Merry Christmas!

Pickling

Today I decided to take some jalapenos from the garden and red onions from the store and pickle them.  I used Chef Michael Symon's pickling recipe that I had clipped out of the newspaper last year.  It was really easy to do, I hope they taste as delicious as they look :) Here is a link to the recipe:


http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/michael-symon/pickled-onions-recipe/index.html

Garage Sale Finds

I went to a few garage sales in search of old frames and found quite a bit.  I also found a really cool lamp, I want to paint it a bright color!  

I also found a really large embroidery hoop for larger projects!  25 cents, can't beat that!

Garden & Nutrition Facts

The plants have grown so much!  I am actually about to plant a second crop of lettuces, kale, and broccoli to last through the first frost.  The crabgrass in my yard started to invade the garden and it has been a lot of work trying to keep up with it...

I packed this garden with tomatoes, beans, eggplant, lettuces, kale, cabbage, peppers, kohlrabi, carrots, squash and lots of herbs!

I didn't realize that I had white eggplants until they started to grow.  I thought I had bought the purple striped, but these are beautiful!

Fun fact:  Eggplant is considered a fruit, but botanically it's actually a berry...

On the left is cabbage and on the right is kale. Both of these are superstar vegetables with all sorts of great health benefits!

Fact:  Kale is a nutritional powerhouse. It ranks #1 against all vegetables.  Spinach is #2.  Kale helps fight and prevent cancers and it is loaded with vitamins!  

This is kohlrabi which is part of the cabbage family. You eat the bulb part, it can be eaten raw or cooked, the leaves are also edible!


Fact:  Kohlrabi also helps fight cancer, is a good source of Vitamin C and great source of potassium!

Garden update

So I was really sick in July and to make a long story short...I had to have my gallbladder removed.  I am recovering from the surgery at home and realized that I hadn't kept up with my blog through all this! Now that I am starting to feel better and I thought I would finally update my garden progress :)  I will have to get some more pics up here ASAP because the garden is gigantic and I am getting ready to plant my second crop of lettuces!

Week 1: Itty Bitty plants

I planted many of my herbs in pots this year.

This would be about week 2 or so.  The plants are getting much bigger :)

Just a closeup of the lettuces.  I planted romaine, mixed leaves and green leaf.  We have enjoyed many salads this summer.

Almost there!

I got all the plants in the ground last weekend and just have a few more finishing touches.  It turned out so cute!  I love it and can't wait for all the veggies to grow :)


I planted tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, squash, carrots, kale, kohlrabi, lots of lettuces, cabbage, green beans and many herbs!  I also planted sunflowers and marigolds along the fence.


We are still going to add a slate entrance area for me to hose off my muddy shoes and round the top of the gate :)  I am just so happy to have everything planted!  

In the trenches

With the aid of a smaller rototiller and LOTS of shoveling, we dug a trench around the whole garden so we could sink the fence 1 foot underground.  I also lined it with bricks and then covered it back up with dirt.  Hopefully this will keep the groundhogs from destroying my garden!  It is so much work right now, but it feels great :) Last night we started building a garden gate, more pics to come!