Little Miss Suburban Homesteader

Foraging

2011-05-10T18:32:00.002-04:00

There are only a handful of edible wild plants that I can identify so I am quite the novice when it comes to foraging. However I do find a lot of enjoyment when I can locate the few plants I know. It's the ultimate in getting something for nothing. There is no garden to tend, nothing to plant or care for. It's just there and free for the taking.

As things are only just starting to trickle in from the garden I decided to look around my yard and see what I could find. I gathered some dandelion leaves to beef up my meager garden salad of baby lettuce thinnings, the top of the smallest, spiciest radish I've ever seen or tasted and an onion I pulled up early.

I then wandered to where I've seen stinging nettles grow before and picked a bunch of leaves (with gloves on of course!). These I cooked and threw in with some couscous. My husband can't tell the difference between nettles and any other cooked greens in recipes. They really are quite tasty and I hear they are very good for you.

Finally I walked over to the corner of the yard where lemon balm grows. I picked enough to make some tasty iced lemon balm tea to go with dinner.

Even though it's not much, it's enough to make me feel a bit accomplished and to add a little extra nutrition and variety to my dinner.

Is there anything that you enjoy foraging for?

Potatoes!

2011-04-28T07:20:00.000-04:00

My potato plants have officially broken through the ground which means that I can finally breath a sigh of relief!

This is my first time growing potatoes so I've been extra worried about these guys especially with all of the rain we've been getting. To plant these suckers I dug out some 6 inch trenches, put the seed potatoes at the bottom and covered them with soil. This will allow me to keep piling dirt onto the growing plants and provide some loose soil for the potatoes to develop in. The draw back is that we've had a very rainy couple of weeks so the trenches have kept getting filled up with water. Every time that happened I just imagined my poor little seed potatoes drowning in water and starting to rot. It worried me so much at times that I'd go out during big rain storms to bail water out of the trenches.

But everything is good now because my little potatoes are alive and well! Yay!

The Case of the Missing Broccoli

2011-04-25T08:17:00.004-04:00

Yesterday as I was checking out my garden I noticed that there were only 3 broccoli plants where I was sure I had planted 5. I looked around and noticed two little stumps. That was all that was left of my two little broccoli plants that I had been raising and pampering for almost 2 months now.

Where once there was this:

Now all I had was this:

I know that every year I'm bound to have some crop loss, but it's still stinky when it happens. I'm also kicking myself for this one since I could have prevented it. The most likely culprits are cut worms and one way of protecting plants is to give them little collars when they are young. I save paper towel and toilet paper rolls to cut and use for this. I slip them around the stem and bury part of them. After the cut worm attack I added these collars to my remaining broccoli and cabbage plants so hopefully this won't happen again.

Waiting

2011-04-18T07:14:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year again where I have my seedlings started and things planted outside, but still have a couple weeks before I get to harvest anything. While the seeds were still germinating and just beginning to peep through the ground I had enough to keep myself busy as I hunted to catch the next plant break through the soil and show itself. I'd scour the spot I had planted my peas to find the first pea shoot and check on my indoor seedlings every morning to see if I had anybody new to welcome. (Yes, I probably get a little too excited about my vegetable plants. Recently I've even caught myself talking to them more and more. I'm thinking that it's probably a good thing I'm forced to take a long break from gardening over the winter or else I may just loose my marbles.)

Anyway, back to the point, most of my seeds have already started sprouting so I don't have as many little surprises and am stuck just waiting for my plants to get bigger and start producing. I do love watching them grow but at the moment things seem to be progressing painfully slow. I just want me some salad with lettuce, radishes and snow peas gosh darn it. Is that too much to ask? :(

I really ought to work on being more patient. I am lucky to have a garden at all and it won't be too long until I'm overwhelmed with an abundance (hopefully) of produce and all the work that will go into harvesting and preserving it all. I should also be focused on the garden expansion since I already have tomatoes that are just waiting to be put in the ground but don't have a place yet. Alas, I can't help feeling as though it would all be so much easier if I only had a few leaves of lettuce to tide me over...

Anyone else out there starting to get impatient as well?

In Love with Bees

2011-04-16T11:50:00.006-04:00

I just had one of the coolest experiences of my life. I have an old family friend who happens to be a beekeeper and she let me come over and learn about bees. She first showed me pictures, gave me some general information and told me about what to expect when we go into the hive. Then I got to put on a full body bee suit. It was awesome and I wish I had gotten a picture. I'm sure I looked so cool.

We headed out to one of her hives and she took me through the process of opening up the hive and removing frames. We examined each frame so I got to see cells that held honey, some that had pollen and some that had baby bees in them. I even got to see a brand new baby bee, all cute and fuzzy, chewing it's way out of it's cell, essentially being born. The whole while I had bees flying all around me and crawling over me. A couple of bees even managed to get inside my bee suit and crawl on my face.

After watching tons of worker bees and seeing a drone we had to pack things back up because it was raining. It was all just totally awesome. The bees are just so cute and everywhere. It was so cool to see the combs that they make and fill with honey and the little babies. It was quite exhilarating and I am definitely hungry for more of it. My friend promised that the next time she does anything with her hive or harvest honey that she'll let me know. She also told me of a beginner bee class that they have at a local nature center every year, which I will most surely check out.

I did get stung once on the arm but it really wasn't so bad. In fact I almost feel like I would have been disappointed if I hadn't been stung. It's sort of like a battle scar, proof of my exploits.

I can't wait until I can do that again! I just can't express how exciting it all was!

Early Spring Garden Pics

2011-04-16T09:34:00.000-04:00

Here are the pictures that I promised. Nothing super exciting since it's still so early in the season but things are getting there.

These are some of the seedlings that I've got under my grow lights. They are mostly peppers and tomatoes that I'll be transplanting into larger containers once I stop feeling so lazy.

Here are zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumbers. They are all between one and four days old, which almost makes me angry since they are already bigger than some of my month old broccoli plants. But I get to eat these guys too so I'm really not that angry, mostly just impressed.

And here are some of my tomatoes that are a bit further along than those above. They are now too tall for my grow lights so have to hang out by the window. I'm in the process of gradually hardening them off so pretty soon they'll be outside full time anyway.

This is a picture of the garlic that I planted last fall. It over wintered just fine and is flourishing now. It's really the most impressive thing that I've got going so far.

Peas here. Cute beautiful little pea plants.

I know this picture isn't all that exciting but I transplanted my kale and broccoli into this bed. I'm very antsy for them to get bigger. I'm a little impatient. Can you tell?

Last but not least are my surprise onions. Last year as an afterthought I transplanted a bunch of onions around the garden but they really didn't do too well and I forgot about them. Early this spring, however, they started popping up all over the place. A very cool surprise in my opinion.

