Solstice Garden Update

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This post is being written on, and about my settler user of, unceded Mi’kmaq land. I am grateful to live here under the Peace and Friendship Treaties.

The garden’s coming along nicely. Parsley and genovese basil patches are finally perking back up, though we let them get too leggy before transplanting, and some of them show bleaching (leaves turning white). We’ve had delicious meals from them both. Sage, thyme, Thai basil, and rosie basil are happy little transplants. And the broccoli rabe (rapini) in rows 1 and 3 seem to be doing good! In row 2, sorrel and mâche are coming in, slowly.

A little story about mâche. The summer after I graduated high school, my Mom took me to Europe. We stayed in a little apartment in the Alps [Mom, if you remember what town it was I’ll mention it here] and discovered this weird little lettuce that came in tiny bunches at the grocery store. We wanted to eat healthy and also balance out the frozen apple strudel that one could also get at the same grocery store. It (the lettuce) was amazingly tasty, tender like no lettuce we’d had before, with a delicate rich nutty flavour that was balanced by a yogurt dressing. It was later, when we asked our friends about it, that they told us it was also called Rapunzel. As in, this was the lettuce in the Witch’s garden that the Rapunzel’s mom craved so much she had her husband steal which set off the whole darn fairy tale. This lettuce is that good.

So this is my witch’s garden, take 1. Happy solstice!