Tag: gardening

MIXTAPE: Rose Betts’ Cottagecore For Your Ears

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

I feel like I’ve been living a cottagecore life since always. All my interests outside of music line up: I sew my own clothes, read old Russian literature, and I love horse riding, long forest walks, and filling my house with wild flowers and candles – and dreaming of picnics out of baskets, dressed in long skirts with ribbons in my hair and champagne in tea cups. My upcoming album, There Is No Ship, is a love letter to my homeland, [the UK], where a cottagecore lifestyle is a bit easier to achieve than here in LA. But, here’s a playlist with some songs that make me feel closer to it. – Rose Betts

“Do It Again” – John Mark Nelson

John Mark Nelson and I met at a session and as soon as we got to talking about books I realized he was a total keeper and we’ve been friends since. His vibe is so cottagecore. The man’s car smells like a pine forest and he bakes his own bread. I feel like his voice is so cozy and this song just feels like a day inside with the rain against the windows and pleasant feelings of being in love.

“Snow In Montana” – Michigander

My sister considers it illegal to listen to Christmas songs outside of December, but this has to be an exception. I love this song. On whatever side of Christmas I listen to it, it either makes me wistful about the one to come, or pleasantly melancholic about the one just passed. “Snow In Montana” makes anywhere feel cozy, which is quite a feat if you live in LA. I listen to it in the car on the way home from Trader Joe’s with bags full of vegetables and cheese and flowers feeling all stocked up and ready to light candles and get flower-arranging. I own so many small vases so that I can crowd my house out with flowers and make it feel like a garden.

“Deeper Well” – Kacey Musgraves

Her voice is so smooth and rich, I love it. And, her songs have this warmth and natural quality to them that I just want to sink into. Makes me want to rent a cabin in the woods with friends and get a campfire and hot cider going and watch the sparks fly up into the night.

“Wells” – Joshua Hyslop

I’ve been reading Anne of Green Gables lately and those books are so full of nature and the simple life, they make me really want to run away to Prince Edward Island, pick apples, and make jam. This song has that natural feel, like a little stream you sat by for a while and had a beautiful time, but all the while knew you couldn’t stay forever. Anne as a character is wonderfully joyful, but also so tragic, so the meeting of those two qualities felt expressed in this song somehow.

“Inconsolable” – Kate Gavin

A friend who knows me well sent me this song and I listened on loop for days. I love the instrumentation, that lovely fiddle part! One of my favorite things about being a musician is that when my musician friends come round they just start playing whatever instrument is in the house. The other week my friend came round and our hangout consisted of cups of tea, me sewing a top, and him going through my pile of sheet music on the piano. This song has that feeling of shared music… maybe it’s the harmonies or those lovely melodies, either way it reminds me of impromptu musical moments that are just so lovely.

“Bishops Avenue” – Rose Betts

For about a year and a half, some friends and I had the run of a mansion on Bishops Avenue in North London. We put on plays, painted out in the orchard, had renaissance parties and banquets in the ballroom, and it was one of those golden times when everything is just a little more precious and glittery. I feel like it’s how I always want to live, banquets by candlelight and then some creative frivolity of some kind. Moving to LA, it’s hard to find orchards and dilapidated mansions to play in, but I found some playfellows who get into the spirit with me so I get close.

“Tier Abhaile Riu” – Celtic Woman

This song has such a strong feminine energy to it, reminds me of all my creative friends who enrich my life so much. My friend and I hosted an evening where we invited just women to come and share stories and we lit candles and drank Champagne out of teacups and it was total bliss. Something about women together in candlelight talking feels ancient and holy and special in a way nothing else is.

“Skye Boat Song” – Bear McCreary, Raya Yarbrough

I’m lucky to have a twin who lives in Scotland, so I get to visit a lot and even lived there for a while in lockdown. It’s such an amazing part of the world. There is a beach near her village where I’d go for walks as often as I could, where the seals sing and the sky stretches out like a great pearl above your head. So much of songwriting is about finding the silence in the noise, so that the song has space to blossom and so many songs came from those walks. This song I’ve known since before I could remember hearing it, but it became more well known to the world when they used it as the title track for Outlander. This is a beautiful version. It sounds like Scotland to me, full of low skies and colossal lochs and mystery.