Where'd You Get Your Seeds?

2011-04-15T13:12:00.008-04:00

Last year, since the garden was pretty much an afterthought, I ended up simply stopping by the local garden supply center for my seeds. I've since heard this isn't always the best thing to do because the seeds often sit on shelves for who knows how long in less than optimal storage conditions. Mail order seed companies typically have more controlled storage condtions as well as greater selections. This year as I begun planning back in December, I decided to order seeds online. While trying to pick a seed company I stumbled across the Garden Watchdog which helped make my decision much easier. It's a handy little site that lists tons of seed companies along with extensive comments from people who have dealt with the company in the past. This enabled me to check out a bunch of companies and see if people generally have positive or negative experiences with them. In this way I was able to weed out several companies that initially looked promising but ended up having various issues such as poor customer service or unreliable shipping.

In the end I settled on Victory Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds because they both received great reviews. I ordered mostly from Victory Seeds and used Baker Creek for some additional items I didn't see at Victory Seeds. I was extremely happy with both companies. Both have great websites that are easy to use, great selections, fast delivery and reasonable prices. For some reason I really liked the packaging for the Victory Seeds, which include an internal mini-ziploc that holds the seeds inside the envelope. It makes it much easier for me to get at the seeds and I feel like I lose a lot less when I try to get them out. On the other hand Baker Creek seeds had very pretty packets and even included a freebie packet of carrot seeds (gotta love freebies!). Seeds from both companies are doing extremely well and I've had no problems with germination. Next year I will be ordering from these guys again.

Hello!

2011-04-15T08:47:00.005-04:00

It's gardening season again and I'm feeling the inexplicable urge to continually talk about my garden and my little baby plants that are popping out of the ground. I'm pretty sure even though we're only a few weeks in, my husband is growing weary of it all, so I figure I'll lighten his load, write it all here and pretend that people are reading it :)

Just as a quick overview I'll let you know some of the things I've already got started for the garden. Inside I have tomato, pepper, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, basil, parsley, cucumber, squash, watermelon, chamomil, marigold, and zinnia seedlings started. Outside I've already transplanted my first batch of broccoli, kale, spinach and cabbage into the garden. I've direct sown peas, snow peas, radishes, carrots, onions, lettuce, beets and chard. The garlic I planted in the fall is growing and looking fantastic. Hopefully tonight I'll locate some batteries for my camera so I can add some pictures which are always more fun.

The Future of Food

2010-07-10T15:54:00.004-04:00

I just got finished watching the Future of Food and boy did it get me riled up. I can't help but get angry when watching movies like this about our food system. This one was almost as bad as Food, Inc. which is another great movie that everyone should watch. The Future of Food focuses mostly on genetically modified foods and the big nasty impact they can have. It's all pretty disgusting and I hate the way things are headed.

I just can't stand that big seed companies like Monsanto get patents on their GM seeds, farmers use those seeds, the plants spread to other fields, farmers who never wanted the GM plants find them in their fields, Monsanto finds those plants and since they have a patent they can sue the farmer for patent infringement even though the farmer never wanted those plants on their field. Farmers have no way of keeping seeds from contaminating their crops but are still at the mercy of the big companies that have the seed patents. I hate that these companies are gaining tons of control and influence over our food. We're losing genetic diversity of our crops if farmers are basically forced to buy seeds from these companies to avoid harassment by these companies.

It drives me crazy that these genetically modified foods aren't even labeled! How can we possibly avoid them if we don't know what they are? I guess the most foolproof way of avoiding GMOs at the moment is to buy directly from farmers who don't use genetically modified plants through things such as CSA programs and farmer's markets. I'd love to see our food controlled by sustainable farmers instead of these big companies who are ruining the lives of the small farmers, destroying biological diversity that is so essential to protecting us from famine and disease, and doing untold things to the health of our bodies.

There's definitely a lot more that is discussed in the movie, so for more information on all of this, check out their website. It looks like you can watch the whole thing straight from there.

This is a little bit of a tangent, but when writing this I have to say that I was a little disgusted to find that the spell check recognizes Monsanto as a real word. Walmart is not even recognized. How crazy influential does a company have to be to get it's name in spell checks?

Flavored Yogurt

2010-07-08T00:02:00.000-04:00

The last time that I made yogurt I decided to do some experimenting with different flavors. I prepared my yogurt like I usually do, but before I put the yogurt into a storage container, I prepared a few 8 oz. mason jars. I made one coffee flavored by heating up a small amount of water, dissolving some instant coffee and sugar into it, then letting it cool. The others I made strawberry and raspberry flavored by putting a few spoonfuls of jam in the bottom of the jar.

After I had my milk heated up and had stirred in my yogurt starter, I poured some of the yogurt mixture into each jar. I stirred up the coffee one but left the jam on the bottom of the others.

I then stuck them in a warm place with the rest of my yogurt to sit over night.

The coffee one turned out fabulous, although next time I want to make it a bit stronger. The jam ones are delicious as well. This was a nice change from my typical plain yogurt and I'm definitely going to continue experimenting with this.

The Latest Pickings

2010-07-03T09:07:00.002-04:00

Check out my latest pickings from the garden.

I got chard, green beans, cilantro, basil, oregano, parsley, a giant mound of lettuce and a bunch of beets. I love having a garden.

Should I be worried?

2010-07-01T12:32:00.000-04:00

I have to admit that I'm getting a little scared. My tomato plants are getting ginormous! All 13 of them. I planted so many so I'll be able to do lots of canning, but now I'm starting to get a little nervous.

Do you think maybe I over did it and will be buried under tomatoes soon?

Come to think of it though, I tend to get this feeling almost every time I embark on a big canning project. Last year it seemed like a great idea to get 100 lbs of apples. But once I was in the midst of all of the canning, the 100 lbs didn't seem to be the greatest idea. Now that I've forgotten the pain and run out of applesauce, 100 lbs doesn't seem like too much after all.

It happened again with the strawberries. Once I started working on canning and freezing, I was definitely overwhelmed with all 50 lbs of strawberries. However less than a month later I'm wishing that I had had more to freeze.

Maybe the tomato canning will be overwhelming as well, but a few months later I'll probably forget how much work it was and wish I had planted more tomatoes. Needless to say, these 13 plants are going to keep me very very busy.

The other thing I worry about concerning the tomatoes is that in just over a month I'll be making my way down to Chile for about 2 1/2 weeks, and I'm not sure exactly what to do if my plants produce tons of tomatoes while I'm away. Maybe I'll be able to put my mother to work for me :)

In addition to the plants getting big, they are starting to make little tomatoes! Imagine that! It still amazes me when things actually grow and produce things- it's like magic.

