grow lettuce grow

getting some produce love from the garden in january!!!

2012-01-04T16:09:00.000-08:00

it's been a little dry here lately, so i though i'd go out, check under the row cover, and water the fall garden. i really didn't expect to find much new going on. i knew the swiss chard had taken a hit the other night after the row cover had gotten blown off and a light snow fell on the exposed leaves. and i knew the the mustard greens were doing pretty good after i quickly reached under the covers two nights ago and picked some for our soup. but i really had no idea as to what was happening with the beets and turnips. well surprise, surprise!!!!!

look at that little garden grow!!!!!

it looks good from up here, let's take a closer look.

what the heck!!!!

there are some turnips growing in there!!!

who knew?? not me. i wasn't expecting that at all.

i was just gonna do a little watering.

see the little bit of purple top peeking out.... that's me turnips!!

there was quite a few of them out there in various stages,

so i just pulled out a few to see what they looked like.

aren't they pretty!!??!!

the rest of the turnips i'll leave in the ground for awhile and harvest as needed. if we get more frost or a big freeze, in the end, that will just make them sweeter as the plant sends all it's sugars down to the roots for survival. and the row cover is proving to be useful at keeping the frost from damaging the green leaves. as for the beets, well, they were a failure. but if i remember correctly, i did not give them as much love as i did the turnips in the beginning, so i may only have myself to blame. i pulled up all the beets, which were growing in the middle, and that made it easier to water both the mustard greens and turnips, so c'est la vie. the swiss chard was looking a little sad under it's tent, so either the snow did it's deadly deed, or the soil was simply a little dry. i gave them some water, and with the temperatures rising a bit this week, we'll have to wait and see if they perk up over the next few days. stay turned!!

now just image what i can do once i get around to building cold frames and proper row cover!!!!

the dirty dozen for 2012

2012-01-03T06:16:00.000-08:00

call them goals, call them resolutions, call them what you want, here are a few things i wish to work on for 2012....

1. eat better, exercise more, drop 20, 25, 30 pounds, blah, blah, blah....

2. be a nicer person and don't gossip. do what i wanna do, and don't tell others how to behave.

3. learn to knit.

4. sew a complete outfit.

5. work more on my bloggy blog.

6. spend more time in the kitchen learning new things, especially cheese making.

7. brush my dogs' teeth at least every other day.

8. read 1 book a month.

9. keep up and organize the bill pile, along with organizing and downsizing the house.

10. create a 4 season garden that will hopefully, one day, provide all our produce.

11. enter at least 5 juried contests and take pictures, take pictures, take pictures........

12. spend more time, getting to where i'm going, by foot, bike, bus, or train.

and for our baker's dozen bonus....

13. GET CHICKENS!!!!!!!!!!!!

happy new year.

my best to you and yours.

fall garden covered

2011-12-22T06:34:00.000-08:00

a little garden update... not much of a fall garden happening here. i did manage to plant some turnips, beets, and mustard greens along with the swiss chard from earlier this season that is still going pretty strong. with the temps getting pretty low in the evening, i decided to put some row cover over the plants. since i didn't really build anything or plan for this, my little jacked up system consisted of a few poles with either wine or beer bottles placed over them so the poles wouldn't poke through the fabric, four sheets of row cover, and some landscaping staple thingys to secure down the cover. next year i hope to have a nicer looking system, but till then this seems to be working pretty well.

before cover.

after cover.

after this picture was taken i also made a little tent like home

out of row cover for the swiss chard as well.

hey man, it's cozy in here.

goal for 2012: tomato crafts

2011-12-21T06:46:00.000-08:00

dang, i wanna learn to knit/crochet my own little veggie patch.

along with scarves, gloves, booties, and more....

tomato by: locoMOmomma

one of many goals for 2012

2011-12-13T17:11:00.000-08:00

not only to do more photographing, but to look this stylish while doing so.

photo of and by: Vivian Maier

lifted from: http://www.vivianmaier.com/

garden break = photo work and better plans for next year

2011-11-23T04:12:00.000-08:00

portland chickens

now that the little fall garden is pretty much set, it becomes a beet and turnip waiting game. time to move the activities inside and spend the winter organizing the house for an upcoming move, working on bigger and better plans for next years garden (well, as much as i can plan not knowing where said garden will be), and taking more time to work on my photos. once again, it's time to dust off the little green camera and get to it man!!

swiss chard says, "cold, what cold?"

2011-11-21T07:39:00.000-08:00

fall is here, but the swiss chard is handling the low overnight temps nicely.

which is a good thing for the christmas lima bean soup i'm making this evening.

last summer harvest

2011-11-15T05:56:00.000-08:00

while i may not have a lot of time to write full posts these days, i will fill you in on a few updates via photos and quick comments. hopefully, life will start to fall into order soon..... hopefully.

last of the summer loot.

harvested as we were cleaning out the garden the other day.

lots of swiss chard, zebra tomatoes, lots of green tomatoes for pickling and frying, just a small bit of basil that survived the two nights of light frost, some sage rescued from under neath the mass of tomato plants, a few handful of hot fish peppers for drying, and 3 small volunteer potatoes.

bye, bye, summer garden

2011-11-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

it is a sad, sad sight out there.

the summer garden is officially done for and cleared away.

my heart is sad.

more updates to come.

garden photo test #1

2011-09-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

Lemon Cucumber August 2011

still not to sure about this one, but it's starting to grow on me.

(no pun intended.)

squash vine border!!!!!! life ruiner!!!!!!!!

2011-08-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

dear squash vine border,

you suck and i hate you.

i've got row cover now,

and i'm not afraid to use it.

(august 21st. bored to death.)

unfortunately, wrapping the base of the plants with burlap didn't work, so yet again, the dreaded squash vine border has reeked total destruction on my squash plants. first it was the winter squash earlier in the season, now my summer squash are toast. i knew i was taking a bit of a risk planting them so late anyway, but the little buggers were doing pretty good and i got about 4 tiny zucchini and 2 itty bitty yellow necks before the plants started to completely die. such annihilation could not be blamed on just the pesky squash bug, which aren't that bad to deal with since they move fairly slow and are easy to catch a squish, but rather the dread squash vine border, whose adult moth is one quick flying little monster.

(july, 15th, about 2 weeks old.)

so, here i go, squash experiment #3.... row cover. after pulling up all the squash plants today, i plan on waiting a few days (to let all the missed buggies die out or leave.... especially you spotted cucumber beetle, don't think i didn't see you out there today as well) and then i'm attempting round three with the little bit of summer we have left. this time i'm gonna employ some row cover to keep all the buggies off. however, this method will require me to go out and manually pollinate the plants. that's right folks, more squash lovin. but not to worry, the turn table and outdoor speakers are up and running, so there will be a little bit of mood music for the occasion.

(august 5th, looking good (pre vine border) with netting to keep out the squirrels.)

will keep ya posted on how the row cover goes. hopefully, i will have my method perfected by next spring.

and i call him, BIG RED.....

2011-08-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

(german johnson pink)

i didn't mean to pick him. he came off the vine when i was trying to clear out the three other big boys that the squirrels had decimated. i put him in the window with the other early picked tomatoes to ripen. (your really rolling the dice out there if you leave any orange on the vines for the squirrels to see.) i'm sure he would be more tasty if left on the vine, however a "not as tasty" tomato is better than no tomato at all. and, when all was said and done (as seen above), he had no trouble coming into his own in the safe and sound confines of the kitchen.

in other news, it's been a weird summer in regards to our travel schedule. normally we rarely go anywhere, and hardly does anyone come visit us. but, for the past year or so, it seems that's all we do. we hosted folks for thanksgiving and easter, my sister visited, we went to both memphis and chicago for extended weekends, spent over a week up north in michigan, my mommy is coming to visit next month (which is awesome 'cuz she hasn't seen any of the places i've lived in over 10 years, and has never met mr. keebs..), and i just now planned a trip out to portland for next month as well. this makes it somewhat difficult to keep tabs on posting, and with all the coming and going, makes it near impossible to track our household food spending, yet again, steering me off track with my 3G project. but, what i do have for you at the moment is a tally of food harvested from my little backyard garden ranging from the dates 7/21 - 8/9, along with a few pix from along the way.

July 20th

July 21st

August 2nd

August 3rd

picked August 4th, photo taken August 11th

August 5th

August 9th

harvest totals for 7/21-8/9

amish paste: 3 lbs. 14.6 oz.

juliet: 1 lb. 14.2 oz.

sweet 100: 6.8 oz

german johnson pink: 13 oz.

green zebra: 3 lbs. 5.1 oz

lemon cukes: 2 lbs. 8.4oz.

giant marconi: 2 lbs. 0.5 oz.

banana peppers: 11.6 oz.

misc. red pepper: 4 oz.

garden salsa pepper: 1.1 oz.

golden bell peppers: 1 lb. 8.4 oz.

garden sunshine pepper: 1.2 oz.

where have i been?????

2011-08-05T05:38:00.000-07:00

on vacation!!!!!!

up north where the weather was much cooler, and the water crisp and clear. but, now i am home and dealing with bills, laundry, work, and over a weeks worth of garden maintenance to catch up on. so, as soon as i'm settled in, it's back to business. soon i'll tell you all about the fun we had on vacation, and all the fun the squirrels had in the garden while we were on vacation.

quick harvest

2011-07-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

last night's quick harvest to supplement produce already in the house.

making black beans and canning pepper "ketchup."

1 onion

handful of sage leaves

6 springs of oregano

3 banana peppers (3.9 oz.)

3 giant marconi peppers (8.9 oz.)

2011 canning season has begun....

2011-07-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

and one must post an embarrassing pic to prove it.

wooden spoon... check.

big chopping knife.... check.

funky vintage apron.... check.

portrait of oneself that looks like your getting ready to kill and cook giant flying mosquitoes....

check.

let's get canning!!!

backyard bonanza

2011-07-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

mexican sour gherkins.

oh cheese and crackers y'all, the garden is producing pretty good today.

luckily i got everything harvested and watered before it got really, really, really hot out there.

now i just gotta start cooking, eating, and canning all the garden loot.

red chinese long beans, lemon cucumbers, and four kinds of tomatoes....

clockwise: green zebra, amish paste, juliet, and sweet 100.

and when they say long bean....

they ain't kidding.

(sorry about the focusing issue.

but you get the idea.)

oops....
i almost forgot to post this picture of the goodies i harvested last thursday....

garden salsa and banana peppers, juliet tomatoes, and lemon cucumbers.

2011 Garden Harvest: a new blog page

2011-07-18T06:17:00.000-07:00

(drying onions outback on my sun ministries picnic table.)

hello dear folks. i have added yet another page to this here blog. you can now look back at what i have harvested from the garden so far this year (well, at least, most of it). in the future i want to set up a weighting station in the garden to get a better, and more accurate, measure of how much food is being produced out there. till then, you can follow the harvest on the new 2011 Garden Harvest page.

enjoy,

and thanks for reading.

the dirty days and sweaty mornings are paying off!!!!!!

2011-07-18T06:09:00.000-07:00

saturday night's supper plate.

well, would you look at that!!! the other night the hubby asked, "what are we having for supper?" my response was, "whatever you bring me from in the garden." needless to say, it was me who ventured out into the backyard to gather the grub. paired with a smoked pork chop from G&W (which btw, is like crack!! soooo delicious!!), we had mashed potatoes, sauteed swiss chard and onions, and a summer salad of lemon cucumber, two kinds of peppers, tomatoes, basil, and lemon balm. oh, and did i mention that ALL of the produce came out of my backyard garden. all the hard work is really starting to pay off with some yummy delicious food. food, glorious, homegrown food!!

truck farm.... i want one!!!

2011-07-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

last weekend st. louis's own truck farm was hanging out at the tower grove farmer's market, so you know the hubby and i had to go check it out. the truck is totally awesome and, of course, now i want one. what a romantic idea it would be to drive around the country in a mobile veggie garden teaching folks what fun it is to grow your own food. there is also a short film about the the truck farm project with screenings around the country. unfortunately, i had to work on the night the they screened the documentary here in town. luckily, you can watch a few excerpts from the film and read more about the project on the Truck Farm website. cool stuff.

p.s. i also want......

a grill station on wheels
(although, what i would cook up and serve is beyond me)

and an old firetruck ice cream truck.

p.s.s. but want i really really want is......

a vintage ice cream tricycle to sell homemade popsicles!!

photo jacked from old bike.

good bye (for now) winter squash

2011-07-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

after weeks of pruning, re-routing, stepping over, and watching the squirrels destroy all my efforts with in a few days, all the winter squash had been pulled from the garden. it's a sad feeling, but also a liberating one as well. because, one of the biggest things i've learned this year is, never underestimate being able to walk freely through your garden. moving through the pathways should not be an exercise in balance and agility. but all is not lost. i'll simply chalk up the 2011 the winter squash/three sister garden debacle to a very sweaty and dirty lesson learned. so, now i give to you the few bits of wisdom i gained through this experience, and perhaps in doing so, map out a better plan of attack for next year.

1. winter squash vines grow very fast and long.

and once done so, are very hard to maneuver around without stepping on them or cracking a leaf steam. seen here, one squash plant has over run the potatoes and is heading towards the onions.

here a different squash vine is invading the cucumbers and will shortly take over a few pepper plants.

now with all the winter squash removed, i can walk around the garden again.

it also makes room for a second round of potatoes.

2. two sisters may just be enough.
once the sunflowers really got going and produced huge leaves, the squash plants in the middle of the three sisters layout failed to get enough light to thrive. also the squash started to climb up and pull down the sunflowers, as well as, the beans that were trying to grow up them. so for next year i'll try planting bush varieties of summer squash, and setting them only around the perimeter in the three sister garden.

