Quote of the Day: Ralph Waldo Emmerson
For flowers that bloom about our feet;
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
For song of bird, and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’m so thankful that I’m starting to see color in the garden again.
What are you thankful for today?
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The First Spring Salad
On Thursday, when I was working outside, I harvested the first of the spinach that I overwintered in my hoop houses. It’s coming to life quite nicely this spring.
The leaves on the ‘Giant Winter’ that survived were huge. The leaves on the ‘Catalina’ were smaller, but there were more of them and the plants dealt with the cold best of the 2 varieties I planted.
I also harvested some dandelion and bitter cress greens to mix in with the spinach. We topped these lovely greens with: pastured smoked bacon, organic pastured eggs, caramelized organic onions, local organic raw milk blue cheese, and a maple vinaigrette made with some of our very own maple syrup.
It made for the perfect dinner, quick to make and delicious to eat! I’m looking forward to salad season, there’s definitely something cleansing about eating salads in the spring. It seems our bodies crave the greens and all the vitamins they provide after the long winter.
What’s your favorite salad green? Are you harvesting any from your garden yet?
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Friday Favorite: Spring Cleanup
There’s something especially exhilarating about spring cleanup in the garden. I think it has something to do with us Northerners being cooped up in our houses for the long dark months of winter. When we have a few nice warm sunny days, spring cleanup begins in the garden. I always wait until I know really hard freezes are over, as I’d hate to uncover my perennials only to have them freeze again on a cold night.
Yesterday was perfect, sun, blue skies, high around 60 – simply perfect. I spent the morning inside working and then made my way outside around 1 when it had warmed up and the sun was high in the sky. It sure was nice to feel the sun on my back as I cleared the leaves out of the flowerbeds, unwrapped the hydrangeas and weeded the raised beds.
I especially love peeling back the leaves that mulched the beds throughout the winter and seeing the soil teeming with life. I saw tons of spiders, worms, beetles, wooly bears, caterpillars, grubs and all sorts of creepy crawlies. I’m happy to see each and every one of them, including those giant wolf spiders, because I know each and every one of them, whether good or bad, plays an important role in my garden.
What’s your favorite garden chore in the spring?
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The First Tomato of 2011
I haven’t even begun to start most of my summer garden seeds yet. I do have the seedling area filled with onions, leeks, and celery. I start those very early in January so they’re ready to move outside when it’s time to start the peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage and other seeds. A week ago I started 5 seeds for ‘Sub-Arctic’ tomato. I like to start these early since they don’t seem to mind the cold weather.
I used to start my tomatoes super early, but last year I noticed that the ones I had spent hours carrying in and out of the basement, repotting and coddling didn’t fruit any faster than the ones that germinated in the soil outside when the time was right. My first tomato harvest was actually a volunteer that started on the front hillside. This year I’m going to be starting my tomatoes a little later than usual, that way I’ll spend less time repotting them and I can spend more time working in the garden.
I will be doing some experimenting with one variety of tomatoes. I’ll start a few seeds here in the next few days, a few in a couple weeks when I start all my tomatoes and I’ll direct sow a few seeds in the garden (all the same variety). It should be interesting to see how each one grows and produces. If the direct sown seeds do just as well I’ll plant all of my tomatoes that way in the future, that will sure save a lot of time and effort!
Are you doing anything differently this year in your edible garden? Have you started any of your tomato seeds?
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Rainy Days
I don’t know what it is about rainy days, but they always make me want to bake, especially this time of year when rainy days feel really cold. We’re having company this weekend so I wanted to get a few things baked and ready. I spent my day yesterday baking some whole grain cinnamon raisin bread from Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads. It’s super delicious. This bread will be made into French toast and smothered in our home made maple syrup. A batch of hamburger buns also came out of the oven, I used my tried and true recipe.
I also make some tart cherry cobbler with some cherries Mr Chiots picked this past summer and we stowed away in the freezer. During the summer it can be tough to take the time to freeze fruit, but it’s so worth it when you dig your spoon into a steaming bowl of cobbler. This recipe was from the newest cookbook added to my collection titled Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More
Rainy days aren’t just spent baking, I also spend long hours working in the office to get all of my work that pays the bills done. That’s one of the benefits of working from home, I can work extra hard on rainy days so I can spend a few extra hours outside on the nice warm days, like Thursday when it’s supposed to be sunny and in the high 50’s. I also need to get my broccoli & kale seeds started (now’s the time if you’re a zone 5 gardener).
Do rainy days make you feel like baking, cooking, napping, drinking coffee, reading or something else?