Check out my roma's. I planted planted 8 of these suckers since they are good for canning.

Here are my cute little cherry tomatoes.

And the big ol' beefsteak tomatoes.

I've got to say, I'm feeling a little bit more relaxed now after looking at those perty tomatoes. Think 13 plants is going to be enough? ;)

Wacko for Flacco!

2010-06-29T15:37:00.000-04:00

On Sunday I went to my first ever minor league baseball game and guess who just happened to be there, Joe Flacco, the quarter back for the Baltimore Ravens. It was quite exciting. Apparently his brother, Michael, plays for the Aberdeen Ironbirds. A crowd soon formed around him in the stands, not too far from where I was sitting. Police had to come and escort him away to a different part of the stadium where he wouldn't be pestered by fans.

It's sad that he can't even watch his brother play baseball in peace. Although it's not like I was helping any seeing as I did make sure to get a picture of him.

Times Up!

2010-06-28T02:35:00.001-04:00

My 31 days to accomplish my 31 things is now over. My final day was officially last Thursday. I definitely didn't get to everything, but I still feel as though I accomplished more than I would have without the list. The items in orange are the one's I didn't get to.

1.) Bake cookies.
2.) Complete a 4 mile run.
3.) Finish The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan.
4.) Go for a walk in the woods.
5.) Finish knitting the sock that I started a while ago.
6.) Pick strawberries and make jam with Brittany @ Little Miss Scatterbrained, Amy @ Little Miss Moon Blossom, Genevieve @ Lil Miss Explorer and maybe even Kara @ Lil Miss Wisecracker.
7.) Finish planning my trip to Chile in August! I still have so much to do and the trip is coming up so fast!
8.) Can another batch of beans.
9.) Organize my disaster of a hall closet.
10.) Finish Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth.
11.) Wander around the library.
12.) Sit on a park bench.
13.) Harvest and eat beets from the garden.
14.) Extend the height of the garden fence.
15.) Do something with the extra bird cage that is just sitting in my apartment.
16.) Organize my recipe box.
17.) Finish the blanket I’ve been crocheting.
18.) Sew an apron.
19.) Log onto Second Life to hang out with Lantern and Brocair (my uncle and grandmother). 20.) Finish reading Pushed by Jennifer Block.
21.) Talk to my friend Jody about bee keeping.
22.) Pick up horse poo for the garden.
23.) Make fried lentil balls.
24.) Clean my refrigerator.
25.) Participate in Chinese Thursday at work (we all order Chinese food together).
26.) Throw a disc (Frisbee) around.
27.) Stake, cage and/or trellis tomato plants.
28.) Give myself a pedicure.
29.) Modify some giant t-shirts that I have so I can actually wear them.
30.) Go to JoAnn fabrics.
31.) Sell some stuff at a flea market or yard sale.

I guess 15 of 31 isn't too bad, that's almost half. I am surprised that I didn't get around to sitting on a park bench, I thought that was going to be an easy one. However, I'm not too surprised that I didn't do any of the one's involving cleaning and organizing.

There are a few things that I didn't officially complete, but I still wanted to mention. Although I didn't finish it, I did make a good amount of progress in crocheting my blanket. I also threw a disc around at a wedding with some friends this past weekend, but it was after my 31 days so it doesn't count. Lastly, although I didn't talk to her myself, my parents saw our friend Jody the beekeeper this past weekend and they talked to her about bees since they knew that I've been interested. She said that she could set us up with some bees early next spring. Now I really have to follow up with her and get more information. I'm super excited that next year I could very well be a beekeeper myself!!

No Poo!!

2010-06-23T11:41:00.000-04:00

I'm proud to share that I have been shampoo free for over a month now thanks to Brittany at Little Miss Scatterbrained. Check out her post on going Poo Free to learn more. In a nut shell, I decided to stop using shampoo because I heard that it's pretty harsh on your hair and strips away all of those nice healthy oils. Now to remove some of the excess oils from my hair, I just rub a little bit of baking soda into my scalp. I rinse that out and then I rinse with apple cider vinegar diluted with water.

For about the first 2 weeks my hair was uber gross and oily because my head was in over-production mode since it's used to having to keep up with me constantly stripping away all of the oils with shampoo. But after about 2 weeks my head figured things out, stopped producing so much oil and things got a lot less gross. Now I can actually go a few days without washing my hair and it doesn't get greasy.

All in all, I'm loving that I don't have to buy shampoo ever again. In addition to saving me a few bucks, it's better for my hair and I'm not exposing myself or the environment to all of the chemicals and other additives in shampoo. Plus, if you think about all the energy that goes into making the shampoo, packaging it, transporting it and then storing it on a shelf in a building with air conditioning/heating and lights it's really saving a lot of resources to skip the shampoo. In comparison, baking soda is cheap, I don't have to use much at all on my hair and since I buy a giant box that I use for all sorts of things like cleaning, it lasts a really long time and there isn't much packaging.

If you're interested I think you should totally give it a try. Just stay in there past the 2 week gross part- it gets much better.

Running:
Monday: 2.1 miles
Today: 4 miles!!!

Making Some Progress

2010-06-21T14:56:00.001-04:00

I only have 3 more days to finish my 31 in 31 Days list! I have a feeling I'm not going to reach my goal, however, I have accomplished a few things so far:

1.) Bake cookies.

I made raspberry jelly thumbprint cookies. Yum.

5.) Finish knitting the sock that I started a while ago.

6.) Pick strawberries and make jam with Brittany @ Little Miss Scatterbrained, Amy @ Little Miss Moon Blossom, and Kara @ Lil Miss Wisecracker.

First we picked some perdy strawberries at Highland Orchards.

Then we made some delicious jam.

It a very enjoyable day!

10.) Finish Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth.

Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome book. I loved all of the birth stories and the way Ina May describes birth and the things that influence it.

11.) Wander around the library.

13.) Harvest and eat beets from the garden.

Yummy!

20.) Finish reading Pushed by Jennifer Block.

This was another totally awesome book. It's packed full of tons and tons of information about the short comings of our modern maternity care. Everyone really needs to read this book.

23.) Make fried lentil balls.

I'd show pictures of the actual finished product but they really didn't turn out that well. Let's just say I need some practice. Interesting process though. My friend gave me this mix so it really wasn't too hard. You first add water to your mix (pictured above) and let it sit for 15 minutes. Drop spoonfuls of it into hot oil and cook until done. Place in a bowl of lukewarm water. After about 10 minutes take the lentil ball out and squeeze out the water. They are then eaten with some yogurt and topped with some cumin and salt. It was definitely interesting and not too bad. But again, I need practice and I'm not even completely sure exactly how they are supposed to turn out!

