It's Spring, My Deer

I finally feel like spring has arrived. This was the first truly mild weekend, warm enough to get the whole family outside working on the yard. And my task was to prepare the vegetable garden.

I have always planted a vegetable garden; I was brought up expecting one each summer. My mother always planted tomatoes and a few other favorite veggies when I was growing up in Poughkeepsie. She found room in a flower bed at the bottom of our deck stairs, and we needed constant reminders not to trample it when friends came to play in the yard. My Aunt Mary's husband had a fine large plot with a huge variety. They would wake up early on a foggy summer morning, sit by the window to sip their coffee, and get startled by the hunched over figure of my grandmother, who had "driven over to pick the new zucchini before they got too big."

And when I moved to this house in August 1994, the previous owners had already planted a huge garden with full grown tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, raspberry bushes all ready to pick. Those tomato plants were like trees, I seem to recall: I think he was a bit addicted to Miracle Gro... Over the years, I redesigned the garden, eliminated the rows of grass between the beds, mulched instead, and finally fenced it in with chicken wire and posts. But that fence wasn't very sturdy, and after a few years it rotted and fell over in spots.

Here in Chester County there is rampant deer over-population. The township meeting battles between the animal lovers and the hunters would be entertaining if the issue weren't so serious. Sometimes deer are lying down in my backyard, comfortable and at home, when I drive one of the kids to school in the winter darkness. When my high beams shine on them, they lazily lift their heads, squinting at me as if to say, "Hey, someone's trying to sleep here, can you turn down those lights??"

So last year when I planted my garden, I put up a makeshift chicken wire fence, about 3 feet tall, with no gate, before I left for Maine for two months. I am pretty sure I saw the deer snickering with one another as I hammered in the little 1"x1" corner posts. The fence succeeded in keeping out the rabbits, who covet my arugula and sugar snap peas, but within a week, the deer could step right in. They got pretty good: they used to challenge each other not to drag a toe nail on the actual fencing, or to compete at how far back they could leap and still clear the wire. By early July, they had eaten not only the infant tomatoes, but the entire plants down to about a foot off the ground. (No fools, these deer -- they knew to leave just enough plant to continue supporting photosynthesis and growth, so they could decimate them further over the summer).

I had had enough. Last fall, when I returned from Maine, I was armed with plans for a sturdier, taller, and more attractive fence. I purchased pressure treated 4"x4"s for the corners, 2"x2"s for side support, all six feet long, set the corners a foot deep in concrete for stability (I wasn't playing games), and used TWO layers of chicken wire to be 5' tall, taller than the Guinness book world record for deer high jump. But the piece de la resistance is my gate. I framed it with 2"x4"s and a cross-support, used actual drills and power tools to screw it together, and crowned it with a latch onto the whole shebang. That's right. You can see a photo of my new beautiful fence at the top of my blog. I can tell you, the neighborhood deer are stymied.

All of this brings me to the joy of yesterday, planting the garden inside my new gate, which feels study as a house to me. Fessing up, I will admit that I'm a bit tardy: in this area, cold-weather veggies should be planted between St. Patrick's Day and April Fools Day, but the weather seems a bit tardy, too, this year. My daughter and I planted seeds for sugar snap peas (her fave), beets (mine), Swiss chard, mesclun and arugula. Those will all grow and be harvested before late June when we leave for Maine. After mothers day, I will plant four heirloom tomato plants and green beans and more herbs, which will all grow and be ready for our return home in August. My potted basil, parsley, rosemary, cilantro, dill and thyme are good little plants by now. They will transport to Maine for the summer, plus I've sown more herb seeds into my back porch planters.

All those hours of weeding, tilling, soil-turning, and seed-sowing occupied me until 6:30 last night, so the roast chicken dinner I'd planned was no longer possible. Instead, I turned to an old favorite from Lynne Rossetto Kasper's Italian Country Table, a pantry-ready "quickie" which cooks in the time it takes the pasta water to boil. My son cooked while I prepped, and the dish satisfied all of us, tired from a day of yard labor.

Spaghetti With Tuna and Black Olives (This is basically Lynne's recipe, but I have changed a few quantities, and I used capellini.)
Prepare the ingredients while the pasta water is coming to a boil. In a food processor, finely chop 2 large cloves garlic, 2 tightly packed tablespoons fresh parsley leaves, and 1/8 tsp. sea salt. Dice one medium red onion. Chop 4 anchovy fillets, and chop 1/3 c. oil-cured olives.
While pasta is cooking, saute the garlic, parsley, and onion in 3 Tbsp. olive oil. on med. low for 5 minutes. Add 1/3 c. pasta water and cook to nothing. Add the anchovies plus 4 tablespoons of tomato paste, plus another 1/2 c. pasta water. Stir in one can of oil-packed tuna. Add the drained pasta and toss well, adding some more water if it seems dry. Top with fresh-ground black pepper, the chopped olives, and 2 tablespoons vinegar-packed capers, drained.
We put crushed red pepper and grated loccatelli on at the table, but cheese is not traditional on Italian fish dishes.