A Walk in the Wilds of Denton...

Down the street is an empty field that has wild blackberries in it. One morning I decided to go pick some. I walked down the street with my harvesting bucket and with my head filled with visions of blackberry cobbler, blackberry jam, blackberry pie.

After braving the thorns (ouch!) and fighting the birds for that one ripe berry, I came home with....

1/4 cup of berries.

Sigh.

Today's Harvest

I went for my morning walk and came home to see what was ready to pick for today's salad. Well, there are a few tomatoes, but they are not quite ready. I've eaten all the ripe cherry tomatoes, save one from today. Huny has given up on having some of those for the salad. I just can't help it! I love them!

Mom likes to tell a story of a time when I was a baby girl and got lost. They searched up and down for me and finally found me sitting in the middle of the tomato patch eating cherry tomatoes. Wish I could remember that. I'm sure it was pure heaven.

Our Sweet Banana Peppers are going crazy though! I picked one for the salad and the other two to slice and deseed and serve with some ranch dressing for an appetizer. There are still quite a few on the plants for tomorrow. These are just two and one hiding in background, but there at least five more on these two plants.

I still have lettuce going. I planted these from seed so that is whey they are still here but it is starting to get hot out so I don't know how much longer they'll be around.

I also got some chives and and a green top from the Walking Red Onion. It may not seem like much but this is good for Huny and me for our dinner tonight. I'll just add some feta cheese, olives, sunflower seeds and dressing and I suppose I ought to split that one little cherry tomato with him.

Piggly Wiggly, Down Home, Down the Street

Well, only for a few more days and then Piggly Wiggly is gone for good.

When I was a little girl I lived in El Paso, Texas. Across the street a ways was the local Piggly Wiggly and that is where we shopped for the necessities. For me it was chocolate candy, but for mom it was milk and eggs.

When we moved from El Paso, I never thought of it again until I met Huny and started visiting him in Denton. The directions he gave me that first time were to take a left where Piggly Wiggly is on the corner. Huh? I'll be durned - there it was - a Piggly Wiggly on the corner.

After I moved to Denton, the Pig was the place to stop for that one thing I needed for supper that night, milk for the morning cereal, or to do some grocery shopping. Even though the prices were kind of high on some things, I shopped there as much as possible because I have always been a big supporter of the local mom and pops. I always hit the vege aisle first because they would take their "day-old" veges and bag them up for $1.00! I saved a lot of money doing that and I got some good stuff too. Pigs carried a lot of local vendors in the store so that was even better. The regular employees had been there forever - some over 30 years - and slowly we got to know each other and they became somewhat of an extended family.

A few weeks ago I noticed that some things were going away - the magazines, books. The canned coffees were not being replenished - things like that. Slowly I started to hear rumors that the store was in trouble. Last week there were signs all over the place of 30% off - STORE CLOSING!

SADNESS!!

It all having to do with a bankruptcy. A local buyer was looking to buy, but that fell through.

So now, another neighborhood store is closing. I'll have to go to the big box chain grocery stores where I won't know the cashier and the cashier will be too busy to get to know me. I may have more of a variety, but at what cost? It just doesn't seem worth it to me.

I'll miss this icon of another time, the local neighborhood grocery store.

Onion Harvest

My garden is a work in progress and is an every day learning experience for me. I've been keeping an eye on my onions and figured that surely they should be ready to come out soon. The tops had toppled over and some of the onions were up on the ground. This is my very first onion crop so I had no clue on when they should be ready. Well, I found out that once the tops do topple over (and mine were all on the ground) that is the time to harvest. Look at what I got! My very first onion harvest ever!

The basket is full of onions! Some are the size of a softball!

Being new to the harvest part of gardening, I rigged up this drying screen with Huny's compost screen. I ended up with 28 onions.

Did I mention that I don't like onions? I like onion flavor, but I do not like to bite into an onion. I'm trying to learn to like them, but it is something I need to keep working on.

I cook with onions all the time, but always leave them in large enough pieces so that I can see them in my food.

Here's a recipe that you might like if you're into onions:

1 small to medium onion, sliced

1 cucumber, sliced

1/4 c (or to taste) of Italian Dressing

salt and pepper to taste

herb of choice (I used Marjoram.)

Mix all together and let set in the refrigerator for an hour. Serve as a side salad with your evening meal or with some crackers for a light lunch.

It's Friday night and...

I'm making Strawberry Jam! I am one wild, and crazy lady!

A few weeks ago I went to The Bailey’s Berry Patch to learn how to can, preserve, pickle, dry and freeze fresh fruit and vegetables.

