Thanks,
Q

So we are both doing the Fun-A-Day project again this year. My project is to do a drawing each day (i know i’ve done it before, but i like it and the parameters are different this time around). This year I am taking 3 elements from my previous day and then working them all into a drawing. The drawing above is day one — including an outing to see ‘Lincoln’ the movie, a snowy bike ride home and the waffles we made for breakfast. Keep track of my photos by following this set on my flickr account.

Emma is keeping track of some of the things that make her laugh out loud. She is documenting them on a separate tumblr account over here.

For more info on the Fun-A-Day concept in general and other projects that folks are doing, visit the Fun-A-Day blog here.

The Fun-A-Day art show is scheduled for March 1st, 2013 at the Mr. Roboto Project (5106 Penn Ave) as part of the monthly Unblurred event.

We received this as part of a Xmas present. Functional, yes; but we couldn’t really figure out a good reason to have a double-headed rubber spatula. Your thoughts?

We weren’t sure if we were committed to biking into the depths of winter, so we didn’t get anything super insulated or anything — just enough cold weather protection to keep us going and to see how far into the winter we could go before we either 1) gave up biking for the season, or 2) decided we were going to keep biking but needed better gloves. We decided if we were still riding on a regular basis as temps dipped into the 30′s consistently, then we would plunk down some money for some winter bike gloves.

And option #2 was the one that came to be — we were still biking well into December but longing for a little more protection for the fingers. So one day while down Xmas shopping on the Southside, we procured some new gloves at the REI. It seems that most of the time people recommend the use of “lobster claws” — a type of split-fingered mittens that puts your pointer and middle fingers in one part of the mitten and your ring finger and pinky in the other section. REI had one pair of normal lobster style gloves by Pearl Izumi, which were nice, but had velcro’d cuffs that we weren’t sure would do a good job of keeping out the cold air.

Then they had some Novara gloves that featured a four finger design. The thumb, pointer and middle finger are all separate like a regular glove and then the ring finger and pinky are the only two fingers doubled up. We were a little less sold on this aspect of the design, but they had larger cuffs that would go up and over your jacket cuff and could be pulled tight with a quick pull of a tab. Also they were the cheaper option (by about $30), so we went with them.

top!

bottom!

Having the 4 finger design, it didn’t seem right to call them “lobster claws”. After looking at them one day, it hit me, they are “Simpson’s gloves.” This was reinforced when I caught Emma staring at her hands as she wore her gloves in a manner reminiscent of Otto (in the episode “Weekend at Burnsies”) at the pro-pot rally — “They call them fingers but I never see them fing. Oh, there they go.”

Anyway, they are warm gloves. Emma has said they are perhaps a bit too warm. The warmth comes at a bit of a cost in the nimbleness of your fingers, which is to be expected from any winter glove really. Mainly we’ve noticed this mostly in our ability to get full braking power with our hands positioned on the brake hoods. I’ve found it best to drop down to the drops if i’m concerned about needing full brake power. Otherwise, these things have been treating me pretty great.

After taking a week off from riding around the Xmas travels, Emma and I have both been biking for the last three days straight, including some rides in the snow. It’s been a great adventure and hopefully it’ll keep us active during these gloomy winter months. More tales of winter cycling to come, I’m sure. Stay tuned.

Here’s the write-up of my 7 Coffeeneuring excursions:

Trip One
10.8.12
21st Street Coffee, 2002 Smallman Street, Strip District
21streetcoffee.com

Utilizing the “Tara Rule”, rule #15 amongst the Coffeeneuring guidelines, I hit up my first coffee shop on Columbus Day.

Emma was out of town, in San Jose, for a work training. Cold monday morning, so it was a good day to escape the house and get to a warm, cozy coffeehouse. Decided to check out 21st Street Coffee’s new location. Got a cup of the Intelligentsia “Iron Goddess of Mercy” oolong tea. It’s a good mild oolong and you get 3 infusions.

Having just opened in their new digs, the space was still kinda sparse. Not sure if it was because it was a holiday or because people weren’t aware the new space was open, but it was a quiet morning in the cafe. I sat and read “Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, and the Fight to Be the World’s Fastest Human Being”, the Major Taylor biography for a couple hours and enjoyed my multiple infusions. Then biked directly back home. Total mileage: 4.7 miles.