(the calm before the storm)

3. the little prickers on the squash vines hurt.
those suckers are not pleasant when they get under your skin, and are very hard to see and remove from in between your finger. of course, that problem was easily solved by a pair of garden gloves. and even though i really don't like wearing garden gloves cause they make my hands really hot, in this case, i'll just have to grin and bear it. plus i did find some cute and cheap ones USA made.

4. row cover just night be the way to go... dang squash vine boarders!!!
i should have known the minute i spotted the adult moth that trouble was on the way. i should have also covered my stalk bases with burlap. at one point i though i might be in the clear after doing a little squash surgery, but as it turns out, in the end that method didn't work out so well for me. you see, i read that if you see little sawdust like holes in the base of your squash vine, you can cut it open and removed any worms, then cover it back up with a big pile of dirt and all will be well. (in theory at least.)

(that base does not look good.)

(a little squash surgery to get the day started.)

see, you would think i was in the clear from the picture above with no worms spotted in the base. but, you'd be wrong. i did cover this plant back up with dirt, gave it some extra water, however within a week or two, once i started pulling out all the squash, almost everyone, including this one, had live active little white wiggly squash vine border worms. yuck.

therefore, next year, i'm gonna try using row cover. which has it's down side cause the good buggies can't come around and pollinate your female squash for you. but, one thing i didn't have any trouble with this year, was getting my grove on with the squash flowers. which leads us to lesson #5...

5. squash sex is kinda fun.
once you learn to identify the male flowers from the female flowers, the rest is cake. that is, once you get past feeling like a complete perv out in the garden taking the make flower and penetrating the female flower, and then going in and out, in and out, in and out.... you get the picture.

some folks use a paint brush for this act of violation, but i watched this video, for a quick and easy lesson on how to spread love in the squash patch.

6. squirrels are just plan mean and have no consideration for my feelings.

just look what they did after all my hard work.....

just a few bites out of this one....

total destruction!!!!

that's just plan rude!!!!!

7. when you can, grow up!!!
and i'm not talking about my pouty mouth whiny baby attitude in regards to the squirrels. i mean, whenever you can grow something upward on a support, do so. here is the trellis i am gonna try for next year's winter squash trial. not only will it help save space in the garden, but i've also read that squirrels are more apt to eat the fruit that it is closer to the ground. so getting the squash up in the air might help a little. (we'll see about that when they start attacking my tomatoes next.)

8. and, in general, this season i've also learn....
it really is best to get all garden chores done before 10 am,
cleveland does not possess the power of teleportation
(but rather, he's just one really smart little guy),
and coffee sacks make fabulous pathways and help keep the weeds down like nobody's business.

now off into the garden i go.........

p.s. a big thank you to the guys at sun ministries for the idea of using the coffee sacks in the garden (which i totally jacked), and for showing me the site with the squash trellis.... you guys rock!!!

sunflowers.... coming soon.

2011-07-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

a look back

2011-06-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

for today's post i though it would be fun to take a look back and see a few pictures of my backyard garden thus far. so here we go......

southampton backyard garden, st. louis 2011

3/1: breaking ground

3/7: first plot cleared, tilled, and rock pathway put in.

3/9: fence up.

3/11: peas put in.

3/14: snow fall, my poor peas!!!!

3/26: another snow fall.

what is going on!!!!

3/30: the peas survived!!!!

4/5: a full weeks work to clear, till, and put up the fence around second garden plot.

i got this plot done fast due to my neighbor bringing over his power tiller and helping me.

4/6: potato sacks are in.

4/26: look at them grow!!!!

5/4: peas are doing good.

still a few weeks away from putting the tomatoes out,but got the stake in place.

5/4: view from the back porch.

5/12: onions are growing, some greens coming up,

three sister garden in place, and some cukes in as well.

5/12: the three sister garden.

it looks like i spaced things well doesn't it????

5/24: looking good.

6/2: store bought tomato and pepper starts are in and doing well.

rock path removed (to hard to control weeds between rocks) and coffee sack path created.

6/2: weeded the onions and the paths, then laid down more coffee sacks.

things seem to be growing good and orderly at this point.

6/20: garden out of control!!!!!!!

6/24: some potatoes harvested to make room for the ever growing squash vines,

and weeds, weeds, weeds.

6/24: tomatoes and peppers growing well. always having to tie up the tomatoes.

small plot to the left is going to be cleared out this week and summer squash seeds going in.

cause what i need is more crazy out of control squash vines... right??!!!??

i'm still here/a quick garden update

2011-06-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

will you just look at that!!!

the garden has exploded and is desperate need of tending to. and just where have i been? well, for two full weekends we were out of town, and, i have also started a new part time job. but, since i was in training, i worked a full 40 hours last week, which left little time for the garden, and the neglect is showing. so off the computer and into the garden i go for the morning. right now, the big issue in the garden is the winter squash take over. therefore, room needs to be made so i can re-route the ever growing vines.

for now, i just wanted to drop a quick post to let ya'll know that i am still here,

and still gardening, and still cooking, and still posting.

so, stay tuned, there is more to come.

p.s. (11:30 am) i was just out in the garden doing some clean up and spotted a squash vine borer moth. oh, great!!! now i gotta go back out there, look for eggs and signs of larva in the base of the plant stems, and figure out how to "cover vines at leaf joints with moist soil, to promote formation of secondary roots that will support the plant if the main root and stem are injured." check out this website for more info on the subject, and click here for a picture of the stinking little bugger.

garden note to self: how to prune winter squash. advise taken from Rob Johnston, the owner of Johnny's Selected Seeds, as found in the NY times... (A typical squash plant will make 20 pounds or so of squash, and that's all you want to ask of it,'' he said. ''So once the plant sets four or five fruits, you can prune it back.'' On each runner, leave a couple of leaf nodes past the last fruit you want to keep, he said. Then, pinch off the growing tip at the next node. If the vine is huge, you may have to cut off quite a bit instead of just pinching. As long as you don't trample the leaves or disturb the main root, you won't hurt the plant or the squash left on it.)

3G project: week #7

2011-05-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

oh me, oh my, how gardening takes up one's time.

but, you know i love it.

here's a quick 3G project update.

market csa share: $30

2 oatmeal cookies

4 pk. of brat burgers

1 lb. rhubarb

cuban frozen black beans

fresh tatsoi

1 head of fresh lettuce

a few baby bok choy

tower grove farmer's market

1 small bunch purple asparagus $3

1 large bunch of green asparagus $5

1/2 sized sourdough loaf $3

yummy pastry treat $2

pint of strawberries $3

gallon of raw milk $10

schunck's: about $13

org. toasted Os cereal

4 medium bananas

org. greek yogurt

1 pk. og. sugar

total: $69

wow, a whole dollar under. but, i'll take it.

and now my new favorite thing is rhubarb and strawberry compote over homemade yellow cake.

delicious!!!!

i also plan on freezing some of both for future use over pancakes, or swirled into homemade ice cream, as soon as i allow myself that many carbs again. yes, once again, i am trying to cut down on the carbs. which, for me, really means cutting out all the delicious yummy desert treats. 'cus i refuse, refuse i say, to give up raw milk in morning lattes and my nightly beer. so, ta ta for now lovely sweets. we'll meet again soon.

p.s. someday, i will get some recipes and food pixs posted..... someday.

tomato update: starting with starts

2011-05-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

well folks, there have been quite a few changes in the garden since the last post. my little babies weren't growing in the garden at all, so i had to face the cold hard fact, that if i wanted some tasty homegrown tomatoes and peppers this season, i was gonna have to get me some store bought starts. so, i buckled under my own self induced pressure and went on the hunt for plants. luckily, the nursery down the street had really good prices, and actually had a few heirloom varieties that looked interesting. unfortunately, they didn't have heirloom varieties with the peppers. i went on a little field trip around town, and found that neither did anyone else, not even at the farmer's markets. therefore, i gave the love to my local neighborhood folks and went back for a few more tomato plants and about 6 different peppers. i'll write about the peppers later, for now, let's look at the first group of tomato starts.

aren't these starts nice looking!!!

amish paste: a paste for fresh eating and canning.

green zebra: for fresh cold soups and salads.

mr. stripey: for fresh eating and sandwiches.

my tiny little sad tomato plants.

the side by side comparison is ever so devastating to my garden ego.

new starts in the dirt with milk jug critter protectors.

hopefully this will help reduce the destruction.

my favorite lunch in the whole world.

hopefully this is just a taste of whats to come.

and now that we have our new awesome blue picnic table made from recycled pallets, there will be many evenings of eating outside and watching the garden grow.

tomato troubles, going from bad to worst.....

2011-05-10T06:35:00.000-07:00

it's like a regular daytime soap opera here in the garden. just when the tomatoes are in the dirt and seem to be doing ok, i receive one pouch in the stomach after another. first, some critter dug up and destroyed one of the hillbilly potato leafs, and then one of the only two surviving violet jaspers dies. now, one by one, each of the little babies aren't looking so good. i just might have to bite the bullet and buy tomato starts this year and re-work my method for next season. hopefully i can find some interesting heirloom starts at the farmer's market tomorrow that will work out. boo hoo me.

at first their little home in the garden was so safe and promising.

i made them milk jug cloches to keep off the evening chill.

now the jugs are being used as over night critter protectors.

the tiniest tomato plant ever.

i though they looked small in the yogurt containers.

they looked absolutely minuscule out in the garden next to the 6 foot stakes.

gone, but not forgotten.

the HBPL on the left fell victim to the critters.

come on little guy, you can do it.

grow, tomato, grow!!!!

garden note to self: plan for next year next year. rework the potting mix, start the tomatoes inside in little individual newspaper pots, give them worm castings on an earlier and regular basis, 1-3 weeks after transferring to bigger containers, move plants outside into a mini greenhouse to get warmer temps and more direct sunlight.

a quick 3G project week #5 & #6 update

2011-05-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

i'm not sure how i did it, but the 3G project bank is up to $33.25!!! artisanal cured meats here i come!!!! let's look back at the last few weeks to see what i bought, and for your viewing pleasure a few really bad food pix to get the week going.

last week's csa loot was pretty much consumed prior to picture time, so above is a little sampling of the week's take.

spring csa week #6: $30

1 bag mixed lettuce

1 bag of fresh kale

herb bundle of sage and oregano

1 bunch radishes

loaf of wheat bosnian bread

1 pk. beef kabob

creamy havarti cheese

tower grove farmer's market

bottle of city seed's herb vinegar: $10

fresh tomatoes: $3.50

basil plant: $2.50

manzo's house made greek style yogurt: $3.50

1 gallon raw milk: $10

trader joe's

greek style yogurt: $4.00

big bag of org. oranges: $4.50

week's total: $68.00

in addition to the tomato and cheese sandwhichs and salads we've been eating for dinner, last night i made some cracked pepper beef kabobs with a sage/oregano yogurt sauce, and sauteed kale finished with the herb vinegar. yummy!!!!

here is the project total for week #5.

spring csa week #5: $30

fresh basil and spearmint

pk. of black pepper

pea shoots

oyster mushrooms

fresh locally made scones

1 pk. not italian bison links

schafley's wednesday farmer's market

16 oz cheese curd: $6

5 lemon verbena shortbread cookies: $2.75

small loaf of sourdough bread: $3.00

1 chocolate pretzel: $0.50

tomato jam: $4.50

raw milk $10

week's total: $56.75

i have to say, other than the lemon verbena shortbread cookies from 4 season's bakery, one of the stand out stars from that week's loot was the ol' timey tomatoe jam. with a pack of opened pork bacon in the frig that so needed to be eaten, i went to the market in hopes of finding a few fresh hot house tomatoes and some really tasty sandwich bread. without any fresh tomatoes at the market, i settled for some tomatoe jam instead, and boy am i glad i did. that stuff is awesome!!!!!!! spread on the sourdough bread with a few strips of bacon, it made for one of the most simple and delicious sandwiches i've had in quite awhile. the vendor said it was made using a very old recipe, so, sometime this week i'm gonna pull out all my canning and vintage homesteading books to see if i can't find a recipe that closely resembles the ingredients on the label. then all i need is for my tomato plants to start growing and i'll be one my way to canning heaven.

as promised, here are a few really bad and out of focus food pix of what we've been eating lately. (i guess the hubby is right. i do need to go get my eyes checked. getting older blows!!)

fresh tomato salad with pork bacon and sauteed spring onions and asparagus with a slice of italian loaf bread.

sauteed asian greens with leeks and tomatoes, pea shoot salad, and italian loaf slices with a black olive spread.

the ever popular scramble eggs with oyster mushrooms and a glass of raw milk.

i must say, i am getting a bit tired of mushrooms at this point.

sauteed leeks and asparagus with pork brat. paired with a mixed green salad (not pictured).

now it's out to the garden to survey the critter damage.

those dang bunnies, squirrels, and birds are going to be the death of me and my garden.

happy monday to me!!

tomato day!!!!!!

2011-05-04T07:17:00.000-07:00

good morning folks!!!

garden at 8 am on tomato day 2011.

finally, after weeks and weeks of waiting, today is the day!! the tomatoes are going in the garden!! can you tell i'm just a little bit excited. and yet, i'm still worrying about the tiny size of my little babies. although, i have seen a remarkable difference in their growth over the last few days out in the sunshine. plus i read this website about tomatoes where the author clearly states that, "smaller transplants that are healthy and in the proper growth phase will outproduce larger transplants 2 to 1 or even more."

say what??!!??

