Mail Order Gardening

In the past, when I had fewer children and wasn't officially homeschooling, I started my entire garden from seeds.  I had flats of tomatoes and peppers, yogurt cups with pansy and snapdragon starts.  I spent hours up-potting the starts and my basement living area with the big picture window looked like a messy greenhouse.  I passed out the extra starts to friends and packed some up to deliver to family in Oregon.  Trips down south saw the cup holders in my vehicle filled with baby tomato and viola plants. 

O.K., I am so over growing everything from scratch.  For the second year in a row, I ordered my tomato and pepper plants from Territorial.  I feel a little bad.  Like I am cheating.  But also relieved.  The plants seemed to have magically appeared.  Handed to me by the friendly Fed-Ex driver. 

But why do I need to order them?  Can't I just get them from a local store or nursery?  It turns out it's not that simple.  The garden stores near me do not sell the varieties that I want to grow.  For some reason, they are still stocking the full size long season beefsteak tomatoes, which I know have little chance of ripening in our chilly summer nights.  They may offer some cherry tomatoes, but only indeterminate varieties, which is fine but too many of those would overtake my small space.  They do offer Oregon Spring, but I'd like a little more variety to choose from. Or they offer the hot peppers, which I do not want to eat, or full size, which would take a lot of care to get to ripen before summer's end.  So I spend some late winter days deciding which varieties from Territorial I want to try for the year.  This year, I ordered one each of the following:

Tomatoes

Glacier Tomato

Northern Delight Tomato

Stupice Tomato

Sweet Million Cherry Tomato

Golden Honey Bunch Grape Tomato

Pepper

Miniature Red Pepper

Once out of the box, the plants are a bit wilted and look sad.

So I place them in the sun, give them water, and wait.

I have since potted these new plants in larger containers with potting soil and a bit of Whitney Farms Tomato & Vegetable fertilizer.  They are downstairs near that big picture window.  It's a neat and tidy greenhouse this year.  I'm sure they will be staying inside through May, though I will put them out on mild days to begin hardening them off for their eventual transplant to the great outdoors. 

Drying Chives

As I have mentioned previously, I have an abundance of chives growing out in the vegetable garden.  I have, apparently, over-planted!  With a surprisingly dry afternoon, a baby napping, and one child at the hardware store with husband, I found an opportunity to begin to harvest the chives.

I began mostly to give the asparagus some breathing room, as the chives have been encroaching on their space.  Once I had a healthy pile of pulled plants, I decided I could not just let them go to waste.  With baby awake from nap, I had to return to duty.  But later this afternoon, husband took a break from his project in the garage to relieve me from baby care.  I snuck off to the kitchen and began rinsing and trimming the chives.  Brought up the food dryer.  At this time, eldest child found me and asked to help.  In a few minutes time, we had the chives clean, trimmed and in the dryer.  All four layers are full!  I trimmed off the tough areas that grow close to the ground and cut just so the stems fit in the dryer.  I plan to chop them up after they dry.  I was afraid that if I chopped them up before drying them, they would begin to just fly around in the dryer.  So now, at 95 degrees F in my Nesco food dehydrater, the chives are drying.  Out on the veranda, to keep the house from smelling like onions.   The drying guide says it should take 20-24 hours to get them dry. 

If the drying works out, I may package some up to pass out around Christmas time.   There are so many more huge bunches of chives out in that garden to deal with!

Recipe: Gluten-Free Impossible Quiche

You don't have to make the crust for this one.  While not quite the same as a quiche with a crust, this is very good and you can just mix it up and pop it in the oven.  Go pull some weeds while it bakes.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups evaporated (canned) fat free milk
2/3 cup brown rice flour or gluten free baking mix
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp oil (canola)

About 2 cups of chopped vegetables.  I like to use any of the following: bell peppers, onions, broccoli, spinach (blanched), kale, Swiss chard (blanched), asparagus, tomato.  Whatever is available and liked by you.
About 1/2 cup sliced ham, optional.
1/2 cup shredded cheese, whatever you like.  Sometimes I use feta crumbles. 
Chopped chives for topping.

Directions:
Set oven to 350
Spray a 9 inch pie dish with oil.  Place desired vegetables and ham in bottom of the dish.
Mix the first 7 ingredients in a mixing bowl with a whisk until well blended.  Pour mixture over the vegetables and ham.  Sprinkle the mixture with cheese, if desired.  Bake 50-60 minutes, uncovered, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  Sprinkle with chives.  Let it cool a bit before eating.  I like it with a slice of gluten-free toast and a green salad if you want to get fancy.

We Planted Some Seeds

Last weekend was so warm and dry, I moved up my planting date by one week.  On Saturday, the two kids and I prepped the garden area with a fresh sprinkling of fertilizer and a good cover of compost.  With the two little helpers, I planted three square feet of loose leaf lettuce, 6 square cages worth of peas (shelling and snow), and three short rows of Swiss chard.  Our Easter lunch was our "impossible" gluten free quiche with ham, a bunch of freshly picked Swiss chard and two asparagus spears, right from our garden.

Last night was pretty exciting around here.  We found 5 asparagus spears ready to harvest.  One for each of us!  OK, so we made baby share his.  I sauteed the spears in peanut oil with a bit of salt, then added a sprinkle of brown sugar and cooked them until nice and caramelized.  The candied asparagus went over well with kids and adults alike.  The asparagus was a side to our basil pesto pasta with chicken, peas and broccoli.  The pesto was from the frozen basil cubes husband and I made last summer.

We will wait a while before planting any of the summer vegetables, but we do hope to see some lettuce or peas popping up soon.  There are several more asparagus spears growing out there.  I think I will start a tally to record exactly how much asparagus we can get this year.  Nine so far!