Trip Two
10.13.12
Tazza D’Oro, 1125 North Highland Ave, Highland Park
tazzadoro.net

On this day Emma and I rode out together to take care of our Coffeeneuring trip, take care of some errands and to visit some friends. First we rolled over to Shadyside, then rode over to the Southside. We ate lunch at Over The Bar and did some shopping at REI and Thick Bikes. From there we rode back across the river and over the Highland Park, where we stopped in to visit our friends Chris, Martha and their daughter Ellery. We convinced them to roll down the hill to Tazza D’Oro. After some wrangling to get Ellery’s trailer hooked up to a bike, we rode down the hill just a few blocks to Tazza.

It was a beautiful day, so we grabbed a table outside and got our drinks. I got an Earl Grey tea with soy milk.

After tea, we did a couple loops around Highland Park and then back to Chris and Martha’s house for dinner. After dinner we rolled back home. Total mileage: approximately 16 miles.

Trip Three
10.20.12
Coffee Tree Roasters, 5524 Walnut Street, Shadyside
coffeetree.com

Emma left earlier in the day to go to Coffee Tree to get some work done. In the meantime I borrowed our friend Cara’s truck to pick up some sheets of plywood for Roboto. After I was done there, I threw my bike in the back of the pick-up and returned the truck to where Cara was apartment-sitting in East Liberty. Grabbed my bike out of the back of the truck and rode the mile+ over to Shadyside.

Got some darjeeling tea here. The thing about CTR is that unless you specify, they almost always will give you a disposable paper cup, so I always make a point of saying “this is for here”. Even so, sometimes you still get a paper cup, and sometimes you get a teabag direct in a mug, and then other times they’ll actually give you a full pot of tea. Seems like they should have some standards, but I guess not. Anyway, today was a pot of tea day.

After hanging out at CTR reading while Emma finished up for work, we crossed the street to La Feria and got some Peruvian food for dinner. The simple vegan rice and beans dish is totally killer. Headed home after dinner. Total mileage: 2.6 miles.

Trip four
10.21.12
61C Cafe, 1839 Murray Avenue, Squirrel Hill
61ccafe.com

While I was having a work day at Roboto, Emma ran some errands and ended up at one of our favorite spots — the 61C. After getting done with Roboto, I rode up to Squirrel Hill via Carnegie Mellon and up Schenley Drive. It was late afternoon by the time I got up there and the place was packed. Found Emma at one of the tables towards the back of the cafe. Late afternoon lighting at the back of cafe, mixed with only having my iphone on me to take photos, yields this artsy photo:

I got one of my favorite teas: huang shan sunset. It’s a black tea flavored with peach, rose petals and some other floral tones. Sounds like it could be awful, but it’s got a nice black tea punch with some delicate flavor notes that don’t ruin it. Highly Recommended. Heading home via Schenley park and rode down Circuit Road which is a great windy downhill that has recently been re-paved. Total mileage: approximately 6.5 miles

Trip five
10.27.12
Big Dog Coffee, 2717 Sarah Street, Southside
bigdogcoffee.net

Big Dog is a great little coffeeshop in the Southside, which means we don’t get there that often. Or at least we hadn’t much in the past — though as we began biking more, we realized it’s as quick to get to the Southside via the bike trails than it is to try to drive. Taking the Junction Hollow trail through Oakland, we can get to the Southside in 15-20 minutes easily (and you don’t have to fight to find any parking).

Today we kept things simple: earl grey with steamed soy milk. Emma got some work done, I got some more reading done — then we headed back to Bloomfield the way we came. Total mileage: 9 miles.

Trip six
11.4.12
Quiet Storm, 5430 Penn Avenue, Friendship
qspgh.com

The day before I had helped lead the Pittsburgh Punk History bike tour of the city. We did about 14 miles around the city, then spent the night at Roboto for the ADD Fest activities. Sunday morning had me feeling a little beat (even with a decent night’s rest), so I suggested we go out and get some breakfast.