25.) Participate in Chinese Thursday at work (we all order Chinese food together).

I ordered chicken w/ string beans and fried rice. It was delicious.

27.) Stake, cage and/or trellis tomato plants.

Needless to say I've got a lot of work ahead of me if I want to even get close to finishing my list in the next 3 days!

Running Update

2010-06-21T14:55:00.001-04:00

Recently I've been forgetting to add my running mileage to the bottom of my posts so I figure it's probably a good idea to record them now before I completely forget.

Friday 6/11- 2 miles
Saturday 6/12- 2.8 miles
Wednesday 6/16- 2 miles
Sunday 6/20- 3 miles

I haven't been keeping to a schedule or anything so I've been running fairly sporadically, which probably isn't the best thing for improving. I'm just not exactly sure how to change that. Sometimes it's hard to make running a priority when there are so many other things to do and then when I do have time for a run I tend to get lazy. Also, now that it's so hot out in the afternoon I've been doing more of my runs in the morning, but that makes it so easy for me to just roll over in bed and sleep for an extra hour instead of getting up. I should probably plan my runs, however making a plan and sticking to it are two different things. I don't think running on set days of the week would work for me. Maybe I just need to sit once week and plan out my runs for the next few days. Then I can work around things that are going on and make sure to fit in more runs. I may also be less inclined to be lazy if I've got it written down somewhere.

Any other ideas for getting in more runs and getting my butt out of bed in the mornings when I need to run?

Ranch Dressing

2010-06-18T18:23:00.001-04:00

With both the garden and the CSA program, we've been bombarded with lettuce. And with lettuce comes salads and with salads comes salad dressing. Needless to say we've gone through a ton of dressing. Just the other day we completely ran out. I really didn't feel like going out and buying more so I decided to make some. I first mixed some sour cream with mayonnaise in about a 1:2 ratio. Then I chopped up a bunch of parsley and a bit of dill from my garden along with some garlic scrapes from the CSA.

I mixed that into my mayo mixture. Added a little salt to taste and stirred in some milk to make the whole thing a bit more pourable.

After it was all mixed up I put it in a handy left-over mayo bottle I had lying around because I'm cool like that.

The whole process didn't take more than a few minutes and boy was the final produce tasty. This batch was a bit dilly, but tasty nonetheless. The cool thing about this is that you can make it however you like with whatever you have lying around. You could throw in some onions, garlic, oregano, lemon juice, chives and I'm sure tons of other things to mix things up. The possibilities are endless! I'm totally excited about experimenting with dressings now. Bring on the lettuce!

Kohlrabi

2010-06-14T18:32:00.000-04:00

One of the things that I absolutely love about being in a CSA program, is being introduced to new foods. This past week we got kohlrabi in our boxes- I had never even heard of that vegetable before. But isn't it pretty! I love the colors and its just so weird looking.

The other thing I love about this CSA program is that they tell us what to do with weird stuff like this. Apparently since these are still young and tender we can just cut up the root part and throw it in a salad, which I did and it was very yummy. It's almost like a cross between a turnip and a potato. I hear you can also cook and eat the leaves.

Have any of you ever encountered this strange vegetable before?

Popcorn

2010-06-12T11:56:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to making some of the popcorn that I got at the bulk foods store. This was the first time that I've ever made popcorn that doesn't involve using a microwave although I have seen my mom make it this way. My husband helped me and since we both didn't really know what we were doing, it was pretty exciting. We put some vegetable oil into the pot and then threw in a small handful of popcorn kernels. We didn't know how much it'd make so we decided not to put in too much. You can imagine our surprise when we took off the lid and the pot was completely full. After we had everything in the pot we put the lid on and turned up the heat. Every few minutes I'd shake the pot to stir it around. We both jumped when the first kernel popped. After all of the popping sounds stopped we removed it from the heat. I sprinkled a little salt on top and it was done. All in all it probably took well under 10 minutes to make this whole pot of popcorn.

The popcorn was delicious, even my husband who really doesn't like popcorn loved this stuff. I'm going to have to make this more often. Not only is it delicious even without adding any butte, but it doesn't have all of the weird unknown substances that microwave popcorn does. It's also pretty cost effective. I got a 3 pound bag of kernels for under $2 and we hardly used any of it for this big batch. I'm hooked.

I Never Knew That Logs Could Be So Cool

2010-06-10T09:05:00.000-04:00

At Calvert's Gift Farm, where I pick up my CSA shares, they have tons logs propped up and stacked all over the place. Can you guess what they are used for?

They have lots of holes drilled into them and a little bit of wax covering the holes.

They have tons of them just hanging out.

Just a hint, it's not for fire wood.

I would have never guessed this myself.

Give up?

They actually use these logs to grow Shiitake mushrooms!!! How cool this that!! I would have never thought to do that with a bunch of logs.

A few weeks ago when we went for our first CSA pick-up, my mom asked about these logs and got to take home some extra Shiitake mushrooms. The farmer explained to us that they drill holes in the logs, put in mushrooms spores then seal them with wax. After letting them sit for an entire year, they soak the logs in a barrel of water (you can see one of the barrels in the top picture). Mushrooms then grow out of the holes. Pretty sweet, huh? He also told us that these mushrooms taste much better than store bought (something I can attest to) because the ones you get from the store are typically grown on sawdust, which does not sound too appealing.

Garden Harvest

2010-06-08T20:09:00.004-04:00

Today I picked a bunch of stuff from the garden.

I got some giant chard. This bowl is actually quite large, although it's a bit hard to tell in the picture.

I got a large mound of lettuce.

More radishes. These were some of the biggest ones I've gotten from the garden so far. Do you see the double radish on the right? I didn't know they grow like that.

And beets! I love me some beets so I'm excited to cook these up. Did you know you can also eat the beet greens? They are quite tasty.

Freezing Strawberries

2010-06-08T18:17:00.001-04:00

Freezing strawberries is a great way to lock in their great taste and nutrients for weeks or even months after they've been picked. When freezing strawberries, I first wash them and remove the stem. Then I spread them on a cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer for a few hours. Freezing them this way reduces the amount that they will stick together later.

After the strawberries have been in the freezer for a little while they can be put in plastic bags or containers then placed back into the freezer until they are used.

After picking, 50+ pounds of strawberries I had a lot to freeze. But it's ok because frozen strawberries are marvelous in smoothies. Speaking of smoothies, check out these babies:

Just frozen strawberries, yogurt and sugar. Mmmmm.... delicious.