"Tomatoes go through several phases of growth from the initial soft stem seedling to a rapid growth phase and then to a reproductive phase. If you set out transplants that are already in the reproductive phase, they don't grow as large or set as many flowers as the smaller plants. By comparison, the smaller plants will go through a rapid growth phase where the plant produces vigorous leaves and stems before it sets blossoms. The result is a much bigger plant that keeps expanding as it supports an increasing fruit load."

"The tomato growers mantra should be Small But Healthy!"

oh, thank goodness!!! there is still hope or my tomatoes. not to mention, i've peeked at the surrounding backyards, and everyone's tomatoes clearly have a head start over mine (i saw one with a small green tomato on it already!!). so, i'm still hoping that my theory of the squirrels congregating in their yards for early tomato feasting will render them bored of tomatoes long before mine start producing. one can only hope.

tomato area ready for the transplants!!

in other garden news, the foliage on the potatoes are growing like mad. even if they don't produce many potatoes (or even any at all), i must say they are nice to look at and add a pretty cool flair to the garden.

so now this morning, i'm just waiting for the sun to finish coming out, and the temperature to warm up a bit before heading out for a full day in the garden. happy planting everyone!!!

TOMATO TUESDAY!!!!!!!!!

2011-05-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

finally!!! the weather is warming up enough to put out the tomato babies. unfortunately, it will not be today as i had originally planned. with the low expected to drop down to 39 degrees tonight, i'll have to wait one more day. so, today i will get all the plots ready for tomorrow's transplanting and seed sowing extravaganza. what that translates to is, a day of tilling, tilling, weeding, and more tilling. once that is done, and the tomato holes have been dug with compost mixed in, i'll install the stakes and get the milk jug cloches ready. i'm also gonna scavenge more compost and use the extra coffee bags to plant a few sacks of lettuce, leeks, and other greens. if there is time left over, i will be moving all my gardening supplies from the basement into the garage, hopefully creating a cute little potting cottage in there with my new "free from the alley" formica table. yippee!!

here are the best looking tomato babies that will go out into the garden tomorrow.

2 hillbilly potato leaf

2 violet jasper

2 giant white

+/- 1 yellow beam pear (if there is room left over)

and i have a few sad looking runner ups.

pepper seedlings also going out tomorrow.

due to lack of labeling, i'm not sure which ones are which.

all in all, i think i have a few each of:

fish pepper

garden sunshine

chervena chushka

and new this year, napoleon sweet.

check this out!!!!

a few days ago, two little fish pepper plants popped up!!

(peppers confuse me.)

also due to a lack luster labeling system,

my two varieties of leeks got mixed in with the red of florence onions.

luckily, i can tell the sage from the basil seedlings.

i didn't have the greatest luck starting the squash and cukes indoors.

only 1 out of 6 of the burgess buttercup and red kuri squash germinated,

and only 4 out of 12 of the lemon cucumbers popped up.

looks like some direct sowing for those guys.

and although i had a good germination rate on the mexican sour gherkins,

i did have a problem with stunted growth,

and none of them survived being transplanted into larger containers.

so, i'm gonna start the sour gherkins again indoors, in little newspaper pots,

while i work on getting the trellis ready.

grow, veggie garden, grow!!!

really cool!!!!!

2011-05-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

i wish i was this creative......

http://www.dezeen.com/2011/04/29/da-morto-a-orto-by-peter-bottazzi-and-denise-bonapace/

back to the kitchen/csa week #4

2011-04-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

like i said before, there has been a cooking fire of inspiration lit under my butt, and it's back to the kitchen folks. part of it came from cooking a leg of lamb for easter dinner, part of it came from knowing i have a stack of recipes to go through, part of it came from two new books i got,

and part of it came from the fact that, as i looked around the kitchen then other day, i realized that we have a crap load of food in there that needs to be eaten. i feel like i've been stock piling the non perishable items from the csa loot. i would list out what i have in the pantry and freezer, but that would just be obscene and leave you, and me, wondering, "just what have they been eating all these weeks?"

so today i'm changing it all around and making homemade lamb stock. i saved the left over bone from the roasted leg of lamb and tossed it in a stock pot with 2 onions, left over herbs, peppercorns, and some old looking garlic. making stock is such a great way to use up items from the frig that are about to go funky.

then you cover all that goodness with some water, bring to a boil, simmer for 2-3 hours, let it cool, and then strain the liquid into containers. it couldn't be any easier. i don't have any plans right now for the stock, so i'll probably divide it into jars and pop it in the freezer for a later date. perhaps some mushroom risotto cooked in the lamb stock is in the near future.

also in the spirit of eating up what's in the frig, i made potato soup for lunch out of the easter supers leftover mashed potatoes. i sauteed some spring onions in butter till soft, plopped in the mashed potatoes, and then added enough milk to thin it down to a nice silky consistency. seasoned with more slat and pepper to taste, i finished the soup off with the last of the lamb drippings gravy. see the nice little gravy design i tried to make for you. what really makes me laugh is the crass looking fred flintstone presentation of the lamb slices, (let's face it, i totally mangled the last pieces of meat that were really close to the bone) which are more like meat chunks really. but it was still tasty!!!

i also need to update you with last weeks csa loot and 3g project totals.

check it out, tomatoes!!!!!!!

spring csa week #4: $30

tomatoes

spring onions

herb bunch of sage and thyme

fresh kale

1 pk. bratwurst

1/2 gallon chocolate milk

1 baguette

extra loot purchased at maude's market: $15.44

cashew butter

red cherry jelly

1 lb. package pig jowl bacon

from manzo's italian market: $9.11

house made yogurt x2

loaf of bread

vom fass: $4.00

basil infused olive oil

1 gallon raw milk: $10

total: $69.00

i am so looking forward to tonight's dinner of bacon and tomato sandwiches with homemade lemon thyme ailoi on manzo's italian loaf bread.

tomatoes babies, are you cold??

2011-04-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

here in the land of tornadoes and rain, the stunted tomato seedling saga continues. i have been reading and researching tomato growth all over the internet, and yesterday i hit the library for books specifically about tomatoes.

a little light tomato reading and some vintage tunes.

what i've come to learn is that my little babies just might be to cold. the other day, i noticed that some of the stems and underneath of the leaves seemed a little purple. this could be a natural discoloration depending on the variety, or it could mean that they are suffering from a lack of phosphorus, either from the mineral lacking in the soil or the soil being to cold for the tomatoes to properly uptake the nutrients. i figure that the cooler temperatures of this house, as compared to the house in greenville, might be a big factor in the stunted growth. even though the temperature inside ranges from 65-70 degrees, which is ideal for tomato seedlings, i definitely see a difference in their growth after they spend a day outside in the near 70 degree sunshine. unfortunately, here in st. louis, that has been a rarity this spring, as gray rainy days have become the norm. this has not been the case in years passed at the greenville house, where the tomatoes had fairly consistent warm and sunny window to grow in. also, i might have leached out some of the nitrogen and other nutrients from the soil on the super soak days. next time i will follow up these days with some food for the little guys, and/or save the water run off to reuse. so finally, the other day all the seedlings got a dose of worm castings and a few hours in the sun and seem to be doing better today. unfortunately, the next sunny (and not windy) day in the forcast is not until friday, and that is followed by yet another weekend of rain and thunderstorms. all in all, what this means is that i need to start feeding them sooner, AND i seriously need to work out a plan to build a mini tomato greenhouse for next year's seedlings. till then, the little guys need to hang in there just a little longer before they can safely go out into the garden.

little guys trying their best to grow during the indoor rainy days.

hang in there. you can do it!!

i guess you could say the silver lining to all this rain is, i haven't had to go out and hand water my garden for about two and a half weeks. the peas, potatoes, and onions don't seem to mind the excess moisture and are growing really well. i took advantage of the little bit of sun we had yesterday to grab a few shots, and discovered the most exciting thing......

flowers on the pea plants!!!!!!

we'll have little pea pods in no time!!!!

let's hope the coffee sacks are doing a good job at draining all this rain,

and the potatoes aren't just sitting in there rotting away.

i give in, cleveland wins.

2011-04-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

after 5 garden break ins and many onions trampled,
i've finally given in, moved the fence, and cleveland has his little runner space back.

he just can't fight that feeling.

so now, cleveland has plenty of room to chase the garbage trucks, beg neighbors for petting and treats, and of course, he has is wooing spot back and can continue to pin for the the little red-haired girl. who, i found out, is indeed a female and her name is brewster. once again the garden is safe from doggie paws, so let's take a look and see what's happening in there.

some onions are doing great....

some are victims of doggie feet, hail, or both....

some are not looking so good....

and some are simply dead.

the potatoes seem to be doing well.

so far, the coffee sacks are working.

the peas took a beating (a few days after this pix was taken) from the storm winds, heavy rain, and pea sized hail,
but are hanging in there and seem to be enjoying all this rain we are getting,
as are......

the billions of weeds!!!!!

what a nightmare.

all those various tiny weeds are making it hard to decipher what is veggie germination,
but i'm pretty sure this is some swiss chard that's starting to grow.

i also finally tossed my used coffee grounds in the garden.
just a little goes a long way out there.
so, if you have more grounds than garden space,
you can also sprinkle them on the lawn for an extra boost of nitrogen,
or pop them in the compost.

i also crushed up all the saved egg shells in the food processor.

i sprinkled them in the areas where the tomatoes and peppers are going in a few weeks.

i'm not sure if the calcium from the shells really help, but i do know that it doesn't hurt.

p.s. i still need to do more research on natural ways to feed my tomatoes. i'm starting to see some yellowing and "burnt" looking edges on a few seedlings. maybe a lack of potassium?? oh, dear.

onions!!!

2011-04-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

potatoes aren't the only new thing in the garden this year, i'm also trying my hand at onions. i've done leeks before, but never the big round bulb onions. when the bell gardens had nice bunches of onion sets for $1 each, i though, why not? what do i got to lose? go big or go home. so i invested a whopping $3 and bought three different varieties;

big daddy (110 days): super-sized with a tender heart. delicately-textured flesh good eaten raw or excellent in a french onion soup. yellow globes will last 8 months in storage. good disease resistance and bolting tolerance.

red candy apple (95 days): glossy and deep red as an apple and nearly as sweet. flatten, globe-shaped bulbs grow to 4 inches across.

copra (105-115 days): leader in storage varieties. medium-sized, dark yellow skinned globe onion with a thin neck that dries quickly. store up to 1 year.

i didn't do anything super special to the dirt where i put the onions.

i just tilled it up a bit, mixed in some compost, and got to planting.

(4/5/2011)

for the bigger onions, i placed the sets about 4-6 inches apart, 1 inch deep, in two rows about 6 inches apart. since i still had extra sets, i then planted another row in between the first two rows, and put the sets about 2 inches apart. this middle row i will harvest early as "green onions," for salads and such, while waiting for the others to bulb up.

(4/11/11)

as you can see from the photo above, all the onions were looking pretty good the other day. we've been getting plenty of rain, so they haven't required to much care. but, i just went out to check on everything since learning this morning that we had some hail storms in the area last night (although i slept through the whole thing). some of the onions are looking great, and some not so much. i don't know if it's the particular variety, my planting technique, possible hail damage, or trauma endured from multiple doggie fence breaches, which have been a total of 4 so far. so, time to strap on the boots and do some damage control.

garden note to self: order of the onions, at the front to back: copra (long day), big daddy (long day), then red candy apple (intermediate day).

CSA/3G week #2 and #3

2011-04-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

holy cow, i've got lots to do this week folks. family is coming in for the holiday, and there's cleaning, shopping, washing sheets, tomato and pepper care, lawn cutting, dog bathing, and holiday meal prep to be done, oh my!! plus i have failed again at keeping you posted on the weekday supers and my 3G project totals, so here is a supper quick post to get us caught up.

spring csa week #2: $30

big bag of lettuce

fresh spinach

chive and rosemary herb bundle

garlic focaccia bread

1 lb. of beef (cube steaks)

large jar of apple sauce

1 dz. happy chicken eggs

extra: 1/2 lb. coffee and pack of org. tea: $12

gallon of raw milk: $10

red pasta sauce from manzo: $3.50

leeks from farmer's market: $3.50

cheese from beatje farms: $7.00

org. yogurt: $4.83

total: $70.83

wow, that was close.

only a dollar over!!

not much cooking was done that week, as i had family in town and we ate out a lot over that weekend. but, it made for some good restaurant leftover salads throughout the week.

next, we have this week's csa loot. unfortunatley, other than scarfing down the lentil dip and snap peas, everthing else is still hanging out in either the frig or freezer. but, after reading the new issue of my martha mag, and ordering a pinic table for the back patio, i'm newly inspired to really start cooking again. 'cus what could be better that enjoying an awesome evening meal outside, lisening to some righteous tunes, and watching my veggies grow.

spring csa week #3: $30

sugar snap peas

taragon, sage, and parsley herb bundle

bag of asian greens

lemon pepper spice

1/2 fryer chicken

lentil dip

extra: 1 lb. mo grown pecan pieces: $8.50

snap peas: $2.50

gallon raw milk: $10

org. oatmeal: $1.82

total: $53

(score, $17 under for the week.)

now, on to some cooking.

well, after the holiday of course.

tomato trauma

2011-04-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

can you say oops!! here is a hard lesson learned. when setting your tomatoes outside for a full day of direct sun, don't set them in a reflective metal pan. they will pretty much cook.

at least i'm pretty sure that's what happened here. at first, i though it was the variety of tomato, the yellow beam pear, and maybe my seeds were to old. but then i noticed one of the tomatoes in the small containers was a violet jasper, and it to was pretty much a goner. so they must have literally cooked in the pan. oops. i guess i could have tried to revive them, but since the yellow beam pear are my least favorite, and i'm working with limited space, i chalked it up to a lesson learned. luckily, the rest of the tomatoes seem to be doing fine. i just gave them a layer of compost as to create more roots along the stem. if they're not gonna be big guys when i put them in the ground, they better have a nice developed root system.