Rolled over to the Quiet Storm, which is exactly 1 mile away from our house. Got the country breakfast burrito and a tall glass of English Breakfast tea with soy creamer. It should be noted that the QS’s english breakfast has the best flavor of any english breakfast i’ve ever had. Can’t really put my finger on what makes it different/better, but it is. Trust me.

More art school photography:

Roger specifically asked us to be seated at one of his tables. Then Jilly had him give us a set of the new QS mugs (grey — for the oncoming of the Pgh grey season, i suppose). Then we got our check and there was a little love letter on it (plus Emma got a heart on her hand the night before at ADD while everyone else got stars.) We felt loved.

After breakfast I headed home to zone out and re-watch episodes of Arrested Development. Emma rode on to Target and then back down to Southside to go to REI again. Total mileage for me: 2 miles.

Trip seven
11.10.12
Lili Coffee Shop, 3138 Dobson Street, Polish Hill

Yesterday was an incredibly beautiful day. Mid 60′s, sunny — wonderful to get a nice good ride in and tackle our last Coffeeneuring trip. We biked over to Schenley Park (via CMU) and of course rode down Circuit Road again. From there we zig-zagged our way back over to North Oakland, got on Gold Way and rode ourselves into Polish Hill. Here we stopped at Lili. I got a mug of Assam tea. It was nice enough to sit outside. We saw Dan Allen and talked with him about his crazy dental work, amongst other things. Got a little chilly, so we went back inside. After finishing off my tea, I went upstairs to Mind Cure Records for a bit and looked around. Scored used copies of Flag of Democracy’s “Down with People”, Christ on a Crutch’s “Crime Pays When Pigs Die”, and the Half Man LP. By the time I got downstairs, Emma was ready to roll.

After leaving Lili, we rolled down Brereton Street, across the 28th Street bridge and down into the Strip District, then turned up Penn towards Lawrenceville. Our destination was the pop-up arcade that was holding the Lawrenceville Pinball Classic tournament. Unfortunately by the time we got there several of the non-tournament machines had already broken, so there was a lot of waiting to play. But things cleared out for a bit and we got to play several machines including the Star Wars, Dirty Harry, and World Cup ones. For the Dirty Harry machine you have to pull the trigger on the gun to launch your balls. Pretty ridiculous.

After realizing the older guy playing the “Old Chicago” pinball machine wasn’t going to vacate it anytime soon, we decided to leave (Emma mostly only likes playing the older model machines and that was the only one of those still working). Dude would just keep feeding the machine without looking to see if anyone else was waiting. He seemed a bit possessed. We thought it best to not bother him. Got out of there and rode up Main Street to home. Total mileage: approximately 10 miles.

* * *

So that’s the tale of my seven coffeeneuring trips this year. It was a fun challenge. Glad we found out about it. Really hoping this will help keep us in the habit of riding our bikes well into the fall (and hopefully into the winter).

This year Emma and I decided that we were going to do the Pittsburgh to DC bike trip utilizing the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Towpath trails. Emma broke down and finally bought herself a new bike back in June – a Surly Long Haul Trucker – her first never-been-owned-by-anyone-else bike. Shortly thereafter, suffering from a severe case of bike envy, I stumbled upon a used Surly Cross Check at a good price and I picked it up. Now we were both equipped with good hardware to make the trip.

Emma had never really spent any time in DC, so we wanted to make sure that we would have some time to explore once we got there. I hear of so many people who bike the trails, get to DC and then immediately return home and it seems like such a missed opportunity. Part of our plan to allow us enough time to do this was skipping the first section of trail right outside the city and starting out towards Ohiopyle.

Our original plan was to start with an overnight camping trip with our friend Andy at Ohiopyle on Saturday, then we would leave from there the following day and he would return to Pgh with our car. Unfortunately Andy had to back out pretty close to our departure date once he realized he had double-booked himself. Luckily our friend Emily was able to drive us out, but unfortunately not able to camp out and she had to drive us out earlier in the day than we initially planned. Because of her restricted schedule, we just had her drive us as far as Connellsville on Saturday morning, where she dropped us off right on the trail.

