Grazing gardens in August

Small fruits

Reaching into the middle of the purple raspberries to pick one berry ripe enough to slip from its receptacle with just a tickle, Marjorie said, “This is what the summer’s work is all about, August grazing on the fruits of our labor.”

Indeed, much of the August harvest is eaten in the garden. Picking berries hand to mouth is our way of entering and leaving day’s work; for Lynne it is one of the joys of summer. Only on those few peak days is there enough for putting up, raspberries and blueberries first frozen in single layers on cookie sheets, then packaged and frozen in bulk with thoughts of warm muffins in December.

From late June to mid-July there were strawberries, followed this past week by the peak of raspberries, both red and purple, with highbush blueberries coming on and a bumper crop of table grapes yet to ripen. When Marjorie’s friend, Jane, asks if we plan to make wine, Marjorie says no, most of the grapes will never make it into the house.

Basil leaves

The first week of August produced the season’s first crop of basil. Early one morning, Marjorie gave each of the four large pots a haircut, bringing a pile of basil leaves into the kitchen for microwave drying. The leaves were stripped from their stems, and then small batches were sandwiched between two paper towels and zapped on high for 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

The Internet site that recommended this method cautions against overheating the paper toweling to the point of ignition. Starting with 2 minutes as the recommended minimum length of time, Marjorie determined the optimum time required to produce fully dried leaves that crumbled when crushed. And she watched each batch from start to finish making sure all went well.

Once the precise amount of time was determined the work went quickly, producing a year’s supply of dried basil leaves for soups and sauces. The house smelled like basil all morning.

It has been our most successful effort with basil in recent years. Growing the plants in pots eliminated the slug problem that we experienced in the garden last year and microwave drying proved far superior to the traditional method of hanging the stems upside down in a dark, dry, warm area – we could never find the perfect spot. We were also pleased to discover that microwaved leaves retained their color.

Bumblebees

Bumblebees are grazers, buzzing from one type of flower to another with abandon. I followed one in the garden as it foraged, watched it circle a globe thistle’s flower ball, then disappear inside the folded petals of a monk’s hood, then traverse a spike of goldenrod before flying off.

We harvested stems of these three flowers, again taking what the garden had to offer as a feast for the eyes; blues and yellow, opposites on the color wheel, a combination so appealing to the human eye. I look at the cut flowers and think about the bumblebee, its delight in these same flowers.

Send queries to Gardening Questions, P.O. Box 418, Ellsworth 04605, or to rmanley@ptc-me.net. Include name, address and telephone number.