The Answer is Blowing in the Wind

Hurricane Irene is stirring things up here in Maine today, but that doesn't mean the gardening stops. Of course, we have moved our baby trees inside for protection, but our well-established garden plants are  loving all the rain.

The trees, newly planted in Fertil pots for our members, are enjoying life in their first outdoor home.

The plums trees, now inside, while the storm rages on.

(Watch our video at the foot of this page for coverage on the hurricane in our garden, and see why kale is the answer that's blowing in the wind.)

Meanwhile, we are spending the day indoors using our plants to make soup, smoothies, and tea...depending on whether or not we have power at the moment. (All of these are good practices for the end of summer--rain or shine.)

When we did have electricity, we used some of our neighbors' abundant zucchini, cucumber, kale and chard harvest to make soup, which we then froze for later in the year.

Here is the recipe for our delicious, end-of summer soup. (Please note that you may choose to substitute or remove any of these ingredients and still have a huge amount of very good soup.)

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Onion skins
Kale stems
Chard Stems
Water

Boil all in a medium pot, then simmer until the mix cooks down.  Strain the broth, compost the solids, and use the liquid in the recipe to follow.

End-of-Summer Harvest Soup

1 large (or 2 small) zucchinis, cut into large slices
3 potatoes, cut into large slices
1 large onion, chopped 
3 ears of pre-steamed corn, with kernels cut off the cob
1/2 head of garlic (or less, to taste)
1/2 cup cream or milk (optional)
dash of salt (to taste)
dash of black pepper (to taste)
Romano or parmesan cheese (to taste)

Add the zucchini, potatoes, corn and onion to the veggie broth. Bring to a boil, then cook on medium heat until vegetables are soft. Put softened veggies and broth into a blender, and add the corn, garlic, cream, salt and pepper before blending. Serve in a bowl with cheese on top.

Another good recipe (which requires electricity) is our Kale-and-Cucumber Smoothies...

1 kale bundle
1 large cucumber
2 cups frozen strawberries
1/4 cup blueberry or blackberry jam
3 apples
1 cup vanilla or fruity yogurt (optional)

Put into a blender with some ice cubes, and enjoy!

Once the power was out, though, we moved on to other plant activities...

The photo below, for example, shows echinacea flowers hanging up to dry for an immunity-boosting tea.

Dry echinacea (or cone flowers) upside down and out of direct sunlight.

Pods should be far enough apart to get sufficient air for drying.

We will let these flower pods dry, and then use tea balls to steep them in boiling water. We will probably also use some honey (which is also antibacterial) to sweeten it, as echinacea can have a bitter taste.

So, gardens can benefit from hurricanes, and we can benefit from our garden growth. Check out the video below for a glimpse of our kale bed's hurricane experience: