Let's plant potatoes!

The potato planting team.

One of my dear friends is the mother of two wonderful children, and they stopped by on Easter Monday to help me plant some potatoes. I was hoping it could be a fun experience for the kids, and my friend and I would get to visit as well, which we don't do nearly often enough.

I had left some of our All Blue, All Red, Carola and Fingerling potatoes for them, and we ended up planting two rows (one each of course!) in our nearby vegetable garden.

Raking dirt over the potatoes, under Kane's watchful eye, of course.

Stomping down the ground over the planted potatoes

After we finished planting, we went back inside and brought out the acrylic paints and some wood pieces. It was craft time!!! (my favorite!). The idea was that they would decorate a marker each, and I would seal them and stick them in the garden so that we would know where their potatoes will come up.

Budding Artist 1

Budding Artist 2

We had so much fun painting that when we were finished, they asked if we could do another craft project - so I brought out an Easter Felt Chicken kit I had bought in Sweden and they each made their own "Crazy Chicken" complete with hanging thread to hang in their room at home. Good times. I hope they will come back and visit soon, to see their potatoe plants growing and of course to harvest them when that time comes.

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

Mega Garden Update

Here's a mega-update from my 2009 garden. Things are heating up outside, and we're busy bees every weekend trying to get to everything. It feels a bit like a race, but I know it will be worth it in the end. :-)

Inside the house:

My tomatoes have been transplanted and are growing like crazy - here are Pineapple tomatoes
and Cherry tomatoes.

Our transplants, peppers and tomatoes, from SSE came in and are recovering nicely from their boxed trip cross-country.

Eggplants - ready to be transplanted.

Three kinds of peppers (2 hot and 1 sweet) are also ready to be transplanted.

The misc. tray. Some chocolate cherry tomatoes from my friend Jeff are getting started. Behind them are Moonflower, Lavender and some Coneflower seedlings. Behind those are basil, a few misplaced lettuces, marjoram and oregano. These also need to be transplanted.

My peppers that I'm not very happy with. The soil mixture was not right since these were planted at the same time as my other peppers. Can you tell the difference??? So I'm carefully going to transplant them into some new soil mix and use the soil blocker. Johnny's 512 mix rules!

A tray of flowers, seeds courtesy of my friend Jeff as well. Echinacea, coneflower and passion flower should be making their way up here. These will be great bee-attractors to my garden and some will be in the front of the house as well.

In the outside garden:

The peas are almost ready to climb the fence.

The strawberry's have their own raised bed and are thrilled to have some dirt.
These are Earliglow strawberries from Pinetree Gardens.

The transplanted lettuce is doing well.

The aragula is breaking through.

The chard is doing it's best.

The chocolate mint is expanding it's territory, as mints do. It's chocolate, I don't mind. :-)

The spinach will soon be ready.

The beets and carrots are sleeping, but the bok choi is awake (middle).

The dog is patient while mommy takes pictures.

The blueberry bushes (Rabbiteye) are waiting for their place.

The potatoes (Banana Fingerlings) have been planted.

And, if all else fails....we have potatoes growing in the compost pile. So there.

Hope your garden is going well too!

Birthday Boy

Dear Kane - 4 years old today,

How you have grown!

I remember this cute, little, fluffy pup (with giant paws!) in a cardboard box on my car passenger seat, desperately trying to get out and get into my lap. Now you weigh about 85 pounds, and although you don't exactly fit in my lap, you do whatever you can to lay next to your favorite person, which is lucky, lucky me.

You love your family, especially your new friend Sean who can throw the ball much higher and longer than I can, and who can play with you tirelessly in the backyard until you both come busting into the house desperate for water. You don't quite mind him all the time, yet, but we'll get there.

Every time you come inside you race over to the stairs, hoping that this one time might be the one where one of mom's cats "accidentally" fell down from upstairs. Or maybe you're hoping that you'll catch them sneaking back through the gate after having watched you play through the living room windows.

You love going outside, and if we pick up your collar, you spin in circles with excitement. Knocking anything and anyone over that may be in your path. If we then happen to pick up the car keys as well, it's double the excitement.

With the backseat folded down in my Mazda3, you stand with your front feet between the seats and stick your head out the sunroof. We make many people smile on our way down the road. It's fun to see how we bring some joy to them. You're good at that, sweet Kane. When we go faster, your jowls flap in the wind, and you can only stand it for so long until you simply have to pull your head back inside the car and shake it off. Motorcycles and big trucks get extra attention. The kind of attention where you whip around and bark at them. Small vehicles need not apply.

You love kids, which bodes well we hope. Our neighbor Skyler (2) comes running, screaming your name when he sees you. You stand patiently while being hugged, petted, and having your ears pulled. You sniff the little kids, lick their faces and you're so, so good with them. Just like you are in this picture with your buddy Collin. With most adults you are curious enough to say hello, if mom does so first, but then back to being solo, just like a GSD should be.


We've been taking a few overnight hikes together in the past year, and we hope to do more. You have your own backpack, in which you carry water and your own food. I think that it makes you feel proud to have a job to do. At the campsite, you seem to settle down quickly, more so than at home. Maybe because we wore you out, or maybe because nature calms you just like it does to me. You enjoy sleeping in the tent. Usually you go in and nap for a few minutes on our sleeping bags while we change clothes and get ready. Then you curl up next to us and go to sleep. In the morning you wake up thirsty and lick the condensation off the inside of the tent. Then you lick our faces while we're immobilized by the sleeping bags - the perfect opportunist!



In the past year, I've switched your food from commercial dry food, to grain-free kibble and finally now a raw diet. Although our vet wasn't thrilled, she said she's never seen a healthier and happier looking dog - clear eyes, shiny coat, healthy weight and good demeanor. Whenever it's food time, I let you jump around and bark, simply because I'm excited too that you love your food. A foodie woman should have a foodie dog, it's only right. I remember when you were eating commercial kibble and how you would slowly walk over to the food bowl, and slowly eat half, only to leave the rest. I hope the minor dysplasia that showed up on your x-ray at 2 years old is also helped by all the natural chondroitin and glucosamine you get from chicken backs, leg quarters, turkey necks and rabbits. You have good even muscle development in both hips, so I think we'll be good.

We continue to train with the schutzhund club twice a week; tracking, obedience and protection. You are doing so wonderful at everything, I'm just amazed that we even can. We need to do more tracking, but you already lay down without command at the articles, and your pace is good. Corners are another thing we need to work on, but it will happen. Your heeling is beautiful, you prance next to me and I'm so proud to have you near me showing off. You respond with even more prancing when I smile and we proceed across the field. Walking sits, walking downs, recalls, about turns and groups are no problem at all. We're starting the dumbell work, and it's going well. Positive marker training means you get a treat everytime you do what I ask of you, and you love your treats.
You are very real in protection, and I love that about you. You approach it with an unmatched energy and intensity, barking to get started while we heel out on the field, barking as I ask you to sit after an exercise. Now we just need to harness all that energy into obedience so that you listen to my commands. That's how we'll make the 100s, my boy. My schutzhund friends seem to think you're doing pretty well for a non-working line type of dog, but I secretly think sometimes they're a bit scared of how intense you are. We'll do the BH this spring/summer. Just need to shape your long down more to make sure you stay put. We will get it, I promise. I won't give up on you ever.

You love it when my mom stops by a few times a week and takes you for a walk in the woods. Then you get a treat while she sits on the front porch, enjoying the afternoon sun together. Your favorite thing about my mom are the neck and back massages she gives you. You stick your head between her knees, over and over again, for just a little more.

Every time you place your head on my leg, arm or shoulder, my heart does a funny little skip and I'm reminded again how much you mean to me. I keep asking Sean if you realize just how much I love you, how happy it makes me to reach down and fill my lungs with that sweet doggie-smell that can only be found right behind your fluffy ears. It calms me. Whenever I'm scared or nervous, I think about that, and my love for you fills me and washes away the scariness.


