Heartbeat Thoughts

Often, as I wander, I’ll hear a ruffed grouse slowly begin the tell tale beating of wings on the ground, like a strong pulsing heartbeat. Occasionally, if I’m not paying strict attention, I wonder if it’s mine, and am brought back to my surroundings as the heartbeats slowly speed up, faster than my heart ever beats. It’s this heartbeat of the land, that pulses so deeply in my own veins that I can’t immediately tell the difference between the two, which fascinates and inspires me. I notice trout lilies pushing up through the heavy litter of last fall and cringe inwardly. If the trout lilies are up, so are the blackflies.  Sure enough, as the maple buds push out lacy pale chartreuse leaves, the blackflies emerge. They don’t start biting for a couple days, but when they do, being out of doors on the northwest side of town will be more than unpleasant. The sun shines down lazily. This far north, there’s no real menace to the sun’s rays, and we all soak it up, sighing relief after the winter that just didn’t want to give up this year. Slender pungent winooski reach for the pale dappled sunlight making its way through new maple leaves. These are the wild allium that seasoned the natives’ first meals after a long winter. A hairy woodpecker slowly echoes the heartbeat of the grouse, searching for bugs in a tall beech.  Spring is here.

Juice that has gone BAD!

Who knows what to believe about health these days? Every website, health care provider, and medical research professional has a different claim about the safety, efficacy, and wisdom of taking various dietary supplements. When you start listening to the wives tales and suggestions of family members and elders in your community, the information overload can be altogether off-putting. Apple cider vinegar may be one of these so I’m not going to bother adding more “data”, “studies”, or “research”. I will say simply this, I take a shot of apple cider vinegar every morning and I love it. I have felt more evenly energetic and less hungry or interested in snacking since starting. Additionally, I know no better relief for a sore throat. From years of singing, I have developed a deep appreciation for hot water with a shot of apple cider vinegar and a table spoon of honey. Nurse it all day and keep that sore throat at bay. Everything else aside, if you are trying to bring more local and homemade foods into your diet, this is one of the easiest ways to start. 

After all, vinegar is nothing more than juice that has gone “bad”!

Cerises de Terre

What a miracle it is…the seed. It’s a tiny packet with genetic information, growth hormones, raincoat, snow boots, and lunch all together in something smaller than my pinkie. Incredible! Additionally, these tiny seeds that are produced by our favorite food plants, as well as by our most hated weed rivals, can last for decades under the right conditions. We laud this in our foods and despise it in our non-foods, but regardless, the fact remains that evolution has developed a pretty neat little method for delaying the reproduction of plants until such time as the ideal growth conditions present themselves. The specific adaptations are numerous and brilliant (though evolution is neither genius nor dunce, simply survivalist). They are, however, more complex and numerous that the scope of this particular post. 

I’m curious to know how long it took and just what the reaction looked like, the day humans discovered that a planted seed would yield a similar plant the following year. From that discovery, it wouldn’t have taken long to learn that a dried seed, whether with the fruit still attached or not, could be kept and planted not just the following spring, but for many years after.

Battles and Victories

Every morning I step on the rock in just the right spot to lever it up and free the gate to allow a tender visitation from a rather doting garden mamma. Since the tomatoes are right there, I walk down the row and pinch out the suckers. I swear I check closely every day, and every day I find just one that looks as if it had been there since the tomato first pushed out of the soil. Damn. As I go, I check on the little fruits themselves. With the rain, they swell until their skins can just barely hold them in. Then, like a pregnant belly, they pause for a moment and allow for some internal adjustment that allows them to swell just a little more. My wee tomatoes (which will hopefully become less wee) are still entirely green, but the bottoms are starting to show lighter green streaks that stretch toward the stem. I know a few more hot sunny days and the pale green will predominate the palate. Nestled at the base of the tomatoes are basil plants. Lemon, Thai, and Italian basils all transplanted during this mini-drought. They’re toughing it out like the true Mediterranean plants they are. I pinch back the flower buds as I go. The first row of tomatoes ends in ruby chard. (Honestly, could I grow anything else?) Those blazing stalks stand out in the green garden. The volunteer cilantro at the end of that row is just going to seed, but the seeds are still green. I’m keeping an eagle eye on them because Shane cooks excellent southwestern style food, and coriander is a household staple.

 

Weeds are slowly creeping up on me these days. Sigh. While the average weeds are a cinch to pull out of the soft deeply dug beds, the witch grass poses a stronger threat. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as pulling a foot or more of long pale suckering root from the beds. More commonly though, the root breaks off in the compacted walkways and I just know the witch grass will return in a day or two to taunt me.

A Lesson in Remorse

I feel a twinge of remorse every time I kill something, whether large or small. I regret when I bisect a worm in the garden, not simply for the sake of the garden, but for the sake of the worm. I imagine his name was Sven. Even mice, which eat and poop and are generally a nuisance. The snap of a trap leaves me feeling a little sad and a little guilty. The slitting of a chicken’s throat definitely qualifies.  This twinge is healthy. It is what separates us from serial killers, sociopaths, and members of the mustelid family.

Roots

Everyone who grows up in a small rural Vermont town has early exposure to farms. Kindergarten classes take trips to the local turkey farm and second graders learn how to make butter in a jelly jar. In third grade you hatch baby chicks in an incubator and learn why you must draw on the eggs with a pencil, not a pen. Fifth and sixth grades often include a long unit on early Vermont life, where you discover how much easier farming is now than the homesteading of the 1800’s. My family lived on a dirt road, and like many children, I grew up walking balance beam across the beaver dam in my back yard and making fairy tea parties in the balsam stand just up the hill. It was only natural that when I was ready to have a job, my parents paid me to weed the garden or feed the chickens. My mom and I canned everything we could get our hands on, especially peaches, and the entire family ate canned sunshine all winter long.  I am the child of hippies who found a welcoming safe haven in the tight knit community Cabot offers. I grew up with kids from all different backgrounds and since there were so few of us, we managed to muddle along just fine. What we had in common was this tiny farming community that we were inherently a part of. This was our world.