It has happened again

It's been more than a month since my last post. My garden is doing well. I've got plenty of tomatoes, hot peppers and carrots. My broccoli is finally starting to produce. It's rained some in the past week and them temperatures have finally dropped into the 70s and 80s an my garden is thriving because of it.

It is so amazing to see the change in the garden the few hours after a natural rain, opposed to a watering from the sprinkler.

I've been getting fresh foods from the market and out of my parents garden and canning, freezing and dehydrating to my heart's content. I have some tomato sauce, dried tomatoes, frozen and dried potatoes, frozen corn.

I can't say that I dread winter as much as usual knowing I won't have to buy commercially packaged foods.

Outside of the garden in the last month, I've traveled to Michigan for vacation, been working a lot and creating a ton of content there, which is why I haven't felt inspired to write here, and have been preparing for an after school program I will be teaching. It has been a great summer. It is just going by so fast.

Oh, and I've been quilting and putting together other projects, like this one. It's a tea bag wallet. I exchanged it via swap-bot and use the one I received to hold tea bags in my desk at work. I love it, because if I thought it in my bag, my tea bags don't get all ratty or rip open.

I've almost finished my "Seeing Squares" quilt. I've been working on that project in my spare time for months. I also put together this bag for bag. It's for filling with grocery sacks so that they can be reused. Nifty huh?

Too big a time gap

It's been too long since my last blog post and mainly it's because after sitting at a computer all day at work, the last thing I want to do on my summer nights is stare at the computer for another few minutes.

I have been working in the garden a little. I've at least taken the time to water and inspect it for bugs every day or every other day. I need to spend about an hour weeding it. The weeds grow so fast.

I have large green tomatoes. They should turn soon. I have two zucchinis that are about four inches long. I have baby peppers on one pepper plant and a ton of flowers on my sprawling cucumber plants. It won't be too long before I can harvest a good harvest.

In other worlds, I've joined a few swap-bot swaps. I've wrapped them all up for a while. I need to take the last one to the post office today. I've been promising pictures of the garden and swaps, but for now, I'll share my healthy recipe from the Swap-bot Healthy Recipe Swap.

Eat Your Greens Guacamole

Ingredients

3 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed

1 lime, juiced

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup diced onion

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

2 Roma (plum) tomatoes, diced

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions

In a medium bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt. Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes, and garlic. Stir in cayenne pepper. Refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor, or serve immediately.

Fresh Veggies, Well Baby Veggies

I posted a few days ago that I finally had some produce in the garden. While it's going to be a while before it's ready to eat, I'm excited to see some growth. The proof is in the pictures.

On the right is a teeny tiny pepper. I'm not sure of the variety. It's probably some kind of hot pepper, but not a jalapeno. I started this plant in my areo garden because I had a few seeds left over and a seed pod that never grew anything taking up space. I wasn't sure the plant was going to make the move from the hydroponic system to the real dirt in the group, but it did and it's my first to produce.

On the left is my single tomato. Still green, but growing. This tomato looks strong. I hope more show up on my plants.

My parents have been harvesting cucumbers. I also had a fresh radish from their garden yesterday. It was so hot or sour or tart. I'm not sure the taste description you give a radish, but it was delicious.

So far, other than a few little cabbage worms on my broccoli, we've been keeping the pests away. Yesterday I learned of a new threat to the garden: neighborhood kids. They aren't pests, but they are curious, and they are not afraid to ask if they can have my fresh food. As long as they keep asking that's fine, but I don't want anyone stealing from my garden.

Flooding, so indoor crafts

It's been a rainy day in the mid-west. Three to four inches in Indianapolis this morning. I drove through the yard to avoid the rising water in the street to get to work this morning. I got drenched from head to toe and kept my shoes off most of the day because they couldn't dry out.

I got home tonight, and my garden looks like it survived. One potato plant and one Brussels sprout plant were a littl tipsy-turvy, but I think that was from the wet ground. They look like they will be okay as long as it deoesn't rain too much more tonight.

So I decided to use my evening to work on a great project for an upcoming Swap-bot swap. I'm going to wait to post pictures until I drop it in the mail. I've got to pick up some yummy teas before I can do that, but you can learn to make your own Tea Wallet here from "Is it Naptime Yet?"

I've got weeds

I need to find some time to get out in the garden and pull weeds. They are there and they aren't going away without a few hours of attention. I pulled out a few while I was checking things out last night. I also made a big salad from our fresh lettuce. It was delicious.

Around the house, the cats are starting to get a little case of cabin fever. They are indoor cats. They have been indoor cats since they were about three months old, but Dicey especially has been crying as he starts out the window. We've started letting them out while we're prepping dinner. He never goes more than a few feet from us. Racer, our more timid cat, will hardly do more than stick his head out the door. I'm hesitant to let them out until I get them to the vet for additional shots and flea medicine. Maybe we can do that later in the summer.

Surviving the storm

Saturday night we had terrible storms in Indianapolis. Actually, I can't say that. I wasn't here. I was driving south at the time and watching them with my white knuckles gripping the steering wheel.

There was more lightening in the sky than I had ever seen and by the time I got home the power had been kicked off and back on. I was worried about the garden on Saturday night, but it seemed to survive and maybe even thrive from the rain.

I've got another strawberry on my plant. I ate the red one on Friday. I hope a few more start growing because one at a time isn't quite enough.

I thinned my carrots yesterday. I hate to pull out too many because there really aren't a lot of them to begin with, but I know that if I leave them too close together they will not grow. I did that last year.

All Things Red

I planted strawberries in a pot. See that little bit of pink? It's a strawberry. And it's almost ripe enough to eat now. It's the only one so far that looks like a strawberry and not a green nodule.