The day was filled with learning, cooking and tasting. I learned how to freeze my fruits and vegetables the right and safe way. I learned how to dry fruits and make my own roll ups and I learned how to make jams.

I tasted fresh made salsa and watched it being canned with the boiling waterbath method. The salsa was excellent. I got to bring a pint of it home and enjoyed it with chips, guacamole and fajitas.

I haven't attempted the waterbath yet, but I have made jam.

My huny loves to eat blackberry anything. Do you know how much a small jar of blackberry jam costs? Jeez!

Although the initial cost was high because I had to buy the freezer jars, in the end the total cost was much lower than buying blackberry jam in the store, and even less than buying organic blackberry jam in the local organic grocery store. I spent about $4.00 for the jars, $1.50 for the fruit pectin, and $1.50 for 5 fresh blackberry tubs.

For the strawberry jam I made tonight, all I had to buy was the strawberries, which ended up at $1.50 a quart for 3 quarts (although I used 2 1/4) for the four cups the recipe calls for and $1.50 for the fruit pectin.

I ended up with 6-8oz jars of blackberry jam and 5-8oz jars of strawberry jam.

We are eating blackberry jam on toast, ice cream, bagels with cream cheese and in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I can hardly wait to have the strawberries on bagels. Yum!

Learning how to use what I grow to provide for my family gives me a feeling of goodness in my heart. I'm glad that I can borrow the Earth to grow foods that my family loves and will eat. I am being patient with myself and with the garden and am learning as I go. Every step of this journey in the garden has been a wonderful adventure for me. I encourage you to take a step, no matter how small, to get in the dirt and grow something good for your soul. If it's a vegetable, sit and enjoy the taste of what you grew in your garden. If it's a flower, sit and enjoy the beauty and bloom and enjoy the simple pleasure of watching birds and butterflies enjoy it as well.

Before you know it, you'll be making your own jam and enjoying it with your morning bagel and cup of coffee.

Rain!

Rain, rain!

This picture and below is the west side of the house.

This is the backyard. The far corner is where we have pumpkins growing.

The little garden up against the fence is where we have the zucchni.

Against the side is where we have peppers, onions, strawberries and lettuce.

We have had so much rain lately and even though it makes for a soggy yard the rain is appreciated. In a few weeks we will be checking the sky for clouds and hoping for rain. Unfortunately, sometimes once the rain stops in the spring, we don’t see it for a long, long time. I’m not going to complain, but in the meantime we get small lakes in the yard.

This is the east side of the backyard. That's the compost pile in the back corner. The bed next to that is where we have tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans.

All of this standing water started after homes were developed behind our yard. We will be working on something this summer in order to get this water to drain, but we're not sure what yet.

So far though, the plants have been taking all this water and standing water in stride and are coming along just fine!

Kentucky Derby

I have to admit I am not much into sports. I can sit and watch and have fun, but I really have no idea what is going on. I even had a Super Bowl party with a bunch of girlfriends and not a one of us knew what was going on (kinda - we're not complete dodo birds). But we hollered and whooped and had a good ole time and that is still one of the best parties I ever had. I remember one of the teams was the Seattle Seahawks. I don't think they won.

And then my Huny walked into my life. The man is a sports junkie. If I let him he would watch sports channels all day, every day.

Now I sit and watch every sport there is on TV. I am now hooked on NASCAR ( go Carl Edwards - yoohoo). I watch football, I watch baseball, basketball, GOLF (omg). I sit and watch tv and listen to Huny tell me all kinds of statistics, names, places, who's who and who knows what else and I say, Yes, Dear. (Just don't ask me to repeat any of this because I have NO IDEA, what he is talking about.)

So being the dutiful wife and, okay, now I do kinda get into the sports thing (even though I still have no clue), I watched the Kentucky Derby. Getting into the spirt of the thing, I threw on my cowboy horse shirt, dug out my favorite straw cowboy hat and searched high and low for the trim and feathers to make it into a hat worthy of the Kentucky Derby.

When Huny got home from work he started searching for his BB gun. Never mind that he doesn't even own one. HaHa.

I gave him my appropriate Derby nose and asked him if he wanted me to fix him a hat too. Well, he said no way.

Hmmph.

In lieu of the Mint Julip, I plucked a sprig of spearmint sat back and enjoyed the show with my trigger happy Huny.

I hope you had a wonderful day today as well!

The latest flu...

Everytime we turn around there is something out there that is out to get us. It's either some type of flu bug or something that we are told we shouldn't eat or drink because it gives us cancer.

I feel for the familes that have been affected by this latest flu bug. Loved ones have died and that is sadness.

