2 Day Spring Break

Adult spring breaks come in short little bursts of beautiful weather. These are our only chances to get out of the office and back under the warm sun. The past two days have been just that. Gorgeous clear, sunny skies that make all the tree buds pop open and flowers awaken, forcing even the most antisocial-ites outside to enjoy the weather.

Projects are in the works for landscaping the backyard. Most are small projects. I want to create two flower boxes and one raised area to plant blueberries. Then we'll dig up two woody bushes in the front yard and replace the area with hostas and indigenous wildflowers. I told my husband to leave the backyard to me...it's my domain. There's also completely reseeding the dog area. The ex-dog (we had to divorce her, it was a bad relationship) destroyed it with all her pacing. It'll be a project, that's for sure.

Speaking of the hubs...I would have had pictures of everything to share with you, but he took off on a scooter ride and took the camera. I'm sure it'll be worth it. His videos and pictures are always great!

In The Garden

Oh how wonderful it felt to be out in the garden, even if it was only to complete a few tasks. The weather was warm, still the wind was a sharp reminder of March. I'm convinced that spring is here, in her infancy.


When I set out to the garden, my goals were to turn the soil and plant peas, radish, and spinach. I also took the onions out to acclimate them to their new environment. Once I stepped foot into the garden, I realized the soil conditions had changed. It went from a nice loamy texture to hard, wet clay. It rained for a few days prior and the dog had been running around, leaving mud-molded paw prints behind.

With a little effort, I was able to turn a row. By the fence, I noticed that the soil remained that loamy soil from before the rain. The sun always hits this side first, helping it to dry out faster. Easily, I turned this soil and prepared it for the peas. I spaced them about 4" apart in a long row. I decided not to sow the other seeds, dut to unfavorable soil conditions. We're expecting another rain now, so the next dry spell I'll go out and start again.


The onions did well outside for two days. It will be a few more before they return; I have to work. I bought potting soil and perlite at the store, ready to pot-up the peppers and herbs as they are setting their third set of leaves. I have lots of pepper plants. I hate to cull them. If I have room, I will pot-up and either give them away or sell them. But that's for another day, during nap-time.


I've also been busy changing the look of the website, adding new products to My Happy Kitchen and also adding a My Happy Kitchen facebook fan page. So many things to do and simply no time with a little tot running around. Then again, I wouldn't trade that for the world.

1st Tomato Sprout

Kellogg's Breakfast, 4 days

Barefoot Bloggers - Individual Meat Loaves

It feels good to be back with the Barefoot Bloggers. It allows me a(nother) good reason to make really great dishes from one of my faves: Ina Garten. Like I've said before, she writes recipes that are simple yet exquisite, often infusing French cuisine a la Julia Child. Today was anything but French. No wine, no butter, no herbes de Provence. Only good All-American food. Here's my tale of the mini meatloaf.

Recipe: Individual Meat Loaves

The first thing I thought about changing with this recipe was the meat. Friends at work have been raving about a turkey meatloaf which I've been meaning to try. However, after two straight nights of chicken, I was ready for something heartier. Ground sirloin certainly made it a leaner meatloaf, much better than the chuck I've used in the past. I cut back to two pounds for a total of four mini loaves.

Ina explicitly instructs the cook to soften the onions without any browning. I disagree. A bit of carmelization I feel is necessary to bring out the natural sugars and add a touch of sweetness to the meat, which the ketchup on top mimics. I also didn't have any fresh thyme to add, it's still in the seedling stage under grow lights. Instead, I utilized the pesto I made in the fall with ALL that basil. The rest went together as written and cooked in 40 minutes flat.



I made a side of redskin buttermilk mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts with shallot and balsamic vinegar. The meatloaf had a nice texture and held together well. There was little fat, yet remained moist even around the edges. My husband has expressed his pleasure with the meal, repeatedly. It's definitely one of the better meat loaves I've made.

There were these light green roses at the entrance to the grocery store today. I couldn't resist. They lift my mood everytime I walk by. Spring is in the air around here.

