Who needs ChatGPT? I just typed “window” in the Google search bar and it helped me title my post. Ha!

The main event this last week was having our new windows installed! We did all the windows on our main floor expect for the bathroom (we think we want a glass block window and the window company we chose does not do glass block) and our sliding glass door (replaced that a number of years ago). It was nine windows in all, including a big picture window. One man, Ron, did all the work, and a fine job he did, though all the garden plants up next to the house foundation are a bit the worse for it. They will recover though.

One day to remove all the old windows–I’m pretty sure they were original to our 1951-built house, and all the storm windows that were installed by the Metropolitan Airport Commission in the late 1990s to help mitigate airport noise–and put in all the new modern windows that are insulated even in the framing. The next day Ron came back and did all the outdoor trim work to make it all look pretty. Oh, and we got all new screens too.

We saved up for it, but even so, it was a big gulp writing the check. But worth it! The windows are so easy to open and no longer leak air and they are the kind we can tilt in to clean, which means we no longer have an excuse to not clean our windows at least once a year. Bah.

We kept all the old windows and screens except for the big picture window which weighed over 100 pounds and was rather unwieldy. We have stashed all the other windows and the screens in the garden shed until we figure out how to build a greenhouse out of them.

The greenhouse will not be huge and fancy like the glass house at Kew Gardens. Ours will be more modest. The plan is to build it against the south side of the garden shed in the chicken garden. I envision it as a kind of lean-to, big enough for a bench the length of it, maybe some shelves above the bench, and wide enough and tall enough for a person to stand inside. It will be unheated, but I will be able to use it for seed starting, perhaps extending the garden season a bit (plants in pots), and maybe overwintering, which will depend on how warm it stays at night in winter, so I’ll have to be sure to have a thermometer out there.

That’s the plan. Not sure if we will get started building it this year or not. I’d like to, but there is still so much keeping us busy in the garden (and kitchen with the garden harvest) that we may not have time to start until well into autumn and then might not be able to finish before it gets too cold. I will keep you apprised!

This week we got some bird netting and draped it over the elderberry as best we could, which is to say from the middle downward because even on a step ladder we couldn’t reach the top. And to think I had pruned the elder down to my height in the spring! The sparrows will get the berries on the top, the chickens are enjoying the berries from below–James saw Ethel jumping up to reach them–and we will get the berries in the middle. The berries are just beginning to get ripe.

The chokeberry (aronia) is also draped in bird netting. I somehow recalled they got ripe before the elderberries but I obviously misremembered as they are turning black but are still quite hard and obviously not ripe. We didn’t get any chokeberries at all last year for some reason, which means it’s been two years since I had any, and because I keep such crap garden notes–I’m getting better!–I can be forgiven for not remembering.

And the grape is draped in row cover fabric. I picked one perfect bunch of ripe grapes yesterday and they were delicious! The rest are still only partially ripe.

The bush cherries reached peak ripeness this week. Those I did not have to cover because the cleverness of the bush cherries are that they hide their bright red fruit inside the bush and beneath the leaves. So you can stand there and look at them and not even see there is ripe fruit. They are sour cherries and smaller than tree cherries, but I have about 1 1/2 quarts of them.

The amazing thing about these cherry bushes is that two years ago they were eaten down to sticks by Fat Rabbit, who lived all winter in the garden eating everything. But they came back to the following spring. There were no cherries last year as they were growing and recovering. They are about thigh-high bushes now, no longer little rabbit-eaten twigs, and this spring they burst into flower and produced as many cherries as they did before Fat Rabbit got to them. Eventually the bushes should reach 5 feet or more in height. When they get that tall and the birds can fly into them, I will probably be draping them in bird netting too, but at least I will be able to get it over the top!

We dug up the potatoes today and it was a disappointing yield. Very likely due to the drought and heat. Lots of very small potatoes the size of large marbles and golf balls, a few big enough to eat, but not many. Most of them will get saved for next year’s garden. I think I might also try a different variety of potato next year. We have pretty good luck with Adirondack blue (all the dark colored ones in the photo), but all the different yellow potatoes we’ve tried have not done well. Some research to put on my list for this coming winter!

Aside from digging potatoes, I also sowed seed for some fall harvest–I hope. I sowed some sugar snap peas, two different kinds of radishes, carrots, beets, and cabbage. It’s still pretty warm and in spite of sporadic rain, still droughty, so we’ll see how these all do.

