Time to Start the Garden

No, really, it's not too early to get going again. We're almost out of vegetables from last year and it's really very sad. I've come to the conclusion that the supermarket, all supermarkets, kind of suck. Produce that ships over long distances just doesn't taste good. No wonder no one wants to eat their vegetables.

On the bright side some of my favorite things are also the earliest ones. Starting as soon as march I can be planting peas, chard, lettuce and spinach. I'll have to be careful if it's going to frost and run out there with some coverings but we had to do that last year and it's not much of a pain.

I finally finished cleaning out the basement over the winter and I decided this year to be a little more organized with seed starting. Flipping though seed catalogs after Christmas I kept seeing the most amazing looking lighted stands for plants. Of course amazing comes with a hefty price tag that it just was out of my budget. So I decided to make my own. I already had a couple 4 ft fluorescent lights so all I really needed was some kind of support shelving. I found a large free standing shelf on sale at the warehouse store and bonus it had a coupon. It was a mere $65 and it fit the lights perfectly. My Papa had a couple more lights he wasn't using in his basement so I slapped those fixtures in as well. I did have to buy bulbs but those aren't too pricey. For less than $100 bucks I now have a large and organized space to start all my plants.


I know I haven't blogged all winter but it's been incredibly busy around here. I do have a fast and dirty list of what's been going on around here since September.

Apple Picking
Making and Canning Apple Sauce, Apple Butter and Apple Cider Jelly
Making and Canning Cranberry Sauce
Christmas Knitting
My Niece Turned 4
Christmas with the Family
Snow
Teaching My Niece to Use the Big Toilet
Pet and Baby Sitting My Niece, 3 Cats and 2 Dogs all at Once
Getting a Pressure Canner for Running a Zoo for 3 Weeks
Splitting Half a Steer with My Sister
Pressure Canning Beef Stock
More Snow
Ordering Seeds
You Guessed It, More Snow
Valentine's Day
Ordering Seeds

Well that pretty much sums it all up.

Back on the Blog Wagon

At least I hope so. I've been brutally busy lately and at the end of the day all I want to do is plop on the couch and stare at the TV. This is not like me at all really and I think it's been the weather. I hate the muggy August weather and it drives my allergies to insane levels and I think it effects my sleep. Today it was warm, dry and lovely out and last night it was quite cool and I slept like a rock. Today I worked in the garden, made veggie lasagna from scratch and even threw together a peach caramel sauce for the ice cream we had for dessert.

So what have I been doing to be so busy? Mostly saving the garden from the ravages of the June and July weather. My sworn enemy is fungus. I'm finally on top of it now and now that it's almost gone the garden is back on track.

Even the hot peppers have managed to pull through and are growing like crazy. I hope they have enough time to fruit before the frost kills them. I may try bringing them inside if they're close come fall. While the grow lamp I keep for seed starting aren't anywhere near sunlight they might be enough to ripen up peppers that are close.

The CSA has been crazy the past couple weeks. I've given up on trying to photograph the whole share, it's far too much. So sis has been taking her half home and I've been managing to fit my half within the frame. The fruit shares have started and for two weeks it's been peaches and blueberries YUM.

Week 5

Week 6

I've also decided that a good place for my camera is in the basket where I keep my weeding tools. I've gotten a few really neat photos in the past week. That's all I can think of for now, hopefully I won't go so long between posts.

I haven't blogged because...

Yep almost two weeks and not a peep. Well, it's because stuff keeps pissing me off. Frankly, some of these people should suck moose balls, they deserve it for being one or more of the following ... stupid, liars, selfish, famewhores, deluded, vile, evil, and generally asshats.

Jessie and Ronnie from BB11. Totally turned me off my one guilty pleasure of reality TV. It's the rat turd review. Where do they find these people? I want to know where not to be, EVER. Don't try an tell me any of these idiots aren't like this in real life, if they were that good at acting they'd be getting academy awards not squatting on a set all summer for pennies.

President Obama. Seriously, blindly backing your buds is for frat boys and organized criminals not high elected officials. That shit belongs back in Chicago, you're in DC now, try to find your A game, you look like an idiot. Also, just like when you were 5 "I'm sorry" really does fix most things. Try it.

The weather. Specifically the god damned non-stop rain. I'm sick of battling the fungus and slugs now. My hosta leaves look like they're made out of lace and I swear I can hear "help me" from the zucchini at night.

My sister. She can't seem to drag her ass out of bed and be less than 2 hours late dropping of the baby. I got my ass up you an certainly manage to haul yours out of be before noon. Grow the hell up already.

People who proselytize door to door. Don't come in my yard means DON'T COME IN MY YARD! I got all the crazy I need already. Seriously, if you're religion was any fun you wouldn't need to sell it door to door. Last time I checked God was not a crappy vacuum cleaner.

People protesting outside women's health centers. Go the hell home! No one wants to f*ck you anyway so you really have zero to worry about. Before you go let me know when and where your next prostate exam is so I can show up and scream like a lunatic with a sandwich board. Don't act all offended when I give you the one fingered salute out the car window, have you seen the picture on that sign you're carrying?

There's more but I'd drone on forever if I kept going. It's not fun when all you run into for weeks is sucky people, making sucky decisions, imposing on my already sucky day. Blah.

Look Up It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No, It's

THE SUN!

It's still shining, has been for a week with only a couple showers at night. I'm amazed!

The plants are really starting to catch up now, lots of flowers and little tomatoes on the plants. The cucumbers have taken off like crazy and even the hot peppers are looking like they might pull through.

I picked a couple zucchini and a summer squash for dinner last night. Yummy.

We've had blueberries for over a week, at least a handful a day.

Finally it's week three for the CSA and it was a nice haul. There was kousa squash, zucchini, 2 kinds of lettuce, basil, shelling peas, a salad cucumber, scallions, a Chinese cabbage and a bunch of diakon.

CSA Week 2 and New Garden Photos

It's week 2 of the CSA and we got all kinds of goodies. There was hakurei turnips, radishes, lettuce, peas(shelling), scallions, zucchini, kousa squash, cilantro, cucumbers, chard, and purslane. The rain isn't messing up things too badly which is good.We had a couple sunny days in a row here, I know I couldn't believe it either, so I managed to get some new photos of the garden. The summer squash, zucchini and cukes all seem to be loving the weather the hot peppers not so much. Most of them seemed to perk up and bud some new leaves in the sunshine but now it's raining again so I'm not sure what will make it long enough to give us any fruit.
The blueberries are ripening and we've gotten about a handful a day for about a week now. Once they're gone I can take the bird netting off and let them be shrubs until the fall feeding. They're pretty low maintenance and I'm happy with the number of berries considering we just planted them this spring, of course next year they'll be more berries as long as I keep them happy this fall and winter.

The CSA started today!!!

FINALLY!!!!! We got zucchini, green leaf lettuce, chard, spinach, a salad cuke, radishes, cilantro, pea pods and garlic scapes.

We grilled up one of the zucchini and sauteed some of the radishes to go with the grilled chicken tonight. I also put a couple of the scapes in the food processor with a little salt and olive oil to mix into some plain rice. It was a very yummy dinner. Hubby and I both missed the CSA all winter.

Rain, Rain, Rain

There's less but still too much and no where near enough sun. We did get a little over the weekend and it was enough to perk up the plants. This morning when I went out to the garden there was a ton of male flowers on the squash plants so I decided to pick a few and make some brunch. A little leftover rice, herbs and ricotta cheese stuffed into the blossoms before they're dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried and ...... bingo! You have a nice little meal.