Kaylee Does Farm to Table

Kaylee came over to play yesterday.  I recently downloaded an electronic cookbook for kids, Monkey Mike's Raw Food Kitchen, an Un-Cookbook for kids.  I printed out one for her house and one to plat with at our house.  It's a cute little cookbook with activities and games. It's good for a nice reading practice book too. I found a couple cute and easy recipes we could try together: Dracula's Carrot Salad with Count Your Blessings Salad Dressing and Hunky-Dory Almond Hummus.  She told me on the way to my house she had asked for gluten free treats at the school Holiday party and the librarian told her she bring some hummus.  Kaylee said she was excited about that because she had never tried hummus.  So, we made some together.  She liked it.  Even though there aren't many spices in it, she did say it was a little too spicy by itself.  Mixed with some crunch celery, carrots, and cucumber, she liked it just fine.  I warmed some pumpkin polenta and 13 bean stew I made in the morning and served it with our salad and hummus.  I was pleased she ate a two servings of the salad and hummus.  She liked the stew and pumpkin polenta, but enjoyed the salad more.  Fine with me, the salad, raw veggies, and hummus make for a complete meal.

One of the best parts of the day was when I reviewed the ingredients and realized I had all except some fresh beets.  I do still have some beets growing out in the garden so we had a little "Farm to Table" exercise.  Out to the garden we went to gather some beets.  There were some more treats out there too.  We came home with some chard, a small red cabbage, and a nice big fennel too.

 She's still a bit too small to use a chef's knife, but not too small to use a food processor.  Kaylee read all the ingredients and instructions aloud to me.  I explained what I was doing and what tools I was using when paring and pealing the vegetables.  She ran the processor and helped toss the salad arrange it all for dinner. 

 

The Dracula salad is a version of a beet and carrot salad I already make regularly in the summer.  I like this recipe, the addition of almonds and raisins makes for a variety of textures.

Dracula's Carrot Salad

1 beet
3 carrots
2 green onions
12 almonds
2 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves

Count Your Blessings Salad Dressing

Juice of 1 orange
2 tablespoons macadamia nut oil, (we used hazelnut oil)
2 teaspoons almond butter
Teensy pinch Celtic sea salt

Hunky-Dory Almond Hummus

1 ½ cups almonds soaked in 1 ½ cups filtered water for four hours or more
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup water
Big pinch Celtic sea salt

October Harvest Au Gratin ~ Vegan & Gluten Free

 Yesterday was a lovely day.  We had a sunny day and time to hang in the garden.  It was what we call a sunny day in the PNW, there were still some clouds. We're still getting lots of great produce: potatoes, tomatoes, beets, chard, a couple winter squash, lots of herbs, and even a zucchini.  There are some new eggplant coming out too.  The eggplants seem to like the moist, cool weather.  On the way out there I was thinking about what to do with the squash I had already.  I was thinking of doing some kind of zucchini/winter squash bake.  My granddaughter has been advised to avoid gluten so I want to try to make more and more dishes gluten free. I thought I'd use some brown rice flour or black bean flour and make a roux, but I ended up using par boiled potatoes instead. I came up with a kind of Au Gratin dish.  I think I put a little too much sauce, but it was creamy, warm, colorful, and comforting on a cool fall night.  My son was surprised that I made this up myself and said I should write it down.  He hasn't seen my blog, that's one of the reasons I do this, so I can go back and find dishes I've made like this and make it again sometime.

I made layers of the sliced fresh veggies: butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green and yellow zucchini, fresh beets and chard. I covered them with a sauce I made with a large red potato we dug up yesterday and baked it all until it was tender.  For the sauce I chopped the potato, a couple fresh onions, a shallot and simmered them in about 2 cups water for ten minutes.  I placed them in my Blendtec with a handful of cashews, some coconut spread, nutritional yeast, a dash of tamari, thyme, oregano, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a dash of cayenne.  This made a warm creamy sauce without any milk or flour. 