Running this morning: 2.6 miles

Natural Bug Repellent

2010-06-07T21:27:00.000-04:00

One of my goals for this year has been to keep my garden chemical free, however that doesn't mean the bugs will leave my plants alone. Therefore as an added defense for my vegetables I occasionally whip up this quick natural bug repellent to spray on my plants. It's made from inexpensive ingredients that can be found in most kitchens. All I use is a small onion, some garlic and a few drops of dish soap.

I quarter the onion and smash the garlic cloves. I place it all in a pot, bring it to a boil, then simmer for an additional 20 minutes. After letting it cool a bit, I strain the liquid to get out all of the onion and garlic chunks.

I pour my mixture into a spray bottle and then add a few drops of dish soap. This can be sprayed directly on the plants without hurting them. The rain will rinse the repellent off of the plants so it does need to be applied fairly often.

I've been using this a bit to try and deter the slugs from eating my veggies, and it does work pretty well as long as I remember to apply it fairly frequently. The beer traps have been helping too. However, I'm finding that the most effective way to eliminate slugs from the garden is to pick them off by hand. I know it's gross, but it works. The best time to do it is after it rains or right before it gets dark when the slugs are starting to come out. Here is a batch of slugs that I collected just the other day.

I seriously don't know why there are this many slugs in my garden, and the scary thing is more keep coming. Hopefully one day I'll get ahead of them.

By the way, I apologize for the yucky slug picture, I just can't help it.

Morning Run

2010-06-04T02:45:00.000-04:00

It's been over a week since my last run. I keep letting the afternoon heat as well as excuses like being busy get in the way. But this morning was different; I finally went for a run. It's actually the first time I've run in the morning before work, and I'm a bit surprised I ended up doing it at all. As I was setting my alarm last night I told my husband that I probably wouldn't run. Then as my alarm went off this morning I pushed snooze, rolled over, and told my husband again that I wasn't going. But a few minutes later I somehow ended up rolling out of bed and putting on my running clothes grumbling the whole time.

Once I got outside things were pretty pleasant though. There was hardly anyone else around, birds were chirping and I saw about a million bunnies. The best thing by far, however, was how cool the air felt. Typically I've been doing my runs in the afternoon, but recently it has been getting pretty hot, which makes it much harder to run. This morning I definitely didn't have that problem. All in all, it wasn't as bad as I was dreading it would be and I managed to run 2 miles even though I've been lazy this past week. Unfortunately I think I might have to make these morning runs into more of a habit now that the hot weather has arrived.

Intro to Jam Making

2010-06-03T21:31:00.001-04:00

Here's a brief overview of the steps involved in making strawberry jam.

1.) Wash the jars you'll be using and get them warmed up a bit. I like to fill them part of the way with warm water and then leave them in my sink until I need them.

2.) Fill the water bath canner with water until it's about 1/2 or 3/4 of the way full. You want enough water in there to cover your jars by an inch or two when they are lowered into the water. Turn on the heat so that the canner is boiling by the time your jars are ready.

3.) Wash your strawberries and remove the stem.

4.) Mash your strawberries in small batches. I put no more than a handful in a bowl at a time. A potato masher can be helpful.

5.) Continue mashing until you've measured out 4 cups of strawberries if using liquid pectin and 5 cups if used powdered.

6.) Place the mashed strawberries into the stockpot. Add about 1/2 a tsp of butter to keep down the foaming. If using liquid pectin, add your 7 cups of sugar here. If using powdered pectin, add it at this point and save the sugar for later. I was using liquid pectin here so the fruit and sugar are being mixed.

7.) Bring your mixture to a rolling boil.

8.) If using liquid pectin, add it now. If using powdered pectin, stir in 7 cups of sugar.

9.) Bring back to a boil then boil rapidly for exactly a minute.

10.) Remove from heat and skim off any foam that has developed on the top. You can save this foam and eat it with toast- it's very yummy but just doesn't look so pretty if there's lots in your jam.

11.) Ladle your hot jam mixture into your prepared jars using a funnel. There will be about 8 cups of liquid so you can fill either 4 pint jars or 8 half pint jars. I often end up with a little extra, so it's good to have an extra jar handy just in case.

12.) Wipe around the lip of the jar with a paper towel to remove any jam that may be there.

13.) Place lids onto the jars and attach your screw bands.

14.) Place your jars into the water bath canner and lower them into the water. There should be about an inch or two of water covering your jars.

15.) Bring the water in the water bath canner to a boil and process for 10 minutes.

16.) Remove the jars from the canner and set aside on a towel. Leave the jars here for 24 hours to let them cool and for the jam to set. If any of the jars don't seal within a few hours put them in the refrigerator. The jam is still edible, it just won't keep at room temperature.

17.) The next day remove the screw bands and wash your jars in warm soapy water.

18.) Store your jars in a cool dry place. They should be good for up to a year.

So Much Jam

2010-06-02T21:46:00.000-04:00

After hours and hours of work this weekend, we've got jam, lots of jam.

Bulk Foods Store

2010-06-01T21:50:00.000-04:00

This past weekend my mother-in-law took me to an awesome bulk foods store in Myerstown, PA. I definitely stocked up. Check out what I got:

20 lbs. whole wheat flour
12 lbs. oats
6 lbs. corn meal
wheat germ
wheat bran
sunflower seeds
caraway seeds
flax seeds
sesame seeds
millet
popcorn

And it only came out to about $30. I love bulk foods stores in PA. I just wish I lived closer to them.

Buckets Full of Strawberries

2010-05-29T09:05:00.003-04:00

This morning I went strawberry picking at Honey Bear Orchards in Lebanon, PA with my lovely in-laws and my husband. We went a little crazy with the whole picking thing and ended up with 36 quarts total! That's a little over 50 pounds! We were definitely not planning on getting that much. I am going to be super busy now with freezing, eating and canning strawberry jam.

CSA Week 2

2010-05-27T21:22:00.004-04:00

This sweet little kitty greeted me as I picked up my second week's share of veggies from the farm. I just love that there was a cat just chilling out on the strawberry table. He was super nice too and made me pet him for like 10 minutes. I also love how these farmers are just so trusting. They let us walk around their farm and pick up veggies without anyone around but the cat. It's pretty awesome.

Granola!

2010-05-26T20:45:00.001-04:00

Recently I feel like I just can't get enough granola. I make a big batch and then some how it all disappears in a week or two. Its just so yummy with milk or yogurt for breakfast or with some raisins throw in for a quick snack. I just made a batch last night so hopefully it doesn't disappear too quickly this time.

