Harvest Monday - 18 June 2012

We arrived home after a last minute trip for Father's Day weekend.  A friend let us borrow their raft and so we took our children for a 7 mile float trip down the Green River on Saturday. And we also ran up to Dinosaur National Monument on Friday since we were already there. 

When we got home Sunday afternoon I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner.

One of the things we don't do is go shopping on Sunday.  We also don't do big chores on Sunday.  We do make beds and wash dishes but no scrubbing or washing clothes, etc. 

So I ran up to the garden and grabbed some snow peas which took 3 minutes.  

Then I peaked in the square foot garden and some of the Little Finger carrots were ready and they were delicious. No more trying to grow carrots in the clay.  These were ready faster and less bitter.  I will be planting more of those now.

I love the taste of fresh snow peas.  I pounded out 2 chicken breasts and cut them and made stir fry with all these veggies over glass noodles.  

And some tiny green bunching onions. I just never transplanted them.

And the last baby bok choy. I think next time I will grow the real stuff. Probably starting August 1st for a fall crop. 

The first Harvest of 2012

This is the very first thing I have harvested this year. Correnta Spinach

 I'm getting used to the floating row cover and my veggies are doing well shaded under it.  The black PVC hoops are the perfect height.  And with the amazing amount of butterflies I am glad that my cabbages and such are protected. Anything that doesn't need to pollinate to grow can go under it.

And here is my second harvest of the year.  It is the first time I've grown baby bok choy. And you can see that the stalks are pretty skinny but it was starting to bolt.  Maybe now that I'm not having to baby a lot of the stuff under my grow lights I can dedicate a little time to studying up on how to do a better job at growing these. 

Today I weeded between my tomatoes with my parrot on my shoulder.   Once he decided to climb on my head it was time to send him inside with my children. We got 3/4 of an inch of rain on Friday in just a few hours which is rare around here in the high desert so I didn't get the rows tilled that are full of weeds and haven't been planted.  I did put some nitrogen on the corn patch.  I'll till before it rains again next week and then plant the corn - popcorn - and if it doesn't grow, I will not plant corn again. If you live nearby please tell me who to buy sweet corn from this summer.

Gardening in the spring

I'm going to be teaching gardening to the Relief Society ladies at church on the 10th.  Any of your best gardening tips would be great - especially cutting costs when gardening. Link me to your posts in a comment or leave a comment here.

I've tried to kill off my basil a number of times already.  There was the time it was on the deck and it reached 80 degrees and well, imagine what the dark brown deck must have been.  They started to will and dry out.  I ran them inside to the air conditioning and gave them a cool drink of water.  

Then I left them out overnight when it got down to 34 degrees.  So I brought them in to warm up and gave them a warm drink of water.  My mom taught me that if I left them out and it got too cold you must bring them in before the sun hits them.  You might be able to save a few by letting them warm slowly.  

If the sun hits them they are goners.

Isn't it interesting the difference a few items in your garden can make?

For example, the row cover.  I purchased it and cut it and sewed it and added string through the ends so I could tighten it and tie it off on the ends.  I put it on my square foot garden nearest my master bedroom.  I have great spinach this year.  The large one I started indoors.  The smaller by seed.  Much easier to start off outside!

And all of my romaine is alive and most look really good after transplanting.  Some are smaller but they are all outside looking beautiful and I'm happy about that. 

And the dutch cabbages are all doing really well. 

And this Michihili chinese cabbage is doing great.  I had to pull 2 that went to seed.  I'm going to plant the seeds directly in the square foot garden with the cover and see how they do. 

My carrots are looking good. I thinned them after this photo. It's easier for me to thin them when they are tiny and don't quite look like a carrot.

And my big daddy onions are doing well.  I made a Tri-Tip roast this week and added in a bunch I had sliced and frozen from last year.  I will be making french onion soup with the beef stock and onions along with my Udi's gluten free bread as the crouton.

This is my Summertime lettuce.  It's starting to form a head.  My son informed me he thought it was a weed and was going to pull it out.  I'm so glad he didn't.

And my baby bok choy is looking nice as well. 

And out and away from the square foot garden I have my peas in my row garden.  

The nice thing about having the ball valves on each line of the drip line is that I can just water my onions and peas and garlic right now without watering the rest which means fewer weeds and less compacting of the soil before planting the rest of my garden.  It's a cold wet day today or I would be outside killing Bind Weed for sure. (It looks like morning glory) You can see a few sprouts next to the peas. It's also about time to thin the peas.

Our last frost date in May 16th but we usually get a good hail storm the first or second week in June.  I plant my pumpkin seeds on May 16th and have always had great success.  Corn can go in the same time. But things like pepper plants don't go out until the 3rd week in June.  Tomatoes go out but are covered.  Most are doing well.  Only one looks a little stressed out.  Squash, Zucchini and green beans get planted June 1st.

Garden update

My friend April - she is one of the smartest people in the world.  She started a magazine all on her own. Her oldest just got a perfect score on his ACT.  And April is also the best stay at home mom I know.  She was getting ready to grind some wheat yesterday when the neighbor said to her son, "WHAT is that?" To which her youngest son replied,  

"It's like a super hero cape - but for girls."