The sauce:

About 2 cups chopped potato
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 small to medium shallot chopped
2 cups water

The following ingredients are estimates, I really didn't measure, adjust to your own taste.

1/2 cup cashews
3 TB Earth Balance coconut spread or vegan margarine
2 TB Nutritional yeast
1 tsp Tamari
1 Clove garlic, minced
1 TB Thyme (dried)
1 TB Oregano (dried)
1 tsp ground sea salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

3/4 cup Daiya Mozzarella cheese

Place the chopped potatoes, onions, shallots, & water in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil then cover and gently simmer for ten minutes.  While the potatoes are simmering place the remaining ingredients in a large blender.  When the potatoes have finished simmering let them cool a few minutes then pour the whole thing, including the water in the blender.  Blend until creamy.

Layer the veggies in a 9 x 13 baking dish with a layer of sauce between half of it and on top.  I started with chard leaves, a layer of sliced butternut squash, green and yellow zucchini slices, a couple sliced beets I had from thinning the beets, for the first layer.  The second layer I used sliced sweet potato in place of the butternut squash.

Cover and bake at 400º for about 35 minutes, remove the cover and cook another 10 to 15 minutes until the sauce is bubbling.

I also added some shredded Daiya cheese on the top of each sauce layer.  That was probably overkill, but I wanted my son to enjoy this meal with us and he is still a little leery of all my vegan delights.  It worked, he loved it.  He decided he didn't want any salad with his meal, he might try some later.  Funny, the green salad had most the same ingredients that are in the casserole, they're just raw.

Cheezy Crunchy Kale Chips

I mentioned the kale chip marinade in my last flax cracker recipe post, but I don't think I've actually posted a kale chip recipe yet. I've been making kale chips quite regularly this year since I am growing plenty of beautiful purple kale in the garden.  I spotted them in the local health food store recently and, my goodness, they were about $7+ a package for what I thought was about $.50 worth of kale.  The packaging must be expensive.  I made up my mind right there to find a good recipe we liked.  This is a very tasty recipe.  I brought some to the baby shower for Gracie and Rhonda really thought I used cheese to make them.  She had a surprised look on her face when she tasted them and said "You used cheese."  Nope, they're vegan.

I had a recipe I was using that was adequate, but this one came in summer recipe Newsletter from VegNews.  I really like it.  With the kale and tahini, they're a high calcium yummy chip.  I made just a couple substitutions:  I used the fresh kale from my garden and tamari in place of the Bragg's Liquid Aminos.  I have recently heard that Bragg's Liquid Aminos have some of the same qualities as MSG so I've decided to avoid it.

The recipe calls for 1 bunch kale, not sure how much I really used as it was more like an armload.  I doubled the recipe and it worked out just fine. Kale dehydrates faster than most the fruit I dry.  I think these were done before I went to bed, about 6-8 hours in the dehydrator.

These are a big hit at my house even with the guy who doesn't like raw kale. In fact, the last time I made some he enthusiastically helped me clean and ready all the kale.  The chips don't hang around too long when I make them. 

Cheezie, Crunchy Kale Chips
     by Kittee Berns

1 bunch kale, cleaned and de-stemmed
2 tablespoons tahini
4 tablespoons warm water
1-1/2 tablespoons Bragg's Liquid Aminos or Tamari
1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
3 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, divided
1 medium carrot, coarsely grated

1. Cut kale into 2-inch pieces I just tore them in the sizes I like, I like them a bit larger with the leaf shape still pretty much intact.

2.  In a small bowl, place the tahini and tablespoon by tablespoon, mix in the warm water until smooth.  Stir in the aminos or tamari, chili powder, and cayenne, and 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast, and mix until smooth. Stir in grated carrot.

3.  In a giant bowl, or in batches if necessary, combine kale with sauce.  Toss to cover every leaf with sauce and carrots. Then add the remaining 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, so that it clings to the leaves.