First Bloom

How delightful this early March weather has been! Mild, sunny, and just warm enough for my bulbs to send up their leaves. Today, while I was out playing with the tot, I noticed three bright yellow crocuses were awake, bowing their delicate heads towards us as if to say 'hello'.

I once read that when the first bloom appears in Spring, peas should be planted in the ground. The garden is not quite ready and rain will be hitting the area hard all week. My goal is by St. Patrick's Day. Along with the peas, I will sow chard, lettuce, beets, radishes, and bok choy along with setting out the already started onions.

Here's todays list of started seeds!

Tomatoes

Matt's Wild Cherry(OP)

Green Doctors(OP)

Depp's Pink Firefly(OP)

Indian Stripe(OP)

Indiana Red(OP)

Granny Cantrell(OP)

Kellogg's Breakfast(OP)

Costoluto Genovese(OP)

Big Beef Beefsteak(F1)

Eggplant, Rosa Bianca

Peppers

Jalapeno

Hungarian Paprika

Mapped Out

It's funny how the old-school shit just works better.

I've been using online garden planning software over and over again to figure out what exactly is going where this spring. Tonight, after many frustrated attempts, I purchased plain ol' graph paper. In a matter of a few hours, the entire thing was drawn. I've made more room for tomatoes (12, if not 14), created succession/companion plantings, and confirmed that bush beans DO have a spot in the 2010 victory garden! Potatoes will be placed in bins along the south side of the house and herbs, except basil, will be kept in containers on the deck.

I've yet to figure out where to place the peas this spring. Maybe in the middle of the garden where the tomatoes will go...? A fall garden needs to be planned, too. I'd like to include cauliflower and broccoli. Again, maybe start seed between tomatoes to provide protection during the hot weather and as they grow, the tomatoes will be dying off. Or not. Timing is everything.

Seedling Setup

One of my biggest failures last year revolved around seedling maintenance. Although I improved the situation over the prior year's South-facing window with a florescent shop light above the refrigerator, there simply wasn't enough room to grow everything out and maintain a close light-to-seed proximity. This year, I decided to buy a shelving unit and place a shop light on each shelf, allowing more lighting height flexibility and definitely more room. Following my husband's advice, I placed it in the laundry room. Not only does it fit beautifully, it always stays warmer than the rest of the house, and it is tucked away from the prying hands of a toddler. I have one more light to add for now, then more will be added as needed.



I started pepper and herb seeds a few weeks ago, February 13th to be exact. Dates next to variety are the date they germinated.

Odessa Market (Bell), 2/23
Dragon's Claw (Hot), 2/21
White Habanero (Hot), 2/21
Black Pearl (Hot), 2/21
Thyme, 2/18
Rosemary, 2/22
Cilantro, 2/22
Parsley, 2/23





The onions seem to be doing well. I was concerned for a bit because the tips were browning and curling up. I thought perhaps I kept them too close to the light or over fertilized them, although I only used a very dilute fish emulsion solution. They have all put forth another leaf (if that's what you call them) and appear vigorous. I have not fertilized them again. I've read to keep them snipped to 3-4 inches to promote better root growth. They'll be due for a haircut soon.

This is what I do on a cold snow day...

...make bread. For a long time, this Farmhouse White (as it's called by Susan of A Year in Bread), was my go-to, daily bread. It's a hefty dough, using almost eleven cups of flour. I'm always worried the Kitchen Aid won't be able to withstand the stress, as it whines and moans with each turn of the dough hook. The reward is great - three wonderful loaves of sliceable bread. Somewhere along the way I strayed, finding myself in search of greener pastures. And while those adventures were wonderful, here I am again, yearning for an old staple. Here is my interpration of a classic.

Recipe

All-Purpose Flour, 566 grams, or about 4 cups
Yeast, 2 TBSP
Sugar, 2 TBSP
Olive Oil, 2 TBSP
Milk, 4 cups
Bread Flour, 825 grams, or about 6 cups
Salt, 1 1/2 TBSP



Oh, did I mention we're going old school today? By hand, folks!! Mix the first three ingredients in a large bowl. Add olive oil and warmed milk, creating a very wet mixture.




