Sooner Than I Thought - Thank You Snow Day!

I'm back much sooner than I would have anticipated...thanks to the snow storm that blew through and froze the Pacific Northwest over yesterday. My drive home from work was pretty dicey - thankfully the husband met me at work so I could follow him home. There are some hills on my route home that when they are covered in ice can be scary. Although I'd anticipated a 2-hour late start today because it was announced yesterday, I was a little suprised when it turned into a full snow day. So even though I've got a bit of anxiety about missing a day and having to re-plan, but on the other hand, I needed the chance to get caught up on housework and get ready to have my mom and brother visit for Thanksgiving. The husband and the pets were also a big part of my day, I loved having the extra bit of unexpected quality time with them....Bambino had a blast playing with us and chasing his frisbee in the snow. This was the first experience with snow for the Buff Orpington hens that are new to the flock this year - they seemed pretty disturbed by the cold white stuff that was on the ground and every surface. I gave them lots of extra scratch corn - I've heard that it raises their body temperatures. It was wonderful to get a bit of time outside...even though it was cold, the sky was perfectly blue and sunny. I took a ton of pictures, I love how the snow makes everything look fresh and new...I tend to go nuts with pictures on snow days! So here's a whole lot of pictures with not a lot of post...Enjoy!

Pumpkins, Zucchini and Squash

Last year I attempted to grow pumpkins, actually I attempted to grow them the year before that too, but last year I actually got a little pumpkin on a vine whereas the year before I had stunted little plants that barely started to vine let alone set fruit. So back to that one little pumpkin from last year...I think I killed it with love. I checked on it daily and even put a paper plate under it like I'd read somewhere to keep it from sitting in wet dirt and rotting. Well, that little pumpkin was discovered detached and withered looking one day. It made me sad, I didn't like to think about it and I didn't want to talk about it when the husband brought it up, he knew I was excited about it, I'd made him check it out any time he was anywhere near my garden. Fortunately, this year I've got lots of pumpkins, they are growing wonderfully. Why is this? It's got to be that they like growing in the designer soil in the raised bed. I've also given them a natural fertilizer called "Bio-Fish", twice, once when I put the starts in the ground and again right before I watered recently. My plans for those pumpkins? Pie and decoration. We may even carve a few this year - if the s-son is in the mood, he's turning 13 later this month, so it can be tough to predict what he's still into and what he's outgrown. By the way, the two little pumpkins in the picture below were vine rejects, they were detached when I found them, believe it or not, they were actually further along in their growth when I found them than my one little pathetic pumpkin from last year. I've got more squash right now than I am prepared to deal with. I'll confess that I've been taking the bigger zucchini, splitting it open and giving it to my chickens. I figure if they eat it then I eventually do benefit from growing it. The bigger zucchini doesn't taste as good to me as it does when it's small - of course it's my fault that so much has grown big because I didn't get out early enough to pick it. I do love the odd things that can sometimes happen when growing vegetables. Like these conjoined crookness squash - love them! They are currently taking up space on my coutertop because I like to look at them.Another oddity, the two zucchini's below were grown from seeds that came from the same pack.I suppose it's not a long stretch that I'd be such a geek when it comes to pumpkins and squash, I am the lady who regularly takes pictures of her chickens and their eggs. Honestly though, when I look at the gorgeous golden stripes of the crookneck squash in the picture below, I'm kind of amazed that I started the seed that grew into the vine that set the flower that was polinated by a bee and then grew into that squash. I'm okay with being a gardening geek, I can own that.

Potato Harvest

Not really having much experience with potato growing, we've been pretty much winging it this year. I planted two large containers with five starter potatoes each back in (I think) April. I followed the advice of many, many people and slowly added dirt to the containers a few inches at a time as the potato plants grew.

We decided to "harvest" one container to check the progress of the potatoes. There wasn't an overwhelmingly huge amount of potatoes, but we did get more than a few meals worth out of that container. Again, not having much experience, I don't know if this is an expected amount, or if we would have had more if we'd waited longer. The plants were pretty much dried out and no longer green on top, I think I'd heard that when a potato plant starts to flower that it is done setting potatoes and when it dries out then those potatoes are done growing. This may or may not be true, I haven't done my homework yet.