Under our initial plan, this “Day Zero” would have just been a camping day and no riding, but instead we did the 27 miles from Connellsville to Confluence, where we were going to camp at the Outflow camping area. We stopped in Ohiopyle where we got lunch at the Firefly Grille and then scored some pretzel rolls at the Ohiopyle Baking Company to go along with our dinner. It was a pretty cool day temperature-wise, so we didn’t get in the river at all, but we just relaxed by the river and soaked up some sun and read. After hanging out awhile we got back on our bikes and rode the final 10 miles to Confluence.

The Outflow camping area in Confluence is run by the Army Corp of Engineers and is a pretty heavily RV occupied camp. They do have a hiker-biker area where we were one of 2 tents that night. We found a toy horse on the picnic table at our camping area. After setting up our tent, a curious yinzer kid rolled up on his BMX and asked us 1) if we were part of a club, and 2) if we got tired of pedaling, amongst some other questions. I asked him if he ever got tired of sitting in the back of a car. Other kids rode by later and commented that we had a cool tent.

For dinner we had the pretzel rolls with avocado smashed on ‘em, and some red lentils, carrots and milled rice (Bob’s Red Mill makes the milled rice; cooks up much quicker than regular rice, great camping food). After dinner, I rode into the town of Confluence looking for a cellphone signal so I could call my dad and wish him a happy birthday (forgot to do that before leaving in the morning. ooops). Made the call and then got back to camp where we met the other couple staying in the hiker-biker camping area. They were a couple of CMU professors (Emma recognized them from her time working there) who were riding a tandem. Emma asked them lots of questions about riding a tandem. They were only going as far as Frostburg on this trip. They warned us about the C&O, saying it was a rough trail. After talking with them awhile, we made some tea and then called it a night.

Toy horse and homemade travel backgammon set

Avocado and pretzel rolls — highly recommended

DAY ONE

Our breakfast plan for while we were on the trail was just oatmeal and various dried fruit (raisins, dried cranberries, dried apples), but we had a secret weapon: a small container of locally-sourced maple syrup. I had bought one of those small plastic containers at REI that you can use to put shampoo or something in and brought that. Totally made a world of difference in making our breakfasts so much better. Ate some breakfast, drank some tea, took a shower, packed up and we were on our way.

Emma displays the secret weapon

Today we are doing about 47 miles; the first 40 of which are going up until we reach the Eastern Continental Divide, then we get to cruise downhill to end our day. It looked like rain for a bit earlier in the day, but nothing came of it. Stopped in at the old train station in Meyersdale. There is a little museum there with model trains and lots of old railroad memorabilia.

Got to the Eastern Continental Divide and took some photos on the western side of the little tunnel that is there, then rolled through the tunnel and was blown away by the amazing view. From there it was all downhill and some consistently great views. We passed through the Big Savage tunnel. We were told that we didn’t need to worry about bike lights because there were lights in the tunnel. However, there was a section in the middle of the tunnel where the lights were non-functional. That was kinda scary, but we made it through safe.

On the western side of the Eastern Continental Divide

On the eastern side

We got to Frostburg where the trail is at the bottom of the hill and the town is at the top of the hill. There is a series of switchbacks that lead up to the Trail Inn Campground where we would be staying, so we headed up them. The gravel was loose and we sunk in and kinda came to a near standstill as we made each corner, but we made it up.

Of course, once you get up to Trail Inn office, there is another series of sketchy wooden ramps you need to go up to reach the campground, which itself is a terraced hill that you need to climb. It’s a ridiculous situation that could lead to tears/giving up if one would not be in the right mental or physical shape after a long day’s ride. Luckily we made it up onto the hill okay, got our tent set up and then walked into town attempting to find the local cafe. The cafe was closed, as was most everything in Frostburg on a sunday night, so we hit up the 7-11, got some Vitamin Waters and potato chips and chilled in the cafe’s outdoor seating area for awhile. We went back to camp and had a simple pasta dinner with this “Heinz Marina Sauce” we found at the 7-11. The Trail Inn has showers and even supplies towels, so we took advantage of that as it would be our final chance to shower until DC. I developed some either blotchy sunburn or rash on my left thigh. I sprayed it with some Benadryl anti-itch stuff and hoped for the best.

