Celebrate giving Life. Pull Weeds. Pick Fruit. Plan Gangsta Birdies Demise. Laugh maniacally.

Marty the Monk
facing east at the entrance of the herb garden

Fifteen years ago this evening, the oldest of my two sons was brought forth into this world. Like most teenagers now-a-days he pretty much spent the day eating and taking long luxurious naps.
He well knows that if it was any other day he would have been outside right along with the rest of us.

Tonight is also going to one of the coolest since mid-April, around the upper 40's. With about a month left of the growing season I decided to start cleanup while I have the inclination and energy. It makes fall a whole lot easier to deal with before the first hard frost comes in to try and kill off and turn everything to mulch as much and as fast as possible.

Starting with the herb garden which was the first to come into action during the spring I pulled the garlic, trimmed the sage of its seeds and pretty much wiped out whatever weeds that did not belong there.

I let the garlic go to seed this year. I happen to love the stuff, eat copious amounts of it and spend a pretty penny every fall buying more to plant. This year I decided to let it go to seed. The bulbs and cloves are smaller as a result of doing that , since the energy goes to the flowering tops and seeds instead of the bulbs to make them bigger. They way I eat the stuff it would not matter how big they are anyway.

With these I will be planting all over the property with them just to see how they do and see them naturalize themselves to the elements and the area in which they are sowed in. And I will not run out as fast either.


























The next battle in the Mini-orchard has began. My peach tree (one of three) in the middle of the mini-orchard next to the pear tree has been hit by a particularly greedy bunch of "Gangsta Birdie" blue jays. It would not be too bad if they ate the entire fruit. But they peck and peck at one side of it. Just when you think you have a nice piece of fruit and you grab at it from a blind angle, you find that you have a half eaten mess on your hands...literally. Even the squirrels have better manners than that. At least they take the fruit off the tree and eat most of it.

I got some nice peaches off the tree though. They will go well with some ice cream that we will be having this evening after dinner. The pears still have a few more weeks to go...if they make it to then. The birds are getting to them too.

These red grapes are excellent eating and will be ready in about a week or so. On my grape arbor I have a mixture of wild grapes, domestic red grapes and bella donna (which is highly poisonous to humans) Fortunately all three stand out so that the differences are clearly visible, and tends to remind us that even in nature there is good and bad mixed into everything. The birds miss the grapes and get everything else. See? Everyone wins.












Sometimes you just have to take a picture of flowers with a child standing in front to them. My apprentice here sowed the seeds of the sunflowers in June and is so happy that they are finally starting to bloom. I bought a sunflower mixture so that they are coming up in all shapes, sizes and hues. The one he is standing in front of is his favorite if only because it bloomed first.


Until next time may all your gardening adventures continue to be fruitful ones!

Summer Fun with Homemade Ginger Beer

50-11 millionth gallon jug of home brewed ginger beer- 12 hours old.
This will be gone in about 16 hours.

Note the sediment at the bottom of the jug as part of the self filtering process!

My family and I should have the cleanest innards in the whole neighborhood...maybe the state. We have spent pretty much the past month drinking homemade ginger beer. What started out as a weekly treat at a little over $1.00 a bottle has turned into a production in which we have been drinking up to 4 gallons a week of the homemade brew. And, it costs much less to make it too!

Now, if you are familiar with commercialized, bottled ginger beer you would know that it is little more than souped up ginger ale. It's pretty strong but, it's like the way coca cola was back about 35+ years ago....you belched and you felt it in your nose, making your eyes water in the process.

Now, this homemade stuff will kill anything living in your intestinal tract, starting with your throat. It gives a whole new meaning to "Feel the burn!" If you had a cold coming on, you pretty much will be cured of it by the time you finish taking your first swallow. The first batch that I made my sons pretty much left alone it was that strong. By the time we started on our 5th batch (in as about as many days) I had greatly refined the process and made every merchant that sells ginger around here a bit richer in the process.

Needless to say as a result, I also started some ginger plants while I'm at it.

I took 2 pounds of ginger (cut and broken into pieces) and 2 cups of water and put them in a blender. My apprentice (Head of cheap child labor) loves this part of the process. The scent of the pulp is so strong your eyes are watering by the time you are putting the last of the pieces in there. Your nose is pretty clear too. While this is happening I'm also getting 6 cups of water to a boil in a large saucepan. Once it boils I turn it off and pour the ginger pulp into the boiled water. I let it cool for several hours before straining into a gallon glass beverage container. I then take the strained pulp, put it into a ziplock bag and put it away in the fridge. The pulp is still good for at least another 1-2 batches! Don't worry...you will still get that cleansing action in those batches too!

In addition to the strained ginger pulp I add the juice of 1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 small can (6oz) of pineapple juice, 1 cup of turbinado sugar, 1/2 cup of honey, a dash each of cloves and allspice. Then I fill the rest up with water and let sit overnight. I do this because the high likelihood of my teen aged resident eating and drinking machine having this gone by the end of the day no matter how warm it is. It also gives it time to let the sediment filter down to the bottom resulting in a crystal clear beverage that rivals the commercialized ones in both looks and taste!

Try to make some yourself and taste the difference!