(f.y.i these guys are 9-10 weeks old, and still so tiny.)

i must say the jury is still out on my new soiless seedling starting mix of compost and sand. the seeds seem to germinate okay, but the plants don't seem to thrive as i think they should. it also could be the lack of worm castings this year. maybe that worm poo works as well as "they" say it does. so, after the holiday, hunting down worm poo goes straight to the top of the garden to do list.

last week, i also transplanted some of the pepper starts from the second round. these pepper plants are about 5 weeks old and just as big as the seedlings that survived from the first round started a month before them.

all in all, i'm just itching to get everything in the ground. and if all else fails, i can always throw in the towel and go buy starts from the demo garden, knowing that the sale of those plants go to support the local community gardens. until then, there's more research to be done on what to feed my babies once they hit the dirt, and lots of beer to be consumed to calm my nerves.

garden note to self: not sure about the new soiless mixture. at 5 weeks transplanted the pepper starts into bigger containers, which from the looks of it, did well in the newspaper pots and had healthy white roots. at around 9-10 weeks the tomato starts are still pretty small and i may need to feed them something soon.

potato procrastionation

2011-04-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

(potato demo at the bell gardens)

not only did i procrastinate in planting my potatoes, i seriously put off telling you about it.

it's not that, i don't love you, my dear readers, but with the warm weather, comes busy busy busy days.

so, once again, bye bye t.v., hello dirty clothes and filthy feet.

traditionally, st patty's day is potato planting time. luckily i held off a bit, 'cus shortly thereafter a big 4 inches of snow was dumped on my garden. also, the bell gardens did a potato planting demo where i scored a few more seed potatoes for the rock bottom price of 5 potatoes for $1. i planted two large red pontiac, three medium kennebec, and about 6-7 of the variety i got at work, which i believe are some sort of yukon gold. since the potatoes from work were fairly small and had already sprouted huge eyes, i planted them whole. the other potatoes i cut into pieces with at least 2-3 good eyes on each piece. i let them hang out on the kitchen counter for a few days so the cut edges could scab over before planting. this should help prevent the potatoes from rotting.

since i don't feel like having to "hill up" the potatoes in big mounds, i'm growing them in reused coffee sacks. you can buy different containers and "potato bags" online, and i've heard mixed reviews on the burlap sacks, but these babies were free!!! yep, i said free. all you need to do is call your local coffee roaster and ask what they do with their coffee sacks. one roaster here keeps them in a big pile until folks come around asking for them, and will give you as many as you want. hello!!!

so, here's the little method i came up with for my first try at potatoes. since i only had bags of compost, and straight compost would be to rich for the potatoes, i needed to scavenge some dirt. so i dug a small hole in the garden, and mixed that dirt with about equal amounts of compost. then, i put some big rock in the hole hoping to accomplish two things; provide extra drainage for the sack so the potatoes don't rot, and allow for good air circulation so the potatoes will "air prune." meaning, that once the roots reach the wall of the burlap, instead of circling around like they would in a hard walled container, they will hit the dry air and stop growing. hopefully, that will then stimualte the grow of secondary roots for an overall well-developed root system. the more roots you have, the more water and nutrient uptake by the plant.

i rolled down the sides of the burlap sackstill til there was about 4-5 incehs at the bottom and it looked like a doughnut. i filled the bottom with about 2-3 inches of my dirt/compost mixture, placed either two large or three small potato pieces in each bag, and covered it with another 4-6 incehs of dirt.

and there you have it folks, my first ever row of potatoes. the potatoes need to stay covered and in the dark, as exposure to light will render them green and icky. as the plants grow you need to keep them good and covered with about 6-10 inches of the foliage exposed. this is where the beatuy of the sack comes into play. as you keep adding soil, straw, or leaves to cover the potatoes, simply roll the sack up as you go. once the plant has flower blooms, you can carefully go digging for "new potatoes," or wait till two weeks after all the foliage dies back for larger tubers. again, here is another glorious attrubite of the sack. instead of having to go digging with a pitch fork for your potatoes, simply cut down one side of the sack and watch all your potatoes fall out. at least, that's what is supposed to happen. fingers crossed!!

to not waste any space in my garden, inbetween the bags, i am going to plant little rows of lettuce, japanese greens, and spinach. that way, the bags and potato plant leaves can help shade the delicate greens from the summer heat. now, all i need to do is sew up a granny inspired summer garden dress and apron, put on a big straw hat, and come up with a name for my farming alter ego. any suggestions???

p.s./garden note to self: potato planting took place on 4/5/11. the first three bags are red pontiac, the next two bags are kennebec, and the last three are potatoes from the market.

grow, lettuce, grow gets political

2011-04-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

head over to the maude's market blog to check out my first foray into the land of politics.

don't be fooled

2011-04-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

man those delicate purple flowers on our tree sure are pretty, and smell so sweet in the breeze flowing through the house. ah, spring. however, to all my fellow st. louis gardeners, don't let all these blooming flowers and warm winds trick you into setting your tomatoes out in the ground. in the 10 day forecast, there are going to be three nights where the temps are dropping below 50 degrees. i know the magic date of april 15th is just a few days away, and as impatient as i am right now to get the garden really going, i think it's still risky business to set the tomatoes out just yet. i think i am going to stick to my original plan and wait till the very end of april. however, this is a great time to start hardening off your tomato seedlings. once the morning temperature warms up to a nice 60 degrees, set the little guys out for the day, and them bring them in once the sun starts to fade.

yesterday was the first day i set the tomatoes outside for some fresh air. i gave them all a super soaking of water, let them drain out on the grass, and then set them back in the shade so i wouldn't shock them to much with the full sun.

today however, the wind was pretty mild and the temps not to hot (below 70), so i set them out in direct sunshine. here's the funny thing, i only have room for 4 tomato plants and a handful of peppers. nothing like a little tomato over kill.

and maybe it's just my very wishful thinking, but i really do think that they have grown more in the last few days outside, than they have in the last three or four weeks. they still just seem so small to me. before their next good soak of water tomorrow, i'll put a thick layer of fresh compost around them. i guess i could make it easier on myself and just give them some store bought tomato feed, but i'm still holding out that my current plan of attack will work. i'm always surprised at how fast they shoot up once they're plant in the warm ground. and it's not about having the first tomato, but having the last. plus, if all my neighbors plant out bigger plants earlier than me that produce bright lovely fruit before mine do, maybe all the squirrels will hunker down in their yards and leave my tomatoes alone. fingers crossed.

mr. keebs is no help

2011-04-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

what's wrong with this picture??

i'll tell you what!! see that black spot in the top middle of the picture?? that's a bird. see that lazy orange blob in the bottom middle of the picture?? that's mr. keebs, just sitting there, paying no attention to the bird that he is supposed to be chasing out of my yard!!!! my sunflowers don't stand a chance with this kind of lackadaisical attitude. but, he is my baby and i love him.

fence #2: veggie protector, or romance killer??

2011-04-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

yes, yes, i know, this picture is from a few weeks ago, but i wanted to show you the fence in question. this garden plot was the topic of many debates between me and the hubby. since that was where the dogs liked to do their business, and where mr. keebs would run back and forth along the back fence whenever anyone walked by, the hubby didn't want me to fence off the entire area. but, all three were overruled and it became garden plot #2. which reminds me that i need to come up with better names for my gardens other than plot #1 and plot #2. naturally, i needed to put up another fence to keep the dogs and wild urban bunnies out, but now i'm not sure if the fence is simply a veggie protector, but also a romance killer. let me explain.....

mr. keebs, being a very intelligent and emotional dink of a dog, has many different barks and whinny howls. he has a very deep and desperate one for treeing the squirrels up the telephone pole, he has an ear piercing "i'm gonna get you" scream for chasing the bunnies in the yard, he has his annoying "please, oh please, pet me" bark for all the neighbors that walk the alley, he has his specially reserved "gimme, gimme, gimme" cry for the neighbor lady who brings him and maisy treats every morning, and of course, the extremely loud, wake up the entire neighborhood first thing in the morning, "holy crap maisy, do you see the size of that monster!! let's get!! no wait!! run, run it's gonna eat us!!" alarm for the garbage and recycling trucks. but the other day, while i was working in the house with the back door open, i heard a very different and alarming cry. i looked out to see mr. keebs with his front feet propped up on the fence in the back west corner with a very anxious look on his face making this weird bark/howl/whining moan. at first, i though he was upset again at the kids that ride their bikes up and down the alley and yell at him a little, but he was more calm than when that happens. well, there was only on thing to do, go see what was upsetting my sweet little man.....

(the photo below represents mr. keebs view of the alley where i found him that day.)

ok, it's not visible in the photo, but see where the tree is in the fenced yard across the alley. that's where it was. that is where it lives and sits and taunts poor mr. keebs. yep, you guessed it. across the alley lives mr. keeb's own version of the little red-haired girl. i saw her the other day, and i must admit, she is rather cute. she appears to be some sort of mix with just a hit of pit bull. and when she's out there and keebs is doing his best to sweet talk and woo her, she just sits there and gives him this look like "as if!." poor little bubby. but i tell you what, keeb's love knows no bounds. twice he has jumped the folded down part of the garden fence to search for his love in the north west corner. and twice, i've had to go in to retrieve him while trying to keep him out of my onions.

needless to say, i have since reinforced the fence a bit, and so far the onions have been spared. for now, poor mr. keebs will have to do his best at courting his new love from the back gate. his view is a little sketchy from there, and maybe it is for his own good. but i can't help feeling like i totally killed his chance for romance. i feel like such a bad mommy. he really is a lover not a fighter. so we'll see how long the new fence holds up to casanova. and, dear readers, i will try my best to capture a photo of the little red-haired girl.

seed addiction and one super awesome raised bed idea

2011-04-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

last weekend we heading over to gateway greening's bell demonstration garden, and even though i have more seeds than i can possibly plant this season, at such low prices, i just had to get more. for community gardeners, or gateway greening members, the veggie seed packets were 25 cents and the flower packets were free!!! so i signed up for a membership and got a sweet deal on flower seeds, as well as, some seed potatoes and onion starts, (which i'll talk about in upcoming garden posts). also a few days before that, i picked up some seeds for yet another winter squash and lemon cucumbers. what all this really means is, if i don't seriously get some homemade garden markers going, it's gonna get really confusing out there.

i'm really hoping the marigolds help control the bunnies and squirrels.

also while we were at the bell garden, we watched a potato planting demo and checked out some raised beds in various states of production. set on 22 vacant city lots, it's pretty cool to go and walk around and see all the great veggie gardening that folks are doing. i can't wait to see it once the growing season is in full swing.

one particular bed caught my eye by totally maximizing the space with the addition of some vertical containers made out of house gutters. i figure that's a great place to grow different kinds of lettuce, herbs, and small leafy greens, therefore, leaving the rest of the bed for growing your tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and such. plus, what a great way to keep the tender lettuce out of reach from the ever present multitude of bunnies that romp around the city. i don't think they had much in the cold frame, but it does look like they have a few onion starts growing in the middle of the bed.

soon soon soon, it will be time to set the tomatoes out in the garden, and hopefully with a new home and fresh compost, they will really start to grow for me. till then, i guess it is warm enough during the day to start the hardening off process. fingers crossed that a little fresh air will do wonders for my tomato babies. in the meantime, i'm gonna weed the small garden plot, till in some compost, and spread out coffee grinds and crushed egg shells. and with all the garden centers opening up for the growing season, it's time to hunt down some sea kelp and worm poop. next time i'll show you my potato plan and onion starts.

p.s. garden note to self.... time to ready more starts. make more newspaper pots for some squash and cucumbers. squash will need 4 weeks before setting out, and cucumber will only need about two weeks. get working chick!!!!

tomato tomfoolery

2011-04-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

the other morning when i went to check on my tomatoes when my heart skipped a few beats, completely stopped altogether, and then sank into my stomach with a huge thud. once green and bright, leaves were falling off one of my tomato starts.

i quickly looked around to check on my other babies, and discovered i was in the midst of an epidemic.

sweet cheesus!!!! what did i do wrong?? did i over water them, did i under water them, are they malnourished, or are they simply dying?? quick, run to the computer!!!!!!!

well, as it turns out, it is completely normal in some plants for the cotyledon leaves to fall off in the early stages of the plants growth. what are cotyledon leaves you ask. they are those first little leave you see when a flowering plant seed starts to poke it's head up out of the soil. these leaves contain the food the plant needs to germinate, and then soaks up the lovely sun for the energy the plants needs to grow and produce it's true leaves. when all the yummy goodness from the cotyledon leaves are used up and the plant no longer needs them, they simply fall off. thank goodness!!!! interesting enough, i don't remember my tomatoes from previous years doing this. some tomatoes will shed the cotyledon leaves early on, while others will stick around a little longer. well, wouldn't you know it, i checked around and it seems like this is happening in the two new varieties of tomatoes (violet jasper: small cherry type, great white: beefsteak) i am starting this year, most notably in the new beefsteak. so, for now we have averted a crisis, but you never know what's around the corner.

grow, starts, grow!!!