We still have the other container to harvest, probably sometime in the next month or so. Maybe this will give me a better idea of what to do next year. By the way, the pile of rocks in the picture above has nothing to do with potatoes...but it is a project that I'll have to get to when the weather cools off. We collected those rocks from the area on our property where the husband had dug ditches for the utility lines to be worked on and connected for the building project he just finished. The rocks are disaster if run over by our riding lawn mower, so because we had to go through and pick them up, we collected them in the bucket of his tractor and he dumped them into my garden. It looks messy now, but they'll look great added onto the rock border that I started in my garden earlier this year. I like free resources, all these rocks have required is a bit of sweat. I've heard before that Irish soil is pretty rocky, and since this post is about potatoes, maybe the rock tangent isn't so off after all!

See you soon!

More Pesto Here We Go!

So...I started 36 basil plants from seed this spring. I transplanted them to one of my raised beds in May. I was worried at the time that they'd make it because even though the weather was great when I put them in the ground, the temperatures dipped low a few times in the couple of weeks that followed. I also learned a lesson in applying fertilizers. I overdid it a bit, when I put the starts in the ground I added a side dressing of "Bio-Fish" fertilizer which is made by a company called Down to Earth. It's a great fertilizer, but in moderation. I burned the plants a bit by using too much.

The damage was obviously not lasting, these plants came back very strong.

I've already done a thorough picking of the plants twice and made batches of pesto with the harvest...but it's been almost two weeks since the the last picking and the plants have loved the watering and sunshine . As you can see from the picture above, some of the plants were going to start to flower and bolt if they didn't get some attention.

So I went out and spent about 45 minutes filling my basket up. It was the most I've picked at any time. I knew that I'd be doing this, so I'd made sure a couple of days ago that I still had everything needed in my kitchen to make pesto.

First I started with the fresh garlic, peeling isn't my most favorite chore, but I think it tastes better than the pre-peeled kind that you can buy in bulk or the chopped stuff that comes in a jar. Even though it's a bit of a task, it's worth it.

Hazelnuts - though I would probably prefer pinenuts, they are too expensive to buy for the mass amount of pesto I've been making, hazelnuts are a good and more affordable substitute. I've actually considered using walnuts as well.

For the first couple of batches I used shredded parmesan, but this time around, I had picked up a blend of shaved hard cheeses at Trader Joe's.

Then there was the olive oil. The thing about it is, I don't really measure any of this out, I like to make my pesto in a more casual way. If it looks like it is going to need more oil to get the texture I want, I add more, or if it doesn't taste "smooth" enough, I add more cheese or nuts. It may mean that one batch is slightly different than the next, but I like variety so that doesn't bother me.

With the first batch I froze the pesto in a muffin tin, though I liked the amount that each muffin cup held, it was pretty difficult to get the frozen pesto out. When loosening it up with a butterknife didn't work, I ended up turning the pan over and running warm water over the back to make the individual pesto portions come out. It was messy so I decided after that to use small party cups instead. I fill each cup about half way, covered them with wrap and into the freezer they go. Once they are frozen I'll pop them out of the cups and store the frozen pieces together in a freezer bag. I think I've got about 20 dinner-sized portions stored now. From the looks of it, there's going to be plenty more to come before the basil is done for the season. I'm excited that there will be lots of pesto flavored dinners to come this winter, it's one of my favorites! This is also a much more affordable way to get pesto, I wouldn't be willing to spend the money to buy this much pesto from a grocery market. I also love it that I know exactly what went into making it, there are no mystery ingredients. A taste of summer basil during our cold Pacific Northwest winters is going to be pretty great!

Flowers All Over

It's that time of year where the flowers are everywhere and I can't get enough! Ahhhh Summer, I now remember why I love you so!

A Few Garden Update Pictures

With the new raised beds, the garden is full and thriving right now, I some times can't believe how much is growing and how well it is all growing! If I wasn't before, I am now a huge advocate of raised beds for growing veggies. The weeding has been pretty minimal the crop yield has been fantastic!

A tomato ripening on the vine in the sunshine.

A few zucchini still on the vine, we've already been enjoying zucchini here and there at dinner time.

I'm not sure why, but this year my broccoli seems to be a bit behind, but it's coming in now!

I've tried for years to grow pumpkins, but this is the furthest I have ever come with that.

Here's another little pumpkin that is growing in.

Like the pumpkins, I have had bad luck with corn in the past, but things are looking better this year here too.

This is my first attempt at growing eggplant, I'm sooooo excited to have a few blossoms, I've been dreaming about roasted eggplant on pizza!

So that's it for now...happy weekend and happy growing!