Kitchen Medicine

The smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen is the first thing that greets me in the mornings, I pour a cup, wake up my brain and my day begins.... in the kitchen. That's pretty much where you will find me most of the day, or outside in the gardens bringing in more things for the kitchen. I have two looms that sit quietly, a sewing machine that is neglected in the corner, a pottery wheel in the shed, art projects for "someday" and shelves of books that want to be read. I used to have a job I liked a lot. Until "the virus". 

Now, it is all about the gardens. We are bringing baskets and baskets of vegetables in every evening and in the morning I find useful things to do with all we are growing this year. Flowers need pruning, herbs need drying, there are chickens to feed, a dog to walk, family to be with. This is my new full time job. Growing and preparing for winter and a possible worse second wave of the Coronavirus. 

This year we stepped it up, we did not grow hemp or flowers, instead we decided to grow as much as we could for our food supply. We prepped the soil with compost, sowed an early cover crop, we laid down Lumite fabric for weed control, we decided to let the grass grow in the paths and we mow them, (a great decision after last year's muddy paths in the flower rows).  We spend very little time dealing with weeds, we are growing organically and have super healthy plants. We just go out in the mornings and evenings and pick beautiful vegetables. Early on we patrolled for pests, found just a few, controlled them with organic methods and have been successful keeping them in check.

In addition to all of our vegetables, I have herbs growing in beds around the house. I planted 5 varieties of basil and we have 4 varieties of mint coming back from last year as well as hyssop that really wants to take over everything. I am loving all of them for teas and flavor additions to our meals. I made this tea today from the Herbalist Kitchen cookbook. It is described as a tea to stay focused and centered during times of relative high stress.... Yup.

Centered and Focused tea:
1 tsp linden leaf  ( I still have herbs left from our store's apothecary)
2 tsp dry or fresh basil (I used a mix of cinnamon and lemon basil)
2 tsp dry or fresh mint (I used peppermint)
1 tsp fresh or dry rosemary
1 tsp fennel seed
boiling water

We have our large utilitarian garden out in the field now, but I also like a pretty garden. Wesley and I planted a small kitchen garden behind the house, which used to be our main garden. We grew kale, onions, garlic, spinach and lettuces in the early spring and have switched it over now to herbs, peas and beans. We also have a fig tree that has finally decided it will produce and I will be canning figs for days pretty soon. We harvest and eat blackberries every morning from a bush we gave Gerry three years ago for Father's Day and blueberries are just coming in. We also planted two pineapple ground cherry plants that are coming along nicely. I love these little ground cherries for snacks in the late summer. The pineapple variety is new for us.

When I was a kid, my favorite summer past time was reading. I loved going to the library and getting arm loads of books to take home. I would read under the covers at night with a flashlight, read in the backseat of the car on trips, read on the beach. Always a book with me....

 These are my go to books right now. So many great summer recipes. I search them every day for new ways to prepare squash, zucchini and cucumbers. Why we planted a 100 ft row of these plants is something I ask myself every day now! These are my current favorites and we have had some really great meals from them.

I'm glad I started collecting cookbooks years ago, I have such a great resource library now and I finally have time to sit and read them and prepare meals from them! My mom used to lay on the sofa in the afternoons and read cookbooks. She didn't do much cooking, lol, but she read the books. 

I have been harvesting and canning and pickling and freezing and baking and cooking and eating. That's it. That is what my life has become. Tracey's Diner. Funny how a scary thing like this pandemic has given me better cooking skills, given us time as a family to eat dinner together, something we never got to do in the past with all of our crazy schedules and given us time to grow healthy food. In so many ways, I am very grateful for this time. I hate it and I have constant anxiety, but growing our food and preparing it is the medicine we need for this pandemic right now.

 

For me, summer is a porch railing with tomatoes ripening in the sun. I love to pick a warm tomato off the porch and make myself a tomato sandwich. I will eat tomato sandwiches this summer until the last one comes off the vine. I dream about them all winter. We planted around 10 varieties of tomatoes this year so I am clearly in heaven!

I continue to stay home, only going out for necessary groceries. Our one quick trip to the mountains was great, but stressful and I am beginning to think I am developing a nice case of social anxiety, just the thought of going to visit someone or having a conversation with someone totally freaks me out and causes me great stress. I am happy at home, happy alone, happy in the kitchen, happy in the garden. This is all I need right now. I wonder often what I will be like a year from now when hopefully this virus is under control and life can begin again at some level of "normal". 

Who will I be? I wonder.....