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My Garden / Recipes

When Life Dumps a Truckload of Manure in Your Driveway

Ever go through one of those times where you wake up in the morning to find a truckload of manure in your driveway? You didn’t order it. You don’t need it. You can’t return it, because the midnight interloper has left no forwarding address. And you’re not going to be able to get your car out of the garage until you get the pile moved.

What’s a person to do?

Why, read a book and plant a garden, of course.… Read More

Season of Rebirth

What I love most about April is its promise of spring and rebirth. Even its holidays are days that offer cause for laughter and joyous celebration.

For those of us dealing with wintry climates, April ushers in excitement for all that is sunny, warm, and green. Winter coats get packed away, windows get thrown open, and fresh air and sunlight on our skin is the order of the day.

Okay, maybe I exaggerated just a tad on the sunlight on … Read More

Is It Me, Or Is There Only Weird Stuff in the Fridge?

For the tenth time, Andrew opened the refrigerator, hoping that something “good” would magically materialize. For the tenth time, when no miracle occurred and the exact same food stared back at him, he finally exclaimed, “Is it me, or is there only weird stuff in here?”

Because I hate grocery shopping even more than I hate cleaning toilets, I’ve been known to prolong going to the store for as long as is humanly possible, or until no one can stand … Read More

What Plant Are You?

ripe-tomatoes.jpg

Having just picked a bushel of ripe tomatoes, there was only one thing to do. Get busy making spaghetti sauce.

I put Cait on garlic and herb chopping duty, while I prepared the tomatoes.

I love having Cait help, not just because the work gets done faster, but because Cait likes to talk while she works. That’s what makes the time fly.

In the midst of chattering about this and that, I was having Cait taste all the fresh ingredients … Read More

Signs

Fall is in the air. No need to look at the calendar; there are signs everywhere.

Harvested at the end of July, my garlic has dried enough to cut, clean, and store. One drying screen almost done. One more to go.

drying garlic

Seed saving begins for many of my lettuces and leafy vegetables. This is Chinese Cabbage. Tiny little things, aren’t they?

bok choy seeds

This is one plant’s worth.

chinese-cabbage-seeds.jpg

I like to collect enough seeds to also have some to trade on Seed Read More

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming —

— To cook up all this zucchini. This is one week’s worth.

zucchini

You’ve seen Monster Trucks. How about Monster Zucchinis?

Zucchini

Actually, it’s just one of my seed zucchinis from which I’ll save seeds for next year’s crop.

I’ve shared two of my favorite zucchini recipes here.

This is another family favorite.

ZUCCHINI FRITTERS
3 c. coarsely grated zucchini
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tsp. flour
1 tbs minced garlic
Salt and black
Read More

Garden Progress and Yummy Swiss Chard Recipe

It’s been about a month since I planted my garden.

Here’s how it started.

June Garden

Here’s what it looks like one month later. What a little sun and rain will do, when you start with good dirt…

July garden

Without a wide-angle lens, I can’t get the whole thing in. But you get the idea.

So far, we’ve enjoyed Swiss Chard, Bok Choy, the usual lettuces, peas, snow peas, beets, all kinds of herbs (most of which I dry for use throughout the … Read More

Longest Day of the Year

The summer solstice is the day of maximum sunlight hours, bringing the longest day and shortest night of the year.

I’d like to think we put it to maximum use.

As usual, Graidy greeted me at 4:50 a.m.by jumping up on the bed and licking my face until I woke up. Next to me on the floor, was Kiera on her dog bed. Finn was perched on the open window sill, twitching at every birdsong. The furry contingent and I … Read More

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