4.  Divide the kale evenly over the dehydrator trays and dehydrate between 105-115º for about 4-6 hours until dry and crispy.  I put one of the dehydrator trays on top of the kale to keep it from blowing off when they dry. 

They can be made using an oven on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Follow the directions for dehydrating, but when you lay the kale on the tray, try to get it in as much of a single layer as possible.  Heat the oven to its lowest temperature.  Watch carefully and flip several times at 16 to 20 minute intervals until dry and crispy.

Pine and Macadamia Nut Stuffed Squash Flowers

Yesterday morning I couldn't help but gather a few squash flowers for dinner.  I have to be careful not to take too many because I want the squash to grow.  So, I took just a couple flowers from all the squash in the garden:  zucchini, delicata, pumpkin, crookneck, acorn, and butternut.  I am amazed how all the flowers from the various varieties of  of squash all look the same.  I don't get to see them blooming too much as I usually get out to the garden in the late afternoon and they've mostly closed up by then.  Yesterday morning they were all standing up and showing their beauty. I can and do pick them occasionally and have a raw flower snack in the garden. I didn't know they were so delightful until last year when I heard about cooking them. If you haven't tried your squash flowers, I think you should.  It surprised me how much a flower can taste like a fresh zucchini.  Be sure to be careful when cleaning them and always look inside before eating them in the garden.  I have brought home some guests like bumblebees and cucumber beetles.

I made a nut cheese for some raw zucchini ravioli from a Vegan Fusion Recipe.  It's from the The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw.  I made the Turnip and Pine Nut Ravioli, page 230, substituting fresh zucchini for the ravioli. I thought the cheese would also make a lovely cheese filling for my flowers.  I squeezed about 1 tsp of cheese into the bottom of a cleaned flower with my handy tool and dipped in a mixture of ground flax seeds and non-dairy milk, then dredged in a little flour and cornmeal, and gently sautéed in hot grape seed oil with a fresh sprig each of fresh thyme and rosemary.  A small teaspoon works well for stuffing the flowers, that's what I used last year.

Pine & Macadamia Nut Cheese
      The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw.

1 cup pine nuts soaked at least 2 hours
2 cups macadamia nuts, soaked at least 2 hours **
1 TB fresh rosemary, minced
4 tsp fresh parsley, minced
4 tsp fresh thyme, minced
2 TB nutritional yeast
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 TB apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup rejuvelac or filtered water, as needed

**Other nuts may be substituted such as: cashews, Brazil nuts, or almonds.

Rinse pine nuts and macadamia nuts, and drain well for at least 10 minutes.  Place in a food processor fitted with an S blade, and process on high speed for about 10 seconds.

Add rosemary, parsley, thyme, nutritional yeast, salt, black pepper, and apple cider vinegar.  Blend on high speed for about 20 seconds while adding rejuvelac through the top until a smooth, cheesy consistency is reached. 

Squash Flowers, stuffed with pine and macadamia nut cheese, dipped in a mixture of ground flax seeds and hemp milk, then dredged in a little flour and cornmeal, and gently sautéed in grape seed oil with a fresh sprig each of fresh thyme and rosemary.

Garden Update ~ Early August

I don't remember the name of these bulbs, but I sure love them.  I have to get out to the garden in the morning to catch them in full bloom though, they close up and go to sleep by early afternoon.


Despite the few days of sunny weather, our garden is moving along.  I'm pulling out onions and zucchini daily and just about everything has something that looks like a vegetable growing.  The corn is almost to the bottom of the second pink row going up on Molly's overalls.  I figured out I can watch the corn's progress by comparing it to the color rows on her pants. I walked around and got some photos of just baby veggies the other day.

Yesterday I filled a box with lots of treats: two kinds of zucchini, crookneck squash, three kinds of beets, red cabbage, broccoli, a dozen artichokes, shallots, onions, squash flowers of every kind of squash I have, (Don't want to take too many from one plant.), fresh rosemary and lavender.

