Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Smell of the Rain

It's Sprummer here in my little part of the world. Yes, you read correctly and no I'm not drunk. In upstate South Carolina, we get maybe 3 weeks of what I would honestly consider spring-like weather: temperatures no higher than 75 during the day, the windows are open, flowers are blooming, birds singing, etc.  And most of the time those weeks are not consecutive. Then we get to Sprummer. Not quite spring, but not hellishly hot enough to be summer just yet. The blooming continues, everything is painted with thick coats of neon yellow pollen, the temperatures start climbing higher and higher into the 80s, and the sun is less gentle than it was a few weeks ago. Everyone is sneezing and offering sacrifices to whatever deity they believe in to give us relief from the pollen. Seriously. Even if you've never had any kind of allergy in your entire life, your lungs and/or nose will rebel against you if you spend some time in certain parts of South Carolina and Georgia during Sprummer. Oh, and in other parts of the country it's still snowing. Weird. On a good day, though, we do get a little break- when it rains. I've got all the windows open in our apartment right now. I can smell the rain coming. It's a glorious thing. It's kinda like the smell in the air before it snows, just a bit more common in this area. I'm so excited!


From the top, clockwise: Sweet basil, asparagus, flat leaf
parsley, sweet mint, and apple mint
In other and more food related news, I picked my first harvest tonight! I have a little container garden this year that I'm quite proud of. I've got a few flowers (morning glories, at the moment) that I just planted, garlic, asparagus, 3 varieties of tomatoes, some cucumber, rosemary, sweet mint, apple mint (rescued from last year), basil and parsley. I also have a plan to switch things out and do a crop rotation of sorts later in the year so I'll be able to take advantage of more than one growing season. I'm really looking forward to getting back to gardening. Last year was a bust. It got too hot and I was still trying to figure out how to be a mom. I lost most of what I planted long before the summer growing season was over. But this year I am determined to keep this thing going year-round. I've put a lot of money and effort into it so far, so I owe it to myself as well as my bank account. I'm also learning and relearning things about plants and soil. It feels good to get back to that. I was a horticulture major before I switched to my culinary track, after all. Anyway...

As you can see from the picture, it's not much of a harvest. This first batch of asparagus is teeny and the crowns may not produce anything bigger than that this year. The herbs are still young, but need to be snipped so they continue to grow and not flower too early. Like I said, it isn't much, but it's a start.

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