What is growing now- front!

Brice has a steady flow of broccoli making it to our table, with the mass of the brussel sprouts to be ready this week. Cauliflower is about the size of a baseball, and then the purple head cauliflower is a little bigger and is looking beautiful. Hopefully we don't have real hard frost and they should make it and produce until time for spring planting. (spring & summer seeds are already started indoors, he's got about 100 seeds going and growing waiting for their perfect weather to go outside)
The artichokes we planted last summer in the front area are over three feet tall and becoming nice hedges dividing the grass area with the front garden. They should keep growing all through summer.
Trees are olive, plum, and orange. Will add another plum and orange sometime next couple years.
The thornless blackberry vines are on year number three and growing long and still thornless. Somehow I thought the nursery was lying and a thornless blackberry didn't exist. But, yep they do. Pictures to follow.

What is growing now- back gardens

Our brussel sprouts are the only producing backyard veg as of now. Artichokes have completely gone down to stump and back to two feet tall in a matter of months.
Fruit Trees are pruned growing bigger and wanting to produce me some more delicious fresh fruit! Trees now; cherry, almond, apricot, pear, white peach, and pomegranate occupy the back and will get a couple more in a month or so. We need to add a cherry pollinator and I want a nectarine tree. The asparagus is cut down to nothing also. Hoping for a good spring & summer there's lots waiting to grow!

What's Growing Now-Back Gardens

Tomatoes (Beef Steak, Cherry, and Grape Varieties)


Jalapenos


Eggplant


Cilantro


My puny little potatoes starting to green, it'll be a while still yet on these!
Russet

Sweet


Corn


Strawberries


Squash (Green & Yellow)


Red Flame Seedless Grapes


Kiwi (It'll be a while still until we have kiwi fruit)


Turnips


Watermelons


Pomegranate


Donut Peaches


Pumpkins


Not pictured: Sweet Peas, Artichokes, Bing Cherry, Apricot, Pear, Kholrabi, Okra, and Blueberries.

What's Growing Now-Front Gardens

Cabbage

One we picked today :)



Lettuce



Cantaloupe



Carrots

A few we picked today, might not look like typical carrots, but tasted wonderful with our cabbage and new potatoes



Cucumbers

Four big ones we picked today, in the fridge for cold cucumber salad tomorrow!



Turnips



Corn & Green Beans



Kholrabi


Not pictured: Onions, Okra, Heirloom Tomatoes, Red Bell Peppers, Green Bell Peppers, Wax Peppers, Jalapenos, Blackberries, Watermelon, Almond, Olive & Squash.

Come on, Corn!

Watching my gardens grow has definitely improved my patience. However, I feel as if I can not wait another day for fresh corn.

It doesn't help as I was scanning my cook book trying to find something new to do with summer squash I came across the most amazing corn recipe that made my mouth water instantly. When I finally pick my corn and try it, I will post it. I am hoping it tastes as good as my imagination thinks it will.
We planted corn in a couple different places on the property, trying to maximize yield and space, also to figure out what grows best where for future summer planting. Oddly enough the little corn stalks in the backyard are bigger than the plot in the front where I expected our best harvest to come from. I'm thinking instead of planting the early variety in the front I mixed up the seedlings and put them in the back. The one struggle with having a toddler help you is she decided to take out all my labels from my seed trays and stick them all in my artichoke planting pots. I just recently was able to identify my pepper plants as the peppers are growing since small pepper plants all look the same. Instead of an even amount of jalapenos, green bell, red bell, and yellow wax, the jalapenos are thick and I've got about a half a dozen of the others. I'm guessing the neighbor I thought I gave jalapenos to was shocked when red bell and wax peppers started growing on his "jalapeno" plant! Oops! I'd rather have Ella help me and have a few fun mix ups than exclude her, she has fun helping and what's the big deal how many we have growing anyway, it'll all grow just the same and feed us.

Back to the corn, would you please hurry up and grow so I can boil you, grill you, and smother you in new sauces I can't wait to try. Maybe Ella and I are going to have to go down to the farmers market tonight to get us some sweet corn to hold us over until ours is ready for harvest.