 If that doesn't give you a whole new appreciation for motherhood, I don't know what will. 

My morning started off in the fog.  I decided to go running anyway (I attract accidents and so I get nervous about anything that would impair visibility).  There was just enough visibility to make me feel like I would survive the run.  I saw my neighbor Babette out running too.  She was on her way home and I still hadn't reached my half way point. The fog started to burn off as I reached the top of the hill near my home.  I  love it when it looks like clouds. I can honestly say I never thought I'd ever run.  EVER! But I'm really enjoying myself.

And when I returned home I decided to work on the square foot garden.  I had to cut a piece off the 10x12 row cover and make it 8x14.  I also cut some of the extra pieces of the black pipe I used for the hoops and made clips.  

I planted Correnta Spinach and Little Finger Carrots today in this little garden.  During the week I transplanted 81 Big Daddy Onions, 4 Dutch Cabbage, and 5 Chinese Cabbage (Michihili) into this garden too. 

You can see my youngest in the background here. All 12 jalapenos are sprouting. 

All 4 Summertime Lettuce are doing well.  They'll go outside soon.  I decided to try and see if the spinach would sprout better in the 3" pots rather than the small window peat starters.  3"peat pots win!

If you look closely in the middle of the peat pot on the right you can see the first of the bell pepper sprouts.  I really hope that all of them sprout.  I love bell peppers. 2 cayenne peppers are just starting to sprout as well.

These are my Baby Bok Choy starts. Once they get a few more leaves I can harden them off.  I am hoping these crazy Utah springtimes don't send them bolting to seed.  My parents lived in Korea (my Dad is a medivac pilot) for a while and we love Asian greens. 

And my Utah Celery plants are looking pretty.  I can hardly wait to see if I can get these to grow once I move them outside.  Any tips?

All of my heirloom tomatoes are growing well. I can't believe that in 6 weeks they will be going outside and into the walls of water.  A couple I go to church with has this cool idea for using bolt cutters to turn cattle panels into the best tomato cages - perfect for indeterminate heirlooms that seem to grow super tall. Cattle panels are about $25 and you can make 3 cages from 1 panel.  I will definitely be making 3 - hopefully 6. And they store flat. Extra cool. 

And as you can see, these are getting out of control.  I may just have to break a piece off and start them over from a cutting or they might be too leggy.  I've never started heirlooms from seed I collected and I was worried about how long they'd take to sprout and grow but I can't bear to just toss them out.

All the bulbs and lilies seem to be poking out of the ground.  I am most excited about the purple Alliums.  Those on the west side of the house are really looking good. 

I also planted 18 basil plants this year to mix in between the tomato plants. I hear it helps deter those pesky tomato horn worms - we'll see.  

And then later today I planted 8 Early Girl tomatoes. If the ground would dry out a little I could get my garden tilled and plant all the peas - the bird on the mountain melted oh so long ago.

Cell phone pictures - sorry!

Harvest Monday - March 19, 2012

On Tuesday we went to the grocery store, not the one we typically go to. And there was fresh chicken breast for sale at 1.47/lb in 40 lb cases.  We purchased two cases. 

So far I've canned 

21 quarts of chicken breast 

AND

6 jars of chicken stock

 from the trimmings.  I also have a stock pot in the fridge just waiting to be skimmed and canned. I put 7 lbs of chicken in freezer bags and put them in the deep freeze.  And I have about a dozen pints of chicken breast I need to finish up.  I love having a pressure canner and I love canning my own chicken at a fraction of the cost.  What will we use all this chicken for over the next year - chicken salad sandwiches, chicken enchiladas, hawaiian haystacks, and I could go on and on. And the chicken stock is great for chicken noodle soup, and a million other things like making a low fat gluten free condensed creamy chicken soup (I'm allergic to wheat).

Here's our landscape plan.  I asked for plants that they'd find around homes in Park City Utah.  Uhm, they really didn't know what they were doing.  But the bones are good.  So I have been busy making changes and having fun.

Can you see the green line?  Just click on it to see it larger if you need. I am going to add a low wall by stacking flat rock.  That corner set up isn't going to work.  I'm just starting the leg work - measuring, finding how much sand I'll need.  How much the rock with cost. ETC

 I've started some Summertime Lettuce.

 My red beef steak tomato plant is doing well.

 I started some spinach in 3" pots.  It like the extra space for the roots.  NOTE TO SELF: Plant spinach in 3" peat pots if you want success.

 Because they don't seem to be doing very well in the small jump start containers.

 The baby bok choy is looking good. I think I should have started it a few weeks earlier.  Live and learn. The ice on the lake is already gone - the earliest in 5 years by weeks. I can always put it in the shade.

And here are the other heirloom tomato starts in 6" pots -

Cherokee Purple

Pink Brandywine

Red Beefsteak

The celery is looking great.

Red beef steak I need to separate the one and put it in another pot.

And the pink brandywine with it's potato like leaves. I can hardly wait to munch on these most delicious tomatoes.

It snowed 3" last night.  But it will be 67 degrees Friday. Nice! And I've taken up walking.  I go between 2 miles and 3 miles a day except not on Sunday. But today I choose the elliptical because the road is so icy.  See ya!

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