Familes and communities have been affected in other ways as well. Schools are closed putting an extra burden on the parents that have to find some way to have their children cared for during the day while they are at work. Most parents can't take the time off to be at home because this job is all they have to keep their family above water. Businesses are losing their livelihood because no one is going there to shop or eat. Families are confined to their homes. I heard this morning about a father that took his children to the gym at a Marine base and was turned away - not because he or his children were or had been ill, but because his children attended a school where three children had confirmed cases of the flu.

Events across the nation are being cancelled. Most of these events have vendors that to most of them an event is another avenue of how to sell their product and make a living. All of this adds to an already troubled economy. In my community the opening day of Lewisville Farmers' Market and the Cinco de Mayo event was cancelled.

And then today, I heard that the whole thing was blown out of proportion. That yes, it is a bad thing that is happening, it is just not the big, badness that it was made out to be.

Whether that is true or not, I don't know. I don't know what the answer is or what the right action to take is.

Like you, I don't want my family to become affected by this flu or any other flu, or sickness, or anything. But I also don't want to confine my family and be afraid of living life.

Like our grandmother and mother said, wash you hands. Be careful. Be aware.

And as we say in Texas, don't be afraid to take the bull by horns. (Just be sure you wash your hands afterwards!)

Poppies in the Garden

A perfect day for a walk in the garden! The day was a bit cloudy and just the right temperature.

A while back I posted about seeds that I put out in the garden and some of them were for poppies. Yesterday I got my first bloom!

Later in the day I was walking around and found it was being visited by a little fly.

Here are some other pictures of my garden:

daisy

yarrow

dianthus and a monarch butterfly.

Have a wonderful day!

Radishes

Radishes.

Up until a year ago or so I never really thought about them. At all. It's a vegetable, you see. I didn't eat them in salads. I certainly didn't eat them whole.

But then the Vege Garden Fairy (my Huny) visited me. (He might not like me calling him a Garden Fairy, but he is.) And my life changed.

Now radishes are everywhere in my garden.

I eat them in my salads now. I've tried them whole with salt- Huny's direct route to Nirvana - but this is not my thing.

There is a curious thing that happens when you start to garden with vegetables. You have to eat them.

And I love it! I love going out and picking my lettuce and green onions for the salad every night. I love to pick some chives for the breakfast eggs. I can hardly wait to harvest the onions. The cherry tomatoes are coming on, the serrano peppers are going strong, the pumpkins are leafing out so beautifully! Cucumbers are starting to reach for the sky. Beans are being shy still, but I'm patient with them. Tomatoes are flowering and jalapenos and bell's are starting to wake as well.

This Spring has been a wonderful revelation to me. It's like a butterfly opening her wings and learning to fly.

The Garden, a Film

Today I visited the website for a new publication to our area called Edible Dallas & Fort Worth. When I joined their Facebook group I came across a reference to a film called 'The Garden'. I looked it up and was amazed at what these people did with the land. They came together and took a patch of land and showed what we can all do with a bit of dirt - no matter if it is a fourteen-acre garden or an abandoned lot in our own backyard. This garden community grew enough food to feed their families, friends and most importantly, they grew a community of people that cared about doing something positive with what they had.

Just to have someone come in and say they are taking it away.

What is unfortunate is that this is not a new story. Across the nation people band together and take an abandoned piece of land that no one wants and give it love and attention, and they take pride in what they have accomplished. They have brought back a piece of land from nothing to a piece of land bringing sustenance to their lives and to the lives of their loved ones.

And then, someone sees what they have done and they say they are taking it away.

The love, attention and pride that they give to this abandoned bit of land most often carries over to their own homes in one way or another. And then someone takes notice that the neighborhood might have some value after all.

Just to have someone come in and say they are taking it away.

This film is about a fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles. It is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community. But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers:

Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public?

And the powers-that-be have the same response: “The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do.”

If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?

Happy Easter!

Well, yesterday will have to make up for today because today it is rainy. Yesterday was such a wonderfully, marvelous day!

The day started out at a cool 45 degrees, but the sun was shining in a beautiful blue sky! On the drive to the Coppell Farmers’ Market I had to cross the Lewisville Lake and it was a perfect day for fishing as well – there were quite a few anglers out dipping a hook!

The Coppell Farmers' Market is a small one but it was very pleasant. There was free hot coffee that was perfect for the cool morning! Offered at the market were fresh cut flowers, organic meats, seafood, natural pet foods, baked goods, potted herbs and plants, handmade soaps and candles, homemade pastas and all kinds of canned goods (jams, jalapenos, beets, garlic) and there was some honey. I recognized most of these vendors as being local and the prices were reasonable.

