We came back from Maine with five grandsons bunking here for a night (and then three for another night) and extended family still around, followed by the massive project of roofers doing their thing with all that entails in terms of noise, dirt, and temporary nigh-imprisonment inside!
So I can't say I've spent my time before writing this doing my beloved puttering and home-keeping. Between the brutal heat/humidity and the never-ending sense of running around catching up, my photos are not going to inspire! Sorry!
So what should we talk about?
In the garden, I did harvest half the garlic! First I got the scapes and made garlic scape (and parsley) pesto. Here's a scape I missed!
I need to harvest the rest, but I got sidetracked when it got too hot and Bridget found ground bees in one of the rows. (She went home on Thursday, so now I'm on my own!)
Now the Chief has dealt with that danger, so I can do it.
I really encourage everyone to plant garlic, even if you hardly plant anything else at all. It's so rewarding. You can order cloves in the fall if you want to, or you can plant the largest, best cloves of garlic you buy at the store. They will grow, don't worry.
I did buy a bunch from a seed place long ago, and ever since have been planting from the best of what I harvest (the biggest cloves yield the biggest heads). It's a travesty to think that, apparently, grocery store garlic comes from China! There is no reason not to grow your own if you have any room at all.
The hard neck variety I plant here in Zone 6a, Chesnok Red, goes in like other bulbs in the fall. You harvest in July around here. It keeps very well and is quite tasty!
I used to plant in one bed, but two harvests ago I realized a better way.
I now plant on the north side of about four of my beds. That way, the garlic can grow but I can also use the bed in the spring for other things.
So this year, for instance, I planted beets and lettuce just in front of them. I found it vexing to think I just wasn't going to have the bed until July, especially because I'm usually not that motivated to plant anything new at that point, mainly because it's always super dry.
Here is a row that needs to be pulled, along with its row of fairly bolted lettuce:
Here's how it was, so neat and tidy, in early June!
Garlic takes up very little room in a row like that. You can see how I have virtually the whole bed left to work with. I'm pretty proud of this discovery!
I hang the garlic heads in the garage to dry out. It's not very aesthetic in there (there's a reason I call it The Garage of Death) but it is quite airy (we hardly ever really close it up and even if we do, it's just a country structure, not at all sealed up) and of course, out of the sun.
Oh, and I wanted to tell you about a new in-real-life journal. You may be familiar with Hearth & Field, a publication available online, very pleasing… I've shared some of their things here in the past.
Well, they are offering that almost bygone experience of receiving a magazine in the mail — and sitting down with it in your hands and enjoying reading the printed word on the page!
I say magazine but it's really more like a book. No doubt these will be kept lovingly on the shelf, where they will sit high and disposedly! There are many articles of varied nature, having to do with all the subjects that occur to the inquiring mind, interested in the world around and within. There happens to be a longish interview with me in this inaugural issue! But it's only one of a myriad of offerings, including recipes and how-tos and essays, just like the online version, but for real!
One's subscription includes a leather bookmark (handmade) which I didn't think would matter to me but I actually love (however my photo of it is lost in the mists and it itself is upstairs), and your choice of one of three handmade mugs.
Everything is beautifully packaged. I think this subscription would make a great gift for someone who would appreciate the finer things.
To subscribe, go to this link. If you love the site, you will love the journal!
bits & pieces
- I went on Brian Shepherd's podcast to discuss with him That Hideous Strength! And Order and Wonder, and Abolition of Man… I would love to know what you think! And check out his other podcasts — I enjoy listening to what he has to offer, because he's lively and who doesn't want to be thinking about and discussing C. S. Lewis's writings?
- Put it on your calendar if you are near Denver and want to come: I will be at the women's conference there, A Return to Tradition, in Littleton CO at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church. I will be speaking on the 23rd.
- As we go into discussions about AI, it's important to know about first principles and how they bear on ethics and predictions. This article is quite helpful: The human paradigm of knowing, how it is different, why it is not replicable with AI, by Thomas B. Fowler
- Do you ever think you might want to read the Rule of St. Benedict, but know you need a guide? I feel that way, and so was happy to stumble upon this Substack: Incola ego sum in terra. The author posts (sends to your email if you subscribe) one rule a week, with commentary. This week, the subject is the cellarer of the monastery, his duties and approach. As I read, I thought of the wife, and how like the cellarer she is!
“Let him have the care of everything: let him do nothing without the permission of the Abbot.
Let him observe what is commanded him, let him not sadden his brothers.
If any brother perchance asks him for anything unreasonably, let him not sadden him by rejection, but deny the wrong request reasonably and with humility.”
How closely these commands track with the observation in Proverbs 31 of the virtuous woman:
“She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.”
