New Community Garden Site Plots are Marked Off!!

I have to say that Dora is doing a great job pushing to get the new Community Garden site ready to go! She has been spending 5 days a week + getting things going. Even though she is a part time employee for the county. Thanks so much Dora for all the time you have been spending getting the new site ready!!!

Around dinner time yesterday, I decided to take a ride over to the new site to see what progress has been made this week. To my surprise, all of the plots are marked off! Yippee!!! This was finished late yesterday afternoon, about a week ahead of schedule!

All of the plots are marked off with these temporary orange markers. Starting Monday they will be replaced with permanent stakes. Since most of the stakes put at the old site are missing, Dora asked me if I had any short T Posts available. Last Sunday I spent 4 hours at the old site and removed almost all of the stakes and fencing that I am planning to keep. This afternoon and tomorrow I will go to the old site and remove all of the other T Posts that I won't be using and give them to Dora. This will help speed things along. I don't think this will take too much time. Then I am planning to go to the new site and start picking rocks and raking it out a bit. I  may have a load of mixed soil & compost delivered to my new plots to put on top of the existing soil. This is how I started my beds here at the house. The soil here was all clay. So, I framed out beds, put down a heavy layer of paper and put the new soil on top. I have a great source for some really good clean organic mix that I can get delivered. I think it may be money well spent.

The county has started to deliver some compost to the new site. They are supposed to dump it around the perimeter for the gardeners to use to amend their soil. I'm not sure where this comes from and how good it is.

They dumped some big piles down at his end. This area is not going to be made into plots. When they tilled it. They found that soil wasn't good and there was concrete and other stuff that had been dumped there years ago. I guess that this compost will have to be hauled by wheel barrow to usable plots.

Wish me luck.....it's going to be a lot of work!!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........3/15/2012

This past Saturday I made a wonderful dish with some of the fresh greens from the cold frame beds and peach jam glazed pork chops. As usual I searched the internet for a recipe for Jelly or Jam Glazed Pork Chops and some Braised Greens. I found a few recipes. They gave me some ideas and this is what I came up with. This is one of those recipes that turned out perfect!

Jelly or Jam Glazed Pork Chops & Greens
   
    Glaze:

• 3/4 Cup Fruit Jam or Jelly - I used some Peach Jam that I had in the Cupboard. I really think any type of homemade jam or jelly would be great.
• 1 piece of Fresh Ginger - grate about 2 tsp.
• 2 Cloves Garlic minced
• 3 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp of good Soy Sauce
• Pepper of your choice - I used some homemade Cayenne pepper, probably about 1/4 tsp.

    Directions:

1. Combine Jam & Vinegar in a small saucepan
2. Cook over low heat until the jelly or jam melts
3. Stir in Ginger, Garlic, Soy Sauce & Pepper and set aside

Greens & Glazed Pork Chops

• Pork Chops
• Olive Oil
• Fresh Chopped Greens - about 8 Cups - I used a combination of Baby Choi, Tatsoi, Kale & Collards
• 1/4 Cup Water or Vegetable Stock -  I used Veggie Stock
• 1-2 Cloves of minced Garlic
• Salt & Pepper

   Directions:

1. Chop Greens

      2.   Salt & Pepper the Pork chops, heat a grill pan or frying pan on med/high with a little olive oil

      

      3.   While the pan for the pork chops is heating up, add a little Olive Oil to another large skillet or wok over med/high heat.

      4.   Add the greens & garlic to the skillet and saute for a few minutes. I always add the stalk of the greens first since they take longer to cook.

      5.   Add the Veggie Stock or water to the greens and about half of the glaze. Cover and simmer until done.

      6.   When the pan for the pork chops is hot, grill each side for about 3 minutes. Then glaze with the Jam glaze and cook each side for about 4 minutes on each side or until done.

This was one of the best dishes we have had in awhile!

So, what good dishes have you been making with your stored goods......or what have you been putting away for another day????

Spring Cleaning, Spring Mess and Planting Peas!

It was a busy gardening day here at the home garden. Do you believe it was 74 today? The first thing that I did was clean up the cold frame beds. I moved some of the lettuce from the one bed to the other bed to make room for the carrots.

This is the Right Cold Frame Bed all ready for some carrots!

There is some Squire Kale, 2 overwintered Celery Plants and some Lettuce in the back. The greens in the front to the left is "The Italian's" Escarole.

This is the Left Cold Frame Bed.

There's a lot of lettuce in the front of this bed and one collard plant. I don't know how that ended up there. In the back is Lacinato Kale, Vates Collards, Lettuce and one overwintered Celery Plant. 

These babies where outside today soaking up the sunshine to get ready to be planted in the empty space in the middle of the left cold frame bed. There is some Dwarf Blue Kale, Red Russian Kale, Georgia Collards, Arugula and some Quadattro Stagioni Lettuce.

While I was playing in the dirt, I stuck the soil thermometer in the soil to see if it was warm enough to plant the peas. Yes!!! The soil temperature was warm enough! Since the extended forecast is calling for nice warm weather ranging from 60-70 during the day and in the mid to high 40's at night, the peas were going in!