The husband of a dear friend of mine, who passed away in 2009, lives in the house behind my garden and there was some interesting commotion going on.  I recognized his daughter, whom I haven't seen in awhile, Wasipi.  I was glad to see her. I've been wanting to thank her for reminding me of the Green Tortoise's Baja adventure.  Something, we'd want to go on, but I had forgotten about.  After she told me of her 15 day whale watching adventure, I checked it out.  We ended up having an unforgettable Thanksgiving on a secluded beach in Baja with a small group of wonderful people. Turns out, yesterday was Steve's 90th birthday and they were getting ready setting up the celebration in his backyard.  I was happy to fill a bag with some fresh veggies and nasturtiums for their salad.

I dropped some veggies off to another friend on the way home who likes to cook with fresh ingredients. She's just started doing some cooking and baking without animal products.  Felicia told me she had never eaten a beet in her life.  Lucky her, most of us were introduced to beets as canned, overcooked, remnants of their original form.  I am not surprised when someone's first reaction to beets is negative. She gets to try beets for the first time, tender and fresh out of the garden.  My husband never liked them until we started eating them fresh and most times raw. The golden beets are so tender when fresh picked I can eat them like an apple.

Raw Teriyaki Noodles

I have posted these before, but it's been awhile.  Made this with the first zucchini of the year.  I'm always amazed at the taste and texture of the fresh picked vegetables each year.  The zucchini is juicy and buttery. We came in from the garden late and we were hungry.  This dish took me all of fifteen minutes to prepare.

Raw Teriyaki Noodles

3 TB Cold pressed vegetable oil, (pumpkin seed, avocado, hemp, extra virgin olive oil)
2 TB White wine
2 tsp Tamari
2 TB Miso
2 TB Raw agave
1 TB Fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup Sesame seeds
3 - 5  Medium zucchini (about 5 - 6 cups zucchini) Depends on what you call a "medium" zucchini
2 Red Bell Peppers seeded and small diced

In a small bowl whisk together, the oil, wine, tamari, miso, agave, and ginger until well-blended.  Stir in 2 tablespoons of Sesame seeds.

Using a Japanese spiralizer or vegetable peeler, make fettuccine-style noodles.  In large bowl add noodles and red bell pepper, pour on dressing, and toss gently.  Sprinkle on remaining 2 tablespoons sesame seeds and serve.

Isabelle & Molly

The girls are finally out in the garden. Isabelle has a new dress this year she has a friend named Molly.

Isabelle

Molly

Thanks so much to my husband who thinks they are very bazaar and silly, but helps me put them out anyway. They may not scare the birds, but they do cause smiles.  In a few weeks, Isabelle will be shaded by tall sunflowers.  Molly is keeping an eye on the corn stalks.

Garden Update July

Can you find the bee?

Things have been going along a little slow due to our lack of sunshine in the NW.  We have had some sunshine breaks, but not lasting longer than a couple of days.  The spinach and lettuce plants went to seed very quickly.  But now, we're going out just to weed, thin, and water.  The garden is moving along nicely.  I'm harvesting something every time we go out there now.  Last night I harvested about 30 heads of garlic.  There are three or four varieties of garlic in the garden.  Some of which are elephant garlic.  I am anxious to pull up some of those this weekend.

How do you know when it's time to harvest garlic?  The bottom leaves will begin to turn brown.  Gently dig one up and slice it in half.  If the cloves have filled out, it's ready.  Don't leave it in too long or the cloves will begin to burst out of the skins making them unstorable and open to disease.  They can still be used, but not stored. I planted them in October.  I planted about 60 or more garlic cloves.  I'm looking forward to making some garlic braids. I am so impressed at how one small clove of garlic becomes such a lovely large head over the winter. But then again, the whole garden thing and the production of live food in the dirt from the little bitty seeds fascinates me. 