I came away with baked goods from Healthy Me Marketplace, some treats for my granddogs from Biscuit Head Baking Co., Pickled Beets and handmade pasta (Basil Garlic Linguine) from Lucido’s Produce and Herbs (214-352-2978). Lucido's can be found at the Frisco and Lewsiville Farmers' Markets as well.

The Coppell Farmers’ Market was small, but it was worth the drive from my home (about 25 minutes). I highly recommend this as a place to do some Saturday morning shopping!

After that lovely start to the day, I came back to Denton to meet a guy from Craigslist that was giving me some canna bulbs. His truck was full and I ended up with three bags! I will keep a few but most of them are going to my DIL in Venus for her home.

Then it was time to head over to the Denton Redbud Festival. This is a free event and is fun for everyone! There are things for the kids and lots, and lots of neat stuff for us big kids. And there is food! The nachos are great. The event takes place at the Denton Civic Center and the grounds are beautifully landscaped for a walk after the nachos and all the shopping.

Keep Denton Beautiful gives out free, bareroot Redbud trees so I got a couple of those, and from Lucido’s I bought some Thai Basil, Italian Sweet Basil, Flat-Leaf Parsley, Epazote, German Thyme, and Valentino Basil. From the Native Plant Society of Texas I got an American Beauty-Berry. This is an under story tree that puts outs purple berries in the fall and the birds love it.

As soon as I got home I planted it all because we were expecting rain and sure enough we have it! Thank goodness. We have been really dry around here so this is nice even though it is on Easter Sunday. Hopefully it will clear up a little for the kids to get a chance to hunt for those elusive Easter eggs.

Have a wonderful day!

Surprise Bloom

Surprise! My unknown bloomed! I still don't know what it is or where it came from, but it is lovely!

Clippy Notes for today

On one of my Freecycle trips last Fall I picked up a hummingbird feeder. I put it up yesterday to see if I can entice some of those flying beauties to my feeder.

While at the DG I also found a smaller one that I put up on one of our tiki torches.

I took a walk around the garden to see what is happening today:

Purple Iris from Audrey in Grand Prairie. These were in a pot and I moved them to the ground last year.

Strawberries going red!

Last spring we bought a hydrangea and this year it is going to bloom! I'm so excited!

This is an unknown that is coming up. We'll see what it does.

I found this trellis being thrown out so I brought it home and started this bed. The plant on the far right side is a zucchini. The tree is bird gift that we moved from the front planter. I have morning glory seeds, lettuce seeds, and marigolds planted in this bed and some jalapenos

Garden Notes

Friday, March 20, 2009

While cleaning the kitchen sink this morning, I realized that we have a lot of dishes in the sink that we leave to soak and I end up throwing the water down the drain. I decided to take my mop bucket and just see how much water I can save throughout the day. With what I had in the sink this morning (I confess, I didn’t do dishes last night because I didn’t want to empty the dishwasher and Huny said he wasn’t going to do it either) I was able to fill the bucket about ¼ of the way up. WOW. I used that to water my Bay tree that I have in a pot by the front door. I emptied the coke and beer cans from yesterday to start the next bit and we’ll see what the rest of the day brings.

Last night I put some old Cypress Vine seeds (unknown trade and date) to soak to plant out this morning by the tree stump in the side planter. These are very old seeds so I hope that they come up.

I have a basket of seeds that I have carted with me everywhere since I started seed trading in 1997. I sorted them all out last night and so now I must get some more beds going to get these flowers planted. I can’t really trade them since they are so old, but hopefully some of them will come up. Quite a bit of them are from my old garden and it will be like seeing old friends again.

I did plant some old poppy seeds that are coming up like crazy. I have no idea what color they will be. It will be a very nice surprise. The first time I planted poppies, my friend Audrey and I got some from then Kings Creek in Cedar Hill. We came home and threw out the entire packet. The next spring we had an explosion of red poppies! It was wonderful! I forgot about that when I threw these out, but then I really didn’t know if they would come up. They did and it reminds me of that first time. There are poppies everywhere.

I started a new bed yesterday against the back fence. When I was out on a Freecycle trip I found a wooden table and an old trellis that were being thrown out. I also found some bamboo that was cut down (these will be used for my tomatoes). I HAD to start a new bed with the trellis, of course, and I planted some of my old morning glory seeds, Spanish Flag seeds I got from Select Seeds in 1998, and I HAD to buy some new plants and got a French marigold, jalapenos, and I found a zucchini (Black Beauty). Huny screwed the trellis to the fence so I don’t think it’s going anywhere. I’m pleased with the way it turned out. When the zucchini grows out it will cover quite a bit of that corner and we also have pumpkin seeds going in that corner as well.

