peppers
Lavender
Leeks
Okra
Onion
Parsley
Peas
Peppermint
Peppers
Popcorn Corn
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Rosemary
Spearmint
Spinach
Spring Lettuce
Squash
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Watermelon
So yeah, if you're hungry come see us. And if you have preserving tips, tricks or recipes send them our way. Thankful we have the irrigation hoses laid out and several sections covered in plastic because weeding and watering would quickly become a full time job during our HOT dry summer days.
We've counted six turtles, one lizard, ten baby chickens, eight hens, one rooster and one pig in our garden. We also have lots of bees and birds that fly in and out. Plus a few spying sheep on the hill behind the house.
In the pomegranate orchard we are waist high in grass and will be cutting for hay in the coming week or so. Art has noted that we have a few duds that will need be taken out. Thankfully we have cuttings from several trees and he has several starters that are taking off.
And our vines are huge and already need to be cleaned up. We start from the bottom and snap off new growth sprouts. Then we reduce the shoots to the one closest to the vine. This quickly becomes a task you can get lost in and one that I actually don't mind. And when you need a time out the hammocks we are almost in the shade.
Art also added a row of blueberry bushes and aronia trees between two vine rows.
The trees in the garden are full of fruit and we still have several trees nearly ready to blossom including the newly planted orange and lemon trees. Plus the pomegranates, persimmon and olive trees.
And our batch of persimmons that fermented all winter is ready for the still. We will be brewing up some raki in the next week or so.
In other news we visited the newly remodeled Syri Sheganit Bar and Restorant over the last week. We often bike to here during the summers. It has an extended deck with additional outdoor seating and the interior got lots of glam nautical themed updates.
We love our little corner of the world and can't wait to share it with friends and family. So when you are ready to cross the pond let us know!