I Had Asparagus Last Night

Last night, there was still enough light after dinner to send the children outside to play.  After putting the baby down to bed, I had some time to play too.  I assigned the children to pulling weeds as I went about surveying the growth of the asparagus.  I found two spears tall enough to cut.  After getting the older two into bed, I set about stir frying my two lovely asparagus spears.  I remember when I first put the roots in the garden, I was questioning myself if I really wanted to plant something that would take so long to see results from.  The answer is, I am so glad I did. 

We have some new alpine strawberries scattered around the original strawberry patch.  They don't make all that much fruit, but what they do make, they spread throughout the spring, summer and fall.   I don't mind the kids picking whatever they want from the alpine strawberries.  I remember when preschooler was not yet two, he would go about the yard, saying, "zezez."  His way of saying strawberries.  It breaks a mother's heart that he now says, "strawberries."

I had the hardest time getting chives to start in my garden.  I think it took a few years before I could get any seeds to sprout, and even then the plants looked to tiny and useless.  Now they are abundant and I need to start thinning them out to make room for something else.  Unless I want to get a table at the farmer's market.  "Get your chives here folks!"

We harvested our over-wintered kale!  I steamed it, which may have not been the best way to go.  The kids didn't like it.  I forgot the soy sauce.  But we ate it up anyway.

The Swiss Chard is taking off again.  Lots of new growth.  It's going to go into my Easter quiche on Sunday.

Happy to Harvest!

What a joy to harvest an entire side dish right from my own little garden, in March!  Beets, pulled from the garden in the afternoon and roasted for the evening meal.   I planted these beets last summer and they had been sitting in the garden all winter.   Also, one shallot!

 How I roasted the beets:
I peeled them, cut off the leaves, and cut the larger ones into little chunks about the size of the smallest beets.  Then I got out a little ramekin and poured in about a Tablespoon of Colavita Balsamic Vinegar and maybe a teaspoon of canola oil.  Then a dash of salt and freshly ground pepper.  I whisked that up with a fork and then drizzled it on the beets and tossed it all together.  I had the oven preheated to 425 F and placed the seasoned beets in my little casserole dish.  I think it took about 45 minutes for them to finish.  I started checking them after about 25 minutes, poking them with a fork to know when they got tender, but it does take a while to roast beets.  Pretty yummy!

So, what drew me out to the garden yesterday?

I wasn't planning on harvesting anything.  This past weekend, I stopped in at the grocery store with preschooler for some last minute items and was lured by the June strawberry starts they had on sale.  Yes, how terrible to buy my plants at the grocery.  But I had the fleeting chance to be out among civilization and who knows the next time I could make it to the store without one baby strapped to me in a front pack and two hyper children pulling at the cart.  So, I bought the plants then and there.  Six Totem and five Hood starts.  It should have been six Hoods also but I was in such a hurry, I failed to notice that one cell was empty.  Oh well. 

So, the hyper children "helped" me hoe, spread compost and fertilizer, and finally plant the new strawberry starts.  Baby woke up from nap halfway through the process, causing me to dash out to the van for the stroller so I could strap him in and let him watch us finish our gardening before the rain started up. It was in the midst of preparing the strawberry plot that I noticed the beets, and in an effort to clear some space, I popped them out. 

Strawberries are in.  Beets are (mostly) out.  Compost bags are used up.  It's going to get busy around here. 

Winter's End

 Our sweet little crocus flowers are in full bloom now, tucked into the edges of the back yard where the children can discover them while at play. 

 The Witch Hazel tree along the back fence is also blooming and gives us a reason to head out on these cold days, across the lawn to smell it's strange yellow flowers. 

 I love this little row of crocuses out in front of the miniature daffodils I planted a few years back.  It is such a joy as a new gardener to see these multiply a bit more each year. 

 Preschooler convinced me to photograph his favorite plants in our yard, which happen to be toadstools growing among the moss.  Actually, most of our back yard is moss at the moment.  Something that doesn't bother us in the least.  It gives the kids a cushion when they fall.  Which happens.  A lot. 

Asparagus is growing, giving me a reason to get out there with some slug bait, and soon!  The asparagus is such a magical gift.  From a little bare spot in the garden, a delicious food suddenly appears.  No inedible leaves, no extra bits.  Just pure food, rising up out of the soil.  The whole family loves it, much to my surprise.  The children will actually ask for more!

So that is today in my garden.  

I am currently contemplating buying fresh strawberry plants, maybe a June bearer so we can get in a full harvest before that terrible new fruit fly wakes up for the summer and starts ruining our berries. 

Two years ago, I planted raspberry plants and last year was our first year to harvest.  Then that terrible fruit fly spotted wing drosophila attacked ruined my dreams of fully ripe raspberries being harvested from our garden.  We had a few good pickings before we discovered the larva in the berries.  I kept the news from the kids and let them continue picking at will when they were in the yard, but I stopped picking berries for our table.   

So now I wonder, do I just cut out the raspberries and grow beans there instead?   Do I give it another try and hope our freezes a few months ago took out the population of flies enough to give us a reasonable picking?   And so, that I why I am for the first time considering June bearing strawberries.  They would ripen before the spotted wing drosophila really woke up for the summer, as they like to breed at higher temperatures than we typically get in June.  We wouldn't have the fun of such an extended harvest, but we would have a better chance at unblemished fruit (I did find a few "larva" in our late summer strawberries last summer), and we could freeze or make jam with the extras.   Whatever I decide, it is always fun to study those seed and plant catalogs when it's still below 50 outside.