Slowly add in the bread flour, about one cup at a time. I used about 4 1/2 cups, since I tend to add a lot when kneading. The result should be slightly sticky. Turn out onto well-floured surface and begin to knead, adding extra flour to prevent sticking.



Once the dough becomes smooth, place bowl back over dough to rest and autolyse. After twenty minutes, remove the bowl. It should be springy and hold an indentation. Pat the dough out and begin incorporating the salt by sprinking it on throughout a second knead.



Once dough is once again soft and supple, place into your well-floured dough bowl and sprinkle with flour. Cover with a damp kitchen towel. Wait until doubled. I place mine on the stovetop and set the oven to "warm", which keeps my dough at about 75 degrees Farenheight.



Once doubled, cut into three even portions and shape into loaves. I only have two loaf pans, so I saved the extra for another time. Place in a preheated oven at 375F for about 35 minutes. Immediately remove from pan and cool on wire rack. Then wait. Wait for about an hour to slice, if you can stand it. It'll be worth every minute!

**Submitted to YeastSpotting.

My Happy Kitchen

Please check out my online store if you haven't done so already. I've made a few items available for purchase, such as these very soft, very organic dishcloths.

Aprons, potholders, and kitchen curtains to be added soon!

Onions in Winter

Snow fell again yesterday. Big, thick, wet flakes accumulated on the ground, about four inches or so. Not nearly as much as my good friends in the D.C. area, 27 inches of snow!! I'm completely satisfied with my four. There was plenty of wind, too. It drifted snow up against our cars and carved out snow in beautiful shapes around other areas. I finished knitting a pair of mittens for my little one so we could get our play on!

Unaware of freezing temperatures outside, the onion seeds I started February 2nd sprouted up from within their little cells. I don't have the shelving and light setup for my seedlings. I'm using the old setup on top of the fridge for now. Finally a start to the gardening season.

A Knit Fix

The scarf is finished!!

I've been working on a new lovely green scarf. It's very cozy and just the right length. Just in time for the usual (you think spring is here with the 40 degree temps but it's not, really...) February we're about to have.

But this is a gardening blog, you say? True, but it's one about sustainability. Knitting, sewing, cooking, gardening: creating a homesteading experience would be nearly impossible without these practical, everyday skills. I'm curious as to the point in time when these things slipped beneath us, seen as something less than an office full of pencil pushers.

Yarn: Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton in Pistachio (3 skeins)
Needles: US 15
Pattern: Palindrome

Decisions submissions

It's about that time. Yup, time to order my seeds for the new year. I've been scouting, circling, pondering. How many tomatoes? Where to put the mesculn mix? Potatoes: yes or no?

I have made a few finite decisions. The layout of the garden will be in quadrants with the fence remaining on the east side of the garden. And, I will improve my seed starting setup with more shelves, better lighting, and better starting mix. That's where it ends, allowing indecision to take hold.

Tomatoes

No more than 8-10 plants. Last year I had at least 12 and it was crowded. They will be planted on the north side of the garden to prevent shading. The garden is
15'x15'. I'll plant two staggered rows. Along with the tomatoes, I'll plant the peppers, basil, and possibly carrots.

Now what varieties? I will keep my hybrid: Big Beef Beefsteak. It was prolific an decent tasting. I might go back to the Super Sweet 100s as my cherry. I grew Black Cherry last year and although they tasted really good, it wasn't a heavy producer and split a lot. I have seeds for Indian Stripe and Granny Cantrell. I think I'll buy Costoluto Genovese and Depp's Pink Firefly.

Peppers

I want to grow four sweet pepper, a few jalepeno peppers, and one or two hot peppers. I need to decide soon. Varieties include: King of the North and Odessa Market (sweet peppers). For the hot ones, probably the Black Pearl and White Habanero I tried to grow last year, plus a jalepeno variety. These should be started indoors 8-10 weeks before last frost. That means I need to be ready by February 23rd, 10 weeks before my last frost date of May 4.