I typically follow a recipe from the The Family Homestead. It's very tasty and simple. One of the only changes I make to the recipe is that I don't add the coconut, mostly because I never have any. Also, if you're interested in reducing the amount of honey and oil that you need, some applesauce can be used instead. There really are tons of granola recipes online so if this one doesn't strike your fancy you can always try other ones. The general process is typically very similar from one to the other.

You first mix up all of your ingredients in a bowl.

Then spread your mixture on some baking sheets and bake at 300 F. It usually takes about 45 minutes and its important that you stir it about every 15 minutes to make sure it cooks evenly. This is really the only slightly annoying part of the process since you have to be around to check it every so often.

Once it looks done you pull out the granola and let it cool. Then you gobble it all up. The end.

Running today: 2.1 miles

Slug Wars!

2010-05-25T20:40:00.000-04:00

I've been noticing for a while that something has been nibbling on my vegetables, but I haven't been able to figure out what. However, last night I was out in my garden a little later than usual and discovered slugs crawling all over my plants! Boy did it make me mad. So they are what's been eating my plants! Well, I was not having it, so I picked off every last slug I could find and tossed them in the woods. There were literally hand fulls of them. Needless to say, it was not the most enjoyable experience of my life.

Today I continued my battle against these nasty little creatures and placed little slug traps around my garden. This is something I remember my mother doing in our garden when I was a little kid. Apparently slugs like beer, so I placed small cups of beer around my garden. The slugs will be attracted to the beer, fall in, drown and stop eating my plants. My cups were a bit tall so I cut them down a bit and filled them with about an inch of cheap beer.

What's fairly ironic about this whole slugs and beer thing is that my husband and I are on a budget and on account of alcoholic beverages being a tad unnecessary as well as on the expensive side, we really have not bought beer or any other alcohol in months. And now that we finally buy some beer it's going straight to the slugs.

Warning, this next picture is definitely not for the faint of heart.

I'm really sorry about putting this up here, but I just had to.

I just want others to really understand what I've been through.

After setting up my slug traps I went hunting for any slugs I could find and unfortunately I found some. I ended up sticking them in a cup until I could dispose of them. Here's a picture:

Looking at this makes me a little nauseous and brings back some traumatic memories. Maybe after some therapy I'll be ok again.

On a brighter note, I'm really hoping the beer cups work. Don't worry I'll keep you posted and I'll try to keep myself from putting up more slug photos.

31 in 31 Days

2010-05-24T21:28:00.000-04:00

Brittany @ Little Miss Scatterbrained is currently doing this and I thought that it was such a great idea that I wanted to do it too. Let's see how much of this I can accomplish before June 24th.

1.) Bake cookies.
2.) Complete a 4 mile run.
3.) Finish The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan.
4.) Go for a walk in the woods.
5.) Finish knitting the sock that I started a while ago.
6.) Pick strawberries and make jam with Brittany @ Little Miss Scatterbrained, Amy @ Little Miss Moon Blossom, Genevieve @ Lil Miss Explorer and maybe even Kara @ Lil Miss Wisecracker.
7.) Finish planning my trip to Chile in August! I still have so much to do and the trip is coming up so fast!
8.) Can another batch of beans.
9.) Organize my disaster of a hall closet.
10.) Finish Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth.
11.) Wander around the library.
12.) Sit on a park bench.
13.) Harvest and eat beets from the garden.
14.) Extend the height of the garden fence.
15.) Do something with the extra bird cage that is just sitting in my apartment.
16.) Organize my recipe box.
17.) Finish the blanket I’ve been crocheting.
18.) Sew an apron.
19.) Log onto Second Life to hang out with Lantern and Brocair (my uncle and grandmother).
20.) Finish reading Pushed by Jennifer Block.
21.) Talk to my friend Jody about bee keeping.
22.) Pick up horse poo for the garden.
23.) Make fried lentil balls.
24.) Clean my refrigerator.
25.) Participate in Chinese Thursday at work (we all order Chinese food together).
26.) Throw a disc (Frisbee) around.
27.) Stake, cage and/or trellis tomato plants.
28.) Give myself a pedicure.
29.) Modify some giant t-shirts that I have so I can actually wear them.
30.) Go to JoAnn fabrics.
31.) Sell some stuff at a flea market or yard sale.

Running
Saturday: 2 miles
Today: 2.4 miles

Quick Garden Update

2010-05-21T20:23:00.003-04:00

The garden continues to do pretty well. We've had a lot of rain recently so I haven't had to go water things as much as usual, meaning I've gotten a bit of a break. Last week I planted my tomato seedlings and they are surviving. My beets, lettuce, Brussels sprouts and radishes, which you can see above, are still growing very well. I even got to pick 3 more radishes yesterday, which we've been eating with the salad greens from the CSA.

Yesterday I did my second planting of green beans and cucumbers. I'm hoping to have enough cucumbers to make into a bunch of pickles. I also planted some okra, but I actually have no idea what okra plants look like so this will be an interesting surprise.

First CSA Pick-Up

2010-05-20T21:26:00.003-04:00

Today my mom and I ventured to Calvert's Gift farm to pick up our first share of vegetables and walk around the farm. Here is what was included this week:

Bok Choi
Spinach
Spring Salad Mix
Carrots
Strawberries
Scallions

We also got to pick up a few extras that they were offering. That white bag is full of a mix of kale, collards and chard. They also had some pea shoots and arugula which I threw in with my salad mix. My mom got those shitake mushrooms for asking the owner a question. See what happens when you ask questions- you might get some fungus.

Overall I am quite happy about all the veggies we got and I am excited to try them, although I already know the strawberries are sweet and delicious.

Homemade Yogurt

2010-05-19T19:14:00.000-04:00

Strawberry season is just about here, so I want to be armed with some tasty yogurt to make yummy strawberry smoothies. Therefore, I just made a big batch of yogurt, which is something that I love doing. It's actually very easy and economical. All you need is milk (I used a gallon of whole milk) and a small amount of high quality plain yogurt. When picking out a yogurt it's important to get one that has live cultures. I look for a yogurt that lists a lot of different pro-biotics but still has a small number of added ingredients. This time I picked Stonyfield's plain organic yogurt and it turned out very well.

Here's an outline of how I make my yogurt.

1.) Place your milk in a pot and bring it almost to a boil. I like to get mine just hot enough to start seeing a little steam. This will help kill off any bacteria that might be in your milk to begin with.

2.) Let your milk cool down so that it is warm but not hot. If the side of the pot is a comfortable temperature on your wrist then it's probably fine. Some people use thermometers to make sure it's just the right temperature, so you can definitely do that. However, my yogurt has turned out just fine without it.

3.) Mix in your yogurt. I use a whisk to make sure it gets mixed well and any clumps are broken up. For a whole gallon of milk I'll use an entire 6 oz container of yogurt although you could probably get away with using less.

