Rule #16: Net those strawberries and get the last laugh! (Harvest Monday)

Yes squirrels....I will be eating these tasty red strawberries and you will not be getting your grubby paws on them.  Well they get a few, but our black netting is certainly giving us plenty to eat.  We also stuck a pinwheel by the patch.  I don't know if this is deterring the squirrels, but we like to watch it!  This year John also got around to netting the peach tree.  Last year he was too late and by this time the squirrels ate about 50 or so on our tree in one day!  So far so good on that front too.  I'm not sure when they will be ready. Last year would have been our first harvest so this is a new one for us.  In other harvest related news (you can see Harvests around the world at Daphne's Dandelions in my links), I don't have many overwintered lettuce, but it keeps coming back.  Had some with some of our new baby arugula and spinach from the garden as well for mother's day.

Rule #15: One is Fun....(and Harvest Monday)!

What a busy weekend.  Mckinley is officially one!  We celebrated her birthday and went to another party this weekend.  During Mckinley's birthday party Larkyn and my friends little girl wanted to go out and check the strawberry patch.  There we found about 8 ready strawberries!  Our first harvest.  We have also eaten swiss chard and lettuce from the garden this week.  All the rest of the seeds and transplants are doing pretty well.  After picking off a lot of foliage and squishing some bugs on the tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants they are doing a lot better.  Over night I noticed that something must have figured out that where they could get a good aphid meal.  Yay!  I am really excited about my new beds and especially getting some borlotti beans this year.  Finally took a few pics of the new beds.  

Strawberry Patch

Tasty!

One of the borlotti bean beds just outside of the main garden.

Still working on the yard, but here are the beds in the side retaining wall.

tomatoes, rasberries, grapevines from free cycle and the more raspberries

Larkyn's rock creation

Here are the tomatoes.  The little bed there used to be in the garden.  Pumpkin's new home soon.

Another view

Lef side of the garden. The borlotti bed got a little fence yesterday to protect them from bunnies!

Right side of the garden. Soaker hoses got in place yesterday too. Have just a tad more Leaf Grow !

Birthday girl with some Poplar flowers

Big sis and her "Kentucky Derby Hat" (Mckinely's birthday ribbon!)

Harvest Monday....Brrrr

Well I am glad I didn't put the tomato, pepper, and eggplants in the ground a week ago when it was so nice.  It has been chilly here the last couple of days.  On Saturday it was nice for the first part of the day and I got some borlotti bean seeds in my new beds in front of the garden.  John also transplanted some of our raspberries into the new side of the yard beds he extended.  Last year when we got the retaining wall put in in the back of the yard, John put in a small retaining wall on the side of the yard near the fence line.  A neighbor gave us some raspberries and we put them in our first bed there. We acquired two grape vines through free cycle here and they have begun showing signs of life!  These are in the second fence line bed. This past weekend John did 2 more beds along the fence line--one with the raspberry transplants and we decided to put tomatoes in the last one.  I will have to take some pics of all of this and post them soon.

Last Thursday I had to re seed my Tuscan Kale and Swiss Chard--the transplants were way too delicate.  Perhaps they were too young as well.  The other problem was that they were my trial run in egg cartons and I didn't like it.  It dried out very fast and I noticed that the roots were attaching to the egg carton. I figured that I could have planted the carton in the ground, but worried that it wouldn't really degrade fast enough and then the roots wouldn't have room.

On to Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday.  We have been enjoying lettuce, fennel, and spinach salad from our overwintered veggies....need to do more of them for sure.  A new simple dressing we are enjoying is just EVOO, a little seasoned rice vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Sometimes we add parmigiano region cheese.  Thanks to our friend Michele for that recipe! Also enjoyed Jamie Oliver's suggesting with the swiss chard greens and sautéed them with garlic (as usual) but also added the fennel tops, celery leaves, chives, and even a little bit of romaine lettuce.  It was very yummy.

Lettuce, Spinach, and Fennel Salad

Hey Gardening crew out there... what are your favorite and most successful lettuces?  

Rule #14: Give it time

So first up is to announce that our 11 month old Mckinley is finally crawling!  This is big news in our house.  She is loving her new freedom and pulling up on everything now, including mommy's legs.  In other "give it time" news Larkyn has really started taking off with her fine motor skills. This has been more difficult for her as it doesn't seem that she has decided which hand is dominate. However she is very excited to use her scissors and doing well with it.

On to gardening news and Harvest Monday. For various reasons I have been unable to participate in Harvest Monday, but was bound and determined to add my name to the list today. If you don't already know, Harvest Monday is a chance to share what you are harvesting and see what others are harvesting around the world. It is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.  So to update on my gardening first, all the baby plants have been doing well and I have planted my Swiss Chard, Kale, and one Broccoli Rabe transplants in the garden this weekend.  Why only one Broccoli Rabe?  They are older seeds and that is the only one that came up.  I sowed the rest of the seeds in the garden this weekend, hoping for a few more.  I don't think I will start Swiss Chard inside again, they are delicate seedlings and I am not sure they will survive. The kale is a bit stronger so I may do that inside again next year. Saturday and Sunday (April 14 and 15) I sowed three types of lettuces, Tatsoi, Arugula, Peas,  four varieties of Green Beans, Broccoli Rabe, Spinach, Carrots, and Beets.  Now we wait to see how things come up. This year we used a locally created Leaf Grow to our garden. The compost was not ready, but hopefully we will use it in the fall or most likely next spring. This mix has proving very successful for my neighbors so I am hoping my seeds and plants do well. Recently I have harvested arugula, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, and my one fennel. Why only one?  I didn't plant that many in the fall and didn't  care for them very well since Mckinley was still very young.  This guy survived the winter outside of the hoop house!  I guess that wasn't too hard since it was a pretty mild winter. I plan on doing a lot more fennel this year. (Excuse the crazy Picture layout...haven't figured all that out and don't know when I'll get around to that!)