I went around the yard and planted quite a few of the morning glory seeds. Some of the ones I planted are Heavenly Blue seeds from a trade from Overton, KY, date unknown, MG seeds from an unknown trade and date, ‘Blue Star’ Morning Glory seeds that I bought from Select Seeds in 1998!

I also went around and put out a few Sunflower ‘Velvet Queen’ seeds that I bought this year (Livingston Seed Co.)

Put out some Marigold-Harlequin that I got from Seymour’s Selected Seeds, date unknown. First discovered in 1870 and today used for the back of the perennial border. Annual.

Planted lemon basil ‘Sweet Dani’ (2002) and sweet basil (1994) both Ocimum basilicum between my heirloom tomatoes. Two rows of Sweet Dani and one of the sweet basil. I have some seed from my garden from last year, but I want to use these old seeds and see what happens.

Spring Salad and Johhny

This is Johnny (named after Johnny Depp). My friend gave him to me several years ago for my birthday. For a couple of years in the fall, he rode every day in the front seat of my car. When I moved to Maryland, he took a vacation and hung out in my Huny’s attic. After I returned to Texas he was moved to the front yard and became our door greeter. He was quite happy there for a couple of years, but then he got sad (his head was coming apart from his body) so we took him down and up to the attic he went for a rest.

This year we are working on our backyard farm and I thought to bring him down to guard our newly planted garden. I fixed his head to his body (he’s happy again) added some hair, attached him to a long pole and planted him in place of honor in the center of our planter. To give him a ‘spring’ in his step I added a sprig of bluebonnet to his hat.

This is the garden that he is guarding:

Radishes (French Breakfast -- Raphanus sativus)

Strawberries

These are the starts of turnip seeds that I got in a seed trade. I’ve never had a turnip. But I figured I’d plant them. What does one do with a turnip?

Onions, radishes, chives, elephant garlic.

Scallions, lettuce, more strawberries.

To celebrate Johnny's makeover, I harvested some of our lettuce (Red Sails and Black-Seeded Simpson, in the background) and we thinned out some of the radish.

After a thorough wash, we had a very nice salad for our supper.

It was delicious! I have never, ever had fresh lettuce from the garden, and never had radishes that didn’t come out of a bag. It was the best salad I have ever eaten!

Happy Spring!

Advice of the Day

After dinner sit awhile, after supper walk a mile.

Or, at least walk in the morning before you start your day. Every chance I get I walk. It's not for a mile, but the route around my neighborhood works for me. It clears my mind and gets thoughts going for the day.

Signs of Spring

Since I am home right now, I’ve started my morning walks around the neighborhood. I’m enjoying the cool mornings and the time I have to be able to enjoy this simple pleasure.

Yesterday’s walk was started with a sunny, blue sky. Today the sky is gray and the wind is cool enough to give me an earache. I’m hoping that the forecast is true and that we get some badly needed rain for our gardens and lakes.

I keep looking for signs of spring and there are a few starting to peek out. The Bradford Pears are starting to bloom their white frothy flowers and in one yard there is that one daffodil shyly peeking out from its leaves. The Iris is starting to look perky, trees are starting to get plump buds and a few have even sprouted a few leaves. The Mexican Plum is pushing out its white flowers as well.

I haven’t seen a red bud in bloom yet though, and to me, that is my personal sign that spring has sprung. My own red bud tree is still quietly sleeping away.

In my own garden, my daffodils are pushing up from the ground and my pansies are still looking happy. Radishes are radishing away.

Winter is still here but slowly loosening its hold.

Still come the flakes of white,Like blossoms pure and light.–J. Hazard Hartzell (1830–90)

A weekend read: Moon Women

I just finished reading Moon Women by Pamela Duncan. The setting is the North Carolina foothills and the story is set around women that are just like us. There is Marvelle the granny who says it is just old age and that is why she is so forgetful. Ruth Ann, who has to be in control of everything in order to feel safe. Cassandra, finally taking the courage to take a step out of her comfort zone. And, Ashley, a young woman full of life and not knowing how to deal with it. The book takes us through the lives of all these women and how they each finally come to terms with who they are and how they learn to accept each other.

This book was on my shelf for a long time and I never read it for whatever reason there was, but I’m glad that I finally did. We all have mothers and daughters, and they all drive us crazy, but we are mothers and daughters and we love each other very much. We all turn to each other when we need to and we always know that we will always be there.

This is a wonderful book that I highly recommend for weekend read.