Last week we also took home about a dozen artichokes, an armload of onions, three nice zucchini, a couple large bowls of peas, stevia, lettuce, a kohlrabi, and of course more herbs to dry:  oregano, thyme, two kinds of mint, basil, and rosemary.  The potatoes are nice and healthy.  Curious, I have three different kinds of potatoes but the bushy leaves all look the same.  It will be interesting to see if the flowers are different colors.

The plan, this weekend, is to get our beautiful scarecrow, Isabelle up in the garden.  This year she gets a friend too, Holly, as she has been named by my granddaughter.

Today we do have a beautiful summer morning.  I'm headed out for a brisk walk, then back home to can and freeze some local organic cherries and apricots.  I have 15 pounds of cherries and about 20 pounds of nice apricots. I already have some eggplant bacon in the dehydrator and a couple trays of the nice Washington apricots.  I'll dry a few pounds of the cherries too.  Sun or no sun, I love this time of year!

Summer is Here!

The last two weeks seem like I've been in continual motion.  Summer is here, and I've been taking full advantage of it. Our vegan/vegetarian potluck was June 26 and another success.  We had about 25 people and the sun showed up so we were able to sit outside and visit.  The musicians who contacted me didn't show up, but it was not a problem.  We had a great time getting to know each other and sharing what we prepared with each other.  We had some door prizes this time and my husband made some great flower arrangements with flowers from our yard. Our next potluck is August 21 and my friend John has agreed to play  music for us.  He has his own original folksy-blues kind of music, it should be very enjoyable.


Right after that, we held a bake sale at work for our Relay for Life team and baked for three days. I made about 12 dozen vegan cookies, spelt foccacia bread, and some chocolate beet cake. Donna, Tracy, & Michele were also busy in their kitchens, we filled two long tables with goodies and I think we raised a little over $200 for our team. My favorite was Michele's chai muffins with pistachios.

The very next weekend was the fourth of July and we played with the hippies up at the Rainbow Gathering.  That was an enjoyable experience, it involved a bit more hiking than I was ready for.  If we ever decide to go backpacking, I might have to start working out a bit more before we get going and definitely pack less.  I am so glad we made it, much of it did feel just like home.  I had so many memories of our friends and family in La Honda, especially the ones that are no longer with us. I volunteered at a vegan kitchen on "Serenity Ridge".  It was a beautiful spot with a lot of friendly people, musicians playing their guitars, drums, and singing camp songs.  The weather was great, a bit cold at night, but the sun came out for all three days we were up there.  It was just like being a kid at summer camp.

Last week we were blessed with a reunion with old friends. Tony & Catherine were visiting Oregon from Virginia to support their niece who is walking the Oregon Coast for charity.  We spent Thursday afternoon walking around Portland and had dinner at the Blossoming Lotus, in Portland, and in my opinion one of  the best vegan restaurants in Portland.  The last time we saw them was about 22 or 23 years ago when we met in Yosemite for some camping and hiking.I've known Tony and Catherine since I was about 22, we've had some crazy times together.  Cathy & I were reminiscing about a weekend, long ago, we traveled from LA to Las Vegas in the back of our Chevy Luv truck. Yes, we went all the way on a small mattress in the back of the truck and had a great time.  Can't imagine doing that now. I remember our 'truck lag' lasting all weekend.  Standing still felt like we were still moving.

The garden is growing well and I'm beginning to find treasures every time we go out.  Last week I harvested kale, spinach, garlic scapes, a couple artichokes, and lettuce.  Garlic scapes are the curly flower top that shoots out of the hard necked garlic.  I cut them off to give more energy and nutrients to the garlic head growing below the ground. The garlic scapes are great sautéed and can be stored and used for flavoring future dishes. I've rough chopped them and placed them in the dehydrator.  Woo who, the house is filled with the smell of garlic, so strong, I wonder if the neighbors can smell it. I'll grind some into a powder when they are completely dry to use in raw marinara sauces and other goodies I make this year. Our artichokes are coming in strong this year.  I've already plucked a nice big one to try.