When I see my big bad shepherd stretched out on the ground or floor, belly up for a belly rub, I can't wait to scratch your feel-good spot. You know, the one that makes your right back leg move to some kind of a drum beat. It's right in your right front arm-pit, that spot. I love to tickle the little fur between your feet, watch you pull your feet out of harm's way, sigh and give me the look of "Mo-om, stop!"

I love it when you come running back to me with a toy, how you do an extra leap of joy, while shaking that soft frisbee of yours or the punched-out basketball that my mom gave you. Most of all, I like laying next to you on the green summer grass while you snooze, watching you, resting my head on your shoulder and remembering the little puppy you once were, and now...the most wonderful dog, protector and best friend anyone could wish for.

I will always, always, always love you. Thank you for the joy you bring me every day, you are such a blessing. May we make many more memories together.
Happy birthday, sweet-pea. Yes, you get an extra serving of chicken today.

Love,

Mom

Caramel Strawberry Jam - NOT a recipe

Well, it is a recipe. Sort of. That I messed up. :-(
I wasn't meant to be caramel strawberry jam. It was meant to be my very first batch of real strawberry jam. Made from local (greenhouse) strawberries from the farmstand down the road, made without added chemicals like CERTO, or organic pectin (since I didn't have any).
And I messed it up. Turned my head for a second, and......Hello caramel strawberry jam!

Well, the good news is....I learned from it. Plus it actually tastes ok. Not great, kind of difficult to get out of the jar, lol, but that's alright. It still works on my breakfast and on the waffles we made the other day.


I started out with about a gallon of strawberries from the local "Bush n'Vine" farmstand. I cleaned them and cut them into chunks. Then I weighed them and luckily (!) ended up with roughly 1000 g (35 ounces, or 2.2 lbs) of strawberries.
In a generous bowl, I added 1000g of sugar (4.3 cups), and the juice from one lemon.


I mixed all of this well, covered with plastic wrap, and let sit for 24 hours. By that time, the berries had released a lot of juice.

I poured all of this into a thick-bottom pot and warmed to a boil with close supervision (obviously, this should read meticulous since my level of supervision was not enough!). I used a skimmer to skim off the foam every now and then and a brush dipped in water to clean the sugar crystals off the sides.

So the recipe says to look for the jam "jellying up" or forming a skin on top - that's how you know it is done. Or you can do the "jelly test" on a clean, cool plate to see if your jam jellies or not.

This is where I lapsed. All of a sudden I started smelling caramel or toffee (which I love) and by the time I figured out that it was the jam......ah well.

I then continued by pouring the jam into cleaned, sterilized (in oven) glassjars. I let the jam cool and then tightly screwed on sterilized lids. Since I was planning on eating this jam within 2 months, I did not go through the canning process, but instead I am keeping it in the fridge.
Yes, I know....there are no pictures of the final product. I was too disappointed to take some. My dear fiance claimed it tasted just fine, and I felt a little better after that, but still.....

So, time for fess-up.....how was your first foray into jam or jelly making? Was it a complete success, or utter failure? Care to share with me some of the possible mistakes I might make next time? :-)

Grow, grow, grow!

Yeay - the gardening season has finally arrived to my little corner of the world!
(insert me doing a crazy little dance here...lol)

This is our second year gardening here in the Carolinas, and as you may know from my previous post about gardening (read it here), we have decided to expand our existing vegetable garden, and also create a whole new section, aptly named the Lakeside Vegetable Garden.


So what's in the ground already?
Well, I planted peas a few weeks ago, and they are already peeking up quite well. I am considering doing another planting next to them, along the fence as well, since I luv peas. The idea is that they will use the chain-link fence to climb on and maybe even shade some of the lettuce that soon will be joining the fun. The peas are called "Tall Telephone" from Pinetree Gardens. Height can reach 6 ft, which is great since that's how tall the fence is! :-)

Spinach.

I've also planted spinach, Long-standing Bloomsdale variety, which is curly-leafed and developed to resist bolting and hot weather (which we will have soon enough). I'm hoping to harvest most of this before the real heat hits us.

