April in the Garden

***Lettuce starts.*** *Photo by Tenley Nelson*

April 28, 2023

Tenley Nelson - Featured Columnist

April has been a busy month. I have been ice fishing for rainbow trout and burbot, walking daily for the 30 miles in 30 days fundraiser, cutting firewood for the greenhouse season, hatching chicks and shuffling a growing number of 1020 garden trays out to the greenhouse daily in addition to all the normal homestead chores.

We put 12 chicken eggs in the incubator at the end of March and they started hatching on the 18th. 10 hatched successfully and we added 6 pullet chicks and 3 turkey poults from Wenger’s Country Store to the flock. I took last year off from having a flock for the first time since 2005 so it is exciting to have chicks again.

Temperatures are too cold until the end of April to keep my starts out overnight in my greenhouse, that is only sheeted with a single layer of plastic, so all the trays come in at night.

By the end of April all counters and multiple folding tables are employed in the house to hold them all.

Having garden starts in the house is a challenge with my son’s two cats, who are excited about soil after a long winter. Well, who isn’t! We have some losses every year.

I have learned to set the trays up with cat runways strategically placed so they can still look out the windows.

The worst damage happens when an insect buzzes in the window and the cats, deprived of such lively amusements all winter long, go crazy chasing it. Keeping plastic covers over the trays can be helpful but then the airflow around the plants is minimized and I get losses from damping off.

Damping off is caused by a soil-borne fungus that attacks and rots a seedling’s stem at and below the soil line. I often hear advice to sterilize your soil to prevent damping off. Don’t do it! Your plants need healthy soil that is alive and full of microbes.

While it is ultimately a fungus doing the damage, it is poor airflow that allows this to happen. Setting up a gentle small fan is not only good for strengthening plant stems grown indoors but preventing damping off as well.

April has also been a cold and snowy month. I find this time of year both exciting and challenging. There is so much light. We have a few scattered warm days with pussy willows busting out, migratory birds returning, and insects buzzing but we also have bitter wind and cold days, snow days, and cloudy depressing days.

With a second high snow year in a row, it is hard not to stress a little about the late spring that compresses the spring chores into a smaller chunk of time.

I spread some old coffee grounds and used peat on the soil over my low tunnel area, but it has not been warm enough or sunny enough to make much of a dent in the knee-deep snow.

My husband got the backhoe going and scraped the driveway down and moved some snow berms. But... there is a limit to how much you can do to speed up spring.

Sometimes it is best to just accept the reality of the weather and the deep snow, have an extra cup of tea, and put something hearty on the woodstove. Winter has not quite given up its grip yet!

My favorite warming meal this month came from the Copper Country Collection. It is a cookbook put together by the Kenny Lake PTO and first published in 2000. It is still in print and available for purchase at Kenny Lake School.

Full of fantastic recipes, the cookbook is a great place to find inspiration to use up veggies from last year’s garden still in the freezer.

From my garden, I used frozen parsley cubes I make by chopping the herb and freezing with water in an ice cube tray, blanched and frozen celery pieces, and carrot cubes I sauté in olive oil until tender and then freeze on a sheet tray before storing in freezer bags, blanched and frozen snap pea chunks (I am too lazy to grow shelling peas), and the last of the potatoes from the crawl space.

I also use tamari in place of the Kitchen Bouquet and homemade garlic salt from garlic I have grown, peeled, dried and ground in a spice grinder. If you can your tomatoes and grow onions, you could nearly make the entire meal from the Alaskan garden. I like this stew with moose, caribou, or bear.

Caribou Stew (Iron Kettle) Tammy Van Wyhe
2 Ib. stew meat, cut in 1” cubes (caribou, beef, etc.) 2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 T. flour 1 c. chopped onions
2 c. canned tomatoes
2 c. water
1 or 2 bay leaves
3 T. parsley
2 T. Worcestershire sauce 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
3 beef bouillon cubes
1 T. Kitchen Bouquet
1 c. chopped celery
2 to 3 c. peeled, chopped potatoes
1 pkg. frozen peas (opt.) 2 c. chopped carrots

Place flour, salt and pepper in a large Ziploc bag and shake to mix. Add stew meat to flour mixture; shake to coat. Brown meat slowly in 2 tablespoons hot shortening.

Add onions, tomatoes, water, bay leaves, parsley, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce, bouillon cubes and Kitchen Bouquet. Simmer, covered, 1 1/2 hours, stirring frequently.

Add celery, carrots and potatoes; add more water if needed. Cover and simmer 30 to 60 minutes more, until vegetables are done. Add peas last 15 minutes if you like.

This makes a large kettle full of stew and freezes well. A family favorite and one guests often request. Perfect served with French bread and a tossed green salad.

From my garden to yours, I am hoping for warm and sunny days in our future to melt all this snow!

Copper County Collection History & Recipes from Kenny Lake Alaska Kenny Lake School Parent Teacher Organization

Thanks to Tenley Nelson for this week’s banner photo.