4.) Transfer the yogurt to a clean storage container. I used two large plastic containers this time.

5.) Place your yogurt mixture in a warm place overnight. I simply use my oven; it has a pilot light so it stays warm all the time. I've also heard of people warming up the oven just a bit, then turning it off. With the door shut it should retain a good amount of heat over night. Another option is to turn on your oven light. That should warm up the oven just enough to make it a happy place for your yogurt to develop.

6.) Take out your yogurt in the morning and place it in the refrigerator. It is now ready to eat.

At some point I typically remove about 1/2 a cup of yogurt and place it in a separate container. When I am ready to make more yogurt I will take out this reserved container to start my new batch. This way I don't have to go out and buy any more yogurt. New batches made this way will thus only cost the price of the milk.

One cool thing about yogurt is that once the active cultures are established they are very good at out-competing other bacteria. This means that your yogurt will not spoil easily. Over time however the yogurt will get even more sour and tangy, so it might not be as tasty to eat. I typically won't keep mine for longer than a month.

I have found a few differences between homemade yogurt and store bought. My yogurt tends to be a bit thinner. It works great for smoothies and it doesn't bother me one bit. Typically an additive such as gelatin or pectin is added to the store bought yogurt to make it thicker, so don't feel bad if your yogurt doesn't turn out the same. My yogurt also tends to taste a little different than what I am used to getting at the store. It can be fairly sour and tangy, whereas I'm used to thinking of yogurt as being more sweet tasting. That's mostly because a lot of what you can buy in the store has so much added sugar and flavorings that you can hardly taste the actual yogurt in there. Just be open minded with homemade yogurt if you're not used to un-flavored and un-sweetened yogurts. Sometimes the natural tanginess of the yogurt can be a little much for me so I often add a little sugar and/or fruit. I also love mixing in some vanilla extract.

Running today: 1.5 miles.

Growing Onion Seeds

2010-05-18T18:26:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I discovered that a couple of onions in my cupboard had started to sprout. Because I was curious, I decided to stick them in cups of water and see if they’d continue growing.

Please note the lovely view from my apartment- yup that’s a sound barrier.

I did a little research because I didn’t know too much about onions. I was sort of hoping that if I let these grow in my garden then some how they’d make me more onions. Apparently, however, that’s not the way they work. From what I understand these will continue to grow then make flowers and finally produce seeds. Then next year these seeds can be planted and they will grow into onions. Therefore my plan is to put these in my garden let them go to seed then harvest and dry the seeds to use next year to grow onions. It does seem like a bit of a long process and I’m sure that it would be much easier to go out and buy a packet of onion seeds but this seems much more exciting. Plus I'll get to learn a lot more about the process of seed saving. I’ll let you know how it goes.

For now, here’s a picture of them actually in the ground. I think they look cooler in the glasses though.

Running today: 1.5 mi

Weekend Update

2010-05-18T09:48:00.000-04:00

This weekend definitely kept me busy. Friday night I got to eat some delicious homemade Indian food at my aunt and uncle's house. Then I saw my cousin perform for the first time with his band "Katie's Got Guts". I was actually pretty impressed with them and had a lot of fun listening to them. I couldn't believe how good my cousin has gotten at guitar, he's the third one from the left in this picture. Check out their page on Facebook or you can just wait until they become famous rockstars.

Saturday I did exciting things like clean my apartment and finish that dang puzzle so now I can move on with my life.

I canned another batch of beans. Don't worry, at some point I will tell you why I am canning so many beans.

I cooked a bunch of random food so that we can eat leftovers all week and I can be lazy. Some of the things I made include sourdough mushroom stuffing, cinnamon chipotle chicken, baked corn casserole and a pot pie using my canned pot pie filling.

On top of all of that I went running for 1.5 miles.

Sunday was filled with doing about a million loads of laundry and helping my parents with yard work. Of their 5 acres, hardly any of it had been mowed yet this year, so we had a lot of work to do. However, they made us dinner and bought us ice cream so it's all good.

Lastly, I am proud to announce that I had my first harvest of the year this weekend. Check out the radish.

It was very tasty. Hopefully later this week I'll be able to pick more radishes and maybe even some lettuce.

Community Supported Agriculture

2010-05-14T17:01:00.000-04:00

In just under a week I will be starting another year of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and I just can't wait. For anyone unfamiliar with them, CSA programs are basically where you pay a farmer in the beginning of the year for an entire season's worth of produce. Then every week during the growing season you get a share of vegetables and sometimes fruit. Its a pretty great way to get more connected to where your food comes from, support local farmers and enjoy some great produce.

Last year I participated in One Straw Farm's CSA program. It was a great experience. I got to enjoy delicious organic produce every week while learning more about what vegetables are typically grown at what time in Maryland. I even got to try some vegetables that I wasn't too familiar with like chard and bok choy. I highly recommend One Straw Farm to anyone looking for a CSA around Baltimore. All of the people are extremely friendly and they have tons of drop off locations that make it convenient to pick up your produce. I'm pretty sure that they still have a few openings left for this year, so if you're interested you can sign up on their website: http://www.onestrawfarm.com/.

This year, however, we decided to try something new just for the heck of it, so we went with the Calvert's Gift Farm CSA (http://www.calvertsgiftfarm.com/) . They are a smaller organic farm and instead of picking up your produce at drop off locations, you go directly to the farm to get your veggies. I like that I'll be going to the farm every week- it makes me feel as though I'll be more connected to the whole process . Another cool benefit to this program is that they offer free pick-your-own blackberries (can anyone say blackberry jam!) as well flowers. In addition, along with the vegetable share, you have the option to participate in an egg share where you get a dozen eggs either every week or every other week. These eggs come from another local farm where the chickens are treated nicely and given plenty of space and access to the outdoors. Overall I think this program seems pretty cool, so I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

If you're not located near Baltimore but are still interested in CSA, don't give up hope. There may be a CSA program in your area, and who knows it might not be too late to sign up for it. You can find a list of links to help in your serach for a CSA near you at www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml.

Doomed

2010-05-14T00:27:00.000-04:00

I couldn't resist any longer and started the gumball puzzle. Now I am doomed to accomplish nothing ever again, well at least until this puzzle is done.

Look who decided to join me.

Of course its cute now, but I guarantee that as soon as I start making progress and he comes over, rips up puzzle pieces and throws them half way across the room I won't find it so cute anymore. I guess that's just what I get for letting my parakeet play with puzzles.

