Tag Archives: Vegetables

Glimmers of Fall

Country Life, Gardens, , , , , , , ,
Dahlia

Fall will soon officially be here. I look forward to it and am enjoying the cooler weather and slower pace already. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the plethora of flowers and the bounty from the vegetable garden. But it is exhausting!

Assorted vegetables, that large tomato in the front is a pineapple tomato
Tomatoes, mostly Lemon Boy and Jet Star
Green beans, pole and Romano

There was not a lot of rain this summer which meant frequent watering. It takes me about an hour and a half if I water everything. Since we have begun composting and tilling it all back into the vegetable garden in the spring, our production has greatly increased. I pick about every third day and the three photos above show what I got in one picking three weeks ago when the garden was in full production. We went to one of the box stores and got a freezer this year. I am busily trying to fill it up. I’m certain I won’t have to buy green beans over the winter. I’ve also frozen zucchini and yellow squash, and bags of diced tomatoes for soups and sauces.

I always look forward to the first frost when I switch my time from gardening pursuits to hiking, baking, and extra reading. Autumn is my favorite hiking season. The leaves have turned to jewel tones as they hang from the branches and converge to make a colorful tapestry in the sky. The view as we drive home from the nearby park is spectacular as we look towards home. The park road is at the top of one hill, and we live at the top of the next hill. You can see trees in all their fall finery surrounding the reservoir of blue water in the span of land in between the hills. On a sunny day, it is enough to take my breath away!

With the cooler evening temperatures, I have begun enjoying a cup of tea as I read and relax in the evenings. I have a rather large collection of teas. Black teas, green teas, herbal teas. Each variety in assorted flavors. I order our vitamins from an on-line company that has good quality and prices. You have to reach a certain total to get free shipping, and I am usually just shy of the total. So, I throw a box of tea on, to reach the free shipping requirement. The tea and the shipping are nearly the same price so I may as well get the tea. Thus, I have amassed quite a collection! Black tea with peppermint, herbal peppermint, green tea with pear, apple cinnamon chamomile, to name a few. And we always have the old standby English Breakfast. I make sure to buy the ones that have each tea bag individually sealed, so my supply doesn’t get stale.

There are many things I like about fall, and these are just a few. I would be curious to know what you like about fall. Comment and let me know!

Books I Read in July 2023 (& some gardening thoughts)

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Flowers
Flowers in the garden.

This photo sums up a large part of the reason why I have been behind on posting my lists of books read. Watering, weeding, fertilizing, pruning and deadheading. That’s why. With this post I will be caught up. At least until the calendar flips at the end of the month. So follows my list of books read for July.

  1. Forever and a Day-Jill Shalvis

Grace Brooks arrives in Lucky Harbor to figure out what will make her life happy. Answering an accidental call from Dr. Josh Scott, she agrees to be the dog walker and then temporary nanny to his five year old son. Grace takes care of the son Toby and paraplegic sister Anna. Grace is there for Josh too. Some families are built rather than born and they are worth the work.

2. Send a Ranger-Tom Habecker (Non-fiction)

A summary of a 32 year career as a ranger serving the National Parks system. From Washington D.C. to Gettysburg, then Yosemite to Glacier to Denali National Park, it was quite a career. The book covers day to day functions such as maintenance, law enforcement, and rescues. The author also shared the beauty and grandeur of the scenery and wildlife.  It was interesting to hear what the life of a ranger is really like.

3. OMFG, Bees!-Matt Kracht (Non/fiction)

A hand-illustrated guide with everything you ever wanted to know about bees. The drawings are adorable and the information is presented in a lighthearted, funny way.

4. Ruby Spencer’s Whisky Year-Rochelle Bilow

Ruby quits her high-powered job and moves to Scotland for a year to write a cookbook. She rents a tiny cottage and helps with cooking at the adjacent local pub to help pay her rent. Ruby becomes part of the local community and feels that she has come home, especially after meeting a village Scotsman. It was fun being immersed in this bit of Scottish life.

5. The Café at Beach End-RaeAnne Thayer

Meredith Collins is trying to get her life in order after her ex-husband swindles many people out of their retirement savings. Most people feel she was involved even though she was as surprised as everyone else. Meredith moves from Chicago to a small beach cottage she inherited from her grandmother. It’s all she has left. Her estranged cousin Tori still lives nearby. Her undercover neighbor is looking for clues as to where Meredith’s ex-husband hid the money before he died in prison. Lots of storylines going on here. It made for an enjoyable read.