They track with the challenges too. The mother also sometimes has to answer unreasonable requests. This rule helps her to see the importance of how she responds. The author's commentary is excellent because it shows how important to the hierarchy of the monastery the wisdom of the cellarer is — how his obedience fits in with his authority. The wife too has to find her way in this paradox, of being obedient to the head while having a tremendous effect on the flourishing of her community. And the implication is that the head (abbot or husband) delegates and trusts. The trust arises from the constant effort of both to “die to self for others” — hence the warning that the cellarer not be self-indulgent (also given to the abbot, of course). Mothers can heed this as well. We need to learn how to deny ourselves so that we can be alert and have the inner resources to strive to avoid bringing sadness to those in our care, especially when we have to be strict with them.
While families are not like monasteries (though monasteries are like families), the Rule can help us learn Christian living in its daily practicalities.
- Incredible, especially for those of us who just love Sigrid Undset! 100 Years After Sigrid Undset’s Conversion: The First Vocation From Lillehammer, Norway She seems to be involved in the details — well worth a read!
from the archives
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My book, The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is available from Sophia Press! Also in paperback now! All the thoughts from this blog collected into three volumes, beautifully presented with illustrations from Deirdre, an index in each volume, and ribbons!
My “random thoughts no pictures” blog, Happy Despite Them has moved over to Substack! — receive it by email if you like, or bookmark, so you don’t miss a thing! The old one is still up if you want to look at the comments on past posts. It will take me a while to get things organized, but you'll be patient, I know!
There you will find the weekly podcast done by Phil and me, called On the Home Front. Do let us know what you think!
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7kidsinTX says
Auntie Leila, I’m so sad the in-person registrations for the conference in CO are already sold out!
As always, thank you for your posts and links.
I’m glad you checked in before the summer was over. I always enjoy reading your updates. God bless you!
Leila says
Oh, I’m sorry to have posted it too late!
Thank you!
Lisa says
Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a couple blocks from my family business where I work! Any other day I’d be bitterly disappointed to miss hearing you speak, knowing you’re so close, but as it happens I’m taking my baby to college in Dallas that weekend. 💗
Leila says
Oh, well that’s a good excuse! Fun!
Bethany Tallmon says
I have been considering a print edition of H&F; that is so beautifully presented, I may go for it! In the meantime, is your interview available in the online edition?
I have been planting our garlic from the largest heads of last season’s harvest for a few years now. Each year I plant a little more. Maybe eventually I will plant enough to make it through to the following harvest – which would be a lot for our family of eight! Not that garlic is all that expensive, but it makes me happy to know our garlic for the next few months is free!
Leila says
Yes, here is the interview: https://hearthandfield.com/to-be-a-sacred-space-a-discussion-with-leila-marie-lawler/
I would be interested to know how much you’re up to with the garlic! I plant around 100 cloves each year. For us that seems to be enough. Towards the end of the storage season this year (around Jan/Feb) I took what I had left and made fermented garlic (one jar with honey) and dried garlic for powder. We have plenty left — BUT we did not have the use of the kitchen for 7 months! There is just the two of us and then of course times I’m cooking for guests and other family.
Bethany says
Thank you for the link!
I harvested about three dozen heads this year. I had planted more, but the dog dug up part of the bed in pursuit of a gopher. I forgave her, because she did eventually kill it. I’m guessing that much will last us through October, but who knows? Maybe we’ll have a sudden craze for garlic bread and eat it all much sooner!
Leila says
An adventure!
Bethany says
Thank you for the link!
I harvested about three dozen heads this year. I had planted more, but the dog dug up part of the bed in pursuit of a gopher. I forgave her, because she did eventually kill it. I’m guessing that much will last us through October, but who knows? Maybe we’ll have a sudden craze for garlic bread and eat it all much sooner!
Dixie says
At least she got the gopher! And if you need anybody to eat up your extra garlic bread, I am available anytime.
Dixie says
I have never planted garlic or onions or even potatoes because there’s nowhere in my house that remains cool enough to store them longterm. (Even the ones from the store have to be used up relatively quickly in my house, or they’ll sprout, no matter where I store them!) Do you know of any solutions?
Thanks for the beautiful photographs of Hearth & Field!
Leila says
You’re welcome!
So when you’re further south, you want to plant soft-necked garlic. You can look up about it. I know what you mean about things not keeping. The great thing about garlic is that you can do several things that are a bit of work up front but then you have it right at hand, and honestly, I find peeling garlic at the start of cooking to be a chore.
Maybe you can get your kids to help you peel batches!
My go-to uses would be fermenting whole cloves. I have a highlight on IG: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18223673149265633/
You can do this with honey too. Just pour honey over the garlic and watch it ferment. It ends up as a very tasty treat but is meant to be medicinal!
Another thing would be to chop up a bunch quite finely and spread in a pan in an even layer. Dehydrate at around 150 — you do want the pieces to cook slightly but not brown. You short of toss them around and when they are hard and dry, let them cool and put into a mason jar where they will keep indefinitely. You can use a coffee grinder to grind a small amount (like a spice jar’s worth) for your short-term use — it’s better not to grind it all, because it will degrade faster when it’s all ground up, and you can certainly use the small bits in stews and so on.