“The Author” – Luz

Some songs are so lovely they make me want to stop listening and write a song instead. This is one of those. I’ve started trying to write a poem every morning, just something small to start my day creatively. Then I punch a hole in the paper and hang it off some fairy lights I have around my bed. I think we are all the authors of our own life, which isn’t what this song is saying, but it’s so darn romantic and in its existence turns the singer into the author that tells the girl how she feels. If that makes sense…

“Sigh No More” – Joss Whedon

I heard this song in Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing and it takes a Shakespeare poem and sets it to music. I always really liked it. I have a little book of Shakespeare’s sonnets that I’ve carried around for years and I’m always trying to learn a new sonnet. If I’m bored at some LA party, I’ll get it out and read a sonnet and it puts me in a better mood.

“The Stars Look Down” – Rose Betts

This is off my first EP and I sound so young, which is kind of embarrassing, but also sweet. It’s like hearing a past version of me. I was reading a lot of Russian literature when I wrote this song and it was the mansion period of my life (which I mentioned before for “Bishops Avenue”). I’d just discovered Tolstoy, was reading War and Peace, and this song is full of the stories and vignettes in that book, heroism and love and dreaming and nights of glory followed by disastrous heartbreak. Books have always been where I get the most inspired for my songs, the quality of the writing makes me work harder at my lyrics.

“Mexico” – The Staves

The Staves are a group of sisters who actually come from a town right by the one I grew up in. It’s a place called Watford and is a bit of grey hole of a place. It’s surprising that these three beautiful singers came out of it. I guess music and beauty can come from anywhere, which is how I feel about my life. There’s beauty in everything, and if there isn’t you can bring it. My little apartment in LA is pretty boxy and lightless, but once you add candles and art and music it’s suddenly a little bohemian enclave where I can rest and be creative. Me and family sing together and there’s nothing like families harmonising, which is why I chose this song. Reminds me of the supper table at my childhood home, where we sing before we eat and sometimes after too, and whatever argument or trouble that’s going on disappears for a moment.

Photo Credit: Catie Laffoon

Open Mic: For Misner & Smith, Gardening Helps Their Creativity Thrive

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

(Editor’s Note: Open Mic is a BGS series with a simple premise – to remove all the filters between artist and audience and give musicians and creatives an Open Mic. With each installment, we’ll hold space for musicians to say whatever they’d like on any topic they like in any format that moves them most. It’s about facilitating real conversations and genuine insight with our roots music community.)

It’s been seven years since roots duo Misner & Smith began work on what would become their new album, All Is Song (out April 12). In that time, much has changed about the world. Yet through the simple act of tending a garden, Sam Misner and Megan Smith found inspiration in things that endure.

Grounding themselves in the balance of the Northern California ecosystem, both musicians say the last few years have brought a perspective shift that impacts their lives deeply – and that includes their acclaimed music. Becoming more connected to the land and the natural rhythm of things has freed their minds for creative pursuits, and according to them, it shows up in All Is Song everywhere: lyrically, sonically, and even in philosophic scope.

The duo used their Open Mic to talk about the under-appreciated similarities between gardening and growing a music career. And as a Master Gardener student at UC Davis (who also teaches others the deeply human activity of helping things thrive on the side), Smith recommend The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to learn more about how easy it is to encourage your local habitat.

Sam Misner: For years now, the garden has been a way of being creative, but with no other motivation than observing and cultivating and watching things grow, and being attentive to all of it. There’s a certain kind of awareness and peace that comes from that, because it’s outside of your own self. You’re not trying to showcase anything you are doing. It’s your connection to plants. And Megan truly has been the kind of, I don’t know what you would call it–

Megan Smith: The crazy person?

