Garden Update

There was a nice harvest today.  Romaine and Bibb lettuce was thinned.  The heads were used to make a salad.  The beets were also thinned.  The baby beets were pickled to add to the salad. The cauliflower is ripening all at the same time so a few heads were cut along with some broccoli to make casseroles.  This was the 1st day to harvest any cauliflower or broccoli.  Cauliflower and cabbage are in extreme abundance and are being shared to take advantage of the fresh, tender produce. The peas are continuing to mature.  Last weekend they needed to be staked up more to eliminate their sprawl.  They were beginning to overtake the garlic.  Now, the garlic has a clear shot at the sun.  I’m thinking about planting this entire bed with tomatoes next. With the beets thinned, they have more room to grow larger and are less likely to shade the garlic.

Note:  Do not plant peas on the east side of  a bed.  Their vigorous growth tends to shade anything trying to grow on the west side.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Years ago, my kids would pull these flowers (weeds) and make bouquets for the neighbors.  Our yard once had scads of them.  Now there are only a few that remain.  They bloom in the early Spring.  I like to keep some around to remind me of those cute kids.Oxalis luteol has clover shaped leaves.  The roots are tuberous.  The flowers have five petals and grow in bunches on long, slender stems.  How they get from growing in the ground to growing in a pot I just don’t know.  One thing – they’re easy to grow so they must be a weed.The bees were buzzing the other day, busy collecting pollen for honey.  The warm sun encouraged the blossoms to open and invited the bees in.  I wonder what the honey tastes like. Today, it rained again.  No bees.

Fruit Tree Buds

The fruit trees are starting to bud out.  I’m not sure which tree will pop 1st; but by the looks of things today, I choose the apple tree.                                                         Apricot

Nectarine

Pear

Apple

Peach

Plum

All of these fruit trees are being grown as espalier trees to make the most use of the room and use them as a fence between the lawn and the vegetable beds.

Grey Skies Are Gonna Clear Up

Yesterday, the rain clouds busted up and gave way to clear, blue skies with white clouds floating by. 

Today is a replay of yesterday sans clouds.

Here Comes the Sun – Doot-N-Do-Do-Do

No rain this morning; but evidence of its visit lingers.

The broccoli is only leaning slightly to the south…not as bad as I thought it would be.

Bienvenido a El Nino!

It’s been raining for days around here!  It’s rained so much that my broccoli is starting to fall over.  And I don’t care.  I’ll take the rain and snow (in the Sierras) any day.  These storms are needed terribly.  Maybe I can get out to take some photos soon. For now, I’ll just enjoy hibernating.

Winter Garden – California Style

Here’s what we’re enjoying in Maybelline’s Garden:

 

 

 

While Noah was building his ark this weekend, I took pictures while the sun was still operating.  Today, January, 18, 2009, the winds howled and the sky opened up.  Wow.  It poured.  I hope the next storm sticks some snow up in the mountains.   This time of year is delightful.

I Did It!

I finally did it.  I baked a successful loaf of bread – two loaves in fact.  Bread is a culinary hurdle I have been unable to sail over.  Oh, I have a bread machine.  I can make hockey pucks and tortillas in my bread machine.  This happens no matter if I use a recipe from scratch or a packaged mix. 

I store the paddle for the machine in the pan unattached.  One time I forgot to install the paddle.  It was baked right into the hockey puck loaf.  What an idiot.

Cornbread has been conquered and improved by me.  No problem.  It’s so good I call in cornbread cake.  Buttermilk biscuits I rule supreme.  Pass the butter.  Yeast breads I swear to dominate.  Today I begin to teach myself how to master yeast bread baking.

I chose a recipe from the November 2009 issue of Cooking Light.  All the ingredients to make Walnut Bread were in my kitchen; so I could proceed.  The planets aligned.  The weather cooperated.  The angels sang.  The gods approved.  It was good.

I took a picture to record my success so I can remember this 1st step.  Certainly, I will have many steps backwards; but I finally did it.  It was good. The recipe did not call for an egg wash; but a taste tester suggested to try that.  It looks pretty good.  Another taste tester in my kitchen thought kosher salt would be good.  I salted one loaf.  It was good.

Warm bread and melting butter.  It is good.

Note:  Why do food stylist place their food on fabric?  I don’t want my bread on a piece of linen or burlap (pictured above).  Please keep the lint, threads, and fluff off of my food.  Thank you.

Food Storage

Does anyone put food away?  You know.  Store it for an emergency.  I canned tomatoes this summer.  Those jars are history.  They are waiting for this summer’s harvest.  They are stored on the shelves beneath my store bought food stuffs.  Food stuffs.  That’s a peculiar phrase.

Mr. M was addicted to the salsa and I did my fair share of cleaning out the jars.  Mr. M also likes to have his shelves stocked as if a mini grocery store was in our garage.  Today, I hit Costco to start restocking Mother Hubbard’s cupboards.  Although the store bought stuff isn’t as good as home canned, it’s nice to have a few items on the shelves.  I have a nifty can rotating system too.  The can is pulled from the bottom.  The other cans in line behind roll forward.  Pretty cool.

It certainly says a lot about my stage of life when I store the kosher salt, apple sauce, onions, and Listerine next to Elton John and the Average White Band.

 

Perhaps a serious intervention is in my future.  Maybe after I organize the shelves a bit better.

Garden Diet

As with most new years, there are resolutions to get thin.  On this cold, wet, and foggy morning, I thinned the beets and carrots.  I didn’t need to pitch most of them.  The baby beets were cooked and pickled to use on the salad for dinner that was picked fresh (romaine, spinach, and bibb).  The carrots were used for the chicken stew.  Since there weren’t enough, my friends for the local carrot giant, Bolthouse Farms supplemented the balance.  Thanks guys.The stew is a concoction of chicken, bacon, onions, garlic, beer, and broth.  How can you go wrong?  Peas will be added a bit closer to the end of cooking time. Now I can go watch thee football playoffs while the stew simmers and the fireplace crackles as I drift off into a deep nap.

I’m a regular modern day Elizabeth Lane!  Everything is hunky dunky.

Sniff Sniff

Reasons to hurry up the invention of smellavision.

 

Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.

Christmas Cactus

My Christmas Cactus started budding out the week of Christmas.  It took its sweet time to burst with color.  Today, there are hot pink blossoms exploding.   Better late than never.