Marion's Birthday Rose

My friend and Sister In Spirit had a birthday party, and we all got a beautiful rose from George's Flowers. The roses come from Ecuador. Beautiful!! Thank you, Marion.

White Globs of ?

While weeding around my Thujas, I found these white sacs completely surrounding one of them. I pulled them out and thought they might be mushroom sacs. The insides were quite moist and smelly...not really like a mushroom. Any guesses?

Drying Peppers

I never realized that the different color pepper flakes you find in the jars actually can come from the same pepper. As you can see, some parts of the drying peppers have turned dark red and other parts light yellow. Almost time to crush them!

Turban Squash

Isn't this Turban Squash exotic looking? I am definitely saving seeds from this little guy! Maybe I will make a rice dish with it. For now, I will just keep it to enjoy its character.

Bulk Shipment Arrived

My order from Bulk Foods arrived today. I will be sharing some with friends. I am especially interested in using the Nutritional Yeast flakes. I think I will serve it as a stew topping instead of grated Parmesan cheese.

Italian Soup

I used the last of my tomatoes from the garden in this Italian Soup. Also from the garden, I threw in fennel and other herbs, carrots, onions, and loads of green peppers. Also added an acorn squash, zucchini and mushrooms to the mix. I will freeze some of the soup in smaller containers so we will have a reminder of the garden when the weather turns cooler. I am going to save the squash seeds for next year to share and plant.

Bouquet Garni

I picked up a bargain cookbook today called, All In One and made the recipe called "Spring Stew". It called for a bouquet garni, so I made one with my very own herbs. Only the bay leaf was bought fresh from the store. The rest of the bouquet was rosemary, oregano, savory, thyme and sage. I wrapped it in cheesecloth and string. The stew was wonderful.

Recipe:

2 tbsp olive oil
4-8 baby onions, halved
2 celery stalks, cut into 1/4 in /5-mm slices
8 oz/225 g baby carrots, scrubbed and halved if large
10 1/2 oz /300 g new potatoes, scrubbed and halved or quartered if large
4-5 cups vegetable stock
3 cups canned cannellini beans drained and rinsed
1 fresh bouquet garni
2 tbsp light soy sauce
3 oz/ 85 g baby corn
1 cup frozen or shelled fresh fava beans
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 head of Savoy or spring cabbage about 8 oz of 225 g
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp cold water
2-3 oz/55-85 g Parmesan or sharp Cheddar cheese, grated to serve

Directions:

Heat the oil in large, heavy-bottom pan with tight-fitting lid, and cook the onions, celery, carrots, and potatoes, stirring frequently for 5 minutes until softened. Add stock, drained beans, bouquet garni, and soy sauce, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer covered for 12 minutes.
Add the baby corn and fava beans and season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer for an additional 3 minutes.
Meanwhile, shred the leaves of the cabbage, add to the pan and simmer for 3-5 minutes until vegetables are tender.
Blend the cornstarch with water, stir in pan and cook for 4-6 minutes until is has thickened. Remove bouquet garni.
Serve with grated cheese in separate dish for sprinkling at the last minute over soup.
Serves 4

Saving Seeds

I want to try to save some seeds for next year's garden. It was pretty easy with this spaghetti squash. I enjoyed making these labels for future sharing. Maybe someone else has a better way of labeling? I wish I could just print on the envelopes I got, but this worked out pretty well.

Pepper Jam

OK...great.

Spaghetti Squash

I made a Spaghetti Squash dish for Rosh Hashanah. I forgot to take a picture of the dish before it was served and only got the tail end after the mim ate all the topping. It was good! I saved the seeds to plant and share next spring.

The End of the Tomatoes

These are so ugly...and the tomatoes are rotten inside. Can you see the blight spots even in the stems of the plants and in the reds of the tomatoes?

Pepper Jam

My neighbor, Mr. Hench gave me canning supplies. I loved making Pepper Jam using the supplies and my Chili Peppers. This jam is HOT!! I figure it will be good in Vegetarian Chili, on toasted bagels and cream cheese, my homemade salsas and on Western Omelets. I am not kidding when I tell you this is HOT!

:(

OK...I have learned my lesson. When you have the very beginning of blight? Pull out the entire plant and carefully bag it. The tomato plants were just too close to the bird house vines and now I think they too have blight. Let's all just acknowledge that to pull seemingly healthy plants is very hard to do. Maybe I need to avoid any plant from the Solanaceae family in my garden for a couple years. Since this includes potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, eggplants and petunias, it will be a challenge. I still wonder if I am correct that the bird house gourd vines have blight?

Very Green Tomatoes

Rather pathetic, I know. They will probably rot, so I may pick them off the vine tomorrow. I was hoping at least a few would be vine ripened successfully before the blight took them.

Pollination Continues

The pumpkin blossoms are still being pollinated by the bees...see him waaaay in there before he climbs back out? Actually there are THREE bees in there making it look black at the base.

Peppers, peppers, peppers

I have to figure out how to preserve the green chilies. I may freeze some to add to recipes later.