In the Dead of Winter

Well, here in West Sonoma County it is not as cold as some other places I have lived but the mornings are frosty.  This morning when I went to let the ducks out, the thermometer by their gate said 29 degrees.  Frost everywhere the sun has not reached.  These cold nights and warm days have me in a quandary, "What to do in the garden?"  The warm sunshine midday is very inviting to plant.  The lack of rain is a concern carrying out any planting or transplanting in the ground.

I am slowly revising MuRefuge's Plant List for posting.  Seeds for the vegetable garden have been ordered.  This year I avoided being seduced by various catalogue descriptions of hybrid seeds.  I only order open pollinated seeds.

Thank you Cathie.   Your book list sent me on an enjoyable, extended web-journey this morning!

Yes, the Mono Lake DVD is Wonderful!!!

Your interesting, informative tours would be a great offering.  As for time preferences, oh goodness, maybe the plants will need to tell you.

Maybe you shared in a previous blog, but I'm wondering what are a couple/few of your latest/favorite native plant and vegetable catalogues?

Yum, now I can make the celeriac salad!

With appreciation and best wishes,   -Ann

In response to Ann's request, here are my favorite sources for veggie seeds, both of which provide hardcopy catalogs too:

http://www.bountifulgardens.org/

http://www.turtletreeseed.org/

For the first time this year I ordered online from Heirloom Seeds since they do not offer hardcopy catalogs: 

http://www.heirloomseeds.com/

I have tried numerous places for native seeds.  I always come back to 

http://www.larnerseeds.com/

Judith Larner Lowry also has a blog which does not have any recent posts but is very informative, as is her seed link above.

http://judithlarnerlowry.blogspot.com/

Last Fall I cleaned out all the big clay pots sitting on the patio.  Low and behold when the rains occurred in October seeds that I had scattered in the Spring germinated.  Now we have lovely and cheery annual natives blooming.

Bird's Eye Gilia (Gilia Tricolor)

Close up of Bird's Eye Gilia

Five Spot (Nemophila maculata)

Close up of Five Spot

Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla) with Five Spot

Feel free to share your Winter activities in the comment section below while you

Books and Boxes

Flicker Box

You should have seen Dwight and I putting this flicker box up in the oak tree!  This box is big and heavy since it is full of wood chips which Flickers like to remove before building their nests inside.  A year ago we installed this box on the Southeast corner of our house.  We took it down this Summer when all the work was done on the outside of our house.  When Dwight opened the box to clean it out, he found the beginnings of a Flicker nest, then obviously Starlings chased the pair away and built their own nest, hatching two broods.  Starlings are not my favorite birds.  Hopefully this mating season a pair of Flickers will choose this box as their nesting sight AND Starlings will not move in!

Recipe box

Leeks and celeriac root growing synergistically -
more about this in an upcoming post

The essential ingredient for Celeriac Salad Remouldade
Recipe follows:

•  One large organic celery root (celeriac root),  about 1 1/4 #

Washed unpeeled celeriac root

Peeled celeriac root

• 6 T. organic kefir milk
• 6 T. homemade, organic mayonnaise (recipe below)
• 3 T. organic Dijon mustard
• 4 T. chopped fresh, organic parsley (we like Italian leaf)
• 4 T. finely chopped fresh, organic chives
• 3. T.finely chopped fresh, organic onion

Mix the last 6 ingredients in a large bowl.  Grate the celeriac root in a food processor, then add it to the large bowl, mixing well.  Allowing the salad to sit at room temperature for about an hour melds the flavors together for a more flavorful addition to any Winter meal.

Homemade mayonnaise

Into the glass container of an electric blender, drop 1 egg (of course, we use duck) and whirl for 30 seconds.  Add 1 tsp. organic ground mustard and 1/2 tsp. sea salt, whirl.  While the blender is whirling slowly, very slowly ! drizzle organic virgin olive oil.  After all of the oil has been added then add the juice of 1 organic Meyers lemon quickly. This will make about 1 1/2 C. mayo which will last if refrigerated for about a month.

A smattering of the BOOKS I read during 2011 on

Awakening:

An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days by Susan Wittig Albert

A wonderful book of days which I read on the matching dates in 2011.   I was fascinated to read and watch Susan’s awakening to the blight of the Mother Earth caused by none other than we humans. A voracious reader, as well as an author, she shares the many books she read during 2008, the “extraordinary” year of possibly a woman or black as our next president.  For an ongoing update from Susan you can access her blog http://susanalbert.typepad.com/lifescapes/

Baseball:

Flip Flop Fly Ball: an Infograhic Baseball Adventure by Craig Robinson was loaned to me by Rose’s Auntie T, aka Tanis, “baseball buddy” and extraordinarily good friend.  Tanis likes to support independent book stores so while frequenting one in Sonoma, this book “fell off the shelf into her hands” and she brought it home. I knew nada about infographics. This book was a wonderfully informative baseball book as well as richly illustrating the new to me word, infographic.

It Takes More than Balls: the Savvy Girls’ Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Baseball by Deidre Silva and Jackie Koney both from Seattle and Mariners’ fans.  This book is wonderfully funny, irreverent as well as informative.

Food:

Placer County Real Food from Farmers Markets: Recipes and Menus for Every Week of the Year by Joanne Neft with Laura Kenny.  This book which “fell off the shelf into my hands” is full of simple, wonderfully flavorful recipes made with fresh, in season, local produce from Placer County, California, Farmers Markets.  A book to treasure for anyone who raises their own food OR buys locally from their Farmer Markets.

Fun and Laughter:

Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fanny Flagg

A Redbird Christmas also by Fanny Flagg  In fact most any book this author writes is funny, bringing forth much mirth. This very sweet Christmas story I read this past Christmas Day as Dwight and Rose were napping.

Mother Earth:

The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel

I have read all of her books in the Earth Children Series, enthralled by each one as though sitting on my Gramp’s lap as he told me similar stories in my early childhood. 

30,000 Years of Art: The story of human creativity across time and space The first few pictures in this tome are of the painted caves Jean M. Auel  presents as the backdrop for her latest and last in her Earth’s Children Series.

The Butterfly’s Daughter, a novel by Mary Alice Monroe in which she uses the Monarch’s cycle as a metaphor in human’s lives.

Please share you favorite books read this past year in "Post a Comment" while you