Trees!

Despite the stormy weather, 2 apples and an Italian plum arrived bare root in a tidy cardboard box last Wednesday night.  I came home from my late shift to this.

Amazing.  I did a little dance.  A couple of days later, Tyler dug some holes and we placed the trees per the included instructions from Trees of Antiquity.

I'm pretty excited about this.  Now all we need is some real spring weather.

Getting to Work

Its here, that time of year when we get warmer days and the soil warms up and dries out a bit.  If you have seed packets that say "as soon as soil can be worked," its game on friends.

I spent last Sunday cleaning up my strawberry patch, dividing up some runners and then laying a nice few inches of compost.  Thank goodness I had help hauling the bags from the car to the garden.

Inside the hoop, my spinach is up and looking happy.  My garlic is also coming up, always a good sign.

I'm sporting these pretty and so far very functional garden gloves that Tyler bought me for my birthday in January from Womanswork.

I've also got a big weekend ahead of me if the weather cooperates.  I ordered 3 fruit trees from Trees of Antiquity and they arrived today. More on that later.

They don't call it March Madness for nothing.  (OK, also... Go Huskies!!)

-JG

February Seedlings

Houston, we have lift off.

This is Kohlrabi.  Its a new one for me. Other brasicas that I have going right now also include Early Green Broccoli, Broccoli Rabe, Romanesco, and Cassius Cauliflower.  Right now, they sort of all look the same.

Also new to my repertoire, Celery.  Still small but appearing happy to me.

I've had mixed luck with onions so far.  The Cortland yellow onions and Southport Globe red onions seem to be starting well.  I've also got Lincoln and Scotland leeks, which seem to be coming up nicely.  I've got 2 varieties of heirloom Italian onions, Cipploa and Rossa di Milano which I'm having really low yield with.  Those seeds are older though, so I'll blame age.

Carson appears to be the greatest danger to my garden starts at the moment.  He is REALLY interested in getting his hands in the dirt.  I'm thinking about bolting my wire shelves to the wall.

-JG

Long Weekend In

5 years ago I would have told you that I spent my long weekend skiing, or ice climbing, or skiing to an ice climb...you get the picture.  This weekend, I cooked, read an entire book, cooked, ate, and OK I did go for a run so I'm not a complete shut in.
I made scratch marinara sauce.  This is one of those foods that I could probably eat in some way in a meal every day of the week if allowed.
I started with 1 quart and 1 pint of canned tomatoes from last year's garden.  You could of course use the equivalent amount of store bought canned tomatoes.

Then I chopped 1 white onion and 3 cloves of garlic and placed them into a pan with olive oil already hot on medium heat.  I cooked these until they were soft.

Then I emptied both jars of tomatoes on the blender for a quick pulse to break them up then poured the tomatoes in with 2 bay leaves and a sprig of thyme.

I let this cook on a simmer for 20 minutes until a little thickened then fished out the thyme and bay leaves and add a palm full of chopped parsley.

Stir this in, add salt and pepper to taste, and that's it.  This makes a bright, yummy marinara that can be dressed up with additional veggies or...

Made into spinach mushroom lasagna

Or just sauce up some spaghetti and eat it up.

Some home made focaccia bread for mopping up sauce would be nice.  You wouldn't want to leave any behind after all.

Want the specifics on these recipes?  Drop me a line and I'll get them posted.
Happy eating.
-JG

Oh, for the love of ... love

My boys, oh how I love you both.

In case you didn't know, Tyler does a lot of the cooking around here.  Its delicious.

Carson, he does a lot of the smiling around here.  It contagious.

I can't think of anything more sweet.  Happy Valentines day.

seed starting 101

While its gray outside and the air is unhealthy (this is a term posted by the air quality folks, not me) it would be easy to get a little down and depressed.  But wait, its late January, which means its time to start sprouting a spring garden from seed.  Here's how I do it.

Start with soil.  I find that a sterile seed starting mix with some compost added at about a 5:1 ratio works well.  Get this just moist enough that a handful barely holds together.

Spread soil evenly into starting trays with a liner below.  I like these called 6-cells.  There are 12 discrete 6-cells in this liner tray for a total of 72 potential sprouts.  I like to tamp down each individual square until just firm.  This helps to give a nice workable unit for transplanting later.

Make a small well in the middle of each square and drop seeds in.  Today I am starting the ones you see above (essentially brasicas and onions)  I like to cover each seed with just a little more soil the gently press so that you know the seed is being touched by soil on all sides.  I like to put at least 2 seeds into each square, playing the odds for best overall germination.  If both sprout, you just pinch one off later.
Once you get all of the seeds tucked in, label your trays and water well.  I like to try and keep my starts moist all the time but not drenched.

Now here is the part that gets tricky.  Some seeds need heat, some need light, some need dark then light, some need cold then warmth (really, just read your seed packets).  So you need to follow those directions to achieve sprouts.  This is a home made light set up in my basement with seed starting heat mats below.  I run this light for about 12 hours per day.  I prefer it for early starts like these because the days are still relatively short.  However...

Once the days get a little longer in the next 3-4 weeks I'll use the south facing window in my kitchen in place of the light for my next set of starts.  There is some controversy about whether this works, but here at 35 degrees latitude once its late February or later we get plenty of light for healthy seedlings without artificial light added.

Now, we wait.  In the meantime, I think I'll cook something.  I suspect that Carson is hoping for baked goods.

1-1-11

Happy New Year.  I'll admit, it kind of snuck up on me this year.  But polar bears don't lie, its time for a new calender.

 New Year also means new goals, resolutions, etc...
 It seems fortuitous that I have a 1 year old so I'm keeping it real this year and I'm going to try and reconnect with my inner 1 year old.

Take a little love from man's best friend

Appreciate the beautiful things right in my own backyard.

Run around outside, come rain, snow, or wind

 And make my little corner of the world a greener place one little leaf at a time.

Have a happy, healthy 2011.