Sam: [Laughs] Yeah, the crazy person. Her vision for our garden and just what she wants to do with plants has been centered a lot around benefiting pollinators and creating habitats.

Megan: Music and art and gardening, I think they can seem like extracurricular activities. We’re taught from a very young age like, “… and if you have some time, do a hobby like music or gardening.” But I firmly believe that what these things teach you more than anything is that everything you do matters. Every little thing you put into the world has incredible weight. And if you keep pushing towards something that will have a positive and lasting effect, even if it’s a small one, it matters in the grand scheme of things and it makes a difference. And I’m a firm believer of that.

We’ve been doing music for 20 years this month and it’s a hard thing to do. You don’t do that for that long without some degree of faith and understanding that however small an impact you’re making, it matters. And doing the garden the way we’ve done it, it’s a similar thing. We’ve been living in Davis for about 15 years now, and there was nothing here besides a weedy lawn. Over the years, bit by bit, we’ve transformed it into a wildlife garden. And the things that we’ve both seen arrive and make their home here, it’s fantastic. It’s so gratifying, and we feel so privileged and so lucky to have the space in order to be able to do that for our little corner of the world. I think the music is the same.

It’s like, “Hey, we planted milkweed and the monarchs showed up in our garden.” And “Hey, we wrote a song infused with hope and comfort, and people looking for hope and comfort are appreciating it.” That stuff really does have ripple effects out into the world. And I think it is a job, but it’s also something we really do deeply believe in. The garden is just an affirmation in that way.

Sam: There’s something cyclical about it, too. There’s a reminder that things are born, things have their lifespan and things die, but you also see how the things that die aid and help the continuation of the new life that comes. There’s a rejuvenation that happens that you’re kind of reminded of that you don’t always get that in the music business. Another thing about working outside is it gives a mind a chance to wander. It’s not thinking about all the things that we need to get done, and I’ve definitely had lyrics come to me – not fully formed in a song, but like, “Ooh, that’s a cool image,” and I’ll jot it down and it will maybe become part of a song down the road. It’s definitely a place of pausing in a way that gives the body some space. You can’t be in the garden and not be present.

Megan: I do some teaching about gardening here in Yolo County, and everybody asks, “What’s your main advice for somebody who’s a beginner gardener?” I say, “Just learn how to be an observer. Learn how to see things that aren’t obvious. Learn how to hear things that aren’t in your face.” I think our music is definitely influenced by that. We have a line in one of our older songs that’s like, “You may not hear the first time, you have to listen twice,” and it’s about layering different pieces on top of other pieces to make this thing that’s bigger than the sum of its parts. Each song is a story, but it’s also the layering of the arrangements, the harmonies, why we use the harmonies, where we use them. I think that’s very influenced by our experiences with the natural world.

When we first started doing the album, I had a long-time idea that I really wanted to introduce some natural sounds onto the album as sort of palette cleansers in between pieces. Because Sam’s our songwriter, and I am sort of an arranger – that’s my job with the duo. And my feeling was the songs themselves are so delightfully different. None of his songs sound the same, which I love. And so on the album, I wanted there to be few moments of peaceful procession between songs so that you could clear your head for a minute before you heard the next song. There are three interludes, one is a bird song recording of a Fox Sparrow my dad made, and then at the end of the album there’s also crickets, and if you listen in your headphones or earbuds or whatever, you can hear a distant siren. … It wasn’t that we set out to do it from the beginning, but the title of the album reflects on those natural sounds – even that siren. It’s all song. Everything we experience is, in a way, music.