This weekend I'm attending a 2 day Vegan Fusion workshop taught by the co-author of my most favorite vegan cookbooks,  Vegan World Fusion Cuisine, Mark Reinfeld.  I'll be sure to post about the fun I had there.

Garden Update

The rain let up for a little while yesterday.  I am so glad we took advantage of the day and made it out to the garden for a few hours.  We planted our potatoes, a few red and green cabbage, some peppers, the broccoli and cauliflower starts, and spread last year's garden around in the form of compost.  We had some plans for today, if it didn't rain.  But, it did, so we did our gardening indoors.  We've got some squash, corn, peppers, and a few other things set to germinate.  Hopefully they will make it outside in a few weeks.

The garden is full of bird life right now.  We saw the usual Killdear, squawking at us and doing the little broken wing dance, to keep us from the neighboring nest. This year there are lots of little yellow finches out there.  I haven't noticed them before.  It was difficult getting a good picture because most of the flowers out there right now are the same bright yellow as the birds.  I think one day, I'll have to just sit in the path very quiet with the camera to get a good shot of them, they're really quick.  We also saw some ducks wandering around.  We've seen them nest out there before.  They'll be gone when all the other gardeners start showing up.  The little black birds were very happy we opened up our compost box and spread it around.  There were some very fat, long worms in the compost.  Those birds starting shopping around right next to us.  They weren't even waiting for us to leave.

Happy May Day! Is it Really Spring Now?

I've been slacking on my blogging for the last two weeks.  Time to catch up.  Funny how once I start the procrastination in motion with something, it gets harder to get back in the habit.  I haven't been doing too many culinary treats out of the ordinary lately so I'm not too behind on recipes.  I've been sticking to our fruits in the morning, raw salads, and beans, with a few steamed veggies thrown in now & then.  I've also been anxiously waiting for the change from cooking to gardening.  It's been the wettest and coldest April, I've heard, in about 50 years.  This is the second spring in two years, we haven't seen sunshine in April.  But today the sun is shining and we're going out to work in the garden while we can.  It's supposed to be 70º today, I sure hope so.  It will bring some joy all over town. We'll  hear the sound of lawn mowers, motorcycles, and the outdoor toys as people come outside to play.  We've done a pretty good job of tackling the weeds and decayed plants.  The artichokes are coming back strong and many herbs made it through the winter.  I picked enough oregano yesterday to make a few quarts of oregano oil.
 
I took a stroll through the farmer's market yesterday and picked up a yellow Mystic Spirit dahlia, a couple Spanish Lavender plants, some rosemary, some fuchsia starts, Italian parsley, and a couple purple daisies. We managed to get most of it planted outside yesterday.  The fuchsia starts are for my deck.  I take pride in starting with tiny little seedlings and diligently trimming them daily until I have a full blooming fuchsia with beautiful big blooms.

Fuchsia

 Even though it's early in the season, there are some crafty farmers who have some edibles.  I picked up a nice variety of edible flowers: mustard, turnip, and broccoli.  Those are broccoli flowers in my blog header. Ruth & Mike had some nice spinach and Eva had her herbs and Jerusalem artichokes.  After shopping I took out my camera and went for a walk through the market welcoming the vendors back for the season.




I do have a vegan banana creme pie in the fridge waiting for the cashew coconut creme.  I'll be sure to post some pictures and the recipe once we break into it later on.

Garden Update

We're finally getting some sunny days, not too many, but they are beginning. Friday and Saturday this week were not only dry, but sunny and warm. I managed to get out into the garden both days. Friday I planted carrots, beets, some nasturtiums, and pansies. Saturday was 70º, I wore a shirt with no sleeves and short pants. Woo Who! We both got out there Saturday, Scott weeded around the onions and garlic giving them room to grow. Some of the garlic I planted is elephant garlic and I can see the stalks getting quite thick. I cleared out a mound and planted some slicing cucumbers and a row of delicata squash.