6. Subpar Parks-Amber Share (Non-fiction)

This book is humorous, informative, and has nice graphic art. Each of America’s National Parks has a chapter starting with the worst and most humorous review. Ie. Crater National Park,”Just something to look at and leave”. I think some people should just stay home. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned a lot about our parks.

Magazines:  Dogster, Cottages and Bungalows, The English Home, AARP, Country Living, Down East

Garden veggies
Yesterday’s vegetables!

This picture also illustrates the comment about why I am behind with posting my book lists and posting in general. I gave about half of these away to my daughter and mother-in-law. This evening, we are having sweet and sour eggplant with peppers and a few green beans served on Jasmine rice for dinner.

I keep four different varieties of rice on hand. Jasmine, brown Basmati, long grain, and short grain. They all have a different taste and texture that makes them preferable for different dishes. Sometimes, I buy long grain and wild rice too. Not bad for a girl whose only exposure to rice growing up was the occasional Minute Rice for our canned La Choy “Chinese food”. My tastes have expanded from when I was growing up and our winter vegetables consisted of canned corn, peas, or green beans. I don’t think our family was all that unusual for the times. The variety of foods that we have now were not as readily available then. At least not where I lived. This may be part of the reason I enjoy growing and cooking such a wide range of things now.

My friends, I hope you are enjoying the bounty of summer as well. Until next time…Peace be with you.

Books I Read in June 2023

Books & Reading, Gardens, , , ,
Reading a book is like taking your mind for a walk down a long path.

One day I will get caught up on posting my Books Read lists. Today is not that day, but here is the next one. Only one month behind now. In addition to watering and weeding, my days are now consumed with harvesting, cooking, and freezing. Not a bad thing. It was the desired end goal of all the watering and weeding. I am also searching things on-line like “Different Ways to Use Cucumbers”. We must have 30 pounds of cucumbers. The output is slowing down. Meanwhile, we have a plethora of cucumbers. I feel like George’s mother in Seinfeld. “What am I going to do with all this paella?” (Insert cucumbers for paella.) According to Pinterest, you can sauté and even bake cucumbers. If I get brave enough, we will find out how well this works.

On to my book list:

  1. The Sisters of Sea View-Julie Klassen

Sarah Summers and her sisters must find a way to make money if they want to keep their home. They begin taking in paying guests. One sister prefers a job reading to the disadvantaged. Her first assignment is reading to Major Hutton next door. The Major suffered military injuries and is not elderly as she expected. Between the boarders and other characters, there are many likable people in the book, and some are less so. The setting is Victorian England. An enjoyable story.

2. Afternoon Tea Is the New Happy Hour-Gail Greco (Cookbook)

This is a fun book. It has general information about tea and accessories. There are also fun recipes for various teas and foods to go with.

3. I’m So Effing Hungry-Amy Shah, MD (Non-fiction)

A book about why we crave what we crave and what to do about it. Useful and enlightening information. The answer isn’t just one thing, it’s many things from diet to 12 hour fasts, correct sleep, type of exercise, and circadian rhythms. Changes are explained through changes in various hunger hormones and studies are cited. As with anything, it’s not an all or none approach. I am of the opinion that if we learn one worthwhile thing from a book, it was worth our time.

4. The Plant Love Kitchen-Marisa Moore (Cookbook)

Information about transitioning to a plant based diet with small amounts of other foods. Good information and some interesting recipes.

5. Rescue Dogs-Sally Muir (Non-fiction)

This is a book featuring paintings of rescue dogs accompanied by a few sentences about the dogs. The dogs are from multiple countries, many from Britain. Lots of sight hounds and terriers. Very cute.

6. The Comfort Book-Matt Haig (Non-fiction)

This is a compilation of thoughts, ideas, and stories that Haig has recorded for himself to be used during difficult times. It is a wonderfully uplifting book. The words are also good input and inspiration for those who are not currently experiencing rough times. I think it could have also been called The Hope Book.

7. Forest Walking-Peter Wohlleben & Jane Billinghurst (Non-fiction)

This is a book about the life cycle of forests from the large to the microscopic. It also contains tips to make hiking more pleasurable. I spent my career working as an environmental scientist and still learned a lot from this book. Not the most exciting book I’ve ever read, but informative.