Photo Credit: Giant Eye Photography

WATCH: Hannah Kaminer, “Heavy on the Vine”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Hannah Kaminer
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina (technically Black Mountain, North Carolina)
Song: “Heavy on the Vine”
Album: Heavy on the Vine
Release Date: November 17, 2023 (single); January 5, 2024 (album)

In Their Words: “Over the last few years I started gardening and going to the community garden to learn whatever I could. One day in late summer I showed up and the gardener in charge told me we had to take out all the tomatoes and summer plants. I was stunned because all of those plants were still going strong, in full bloom. She gently let me know that it was time: If we did not take the summer plants out, there would be no fall planting and no fall harvest. Pulling the tomatoes out was a spiritual experience – letting go of one thing so another could grow – but it’s a lot harder when it’s not just tomatoes that you have to let go of. This song is about those moments when your vision narrows and you realize that only a few things in life are actually important, and you find yourself bargaining with the universe for the one thing you want but can’t have.” – Hannah Kaminer

Track Credits: Hannah Kaminer – vocals, guitar
Kevin Williams – keys
Ross Montsinger – drums
Melissa Hyman – bass, harmony vocals
Jackson Dulaney – pedal steel

Photo Credit: John Dupre
Video Credits: Produced by Old Home Place Recordings
Director – Aaron Stone
Audio Engineer – Mike Johnson
Photography – John Dupre
Executive Producers – Tim & Susan Griffin

BGS 5+5: Kelley Mickwee

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Kelley Mickwee
Hometown: Austin, Texas, by way of Memphis, Tennessee

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

All of the elements. Mother Nature, the universe and the natural world are my religion and informs my spirituality, so I’d say nature inspires everything I do. As far as on the daily, I have to do something outside at some point no matter what the weather or where I am or how busy I get. It could be anything, from digging and planting in the garden, pruning, cutting the grass, and watering the plants to taking long hikes with my dog, Moe. If I am in town, you can usually find me at one of our off-leash dog hiking trails with Moe. It’s very centering and really impacts my mental health and general well being. Especially when the sun is shining. And THAT, in turn, gives me the inspiration, energy and right mindset to sit down with a pen or with my guitar to work on a song. Or do anything, really.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Not enough. Ha! I learned pretty early on as a songwriter that for me to write the best lines I can, I have to just speak from experience from the first person and be as open and honest as I can or am comfortable. I definitely have many “character” songs about other people or from their stories, especially songs that are co-writes, because then you are sharing a narrative with another writer so who knows how many people/experiences are wrapped up in that one song? But, in general, I tend to write from a first-person experience or relationship. Especially if it’s a song I write alone or start on my own before sharing with a co-writer.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I think as songwriters, we are constantly getting input from all kinds of sources and storing it away for when we sit down to write a song. This could be anything from a conversation we had, or another song we heard on the radio, or a movie we just watched. I have written several songs from quick lines I wrote down while watching a film or a documentary. And I am always searching for inspiration and guidance from poetry, especially lately. I took an online poetry course in 2020 and it really gave me some new tools to use when writing lyrics.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

This one was easy! A locally sourced vegan meal in London with Paul McCartney. I am actually a pescatarian who doesn’t eat or drink dairy, so not technically a vegan. But…when in London with Paul McCartney!

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Every time! It is not easy for me to complete a song. Very very rarely do they just roll off the end of my pen, or float down from the sky, just waiting to be written down. I have many songwriter friends who have story after story of songs just spilling out of them and it makes me envious of that feeling. I do have one maybe two that came out, say, in a day. But even those were painful and agonizing at times. Like finishing a thesis that’s due the next day. Gosh! That sounds awful. I just mean, I want every line to count and be the best line it can be and as honest and original as possible. I think that’s where the good stuff lives. And so, if it takes me a bit longer to get there, so be it. Because the end result, a song I am proud of and can’t wait to sing, is SO sweet and rewarding, in all of the ways.