Oregano

Garlic

I'm pretty pleased with the plants that are coming back or still alive from last season. The herbs are rockin', we have lots of oregano, sage, rosemary, and thyme. The artichokes are all showing some life and when I was out there Friday I accidentally dug up some bulbs from the Mystic Spirit Dahlia I have out there. There was some green shooting out the tops of them. I gently put them back in the dirt and said a few encouraging words. I hope they grow. I do like that flower, it added such life to our garden.

Mystic Spirit

The gardening indoors has been going along a bit slow. I have had some disappointments in the germinating department, but that's how it goes. I tried some Stevia seeds this year and none of them germinated.  Too bad too, they are kind of expensive seeds.  But, I did order some seedlings, just in case, which were delivered last week.  I will have my Stevia in the garden this year.  I only grew four plants last year and that provided quite a bit of Stevia for myself and a couple friends. I have some broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, tomatoes, peppers, green onions, and a couple other veggies started. I'll get some corn started in a week or so. I don't want to be too early with the corn this year. I ended up planting it a few times last year. This is the time I get quite anxious and concerned that I won't get everything planted when I want to. It always works out, I'm just impatient.

Kaylee and I decorated some wooden dolls last weekend.  She took them out to the garden with my point and shoot camera and had her own little photo shoot.  I think her pictures came out rather well.  I also bought her a pair of her own gardening gloves this year.  She had a good time trying to move the weeds with the gardening claw. It's much taller than she.

Still Indoors ~ Garden 2011

 I was hoping to get outside this weekend and begin clearing the weeds the rain brought in the garden.  No such luck, it was cold and very rainy today. We did have a couple breaks in the clouds, but it never lasted very long.  I feel like I am in a big holding zone, just waiting for warmth from the sun. There are quite a few plants coming up out there, but it's hard to see most of them right now through the weeds.  I've got some garlic, onions, radishes, peas, lettuce, and herbs growing.

We've had a record breaking raining streak in the pacific northwest. I think, 28 days of continual rain. There was a short break in the afternoon Thursday.  It was warm and clear.  I spent some time playing with our camera in the backyard while we had the sun.  Almost gave me some hope that we would see some spring sunshine this weekend.  I am used to the rain in the northwest, but this time of year I am anxious to get out in the garden and get to work.  I feel like that old Mervyn's commercial where the gal is at the door at 6:00 a.m.on the morning of a big sale, "OPEN, OPEN, OPEN". The seedlings are doing well indoors right now.  Most of these are from the indoor greenhouse, a few of the herbs are out in the garden waking up from the winter, the columbine and artichokes are coming up out there too.




Today was the first day of our farmer's market season.  It's always muddy and a bit rainy the first few weeks.  I welcomed back some of my regular vendors. Right now the most that's available for about a month at the market will be plants, crafts, breads, and locally roasted coffee. There are a few farmers with greenhouses that have some lettuces and greens. I purchased a few things from Eva: a couple rosemary starts, some Jerusalem artichokes, and some kiwis.  I've heard that some people have started growing kiwis in the northwest.  I'm anxious to try hers. I took my camera ready to take some shots at the market, but it began to hail and rain very hard.  I stood under one of the canopies waiting for it to stop, but it just kept coming down. I was pretty drenched by the time I got back to my car. Those photos will have to wait.

Signs of Life ~ Garden 2011

Baby Artichokes

It's almost time to get outdoors a little more often and work in the garden.  I am anxious to get started.   We had a short break in the rain yesterday and it's been quiet at work.  I took the opportunity to do a little work outdoors yesterday.  I planted a few more snap peas, some lettuce, and some kale.  I planted some peas in February but haven't seen much action.  We had a very cold snow storm which probably slowed what growth was going on.  There are some signs of life out there though. The herbs are waking up, onions and garlic are standing up straight. I see radishes popping their first leaves out and I saw some signs of life out of the base of the artichokes.  They worried me a little.  It was hard for me to imagine those black dead stalks had any life left in them.

Columbine

Snap Pea

Radishes

Lupine

Rosemary