8. Under the Whispering Door-TJ Klune

A science fiction book that examines life and death. Wallace dies and is retrieved from his own funeral then delivered to a whimsical house. He is to spend time here until he is ready to cross over to what is next. Along the way, he builds loyalty to new friends and forms a family-worthy bond. Wallace transforms from a nasty man into a caring person before it is time to set off on his next phase. In this story, death is not the end. This book is awesome! It was slow to get going. At page 40, I didn’t know if I would finish it. By page 200 I couldn’t put it down.

9. The Stand-Stephen King (pages 500-749)

I should have included this on last month’s list, but I forgot. The book is well over 1,000 pages, so I’m reading it in installments. Between the fact that it is long, and I have to take breaks because it is depressing, it will take me a while to get through this one. Also, I had to return it to the library, so I will have to check it out again later. I am reading this one, because it is on so many “best of” lists.

Magazines:  Taste of Home (2 issues), Grit, Naturally, Danny Seo, The Seasonal Home

My number one recommendation from this month’s list? Under the Whispering Door! If you are not tolerant of books that do not have a Christian outlook, this book may not be for you. The fact that the main character is not Christian is only referenced a couple times, and the book has so much to offer, I think it is well worth the read.

Peace to you.

The Gardens Are Going into High Production!

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Monday’s Garden Bounty

This is what I harvested from our vegetable garden on Monday. Two beets, two types of cucumbers, and a Genovese zucchini. I planted the garden right after Memorial Day which is a little late for us. Everything above was planted from seed. There are a few vegetables we buy plants to put in since there are some things, I just do not have success with from seed. I needed to replant the squash as I think the crows ate the first round. This is the first year we have tried the Genovese squash. They are delicious. A little sweeter than the standard dark green ones.

Candy Striped Beets

The beet seeds I planted are from a specialty mix from Pinetree Gardens. I never know which beets I will have until they are near harvest since they are different types all thrown into one seed packet. I think this makes it more fun! Our first two beets were both of the striped variety which I also think is fun. They are a little milder than the dark red beets. Whatever the case, these two are gone. We ate them for supper that evening along with the greens. My husband and I both agree that beets greens are the best greens. I usually have so many greens that I boil them down to put in the freezer. They are a wonderful addition to soups, stews, and rice dishes in the cold winter months.

Wednesday’s Haul from the Garden

Output is picking up. I spent about an hour picking vegetables yesterday before I went to the grocery store to get away from the heat. I made a big batch of green beans, potatoes, and ham. We gave some green beans to the neighbors. I still had beans left and will be due to pick again tomorrow. That’s ok, I like to have some in the freezer. And folks, that is one day’s picking of cucumbers. I have made two batches of refrigerator pickles thus far with more on the horizon. We also have another crook neck squash that is ready. along with our first eggplant of the year. I don’t have good luck with the full-size eggplant. They take too long to mature. I planted the Japanese variety that are long and slender which do much better here.

Some of the garden vegetables are ready pretty much anytime we want to eat them. I just leave them in the garden until we want them. Green onions, cabbage, Swiss Chard, lettuce, arugula, beets, and turnips. They store better in the garden than in the refrigerator.

Peruvian Lily

And last but not least, I wanted to share a few flowers with you. The Peruvian Lily is a plant that we wintered over in an upstairs bedroom. It was sad and pitiful looking by the time we took it back outdoors in the late spring. It appears to be quite happy now and is covered with buds. We may try something different next winter. Rather than attempting to keep plants going through the winter, we want to try putting them in the basement and letting them go dormant. I will have to report back on how that goes. Hopefully it will not be a failed experiment.

Hollyhock

I get a kick out of this hollyhock. All of my hollyhocks had fungus or hollyhock rust for the past couple years, so I thought I was out of business with them. I planted them from seed several years ago. Now that we are several generations into production, they have started coming up in different beds and seem to have avoided the fungus this way. At least for now. This particular plant amuses me because it grew up beside our pear tree. And grew. And grew. Up into the leaves and out of sight. You could see the buds and flowers for a while. It finally bent over in its search for sunlight and now we can enjoy it. (By the way, the pear tree was called lefty for a long time because it only had branches on one side. Thank heavens it has filled in.)

Hydrangea

We have an entire bed full of hydrangea bushes and generally have many big heads of beautiful flowers. There are nine bushes in one raised bed. Well, my friends who comment on how everything always does wonderfully for us, this last photo is for you. Out of all those hydrangeas, this is the ONLY bloom we have this year! So, there you go, lol. Seriously, all gardeners have successes and failures. It’s a metaphor for life. Things don’t go right for anyone all the time. Make the most of your successes and promote those. I assume no one wants to see pictures of my plum trees riddled with Japanese beetle holes, or my stick of a rose plant with no blooms.