Cheating at Spaghetti Sauce

A simple quick go-to meal when the day's been long and the family needs to be fed has always been Spaghetti. I by no means make my own spaghetti sauce, I'm sure when my tomato plants in the garden are in full swing I will. But sauce is something I buy and keep stocked in the pantry.
I start the big pot of water for the noodles first always.
Then get some oil hot in a good size pan, added an onion and went and picked a yellow squash from the garden, sliced it into half inch circles then cut each circle in four wedges and added them to the pan with some Italian seasonings. I cut them small so they would make sure and cook enough and not be too big.
Let that cook for a while stirring pretty frequently, then added some mushrooms and a sliced up clove of garlic.
You can tell it's a real complicated and precise recipe as my cook times are referred to as "a while," and that I let the onions cook by themselves only as long as it takes me to go and pick a squash.
Next, add your sauce jar of choice and turn the heat down to low. By that time the water is boiling for your noodles, and it'll be time to add them and also put the bread in the oven.
My bread? Oh it's real fancy let me tell you. Remember my columbo rolls from my Barbecue pork sandwiches? There's always bread left over so garlic cheese bread is a good use for those columbo rolls. Break them in half, spread some melted butter on them, shredded mozzarella cheese, sprinkle with a healthy coverage of parmesan cheese, and top with garlic salt. Bread perfection.
Doesn't take long to make what is a very "pantry" meal into more of home cooked goodness.

Purple Vienna Kholrabi

We were looking for a vegetable to plant that would be unique and had some history to it. Again, we found the seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds I was given a Bible lesson one day from a farmer about how Kholrabi (coal-raby) was used in ancient times to help with fertility issues, also learning that they are part of the Brassica family and grow in good soil same as turnips. Since we have such luck with turnips we decided to try some Kholrabi too. The purple variety is beautiful when grown, they grow above the ground instead of below the ground like turnips, so they add vibrant color to all of the green in our garden. They really are a great conversation vegetable too, as most people we encounter don't know or have never heard of them, it never hurts to "introduce" something new to someone they just might love new veggies because of you.

Today was the first day we had any ready to pick for dinner. They have a similar texture to turnips, except the outside is a little more fibrous and tough so I only ate the inside. It probably has an acquired taste and if your not a vegetable lover may seem a bit strange. I however, loved them, kind of a cross between an artichoke heart, a turnip and the taste of cooked cabbage. I think we'll let the next few get a bit bigger before we pick them and might find the texture changes a bit.
Ella liked them too, and while they were steaming away in the trusty old steamer we went out and fed her two rabbits the top greens. Always great when the rabbits score some fresh produce too :)
Our little garden proves wonderful yet another night. We should be a few days away from some sweet corn, and tomorrow morning we need to go check on our peas, I forget about those little fellas growing up the fence...

Artichokes, Artichokes, Artichokes!

My first love was not a boy, it was an artichoke. Something about the meaty vegetable goodness on each leaf, and the strong flavor of the heart just made my own heart melt. Thanks to my Mom who didn't force us to eat our veggies, but graciously insisted on the "two bite test." Which I am positive led to three, four, and ten bites of everything she ever cooked for us, and why as an adult I view veggies as an important part of every meal.
One of our first things my husband and I planted when we had a home to call our own was indeed a handful of artichoke seeds.
From the guidance of a friend, artichoke plants grow best when started from seed, we found two different varieties online (Green Globe and Purple Romagna) and seeds are a lot cheaper to buy than plants anyway. My favorite seed supplier is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, super cheap, and Heirloom veggies just seem to taste better. Not that I'm against finding a sale at a local big box store on seeds, I'm not biased to what I'll plant, my only requirement is that WE plant it.



It took about two years for our Artichoke plants to reach full producing potential. Last year we got a handful of baby artichokes off, but this year we're at about 40 harvested artichokes from three plants, and they're still going!


All we do is pick them, use kitchen scissors to snip the top pokey parts off the leaves, and use a knife to make the top a flat even surface, then plop them in the steamer, or in a pot of boiling water, and they take about 30 to 45 minutes to cook to tender.



Now, maybe my Country-ness is going to really show now, but my favorite dip for artichokes is equal parts of ranch dressing and mayonnaise... AND there goes the "healthy" right out the window! :) My husband is the traditional garlic butter dipper, but my daughter just likes to eat them plain as is, the healthiest way of all for sure.

Now most things I've read about growing artichokes people trim their plants down after they're done producing. My husband only prunes the bottom dead leaves off and lets them grow. They stay green all winter and when the rest of the trees have lost their leaves my artichoke plants stand tall and beautiful. Who needs hedges anyway? This year we have added another two dozen artichoke plants around our property, they're only about a foot tall now, but by this time next year, I'll be in a forest of artichokes and one happy lady.

