Veggies for Dinner

Late Saturday night I decided to rearrange everything in the kitchen and dining rooms, which meant living in a disaster zone for most of Sunday.

Luckily, the garden delivered a delicious bounty for dinner. We pulled a quart of tomatos, another quart of okra and 6-7 green peppers.

We've been rotating between BLT's, fried or poached egg and tomato sandwiches, and bean tostadas these days.

We're enjoying fresh Chicken a la King Shirley, too. It's one of Brent's mom's classic recipes. The peppers are sauteed with leftover rotisserie chicken in a bit of EVOO and butter, then mixed with a can of cream of chicken soup. Served over toast it is a quick and easy comfort food on cool and rainy autumn evenings.

Every sandwich that comes out of the kitchen is accompanied by a pickle these days - either dill okra, sweet cucumber or garlic-dilled mixed veggie.

Dylan's favorite "food group" is fried okra, so we serve that up at least once a week. The okra has been producing like crazy, so we've been chopping and freezing it for gumbo this fall and winter - I can hardly wait for the first batch! Same with the green peppers for winter chili.

We love fresh tomatos, so I haven't canned too many 'maters, but I believe this week I'll need to oven roast a round or two...

Since the weather has cooled a bit and the house can use a bit of heat in the morning, I predict I'll bake up a batch of my cousin Charissa's granola. She serves it up fresh at Headwaters B&B in Gardner, MT, outside the North Gate of Yellowstone Park. For the recipe, check out her website at http://www.headwatersbandb.com/

Now it's off to finish reorganizing the kitchen. I was just so excited to post pics of our weekend veggies. Thank the Lord for providing, since my range was pretty much MIA today!

Happy to feel the rain

The garden and I are enjoying this gentle rain. However, for the kid's sake, I hope it clears up enough for fireworks.

I did a terrible job of staking my tomatoes and they've all toppled in one way or another. Hopefully I can remedy my mistakes with some rebar and fencing tomorrow.

Brent, Preston and Dylan dug up the last of the new potatoes yesterday, so I have an entire bed that can be resown - maybe we'll plant some peppers for pickling or salsa, they like the heat.

Watermelons and squashes are taking over the front garden, but the dog is the only one who's unhappy about it most days. Other days I find her chillin' in the shade of the bean teepee, but I can't quite seem to catch it on camera.

Here's a few cute pics of the kids enjoying the garden on the 3rd of July - Flippin set of fireworks at the park and had a little carnival/BBQ that the kids really enjoyed. The fire department hooks a giant sprinkler up to the fire hose - they loved that, but Margie's baby, Aidan, just was getting too hot, so we headed home for some extra sprinkler time.

Have a great fourth of July everybody!

Why I Love my Veggie Patch

Tonight I opened the fridge and found nothing to eat but leftover mushrooms and noodles, so Brent and I headed out to the garden with a bucket for sides - lo and behold, we had a feast in less than 45 minutes flat!

Tonight's favorite was fried summer squash and okra. I tossed it in a bit of melted butter than into dry Jiffy Cornbread mix and fried it in a pan with 1/8" canola and olive oil for a few minutes on each side. Steamed baby carrots and green beans were excellent with just a bit of kosher salt and black pepper. Add a few glasses of milk and some rolled deli turkey on the side -voila! One random, yummy meal complete!

We also found a bunch of green tomatos attached to broken limbs, so we brought those in, sprinkled them with a mix of salt, sugar, and tarragon plus a pinch of cayenne, then added herb vinegar over the top - they taste great now, hours later. They'll be so good on salad tomorrow!

Preston plans on picking the last of the potatoes for grilling tomorrow at our Fireworks BBQ - we found a yummy spinach salad recipe that has roasted potatoes and bacon "to serve on the side". He's such a little foodie!

Dylan is happy Donny and Marg will be bringing Jake for the grill, even though he's sure to only eat hot dog after hot dog after hot dog :)

I may have to transplant some of my perennials into the potato bed just so it doesn't look so bare - or maybe I'll move the few okra that are getting off to a slow start - they are dwarf, so the 2' raised beds won't make harvesting too tough.

I'll have to post a photo of our sunflowers. Each plant has 10-20 blooms sized between 8-24" and LOADED with yummy seeds for the birds. Also, we're up to 2 watermelons and 12-18 (now tiny) butternut squash. Once our cucs get going, they're bound to keep us busy for months.

So exciting! If these mild days continue, it will be much easier to spend time out in the veggie patch. Here's to hoping for continued bountiful harvests well into autumn.

Beginning Memorial Day weekend

Here are a few more pictures of the garden from today.

I love the fuzzy lamb's ears flowers - Preston and I discovered a few years ago that Native Indians used lamb's ears and native mullien as toilet paper cause it's so soft and absorbent.

My purple pansies have become variegated hiding under the brussels sprouts shade. I took a close up of the spots on the plant where I think the veggies will start sprouting soon.

The flower on the rocket (lettuce) is so cute and dainty.

Then there's the first squash flower of the season on a not-so-thriving plant hidden by potatoes.

We have a lot planned in the garden this weekend - the idea is that we'll frame it out with landscape timbers and fill it in with mulch by the end of the week. Time will tell....

Pinks in the veggie garden

Maybe I noticed pinks in the garden this morning because I've been thinking a lot about my neice Ally who had surgery yesterday. Her favorite color is "hot, bright pink". It seemed everywhere I looked shades of this gorgeous color were emerging.