Carrots

I want to use a different kind this year. Last year's Royal Chantenay were nice, but had a big inner core which tasted very earthy/woody the longer it stayed in the ground. St. Valery from Baker's Creek looks good to me.

Peas

I'm sure I'll be able to get a good spring start on the garden this year, weather always permitting. I'll try out the Lincoln Garden pea.

Greens

I really want to expand this area of the garden. I'll continue with the Rainbow Chard and Jericho Romaine. I want to add a Mesculn Mix and Spinach.


Those are the big decisions I need to make. Throw in there cukes, beans and maybe a squash plant. Add a dash of potatoes and eggplant plus a hint of herbs and I may have a complete garden.

Who's a good boy?

My three-year-old black lab, Blue Bear, that's who! For that he deserves something special: homemade dog treats. I've wanted to make them for some time now. They've always seemed fairly easy, no more work than cookies. Plus, the fact that I control the ingredients, improving the overall healthfulness and avoid the fillers that plague cheap, store-bought treats makes it a win-win.

An online search yields several recipes with varied ingredients for different flavors or to provide a health benefit. Regardless, they were all basically the same - a stiff dough made with whole wheat. Roll out into desired shapes and bake. Leave in oven overnight to further dry them out for extra crunch. For the bear's treats, I used a mixture of whole wheat, flax seed, peanut butter, garlic, and molasses.

"Hey, mom. Are they done yet??"



Admitedly, these smell great. Somewhere between a cookie and a pot roast. Hahaha. I didn't have a dog bone shaped cookie cutter, but no worries! I DO have a scared Halloween kitty cutout. Is that wrong?

Now if I can just keep my dog food-eating 18 month old away from the treats...

Proof: 2009 veggies DO exist!

Yes, I realize I failed to keep this blog updated this past gardening season...I promise to be better about it this year. Sometimes a girl needs a little attitude adjustment. Pictures were being taken all the while, so there is proof I did more than plant seeds. I had a few harvests of tomatoes, lots of cucumbers and a big bunch of basil, not to mention the beautiful sunflowers all summer long. Enjoy!

Plan A Garden

A fellow IDigger recommended an online garden planning tool, plangarden.com. It allows you to create your garden and plant vegetables within minutes. It also calculates estimated last frosts and when you should expect to start seeds indoors or directly plant. A built in daily journal of weeding, weather, and pests will allow you to evaluate efficacy and trends within your garden.

I used similar software last year with less features. I enjoyed the fact it gave me a sense of spacing. I realize now it made me too structured, unable to deviate from the plan even if my real-time spacing wasn't adding up. I'm sure that was my own newbie-ness shining through and not the fault of the gardening tool. May experience allow online planning to be a helpful tool in 2010. Cheers!

The homepage features tools for vegetable caculation and vegetable planning. They also created an online community of users utilizing forum and blogging formats. A nifty feature allows you to view other gardens by location. Who knows, maybe we'll find each other one day...although it must be before the 45 day free trial ends!

2010 - New Year, Fresh Start

2009 was a disappointing year for the garden. Too much rain, not enough heat, and plants that suffered not only the inclement weather, but my neglect.

The Good

Basil: I grew two plants among my row of tomatoes and peppers. Both did very well. I harvested leaves several times throughout the summer and it always grew more. I never know if I'm supposed to let it flower or not. It did, and I never noticed a big difference in flavor or texture. At the end of the season, I made a big batch of pesto and froze it in ice cube trays.

Cucumbers: I had cukes coming out my ears! I grew a pickling and a slicer. The rain, however, made them GINORMOUS (is that a word?) very quickly. I would harvest them for fear of them rotting on the vine only to have them rot in my kitchen before I could do anything with them. I made a batch of dill pickles (mushy) and a batch of sweet relish (delish!).

