Chores Pleasant and Otherwise

We're sure having a lot of rain this spring. That means that I'm spending more time inside, doing housework and other indoorsy sort of things than I would normally in June. I hope the rain tapers off here so that summer can get underway. The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants could do with some properly blistering days.

Today I harvested all the remaining garlic scapes, those fleeting late spring delicacies. I left a few scapes intact from each of the varieties of garlic I'm growing, except for the chesnok red. See, removing the scapes is supposed to make the bulbs bigger (logical), but leaving them in place is supposed to give you smaller bulbs that store longer (possible). Since my garlic all started sprouting in December last year, I'm hoping that I can store a portion of this year's harvest a bit longer. We'll see how it goes. I devote what is probably an excessive amount of thought to extending the portion of the year when we eat our own garlic. I'll let you know how this experiment works out. Oh, and I cut all the chesnok red because it is supposed to store for less time overall than the other five varieties of garlic. While I was out there harvesting, I had to beat back some nemorosa sage (an ornamental for the bees) that was sprawling all over the garden and into one row of garlic in particular. You'd think it owned the place or something. It makes for nice bouquets.


Anyhoo, I was planning to make garlic scape pesto, which all the gardeners seem to be raving about these days. But shock and horror! My supply of nuts to make pesto was unconscionably low. So I whipped up one batch with the few walnuts I had, and then another slightly larger batch with a slightly larger supply of pecans. Oh man! This stuff is maddeningly good! Why didn't I make some of this last year? (Because I'm hopelessly unhip, obviously.) It couldn't be a simpler recipe: equal parts by volume of nuts and coarsely chopped garlic scapes, plus a big pinch of salt, all pulverized in the food processor, then add generous amounts of olive oil to reach a decent consistency. I know it's vague, but you'll do well, grasshopper.

Seriously, I could have eaten this stuff with spoon until it was gone. Instead I contented myself with a few scoops on carrot sticks. I definitely preferred the walnut version. Then I dutifully froze both batches and whipped up a pasta dish for lunch from the remaining garlic scapes and a jar of last summer's roasted tomato sauce. I'm going to save the garlic scape pestos for dinner with company. The only trouble will be trying to decide whether to used it on pasta, or on pizza, or in a dish of scalloped potatoes, or whether it's better as a crudite dip. I think it could be bulked up and tamed at the same time with some bread crumbs and water for those garlic-shy folks. Me, I like the full bore stuff. But then, I've never lived in fear of vampires.

Other than that, I caught up on folding several loads of laundry, vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen and a pile of ziploc bags, and fed my worms. They seem to be doing well, but it's really hard to tell with worms. Then I caulked a few more windows around the house until my wrist complained.

I'm ready for some drier weather now. The second crop of parsnips needs to be planted, and there are still more onion family seedlings to set out. The fennel needs to be transplanted as well. If it doesn't stop raining soon, the funk may get some of those garden plants. If you've got more sunshine than you need, please send it my way...