Food Garden Friday - Fruits and Veggies

This update took me a bit by surprise. It seems I simply turn my back for a moment and food is sprouting up everywhere! These peppers from my salsa garden came up quickly and they're pretty big so I'll need to pick them soon. I also noticed quite a bit of growth on my Boston Cucumber plant - so much more than last year, it's quite a relief. 

My berries are still growing like crazy! If I'm not out there picking a bowl daily, they'll go to waste. It's a good thing I like snacking on berries. Oh! I also found a few tomatoes here and there among the multiple plants I have.

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Homegrown, Homemade - Fresh Berry Topper

This morning I picked quite a bunch of berries in preparation for a visit from my granddaughter and her husband. She planned to bring over a chocolate cake which I thought would go great with vanilla bean ice cream and fresh berries.

And you know what? It did! What a wonderful desert we had.

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Food Garden Friday - Buncha Berries

Here's an update on an area of my yard that has an array of berries growing. They are already delicious, I've already picked quite a few.

Worth noting is the fact that, while the seeds I purchased claimed 'thornless', my eyes do not deceive me or you, since this video clearly shows thorns all up and down this plant! 

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Challenge Accepted - Great Garden Experiment, Update 1

It's time to report on my success in the Great Garden Experiment Challenge. Carrots are sprouting! The seeds in the container are doing great and I'm even seeing life from the seeds in the ground, planted in my new raised flower bed. I am grateful for the heavy rain we've been getting here in Southern California.

I'm having a little more trouble with the Three Sisters method since I can't tell what is a bean sprout and what is marigold, but I'm confident that in just a few weeks I'll be able to figure it out and hopefully see even more growth. I'm pleased that the corn is showing the most growth. Again, thank the heavens for all this rain!

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Food Garden Friday - April Showers

Unfortunately my carrot and brussel sprouts are showing no signs of life, but the rest of this area is doing quite well, especially the radish. I've never been a huge fan of radish but I have read about a radish soup which I am ready to research and try.

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Homegrown, Homemade: Okroshka Twist

According to Wikipedia, Okroshka is a traditional Russian cold soup that can be prepared many different ways. It mostly consists of vegetables which is why I thought it'd be a good recipe to try with fresh finds in my garden. I used radish and green onion picked that very morning from my own yard.

In addition, I purchased the rest of the ingredients at the local market. I did some searching online for recipes and picked a little from here, a little from there. My soup will not be traditional since I don't have access to the traditional ingredients, but here is what I ended up using.

Okroshka

5 radish, diced

1 cucumber, skinned and diced

2 green onions, diced

8oz cooked ham, diced

2 russet potatoes, diced

2 hard boiled eggs, diced

2 sprigs dill

2 cups sour cream

2 cups mineral water

salt to taste

I know traditionally the only thing in this soup that is cooked is the egg and meat, but I really do not like raw radish or onion, so I threw them in the frying pan with the potatoes to cook them down as I boiled the eggs. Let everything cool.

The sour cream and mineral water were then mixed and all other ingredients tossed in. Chill for 1-2 hours before serving. For the pleasure of my own taste buds, I added a dash of red pepper chili flakes.

This soup was surprisingly good considering the "broth" is mineral water and sour cream (which I honestly had very little faith in). This would be a wonderful Summer dish and I plan to make it again, this time with homegrown cucumbers and dill since they'll be ready by then.

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Food Garden Friday - In Go The Tomatoes

Just a little look at my container with Boston cucumbers and a container with brussel sprouts I planted from seed a while back. I also planted seeds in the ground of black cherry tomatoes, Amy's Apricot tomatoes and some rainbow carrots.

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Food Garden Friday - Springing The Heat

This week's feature in my food garden is this large container. There are a few purple viola on either side in the front and some yellow and purple snapdragons on either side in the rear, the cost of these flowers were less than a $1 since I purchased them in 6 packs at Lowe's. There is also cilantro, Ancho Pepper and radish which, when paired with tomatoes and onions that I'm growing elsewhere in my garden, will make up a very nice salsa.

These little sprouts are the radish making their way up. They're so cute when they're young. The grass clippings are here to hopefully keep the moisture in. Spring has just begun, but here in California, when the sun is out, it gets hot pretty quick.

These three characters are taking a trip down the lazy river in their make-shift leaf boats. I wonder if they're training for anything? I know last Summer they had a race - I wonder if they're up for it again this year?

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Food Garden Friday - New and Resurfacing

Here's a bit of an update on my Food Garden. I still have some cleaning up to do but I wanted to show the Poppies that have reseeded that will help me establish my Food Forest, as well as the new plants I put in. And stick around til the end of the video when I reveal my new contest through YouTube.

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Food Garden Friday - Rough Around the Edges

As I've said many times over the last few months, Southern California has received quite a bit of rain - much more than usual. This is absolutely wonderful for my garden but coupled with recovering from my surgery, I haven't been able to keep up with it!

Oh my, what a mess! There's so much over grown, dead and alive and so little time! However, now is the time I return to my garden. The dead things need to be removed, the live things need to be tamed and there needs to be some method to this madness!

The photos above are of the same area. The left is when I first created the area and planted so many lovely edible greens for salads back in January of 2018. The photo on the right shows what has died (they lived fulfilling lives) and also plants that reseeded themselves because I did not plant anything new in this area. As you can see, the swiss chard is thriving! I actually cooked up some of it for breakfast a few days ago and it was delicious - much better taste cooked than raw!

