Under the Weather

Guilty as charged.  Last week I was out in short sleeves soaking in the warm spring air. I should have expected a big heavy snow storm especially since I was taking some days off from work to do some gardening.

Last night the overnight low was 29 degrees.  Luckily there wasn't anything in the barrels yet.

The row cover hoop house seems to have treated the hops, spinach, and strawberry transplants OK.
And as for the bed of root veg I planted last week...
Luckily no sprouts yet,so no harm done

My peach tree has been here since me moved in 5 years ago and appears to have taken the snowstorm in stride.

So all in all everything in our plant kingdom seems to have held up OK.  I think that it is mostly the humans who felt a little injured by the storm.

All hopped up

Aaah...Spring in Utah.  Its sort of a freeze, thaw, mud cycle around here. We're getting a little bit done outside in brief intervals of dry weather.  Last weekend we started some hop rhizomes in pots inside.  Hops are such amazing plants.  They grow exponentially.  Below demonstrates less than a 24 hour growth interval

Downstairs, things are getting crowded under the lights.  I'm hoping to get some of the bigger seedlings out under row cover if it ever decides to stop snowing.

Saturday afternoon, we dressed the raised beds and barrels with fresh compost.  It looks like really nice rich dirt, but Carson wouldn't take our word for it. He decided on a taste test.

If toddlers can taste properly balanced soil, its bound to be a good year!

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.