This morning, after dropping my daughter off at work, I immediately headed out to do some work by the main gate before things got too hot.
I was already too late.
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Getting Ready
While we are ready and waiting for my husband to come home from the hospital, we are also getting ready for Easter.
This evening, I went hunting for horseradish.
After scraping away some fallen leaves, I found some new grow peaking through the ground. I used a potato fork (the only fork that didn’t grow legs and walk away over the years) to dig up a few pieces.
This bunch is growing under the power pole in the garden. I knew the area was very rocky, but wow. I had a really hard time getting that fork deep enough to get some roots out. No matter where I moved it, I was hitting rocks, just a couple of inches below the surface.
I didn’t take out much. A larger piece for our own basket, and a couple of small pieces for my mother. If she wants, she can use one and plant the other, since she has garden space where she lives.
For now, I’ve scrubbed the dirt off, and they are wrapped in damp paper towels. For our basket, I will peel some of the outer skin off the lower part, and save the top. The tradition is to use horseradish paste, mixed with beetroot, in the basket; the bitter taste of the horseradish symbolizes the pain of crucifixion Christ endured for us, while the sweetness of the beetroot symbolizes the joy of the resurrection. Growing up, though, we always used fresh horseradish root. My mother would sometimes give away pieces with sprouting tops, after the baskets were blessed, to friends to plant if they wanted.
My mother planted the horseradish in strange places. One batch is under a spruce tree, which would be just as difficult to harvest as the ones growing among rocks. I found more growing among some of her flowers outside the living room window, which has better soil conditions, but harvesting it would mean damaging the bulbs of the flowers it’s growing with.
I’m thinking of maybe using some of the raised planters that are still in decent shape, so the horseradish itself will also be contained better, and not spread too much.
Something to figure out over the next few days!
Meanwhile, I will now go and boil some eggs to make pink pickled eggs. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Surprise finds
This morning we had some very welcome rain. We are also supposed to hit above 30C today, with chances of thunderstorms, so I decided to do a check around the yard and see if any more branches had come down, etc.
There were a few small branches, but as I went around the other house (I think I should call it the storage house, though we aren’t storing anything in there ourselves), I found a surprise.
Remember this tree?
The dead one on the right of the picture, with the crows nest in it?
This is what it looked like today.
Yeah, the crows nest is now almost hidden by greenery.
The trunk to the right is part of the tree, too, and is dead, but the trunk with the nest had suddenly sprouted leaves.
Just a few days ago, there was NO sign of life in that trunk. Not even buds. The only living thing growing on that trunk was moss and lichen.
Many of the branches are still dead or mostly dead, but fresh leaves have burst out all over the place.
The dead trunk had a large branch leaning on the disconnected power line running to the storage house, while the rest of it leans above it, holding up a broken, though still living, branch from another tree.
So I decided to take some of that down.
After taking down the branch on the disconnected power line with the extended pruning saw, I made the initial cut on the dead trunk higher up, where it was most vertical, so that I could guide the fall straight down, rather than have it falling sideways onto the power line. Granted, the power line is only held up by a tree outside the yard, but I still didn’t want anything landing on it, as much as I can avoid it. Then I cut the trunk again, lower down in a spot I could access with the bow saw.
As I was cleaning up after all this, I found another surprise, by the branch that had come down earlier in the month.
I had gone over this area with the weed trimmer as much as I could, and it was basically all just grass. I guess clearing it as much as I did was enough to spur the growth of some hidden horseradish!
I had no idea horseradish had ever been planted here!
When we first moved to the city we were living in before coming back here, we used to hike in the river valley trails a lot. The first spring we explored the trails, I was seeing horseradish growing wild, all over the place. It was like a weed! I’ve never seen anything like it, anywhere else. I like that it is such a resilient plant.
With big, healthy horseradish growing in other areas of the yard, I will not be making any effort to keep these when I come back with the weed trimmer, but it was still cool to find them.
The Re-Farmer
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I found them!
With this wonderful rain we’ve been having, there has been so much new growth.
When I had the chance to go around the house with the weed trimmer, I found a lovely surprise.
The horseradish has emerged.
In two places!
I found the first one in the end of the flower garden, where we’ve been putting feed out for the birds and deer. I had just moved the bird feeder stand into that area, shifting about to find the most steady spot for it, and it was most certainly not there, just a few days ago.
In fact, it’s growing out in one of the first spots I’d set the stand. If it had been a bit more level around there, the base of the stand would have been right on top of it!
The other greenery, my mom tells me are weeds.
I now know which spruce tree by the house my mom meant, when she told me where she transplanted the horseradish intentionally.
It’s partly hidden by saplings and other growth.
Both areas have been cleared up a bit with the weed trimmer; some of it, I’ll have to come back with the pruning shears I found.
Using one of the 100 ft extension cords my older brother gifted to us, so we could have electricity to plug in our van in the winter, was enough for me to go around much of the house, as well as most of the south end of the yard. There were just a couple of places I couldn’t reach.
While working around one area by the fence, I saw a frog hopping in the grass. A wood frog, which is very common around here. I wasn’t able to get a picture, though. Ah, well. We may not see them much, but we sure hear them a lot, in the evenings!
I was glad to get the trimming done, but it was so muggy, my face was just dripping, even though I wasn’t exerting myself at all. It wasn’t even particularly hot – only about 18C.
There had been predictions of more rain this afternoon, but that seems to have changed. After that, there’s no rain predicted until more storms are supposed to arrive on Wednesday, so we should have time to mow the lawn and build that gate. :-)
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 