Currently I am enamored with the idea of pawpaw trees. They are marginally hardy here (zone 5 and I am zone 4b) and would need to be kept pruned back and given lots of winter protection. I have never eaten a pawpaw but they allegedly taste like a mix of mango, banana, and passion fruit. Two trees are required and they are not cheap, so I am hesitant to try them only to have a brutally cold winter kill them off. So maybe I will hold off for a few years and see what direction winters are taking here. Or maybe I can grow them in big pots and overwinter them in the greenhouse!

Reading

• Book: The Vegan by Andrew Lipstein. As a vegan, I had to read it to see what it was all about. It’s a slim novel and the story was compelling enough to keep me reading to the end to find out what happened, but overall it was so-so. Mostly because of the ending. What’s it about you ask? A startup hedge fund manager does something at a dinner party that causes an accident that pretty much kills someone. He has guilt and regrets and suddenly can’t eat meat anymore or eggs, so he becomes vegan. And then he finds out that the AI his hedge fund is building works, but it works because it actually manipulates the market, which is illegal. So, still reeling from guilt and not knowing what to do with this sudden thing called a conscience, he takes drastic measures to make sure the AI is not unleashed. It’s interesting, but in the end he is still a hedge fund manager.
• Article: EPA approved fuel ingredient nearly guaranteed to cause cancer over a lifetime by Sharon Learner. In a bid to be able to say it’s making climate friendly fuel, Chevron has developed a fuel additive for boats and airplanes that is made from discarded plastic. Only problem is, the risk assessment reports say that 1.3 in 1 people exposed to this chemical over a lifetime can expect to develop cancer. So essentially, everyone. And the EPA has approved it, saying their very own scientists have overestimated the risk. Um, even if the risk has been overestimated by a little bit, it’s still unacceptable. Chevron has not yet begun making fuel with this chemical in it. There are groups who are, of course, challenging the EPA. I’m sure individual outcry will also go a long way towards making the EPA change their mind. So, take a moment to read the article, then take another moment to email Michael Regan, the current head of the EPA at Regan.Michael@epa.gov If you prefer using the postal system, his address is 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20460
• Article: Cats first finagled their way into human hearts and homes thousands of years ago—here’s how. Because sometimes you need to read something that actually makes you feel good. With the help of lots of DNA analysis, science has figured out that African wildcats, specifically the North African subspecies felis sylvestris lybica, is the progenitor of our household domestic cat. And, there are only 13 genes difference between domestic cats and the wildcat, which is still alive and well in Africa. In case you are wondering, the number of genetic changes from wolf to dog is three times more than from wildcat to cat.

Listening

• Podcast: The Verso Podcast: On Cannibals and Capitalists: Nancy Fraser & Gargi Bhattacharyya. They discuss exploitation, expropriation, racial capitalism and more. It’s a pretty heady conversation, but really interesting

Watching

• Interview: Miraculous Abundance at La Ferme du Bec Hellouin. Maddy Harland, editor of Permaculture Magazine, interviews co-founder of La Ferme Biologique du Bec Hellouin Perrine Hervé-Gruyer. Perrine is also the co-author the book Miraculous Abundance: one quarter acre, two French farmers, and enough food to feed the world. I’ve read and loved the book. They have created a biointensive, organic, sustainable food growing system that without any kind of fossil fuel inputs, including from tractors, produces a lot of food in a small area. What they’ve done is how we should all be living and growing food. The interview is great and there are photos and flyovers of the farm for some marvelous eye candy.

Quote

Like the changing of the season, my own life will endlessly go through cycles of change. I can find solace in the naturalness of it all and keep rolling along, however clumsily. 

Michael Lobsang Tenpa, “Sealing our Queer Life”

James’s Kitchen Wizardry

We celebrated the cross-quarter holiday Lammas/Lughnasad on Tuesday by James making homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast (bread) and having a big ol’ salad for dinner with greens picked from the garden (arugula, amaranth, lamb’s quarters), garden green beans, a mini chocolate bell pepper, chives (all also from the garden), and from our csa box, kale, and from or food co-op, the important Lammas ingredient, local sweet corn. And the dressing was a strawberry vinagrete made from our own home-brewed strawberry vinegar. Such a delicious way to celebrate the season! I did not take a photo because it pretty much would look like leaves on a plate with some colorful bits, so y’all will just need to use your imagination.