Sunday, May 26, 2013

Grace's Garden

Grace brought home four plants from a school project. A pinto bean, Lima bean, corn, and radish were all started in cotton balls. When I asked her about planting them in the garden, her response was that she wanted her own garden.

Yesterday she was a bit bored and wanted to hang out with daddy. So we planted potatoes. She didn't really like how icky seed potatoes are, so she mostly supervised.

Then we moved on to her garden. We tilled up some new space, about the size of four dishwashers at Grace's request. We bordered it with some old barn posts, and got to planting.

She has the Lima bean and pinto bean from school. We added a big boy tomato plant and a sweet pepper plant. The radish and corn from school start her row of corn and a row of radish and carrot. She also planted rows of lettuce, broccoli, green onion, and cucumber.

This is her watering her garden once it was all in. It was a good way to hang out with my daughter on the east half if the southwest quarter



Tuesday, May 21, 2013

It's A Two Beer Garden

Last night I went out around 8:30, after the heat, the baseball game, and before the rain.  I planted a row of green beans, two rows of cucumbers, two rows of squash, and four rows of sweet corn.  That pretty much fills the original 20 x 60 area I tilled.

I may have omitted posting, this manual labor kind of wears me out, but we have successfully transplanted the corn, tomatoes, peppers, celery, and onions that were started inside.  So the only spot left in the garden area is where I will do a second planting of carrots, peas, lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage.

I wasn't sure of the rain since we had been expecting it all day and it still had not come.  So I decided to be safe and water the garden myself.  I grabbed a beer and a hose on the gentle shower setting and started to work.

As you probably know, in addition to being an amateur gardener, I am an amateur chef.  One of the things I like to make is a roux, for when I am doing gravy, gumbo, jambalaya, etc.  I believe Emeril coined the phrase Two Beer Roux.  If not, he popularized it according to Google.  Instead of talking about the color of the rue being very light to very dark, or giving the time in minutes, he refers to his roux as one, two or three beer rouxs.  In essence, you cook them as long as it takes you to drink that many bottles, or pints as regional variation would dictate, of your favorite beer.

As I began watering I assumed I had a one beer garden.  I instantly panicked and thought I have to plant more if I am going to water regularly.  As I finished watering I thought I would talk to the plants, as I have heard that helps them grow.  But having consumed two beers with no dinner, I was afraid the plants might find me obnoxious.

Once I get the potatoes and sweet potatoes in, this may turn into a three beer ordeal.  I may need to bring a cooler to the east half of the southwest quarter..

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Asparagus - Picked & Pickled




We have been so busy here with the last few weeks of school, junior varsity baseball, taking trucks to the repair shop, and so on. Making dinner hasn't happened a lot which means our asparagus needs some alternatives to grilling as a side dish.

Last week I had some that had been picked for a few days so I wasn't sure of its quality for grilling, so I made cream of asparagus soup. Wow was it good.







Today Grace, Jared, and I picked a fresh batch and we pickled them
within a half hour. We used.a little of Uncle Johns pickled pepper juice and plan to serve them with some pickled eggs later this summer.

And darn if a few odds and ends were left over, so I cooked them and ate them!