Since there will be no planting of peas this spring at the plots, I have to use every square inch here at the house. First I took the netting off of the Garlic Fortress. I don't think the squirrels will try to dig up the garlic now.

I took most of the straw off of the garlic planted in this bed. The garlic germination is 100%! Then I put some supports along this side and planted Green Beauty Snow Peas. 

Next Bed #1 was cleaned up. 

At the far end of this bed is the overwintered spinach. There is an empty space in the middle for some cabbage and the balance of the garlic at this end. Most of the straw was removed from the garlic. 100% germination here too! Three sides of this bed were then planted with peas. Spring Blush Snap Vine Peas at this end, Alderman Shelling Peas along the left side and Sugar Magnolia Snap Vine Peas at the far end. 

As soon as the plots are ready........I can get rid of this...........

and this....

and this....along with a whole bunch of stuff stacked in the garage!

What gardening fun have you been up to???

Harvest Monday............03/12/2012

This past Saturday, I finally harvested some of the overwintered Kale and Collards from the cold frame beds. I figured that I would harvest just the bigger leaves and that would be enough for dinner. As you can see, there were a lot more greens ready then I had thought!

I came in with this nice big colander full of greens! 

There are Vates Collards, Lacinato Kale, Squire Kale and a few leaves of what I think must be Winter Red Kale. There is one plant in the bed which has light purple veins. I was having trouble with the Winter Red Kale germinating...but, I guess that one made it.

Total Harvest - 10.7 oz    
Collards - 3.8 oz
Kale - 6.9 oz

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the globe!

New Community Garden Site Update

You just gotta love how inefficient government is! Boy, if we ran our households or businesses like the government in this country, we would all be bankrupt and homeless! There is absolutely no communication! With that being said, I called Dora (the Garden Coordinator for the County Community Gardens) this morning to see if they finished plowing and disced the new site for Cedarbrook Community Garden. She was just beside herself. That woman has got her hands full for the next couple of months. She told me that her husband went by our old site last night and saw this....

Yes, someone in the county put barricades up at the old site! Hmmm, wouldn't you think that the department in charge of this site would be notified??? No!!! When she found out the County offices were already closed for the weekend. She told me to just go around the barricades, which I did. I am going back tomorrow and will spend a good deal of time there. I am planning to remove the chicken wire, some posts, some fencing and trim back and mark what blackberries I am going to move. 

Then I went over to the new site. It took the woman two days just to plow that site. It consists of 100, 20' x 30' plots. I lived on a farm most of my life and didn't know it took that long!

This is most of the new site plowed. The red X in the back is approximately where our plots will be. I sure hope those darn geese don't stick around!

This is to the right of the previous picture. There are some more plots in the back, some more parking and turn around and the area where the county will put our free compost.

I walked down to see where our plots are going to be. They will run 30' from X1 to X2 and then 40' deep. It's a good location. They are right on the road so I can park the car by the gate.

This is the road. They didn't do a very good job and it's not exactly how it was supposed to be....but, it will do.

As I was leaving, I spotted this guy way at the other end, past the plots, sneaking out of the brush.

I zoomed in as much as I could and got a pic! I have to thank "The Italian" for this great camera! I really hope that Mr. or Mrs. Fox keeps the bunnies under control!

Let's hope and pray that the site is disced on Monday. Then Dora can get the plots marked off and we all can start getting our sites ready!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........3/08/2012

A few days ago "The Italian" wanted pasta for dinner. Can you believe that??? Well, he would eat pasta every day!!


I looked in the freezer and found some zucchini slices that I had fried and froze for later use. So, I decided to make a plain red sauce. He just loves pasta with a nice red sauce and zucchini slices on the side.


It's a simple and good dish. Just saute some chopped onions, add a little chopped garlic and then some nice canned tomatoes or tomato puree, some oregano & basil. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 30-40 minutes. I baked the zucchini slices in the oven on 400 for about 15 minutes. Easy and delicious!

"The Italian" had his with pasta....and

I had mine with Spaghetti Squash! Yum!

So, what have you been making with your stored goods....or putting away for another day???

How to get Old or Hard to Germinate Seeds to Sprout

A few years ago, I had some new hot cherry pepper seeds that would not sprout. I found this tip on the internet and it works great!

1. Boil a pot of water for at least 10 minutes to sterilize the water
2. Cover the pot and let it cool
3. Place the seeds in a piece of cheesecloth (I double it) and tie it at the top, making a little bag
4. Mix 1 Cup of the sterilized water & 1/4 Cup Chlorine Bleach
5. Swirl the seed bag around in the mixture for 10 minutes
6. Remove the bag and swirl it in a fresh cup of sterilized water for about 1 minute to rinse
7. Repeat the rinsing step 6 times in fresh sterilized water

This treatment will kill bacteria and fungal spores that may have contaminated the seeds. Then pre-sprout or sow your seeds as usual.