Here is a picture from my onion patch that I planted in the fall of last year. There are four kinds of garlic and four kinds of shallots, red and yellow onions. I'm not quite sure if they are ready yet, the tops are only a little brown, so I figured I'd wait another week or so and see what happens.
They did not grow as large as I expected, so my harvest may not be that great. I've sprayed them once with fish emulsion/kelp and maybe should have done some more of that. Any suggestions?

I also have a small kitchen herb garden where my chamomille, sorrel, rosemary, oregano and chocolate mint (yum!) over-wintered. They have now been joined by a red sorrel (very pretty!) and a lively and bushy chervil plant. Both were gifts from my friends at Tega Hills Greenhouses - they grow lettuce hydroponically and also grow micro greens for restaurants in the area.

Inside, the seeds are sprouting.


I planted six kinds of lettuce (you'd think I love lettuce, which isn't entirely true. I like lettuce, but it's been a rocky kind of romance - too many bitter tasting store-bought (and non-organic!) varieties in my past. There is Slo-bolt loose leaf lettuce, Thai Oakleaf, 2 kinds of Bibb lettuce, and a romaine mix and a looseleaf mix. The lettuce came in quickly but then became really tall and spindly, which was because of a lack of light (Thanks wvfarmgirl!). My live-in handyman quickly pulled together a shelf and some fluorescent lights, including some handy wiring, and we now have our very own grow-lights. TADA! Exciting!


The newly planted seeds get to sit on top of the top shelf so that they get some bottom heat from the growlights. This has worked out very well for the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, bok choi and chard that I planted next.
The lettuce was transplanted this past weekend, and should be ready to go out in the garden in another week or two.

The tomatoes and peppers are peeking up, except for some of the hot peppers, but I've had issues with them taking a while to germinate before as well. I'm keeping the faith. They will come in when they feel like it.

This year, more than ever, it feels important to me to grow and eat my own food. Maybe it's because of all the scary food recalls, the cost of food or just in general the economical downturn. Whatever it might be, I know it makes me feel so at peace - digging in my garden, planting seeds and making them grow.
Thanks to all my online friends in the blogger world for their tips and suggestions on what to grow and how to do it. You guys are the best!
I wish you a peaceful gardening season!

Wedding Stuff Part 1 - Knitting

It's Christmas in March!
Look at what arrived in the mail just the other day....a new set of interchangeable circular knitting needles and some new yarn! I'm as excited as a child on Christmas morning!

I've had the book Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel for a few months now. I picked it up at my local used/new bookstore for a few dollars less. I was very excited to find it there!!!

I've been knitting on and off since I was a teenager (waaay back when), but other than 2 sweaters (part of the 80s glitter/glam, pouffy type knitted sweater), it's been mainly scarves and other straight, rectangular and, let's face it, "easy" knitting projects. I'm a much better crafter with other things than I am at knitting!

My mom knits. my grandmother knits, my aunt knits (more on her in a later post as I am currently knitting a project with her yarn, spun by her, from her sheep. How neat is that?). They are all great knitters. Socks, complicated patterns, baby sweaters, caps etc. I finally started wanting to knit something other than a straight rectangle, and I've since had my grandmother teach me to knit socks (which I still have not actually done!), started (almost finished) on a baby sweater (yep, the baby is way too big for the sweater by now) and now I'm ready for the big time. I think. I hope.
See, I have chosen to knit myself a little bolero type sweater for our wedding this fall. It's going to be here at home, in the backyard. We're planning a laid back ceremony, and I'm not wearing a big, fancy dress. I've already found a nice and simple dress (yes, it's white) and I wanted to add some color to it by knitting this bolero. We picked the colors of apple green and dark brown, so that is what my sweater is going to be. Green for the body and brown for the ribbing/collar. It's labeled as one of the easy projects, so I should be able to finish in....oh, 7 months.

I have until October to finish it. But I promised myself I couldn't start until I finished my other 2 knitting projects - the scarf from my aunt's wool and the baby sweater. Sigh.....such temptation.
So - how about you - do you also have unfinished knitting or crafting business laying around?