2011-04-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

looks like the veggie starts in the sunny windowsill garden are moving right along.

two kinds of leeks and one type of onion along the edges. mexican sour gherkins in the paper bags.

i should mention here that the bags used for the mexican sour gherkins starts are part of an experiment for a homemade gift idea. that being, sending folks a "veggie start" starter kit through the mail. i would fill the bag with some soiless potting mix, include a small envelop of seeds, perhaps another small envelope of a mild fertilizer, an explanation/brief history of that particular veggie, and instructions on how and when to plant them. the bags are the "compostable" bags that you use to bring home bulk coffee. as much as i try to reuse the same bag when i go shopping, sometime i forget, and for awhile there i had a nice little collection of them. so it was time to put them to use and try out their growing capabilities. so far they're working pretty good.

grow, starts, grow!!!!

i normally don't do this.....

2011-04-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

but check out these awesome upside down planters from Boskke.....

soooo cute and handy. there has got to be a way to DIY these pots out of used/vintage materials. oh great, that's just what i need.... another project idea!!!! but look how useful and space saving they could be in the sunny windowsill garden.

p.s. i totally jacked these image of the Boskke website. so i would like to give credit, to where credit is due. these images totally came from the Boskke website. did i mention that the images above are not mine, and came from the Boskke website. please don't sue me, i have no money.

here we go again.....

2011-04-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

well folks, it's time again to get back into the 3G project grove. for the spring season i'm just gonna make a few changes. first off, i've been going back and forth on whether or not to increase the weekly budget a bit. but that decision kinda of made up itself when i decided to go back to the raw milk. with the milk being $10 a gallon, if i'm going to get through this with any sense of sanity, the budget's gotta increase. i'm thinking about raising the budget from $30 to $35 a week per person. that doesn't seem like much, but we'll see how it goes. also, i'm changing the start/end days of the week to wednesday thru the following tuesday. that way, we'll start the shopping week off with the milk, then the csa, and then use the left over to round out the weekend. hopefully this will make it a bit easier to budget and keep track of the spending, as well as, gives me a budget amount going into the farmer's market on saturdays. also, i really hope this time to post more about what i'm cooking in the kitchen, and talk about where and what we eat when we go out. i know i've said this before. but with day lights saving time allowing for some natural light at supper time for better pictures, i just might get it done. also, again, i'm planning on doing more experimenting in the kitchen, which i may or may not, go outside the weekly budget for this. for now here is this weeks breakdown......

maude's market csa week #1: $30

fresh kale

fresh oyster mushrooms

pea shoots

herb bunch of parsley and oregano

1 lb. ground bison

frozen cuban black beans

quail eggs

8.45 oz local maple syrup: $7.65

soulard farmer's market

1 lb. butter: $4.50

few days old loaf of local org. black bear cinnamon raisin bread: $1.00

gallon local raw milk: $10

so the totals are looking GOOD for the first week.

let's see how long we can keep it up.

total spent: $53.15

project bank: $16

the peas survived!!!!!

2011-03-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

good news folks, the peas are alive and well. at first i was a little concerned that i planted them to early. but then on day 9 they started to poke out of the soil. how cute they were, these tiny little green babies. and just as the weather started to warm up and the peas began to grow, and i dragged my scandals out from the back of my closet, we were hit with a small dusting of snow and a cold snap. still, no big concern. i had peas survive an unexpected frost in the greenville garden, surely a light layer of snow flakes wouldn't be anything the peas couldn't handle. but then, on day 25, this happened......

what the junk!!!!! march 26th and 4 inches of the white stuff!!!!!

but, i am happy to report that as of today, the peas are looking pretty darn good. now the debate is, do i sow the rest of my peas in the garden, and hope that they are ready to harvest before i need that space for peppers and tomatoes?? or perhaps, maybe i should use a couple of the free coffee sacks i acquired, and do a raised bed kinda thingy?? i'll have to think about that. cause i do like me some peas, and never seem to plant enough to keep me satisfied. what the hey!!! let's plant them all!!!

you can never have to many peas!!!!!!!

garden note to self: 2 rows of both progress #9 and green arrow peas were direct sown on 3/11. progress #9 were the first to germinate 9 days later, and green arrow followed shortly after that. by day 19 each type were growing well at about 1-2 inches tall.

daily scan 3/28: just for fun

2011-03-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

winter csa review

2011-03-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

man, i have been super slack lately with posting up the weekly csa loot and 3G project breakdowns. but it's been kinda busy around here. therefore, as the winter season of the csa comes to a close, i've decided to take a break for a couple of weeks, and will return with the new spring season csa in april. plus there are few new projects that have come up that i need to get rolling in a big way, and i need to focus on them for just a bit. in the meantime, i thought it would be fun to do a little winter csa/3G project review and look back at some of the highlights.

first things first, how did i do with the budget? i'd say i did pretty good, but not great. for the most part, i did stay with in the budget, going over some weeks, but then coming in under other weeks. there were some weeks that we probably ate out more than we should have, some weeks where the hubby went a little overboard with the cereal fixings, and then there was the week that we had a total grilled cheese and tomato soup craving that sent the budget packing. all in all, i have come to the conclusion, that $30 a week per person in the winter months is really tough. not completely undoable, but really tough. so as i take it up a notch in the garden, i'm also gonna have to hunker down in the kitchen this coming season. especially since i missed my raw milk enough to finally buckle under and spend the $10 per gallon to get it. that really puts a dent into the overall budget. after the $30 for the weekly csa and the $10 for the milk, $20 is all that's left. just $20 to purchase any other items needed to make a weeks worth of breakfasts, my lunches, and 2 person dinners. now i must say that i have been toying with the idea of increasing the weekly budget a bit to $70, even before going back to the raw milk. but i haven't decided on that issue yet. so while i think about that, let's take a look back......

let's start off with my new obsession, cashew butter. i had been eyeballing the cashew butter for weeks when i found out it was going to be included in the csa. i was a happy camper that day. when i got it home, i stirred and stirred until all the oil was incorporated, and the effort was well worth it. holy cow that stuff is delicious. i even had to immediately take a sample to the hubby. it has been delicious in the pb&j sandwiches i've made with the various breads we've gotten through the csa, which has become our go to dinner for when i am to tired to cook. it was also yummy as a snack on crackers with some of the honey that we got in week three of the csa.

another easy and quick go to dinner of ours, has been scrambled eggs paired with whatever veggie we got that week sauteed in a bit of butter. i generally have mine with a big cool glass of raw milk. speaking of which, if any of you have questions regarding raw milk feel free to ask me about it next time you are in the market. but beware, i do have a tendency to chatter on about it.

another delicious discovery i made this season is winter squash. now summer squash, i can honestly do without, but winter squash is my new found love. one day before the csa had started, we were in the store and maude had suggested trying the buttercup squash, and that's when the love affair started. sweet and delicious, i made a soup with the buttercup squash with the last of my home canned tomatoes, an onion, and a bit of rosemary and sage.

then came week 3 of the csa and an introduction to the hubbard squash. although this guy proved much harder to peel and prep than the buttercup, it led me to what would become a three week long addiction....

galettes!!!! rustic little pieces of tart like heaven. with the whole wheat flour we received week 9, i made quite a few savory galettes with the hubbard squash and onions, and then some sweet galettes with the apples from week 3. yep, i hate to say it, but the squash and the apples hung out in the frig for over a month before i got around to eating them. good thing those suckers have a nice shelf life in the frig.

week eight also provided for us, what has become the hubby's favorite squash of all time, the spaghetti squash.

this squash we took almost literally by name every time we got one. after roasting the spaghetti squash whole on a baking sheet in the oven for about an hour, i'd cut it in half, remove the seeds, and then scrape out the flesh with a fork and use it just like i would spaghetti pasta.

oh yeah, then there was also the pig jowl bacon from that week. i apologize now to all our veggie friends, cause that jowl was definitely some good eating.

and last, but in no way, shape, or form, least.... the pea/sunflower shoots. who know microgreens could be so tasty. not to mention a great way to get some fresh greens into your diet during the winter months.

i did about every preparation i could think of with the shoots. i used them as a topping for the lamb brats from week 4.....

lightly dressed as a side salad that i pair with a grilled cheese, made from the bread and cheese from week 6...

as a crunchy topping in a mushroom soup....

and sauteed in butter with the oyster mushroom, and topped with a honey mustard dressing to go with some scrambled eggs for dinner. i told you i did this lot for dinner.

and there you have it folks. now on to the spring season, with what i hope is even more experimenting in the kitchen with new and interesting produce.

addition to the blog

2011-03-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

i think i finally figured it out.... how you can, if you want to, follow my little blog with email updates. i added a "follow by email" gadget to the scroll over there on the right hand side. man, i'm so tech savvy it hurts. not!!!!!

a scan from many moons ago

2011-03-27T12:53:00.001-07:00

my baby turns eight

2011-03-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

this month ms. maisy moo lynn turned eight.

my baby's getting old.

happy birthday maisy.

may you have many many many more.

here's a picture from her early modeling days.

sunny windowsill garden update

2011-03-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

right now the sunny windowsill is being used as a seed starting greenhouse. this is one time where my procrastination is actually a good thing. if i was any more productive, i would simply run out of space.

also, it looks like my second round of peppers, as of now, can be classified as a success. although, i'm not sure exactly what it was that made the difference. at first i thought it was using the heating pad for the first two weeks. but then i found a few of the first round pepper seeds, that i stopped watering and put down in the cold basement, had germinated. what the hell?!? maybe i gave up on them to quickly. i can tell you, however, that the second round is doing pretty well and i will probably continue to use the heating pad method in the future. here is what i did different. first off, i was more patient with them. i also started them in little individual newspaper pots, which they seem to really like. i kept them on a heating pad for a good two weeks and kept watering them everyday till i saw their little heads start to poke out of the soil, which took about 9 days. (except for the fish peppers. it's been 20 days and i'm just now seeing one seed poking it's head out.) once they started to get leaves, i moved them over to the sunny window to soak up the sun. so now the second round of peppers are just as big as the surviving peppers from the first round.

lookin good!!!!

now that the peppers seem to be on their way, i can focus all my worries back on the tomatoes. they just don't seem to be growing much. maybe it's because i see them everyday, but i just remember last year they seemed to grow at a much faster rate. previously, i think a gave them a small side dressing of worm poop a couple of times. these seeds were sown about a 1 1/2 months ago and haven't received any kind of nourishment, other than what is in the compost. i do have some left over mycorhizzal granules from mushroom mountain that i brought with me from greenville that i decided to try. i gave half the tomato plants a taste test of them to see what happens. after a few days if those plants still look ok, i'll give some to the rest of the tomato plants. hopefully this will help kick start a little growing phase, because i'm just so worried that the tomatoes will still be so small when it's time to plant them outside. but, then again, i don't plan on putting them in the ground here till late april, just to be on the safe side. cause literally, just last week i was wearing sandals to work, and this morning there was about 3-4 inches of snow in the backyard. so that still gives them 4 more weeks to grow.

this little guy looks pretty good.

this little guy needs to grow. grow, tomato, grow!!!

now, even though the majority of the windowsill space has gone to seed starting, i do have one pot that i dedicated to strictly growing and harvesting something edible completely indoors. this is my arugula shoots. man oh man, these little seeds germinated quickly and are going to town. i sowed the seeds on the 16th and the picture below was taken on the 24th. that's just 8 days!!! look how big they are already!!!! not to mention, they not even hanging out in the sunniest of sunny windows. this window is an east facing window that is partially blocked by a tree and the house next door. it's also home to some left over tomato starts. so once all the tomatoes and other starts are outside, this window is going to be used to grow various microgreens for some good eating. i'm also going to sow a pot of arugula, with just a few seeds to the pot, to see if i can get some full size heads on the east windowsill.

now go grow something!!!!!

p.s. garden note to self: argula germinated in just a few days. peppers did well on heating pad and germinated around day 9 and most had seed leaves as of day 17. at 1 1/2 months gave the tomatoes a little bit of mycorhizzal granules.

it's the end of an era

2011-03-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

well folks, after 10 1/2 long years, we have decided to call it quits to shacking up. i know what you're thinking. how could that be?? it's the end of an era. but we had to do it. there really was no other choice. so this past wednesday......

we got married.

wedding shirt. vintage of course.

after the courthouse, in grand ole style, we had a combo reception/honeymoon at schafley's and stuffed ourselves with local cheese, meat, and beer. perfect!!!!

now "the hubby" really is my hubby!!!!!!!!!

how i know it's my birthday

2011-03-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

1. i know it's my birthday today because, as i was making my coffee this morning, i looked out the kitchen window, only to see the most awesome present sitting in the alley by the dumpster......

perfect for the mini greenhouse/cold frame i'm gonna build.

2. now that flowers on one of the trees in my backyard have started to bloom, it turns out to be one of my favorite kinds of trees.

although, i still have questions as to what the correct name of the tree is. some folks call it a tulip poplar, but i think they have yellow/orange flowers. then i though it was a japanse magnolia, but i think the blooms are larger than this one. so i think it is a jane magnolia. i really like that name for my favorite tree, so i'm going with that for now.