Another way is to pop lots of peeled garlic in the food processor with some salt. Puree it and use ice trays to freeze for storage.
There are advantages to raw garlic and to cooked garlic, not to mention fermented, so I like to have it all the ways!
As to onions, you might like to slice them up, lightly saute them, and then freeze in usable chunks for your recipes. That’s my “save a step” way — just do a whole bunch when you are doing whatever recipe is calling for them and freeze what you aren’t using.
I want to get those “soup” size ice trays. They seem very useful!
Potatoes are harder because I’m assuming you aren’t going to pressure can what’s leftover from your 5-lb bag! And they don’t freeze well in any form. However, you can cook what you think won’t keep and put them in the fridge. They will last all week and you can pull them out for hash, pan fries, and twice-baked potatoes!
Dixie says
Thanks. This is good advice. I hadn’t thought about puree-ing and freezing garlic but that’s a really good idea, because without fresh garlic I often end up using the jarred minced garlic from the store anyway. Surely home-made frozen minced garlic, without weird preservatives, is tastier and better than that!
And I didn’t know about soft-necked garlic. Thank you!
Amy A. says
Just popping in to say that I don’t have the soup sized ice trays but I do have those silicone (aka reusable) muffin liners and those end up being a nice size for something that you want more than an ice cube’s worth of to freeze for later. I make various pestos in the summer when the herbs are growing like weeds (carrot top and parsley, traditional basil and pine nut, cilantro and lime, etc) and freeze them in those, they pop right out for storage in a freezer bag, and it’s just the right size serving to add to a pot of pasta or rice for a simple side with a bit of flavor! If you don’t have the silicone liners you could also just line your muffin tin with baking parchment or wax paper for solid items like sauteed onions or your thicker sauces/pestos.
Leila says
That’s a good idea! I have silicone muffin trays!
Breana says
I actually find mashed potatoes do freeze fairly well. (Fully prepared, with butter, or cream cheese or what have you mashed in.) Just be warned that they turn into a soupy, gloopy mess for quite a bit of the defrosting/reheating process! Don’t despair of them and give up too early. 🙂
Keep heating and stirring (If I’m reheating them in the microwave, for example, I usually put them in for two minutes, and then stir and keep repeating!) and eventually, they will come back together and look like mashed potatoes again.
Fresh mashed potatoes are better, of course (but what isn’t better fresh? :), but I love to have some stashed away for bland food for sick days when I’m not feeling well enough to cook. They also work pretty well for shepherd pies and baking them with a little cheese on top makes a yummy side dish in a pinch.
Leila says
Yes, it’s true, the recipes that involve a lot of sour cream and cream cheese do freeze. You can freeze twice-baked potatoes too — so I guess the filling?
So that will work and will be great for stashing, as you say!
But if we’re thinking of just minimally processing them and freezing them, it’s not going to work. However, they will stay in the fridge for a while and who doesn’t want a side of home fries or a frittata or potato salad with dinner?
Breana says
Families who don’t really care that much for potatoes, lol! (Weird people, I know!)
I would eat them for all three meals a day if I could, but if I served them for dinner multiple times in a week I’d have a revolt on my hands, haha! I guess preparing the mashed potatoes is a little extra work (although it does save work on the other end!), but it’s worth it not to waste potatoes if some in the family love potatoes and others don’t, so you can’t get use them up in time before they go bad in the fridge.
Twice-baked potato filling is a good idea!!
Mary Keane says
Oooh garlic, thank you! We haven’t been gardening a whole lot until my husband and teenage son went wild building raised beds this year. Planting things in the fall might escape me until it’s too late. But this year! I like how you put them around to maximize your bed space. Aren’t garlic plants also useful as pest deterrents? We could spread some garlic around for pests and longanimity as well as flowers for beauty and pollination. 🙂
Leila says
If you are further south (I can’t remember!) you can do soft neck garlic which I think can be planted in early spring. As to fall planting if it’s appropriate, you can do it super late! I have done it in mid-November!
It is pest-resistant and of course as good for the garden as for people. However, you really shouldn’t let it flower! That one head was a mistake. You want to snap all the “scapes” off (I just missed that one) so the bulbs grow nice and fat.
I do have garlic chives growing in my garden. They are quite invasive and quite hard to pull up — their roots are like iron. However, they bloom and the bees absolutely love them! So I forgive them!
Julie-Ann says
Hi Auntie Leila,
What lovely raised beds you have. Do you have any issues with woodchucks? I know they can be “climbers.” If so, how do you solve the issue? Thank you!
Leila says
We do not have any woodchucks. We used to have one who lived under the stable on the other side of the house, but he never ventured down to the garden!
If I had one, I would have my husband shoot it!
Alyssa says
I subscribed to Hearth and Field premium per your recommendation and, it is absolutely lovely! Such quality. Been following your blog for several months now!