Corn and Green Beans

Taking some pointers from our Native American Ancestors, when we planted our rows of sweet corn we planted 'blue lake' green beans in front of them. Now that the corn is a little over three feet tall and the green beans are right at about a foot high, the way the plants grow are proof of how smart our Ancestors really were. Our green beans are latching on to the stalks of the corn and gaining support so the wonderful beans aren't laying on the ground. The corn grows so tall, neither plant is starved of it's sunshine, and they both are thriving. Using the same land to plant us two crops is also a great space saver. My husbands rule is five rows of corn, they grow best that way.

This morning while it was still cool we went out to pick some green beans for our dinner, after about thirty minutes of scavenging through plump leaves we dumped on the table what I dubbed a "Holy Heap of Green Beans!" This is the picture I sent to my parents bragging of our harvest, a few pounds of yummy fresh green beans.



My daughter and I sat down at the table right before dinner and went through and broke off the tips of the green beans, it took us fifteen minutes. Why all the fuss for green beans? You're probably thinking, you can grab two cans of green beans from the pantry, pull out your can opener, and have green beans cooking on the stove in two minutes... I wouldn't trade that time with my daughter for anything, we make great memories when food is involved and I know I'll cherish them all when she's up and left me for college, or some man. But she also smiles and brags to dad "Look what I'm doing helping Mom with green beans" when he came into the kitchen, so I know she is proud helping me.
Now back to the beans, these were all our little ends snapped off, and Ella's big ends snapped off I should add too, since little fingers don't always get the closest to the ends, but she's my great handy dandy helper!



When they were all clean and in the colander we were left with amazing fresh blue lake green beans, no stringy insides, just pure good eatin' ready to get in the pot of boiling water, and onto our dinner plates.



No salt, No additives, No 69 cents a can at the grocery store.
Planted, Picked, Prepped, and Cooked, with our own hands, just like it's supposed to be.

Pico de Gallo Salsa!

Tomatoes, Onions, Cilantro and Jalapenos!
In an attempt to create salsa with my garden produce it normally had turned into a frothy, mushy, either too spicy or a tomatoey mess! So when my best friend bought "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" cookbook for me for my birthday and I saw her Pico De Gallo salsa it was instant love! Pioneer Woman opened my eyes to how simple making fresh salsa really is.
She points out it's all about having equal amounts of those four ingredients. Read her recipe and instructions here.


Basically, I cut up four to five Roma tomatoes, a couple onions, a handful of cilantro, and two jalapenos. Chop it consistently so they are all the same size pieces. Well except the jalapenos, those I try to chop into super tiny pieces so I don't light my husband on fire. Then stir it all together, and with no or low salt tortilla chips you've got a pretty refreshing and not too unhealthy snack.

And the absolute best part about Pioneer Woman's pico de gallo greatness, is if you want guacamole, all you do is smush up a few avocados, add some of your pico de gallo to it and VIOLA! Fresh chunky guacamole! And you didn't even have to go to a Mexican restaurant for it! Now, if you can get avocados to grow at your place, that's a tip I'd love to have...

Why this Blog?

In my life I don't typically have time to sit on the computer and type. I don't do facebook, and pride myself on being a family oriented, hard working house keeper-upper, who doesn't waste time or dilly-dally on the internet.
I do however, love to write, and needed to find something relaxing to do to make me sit still for a little while a day. You know, in between the dryer bossing me around, or the child or the husband needing assistance in one way or another.
So, I decided to make a blog, to share with family and friends, and hopefully even strangers, how "easy" it is to live off your land. All you need is some empty space that gets glorious sunshine enough during the day to make your future food thrive and grow.
The food we have planted is for our climate in the Central Valley of California, but I know wherever you live, there is a way to get outside and grow something!
I also want to be able to post recipes we try and love, using our seasonal fresh produce, and meats we love to cook up and eat. I am in no way a professional chef, I am spoiled to have a husband of many talents and cooking just so happens to be one of his strong points. Not that I'm a complete disaster in the kitchen but why mess up a good thing, right? I do know how to read a recipe, to grow a green bean, and to raise a healthy vegetable loving child, there are less qualified people telling us what to do and how to do it, so why not me try to give some healthy fun pointers?