3. i went second hand shopping and came home with some seriously cool loot.

the metal trays are for seed starting.

the little blue metal coffee pot is my new inside watering can.

two very cool vintage sleeveless shirts just in time for the warm weather.

and four new vintage sewing patterns.

all for under $12

happy birthday to me!!!

daily scan for 3/16/2011

2011-03-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

two new pages for the blog

2011-03-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

the sunny windowsill garden.

well folks, things here in st. louis are starting to pick up. the garden is coming along, although there is so much more to do, i'm picking up a few more hours at the market while still looking for another part time job, and i add two more pages to the blog. for all you folks out there that don't have any room outside to plant food, one page will be about edible plants that you can grow on a sunny windowsill titled "the sunny windowsill garden." the other page will be a monthly chat regarding some of our favorite local farmers, including many who are producers for maude's market and the weekly buyer club/csa. (this "featured farmer" chat may also become a regular tie in with the maude's market blog as well.) with the warm weather arriving soon, and hopefully here to stay, it's time once again to get off my butt, get out there, and continue with my mausoleum photo project along with the garden and farm series. i keep thinking about photographing gardens and veggies with the wet plate collodion process, although that stuff can be tricky and toxic. but i have a certain look in my head that i want the veggie pictures to have, i just gotta figure out how to achieve it. with that said i better log off and get to it!!!!!!

who's enjoying their csa??

2011-03-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

i am!!!!!!!!

brown/wild rice flavored with the csa mustard, topped with sauteed csa fresh kale, and csa pig jowl bacon.

weekend breakfast of csa oranges, whole wheat biscuit made from the csa flour, local butter and local milk, and local happy chicken scrambled eggs.

and the peas are in!!!!!!!

2011-03-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

last thursday, the peas finally went in the ground. after soaking in a bowl of water for 24 hours to get the germination process started, i planted two rows of green arrow peas from seed savers exchange, and two rows of pea shelling progress #9 from botanical interests. the green arrow are climbing peas so in between the rows i set out some small tree branches, i gathered from the neighborhood, to give them something to climb up. the progress #9 are a dwarf vines and, according to the package, require no staking. we'll see about that. and after all that hard, hard, oh so hard work, of course this morning the peas look like this.......

but you know, me and the peas have been through this before. and with the weather forecast calling for a high of 77 degrees on thursday, i think we'll be just fine. hopefully.

(garden note to self: peas direct sown into garden on 3/10. 2 rows of green arrow with branch trellis in between the rows, and two rows of pea shelling #9 progress planted without support.)

week #11 CSA and sunflower/pea shoot love

2011-03-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

this week's csa from maude's market is pretty darn exciting, cause we got us some ribs baby!!! not to mention the local mustard that i have been eyeballing for weeks now. let me see, ribs, mustard, and left over honey from week #2, that's a recipe for some delicious yummy goodness. now i have never, repeat, never, cooked ribs. but, i'm hoping as long as i go slow and low, i should be fine. truly, the really big decision here is whether or not to go ahead and cook them now in the oven, or wait for warmer weather and a grill. what to do, what to do?? we also got a much needed taste of the sun with some organic oranges and tree ripened grapefruit, along with missouri grown dried black beans, fresh kale, and a choice of lettuce or more pea/sunflower shoots. since i have still yet to replenish my stock of olive oil, for cooking and salad dressing, within the budget of the project, i forwent my share of lettuce for some more pea shoots. cause i love me some shoots!!!

week #11 breakdown

maude's market csa $30.00

1 lb. MO grown dried black beans

nice looking thing of baby back ribs

(from happy pigs that had one bad day)

locally made jar of mustard

pea shoots

3 organic oranges

1 tree ripened grapefruit

fresh kale (which i purchased extra of)

extra kale $1.73

1 dz. happy chicken eggs $4.05

2 extra grapefruit and 4 extra oranges $6.00

wholefoods

(for the very last time, i hope)

1/2 gallon org. milk $4.00

parking lot

(i'll explain later)

1 gallon raw milk $10.00

total: $56.00

($4.00 going into the project bank)

here are some meals i made recently with the ever lasting sunflower shoots.

dried mushroom soup with rice noodles and sunflower shoots.

you know you want some.

sauteed oyster mushrooms and shoots lightly dressed with mustard and honey with scrambled eggs.

p.s. don't worry, i will be posting about "a newbie's attempt at ribs" in the future. so stayed tuned.

just cause......

2011-03-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

you can never have enough baby keebs.

just a perk of the job

2011-03-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

the other day i scored a nice size bag of seed potatoes. just another little perk of the job. oh, did i forget to mention that for a few hours a week i am helping out at maude's market. well, i am, so come down a visit me!!! while you're there, if you know anything about planting potatoes please let me know, cause i don't know jack about it. for now the little buggers are hanging out in a paper sack at the back of the frig. till then check out some pictures i took of the market.......

local food, come get your local food!!!

i so want a bag of that popping corn.

maude's market

4219 Vir

ginia Avenue in St. Louis

http://www.maudesmarket.com

almost ready for the peas/tomato update

2011-03-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

would you just look at how my little veggie plot is coming. i figured i needed to add a couple of pathways to help reduce stepping on and compacting the soil. i "borrowed" some stones i found in the yard. i'm not sure what the landlord had in store for them, but for now, they're working as a little walkway in veggie plot #1. i'm really scared about getting veggie plot #2 done in time for planting. that plot is almost twice as big as this plot, and considering how long it's taking me to get this one finished, it's gonna interesting that's for sure. tomorrow i'm hoping to get the fence put up and some peas in the ground. yeah for peas!!!! the back row of this plot by the garage is definitely set aside for the tomatoes, and then in one square i'll put some peppers, but i'm not 100% sure about the other square. it all might end up just being tomatoes and peppers with inter planting some herbs. we'll see. while we think about that, let's check in on the tomato's progress......

oh so ready for the first transplanting

last friday i finally got around to transplanting some of the tomatoes into bigger containers. the crazy thing is, there are still tons more little guys to tend to. wow, yet again, so so many tomatoes!!!


the first true leaves of 2011.

luckily, the hubby is a big veggie garden supporter and saved his yogurt containers while we were apart so i have plenty. i used a soil mixture of 1/2 compost and 1/2 builders sand. i'm not sure when, or with what, i'll start feeding the tomato plants. in the past, i never really gave them much of anything except some worm castings every now and then. even during the growing season, once they went into the ground with a big helping of compost, i didn't feed them much. but i will mark down "feeding tomatoes" on my growing list of garden research that still needs to be done. for those who are interested, the tomatoes in the yogurt containers are the "great white" variety.

grow, tomatoes, grow!!!!!

i also started a new round of peppers. only 1 little garden sunshine pepper was produced from the first try. i'm really surprised that 1 plant even germinated. i had all but giving up on the peppers and had even stopped watering them. then all of a sudden one day, there it was, one lonely little pepper. (you can kind of see him in the picture above in the little pot on the middle tray next to the tomatoes in yogurt containers.) oh well, on to round two. i'm trying not to worry about this to much. we have been here before folks. this time i'm trying them in the little newspaper pots that i made and setting them on a heating pad to keep them warm. right now i am rotating the heat level from high to medium and then turning it off at night, or when we are away from the house for safety reasons. again, fingers crossed!!

keeping the babies warm.

(garden note to self: it took about 3 weeks from sowing the seeds for the tomatoes to get their first true leaves. the first round of peppers only produced 1 plant of garden sunshine. the second round of peppers were started on 3/4 and placed on a heating pad, rotating the heat from high to medium to off at night or when away from the house.)

csa/3G weekly totals week #9 & #10

2011-03-08T11:49:00.000-08:00

holy cow, what a blogging slacker i've been. i'm two weeks behind posting up the weekly totals and most everything has already gone into me belly. there wasn't that much to photograph today for this post, so what you'll see here is a mixture of some csa products and some extra items that i also purchased at the market. please, bare with me, and i'll try to get us through this den of slack....

week #9 breakdown

(items in italics pictured above)

maude's market csa items $30.00

butternut squash

big jar of pickled beets

1 lb. ground beef

1 bag Amish made egg noodles

organic blackberry tea with sage

also from the market

1 lb. bag of pecan pieces $8.35

shitake mushrooms $7.35

wholefoods $18.50

org. yogurt

org. 1/2 gallon milk

org. raisins

org. pumpkin seeds

org. sunflower seed

schnucks $7.00

(this was hubby's fault!!!)

pretzels

org. beef jerky

total $71

OUCH!!

($11.00 over. it's gonna take some work to recover from that.)

project bank -$8

yet again, while i try to recover from breaking the project bank, take a look at my favorite meal from last week's csa loot. scrambled happy chicken eggs, sauteed oyster mushrooms and fresh spinach, and locally made bread with amish red cherry jam and raw milk butter. breakfast for dinner is always a delicious treat.

week #10 breakdown

(again, items in italics pictured in top picture)

maude's market csa $30.00

sunflower shoots

spinach

oyster mushrooms

(pictured is what is left after dinner the other night)

1 lb. ground lamb

amish made red cherry jam

loaf of locally made bread

also from the market

1 dozen happy chicken eggs $4.05

cashew butter $5.09

elderberry juice $10.76

(for the sick hubby)

wholefoods

1/2 gallon org. milk $4.00

(stay tuned cause there's a milk change a coming!!!!)

total $54

thanks goodness, finally under budget again.

project bank -$2.00

breaking ground 2011

2011-03-03T18:25:00.000-08:00

while mr. keebs was practicing his zen master yoga in the sunshine the other day, i was busy breaking ground in what will be, one of two, backyard veggie garden plots.

here's the view from the back door. this plot is going to be home to tomatoes, peppers, and peas.

mapping out the perimeter.

earthworms are a very good sign. this soil is looking good.

the end of day one.

day two i ran into a bunch of tree roots.

looking good. now i need to wait out the next two days of rain and then put up a fence before the direct sowing of the peas, glorious, peas!!!!

one more view of the hard work.

it's been a week of quick and easy dinners

2011-03-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

over the last week or so, i have been the laziest cook ever. quick and easy was all i wanted to do. take this evening for example. i heated up the frozen black beans from our csa, plopped on a scoop of sour cream, and chowed it down with some tortilla chips. last night i made spaghetti with local amish made egg noodles and doctored up strained tomatoes with local grass fed ground beef sprinkle with kansas city parmesan cheese. see what i mean, easy peasy. here are some other quick fixes.....

leftover spaghetti squash sprinkled with cheese and fresh thyme

pancakes made with missouri grown whole wheat flour, frozen local blueberries brought with me from greenville, with kentucky sorghum.

local amish made egg noodles with a sauce made of local shiitake mushrooms, sour cream, and homemade turkey stock with fresh thyme.

tempting spring

2011-03-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

on this day of cleaning and gardening, i have put out the spring bedding in hopes of tricking mother nature into believing that spring is here.

and it's hard to see in this picture, but it seems as if mr. keebs is making fast friends here in our new neighborhood.

keebs gets lovin from two neighbors.

my first little microgreen harvest

2011-02-28T12:53:00.000-08:00

last saturday night was radish shoot harvest night. if my calculations are correct, it took just over two weeks to get a nice little group of edible greens right here in the midst of winter. the only complaint i have at the moment is that there wasn't enough of them. so, for the next go round, i'm gonna find me a bigger container and experiment with different seeds. and for some clarification, i think i might have called these guys sprouts in an earlier post, which is not correct. sprouts come from seeds grown in water. oops. i also read today that these little gems only need 4 hours of sunlight a day. while they went to town in the south window light, i'm gonna try them in the east facing living room window that is shaded just a bit by a currently leafless tree. soon the south facing window space is gonna be taken over by the tomatoes, who are starting to get their true leaves and are in need of their first transplanting. it would be really nice if i could find some rectangular second hand containers that were at least 2 inches deep and fit nicely on the windowsill. then, once i experiment some more with different seeds, i'll start interplanting different varieties of microgreens together that will make for not only tastey, but also, pretty little displays. exciting!!!

just before the harvest.

time to trim the roots and get a wash.

sauteed in a little bit of butter with some left over radishes, topped over spaghetti squash with pasta sauced cooked with a bit of grounded bison, and all covered with a bit of kansas city cheese.

hello little local dinner.

look what you'll find....

2011-02-25T09:51:00.000-08:00

..... when you clean your office.


the cure for my dry winter skin and garden hands,

my spoon collection for making garden markers,

and, of course, two lazy puppernutz. just pitiful.

no posting due to cleaning

2011-02-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

no more posts till i get this mess clean........

also, this is the first in what might possibly become a new thing on this here blog......

can you spot the maisy????

coveting cold frames

2011-02-24T14:51:00.000-08:00

it's cold and rainy out there today. not much happening in here. but i did come across this blog post with a super awesomely cool cold frame/mini greenhouse. i've seen a many of cold frame made of old windows, but it never crossed my mind to do a mini greenhouse type version off the ground. i want one, i want one. oh how i want one for my back patio. let the back alley savaging begin!!!! also check out some other cold frame designs here.

winner, winner, the hubby gets a csa dinner.