View from our campsite atop the hill at the Trail Inn Campground

DAY TWO

There had once again only been one other tent on the campsite with us — this time a middle-aged man who was travelling by himself. We didn’t engage him the night before, but I ran into him a the washroom in the morning. We talked excitedly about seeing bears on the trail and warned of a big motorcycle gathering down around Paw Paw (towards where we were headed). He then tried offering us some leftover Coor’s Light. We politely declined and got on our way.

The section of the GAP between Frostburg and Cumberland follows along the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. Theoretically the train doesn’t run on Mondays, but shortly after we passed through the Brush Tunnel, we saw the train heading our way up the hill. We hurriedly got the camera out to take a photo and then realized, old trains move very slowly up hills, so we had plenty of time. As the train passed by we quickly realized why they have signs warning you not to be in the tunnel the same time as the train — lots of smoke and hot burning ashes rained down upon us. Still, it was fun to see.

We rolled into Cumberland and were stoked to be done with the first portion of our journey. The downtown shopping plaza section of Cumberland was super cute, but then we noticed that the theater appeared to be showing a movie called “Koontown Killing Kaper” and we got a little weirded out (further research shows this movie was written/directed by a black man and while it seems insane, it doesn’t seem as shady as it originally appeared). We stopped at Cycles N Things bikeshop and got me a new rear blinkie, as somehow I lost mine on the trail the day before. Emma was in need of a cup of coffee, so the bike shop owner directed us to Queen City Creamery. We got some hot beverages and some bananas and chilled for a bit.

Then on toward the C&O Canal Towpath. The beginnings of the trail were in good shape. We had heard so many bad things about the C&O that we were probably both a little mix of scared and skeptical. I had rode this section of the C&O back in 2000 and didn’t remember it being too bad. We had originally planned on biking through the Paw Paw Tunnel (i had done in back in 2000), but once we arrived and Emma took a look at it, she decided she wasn’t into it. I decided she was probably right. We walked our bikes through. There was a father with his two young children biking out the opposite direction, which seemed kinda crazy.

Paw Paw Tunnel

We stopped in at Little Orleans looking for water and possibly some food for dinner. We found Bill’s Tavern (which I had heard about) and we checked it out. It’s a dingy bar with a bit of a “grocery” in the corner. Of course, there is even less light in that corner, so it’s hard to really see anything, but the pickings were slim. I opted to get a Gatorade (they only had awful flavors — Raspberry Melon?). They had a Calvin pissing on OBAMA bumper sticker and some other anti-Obama things. We got out of there, filled up our water bottles outside from there hose, and headed back onto the trail. Our target camp at Indigo Neck was just a few miles down the trail.

The hiker-biker campsites along the C&O are great. Each has a water pump, a porta-potty, a picnic table and plenty of space to set up a tent. Most of them are right on the Potomac, so you have some great views of the river. We set up camp and ate the indian food packet that we brought along, since we didn’t find any other options at Bill’s. Then Emma decided she was gonna try to build a fire (even tho’ it was a warm night and there really wasn’t a need for a fire). After a couple false starts she got the fire up and running and we stayed up late sitting around the fire.

FIRE!!

DAY THREE

The previous night we got some rain, nothing heavy but enough to make the trail a bit muddy. We only had a few miles on the C&O this morning until we were able to hop on the Western Maryland Rail Trail (WMRT), a paved section of trial that parallels the C&O for about 22 miles around Hancock, MD. Once we got on the WMRT, I realized my bike was making a weird noise and my pedaling was seeming labored. After getting off my bike to check, I realized my rear wheel had somehow got knocked out of alignment in the dropouts and the wheel was rubbing against the fenders. After making an adjustment we were back on the go and were in Hancock in no time.

Emma and a turtle we saw on the WMRT

In Hancock we stopped at the C&O Cyclery to look for camp stove fuel (we were worried we might run out, but they were sold out) and to ask about our possible side trip we were considering. Berkeley Springs, WV is only about 7 miles south of Hancock and has natural hot springs. We considered getting off the C&O and biking down there but were unaware what the roads were like leading down there. The guy at the bike shop warned against it, saying that the bridge over the Potomac was fairly narrow and didn’t have any shoulder. Based on his advice and the weather prospects, we opted not to attempt it. We then biked across town and got pie, home fries and some hot beverages at the Park N Dine Diner.

