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Inspire Me Thursday - Polka dots

Polka dots for Inspire Me Thursday.

Garden update -July

Haven't been able to spend as much time as I'd hoped in the garden this summer, so the jungle just keeps growing.   Guess it's been a saving grace that's it's been cooler than normal.  Today was the first heavy watering for the year. I'd say that's about a month behind normal. 

Here's a summary:   

Raspberries: 34 cups and counting. I'm freezing, canning, and munching away.

Snap peas:  4 1/2 pounds plus what's still on the vine.  I'm trying to dry some of the pods for my own seed or to try as a dried pea. 

Blueberries:  Just started picking.  Probably won't measure 'cause they keep getting eaten before they make it to the kitchen!  I do have the best crop I've ever had.

Lettuce:  I'm getting closer to growing just the amount that I can eat, but still not quite there yet.

Potatoes:  Trying very hard to leave them alone so that they will store better.  What's been harvested was very good. 

Strawberries:  Just a few handfuls from the strawberry pot.  I splurged and bought a flat to make jam.  Replanting a strawberry bed next year is definitely on the "to-do" list.

Fennel:  Wish I liked eating it better.

Beans:  Found the first three  2 1/2 inch  beans.  It's a shelling variety, so not ready to eat.

Tomatoes:  Finally setting fruit!  Just teeny-tiny still.

Yellow Transparent Apples:  Not ready to harvest yet.  Usually they are ready around July 4th for an apple pie.  Maybe by August?

Quince:  The second season in the garden, the first fruit.  Just one. 

Squash:  Buds starting to form.  Maybe they will bloom this week?

Cukes:  Looking good, no blossoms yet.

Sweet Potatoes:  Well, they finally looking healthy.  Not counting on having anything though.

Cabbage:  2 plants are starting to form heads.  More starts to go in the ground for a fall/winter crop.  Also swiss chard, kale, and cauliflower.  Slugs/snails have done a lot of damage in this part of the garden.

Grapes:  Growing like mad.  Keeping fingers crossed. 

I know there's more growing out there, but that's it for now!

Inspire Me Thursday - Healing

The theme this week for Inspire Me Thursday is "Healing." This goes so many ways for me right now.  From someone who has had an injury healing, to emotional healing, to the healing of our society, culture, and  environment.  This is where I ended up....

I've been looking at this house for over a year now.  About a month ago there started to be signs that someone was working on it.  It looks like someone is either salvaging it slowly or is going to try to rebuild from some part of the house. As I was walking by the house the other day I decided that I really needed to get a picture.  That's when I noticed the "one way" sign in front of the house and for some reason it hit my funny bone.  It made me think about times when there really is only one way to go, and times when one way of doing something is a choice.  This makes perfect sense to me when it's time to think about the healing process. 

Prayer Flags-or some such project

Something that I've been interested in is prayer flags.  I love the idea of a prayer that blows in the wind.  I've been thinking about ways to make my own set and to make them meaningful to me.  What I've decided to do is create flags to represent various goals.

This is a quick sketch for an idea for the first one that I want to do.  I'm going to make a mobile with two glass bottles that could be used as vases.  I'll take a picture, tweak it with filters and add text, and then print it or transfer it on to fabric.  I'm hoping to finish the set by the end of summer.

Some of the goals/ ideas I have are:

balance
live in the moment
question
connect
simplify
be prepared
work with what you have
let go

Eating from the garden and the pantry

From the garden:  strawberries, sour cherries, lettuce, peas, and the first of the potatoes.

Local:  eggs (Mom and Dad), honey, hazelnuts, beef, butter, and flour (Pacific Northwest wheat and ground locally).  The pottery is pretty much  local too. 

The bread is Brioche dough that I fried.  What a yummy way to use up eggs.   I froze some of the dough so more can be made....

Ate some of the cherries on locally made ice cream. 

Time to get back to work!

My horoscope for last week suggests doing some smashing of beliefs and expectations I've held.  Hmm....that could hurt. 

I've actually been doing a lot of reflecting over the last month on what I feel is important, what I value.  Still trying to figure out how to express what I'm thinking.   

One thing I am sure of is that although I think we need to prepare for the future, for a different way of living as the resources available to us change, it's still important to live in the moment.

Watering the garden, one can at a time

My corner of the world is approaching our drought season.  About two to three months of little rain fall.  Over the last couple years I’ve been experimenting with how much water the garden really needs.  I try to reserve water for new shrubs and perennials that have been planted the current year, plants in containers, and vegetables/fruits that need water to grow. 

One thing I’ve realized is that some vegetables need a lot less water than thought.  Last year the peas produced a reasonable crop without putting water on them once (other than rain).  The year before I grew a patch of cherry tomatoes that weren’t watered after July.    Those plants produced just about as well as the ones that were watered. 

This year’s experiment is shell beans (“Dragon tongue).  They will be watered by hand and I am measuring how much water I use.  I want to see how much rainwater would have to be stored to have a crop.  I watered them for the first time yesterday-1 gallon. 

Eating from the garden: rose petals as flavoring

I've been wanting to experiment with rose petals as a flavoring for food for quite some time and finally got a chance.

The roses used were from a heirloom cabbage rose.   I've tried two different things.

My first experiment was to make a rose cream custard.  I used a recipe from an old magazine I had.  Probably any pudding type recipe would work.  The rose petals were infused in the milk mixture, strained out, and then the rest of the ingredients added.  All ingredients for this were local, except for some sugar.

The results?  Well, it's a little rich to eat much of.  That might be the results of the custard recipe (6 egg yolks). Rose flavored custard  would be nice for a tea party.   

Since I wasn't having a tea party, I did have to decide what to do with a couple servings.  Here's where I got results that I really liked-the custard went into a smoothie.  The one picture is actually a raspberry smoothie (last year's raspberries-cleaning out the freezer).  For the rose custard smoothie I used 1 cup of plain yogurt, a cup of the custard and 1 strawberry.  Very tasty.  Especially the second smoothie made.  After making the first smoothie, I froze the rest of the custard.  Freezing the custard made a better texture. 

My second rose petal experiment is steeping in the refrigerator.  I'm making rose infused white wine.  I'm going to use some of it in some type of recipe as a replacement for vanilla.  I'll probably start with a butter cookie of some sort.  It would probably have worked better if I had used vodka instead of white wine, but I wasn't going to make it to the store the night I got started on this project.   More on this experiment later.   

Garden update for the end of June

It's been one of the coldest springs on record this year and the garden is showing it. 

Picked my first couple of strawberries this week.

Starting to have tomatoes bloom, nothing is setting fruit. 

Lettuce, kale and peas are doing great.

Cucumbers, squash and beans are just getting started. 

Sweet potatoes are looking rather pathetic. 

Rugosa and old fashioned roses look great. 

Slugs are having a feast....  Especially with the winter squash and the cabbage starts. 

Potatoes are doing very well, especially the ones in the trash can.  Might go looking for some "baby"  potatoes next weekend.

And, of course, the weeds are taking over. 

Finding peace: The Koi pond.

I think there is a need to cut back on "decorating," both in our homes and gardens.  Particularly if those "things" don't have meaning past what image they present.  But there is a place and a need for things that feed the soul...

Added June 27th:  I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately and wanted to add that I don't think there is anything wrong with embellishing our homes and our lives (I am guilty of a lot of embellishment in my home, some would call it clutter.).  It's just that it should reflect who we are and be thoughtful in terms of how it impacts the environment.  So much of "decorating" seems to be be more about having what is popular at the moment.