Yesterday was a great day. Church, lunch at Captain D's (love their coupons) then rushing to the Adventure Science Center for about 3 hours with all my kids, then church again, then a cookout at friends from church (whole congregation invited). They had a swingset, a trampoline and "cornhole"--which I always called "beanbag toss", but it seems to be the alternative to horseshoes. Apparently, my 12 year old son is quite good at it.
I have been picking a handful of strawberries every day or two. These are Tristar Strawberries and I don't know why they do so well. I have never divided them (renovated) but have potted up the trailing baby plants, so I have several plants.
This is my garden spot. In the back is a earthbox with 2 tomato plants I need to stake up, an earthbox of Heritage raspberries, a (slightly) raised bed of Heritage and Logan raspberries (picked about 10 yesterday--our first ones. Dilara (2 1/2) ate them all), a 4 x 4 square foot garden with asparagus, mint, dill, green onions, and strawberries, and a few empty squares. I have other earthboxes with cucumbers planted; an earthbox of 8 bell peppers; one of lettuce and radishes; one of green onions. Behind those is peonies, a butterfly weed, a rose, some phlox some stargazer lilies, an earthbox of assorted flowers (which desperately need dividing) of which daylilies seem prominent right now.In the front, there is romaine lettuce which has bolted and I need to get out; swiss chard--which I am growing for the first time and I love it; a squash plant (I just pulled out a bigger one that was actually starting to bear, but which squash bugs had killed and I am going to get some spinosad or other organic insecticide to deal with those before I replant. And a box full or strawberries which I planted 7 or 8 years ago with a few Tristar strawberry plants and I have hardly done anything besides topdressing with some fertilizer and pulling out dead plants. To the left I have a pile of bricks that has 2 window boxes full of strawberry plants and one of Autumn Joy Sedum which I need to get in the ground. In the very front, I have 3 blueberry plants, to the left I have a fence with 3 triple crown blackberry plants, and lots of wild stuff growing. I should probably clear it out so the blackberries will do better.
This is some of the wild grape. I have been stuffing the leaves. Last year I also noticed this flower, or immature fruit or whatever it is that looks like baby grapes, but we never got "real" grapes. I keep hearing that grape leaves only can be picked when they are young, in the spring (like May and early June), but the vines seem to grow till frost, and so there should always be young, tender leaves. I guess I'll be experimenting. I would like to forage and pick lots of leaves to store, but I haven't had the time.
In the left corner of this picture is some poke weed. I picked a huge bag a week or two ago before I cut my grass, but I finally threw it out. I was going to blanch and freeze it, but I finally decided I wasn't going to get around to it.
Poke Sallet is a bit of a pain to cook--I boil it 5 minutes, three times, each time changing water. Then I put it in an iron skillet with butter and salt and add some eggs and scramble it all up and eat it with toast. You have to pick the poke that doesn't have red in the stems--usually you pick the tops, because the stem near the ground may have some red. Supposedly, poke is poisonous, but the poison is in the red parts, which I think eventually becomes red veining in the leaves, which is why you are only supposed to eat the young plants.
This morning, I made Dolma (stuffed vegetables) with wild grape leaves and swiss chard leaves from my garden. I am playing around with recipes. I did rice and lentils (no meat) filling this morning.
In the left corner of this picture is some poke weed. I picked a huge bag a week or two ago before I cut my grass, but I finally threw it out. I was going to blanch and freeze it, but I finally decided I wasn't going to get around to it.
Poke Sallet is a bit of a pain to cook--I boil it 5 minutes, three times, each time changing water. Then I put it in an iron skillet with butter and salt and add some eggs and scramble it all up and eat it with toast. You have to pick the poke that doesn't have red in the stems--usually you pick the tops, because the stem near the ground may have some red. Supposedly, poke is poisonous, but the poison is in the red parts, which I think eventually becomes red veining in the leaves, which is why you are only supposed to eat the young plants.
This morning, I made Dolma (stuffed vegetables) with wild grape leaves and swiss chard leaves from my garden. I am playing around with recipes. I did rice and lentils (no meat) filling this morning.
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