Lettuce: The romaine, to be specific. I started seeds indoors, perhaps too early, and set them out in spring. They took awhile to get a foothold, but once they did it was well worth the wait. The romaine was sweet and crunchy. It acted like a cut and come again variety, with almost another full head growing after the initial harvest.

The Bad

Tomatoes: Too much rain. Too much fungus/blight/whatever. Poor support system. Poor spacing between plants. I tried to cram way too much in the space I had allotted. Don't get me wrong, there were a few triumps. The Big Beef Beefsteak was a winner. Both plants grew big and tall and provided with plenty of slicers. I was able to harvest a few Pink Berkley Tie-Dye and Black Cherry tomatoes. Both were delicious. The supposed return of the Black Krim was no return at all, just another Big Beef. The plants I set out later in the season did very poorly. By the time they set fruit, temperatures were dropping and the fungal/blight/terrible-ness had set in. I ended up pulling my Dwarf Red Hearts, Granny Cantrells, and Opalka without tasting.

Brussels Sprouts: What a waste of space! I realize that my timing was WAY off on these suckers as I had planted them in the ground in April. They grew sprouts, but they were tiny and by the time fall came around the bugs had devoured the plants. A wasp had taken up residence inside of one.

Peppers: The bell peppers took forever to set fruit. I think I harvested three small, boxy peppers. The hot peppers didn't even survive transplanting.

Beets: Tiny, small, woody.

The Mediocre: Fair harvest/Okay taste

Pole Beans
Swiss Chard
Carrots
Radishes
Potatoes
Broccoli

So what's new for 2010? I'm not sure yet. The catalogs are piling up on the kitchen table. Hopefully a better arrangment, support, and rotation of crops.

Baby roots

The radishes are spicy! I yanked a carrot to see how they've grown. Curiosity got the best of me.

Potato Blossoms

I was terrified to see blossoms on the potatoes! I thought they had gone to seed and I lost the chance to harvest any potatoes this season. Some frantic Google research reassured me that blossoms mean little tubers are starting to form (hopefully deep under all that soil). Today, the blossoms seemed more benign and innocent. I wonder if they are edible.

Bonus Pic: Carrots

New sprouts

The seeds I planted on Memorial Day are finally coming up. The radishes and beets are up, although reduced in number by somebody's uncensored weeding. The beans and cucumbers are up and putting on their first set of true leaves. I'm pretty sure I have spinach and chard, but it's difficult for me to tell them apart from the weeds, so I'm waiting til they grow up a big. Was that an admission of guilt?

Radishes


Beets


Bean



Pickling Cucumber

Don't call it a comeback!

I've been depressed. Yesterday, I was unsure of my tomato future. Dreams of fat, juicy heirloom sliced tomatoes accompanying my BBQ burger and plans for a multitude of canning in August were vanishing. The three plants (Berkley Tie-Dye, Black Cherry, and Big Beefsteak) were having difficulty transitioning into the real world. Their growth, stunted. Their leaves, attacked by flea beetles. And if that wasn't enough, the plants I put out around Memorial Day had been murdered by the kitty cats. Eaten right down to the core, even my beloved Black Krim. I only had one and there I was, staring at a one inch stem sticking out of the ground. All but one pepper survived, but that one was being eaten by flea beetles. The basil shared the same fate.

I've even been avoiding the garden. There is an overrun of weeds growing in my tiny little aisles. Silly me for throwing the remnants of hand weeding in the aisles, thinking they would mulch down. So I went out there today, needing to hill up my blossoming potatoes, and saw the Big Beefsteak looking vibrant and bushy(er). I had to run over and check it out.

There I found not only the Beefsteak so happy, but also the Berkley. The Black Cherry has new green leaves, saying a big F-U to those stupid flea beetles. Ha! The peppers are back and so is the basil. Then, I saw the greatest thing ever. My Black Krim - ALIVE. Growing. And creating a volunteer plant???? Could a second Black Krim be emerging before my very eyes? (crossing my fingers and hoping hoping hoping!!) Tell me what you think.




Bonus picture of the Black Cherry


What a great day :)