In Williamsport we stopped at the Visitors Center and got postcards to send to the families. We looked around town a bit looking for camp fuel but still no luck. We stopped at the Desert Rose Cafe to get some lunch and to write the postcards. They had a wonderful hummus platter that had 3 varieties of homemade hummus, veggies and crackers and the owners were super awesome.

Lunch at Desert Rose Cafe

After our lunch we dropped off our postcards at the post office and headed out of town. Instead of getting directly back on the C&O and taking the official detour around Dam #4 (they are rebuilding part of the trail), we instead took Route 63 south out of town and then connected with with Route 632/Dam 4 Road back down to the C&O on the other side of the detour. It was about 8 miles of riding on roads going over rolling hills. It was early afternoon and the sun was hot. A different type of tough riding than we had been doing, but it was a nice change of pace and really beautiful.

Initially our plan was to stop right and camp shortly after the detour. However, since we skipped out on the side trip to Berkeley Springs, we decided to keep on moving so we could get to DC the following day. We kept on and stopped in Shepherdstown, WV to look for food for dinner. It took climbing up some switchbacks to get up to the bridge across the river and then going around a detour to get into the town of Shepherdstown. Once there we had trouble finding a grocery, but we did stumble upon a convenience store where we were able to find a can of kidney beans and some canned peaches. We got back on the trail and stopped at the Huckleberry Hill campsite. After a 76 mile days, the kidney beans (cooked up with some milled rice) was incredibly delicious and the canned peaches were a great finishing touch.

Dusk at Huckleberry Hill campsite, our last night on the trail

That night we were joined at the campsite by a weird guy who was hiking the trail. He showed up after we had eaten dinner and we invited him over to share the picnic table. He apparently was an ex-Pittsburgher, so when he found out we were from Pgh, he asked us a bunch of questions. He turned out to be somewhat of a prick and made some creepy comments, at one point making a comment about our wedding tattoos saying “if you get divorced, will you make it into a lampshade?” When we were like “uhhhhh”, he said “you know, like Ed Gein.” It was weird. I then mentioned that maybe it was going to rain so he went to go set up his tent. It was dark by this time and we couldn’t tell if he was being able to set up his tent. Even though he seemed like a creep, we offered to help him with his tent. He declined our offer, so we went to bed.

DAY FOUR

When we got up in the morning, creepy dude was sleeping in his clothes on top of a tarp. No sign of his tent. We got up, ate breakfast and got out of there before he got up.

We left the toy horse we found in Confluence at our Huckleberry Hill campsite

After a few miles on the trail, we got to the bridge to Harper’s Ferry. We locked up our bikes and walked across to Harper’s Ferry. It was pretty early in the morning still so nothing seemed to be open in town yet, so we just hit up the visitor’s center, filled up our water bottles, used the bathrooms and were on our way. Only about 60 miles to DC from here.

The Harper’s Ferry tunnel on the MD side of the river. We would pass through this tunnel on the train back to Pgh.

Both of us were running low on gas this morning. The long ride the previous day and having the end in site had us really feeling a bit rough. We stopped frequently on this day. We kinda assumed that as we got closer to DC there would be more places to stop where we might find a cafe or something, but there really wasn’t. We finally stopped at the convenience store/restaurant at White’s Ferry and got cold drinks and some potato chips. This gave us a bit of a bump, but we still felt the need to stop much more frequently this day than the previous days. We also both assumed that as we got closer to DC the trail service would get smoother, but in actuality it got rougher.

Finally we got to DC. We hopped down to the paved Capital Crescent trail for a couple miles and then hopped back on the C&O for the final mile to get to Milemaker O in Georgetown. Once we got to Georgetown we had some trouble finding the Milemarker 0. We stopped at one bike shop and asked if they knew and the guy there seemed totally clueless. I knew it was “next to Thompson Boat House”, so we just kept going until we saw boats. We looked all around and still couldn’t find it, so we finally went into the boathouse and asked them. Turns out you have to go through their parking lot to get to Milemarker 0. At last we were there. We took photos and called our parents to let them know we survived and then it was time to get some food. We got Ethiopian at Das Ethiopian in Georgetown and it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had.