Canning Beans

2010-05-13T01:02:00.000-04:00

Canning has quickly become one of my favorite things to do. I love that it enables me to preserve my own food without filling up my freezer. It helps me make a whole stash of my own convenience food at a pretty low price. Plus I have the added advantage of knowing exactly what goes into my foods. I’m not adding extra preservatives or high fructose corn syrup and I can easily control the level of sodium. All in all I think canning is pretty cool and that is why I am going to give you a brief overview of how to can your own beans. For more detailed information you can check out Ball's Blue Book: The Guide to Home Canning and Freezing. Also make sure to always follow your manufacturer's directions.

Here are some of the things you need when canning beans:

For some foods you can just use boiling water, but with beans you need to heat your food to higher temperatures to kill off all of the bacteria and spores that can spoil your food and this requires the pressure canner. Next you’ll need some mason jars. I’m using pint sized jars but you can also use quarts if you want to can larger quantities. You’ll need some lids, which will form a seal on your jars, and you’ll need some screw bands to keep those lids in place until they seal. The funnel is just the right size for the jars so its helps you fill them without making too much of a mess. Those green and black things are jar tongs which are useful for picking up hot jars.

Beans are also nice to have when canning beans.

I’m using 2 lbs. of Great Northerns simply because they are what was lying around.

Now we're ready to get started.

Step #1: Soak your means overnight.

Step #2: Discard the water you soaked your beans in. Add more water and boil for 30 minutes.

Step #3: Prepare the rest of your equipment. Get together your jars, lids and screw bands. Wash your jars and get them warmed up (hot food + cold jar = cracked glass).

Step #4: Fill your jars. I like to add the beans first.

Don't fill them all the way with because the beans will continue to absorb water and expand in the pressure canner.

After you've got your beans in there its time to pour in the liquid. I like to use the remaining cooking liquid but you can also use boiling water.

Make sure you leave 1 inch of space between the top of the liquid and the top of the jar (called headspace) since food and liquids like to expand when hot. You want some air to escape since that's what helps create the seal but you want your food to stay in the can so the extra space helps to ensure that.

Step #5: Place your lids on your jars and secure them with the screw bands.

Step #6: Put your cans into the pressure canner, put on the lid and turn up the heat.

Step #7: Let the pressure reach 11 lbs and adjust the heat to maintain that pressure. Continue to cook for 75 minutes for pints and 85 minutes if you used quart jars.

Step #8: Once you’ve processed your jars for the required amount of time turn off the stove and let the pressure in your pressure canner drop all the way.

Step #9: Next remove your jars from the canner. This is where the tongs come in handy.

Hopefully at this point you’ll start to hear the amazing popping sounds that the lids make when they form seals. It’s really quite a joyful sound because it means that all of your hard work has paid off. If any of the jars do not seal you need to either dispose of them or stick them in the refrigerator right away and eat them in the next few days, they will not be safe to store long term. Let the jars continue to sit there overnight undisturbed.

Step #9: The next day remove the screw bands and wash your jars.

Step #10: Now all you have to do is store your jars in a cool dark place until you are ready to eat them.

Running Log

2010-05-13T01:00:00.000-04:00

In a few months I will be attending the annual Ultimate Frisbee Beach Tournament in Wildwood, NJ. Since I am currently out of shape I need to do some running to ensure that I don't pass out in the middle of any of the games. I'm really not so good at being consistent with running, so if you don't mind, on days that I actually get out there and do some jogging, I'm going to post how far or how long the run was. This will give me an easy way to keep track of my progress and will hopefully make me more motivated to actually get out there and move. Feel free to completely skip over those blurbs if you want, I will completely understand. To start us off here, today I ran about 1.1 miles. The end. See that really wasn't so bad.

A Radish!!

2010-05-11T17:29:00.000-04:00

Look! A radish!!

Do you see it? Its so cute and pink. I have to admit that I was a bit surprised to see a it, as though I still doubt whether or not my garden will produce anything. But this proves it, I will at least have one radish.

And now I know you're just dying for more pictures from my super exciting garden so I won't keep you waiting any longer.

Here are the rest of the radishes. They really are growing like weeds compared to the other plants started at the same time.

A beet plant!

And lettuce! See, I have two different varieties.

Here are all of the plants that I have yet to plant outside. In the back are the tomato plants (which are getting quite leggy) and towards the front are some herbs and marigolds. I've heard that marigolds can be good at keeping away various insects and other pests that aren't so nice to your vegetable plants.

Unfortunately it continues to be too cold at night to get these in the ground. Tomato plants are very sensitive to frost so I don't want to take any risks. So for now I'll keep working on hardening them off. I leave them outside during the day to let them get used to being out there but I bring them inside the house if there is a chance for frost at night.

Looming Distractions!

2010-05-10T21:11:00.001-04:00

This past weekend my wonderful aunt, who is a big puzzle fan, gave me this gigantic stack of puzzles to take home with me. Ever since they have been calling to me, begging me to start them. But I must resist as long as possible for I have a problem. Once I start a puzzle I am addicted- I have to finish it. The world is not right until it is complete. Even if I try to get away and do something else it eventually pulls me back. So you see, I must continue to resist the calls of the puzzles because if I don't, nothing will get done around here. The garden will go unweeded, the dishes will pile up, my husband will go hungry and I will lose a great deal of sleep over it. I don't know how long I will hold out. That one with the gumballs is especially tempting...

And now for a real post- My Garden!

2010-05-09T18:45:00.000-04:00

Sadly I live in an apartment without sufficient light to grow much of anything so a few months ago I asked my parents if I could plant some green beans and a tomato plant in their yard. They took to the idea of a garden right away and started to make grand plans. At first I was freaking out about the garden idea escalating into this huge project for I feared it wouldn’t be ready in time to plant anything and that I wouldn’t be able to devote enough time and energy for something so big. However, in the end we were able to make 8 garden boxes, each 4 feet by 8 feet, and put up a fence in time for planting. Now I’m actually really looking forward to having so much space to grow veggies. I guess things worked out pretty well even though I was worried.

Look at the photos of my lovely garden!

It’s definitely a good amount of room for a first time gardener!

So far I’ve planted chard, lettuce, beets, broccoli, radishes and Brussels sprouts. The radishes are by far doing the best and unfortunately the broccoli is practically non-existent.

Here’s a picture of the radishes from a week or two ago.

And here’s a beet plant.

Indoors I’ve got some tomato and pepper plants started. They’ll go in the ground soon.

Stay tuned for many more updates from the garden.

Background

2010-05-09T17:21:00.001-04:00

I really thought that changing my background would be much harder than it really is. I didn't think I'd be able to figure it out by myself, but it's not too bad. Now I just have to pick a background- dang it, I hate decisions.

Finally

2010-05-09T16:29:00.000-04:00

Yay! I finally settled on a name for this thing so it's time to get started!