Summer Sanctuary

Our home and garden is a sanctuary for body and soul; it embraces us and brings us back to center. When we take sanctuary, even for brief moments, we are re-created, recharged, healed, soothed, comforted and at peace.

One of my New Year's resolutions is: 

Sanctuary: I intend to care for my land with discipline and ritual, and create a home that is a peaceful and well-ordered sanctuary for those I love, because maintaining my land in good order is the honorable and sustainable thing to do, and is one way that I show reverence for the Earth and for God.

What I like about this resolution is that it encompasses my home, my land, my family and friends, the Earth and God. It helps me to de-compartmentalize my life and see it as a whole.

Agenda:

1. Summer cleaning plan

2. Deep bedroom cleaning

3. End of August garden

4. How to freeze tomatoes

1. Summer cleaning plan:

Here's what's going on: I've got a great cleaning schedule - an everyday routine for the basics, plus a day for weekly tasks (floors on Sunday, dusting on Monday, etc.). It has worked pretty well for years.

But this summer, with two grandsons here four days a week, and with more of my attention on the garden, I'm falling short and falling behind. The problem is time and energy. I keep moving cleaning to the bottom of my schedule, and then I run out of energy. The dirt is building up, and when I do clean, it is an onerous chore.

I hope that with a supper-simple plan, I can get back on board with a daily cleaning ritual that keeps our home shiny.

Early kitchen dance: Start coffee, put away dishes, sweep kitchen, clear table, start laundry or fold clothes. 

Every morning chores: Make bed, sweep living room, feed Sadie, clean poop in yard, hang laundry, duck care. 

Weekly basic cleaning:15 minutes each day, by 9 a.m. (Sunday = floors, Monday = dusting, Tuesday = bathroom, Thursday = windows, Friday = woodwork, Saturday = refrigerator).

2. Deep bedroom cleaning:

Besides my daily and weekly cleaning, I also rotate through the rooms of my house with a different focus each week. I've defined four zones so I complete (theoretically) the whole house in a month. This means that on Floors Day I mop in only one zone, and on Dusting Day I take down cobwebs through the whole house but focus on dusting the furniture in one zone, and so on. This is how I keep the time to 15-minutes.

But it only works if I NEVER skip the cleaning, because it will be a whole month before I get back to that room! Since I've been skipping too often over the summer, this month I'm going to try to clean a little deeper in each room.

Next week is bedroom & office week, and since I'll be out of town until late Monday I'm going to make a jump start today before we leave, and clean the floors in both rooms.

My routine for floors is to: 

1. Declutter the night before - pick up and put away everything on the floors in the target rooms.
2. Pull furniture away from the walls.
3. Extra: Pull out the bins under the bed and sort through them, then vacuum under the bed.
4. Then wipe the baseboards, sweep, and spot clean any sticky patches.

3. End of August garden:

Now, at the end of August, the days are shorter, but still warm and smoky. We have a forest fire raging to the southeast of us and some days the smoke settles in to stay, and the air quality plummets, so my time in the garden is reduced.

Still, I get out nearly everyday for my 30 minutes of harvesting and puttering in the garden. I'm collecting tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, green beans, rhubarb, and duck eggs. I especially enjoy it when my grandson goes with me to pick tomatoes, collect eggs, and look at the pumpkins - it's the best kind of therapy.

It's now about 6-weeks before our usual first frost. Last week I planted cabbage starts that I found at the farmer's market, and started some leeks in 6-packs under lights. 

This week I'm planting kale and spinach seed.

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a member of the Amaranthaceae flowering plant family, related to the beet and Swiss chard. It is thought to have originated in Asia, and was first cultivated over 2,000 years ago in Persia (Iran). 

Spinach is a cool season (spring and autumn) crop. Plant when  temperatures are above 50°F but below 60°F, if possible, usually about 4 weeks prior to the last frost of the spring and 6 weeks before the first frost of autumn. 

Sow seeds directly into the soil, about 1” apart and 1” deep in an area of full sun (although spinach is tolerant of partial shade). I'm putting burlap over the seed for several days like I did with the beets, to keep them cool and damp. Plant near strawberries, peas, radish, lettuce, and eggplant. Also, any of the brassica family (kale, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage), because they use different nutrients. Avoid planting near potatoes.

Water spinach seedlings often, and thin to 3-inches apart. If you encounter mildews or rusts, spray your plants with a mixture of 2-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar to 1 gallon of water.

Kale is a cool-season leafy vegetable of the Brassica (mustard) family along with cabbage and broccoli. It’s a native to Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean, and the Greeks were growing several varieties by the 4th century BC.

Plant kale either early spring or late summer, as this plant grows best before and after the heat of summer. The best kale is usually produced in the fall, because kale quality is enhanced with a light frost, and will continue to grow even after a light freeze. And you can keep harvesting even after a hard freeze. Some people say you can put kale in the ground as late as 3-weeks before the first frost.

I'm planting seedlings 18-inches away from other plants, set in all around the garden so as to confuse the aphids. Kale likes moist soil as much as it likes cool weather, so water well and regularly. This is the best way to ensure sweet, crisp leaves. And they will produce new leaves all winter!

I've also got three kale plants from spring that I cut off after they flowered, and they have re-sprouted! I'm looking forward to seeing if these are edible.

4. Freeze tomatoes:

I recently found this article at the Reid Homestead site on a supper simple way to freeze tomatoes.

1. Fill a tub with cold water, and add a few large glugs of vinegar.
2. Wipe off any big dirty areas on the tomatoes, and then drop them in the tub.
3. Let them sit for a few minutes, and swish them around a time or two. (The vinegar helps kill off any bacteria or mold that may be sitting on the tomatoes, so this is an important step.)
4. Set the tomatoes on a towel to dry.
5. Core each tomato, and cut an X on the bottom end.
6. Place in a zip lock freezer bag and put in the freezer!

Freezing tomatoes means you don't have to blanch and peel them later! You just pull out a frozen tomato, run it under warm water, and the skin comes right off! So easy!