SUCCESS!!

Overall we had a great trip. The weather was wonderful. It only rained the one night that we were on the trail. The C&O was not as bad as many people made it out to be. It was slightly muddy at times, a bit rutted, and some tree roots and rock outcroppings on the trail that made the ride kinda tough. No flats, broken spokes or any major bike problems. The scenery was incredible. We made great time and didn’t end up feeling too bad physically at any time along the way. In fact we both felt like champions by the end of the trip. We’re already planning another trip for next year where we do the whole thing – from our front door all the way to DC.

We only dug up one plant to see how things were looking, and jeez louise, they are lookin’ GOOD! We were out and about running errands and decided to stop at the community garden plot just to see how things were looking and could not resist getting at least a little dirty.

The beans look pretty safe since we deer-proofed them, but of course the deer went for the next unprotected crop: the sweet potatoes. So we netted those too, for now.

Honestly, if we get nothing from that plot but those gorgeous red potatoes, I think I’ll still be happy.

Also, this Saturday (7/9/11) is the Fourth Annual Torley Manor (Angry) Gorilla Blues and Folk Fest. Q and I will be performing a handful of fun songs, and we are making mountains of food. I confess that part of my excitement is that I’ll get to give garden tours!

How is it that every year, after a long winter of eating string beans that we’ve blanched and frozen (and then steamed for dinner), I forget about the soft fuzz on a brand new freshly-picked string bean? Every year I forget this and am amazed to be reminded.

• Strawberries produced beautifully this year. Ate enough fresh to make our mouths prickle, made a small batch of jam, and also froze a few pints for the winter. I thinned the bed majorly before they started really moving in the spring, and I think that made a big difference. Smote a lot of slugs in there. I think I’ve finally just about gotten over how gross it is to slice them in half. It’s just the most effective method.
• Sweet potatoes are finally taking off. We pulled the garlic about a week earlier than usual this year to make room for more sweet potato plants. Should be a good sweet potato year!
• Blueberries aren’t doing a lot this year. We gave them a big pruning last year and I think they’re recovering. We ate I think six berries. I’m ok with that. They’re pretty elderly bushes too, but they look healthy and good.
• Asparagus had a tough time this spring — it was wet and very cool and asparagus just doesn’t like that. I was feeling upset like I’d done something wrong or hadn’t given the bed enough attention, but once it warmed up, we got a good harvest. We put a big load of compost on the bed and topped it with a thick layer of mulch so they can feed happily while they’re all ferned out.
• Raspberries are all filled out and tall and grand, but there is (oddly) one little cluster of berries. I think that cane is confused. We’re expecting a late summer showing from them.
• String beans are CRAAAAAZY. We should get to eat the first ones tonight! Q really probably overplanted them and they are insanely dense, but who cares?  They’re not suffering for it.
• Popping corn is taller than I am and a lush dark green.  This photo is from June 26. Go, corn, go!!!

As you can see from that photo, dill has volunteered all over the garden. I’m perfectly happy with that, as it brings in the good bugs, and puts me in the good graces of friends who like to have fresh dill heads for pickling. Let me know if you want any!

Torley-on-Stanton updates below!

The peas out at the community garden plot really struggled.  Their tops were nibbled off so many times, and at the peak of our soggiest spring in years, the slugs just covered their lower leaves. We did get some peas, but not nearly what we expected. I just yanked all the plants last week and we’re still deciding what to do in that row (a late season pea crop? Cover it up for now and put in daikon in the fall? undecided.)

The corn out there is barely knee high and a little anemic looking — more on the yellowy-green side of things rather than that dark strong green of healthy corn. Lessons in community garden soil science: nobody really plants beans in community garden plots. We know for sure that the last person to use the plot we’re in just grew tomatoes and peppers. Corn is a pretty heavy nitrogen feeder and I think it’s just not getting enough out there. (By contrast, the super healthy corn at home is in a spot where we’ve grown [nitrogen fixing] beans many times.) There’s not a lot of soil amending to do within one season — particularly while things are already growing — so we are going a pretty gentle route with some fish emulsion. I know, how long have we been vegan? And we are using fish emulsion??? And just HOW DISGUSTING does that shit smell? It seems like the most responsible approach for the time being, but for now it’s still a wait-and-see prospect.