2011-02-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

after the gorgeous weather we had yesterday, today was nothing but a big ole let down. chilly, slightly rainy, and quite overcast. yuck. there won't be any bike riding today. so, while hanging out for the day at home, i decided to get to cooking with my csa loot. excluding the onions, olive oil, salt, and pepper, all the ingredients came from maude's market. look what i made for the hubby and me......

butternut squash, shiitake mushroom, and onion galette.

yep, can you believe it, i got a nice big 5 lb. bag of missouri grown flour in last week's csa, which made for a very tasty crust. i served it up with a simple ground bison patty and the last of the csa sunflower sprouts. i used the very, very, tiny last bit of olive oil i had for roasting the butternut squash and onions, but i so wanted something green on the plate. instead of dressing the shouts with a homemade honey mustard vinaigrette like i usually do, i just sauteed them in a small amount of butter and they were super yummy.

not the prettiest presentation, but delicious just the same.

rosemary finally gets a home

2011-02-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

well the rosemary sprigs, that have been hanging out in a glass on the kitchen windowsill since thanksgiving, finally got a new home. after i washed them off and trimmed the roots back, i moved the sprigs into a little pot of dirt i had hanging around. i can't believe how long the rosemary lasted in a glass with just a bit of water in the bottom. hopefully they won't have any problems taking root, and will grow big and strong enough to be transplanted into the new herb garden once it warms up out there.

before

after

sprout update

2011-02-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

these pictures were taken a few days ago. the radish sprouts get significantly bigger everyday and will be eaten soon, all the tomato varieties have at least one sprout going, but the peppers are, yet again, a big fat dud. but i'm going to try to stay positive and sow more seeds in some little newspaper pots that i made. hopefully, i'll have more success with this second round.

radish sprouts get in my belly.

grow tomatoes, grow!!!

the pupernutz checking out the progress.

csa and 3G totals week #8

2011-02-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

oh man i am tired from the bike riding, so here is a quick breakdown of this week's csa and totals.

maude's market csa (plus 1 dz. eggs): $36

kale

shiitake mushrooms

1 package of pig jowl

1 spaghetti squash

5 lb. bag of wheat berry flour

1 giant jar of green beans

a small potted thyme plant

1 dz. happy chicken eggs

dierbergs: $9.79

yogurt pretzels

org. raw sunflower seeds

org. raw pumpkin seeds

org. rolled oats

org. raisins

the evil wholefoods: $11.02

1/2 gallon org. milk

org. plain yogurt

org. sour cream

that brings us to $57.00 total

(project bank: $3.00)

here she is!!!!!!!!!!

2011-02-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

my pretty and sweet new bike. i originally wanted a more retro looking cruiser, but the hubby suggested something with smaller set handlebars for better city street maneuvering. so i went with a more commuter type bike. standing in the store, i thought no way will i ever figure out or use 21 different speeds. well let me tell you, over the two days of riding we've done, i think i've already used 2/3 of those speeds. everything from the waist down is killing me at this point, but i haven't had this much fun in quite awhile. and check it out, my basket from my previous bike fits just right.

now all i need to do is find some awesome plastic daisy's and sew myself a removable lining/carry all for my basket. then i want to get a rack for over my back wheel with some fun and retro looking storage things. soon the hubby and i can hit up the saturday farmer markets and pick up our csa all on our new bikes. oh yeah, and i also need a big flower covered bell or horn. i may, or may not, skip the streamers. you never know!!!!!

oh that veganist chick gives me the creeps

2011-02-19T15:41:00.000-08:00

lately there are three things that have been burning my butt. here they are in no particular order.....

1. the veganist chick that has been popping up all over the t.v.

this woman burns my butt for many reasons. i only wish i was a better writer so i could clearly and concisely spell out my complaints in regards to this issue. first let me say that i have not, and probably will never, read any of her books. i am basing this opinion solely on a few t.v appearances. once she was on oprah, and then again i saw her on one of the weekday morning shows spouting out about how going vegan will change your life and the world. first off the health benefits she is talking about are in regards to going vegan vs. a huge industrial, grain fed, confined meat diet, and NOT, vs. happy, healthy, small farm, pastured raised meat. BIG DIFFERENCE!!!! also, she suggest replacing meat with highly processed soy laden meat alternatives. have you ever read the ingredients on those things?? absolutely gross!!! any soy product that is not ferment first is not good for you. that's right all you soy milk drinkers, i repeat, not good for you. not to mention that most of the soy out there is controlled by some huge icky bad guys, sprayed with chemicals till an inch of their little plant lives, and genetically modified to boot. yuck, yuck, triple yuck!!!!

ok, so on the chicks website, at one point, they point out the benefits of your new vegan diet. let's take a brief look at those shall we.....

"effortless weight loss and maintenance:" not if your eating a crap load of sugar in those vegan cakes and cookies. sugar, if not burned up, turns to stored fat.

"greatly lowered risk of, and potentially even reversal of, major diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease:" yeah, if you ferment all that soy you are now eating, otherwise, i'm not to sure about that one folks.

"increased life expectancy and quality of life:" quality of life without raw milk butter?? i don't think so.

"avoidance of food poisoning and viruses:" tell that to all those folks who got sick eating tainted spinach.

"both short-term and long-term money savings:" cause shopping at wholefood to get all those meat alternatives is super cheap. sure.

"help to feed the global poor:" not when the two biggest crops in america are corn and soy. unless you think sodas and meatless chicken fingers are gonna solve that problem lady.

"reduction of global warming:" not when the majority of our veggies are shipped in from mexico, canada, peru, and god only knows where else. and, what?? you think that meatless chicken patty and meatless meat crumble grew on a tree like that and wasn't processed in a huge energy using factory?? silly girl.

"diminished animal suffering:" tell that to all those poor innocent helpless insects that have succumbed to the powers of roundup. ladybug killer!!!!

"increased spiritual awareness and personal growth:" just cause you're a vegan, doesn't mean that you can't be an asshole.

ok, enough of that.

2. beets.

i hate beets. ray loves them. i don't care how good they are for me. i don't care if they have lots of iron and stuff like that. they taste like dirt, and no amount of salt or butter will ever change that. so, needless to say, when we got beets in our csa, i made ray eat them. i ate a few just to confirm my hatred. the only way i could choke them down was to totally revert back to 2nd grade and hold my nose while i ate them. bleeech!!!

just cause you don't see a hunk of meat on that plate, don't think for a minute that the veganist is getting to me. cause the next morning i ate this.....

.... farm fresh happy chicken eggs, toast with plenty of raw milk butter and local honey, and a tall glass of raw cow milk. take that vegan lady!!!!

3. my new bike (which i do not have a picture of yet)

well this not so much burns my butt, per se, but it sure is hurting from yesterday's inaugural ride around town. ouchy!!!!!! viva la bicyclette!!!

M is for maisy.

2011-02-18T15:15:00.000-08:00

day 5 and we have shoots!!!! (and a weekly total)

2011-02-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

would you look at that!! looks like the new soilless mixture is gonna work just fine. well, at least for the microgreens. i'm not seeing any action in the tomato or pepper seedling pots, but it is only day five. later today i'm gonna search for my thermometer to check the temperature of the soil to see if it is warm enough since we have cut the heat down over the last few days. but the radish shoots don't seem to mind the cool temps. i moved them over to the front window to give them some lovely sunshine and just look at them, marvelous. i can't wait to eat them. speaking of which, they go nice, lightly dressed next to a grilled cheese sandwich like the one we had the other night. the bread, cheese, and shoots all came from this week's csa.

and now here's the breakdown for this weeks totals.

i am happy to say that, finally, i came in under budget.

maude's market csa: $30

4 potatoes

3 beets

sunflower shoots

2 kinds of cheese

1 lb. ground bison meat

2 butternut squashes

giant loaf of white bread

1 lb. butter $7.50 extra

(i know that may seem like a lot for butter, but, let me tell you,

it's really really really really really really really good butter)

dierburgs: $4.00

org. plain yogurt

miscellaneous: $8.00

gallon of raw milk

that comes to about $50 for the week.

i now declare that the project bank debt is paid off!!!

p.s. did you notice that you didn't see the name wholefoods anywhere in this weeks totals!!!!!

happy st. v-day folks

2011-02-14T09:49:00.000-08:00

i got wanda jackson tickets from my valentine.

what did you get????

waiting for spring.

pork chop dinner for my sweetie with smashed potatoes and stewed apples, all from csa loot.

tip it!!!!

something sweet for my sweetie.

finally.... started some seeds

2011-02-11T12:58:00.000-08:00

after reading about how some of my previous potting ingredients, like peat moss and vermiculite, weren't so great for the environment, i needed to find a better soilless recipe for my seed starting. i decided to go with a mixture of compost for nutrients, (not the mushroom compost, cause that stuff is pretty strong and extremely smelly), and builders sand to help keep the compost light and airy (and not play area sand, cause that will clump up). i didn't add anything to retain moisture, so i'll have to be pretty good about spraying the seeds a couple of times everyday with water to keep them from drying out. first up on the to do list was to make a potting mixture of about 3 parts compost to 1 part builder's sand which will go in the bottom 2/3 of the pots.

i then made a separate mixture of equal parts compost and sand to go directly below the seeds and just over the top. you wanna make sure to continually give your seeds water while keeping the soil above them moist and loose so the little guys can break though the surface when the time comes.

and then, get to planting!! right now i am starting some seeds in terra cotta pots till i can get some little homemade newspaper pots started. i had some local publications printed on newsprint i could have used, but they have lots of colored pictures. most everything i've read says to only use black and white news print, and since no one is calling me back to tell me whether or not their color ink is soy based, i'm gonna play it safe. which means i need to head out and russel me up some used newspapers.

a little bowl with what will hopefully be some awesome radish microgreens.

since it is still way to cold down in the basement, i had to bring my seedling pots upstairs. good thing hubby doesn't mind pots of funky soil all around the house. below are three varieties of peppers that i've grown before. last year i had a hard time getting them to sprout. pepper seeds need warmth to get started, but once i found a really warm spot in the old house, everything went great. a lot of folks will put them on top of the frig to keep them warm. i don't think that will work in this house since the kitchen is one of the coldest rooms and the frig is right next to a really cold window. so i am trying them out in the dinning room next to the best heat vent i got. we'll see how that works in a week or two.

a cozy place for the peppers.

four varieties of tomatoes over by the fireplace.

radish microgreens on a ledge between the living and dinning area.

FINGERS CROSSED!!!!!

dinners

2011-02-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

well, i haven't been that great at showing you folks what i've been doing with my csa loot. i had planned on writing about everything we we're eating, but there is only so many ways to make muslix or honey toast for breakfast and left overs for lunch that interesting. so perhaps if i switch the concentration to just the dinners, i'll be more productive. hopefully when the days get longer i can get better pictures in the daylight instead of relying on the icky camera flash. so, to catch up a bit, let's take a look at a few dinners i made for me and hubby. and let me tell you, 1 1/2 pounds of beef stew meat can really go a long way for two people...... (items from the csa in bold).

superbowl sunday stew meat chilli

served over cheese grits

and topped with butter and garlic sauteed tasoi

roasted hubbard squash and onions

over brown rice

one night i topped it with a little stew meat sliced thin and sauteed in butter

ok, this next dinner, i'll totally admit, looks a little bit like cesar dog food served over rice, but it sure tasted pretty good.

"it's sorta" beef stroganoff, stroganoff

beef stew meat with onions and dried mushrooms

in a creamy mushroom/beer stock sauce with sour cream

served over brown rice with

a side salad of dressed radish shoots

last night's dinner wasn't terribly exciting. we had leftover cheese grits with roasted sweet potatoes and onions and scrambled eggs. hopefully, i'll keep up with posting about the dinners and possibly take a few more pictures as i'm cooking.

cabin fever: terrible for me, great for the pups.

2011-02-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

wow, i really can't wait for a high of 48 degrees this weekend. i need, repeat, need to get out of this house for more than just a few hours at a time. with my car acting funny in the cold, and our street iced over to the point where everyone seems to be spinning out, so much so, that my poor neighbor was out in the middle of the road this morning spreading salt and hacking at the ice with a shovel, i've been somewhat home bound for the last couple of weeks. the dogs, however, seem to be just fine with mommy being home all the time. i got out of the shower this morning to find maisy passed out, not just sleeping, but seriously passed out on the guest bed in my office. just look at this......

just pitiful.

also, in celebration of veggie seed starting, i thought it fitting to add a little bit of spring to my step and wardrobe. today i am sporting a blue and white flowered top that i made and some cute little yellow flower ear rings. now off to the basement to start some seeds!!!!!!

i know, i know. i need to get out more.

CSA week #4, 3G project week #6

2011-02-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

gosh darn it, i'm over budget again!!! this is getting hard. but, i am one determined lady. i think i know where the problem lies. not enough meal planning, and purchasing items that i thought i needed, only to get home and realise that i had more than i needed to get me through the week. case in point...butter. i was running fairly low, and since we where at the soulard farmer's market getting coffee, i decided i needed more. my regular butter supplier was not there so i opted for the only other butter i could find. unfortunately, it was from unknown cows in unknown conditions and it wasn't until i got home that i read the ingredients: cream and natural flavorings. natural flavorings?? what the heck is that?? not to mention, i doubled checked on my butter status and saw that, if planned properly, i had enough butter to last at least another week. fart!!! see what happens when you panic people. so the new butter is going in the freezer for true emergencies, or i'll use it for cookies and pastries and save the good stuff for cooking and toast. also, i just might have a raw butter supplier here shortly and won't that be amazing!!!! till then, let's look at how i busted the budget this week.

week #4 csa along with some store bought items.

