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).

In the Garden: Melons!!! + New Herbs

This is an exciting time. It's hot and sunny and my melons are loving it!! My favorite things to grow are melons, watermelons and tomatoes and now is the time when all of the plants pick up the pace!! Every day you can literally watch the melon plants vine out. LOVE IT! So this morning, I saw this guy...

This is Zatta an Italian variety that I'm growing for the first time. I started them indoors and transplanted them out. This plant has been going crazy ever since!! This morning, the plant was buzzing with honey bees so I hope this little melon has been pollinated.

Garden Update: June 2014

About a month or so ago, I decided to try my hand at growing ginger and turmeric.

I knew it would take a month or more for the rhizomes to germinate. I've had the pots sitting outside for the last month trying to get them nice and hot. I didn't think anything would actually happen but about a week and half ago, these guys showed up...

Tomatoes: Why I Luv Growing Them

This year has been a rough growing year. I've never had issues with growing tomatoes from seed but this year has been a game changer. The weather has been completely wacky going from a balmy 70 degrees to 90 degrees in a day. Everything has been confused. Then the rain! So a couple of my tomatoes started to dampen off while I was hardening them off. The stems right above the soil line started to narrow on both of my Mary Robinson bi-colors and one of my Great White tomatoes. Unfortunately, one of my Mary Robinson tomato plants shriveled and died. I was so mad that I was determined to save the lone bi-color and my Great White. Last year, one of my Yellow Brandywine tomato plants had a bit of trouble after transplantation so I trimmed off all of the damaged and dying leaves and left the plant alone. Within a couple of days, new leaves showed up and the tomato plant completely bounced back with no problems throughout the season. So I thought I'd see if I could cut my current problematic tomato plants above the point where the stem started to narrow and re-root them in water.

Korean Spicy Chive Salad

Every year, my garlic chives never fail me. My chives actually spread and multiplied like crazy this year. I have chives coming up in areas of my raised beds that shouldn't be right now. Today, I decided to harvest a small portion of chives and make spicy chive salad.

Garden Weekend: Black Swallowtail...Maybe?

Found these guys all over my carrots this morning. I think they're Black Swallotails?? Happy Gardening.

Cream Drop Biscuits with Thyme

Last night, I was being a lazy cook. I really, really didn't feel like cooking. One of my easy go to recipes for a fast dinner is to boil boneless chicken thighs in BBQ sauce. Any BBQ sauce will usually work as long as it's not too thick. So that's what I did last night, but I also wanted some starch to go with it. I'm not big on potatoes. I'm just not. So I decided to make drop biscuits. You know the kind you don't have to make with yeast. It's really quick to make.

I don't have good pics BTW, cuz we pretty much devoured them and it didn't even occur to me to take photos because I also doctored a recipe so I thought the biscuits would be a disaster.

Garden Update: What's Growing + Surprises

I think Spring will finally stick? I hope? My allergies say so, but we've been so back and forth regarding temperatures. One day it'll be 80 degrees then drop to the 60s again. Totally schizo, which in turn makes my seedlings schizo! By this time last year, my Chinese long beans were already sprouting and squash seeds were planted. I was transplanting peppers and tomatoes out this time, too- it's so not the case this year. The soil has been so chilly that what I've planted out like collards, kale and peas have stunted in growth. The cool weather crops are stunted!!! Hence my absence from posting lately.  I've been fretting over this weather and my crops surviving. Freaking a little that I've planted out too early. That I will lose my food for the year. :-(

This little mustard plant, should actually be much bigger by now. I'm just glad that they're greening up again.

It's SPRING: Seedling Madness!

Seedlings are EVERYWHERE in my house right now.  Those giant gangly things are the giant sunflowers. They're giant and fast growing. Did I mention they're GIANT!? I think they've been on my windowsill for about a week and half? Maybe?  For me, it is SPRING!  If we get another round of snow, I will still be outside in my garden boots, pretending that it is Spring and 60 degrees out!  I am going to garden dammit.  I am willing it.

