Seminole Pumpkins + My Wild Garden

There are a few things I grow every year;and I must grow them for therapeutic purposes. I have to grow tomatoes, melons and watermelons, rapini and pumpkins. Pumpkins are a definite must have because they: 1. Do super well in my yard for some reason, 2. I LOVE the different varieties, 3. They are a fascinating species to watch spread out in your yard, 4. Pumpkins are the perfect winter food.

So this year, I grew Seminole Pumpkins. Out of all of the varieties I've grown so far, this is my favorite. Absolutely. My harvest is going to be through the roof!

Sourdough Discard: Brownies!!

Yes, I made brownies with my sourdough starter discard! They turn out a little more cakey than fudgy. But I imagine you can add more chocolate chips and less flour, too. Now I am super, super picky about brownies. SUPER picky. I don't like cakey brownies and I don't like gooey fudgy brownies. I like them right in between. This is my brownie recipe but I substituted part of the flour with starter.

New Obsession: Sourdough Starters + Sourdough Discard Drop Biscuits

I am totally, totally obsessed with fermentation right now, especially regarding bread and starters,the old fashioned method of capturing wild yeast and bacteria to leaven bread. From biga to poolish and beer starters and sourdough... I'm completely obsessed! Sigh. More to add to my "to do" list. BUT.... when the world goes to hell in a hand basket (or a greased pole) I will be ready to feed the masses!

Soooo.... I've been feeding my pet starter for the past 2 weeks now.

Garden Update: August 2014

This August has been so pleasant. It's 80 degrees with no humidity today. Am I in the South?? The weather really is odd this year. It should still be hot and humid but for the rest of this week, it is predicted that we will have pleasant humid free 80+ weather. LOVELY especially for starting more seeds and gardening in general.

As soon as the weather started getting cooler, my garden went into overdrive. Everything started to go to seed, or plants started to fruit again. Some of tomatoes that I felt were ready to pull out have started to produce again. My pumpkins are spreading and spreading...... here's a glimpse of the chaos garden...

Garden Update: End of July & A Death

This summer has been unusual. Today at the end of July, it's beautiful and not at all humid. Usually by now, it's freak'n 100 degrees with 100% humidity here and it's just not. It almost feels like California weather with a touch of humidity. A fabulous day for gardening.

Right now, I'm trying to decide which raised beds to rest, and what to plant in the beds that I'll keep active for the fall. As I've said before, this season has been weird. Not a very good growing season for me so I'm hoping my fall crops will do better. I'm planning to grow the usual suspects: collards, kale, purple broccoli (didn't do well in the spring), rapini (because I need rapini), komatsuna, Korean mustards, bok choi, turnips and carrots. I will definitely grow garlic this fall instead of early spring. The rogue garlic that just popped up this spring did well and produces a nice and big fat bulb!

Right now, the one crop that's doing really well is my cowpea....

The Good, The Bad And the Cute

SOOOOOO... There's been a little breaky break. I've been working a new job that has me working very late into the night sometimes and it's just now that I've gotten used to the new hours. I also usually work on the weekends, so this is my first Saturday off. I hope to be more consistent with this blog now since I'm not so exhausted. Anyhoo...

The garden. I don't know what the heck is going on with the garden. This year has been weird. Things that usually grow well haven't. I don't know if it's the soil or if I need to buy new seeds now since seeds do have a shelf life. There are good things happening though and surprising things...

Well, the one thing that seems to be consistent every year is my melon patch. I did add a lot of manure this season to condition it for my melon/watermelon/winter squash combo patch...

That monstrosity in the foreground is my winter squash taking over. Again.

Garden Update: End of June

Like last year, we have one baby bunny that stayed in the yard. This little guy has been bolder and sassier than the other babies we've had in the yard. He/She is now exploring the garden and nibbling things.

I've had to gently coax him out. As usual, the bunnies don't care whether I'm around or not. They don't run very far when I come up on them. I think I was about 2 1/2 feet away from the bunny (top pic) before he finally decided he'd get out of the herb bed (bottom pic).