The Home Garden Mid-May

We made it home from our vacation in New Orleans about 2AM on Saturday. We had a wonderful time and ate a lot! "The Italian" and I were very surprised when we got out of the car and saw the home garden in the dark. It was just amazing how much it grew while we were away! Sophia must have given the plants a lot of love while we were gone!

The garden seemed to explode in one week! The Snow Peas and Snap Peas must be almost 7' high. The Alderman shelling peas are about 5' tall. They are a different variety then I have planted in the past and are supposed to get 4-6 feet in height.

All of the perennial flower beds exploded too! The Dutch Irises are just beautiful!

The Chinese Cabbage and Broccoli are looking good. I do see a little nibbling though. It must be slugs. All of my Pak Choi for some reason has bolted. The Baby Choi looks great though. I may have to try another variety of Choi in the fall and next year since this variety seems very sensitive to bolting.

Some Bunny climbed the fence and tried to make a nest. I guess I will get out the spray and add some additional height to the fencing in this bed.

Before we went away I removed all of the overwintered Kale and Vates Collards. There is some spring Kale & Georgia Collards in this bed. We really like the Vates Collards much better then the Georgia variety. The overwintered Celery in the back has bolted and will most likely be removed tomorrow.

The overwintered Kale is this bed is still doing quite well. The carrots are chugging along and the Escarole in the front has bolted and has to be pulled.

The Sugar Magnolia Purple Snap Peas are starting and so are the Spring Blush Snap Peas! They are just beautiful and tasty too!

This picture is a little fuzzy. But you can see how tall all of the peas are. It really took us by surprise to see such growth! The four early tomatoes in the Kozy Koats are getting pretty big. I will have to remove the cloches and stake them in the next couple of days.

The first Snow Peas of the year were harvested this morning! I'm sure that there will be many more peas harvested this week! Yum!

I will do a separate post on the state of the plots.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard @ Spring Garden Acre .....5/16/2012

Since "The Italian" and I are away on vacation enjoying New Orleans, Jody & Belle at Spring Garden Acre will be hosting "Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard". Hop on over to their place and see what's going on!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard...........05/10/2012

I had a very nice meal that I was going to make last night for dinner and post today. When "The Italian" got home I ran out to the store to pick up a couple of essential things that I need for vacation. It wasn't much, just a couple of plain T-Shirts and a Jean Skirt. That should be an easy task and only require one or two stores...right??? Nope, it took me several hours and a lot of frustration!! What is with the clothes today??? The fabrics are just awful and the styles....well, much to be desired! After several hours, I did end up finding basically what I need and it was take-out pizza for dinner at 8:30 PM!

The post that I had planned is not to be. So, I figured that I would share another simple seasoning recipe of "The Italian's", a nice Bean Recipe and also show you what my cupboard looks like today.

You may remember the well stocked Cupboard of canned goodness that I had at the end of canning season last year. You can see it here. Well, this is what the Cupboard looks like today.

                          

Sorry about the mis-aligned pics. I couldn't get Blogger to do what I wanted. As you can see, our stores are getting pretty low. 

Steak Seasoning

• 2 Tbsp. Salt
• 2 Tbsp. Paprika
• 1 Tbsp. Coarse Ground Black Pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp. Onion Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
• 1/2 tsp. Coriander
• 1/2 tsp. Tumeric

The following recipe was originally posted by Anna at MojVrt. She no longer has a blog and I sure do miss her.

Beans in White Dill Sauce

• 1 lb. Green Beans
• 4-5 Tbsp. Flour
• 2-3 Cloves of Garlic
• 2 1/2 Cups Milk
• Oil
• Chopped Dill at least 2 Tbsp.
• Salt & Pepper

Saute Chopped Garlic and Flour in oil on medium heat. Add Milk & Salt & Pepper. Stir until the sauce starts to cook. Then add beans and cook for about 10 minutes or until the beans are done to your liking.

This is a very simple and very tasty recipe that will come in handy once bean season starts.

How is your Cupboard looking these days????

The Home Garden at the beginning of May

I haven't posted much about the Home Garden lately since I've been so busy with the Community Garden move. The garden is growing well...but it's pretty messy around here!

This is the Left Cold Frame Bed

All of the overwintered Kale & Collards have been removed in the back of the bed. I planted some Celery and Baby Choi in their place. Do you think that we have enough lettuce growing???? Maybe somebody needs to harvest some!