My plans for the food garden this year are to expand the area to include the many seeds I received from my Seed Bank Box subscription that weren't able to make it into the ground last year. I hope to share more of my home-made, home-grown recipes as well!

What are you planting in your garden this year? I'd love to hear about it.

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Food Garden Friday - Healthy Breakfast

It's Friday and time for an update of my food garden! I used some leftover greens from my garden and some from my fridge to make myself a quick, healthy breakfast.

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Food Garden - A Fast Fix

The idea for this project was found on YouTube and I decided that I wanted to try for myself. I began with a bag of potting mix and used the bag itself as a container.

To begin, I punctured drainage into the bottom side of the bag and then flipped it over to cut a flap in the top (leaving a few inches of plastic on either side) to create a contained garden.

I decided to plant these radish seeds I received from a Seed Bank Box delivery and these interesting looking carrot that caught my eye during a visit to a local nursery.

Once planted, the soil is covered in grass clippings as this has been working well for me in the rest of my garden. Hoping to have an update soon.

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A Pop of Yellow

This lawn decor was purchased from 99 cent store. I bought it as a pair but did not like the black finish it came with. I decided it would look better in my garden with a coat of yellow, the same way I did my garden path a while back.

This photo shows the most recent appearance of them in the blog. They've been reused many times and remain in the garden without needing to be repainted.

They've been seen in my garden as far back as February.

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Food Garden - Fall/Winter 2018

(L-R) Dragon Tongue beans, Green Arrow peas, Blue Lake beans, Oregon Sugar Pod peas.

Blue Lake bean being planted.

Left: Dragon Tongue began to sprout a week later. I also planted Royal Burgundy beans to the right of them but they weren't showing signs of growth. I decided to pop in a few more seeds, this time I disregarded the instructions that said to soak them before planting. Whether that was the factor that caused them to grow, I do not know, but they finally showed growth a week later.

You can see a bean sprout popping up on the bottom here. These popped up in less than a week and I didn't soak these beans before planting, so I think I'm not going to worry about that step with beans in the future.

And here is the newest photo of the Burgundy bean sprout taken this morning. Quite a start.

Oregon Sugar Pod peas have done quite well. They look very similar to snow peas in the photo on the seed package so I'm hoping they taste similar because I love those.

Top row: Bibb lettuce, looseleaf lettuce blend, red and green Romain blend. Bottom row: Brussel sprouts, Black Seeded Simpson lettuce and Buttercrunch. I also purchased some garden labels to help keep track of what is where and they've proven to be very helpful.

I planted my Gold Mighty Mustard in this container which was already housing a sweet Lilac bell pepper which I purchased as a tiny plant at the Green Scene Expo back in April.

This is how the purple bell pepper looked in April. I've read on the internet that many people have had problems with bell peppers coming through this year, so at least I know I'm not alone. 

Not long after planting the mustard, I noticed tons of plants popping up. I was so surprised and confused until I thought on it a bit and realized these are not all mustard sprouts. After a little more time (and a bit of a taste), I could tell the difference between the mustard seedlings and what I've determined are radish sprouts, reviving themselves from Spring. A tiny snail managed to sneak into this photo, on the right  rim of the container.

I've also put these seeds in a container but they're slow to grow, so no progress pictures yet.

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Food Garden - Cucumbers

This month's food garden spotlight is on cucumbers. I planted 4 varieties this year, one of which was just a basic cucumber from Home Depot.

The lemon cucumber does not share the flavor of it's name-sake's fruit, but it does share the visual resemblance. This cucumber is round, the yellow skin is thin and the flavor is more mild than most cucumbers. If you find yourself eating only half a cucumber at a time, putting the remainder in the fridge (and possibly forgetting about it), this smaller fruit is a good alternative for you. Bonnie suggests on their website to hollow out this fruit for a cold soup as a Summer appetizer!

The Boston pickling cucumber is also a good option for small cucumber portions and are a great size for home pickling! My granddaughter loves pickles so this will allow her the opportunity to try her hand at it.

The Parisian cucumber is also great for pickling due to it's size and thick flesh and has fewer seeds than regular cucumbers.

Cucumbers like to grow up so providing them a cage or fence to cling on to is a good idea. These red and blue supports are aiding the growth of my cucumbers. Look at those sweet yellow flowers.

One of the first cucumbers yielded.

Long and strong, did you know some cucumbers grow with little thorns on the skin? The things you learn when growing in your own garden. The lemon cucumber also had little spikes, so always investigate your harvest to see how best to prepare it.

Here is my first harvest! Be sure to wash and skin cucumbers that have rough skin. Have you grown any cucumbers in your garden? I'd love to see your harvest!

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First Salad Harvest of 2018

Last month we took a look at the beginning of my food garden, specifically the area where I started my salad garden. This was how the main area looked back in February. 

These young cherry tomatoes grew quickly and have been thriving (unlike some other plants).

By April, my salad garden had filled out significantly, including the cinder block area and three separate pots for leafy greens.

When it came to harvesting the salad, I just couldn't keep up! My granddaughter would come over once or twice a week for a full bag of salad but could have easily made an extra trip each week at the rate my garden was replenishing!

This full salad is made from butter lettuce, red romaine and cherry tomatoes, all from my very own back yard!

These baby carrots are also from my garden - very few grew but they were delicious. Unfortunately the heat of June killed off all the leafy greens (the spinach held on the longest). The tomato and carrots are still holding strong thankfully.

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