Peace to you, my friends.

Books I Read in May 2023

Books & Reading, Gardens, , , , ,
Canna lilies

Wow, I am really behind on sharing the books I have read. Gardening is all I can blame it on. That or I’ve been lazy and I sure don’t feel like I’ve been lazy. With the summer drought so far, watering takes up a significant portion of the morning. I have also run the small rototiller a few times to keep the weeds down. Now the vegetable plants are too big to get the tiller between the rows. We will have turnips, beets, cucumbers, zucchini, and green beans all ready soon. It’s a race to see which will be our first veggie to ripen! Anyway, without further ado, here is my list of books.

1. Be the Light that You Are-Debra Landwehr Engle

This book boasts ten simple ways to transform your world with love. Like any inspirational self-help type book, I found some ideas that were worthwhile and some that found me thinking “I do not agree with that at all”. I think that if I get one or two positive ideas from a book, then it was a good investment of my time in reading it.

2. The Confession Club-Elizabeth Berg

A group of ladies in a small town start a monthly supper club, it soon becomes a weekly confession club. No judgment, just listening and occasional advice. Lives change when people are accepted for who they are and the ladies become a source of emotional and hands on support for each other. Berg understands how to convey relationships.

3. The Embroidered Closet-Alexandra Stratkotter (Non-fiction)

A crafty book showing you how to enhance your wardrobe and bags with your own embroidery. Provides design templates and instructions. What a cute book! I think I would rather come up with my own designs but still these ideas are fun.

4. Feral: Losing Myself and Finding My Way in America-Emily Pennington (Non-fiction)

The author has saved up and quit her job to hike all of America’s National Parks. Shortly after she starts, the  Covid pandemic hits and she suffers a lengthy break up with her boyfriend. These tragedies play a big part of the story. The tales of hiking through the natural beauty are inspiring. And Emily has an impressive amount of experience and hiking skills. Complete with being able to climb a cliff of ice!

5. Big Dog, Small Dog-Selina McIntyre (Non-fiction)

This book is a nice blend of training techniques and anecdotes. I learned a few things and reviewed reviewed others which is always good.

Magazines: Mother Earth News

These books are all so different that I can’t really recommend one above the others. It depends what type of book you’re in the mood for. Enjoy!

The View from My Window

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View from my living room window.

This is the view from my window this morning. It is raining, so this is a day for indoor undertakings. I have laundry going. It is a light rain, so I am not worried about the extra water it adds for the sump pump. This also makes it blogging time.

The view out the living room window shows the top of the ancient azalea which is currently in peak bloom. At the far top of the photo are our burning bushes. We originally purchased six that were 10 inches high. The originals are now taller than me, a scant 5″4″. The oldest bushes are over 6 feet tall. All the other burning bushes in the line are offspring of the originals. They sprout in various places around our property. When they reach transplantable size, my husband moves them to the line of burning bushes along the edge of the road. This provides us a nice green screen from the passing cars and trucks in the warm months and once the leaves fall, they still act as a snow fence during the winter.

There is a new addition this year. We are in the process of fencing in our vegetable garden. If you look closely, you may see that the fence has three sides. We haven’t put up the fourth yet because we want to take the rototiller in one more time to mix in some new topsoil. Then we will install the last section. We are also going to have a gate. That is so shorties like me don’t have to hop over the fence!

We have had wild rabbits for years. They nibbled a few sprouts here and there but there was enough food for all of us. Last year the number of bunnies increased and some of them are huge. They did so much damage to the garden that we hardly had enough of several different types of vegetables to harvest. They especially liked the green beans. I replanted multiple times, but the tops got chewed off and we only had beans a few times. The sugar snap peas were a joke. Not surprisingly, bunnies love them. We only got a handful. So, this year, a fence it is! I also have to deal with crows eating the seeds I plant. Usually, replanting them once will take care of this. Since we will have the fence this year, I may hang some old CD’s or pie tins from the top wires and hope for the best.

