Harvest Monday............01/30/2012

I finally decided to harvest all of the Baby Choi in the cold frame. I think it was just in the nick of time! Some of the outer leaves were turning yellow and they were just about to bolt.   


Do you believe that there are still hungry live slugs living in the cold frames?? Occasionally I leave them open for several nights in a row, hoping to kill off some of the bugs. I guess that once the Tatsoi is harvested, I should take the tops off. 

It was a decent harvest weighing in at 2.83 lbs.

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

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........1/26/2012

Since I did an inventory of all of our stored & canned goods and posted it last week, I thought that I better get the freezer inventory done as well. Here's what we have left.    

Baby Choi - (2) pkgs.
Blackberries - (1) lg. bag
Celery - (3) full pkgs. (2) partial pkgs.
Chard - (2) pkgs.
Corn - (2) pkgs.
Eggplant - (2) pkgs.
Leeks - (2) pkgs.
Peas, shelled - (5) pkgs.
Peas, purple podded - (4) pkgs.
Peas, snow - (8) pkgs.
Peppers, sweet - (8) pkgs.
Peppers, roasted sweet - (7) pkgs.
Pesto - (4) pkgs.
Strawberries - (2) 1 lb. pkgs.
Zucchini, fried slices - (2) pkgs.
Zucchini, sliced - (2) pkgs.

Scalloped Potatoes - (2) 1 1/2 lb. pkgs.
Zucchini Parm. - (1) 2 lb. pkg.

With what is left in the freezer along with the other stored goods and cold frame crops. I think that we will be good!      

Now onto some cooking from the cupboard this week. Sunday, Mark posted a Chicken & Lentil Soup recipe here. Boy, it looked good. So, I decided to make my own version. This is what I came up with.          

Chicken & Lentil Soup       

 Ingredients:    

• Olive Oil
• 1 Large onion - chopped
• 2 small cloves of garlic - minced
• 1 stalk celery - chopped
• 1 ½ Carrots (the last of the carrots) - chopped
• 1 Pint Tomatoes
• ½ Cup White Wine
• 5 Cups Chicken Stock
• ½ tsp Paprika
• White Pepper
• Bay Leaf
• Chicken - fresh diced or leftover diced
• ½ lb. Lentils - I used these little black lentils that we had

Directions:

1. Chop Celery, Carrots & Onions. Mince garlic
2. In a large stockpot, saute onions in oil for a few minutes, add chicken & saute until onions are glossy. 
3. Add Celery, Carrots, Garlic & Paprika and saute for about 10 more minutes
4. Add wine and cook for about 2 minutes
5. Stir in tomatoes, chicken stock, lentils, pepper & bay leaf
6. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 1 hour or until the lentils are tender.
7. You may add some salt if desired
8. Serve and Enjoy!

I put a little grated Cheddar Cheese on my soup. You could also use Parmesan Cheese. "The Italian" ate his plain.

What's been going in or out of your Cupboard  lately???

Trying to get a Head Start on some Carrots

Since we are now carrot less in this house. I thought that I would bring one of my big plastic pots that I grow carrots in from outside. I brought it to the basement to thaw out first. Then I added some composted manure, vermiculite, peat and some composted soil that I managed to chip off the top of one of the beds out back. I went outside a couple of times after the sun was shining on the soil for several hours (before the snow) and did manage to get enough for the pot.


After I added everything to the pot, I added more water. It was a bit too much so then I let it dry out for a couple of days. After drying out, the soil temperature was a bit too cold for germination. So I took one of the many rope lights we have and wrapped it around the pot. The next day the soil was warm enough for germination. 


Next I put some seed mats that I had made (Granny's famous seed mat tutorial can be found here) on the soil, covered them with some vermiculite and burlap. Now I have to remember to keep them moist in order for them to germinate.

Since the basement is quite cool, I think that I am going to leave the lights on for awhile

Once they start growing, I will move them to the table in the tool area of the basement and lower one of the shop lights to give them light. I'll keep you updated on how this experiment works out.

Are there any other crazy gardeners out there trying something new to get a jump start on the garden this year???

The Garden & Cold Frames January 20, 2012

I thought that I would take some pictures of the winter garden today. We are supposed to have our first winter snow starting tonight into tomorrow evening. I am really looking forward to a real snow. We haven't had any snow since our crazy Halloween Snow Storm!

This is the Cold Frame on the Left.

This is where all the Pak Choi was growing that I harvested a couple of weeks ago. There is some Kale, Collards & a Celery plant in the back. There's also two Tatsoi plants in the middle which will be harvested soon. In the front of the bed are some small lettuces. Later this winter after the Tatsoi is harvested I will put some more Kale, Collards and Arugula in this bed for some early spring harvests. 

This is the Cold Frame on the Right.

This side is pretty much packed full right now. There is one row of Kale in the back and also a row of Baby Choi which is really big. The center is packed full of Tatsoi , some lettuce and a few green onions. In the front of the bed there are some Escarole plants and more lettuce. Once this bed is cleaned out with the exception of the Kale, the bed will left empty until I sow carrots in it.

Some Escarole and lettuce tucked in.

Some baby lettuce plants

Some more lettuce and green onions tucked in between the Tatsoi

The spinach bed has spinach of every size in it right now. I hope that this bed will give a great spring spinach harvest!

There are still a couple of green parsley plants in the herb garden.

Is there anything going on in your garden, cold frames or greenhouse mid-winter??

The first Soil Blocks & Blogger Issues Update

For all of my fellow blogger buddies, I still can't comment on many of your blogs. Things were better for a short period of time yesterday. I was able to post a comment over at Veggie Pack's blog. Then things went bad again. I even tried using one of our newer computers. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved soon.


Update: I just discovered a way around the Blogger comment issue. I logged onto the internet in Google Chrome and everything works fine!

Now let's talk about some gardening! I finally got around to trying the new soil block maker that "The Italian" bought me for my birthday. I ended up purchasing a soil mixture on-line for my initial blocks. There are a few reasons for this decision. One, the garden centers around here are only open on the weekends right now and most likely won't have what I need in stock to make the blocks. Two, I wanted to see what the consistency of the mixture should be. Lastly, the cost of purchasing all of the ingredients would far out weigh the cost of buying a pre-made mixture for the small amount of initial blocks being made. I am however planning to purchase all of the ingredients for the big planting as this will be the most cost effective way to make a lot of blocks.

The blocks were extremely easy to make. I just combined the mixture with some water, let it sit and made the blocks. For any of you who are going to start making soil blocks this year, you can go here or to Johnny's site to read and watch some good videos on making the blocks.

This isn't the best picture...but, I didn't feel like uncovering them and taking more pics.

After I made them, they were covered with plastic and another tray. I will check on them periodicly to see if they need water. Once they germinate, I will remove the tray to allow light in.

I really think that the blocks will save me a lot of time and space. I really hate everything involved in using plastic pots.

I will do updates and things progress. Now, get making those soil blocks!