This is the Right Cold Frame Bed

The overwintered Kale in the back of this bed is still doing well. It does look a bit funny since I just harvested most of the leaves. There is also some lettuce in the back that definitely needs to be harvested. Maybe Miss Banana will take care of that for me today! The mid section of this bed has carrots growing in it. I am keeping the bird netting on to deter those darn squirrels and birds!

Look at all those little carrots!

The Garlic is growing like crazy!

And so are the Snow Peas behind it! 

I know that they are not supposed to be friends....but, I have growing peas and garlic next to each other for years and they do just fine. Look at those boards just laying there....what a mess!

There are 4 Early Tomatoes growing in Kozy Koats in this bed with carrots in between. The pill bugs were so bad under the boards that I had to remove them. I decided to put the shade cloth over them for awhile so they could get a little bigger.

This is Bed #1

There are two different varieties of Snap Peas growing on each end and Shelling Peas along the long side.

Bed #1

Garlic growing at one end.

Bed #1

Some Pak Choi, Lettuce and Spinach at the other end

Bed #1

I also planted a few Broccoli Plants, Chinese Cabbage and I think a couple of regular Cabbage plants in the middle

One end of the messy deck. The cushions and table tops need to be brought out of the basement and put on the furniture. Someone also needs to replace 4 boards on the deck and then power wash and stain it!

My new little Dwarf Carmine Jewel Cherry Tree is in it's pot.

The Herb Garden definitely needs a little cleaning up!

This is the part of the Herb Garden behind the messy patio furniture.

That's a bunch of self seeded Cilantro, weeds and greens from the daffodils!

There is one flower pot that is looking good!

I planted perennials in some of the pots last year and this one doesn't need a thing added to it!

My new Dwarf Tophat Blueberry bush and some weeds in the stone pathway in the background.

The Carrots that I started in this pot in the basement were very happy until I took them outside. I'm sure they will perk up and green up once they get used to being outside. I also have three more large pots that need carrots planted in. That will have to wait until after vacation. And there's that dirty deck again!

Not the best color in this pic.

Here are the Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants and some herbs hardening off on the back porch waiting to to planted......

Here!! Yes, the beds at the plots are finished!!! Yippee!!

Well, it's going to be a busy week! Today I will be baking for the graduation picnic tomorrow. "The Italian's" daughter is graduating from college tomorrow. We will be leaving early in the AM. Then her graduation dinner here (not at our house) on Sunday....then the plots must be planted before vacation next week!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.........5/03/2012

This past week I harvested the remaining overwintered greens and spinach and pulled the plants. A great deal of the harvests have been frozen for another day. I haven't updated my Preserving Page yet. Hopefully, I will get to it later this morning. It's been crazy busy and will continue to be that way until we go on vacation late next week.

The spring planted greens are starting to produce. Last night I made a nice Italian dinner for "The Italian" with some Arugula that I have been eyeing in the garden. I really don't remember where I found this recipe. But, I did make some changes and it was absolutely delicious!

Peppery Pasta with Arugula & Shrimp

• 1 Tbsp. Minced Garlic
• 1 1/4 tsp Black Pepper (I think I used about half this amount)
• 1/2 tsp Salt (I think I used about half this amount also)
• 5 oz. Baby Arugula (I used some larger Arugula)
• Pasta of choice, Spaghetti, Linguine or Angel Hair
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1/2 lb Peeled & Cleaned Shrimp
• 2 Tbsp Minced Shallots (We didn't have any so I used some finely sliced leeks)
• 3/4 Cup Chicken Stock ( I used Vegetable Stock)
• 1 Tbsp Butter
• 2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice (I used half of a small lemon to make the juice, which was less)
• Fresh Grated Cheese

Directions

1. Combine half of the Garlic, Pepper, Salt and Arugula in a large bowl and toss.
2. Boil water and prepare the Pasta al dente. Drain pasta, add hot pasta to Arugula mixture and toss well until the Arugula wilts.
3. While the pasta is cooking, heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and remaining Salt & Pepper, saute for 1 minute. Add remaining Garlic & Shallots, saute for an additional minute or until Shrimp are done. 
4. Remove Shrimp from pan and deglaze the pan with the stock. At this point, I added the Arugula mixture to the pan, since I didn't used baby Arugula and it needed to be cooked a bit. Cook for 3-5 minutes, then return the Shrimp to the pan. 
5. Toss the mixture with the Pasta and serve with Fresh Grated Cheese. 

We also had some nice Fresh Baked No-Knead Bread with our dinner.

It was perfect!

What have you been putting away for another day or making from your stores or harvests lately???