Garlic and Gooseberries: Garden Gifts

“Do you know what you want to plant?” my husband asked me.

Do I know what I want to plant?! In the 24 hours since hearing about my new community garden plot I had done what good gardeners usually take an entire winter to ponder. I had a list an arm’s length long. In the spirit of learning from one’s mistakes, I summoned up the memories of my less successful crops: the total of three okra pods that managed to grow over the two summers I obstinately planted it, the cabbage and cauliflower that took a lot of space but only yielded one head each year, the broccoli that regularly delivered green worms onto our plates no matter how well I washed it. I decided instead to focus on what we had enjoyed the most from our previous gardens: greens that we snipped for salads from spring until fall, zucchini (as long as I didn’t plant too many), herbs, onions, garlic, and leeks, wonderful leeks that can be harvested well into cold weather. The process of choosing involved elaborate cooking fantasies, of course. I hesitated over delicate squash until I pictured them sliced diagonally, tossed in oil and roasted, or sautéed in brown butter. Done! They are on the list.

Once we got to the garden center, some favorites had to be dropped – there were no seed potatoes – and replaced by others: kohlrabi will be a new experiment. As it seems a bit late to only plant seeds, we tried to find as many starts as possible, to jumpstart the garden’s growth. What joy to fill our cart with little plants, organic lobster compost (we are in New England after all!) and a good strong shovel.

Because my husband is an awesome husband as well as a great father, he spent his Father’s Day using that shovel to dig up our garden. First, gloves on, we pulled out piles of weeds. Hidden amongst them were some treasures, however. A massive oregano plant got trimmed down, yielding an armful of oregano to be dried at home. When cutting back a beautiful purple flowering bush I discovered it was in fact a sage plant, so boughs of sage got added to the herbs to be dried. There is a delightful currant bush sitting demurely in the corner full of fruit that will be made into jelly when the time is right, but a huge gooseberry bush presented us with a dilemma. We needed to trim it back as it took up too much space, but how could we waste the unripe berries hanging heavy on the branches? A quick check on my smart phone reassured me the berries would ripen enough for jam in my kitchen, so a pile of thorny branches made their way back home. The garden was full, too, of onions and garlic, much of which came home to cure on our kitchen table, and trimmings from the chive and mint were added to the bounty.

What gifts! We hadn’t even planted yet and we already had a harvest that filled our kitchen with the sweet scents of summer.

Pre-gardening Father’s Day fortification:

The results of a hard day’s work:

Drying herbs:

Gooseberries: