When I did not distill after soaking the herbs but merely strained them out, the result was unpalatably bitter.  I found it agreeable mixed with sugar and ice water and the bottle was quickly consumed, perhaps too quickly, by myself and some random folk. I saw no more fairies than usual, but I did find myself pleasantly intoxicated. I’m curious to see how distilling improves my second bottle.

The advantages of container roof gardening are the additional space and sun and the reduction of pests and diseases.  The garden was beautiful and made spending time on my roof deck more appealing.  The disadvantages are the attention which must be paid to keeping things watered and fertilized and the increase in heat and in the difference between day and night time temperatures.  Next year I plan on using self-watering containers, fertilizing more regularly, and focusing more on herbs and tomatoes.

I am fortunate to have moved into a home with established concord grape vines.  Every year, and especially thanks to the extra nutrients and water from the ducks’ kiddie pool, I’ve been able to harvest upwards of ten pounds of the most flavorful, not-too-tart, not-too-sweet grapes which have never come into contact with herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides.  I make jam!

The recipe I use is simple – sugar, lemon juice, and grapes.  It’s labor intensive - each grape must be peeled, but the jam is delicious and the process is fun.  Just about everyone in my house helps.

There’s something very special about eating homemade jam made from grapes from our yard on freshly baked homemade bread.  The experience is priceless.

Last year I added wild black raspberries from Land’s Sake farm – part of my ‘payment’ for volunteering with their summer camp.  This year, my housemate Laurel suggested I leave some of the skins unprocessed for added texture.  I think last year’s jam was better – it was a prettier color and the half pound of black raspberries added a lovely flavor.  But this year’s is delicious!

My task last season was to find one variety of corn that would grow well in containers on my Cambridge roof top and one multi-purpose (good fresh or ground to flour) variety that would thrive in a Three Sisters Garden at the Cambridge Community Center (for maximum educational benefit).

After much research, I settled on Rainbow Inca for the Community Center and Baby Blue Jade corn for my roof garden.

The blue corn grew beautifully on my deck and produced about five 5″ long ears per plant.  I planted six plants in each of two 20 gallon rubbermade bin.  Because each kernel of corn must be individually pollinated, it’s important to grow several rows of corn fairly close together.

The plants grew about five feet high.  I harvested the ears when the silk turned brown and left several ears on the stalk to save for next year’s seeds.  The advantage of open-pollinated, heirloom corn over the more common hybrid corn is that seeds can be saved to grow next year’s crop.  The disadvantage is the taste.  Unfortunately, the corn was tough, chewy and not very sweet, and somewhat bland in flavor.  Many ears were insufficiently pollinated and had only a few kernels.  While I would like to repeat the experiment, I do not think growing corn in containers is a practical use of energy and space.

One of my housemates brought home some very delicious, very expensive granola which rapidly disappeared from our cupboard.  It was replaced by the honey nut variety from wholefoods.  This was disgustingly sweet and not very crunchy.  I decided to make my own.  I found it to be extremely easy, quick, inexpensive, and delicious.

Here is a recipe that closely approximates the expensive pumpkin spice granola:

Preheat oven to 350

Mix in large bowl:

4 c mixed hot cereal grains (oat, rye flakes, barley – I got a big canister for $2.29 from Trader Joe’s, you could also use just oats)

1 c raw pecans

1/3 c brown sugar

1/4 c honey

1/2 c apple cider

1/4 c canola oil

1/2 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

2 t pumpkin pie spice

Spread out over a rimmed baking sheet and bake on the middle(ish) rack for 25 minutes.

It’s important to stir the granola after 10 minutes and again after 20 minutes or it will be burnt in parts and not crisp in others.

Add 1/2 c pepitas before the last five minutes of cooking.

Granola should be crisp and golden brown.

Variation (pictured):

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl, mix:

1/3 c brown sugar

1/4 c maple syrup

1/3 c apple cider

1/4 c canola oil

1/2 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

2 t cinnamon

1/8 t cloves

1/8 t nutmeg

1 t ginger

Add and then remove: 1/2 c chopped apple (small pieces)

Place chopped apple on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet

To the wet mixture, add:

4 c mixed cereal grains

1/4 c finely chopped candied ginger

1 c pecans

Arrange grain/pecan mixture on another baking sheet.

Cook the same as above, also stirring up the apples when you stir up the grain mixture.

Add the apples when they have almost no moisture left in them (otherwise your granola will be soggy).

Because of the added moisture from the candied ginger, this may require an additional 5 minutes or so of cooking.  Cook until it’s crisp and golden brown.

(After the ducks went back outside, the bathroom was thoroughly cleaned with bleach.)

Thanks to the Boston Mycological Club‘s bulletin, I learned the name of the fungus that has been parasitizing the flies in my yard.

Chickens (and ducks) are really wonderful creatures.  They add so much life to a largely dead city yard!  With the addition of my chickens and ducks came the addition of a lot more organic matter from their straw and waste.  This in turn lead to a (very temporary) increase in the fly population.

To balance this increase in flies, an increase in spiders and, it turns out, fungi stepped in!  After a few weeks, the fly population went back down to normal but a WEIRD thing started happening.

On various plants in and around my garden adjacent to the coop, I started noticing flies that were ATTACHED to the tops of stems and leaves.  This was not a property of the plant – it happened on a variety of plants.  This was not a property of the type of fly – there were a variety of flies.  I pulled one of the flies off and noticed that it was attached by white fibers.  No stranger to the fungal realm, I knew this must be mycelium.  But how curious!

Months later an issue of the Boston Mycological Club’s bulletin arrives in my mailbox.  In it is an article describing the fly parasitizing Entomophthora muscae.  The spores of this fungus fall onto an uninfected fly.  The fly ingests the spores and within hours, the fungus spreads through the fly’s body and takes over its brain.

In the evening hours, critically ill insects tend to crawl up verticle surfaces to die at an elevated position. Approximately 3 hours after death the condiophores begin to emerge from the intersegmental membranes to initiate the conidial shower.