I have to share it with Alex. One strawberry cut into two tiny pieces or more likely one strawberry and his will have a bite out of it as I remove it from the plant. I'm surprised at how well they're growing. Hopefully I'll have a successful strawberry summer.

Other red things in my garden are doing well. I planted tomatoes. Some tiny plants, which you can't see in this picture, I started myself indoors. These big tomato plants are from a local hardware/garden store. They have flowers on them now, which means tomatoes will follow soon. I got a variety of types because I'm not sure what I like. I remember my grandma growing big boys, but I'm sure she grew other varieties, too. I picked out the Indy tomato and have one plant of that variety for local sake. We'll see.

I've already started planning for next year. We're going to build/install a light table in the garage so I can start more plants from seed. I saved my plastic starter pots this year so I have a good stockpile of those.

I need to research prepping the ground after the garden, but I've got a few months before that and I'm ready to enjoy the summer!

My Opinion on Foods

I like food. I like to eat food, mainly real food. I like the occasional treat. I do eat prepared food at restaurants. I do not eat frozen or even typically packaged food from the grocery.

I do not like the government to tell me what to eat. I do not like the new food plate. I did not like the 2005 food pyramid, and I do not like that the general consensus is that people are too stupid to understand the pyramid that was released in the 1990s.

I like meat and other animal products. I especially like meat when I know the farmers that raised the animals or at least when I know the butcher that knows the farmers that raised the animals.

I do not like it when people call margarine butter. Drives me crazy.

I put cream in a my coffee (not nondairy substitute). I eat full fat varieties of most foods that come with an option (the exception being milk, because like beer, full flavor is just too filling). I do not think that a low fat life style is healthier.

I like the idea of the slow foods movement. I don't like the name because who has time for slow foods. My meals are all prepared in 30 minutes or less, unless the baking time is longer than 30 minutes in which time I am able to get other things done. I like meal plans. I don't always make them. I like breakfast. I don't ever skip it. Lunch I can give or take, but dinner is a must.

I eat dessert. Today it's fresh berries. They aren't good yet because they are out of season. Sometimes it's cookies or chocolate.

I grow herbs. I think they have healing properties. I think the food we eat affects our bodies. I think too many people do not make that connection. I think we can train our thumbs to be green and we will benefit from getting our hands dirty working on it. I'm at least going to try.

Garden for two

This is my garden. It's on the side of my house. It looks dry in the picture, but I'd already watered it. The high today is 93. I should probably water it before I leave for work this morning.

Tomatoes and potatoes are in the back rows. Peppers, broccoli, cucumbers and egg plants are in the next rows. Lettuce, spinach, squash, and brussel sprouts are in the front row.

It's a nice size garden for two people.
Right now, my favorites thing in the garden is the lettuce. I like it because it grows fast, started from seed and tastes yummy. Obviously it's not big enough for salad yet, but I've been able to pick a little leaf here and there to taste.

Everything else that I started from seed moves much slower. The large plants from nurseries are much further along but the "I did that" feeling just isn't there. I mean I guess I could say, "I replanted that," but it's not the same.

I don't want to rush my garden. Good things come with time.

A Summery Memorial Day

It's a beautiful day in Indianapolis. Birds are chirping, bees are buzzing, people are outside mowing their lawns. I've been in my garden on and off all day. My plants are looking better since the weather shaped up and the sun has finally come out again.

I planted some additional plants. My cucumbers never sprouted (from seeds). I replaced them with four starter plants. I also added in a couple of varieties of egg plants and one artichoke. I don't think artichoke grow in Indiana, but they are one of my favorites so I figure it won't hurt to try.

I also planted some herbs in pots in the back yard near the grill so we can not only eat fresh, but season fresh as well.

I picked out some sweet basil, which I also grow year round inside, some spicy round basil, which I've never tried, cap nip for the cats, oregano, parsley and rosemary.

I'm making an effort to take pictures and record my trials and successes so that next year it will be much easier. We'll see.

Happy Memorial Day, and happy summer!

Rain, rain, go away

I'll be honest. I haven't been out to check on my garden in a few days. It's been raining almost all day everyday, especially in the evenings when I'm home. That's not to say no one's peeked at it. Alex goes out every couple of evenings to make sure it's sufficiently watered.

I hope my plants are getting enough sunlight to grow and not so much water they are drowning.

I bet my strawberries are getting big.

One side of me is trying not to look every single day, at least not in the beginning because it's sad to see so little progress. On the same note, I want to look every day to make sure we don't have any over zealous birds or squirrels taking over. We're lucky, I've never seen a rabbit in our neighborhood. I honestly thought maybe they just didn't live in the city, but I saw one at a friend's house on Tuesday. Who new.

A funny story: Once upon a time, I lived in Lubbcok Texas, home of Texas Tech University. The west Texas city, is DRY. In fact, dust storms were a regular occurrence and tumbleweed would blow through my apartment complex (which was on 4th street about one block from the busiest road in town and one block from the sprawling campus). In other words I didn't live in the middle of no where. So one Saturday morning, I decided to take a little run. I headed toward campus and ran by this museum that sat on a few acres of land. You might call it a park I guess. Anyway, at this point in my Texas life other than a few skinny squirrels and an occasional road kills armadillo I hadn't seem much wildlife, but on this particular day, while I was running I was shocked and startled when a pair of GIANT ears lunged toward me. After the initial shock of what I thought I had seen, I realized that it was a rabbit. A tiny sweet bunny with huge ears. It was a jack rabbit. Looking around, there were probably hundreds in this park. They were the most bizarre looking creatures.

On the left, a Texas jackrabbit, on the right, an Indiana bunny rabbit. You can see my concern.
When those GIANT ears popped up at me.