A surprise last bit of Endive I harvested a few weeks ago. These were a lot of work to clean so I am not sure that I will do the curly leaf Endive again!

Fennel

Swiss Chard

Lettuce

Close up of Fennel

Spinach making a come back

Can I crawl on this stuff?

Easter Egg Hunt

Chef Larkyn and Lella on Easter!

Rule #13: Sometimes you just have to be patient

A lesson for both parents and children. Haven't posted about the kids lately so this one is a "people" post!  Last week Mckinley started the "army crawl" using her legs as well, but not up on her knees. She has been a bit frustrated about not being able to do what she wants and we have been anxiously awaiting the first real crawl.  She has quite a strong personality and definitely keeps us on our toes.  Lately she has begun waving and handing me various objects that she picks up. We are quite surprised that she can actually get her little puffs out of the snack cup. She has also been saying "Da Da" for a while now, but now sometimes specifically calls John Da Da.  She has said it a couple times when he enters the room, but also says it for other things.  She also loves the /T/ sound.  First word?  I'm not calling it yet. Larkyn has been enjoying the warm weather and is able to climb and slide without hesitation. She is doing really well with the climbing stairs which are pretty large steps for her little legs! She is also still thrilled with going to school and continues to amaze us with funny little phrases, comments, and new skills. Recently she has begun hearing sounds within a word and pointing them out. She has been recognizing the beginning sounds in words and pointing that out for a while now, but recently told me that Rapunzel starts with a R and at P.  When I inquired she sounded out the word emphasizing the /R/ in the beginning and the /P/ in the middle. Then I understood and we talked about the fact that that was  a middle sound and continued to talk about the ending sound. Music to a reading teacher's ears!  We have all enjoyed the recent warm weather and are proud to say that all the garden beds are weed free and the new beds in front of the garden are on their way to being made. Wish I could have planted this weekend, but hopefully that will happen some time this week :)

Valentines Day 2012--Banana Grams for her teachers

Celebrating Read Across America Day--Oobleck!

Vino Bambino!

Forgot to post about Larkyn's first Letter in December!

Proud Girl!

Rule #12: Start Your Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant EARLY!

In the past years I have been so jealous to see the gardening stores have huge plants by May, so every year I have been starting my seeds earlier and earlier.  Last year we got some relatively inexpensive lights and I rigged them to a low plastic container if front of the basement window.  It worked out pretty well, but this year not only did we start a bit earlier (yay) but John rigged an even better lighting system in the same location (on Petey's dog crate).  Talk about DIY and use what you have! I love it.  The lights were a little higher than I would have liked, but they worked out fine so we just left them.  Please ignore the books in the back.  We are in the midst of reorganizing the basement.  Anyone want some old MLA or Holt Handbooks?????  So the 6 varieties of Tomatoes (Brandywine, Italian Heirloom, Gold Medal, Federle, San Marzano, and Cherry), Eggplants (Listada and Diamond), Peppers (Heavyweight, Healthy, Bull Nose, and Orange Bell), Basil, and Flat leaf Parsley were all started on February 23rd.  The next week I also made some newspaper pots for the Fuju Dawn flowers I ordered and Royal Carpet Alyssum flower seeds I have had for a few years.  Another new experiment was that I planted some Marigold seeds and Sensitive plant seeds in an egg carton.  We'll see how that goes!  The Sensitive plant seeds are very old, so I'm not sure that they will come up.  Today is officially Harvest Monday where you can check out what people around the world are growing at Daphne's Dandelions (on my blog list).  I am sprouting some mung beans and that's about all that is new this week.  I am not going to add anymore pics of the radicchio and arugula but they continue to be plentiful and producing for us. Guess planting almost 100 will do for us and last the whole winter.  Many of the plants are on a second crop for us as I cut at the base of the plant and they sprout up again!  I am excited to potentially have a few newer types of Chicory, Swiss Chard and Tatsoi under the hoop house next winter.

The DIY Set Up!

Another Shot of the New Set Up!

Baby Tomatoes- March 5, 2012

Baby Tomatoes

Couldn't Resist Another Perspective!

The Newspaper and Egg Carton Pots (some baby plants are emerging).

Rule #11: Try to blog more than once a month!

So the last time I blogged it was Harvest Monday and I have pretty much been harvesting the same produce since then.  Radicchio, arugula, lettuce, and a little bit of spinach.  I am getting really excited about  my new gardening ventures this spring.  I am going to try to get all my seeds started indoors this week.  It was supposed to happen last week, but you all know how it goes.  Also I just got my new seeds from Seeds from Italy and Seed Savers Exchange yesterday.

New Seeds!

In the past month I have been continuing to force my Treviso Radicchio.  When my brother came and we cut them off he asked me why I didn't just add the root back into the water and see what happens.  It worked pretty well.  Some came back red and others sprouted in multiple places and were more yellow.

Second Forcing

Second Forcing

I used my little red Verona Radicchio and the Treviso to make Radicchio Pasta.  You just sauté onion (in butter and olive oil) and then add the chopped radicchio.  Cook for 15 minutes and then add white wine.  Let that evaporate, take it off the heat and add some heavy cream to your liking.  I probably use about 1/4 to 1/2 of a cup.  Be sure to remember salt and pepper and salt your pasta water.  Once the pasta is ready add it to the radicchio and then you can add some parmigiano reggiano.
.

Cutting the Treviso

Adding to the onions

Cooking down

Pasta!