Photo credit: Taylor Prinsen

BGS 5+5: Gangstagrass

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Gangstagrass
Homebase: Brooklyn, New York
Latest album: No Time for Enemies
Personal nicknames: Rench the Mastermind, Dolio the Sleuth, R-SON the Voice of Reason, Danjo, B.E. Farrow

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

Back in the Before Time when we were on tour, before getting on stage we huddle up and put our fists in the center, and one of us will start giving a pump-up speech — equal parts church revival preaching and championship game coach pep talk, with some swearing thrown in, and then shout “Gangstagrass!” while we lift our fists up, very much like a little league team huddling before a game. Before that, Dolio the Sleuth does 300 push ups to get the adrenaline going, R-SON creates an R2-D2 replica out of toothpicks and glue, and I set up a poison capsule triggered by a Geiger counter next to a radioactive atom so that we play the entire set in a quantum state. But our huddle is always a good little energy focuser to bring us together for a moment before we step on stage. — Rench

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Earth. I’m a country boy, born and raised in a tradition of pulling nourishment from and communing with the outdoors, so I spend a lot of time in my garden. It helps to keep me grounded and centered, and serves as a sacred space, a place where I can take the gifts of sunlight, soil, and water to raise and enjoy my private Eden. That spiritual centering allows me to focus my pen into channeling the energy I want to deliver unto others … and whenever I can: water. Because I’m from a place on the Gulf, I feel my most comfortable when near a body of water. I tune in to the rhythm of the waves or the trickle of the currents and it turns to music in my mind. — Dolio the Sleuth

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Comic books. All day. It’s rare to find a verse of mine that doesn’t have at least one comics reference. The comics universe is full of interesting characters and references that allow for it to fit and be used a hundred different ways for a hundred different meanings. The best part is when someone in an audience catches one of those references. It makes me know that they’re paying attention and digging what I’m saying. — R-SON the Voice of Reason

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I grew up listening to my dad play in a bluegrass band, so music was always in the house. I think I wanted to be a musician as early as I could want anything. — Danjo

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Special butterflies fly to special places so always follow the oddest path. — Farrow

Photo credit: Melodie Yvonne

The Heat Is On

Posted on by Editor

This year is my third year gardening, but my first Fall garden. What a year to start one! With average U.S. temperatures the highest in almost 100 years, some seeds had to be replanted as the temperatures were too high for consistent germination, with some longer crops, that wouldn’t have time to mature if replanted, struggling to survive until the cooler weather. Whatever happens, the peas seem to power on through.

The big lesson from these extraordinary temperatures is that I don’t rely on first and last prospective frost dates anymore. First frost usually hits Nashville mid-to-late October. This year, we might not get it until early December, although it’s more likely late November. Instead, I’m relying on the more accurate germination rates and soil temperature. For example, carrot seeds will have the highest and shortest germination rate when the soil is in the upper 70s. They will do alright in the upper 60s and low 80s, but then the germination rate drops and the number of days for any to germinate increases. I planted my carrots in September, hoping the temperatures would come down as expected, but they didn’t, so I replanted in early October for a better chance of a healthy harvest.

This is the year I also decided to try to grow one of the most difficult groups of vegetables — the brassicas, which include, kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. The difficulty with this group is mainly due to the obscene amount of pests they attract that are hell-bent on eating them in hours. If you want to grow brassicas, it’s full-on war.

I started by growing the seeds outside. No luck: The cabbage butterflies were all over them and, in a few days, their eggs had hatched and the caterpillars were munching away. Plus, it remained just too darn hot. I managed to salvage the majority and bought them back inside far away from those pesky critters. They grew, and the new leaves were not eaten.

In mid-September, they were planted back outside. Had the forecasts been better, I would have waited; but since they had already germinated into seedlings, at least they had a fighting chance.

The two main pests in my garden which could do the most damage to the brassicas are the purely evil cutworm and the cabbage butterfly caterpillar. The cutworm wraps itself around young seedlings about an inch above ground and squeezes, literally cutting the top of the plant off. Here’s a big fat adult and he’s fat for a reason, as he’s been munching on my carrots for the last few days.

The solution I tried, which worked on my bush beans this year, is putting toothpicks around the stem of the seedling, so it prevents the worm from doing its damage.