I can tell you one thing. I have renewed respect for those who make their living as farmers. Putting up a little fence sounds so simple. Pound in some stakes, put up rolled fencing. Ha! It’s not cheap either. First you have to figure out which length of stakes you need and then how many. Same with the fencing. How high? What gauge? What spacing for the holes? Ok, you’re done with that. The rest is easy, right? Again, ha! You must measure and decide where to pound the stakes, so they are evenly spaced. And don’t forget to account for a gate. If you are off by two inches, you won’t have enough fence. Did you know you have to bury rabbit fencing, so they won’t dig under it? I didn’t. That means digging a trench for the fence and filling it in once the fence is up. Hanging the fence on the post will be easy now, I thought. Well, it still takes two people. One to hold the roll of fencing and keep it stretched tight. If you let it sag, it looks terrible and again, you won’t have enough fencing unless you bought extra. And those pesky little tabs on the stakes that are made to hold the wire? A lot of them are full of dried paint from the factory and you have to open them up with the flat blade of a screwdriver. Finally, we prevailed, hot, sweaty, and covered in dirt!

We are hoping for a good year in the vegetable garden. My husband took the Master Gardener course from the County Extension Office last year. We tested our soil and found that we were deficient in almost everything. Hubby has added nutrients, some topsoil, mulched leaves, and tilled them in. Time will tell how successful we were.

You can see in the photo that the near, right-hand side of the garden is grassy. That is where our asparagus patch is, so we can’t get the tiller in. I try to weed it in the spring, but it is hard to keep up with. Once we let the asparagus go for the season, it grows into beautiful, lacey fronds that outgrow any weeds. The garden is not exactly square anymore because the asparagus keeps moving farther out into the yard. I’m not quite sure what to do about this. If I dig it up and replant it back in the garden, I almost certainly will lose that portion of the asparagus crop for a year or two.

And so, on this rainy day I am happy to stay inside and work on other things. I am going for another cup of coffee, but I will leave you with this close up shot of our magnificent old azalea.

Our old azalea. Isn’t it glorious?

A Summer Garden Dinner

Cooking, Gardens, ,

Garden plate
Garden Plate

Late summer suppers are wonderful!

My meal this evening consisted of the following. The main entree was a fried green tomato sandwich with pine nut hummus and Lacey baby Swiss cheese on Asiago peppercorn bread from the bakery. My sides were all fried veggies from our garden. Some okra, a Japanese eggplant, and the obligatory zucchini. I did add a wedge of freshly sliced tomato too.

We go above and beyond on getting our daily allotted servings of vegetables in the summer. I haven’t bought vegetables from the grocery store in weeks. And we’ve been giving friends and family some of the excess which makes us popular.

We haven’t resorted to sneaking vegetables into strangers cars yet, but I can’t say I haven’t considered it!

Veggie Season

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It’s that time!

We get this many cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash every three days.

We also have more than sufficient amounts of green beans, Roma beans, turnips, snow peas, and tomatoes.

I am trying all kinds of new veggie recipes looking for some variety. We have had Mediterranean pickled turnips, Thai cucumbers, old fashioned refrigerator pickles, zucchini fritters, and all the usual standbys too.

We can only eat so much. Time to freeze veggies!

Abundance

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Vegetables in the garden are ripening at an increasing rate.

Each meal now we must make the choice between turnips, beets, Romano beans, Slenderette green beans, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, zucchini, or yellow crook neck squash. Sometimes we have multiple vegetables.

This evening it was green beans pan fried with minced garlic and a dash of sea salt.

And none of our six kinds of tomatoes are even ripe yet. Summer can be glorious.

Vegetable Garden Planting

Country Life, Gardens, ,

Icicle Radishes

We spent most of the day yesterday putting in our vegetable garden. We tilled one row and planted it with seeds for icicle radishes, turnips, and beets, less than a week ago. All of them are up already.

Yesterday morning hubby gave the rest of the garden it’s final tilling. I made hills and planted the cucumber, yellow crookneck squash, and zucchini seeds, while hubby planted green bean and Romano bean seeds.

We worked together planting four types of tomatoes that we purchased as plants. We chose lemon boy, Romas, pineapple, and Mr. Stripey varieties. Mr. Stripey is my all time favorite tomato. I search it out every year. It has the perfect, slightly sweet tomato flavor. Since it is a combination yellow and red tomato, it is lower in acid, but still has great flavor.

At this point, hubby had to go mow the yard before the rain set in. So, I finished up planting sugar snap pea, a mixture of lettuce, and spinach seeds. I watered all the vegetable plants after that. Hubby watered them again before dark.

I watered all again this morning, and mulched the tomatoes with grass clippings. Garden 2020 is off to a good start.

And then before coming in for the evening, the smell of the lilacs and lily-of-the-valley was so sweet, I had to bring a few sprigs inside so I could continue to enjoy them!

Lilac and Lily-of-the-Valley