3G weekly breakdown

maude's market weekly csa: $30

2 sweet potatoes

1 tatsoi plant

a little bunch of radishes

radish shoots

2 giant pork chops

1 container of cuban black beans

1/2 gallon apple cider

1 dozen large happy chicken eggs ($4 extra)

soulard farmer's market

1 lb. butter $3.75

1/2 lb. org. coffee $4.50

loaf of black bear organic honey wheat bread $1.00

(that's right folks, they have a few days old bread for a dollar!!!!!!)

wholefoods/target: $30

1/2 gallon org. milk (x2)

jar of salsa

grass fed cheddar cheese

org. plain yogurt

1.5 lbs. org. rolled oats

org. blue corn chips

that comes to about $74.00 total

yikes!!!! the project bank is now negative $9.

hopefully in the coming weeks i can hunker down, keep an eagle eye on the spending, and start paying off the project bank debit and start saving up again for a super duper treat. and by that, i mean some of this.

garden suprise from the mama

2011-02-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

ok, i'll admit it wasn't a complete surprise. i knew she was sending me a newspaper seedling pot maker thingy, but i had no idea it was really a whole little potting kit. yeah mama!!!! now i really have NO reason not to get some seeds going tomorrow.

surprise, what is it????

that's a big box for a little pot maker.

oh snap!!! it's a whole kit of goodies!!!! the mama rules!!!

of course my first little pot would feature a bottle of whiskey.

p.s. if anyone else feels the need to send me a gift, i'll take ANYTHING off this website where my mama got my garden kit.

new seeds

2011-02-08T14:25:00.000-08:00

last weekend, at the soulard farmer's market, i pick up a couple packets of new seeds.

for my cherry tomato pick.

instead of a roma, i got another beefsteak variety.

basil

not on the list, but these beans looked interesting.

also not on the list, but spring onions rule.

and last but not least.... squash!!!!!!

now the only items left on the seed list is oregano, parsley, a sweet pepper, and maybe corn. yes the corn has been bumped down to "maybe" status. it's all gonna depend if i can find a non-GMO variety without having to go through online shopping.

and the milk rides shotgun

2011-02-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

it's here! it's here! i can't tell you from where or how, but it's here. finally i got some raw milk. and to boot, it comes in a reusable glass container. how granola is that??!!?? to get it home, mr. milk had to ride shotgun in a little cubbyhole i made for him. buckle up!!

since it's not all that easy to pour the milk from a huge gallon jar, i'll keep just a bit in a pitcher for easier everyday use. score!!! little by little, inch by inch, we're moving away from the big bad wholefoods market. take that you icky GMO lover!!!

2011 seed breakdown

2011-02-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

like i said before, it's really hard to think about this.....

when my backyard looks like this.........

and apparently there is more snow coming! but since i finally got some compost and sand, there's no time like the present to get some seeds going. so here's where i'm at with my seed supply.

i've got plenty of HBPL and beam's yellow pear tomato seeds leftover. as we all know, i'm head over heals in love with the HBPL, however the yellow pear i can do without. so i'm thinking of getting one more pack of a big beefsteak, a roma, and a cherry tomato variety, and like always i'll probably end up with more plants than i have space for. so, if you are in the st. louis area and want a few tomato plants let me know and i probably can hook you up.

looks like my pepper seed stock is okay. i'm running low on the chervena chushka seeds, so i'm gonna look for another long +/- sweet pepper to try out.

i've got plenty of peas,

and a nice variety of greens.

here are a few packets that i haven't even opened.

some miscellaneous seeds to play with.

herbs on board.

and few packets for the fall.

(southern giant curled mustard greens, purple top white globe turnips, american purple top rutabaga, and a unopened pack of red russian kale)

important, yet EMPTY, seed packs.

there are a few places in town that i ran across selling packets of seeds at good prices. one is the garden store/cafe bowood farms cafe and then there was a booth at the soluard farmer's market that had some interesting heirloom seeds for sale. i'm going to check there to see what new seeds i can get, and whatever else is needed i'll probably order online. although i would love to support my local stores rather than pay shipping charges, but we'll see. here's my list of what i think i need.....

one variety of a long/sweet pepper

maybe another beefsteak tomato variety

cherry tomato

roma tomato

oregano

parsley

basil

and new to try this year

(along with the mexican sour gherkin cucumber and christmas lima beans that i already have)

one variety of corn

and one variety of winter squash

p.s. i started this post yesterday and woke up this morning to another 3 inches of snow.

when will the white stuff ever end?????

i've got to stop the galettes!!!!!

2011-02-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

why, oh why, did i decide, after all these years, to try to make rustic tarts??? savory, sweet, it doesn't matter. i am now obsessed and running out of butter. for heavens sake spring, get your butt here!!! i gotta get out of this house. i gotta get on a bike and explore. i gotta get in the soil and garden. i gotta stop making the galettes!!!!!!

chris knight was wrong when he said "ice is nice."

so remember the big hubbard squash from week #2's csa? it's been hiding out in the back of the frig patiently waiting for it's turn to shine and it got it's chance the other night. after the success of the apple galette, i went looking for some other rustic tarts to try and i stumbled on this recipe over at smitten kitchen. i followed the pastry recipe as written and it was the most wonderful crust i have ever made. so delicious, so flaky, it is now my go to crust for savory tarts. yippee!!! i did need to changed up the filling a bit to work with what i had in my kitchen. i used a different kind of squash, omitted the cheese (simply because i didn't have any), used ground sage since i didn't have any fresh, just used regular pepper instead of cayenne, tossed in a bit of honey in lieu of sugar, and to make things a bit easier, i roasted the onions in with the squash. i then proceed to assemble and bake the tart in a cast iron skillet pretty much as the recipe states. and now, i will most definitely state, here and now, squash i don't think i love you, i KNOW i love you!!!

and the leftovers tasted even better the following night.

well while we're having this squash love fest, let's give spaghetti squash it's due. cooking the spaghetti squash couldn't be more simple. all you have to do is wash the squash off, place the whole entire squash on a cookie sheet, and bake it in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour. once done, cut the squash in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and stringy stuff, and then scrape out the flesh with a fork. and then do this........

make some quick, and i mean quick, meatballs in a pan.

remove the casing from your favorite sausage and roll the meat into tiny little balls and saute in olive oil and/or butter till just about cooked through.

throw in some cooked spaghetti squash.

pour in your favorite sauce and heat till everything is good and hot.

there you go, you're done!!!

as we speak, i still have two acorn squash in the frig that i need to prepare, so if anyone has any suggestions or recipes please let me know. happy squash everyone.

seeds and snow

2011-02-03T14:29:00.000-08:00

with all the ice and snow still lingering on the ground, it's really hard to get motivated and check seeds. but it must be done. spring will be here sooner than i think and it's time to get things going!!!!

an almost completely csa dinner

2011-02-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

something strange is going on here. hubby keeps reminding me that i haven't posted this week's csa. i didn't realize that he was checking in on the blog. sweet boy!! here's something else sorta strange. being winter i fully expected a lot of repeat items in each week's csa loot, and i was cool with that. but, happily, each week has been quite different. yes we're getting a meat, bread, and squash each time, but the variety of each is really awesome. and this weeks loot is proving to be exceptionally tasty. take a look....

week #3 csa

isn't that gorgeous!!!! just gorgeous. so inspiring and yet so delicious and fresh that overworking such ingredients is not necessary. i just kept telling myself, like with anything, "keep it simple stupid." so for two nights we had an almost completely csa dinner.... lamb brats and sauteed onions on rolls with sunflower shoots. easy, easy, easy. first saute half an onion in some butter for a few minutes (the second night i was enjoying a beer while cooking and splashed the onions a couple of times with the beer and oh boy that was really good) then add two lamb brats to the pan and heat till fully cooked. when i cut the brats in half to make them fit on the roll, and to check to see if they were done, some juices ran out into the pan. can't just leave the juices in there. so cut the rolls in half and toasted them in the pan juices, yummy. finally, top the sandwich off with some lightly dressed sunflower shoots (ground mustard, a pinch of S&P, bit of honey, rice vinegar, and olive oil mixed together and you got a serious little dressing). and there you have it, dinner.

heavens, i love my cast iron skillet.

a new obsession: MICROGREENS!!!!!

on night two, i decided to fix us a dessert with apples from the week #2 csa loot. where apple pie can be a bit of a pain to deal with, an apple galette is easy as 1, 2, 3.

apple tart 1, 2, 3.

(made in a 6 inch cast iron skillet)

1. make the apple filling

peel, core, and slice thin 2 apples (arkansas black)

toss with a small palm full of sugar, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, and a pinch nutmeg.

2. make the dough

cut 3 tbsp. butter into 1/2 cup flour and a pinch of salt. mix in 2 tbsp. chilled water till you can press the dough and it holds together in a ball. roll the dough out on floured surface until the dough circle is a good bit larger than the cast iron skillet.

3. bake the tart

set the dough in the skillet, plop in the apples (i tried to make a nice pretty circular pattern, but, in the end, i just kinda threw them in), fold over the extra dough, brush the dough with some melted butter, dot the apples with a bit more butter, and bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.

if only we'd had some ice cream!!!

3G week #5 totals breakdown

maude's market csa: $35.97

(including tax and the dozen eggs)

2 acorn squash

sunflower shoots

6 lamb brats

5 rolls

pint of frozen cherries

bean soup mix

1 dozen large eggs

wholefoods/target: $22.45

org. milk x2

org. sour cream

org. yogurt

jar of org. strained tomatoes

raw pumpkin seeds

raw sunflower seeds

saluda farmers market: $4.50

1 lb. local homemade unsalted butter

total: about $63.00

($3.00 over, project bank now down to $5.00)

ice, ice, baby!!

2011-01-31T14:13:00.000-08:00

it's coming, it's coming.... the dreaded ice storm. let's first say that i am not freaking out. luckily we live in an area where i can walk to get anything i need, but let's face it, with highs below freezing and lows down near zero, the less i feel the need to leave the house, the better. so earlier today i walked up to the store to get a few supplies that i felt we were lacking (just in case the ice really does come and snaps a power line or two). now while anyone else might first think milk and bread, i thought this........

ok, so there is milk in there, i'll admit it. i need it for my morning muslix and coffee. and if the roads are so dicey that hubby gets stuck at the house, i'll need extra for when he jumps up and down in the hallway asking for coffee with "milky, milky, milky." there is also blue corn chips as requested by the hubby, matches (cause the kitchen range is gas, but i'm not sure if the pilot light thingy is electric), a camping light that comes with a small flashlight in case the lights go out (weird that we don't even have a flashlight), rechargeable batteries for the lantern, some feminine care items, toilet paper (you REALLY do need that and we only had one roll left), and of course, most importantly, in case the heat goes out and we are forced to stay curled up with the puppies under a huge pile of blankets.... whiskey!!!! and no joke, whiskey was the first thing out of hubby's mouth this morning when making the shopping list. it does warm the toes nicely. we also made a library run this weekend, so i'm set with some awesome reading material if needed, sweet!!

so come on mother nature, bring it!!!

yeast pancakes, say what!!!

2011-01-31T09:39:00.000-08:00

ok, these are pancakes that, due to the yeast, you kinda gotta plan ahead a bit to make. that would explain why i haven't tried to make them until now. but let me tell you, once you go yeast, you just can't go back. luckily i had some "tod" left in the frig so that cut the process down a step or two. however, that was the last of the "tod" and since we've been getting bread every week in our csa, i haven't made time to deal with making more bread starter. but after tasting these pancakes, with their delicious dinner roll flavor and super light texture, it's off to make more "tod" i go.

yeast pancakes

(makes 8 small pancakes)

1/2 cup starter

1/2 tsp. dry yeast

1/3 tsp. salt

1/3 tsp. white sugar

1/2 tablespoon butter

1/3 cup warm water

1/2 cup flour

1/8 cup brown sugar

1 egg

mix white sugar, butter, salt and yeast into warm water till dissolved. add solution to the starter and mix in the egg. mix in flour and brown sugar. set bowl, covered, on counter until everything get nice and bubbly alive. my batter took about 2 hours or so. then i stirred it a bit and let it rest for about 30 more minutes. proceed to make pancakes as you normally would. enjoy.

bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.

add some left over fried chicken, sauteed butter carrots, maple syrup, and you got dinner.

breakfast

2011-01-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

morning coffee, fake fire, local sourdough toast with local goat cheese and a drizzle of honey... works for me!!!!

waiting

2011-01-27T13:03:00.000-08:00

as i'm waiting to see what's in this week's csa, waiting for someone to call me about a job, and waiting for sidewalks free of snow, there are some strange things going on here at the house.

my hair has been stricken with "bieber fever,"

moo is milking it for attention,

and mr. keebs has reverted back to some sort of mama's boy lap dog.

Mmmbap, ba du ba bap!!

2011-01-26T15:19:00.000-08:00

the other night i decided to make hamburgers from the ground bison meat that we got in our csa from week #2. and what goes better with homemade hamburgers than homemade burger buns?? so confident was i (cause why wouldn't i, i have "tod," my super fantastic bread starter) that it was gonna work on the first try, i used my very very last egg in the dough. unfortunately, that dough completely and utterly failed to rise. i mean not even a smidgen. boo whoo me. i could have given up and walked to the store for the buns, but i was determined to make something, anything, tasty in that dang kitchen. with all my kitchen failures lately, i really needed a success story. hail the floury bap. i took the recipe from linda collister's bread book and adapted it a bit to accommodate my starter. thanks goodness the dough decided to rise up for me, the hamburgers turned out tasty, and the sweet potato "fries" we're not to bad (they just needed a bit more time in the oven, but, to bad, i was hungry.) now if i could just get the auto focus on my camera to be my friend, things might start to look up a bit.

yeah, it has risen!!

before....

after.

bison burger with homemade flour bap and my canned pepper ketchup. oops, out of focus.

floury baps

(makes 6 baps)

1/2 cup starter mixed with 1/2 flour, 1/2 water, and 1/4 teaspoon yeast.

let starter hang out on counter till nice a bubbly.

mix 1/2 teaspoon yeast into 2/3 cup warm milk and 1 teaspoon salt.

cut 2 tablespoons butter into 2 cups flour till looks like crumbs.

make a well in the center and add the warm milk mixture and the starter.

mix till dough looks feels a bit sticky and starts to pull away from the bowl.

turn out and knead on lightly floured surface for ten minutes. (i did it for 5 minutes)

rise for 1-2 hours in oil bowl covered with damp towel.

once doubled, turn out and divided into 6 pieces.

shape into slightly thick circle, brush with milk, sprinkle with flour.

let rise for about 1/2 - 1 hour.

press down center of each bap with your thumb

bake in pre-heated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.