I was still losing some plants though and had no idea why until I kept seeing black crickets all over the place! I’m pretty sure they were chomping through the babies that the evil cutworms couldn’t get. I tell ya — it’s carnage out there. I lost about 60 percent of the crop, but being the first year, I’m actually quite pleased with that. I’m a big believer that, when it comes to gardening, you have to try something for three years before giving up on it. Otherwise, there are just too many variables to rule anything out before that time.

The ones that survived were still under attack from the white cabbage butterfly. The best way to deal with them — like pretty much any problem — is prevention. Row covers can overheat the plant,s if the temperatures are still high outside, but you can get fine mesh that will let the breeze in and keep the butterflies out. You can also spray/pick the eggs off daily and keep an eye out for caterpillars and remove them as soon as possible.

As of today, the remaining brassicas are still growing and, a couple of days ago, I could see baby sprouts starting to form.

These are slow growing plants, but with the frost still at least a couple of weeks away here in Tennessee, there will still be a harvest. Next Spring, I’ll try again — even more armed and even more dangerous.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Posted on by Editor

Confession time: This year, I have been growing — or trying to grow — 140 different varieties of vegetables, fruits, and herbs; and I think I bit off a little more than I could chew. This is the most common gardening mistake and I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. (Damn you, seed catalogues!) On top of the amount of extra work and lessons to learn, the Tennessee Summer has been punishingly long and wet. My tomatoes have been a disaster and all the Brassicas seedlings I planted earlier in the year were destroyed by cutworms. I had never heard of cutworms until this year. I have nightmares about them now.

But there has been lots of goodness from the garden, too, so far this year. My big success was the lemon squash, and I cannot recommend them enough. My first year for growing squash, but not my first experiencing the pests that come with them, so I was ready to go to battle against squash vine borers and squash bugs — and I won. (There’s just no getting away from checking plants daily, removing eggs, and squishing any adult bugs.) I planted six plants and harvested nearly 200 squash! They also grow vertically, which is great if you don’t have lots of room. 

It’s been my first year growing melons, too. I chose a French variety called Vert Grimpant because of it’s small size (perfect for one), and because it sounds fancy. I highly recommend that one, too. 

My other great success this year has been the soft fruits — strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. I’ve been growing strawberries since my first gardening year, the early kind that produces all it’s fruit in a few weeks. This year, I added some ever-bearers which produce smaller amounts of berries over a much longer season. I spotted one this morning — fresh strawberries in late August! 

In 2015, I ordered six raspberry plants. They come in the mail as six-inch canes with roots. In one year, from six sticks to this:

Most of the canes have produced fruit already, but new shoots are coming, so I cut them back this week to see if they will produce again. 

The blackberries have been plentiful, as well. They don’t propagate as much as the raspberries, but I’ve still had a bounties for breakfast and jam, with more on the way.

And now, it’s the time of year when the planting begins all over again. The beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, radishes, chard, peas, and beans are coming up already and doing well. I’m giving the Brassicas another go: cabbages, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and the very tricky brussels sprouts. Wish me luck.

Singer/songwriter Susan Enan spends any time not on the road or in the studio working in her East Nashville garden. Follow all the Edible East Nashville action on Instagram.

Homemade Booze: Sparkling Elderflower Wine

Posted on by Editor

I’ve always wanted to have a go at making my own booze, but I’m about as far from a scientist as you can get, so it always seemed a daunting task. That was, however, until I saw a video by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from River Cottage making some sparkling elderflower wine. That was a few years ago, but I vowed as soon as I had a garden, I would plant elderberry bushes and give it a go. You can find them in the wild, too, if you don’t have them in your garden.

A couple of side notes before we begin:

1. If you haven’t heard of Hugh and River Cottage, go and Google. There are loads of videos and recipes online and, if you get the chance to watch Escape to River Cottage or Return to River Cottage, his first two TV shows, binge on them immediately!

2. As the brew continues to ferment after bottling, it can explode — but don’t let that put you off. I was very cautious this year and released some of the fizz out of some bottles as an experiment, but none of the ones I left blew up. So, next year, I’m just going to leave them all. Just to be on the safe side, though, it is worth placing the bottles in a bin with a towel over the top until they are ready to store.