Garden Escapades + Upcycling

Need... To....Be... Outside!  Need....More...Sun...

Thankfully, today is supposed to be a beautiful 70 degrees.  My plan is to be outside in the yard as much as possible.  I need vitamin D like you would not believe.  I've been cranky from this long winter and of course, we're supposed to get snow again on Monday. Boo. I'm still glad I don't live up north right now because I would be in jail by now.  I would have assaulted someone out of winter crankiness.  Anyway, today will be a super busy and exciting day.  I have plans to set up my new raised beds and yesterday, I scored some cheap goodies to add to the garden madness!

First though, on the windowsill....

I have onion sets soaking.  I wanted to make sure they were still good.  I was going to put them in this weekend, but with impending snow again, I plan to wait until after Monday. I'm using sets since my yellow onion seeds seem to be duds right now.  I so want to support Southern Exposure but the germination rates for their seeds are always a bit sketchy.

I also have giant sunflowers growing in the smaller yogurt containers...

Ginger + Turmeric= A Bit O Spring

It's BEAUTIFUL outside!!  I've been so out of wack during this long winter and now with the sun and warmer weather this weekend, I feel like I'm getting back to my old self!  So what's been up??  A lot of seed starting. That's what!  And in addition to the usual suspects, I decided to try growing my own ginger and turmeric. :-)  On my windowsill, I have organic turmeric and ginger rhizomes ready to plant.

Seed Starting: Onions

I started my onions in January as usual but unfortunately, the winter has been lousy.  Last year, I started scallions and red onions in plastic water jug "green houses" and they did really really well.

So I did it again this year.

Feb 2014: Winter Garden Update

Winter SUCKS!  This winter especially!!  My raised beds have had it rough. :-(  As a warmer day today, I just had to go out!!  I was very curious as to who survived, what I needed to do better, etc.  There were some serious surprises, which makes me even more enthusiastic about growing and the mysteries and resilience of plants!!  Sometimes, some plants scare the living crap out of me!!

This guy!! This guy is my rogue cilantro in Bed #1!!  This guy has been under maybe 5 to 8 inches of snow up until yesterday. If you recall, I didn't replant these seeds.  They just started growing in Sept.-ish. Just showed up! So I didn't bother to use extenders or anything since I was planning to rest the bed and just grow a cover crop (vetch).  I thought for sure the cilantro would die from freezing, snow, and wind, but NOPE!!  A true survivor.  This is guy wins the award this year!

2014 Obession: DIY Natural Toiletries

Last year I discovered soapmaking.

In a big way.  I have become totally obsessed now with the process and the final product.  It's not only so much fun, but it feeds part of my creative side as well as the wanna-be chemist in me.  That and since I've been using my homemade soaps on the regular, I can't go back to the store bought stuff.

And So It Begins....

It's that time again!  My favorite time.... SEED STARTING TIME!  The time when the sunlight changes again, and spring is right around the corner and I look forward to new beginnings.  There's so much to plan for this season since I will be expanding the garden once again.  This year, I plan to have a permanent bed for herbs and grow in addition to my normal culinary herbs like thyme and rosemary, stevia, epazote and calendula.  I'll be adding leeks and shallots and experimenting with true cantaloupes.  Purple I think is my color this year since I somehow added purple veggies to the list- purple carrots, purple broccoli, purple tomatoes.  Every year, I've been getting better at planning the garden so I hope I can apply what I learned the years before to have a bigger and better garden!!

Helloooo 2014!!

Happy New Year!!  It's 2014! This year is a no resolution year again.  As you may recall in 2013, I chose not to make resolutions because I SUCK at keeping them.  I do want to make my 2014 a year of change and moving forward with my life goals.  I ain't getting younger here! I am going to start exercising more since I will be turning the big 40 this year. 40. Sigh.

So, looking back on 2013.....