What's Happening: August 2012

Canning & Food Processing

East Winders have been diligent about preserving our abundant garden harvests to enjoy throughout the colder months of the year.  We have already canned nearly 100 gallons of tomato products this season, including tomato sauce, salsa, hot sauce, whole tomatoes, tomato wine, and more.  We deep cleaned and renovated our root cellar this month, and it is now well stocked with delicious homegrown food of all sorts.  Dozens of jars of pickled garlic, dill pickles, pickled okra, dilly beans, pickled beets, applesauce, pickled eggs, pepper relish, and pickled peppers are stacked tidily on our clean new shelves. Our wine cellar is also being cleaned and renovated, and wine racks are being built to accommodate our aging wines.

Our walk-in fridge has been amply stocked with fresh garden produce all summer long, which all of us have been able to greatly enjoy. East Wind is also producing more of our own cow and goat milk than we have in years.  In addition to fresh milk, homemade cheeses and yogurts have been readily available.  

Garden produce for pickling

Nearly 200 jars of canned tomato products (all from our garden this summer)

  

A clean, well-stocked root cellar

Pickled garlic & jalepenos

Garden

August has been a good month for the gardens at East Wind. The extreme heat that we'd been having since the middle of June ended about a week into August, and we've finally had a month with good rains, the first since March. Harvests of tomatoes have been bountiful, and we have canned much of the harvest for the winter. Sweet and hot peppers are really coming in. Jalapenos are popular here, and two of the sweet pepper varieties have been truly outstanding; "Early Hungarian Sweet" and "Corno di Toro" have had quite impressive yields. August is the peak of watermelon season, and we grow a variety of types with their own unique flavors. "Moon and Stars" and "Orangeglo" are two of our favorite watermelons. Okra is very reliable and bountiful here at this time of year. The eggplant harvests are on the increase as well.

We're still enjoying stored potatoes, beets, onions, garlic and carrots from our harvests earlier in the year. August is also the month that most of our fall crops get planted. There are young carrots, rutabagas, turnips, radishes, kale, lettuce and other salad greens growing from recent plantings. The young greens won't be of harvestable size for a while, so right now one of the main greens we are eating is malabar spinach. Malabar spinach is not actually related to spinach, it just has a sort-of similar taste as spinach when cooked (raw malabar spinach has an aftertaste that is unappealing to most people, and is better as a cooked green). Unlike regular spinach, malabar spinach loves the heat and grows best at a time of year when few other greens do well, as long as it gets enough water. Even in July, which was the hottest on record this year with the majority of afternoons 100 degrees or higher, the malabar spinach was lush and growing rapidly. It is great for the season when the weather is too hot for most greens. We planted it here in mid-late May, as one of the last of the summer crops to go in, as it needs a very warm soil to sprout and grow well.

Strawberries, mullien, and malibar spinach in the Upper Garden

Apples from our orchard

Malibar spinach

Hot peppers from our garden being processed for salsa

Herb Garden
Echinacea, chinese chives, cardinal flower, saint john’s wort, wormwood, and skullcap, among many others, bloomed in our herb gardens this month.  Major harvests of lemon balm, lemongrass, basil, holy basil, thyme, and peppermint were brought in and dried.  Our essential oil distillation set is up and running again, and we’ve recently produced lovely holy basil hydrosol and essential oil.  We’ve begun saving seeds for next year, including milk thistle, marsh mallow, basil, holy basil, and cilantro.  As the weather cools and plants focus their energy underground, we will begin harvesting medicinal roots including echinacea, marsh mallow, valerian, dandelion, chicory, burdock, and elecampane.
 

Lemon balm with mullein in the background

Lower Herb Garden

St. John's Wort in bloom

August Music Festival

East Wind’s annual Music Festival took place on August 18^th this year, and a great time was had by all.  Musical talent on the stage included Bruce Salmon, Nora & Gnoll, Mac McNulty, Emily Robinson, Juli VonZurMuellen, Shawn Porter, Max Hills, and the Undomesticated Farm Animals (made up of East Winders: Thaddeus, Pod, Peter, and Cayli J), and a few special musical guests.  East Winders and our guests enjoyed the terrific music and a beautiful sunny day by the creek.

Unfortunately, one of our musicians scheduled to perform, Grant Withers, was unable to attend due to medical complications.  We wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him on the stage next year.

Emily Robinson on stage

Enjoying the party

Juli VonZurMuellen & Shawn Porter

Forestry
Forestry season is fast approaching, and we have already begun marking dead and dying trees to be cut for firewood or lumber.  We mark dead trees by tying a white ribbon around them during the late summer, while healthy trees still have their leaves.  We have a lot of work ahead of us this year, with plenty of trees to be cut up for both firewood and milling.  Many oaks and mulberries have already begun to lose most of their leaves as a result of the drought, while hickories and elms seem to be faring a bit better in the heat.

East Wind voted to purchase a new diesel sawmill to replace our current sawmill.  We have already begun preparing the new sawmill site and making lumber for a wood drying shed.  The forestry branch will be undertaking this project in the fall.