All you need are elderflowers, water, sugar, and lemon juice — that’s it. The elderflowers have a natural yeast in them. You can add additional yeast if fermenting doesn’t start after three days, but I didn’t need to. You’ll also need some bottles. I used swing top one-litre bottles from Speciality Bottles since they have a warehouse here in Nashville. The bottles are a bit of an investment, but I know I’ll be using them for years, so well worth it.

For 10 x 1-litre swing top bottles:
8 cups sugar (1.6kg/3.6lb)
8 lemons (juice and zest)
10 quarts of water
8-10 hand-size heads of elderflowers or 4 cups without the stems.

Boil enough of the water to dissolve the sugar in a food-grade bucket. I got mine from Lowe's. Add in the rest of the water and wait for the liquid to cool down, then add the lemon zest and juice.

Remove most of the stems from the elderflowers — it doesn’t matter about the really smaller ones — and add to the bucket, then cover it with a cloth. Muslin or row covers, which was all I had, work fine, too, as it’s just to stop dust getting in.

After about three days, you should see the elderflowers start to ferment, but you’ll need to leave the mixture for six days altogether stirring once a day for the first five. Then it’s time to drain and bottle.

Pour the mixture into a fresh fermenting bucket through a sieve lined with the cloth/muslin to remove the leaves. Leave it for a few hours to settle, then pour into bottles either using a siphon or jug.

After about another week, the sparkling wine is ready to drink. It stores well, too — up to a year or two in a cool, dry place. I tried it with some friends over the July 4 weekend, and we all decided it’s best served with ice and a couple of "crushed with your fingers" leaves of lemon balm. You could also add vodka for an extra boozy kick.

There are other methods involving fancy equipment for the more serious brewer (demijohns and hydrometers, etc), but this was a really fun, quick, and cheap way to have a go at home brewing. From one elderberry bush that I planted last year, I was able to get about 35 bottles.

Singer/songwriter Susan Enan spends any time not on the road or in the studio working in her East Nashville garden. Follow all the Edible East Nashville action on Instagram.

Message in a Bottle

Posted on by Editor

I have been planting beets since I first started my garden in 2013. But a few young seedlings were being nibbled to the point of losing all the early leaves. Since all that was left was the stem, they didn’t survive. My guess was that birds were the culprits, but there are other possible explanations — including the dreaded cutworm, which wraps itself around the stem and squeezes until the top breaks off. I was losing too many beets to not try to do anything about it.

This Spring, after the latest attack, I resowed seeds and placed small plastic bottles over each one to see if that would protect them. I didn’t lose one plant. 

I also decided to put bottles over the rainbow chard, and bigger bottles over squash and melons. Once the seedlings grew too large, the bottles were removed and the plants thinned out where necessary.

I’ve discovered there are many other advantages to using bottles. Previously, I would remove the mulch from the beet bed, sow, and then replace the mulch once the seedlings were tall enough. That meant mounds of mulch over the garden in the meantime. But when using the bottles, the mulch can go back on the bed straight away, since the bottles create a safe barrier.

They also provide each plant with its own mini greenhouse, whilst allowing ventilation through the top. (Although I haven’t tried it yet, I suppose you could also place the lid back on top, if temperatures dropped and you had bottles over plants that were susceptible to that.) Also, the condensation that gathers inside effectively keeps the soil moist, so I haven’t had to water them — with help from the Tennessee rain.

This idea isn’t new to gardening — just to me. Farmers have been using glass cloches for centuries, and although I’d much rather have glass bottles in my garden, plastic ones are a good alternative. From now on, I’m going to be planting the beet seeds like this from day one.

Singer/songwriter Susan Enan spends any time not on the road or in the studio working in her East Nashville garden. Follow all the Edible East Nashville action on Instagram.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Posted on by Editor

When I was a student, I lived in Liverpool, England. Decades after their break-up, the Beatles’ presence could still be felt everywhere. I even spent a year with my bedroom window overlooking Penny Lane. My Brother moved there two years before me and once gave me a tour around all the famous Beatles locations, including "Strawberry Fields."