And the deer. THE DEER! I don’t know how it’s possible that they aren’t leaving any tracks in our garden, because we can plainly see tracks outside of it, but they are definitely getting in. Maybe they have hovercrafts or something. We put tomato cages wrapped in bird netting around our brussels sprouts, to keep rabbits and groundhogs away (well, that’s what we THOUGHT our pests were!) and still the tops got chewed off. It’s either a giraffe or a deer, so I guess we’re working with deer.

Our ten rows of beans have been chewed a few times (we re-planted once to fill in) but they are holding steady. We covered each row with some scavenged bird netting, and we’ll just have to see how that goes! It looks like a tiny hobo camp up close, but you can’t even see the netting from a distance (which makes me slightly nervous that we’ll forget it’s there and trip on it one of these days).

The potatoes are gangbusters. We’d hoped to keep hilling them with straw and compost in layers, but all of a sudden it became quite difficult to get our hands on any straw. And then the plants bloomed (and weirdly, some of them set fruit, which I’ve never seen before. Do not eat!!!) and now we’re just waiting. I think we’ll poke around in there to see what we can find this week. Why don’t the deer care to eat potato plants?

We had a significant aphid problem on the tomato plant out at the garden, but resolved it with soapy water. Same deal at home, but much less of an infestation there. I hesitated to use the soapy water (don’t want ladybugs and other beneficials to eat soap) but I’m glad I used it. They plants are rebounding beautifully.

It’s been a tough pest year for us so far — and the Japanese beetles are here. Q likes to pick them up by the leg with pliers and then crush them. I still have a hard time with that (they’re just so CRUNCHY!) so I do what I did as a child: knock them into a jar of rubbing alcohol.  Surely there’s a better way….?

There are several lovely mulberry trees at the community garden, which fruited heavily this year. We made a batch of spiced mulberry jam to share with the other gardeners. I’m pleased.

Honestly, even if we don’t get much of anything out of the community garden plot, it’s been a really fun spring and summer so far. it’s just so wonderful out there.

PEAS

Somethings been munching on our peas

Although we haven’t actually seen any, we assume its something like a rabbit. We realized that the holes in our gate were big enough to let smaller mammals through, so we put a little hardware cloth over the bottom section of the gate. We also have been spraying the plants with a cayenne pepper/water mixture. As a final step, we decided we would try to trellis the peas (which perhaps we should’ve done from the beginning) to keep them as much off the ground as possible. All these measures have had an effect as the plants seem to be recovering and are getting some flowers on them. We’re still holding out some hopes for a good harvest.

POTATOES

The potatoes came up a couple weeks ago

Since then they have been growing at a pretty good pace. As they have been growing, we have been hilling the dirt back over the plants. Into the mix with the garden soil, we have been adding layers of straw and some leaf mulch from the pile at the community garden. Even if we only get a small handful of potatoes from each plant, with a 25′ row of potato plants, we’ll be looking at a pretty decent harvest.

BEANS! BEANS! AND CORN!!

We planted 8 rows of corn (4 rows of white, 4 rows of yellow) and 10 rows of beans (1 row of baby limas, 1 row of Calypso beans, and 8 rows of black beans. It’s our grand experiment to see if we can grow ourselves a good supply of beans to dry for use over the winter months. In the last week, there are good signs of life from all of the seeds.

black beans — at one week

Calypso beans — at one week

Baby limas — at one week

ETC. ETC.

We also planted a few extra brussels sprouts plants out at the community garden (we have 3 plants in the home garden as well.) We cut the bottom off some old unusable freezer boxes and used these to protect the small seedlings.

Other things out at Torley-On-Stanton include one paste tomato plant and a handful of sunflowers (no photos, sorry). We still haven’t figured out a water situation out there and we have a summer’s long fight with the weeds (so much ragweed and so many thistles!), but we’re feeling pretty good about how things are looking at this point in time.