The wild raspberries that crowd out weeds in the front garden are absolutely everywhere lately. The three roses in front of the veggie garden are attracting bees by the dozen. The cilantro, basil and parsley have burned a bit and the leaves have pinked up as well. The radish stalks are striped and the roots themselves are enormous since they've been in the dirt since early March. The phlox-looking plant is actually radishes that are going to seed. Even the rocket and endive have pretty shades of pink in their veins.

Good Day Sunshine!!!

I'm so proud to say I've risen early every morning this week and walked through the veggie and flower gardens. The snowpeas are producing like crazy although the vines that are turning out peas are tiny. This afternoon my neice Ally measured them and I was astonished to find the largest peas were 3" long and growing on vines only 15-18" when stretched. The pole beans will soon tower over the peas and leave them in the dust. I'm a thorough believer that peas should NOT be planted in enriched soil - all the seeds sown in "good dirt" are tall with few flowers and no pods. The ones planted in the clay are flourishing...

The tomatos and eggplants from Burpee are either not doing well or have disintigrated, but that may not be the grower's fault. I was so sick the days after I planted them and I tend to baby my new arrivals - can't say so much about the boys in the family. They water them, eventually....

Cannot wait to see the brussels sprouts start producing. I love the look of the plants - the color is gorgeous! The basil I seeded last week is finally raising it's little leaves. I can almost taste the pesto. I also think my second bed of greens will be large enough to cut soon, though I should spend the weekend transplanting. We'll see if that really happens...

The melons and pumpkins we planted in hills along my neighbor's fence are growing like gangbusters. These will be the kids favorites. I hope I've given them enough room to ramble.

Ally and Dylan enjoyed their teepee play area a lot this afternoon. They lugged pails and pails of water between the barrel and the sandbox, where Preston was "digging to China" AGAIN. They thought adding water would help them dig further. So cute. Honestly I would not be surprised if this was the bunch that figured out how to drill through the center of the earth :)

Aidan was such trouble today in the garden. Teasing, he fell asleep after being pushed in the stroller about ten feet. If every kid could be so difficult.

Here's to hoping Memorial Day weekend holds many quiet hours of weeding, picking and planting for this Flippin gardener.

Rotting in the Rain

My poor greens! Sunday at noon I ventured out to the garden to collect salad fare but found they had been attacked by slugs and rot. Luckily everything else seems to be thriving and joyful.

I spent a few hours enjoying the gentle rain while harvesting, trimming, discarding, protecting, and moving plants in the greenbed. A lot of rocket and endive had to be sacrificed to the alley for the rabbits. Some of the leaf lettuce was too soft to keep, too. Leaving it for three days caused some of it to bolt - I've only had problems with that in the heat, never because I had so much I didn't need to harvest continuously. I was able to collect two large shopping bags full, but when cleaned and trimmed wound up with much less.

I moved around some radishes that had grown too large to harvest. I'll use them for pest prevention around the garden. Leaving them to flower helps deter pests both under and over ground. I need to sow more onions sporadically as well for the same reason, but cannot find my stash of bulbs. The green onions have been excellent this year!

The brussels sprouts are starting to crowd each other, so I began the slow process of moving every other plant to the front garden. We'll have to see how that goes, they may be too large to move already.

I removed the redneck hothouses from the tomatoes. All the rain and rot I found today makes me worry that they will get a disease. I used the lower portion of the gallon jugs I cut off earlier to make a protective cover around the stems (see figure 2). Then I added the old tomato cages around the front row of maters. I'll do a taller rebar fence for the ones in back. My plan is too keep the front row smaller in an attempt at creating bushier plants. I'll let the ones in back ramble a bit more. We'll see which produces more fruit, since they're all the same cultivar.

I planted the last 6-pack of Preston's tomatoes in the front garden. I think they are the cherry tomatoes, but will not know for a few weeks. I left lots of room for Burpee's plants which should arrive any day. Four more tomatoes and that bed will be pretty full, except for basil edging. We have not added our compost pile yet, so I'm using a trench system in the middle of the front garden bed to deposit kitchen scraps, shredded paper, etc.

People keep driving by, slowing down and telling me to go inside. They're saying, "don't you know it's raining?" These are my favorite days to mull around the garden. You can really smell the differences in each plant, you don't get a sunburn, and, if you set out a bowl, God will fill it with rain which creates an instant sink for handwashing. Roses always smell the very best when it's raining, so I make a few trips around the yard to enjoy their different scents, teacup in hand.

I do enjoy life's simple pleasures. I also love watching the worms wriggle in that top layer of dirt. Now, if they'd stop generating so much at the dam, we could head down to the river for a bit of fishing...

I am learning a lot about salad greens this season. The main thing: my husband hates rocket (arugula). He helped me clean the harvest today, and tried each leaf until he found the offender. Arugula will forevermore be planted elsewhere. We're such opposites. It's my favorite. Not only does it remind me of my London trip (everything is served with rocket), but it's peppery zip is perfect for piling fresh on a plate under creamy pastas and risottos. My favorite rainy day dish.

I cannot finish this post without sending a shout out to the San Diego Hat Co. Yesterday I found a true treasure. The greatest garden hat ever to grace my head. It is made of 84 percent paper and actually fits my giant melon loosely and comfortably. It's just wide enough to keep my shoulders dry in the rain, and (I'm assuming) to keep my face shaded in the sunshine. I believe I've found my new gardening companion for all time.