This season, where strawberries are king, always throws me back to those days.

Strawberries are one of the easiest foods to grow in your garden and, if you haven’t already got a patch, I hope this post will get you thinking about starting one. Although the fruiting season is now, there is still plenty of time to get plants in the ground which will fruit next year. I planted my first patch in August after a friend gave me some runners — the shoots the parent plant puts out.

Here are a few strawberry basics:

1. There are two basic varieties of strawberry: one which will give you all it’s fruit over about three weeks (great for jam making), and one called an ever-bearer, which will give smaller amounts of fruit for longer (better if you want them to eat straight from the garden in smaller quantities). I have patches of both.

2. A strawberry plant will last about four years. Years two and three will give you the most fruit, so it’s a good idea to try to keep plants of the same age together so you know when to replace the old with new. Since they produce a lot of runners, you’ll be able to keep making new rows with enough to give away to friends for them to start their own beds.

3. When the fruits are beginning to turn red, cover your patch with bird netting; otherwise, you’ll regret it! And, if you are still seeing little holes in your berries, it’s probably slugs, so leave some beer traps out overnight.

Even if you don’t grow your own, or don’t have enough from your garden, it’s a great time to support a local grower and have a go at making your own jam. I made my first batch last year and I don’t mind telling you that I thought it would be a lot more work than it actually was, especially since I was preserving in jars, as opposed to keeping it in the freezer. But, after a few more tweaks to the recipe this year, I am so happy with this jam that I have no intention of ever changing it. Making strawberry jam has now officially been crossed off my gardening learn-how-to-do list. And even better — there is no refined sugar in it — only honey.

STRAWBERRY JAM WITH HONEY

INGREDIENTS

For approximately every 8 oz jar of jam you will use:
1 generous cup chopped strawberries
1 Tbsp pectin (I used Ball Real Fruit Classic Pectin)
1/4 cup honey
1/3 Tbsp lemon juice

You will also need 8 oz mason jars and it’s a good idea to buy a jam canning utensil kit so you don’t burn yourself. Ball makes a great one for under $10 (which is sold at Target, Walmart, Amazon, and Bed, Bath & Beyond). If you grow your own strawberries, each jar will cost a total of about $1.17 to make.

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, mash up the strawberries with a potato masher. A couple of minutes mashing should do it. You don’t want to lose too much texture. I make eight jars at a time, so I’m working with 8 cups.

2. Add 1 Tbsp of pectin per cup of strawberries and mix in.

3. In a large pan or pot, bring the berries and pectin to a boil — boil for about a minute, stirring occasionally.

4. Take the pan off the heat. Add the honey and lemon juice. Mix well.

5. Put back on the heat and boil for about 10 minutes, again, stirring occasionally. You’ll see foam starting to form around the edge of your pan. Try to skim off as much of that as you can.

6. After the jam has boiled, take it off the heat and leave to cool for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to aid the cooling process. Now it’s ready to be ladled into your jars.

Just an extra note here: I made my first batch without leaving it to cool slightly before canning and the fruit rose to the top. As the finished jars were cooling, I shook them occasionally to help it all to settle, but cooling for a few minutes first seemed to help.

PREPARING THE JARS

Submerge your jars and lids in boiling water and leave them to boil for 10 minutes. I use an old stock pot for this which will take eight jars at a time. Lift them out onto a towel until you are ready to fill them with your jam. They should air dry very quickly, but try not to let the jars cool completely before filling. They may crack when you plunge them back into the boiling water.

Once the jam is in, wipe away any mess around the top of the jars with a paper towel and put the lids on. Then, put them back into the pot and boil for another 10 mins. Lift them out again and place them back on the towel to cool completely.

You now have jam that will keep until next strawberry season! And, once you’ve tasted your home-made version, anything from the store is not going to come close.