A couple years ago Mom bought Dad a Mantis garden tiller, one of those little gas-powered cultivators one often sees in ads at the back of gardening magazines.  Dad loved digging with his trusty shovel and despite my best efforts at showing him how to use the beast, he preferred the old-fashioned way. Although I put in a garden for Dad last year, shortly before he died, I didn't have much interest in tending it and so the little tiller sat unused in the back yard for two years.

The garden at my folks' house had been a bone of contention between Mom and I; I didn't cultivate it like I should have, and weeds overtook Dad's carefully tended space by the end of the season. Despite this fact, the Heatwave tomatoes I had planted produced their little hearts out, and I still have a gallon or so of stewed tomatoes in the freezer. Mom and I finally agreed earlier this year that we would take out the fence and let the garden go back to lawn.

A few weeks ago, there was an article in the paper about the rising cost of food and how more and more people are gardening as a way to defray the cost of eating. I had been quietly collecting heirloom seeds for a garden I was planning on the south side of the house, so when Mom told me about the article I mentioned my growing seed collection. She then suggested we put in another garden, which took me completely by surprise given the problems we had over the darned thing last year.

Now, I will be the first to admit that my interest in growing more of our own food is fueled in large part by what's going on in the economy today although I've always been interested in gardening and animal husbandry. So, when Mom offered the garden again my heart skipped a beat. I saw a way to grow the lower producing, unproven heirloom varieties AND have a mirror-image garden with known producing plants.  And, I remembered the Mantis tiller.  Figuring it could be what I need to keep the garden weeded (and eliminate the garden-related angst between Mom and I) I agreed to put in and maintain the garden; in return Mom pays the water and gets whatever she wants (or wants to give away) from the garden.

I've tilled about 1/3 of the old garden and have a row of Early Girl tomatoes (I can't find my beloved Heatwaves!) planted and staked. There's a lot of grass in there, and I was picking long Bermuda grass stems from between the Mantis' tines. Mom reminded me that she has the dethatcher attachment, so I am going to dethatch THEN till the rest.

As for my heirloom garden; the south side hasn't been worked for a long, long, LONG time. It was bare due to lack of water, and combined with my almost compulsive weed-picking for the critters, didn't have much plant material to deal with. The Mantis did a good job; it took me about an hour to till a 10' by 20' stretch.  I added a few sacks of rabbit manure (not enough, but it was all I had at the time) and tilled it in, and yesterday planted the dozen Black Krim tomatoes I had started. I'm hoping to plant Hopi corn, tepary and Flor de Mayo beans and Mandan squash, seeds I had swapped for (or in the case of the squash, was given with the understanding I send seeds back this fall.)  I have some New Zealand blue pumpkins too, but I don't want to plant them close to the mandan squash. I plan on hand pollinating for seeds, but I'd rather not take any chances with having the two varieties so close. I'll put the pumpkins up at Mom's garden.

In the kitchen; I still need to make another batch of yogurt from a half gallon of milk that was dated this past Sunday. It still smells good, so I'm going to use it.  Since learning to thicken yogurt by straining the whey (which the chickens love so it doesn't go to waste) I'm eating a lot more of the stuff. Nothing tastier than a nice thick Greek styled strained yogurt with honey.

Though I have to try it with the grapefruit marmalade I made today from this recipe at about.com. Man, is that stuff GOOD! I cooked it a little too long and scorched it just a tiny bit, but it still tastes awesome. Not bad for my first marmalade and my first attempt at cooking jam/jelly without pectin The grapefruit taste is real subtle... The Man says it tastes citrusy but not specifically grapefruity. Mom's not allowed to eat grapefruit due to medications she is taking, but she said she'd like to try a little bit. I'm going to make another batch, as The Man brought home enough grapefruit to feed an army. Bless his heart... I told him I wanted a few grapefruit for marmalade, and I ended up with about 10 lbs worth. I'd like to figure out what to do with the stuff before it goes bad. I've already had it for over a week and although it's getting a bit dry it's still good.  For how long I don't know, so I've got to figure out something!  I also need to make orange marmalade for Mom. She used to make all these fabulous jams and jellies when I was a kid, but had no desire to do so anymore so it's my turn.