Mid Winter Festival

The Winter Solstice has been a celebrated day throughout most of human history and prehistory. It is on this day that the last festival or feast was commonly held before the coming of the wintry months or the times of famine. The solstice was extremely important due to the fact that in early times survival was not certain in the months ahead. Many communities would slaughter much of their livestock, so they would not have to be fed during the lean months of winter. Hence meat was uncommonly plentiful and so was alcoholic beverages due to their coincidental fermentation near this date. Therefore with the uncertainty of life, large amounts of meat and great quantities of alcohol, a party seemed quite appropriate.

Although life is a bit more certain and meat and alcohol is always plentiful, we still celebrate this ancient tradition, through a dozen or more religious celebrations.

Peas, Pesto, and Preparation

Well the time of the Strawberry is just about over, but the time of the pea is just about full swing in the garden. For the past two days I have collected sugar snap peas from our garden. These tasty treats are a delight on a walk or just right in the garden. I love the fact that they are ready to eat as soon as you pick them off the vine.

In other news our basil is doing much better. It is done with its bout of fungal infection and is now a healthy crop. This past Thursday Naomi and I made garlic scape pesto once again. After being in the garden I can see that we will be able to harvest some more basil early next week and start making pesto and freezing it for the long winter months. I know they are still a long way off and look much further away during those 90 degree days, but I hate running out in mid January or February so we are going to put more away this year.

So I have decided to be like the ant and not the cricket. Preparation for the winter months needs to start early if you want to try to be a locavore.

The Links Between Phenology and Gardening

For those of you who do not know phenology is the study of the changing of the seasons.  Many believe it to be the oldest area of science.  For early humans would have needed to know when nature was changing in order to adjust his/her lives accordingly.  With the invention of agriculture early humans became even more dependent upon the study of phenology.  Signs in nature would have let them know when to plant different types of seeds or when to begin to harvest the crops that they had planted so many months before.  

I found this website http://gardening.about.com/od/organicgardenin1/a/Phenology.htm 

which has some good information that the author has collected over the years and the table below details some of she has collected.

Also for more information on the study of phenology see Naomi the Nature Nerd

Naomi knows more than I could adequately or compentently tell you about nature, phenology, native plants, and much more.  So check out her blog from the link above or from my blog roll at the bottom.

Phenology Clues

Plant peas	When forsythia & daffodils blooms
Plant potatoes	When 1st dandelion blooms
	When the shadbush flowers
Plant beets, carrots, cole crops, lettuce and spinach	When lilac is in first leaf
Plant beans, cucs and squash	When lilac is in full bloom
Plant tomatoes	When lily-of-the-valley are in full bloom
Transplant eggplant, melon and peppers	When irises bloom
Plant corn	When apple blossoms start to fall
Seed fall cabbage and broccoli	When catalpas and mockoranges bloom
Seed morning glories	When maple leaves reach full size
Plant cool season flowers (pansies, snapdragons...)	When aspen and chokecherry trees leaf out
Watch for:
Eastern tent caterpillars to hatch	When crab apples start to bloom
Gypsy moths hatch	When the shadbush flowers
Squash vine borer eggs are laid	When chicory flowers
Mexican bean beetle larvae hatch	When foxglove flowers open.
Japanese beetles arrive	When morning glory vines start to climb