this week in the garden

 

Our early summer harvests have slowly started, and mainly consist of squash blossoms and various mints and balms for tea.  We have also been enjoying beet greens.  The tomatillo plant is full of blossoms and small tomatillos, and we have a few tomatoes starting.  We picked a couple of early ananas noire tomatoes the other day, and they are on the counter waiting for their turn on our dinner plate.  Handy Handsome Hubby did not care for the squash blossoms, but he did not hate them, either.  I love squash blossoms. 

 

I am between lettuce harvests.  I made the mistake of waiting too long to plant new lettuce seeds, and our first harvest was long gone before our second batch is ready.  All of my radishes bolted.  I'm pretty sure there was too much nitrogen in the soil.  I'm going to try again.

 

I love the rhythm of this time of year.  Wake up, open the blinds.  Check the garden.  Water, if necessary.  Do a bit of weeding, a bit of bug catching with Jo Bean.  When it becomes too warm to be outside any more, we retreat to the couch to watch a movie, or read a stack of books.  This week we have been learning about bats.  They are fascinating creatures, and we are enjoying learning everything we can about them.  Handsome even joined in on the story time, and has agreed to make Bean a bat house or two. 

 

We have decided that next week's reading will be about bees.  And strawberries, which are Jo's favorite thing in the world this week.  I'm pretty fond of them, too.  I've been making a ton of jam, putting it away for later in the year when the family yearns for a taste of summer.  Strawberries just taste like sunshine and warm, don't they?  Our winter toast will be so much more enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

Rainy Day Reading

Reading:  Hidden Kitchens
Stories, recipes, and more from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters
by Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson

loving it! 

working on a vest for Josephine.  I'll update more on that as it progresses

My garden is loving this rain!  We harvested the first of our tomatoes from our Ananas Noire plant.  I think I should have left them a few more days, but the girls were becoming impatient.  They will set on the counter for a few more days, and hopefully ripen a bit further.  If not, then we will enjoy some fried green tomatoes.

The tomatillo plant is going to be hugely productive this year, it seems.  There are several papery little lantern-like baby tomatillos so far, and dozens upon dozens of little yellow flowers, the sight of which makes my heart happy!

The gourds are growing up the trellis, which has been a magical sight for hubby.  He is a city boy, and is making new garden discoveries every day.  He was very excited that the gourds grab on to the trellis with their little curly hands all by themselves.  No need for human intervention. 

I'll post garden pictures soon.

Weekend happenings

This weekend:

-we visited the farmers market.  Bought a flat of marigolds to add some sunshine to my vegetable garden.  There's just something about a border of cheerful marigolds around a green veggie bed. 
Also, it's super nice to visit the market as a shopper instead of a vendor.  Don't get me wrong, I love my little business, and I love selling at farmers markets.  But it's nice to enjoy the market as a shopper. 

-My handsome and handy husband built trellises for my garden.  The squash are getting HUGE, and needed something to keep their unruly nature just a bit in control. 

-hooked some colorful washcloths.  More to come on those soon.

-visited the library with Jo.  It's one of her favorite things to do.  We chose an armful of books for the next week, and read a few while we were there.  She likes the beginner reader books, with only a few words that she can quickly memorize.  Then, she pretends to read them to me.  I love to watch her grow more independent every day, but at the same time I just want her to stay little.  So I am soaking every minute of her little-ness, well aware that it will soon be gone. 

-canned strawberry jam and bread and butter pickles.  Oh how the smell of fresh cucumbers, sweet onions, vinegar, and pickling spices brings me right back to my Grandma Helen's kitchen!  She would make bread and butter pickles every year, dozens and dozens of jars.  It's one of the many tasty gifts from her kitchen that we would all look forward to every year, and that we now miss so much.  This is my first year attempting to fill her pickle-making shoes, and I hope I do her memory justice with my attempt.

Today I have a long, fun list of homekeeping activities to attend to, between playing, reading, and snuggling with my little Josephine.  She is such a ray of sunshine in our lives.  But all of that can wait a few more hours.  First, I'm going to enjoy the peace of this beautiful morning, spend a few minutes absorbing the quiet before I begin my day.  Enjoy your Monday!

Making Cupcakes

Jo loves to help with the baking.  She's fantastic with the sprinkles.  Whenever Josephine and I bake, our little white dog, Bonita, is never very far away.  She takes care of any spills and drops that happen.
Also, please look away from the dirty dishes in the sink.  I did not stage these pictures.  Just keeping it real, y'all.
Have I showed you my gussied-up kitchen aid?  Love her! 
Here at the Smith house, our days have been full of gardening, creating, and lots of playing in the sprinkler with the neighborhood kids.  We are loving the warm weather.  The last several days have been rainy, but it has been much needed rain.  And only in spurts, mainly in the evenings.  The days have been full of sunshine and laughter.  Our new house feels like home.  We are very blessed.

Garden Girl

My little bitty has been quite the gardener.  She loves to help me water in the morning. Her little hands can barely squeeze the trigger on the sprayer, but she always gets the job done!

 

We also made sweet pickled jalapenos this week.  No, not from our garden.  It's a bit early for that.  We found bags of jalapenos at a good price, and my fingers were itching to do some canning.  It's been a while.  Here's the recipe we use, if you are interested:

 

Sweet Pickled Jalapenos

 

2 pounds jalapenos (you do not need to bother removing the seeds if you like hot.  I did not remove them this time, but I think I will next time.  This batch was hot hot.)

 

2c apple cider vinegar

 

4 cups sugar

1-2 T pickling salt

 

prepare canning jars (wash, rinse, sterilize)

 

slice peppers into rings.  remove seeds, if desired

 

Combine vinegar, sugar, and salt. Cook over low heat to dissolve sugar. 

 

Pack jars very tightly with jalapenos while sugar is dissolving.

 

Bring syrup to a boil on high, to thicken to thin syrup consistency.

 

Pour over peppers, leaving 1/2" headspace.

 

Process for 15 minutes in water bath canner.

 

This recipe makes too much syrup for 2 lbs of peppers.  I had quite a bit left over, so I cooked some fresh beets, sliced them, and put them in cans along with the extra syrup.  I added a clove or two to each can, along with a bit of cinnamon and coriander.  Spiced pickled beets!  Leave them set a week or so to let the flavors really develop.  They were delicious! 

 

The syrup will also keep for a month or so in the fridge. 

 

 

 

Dandelion Bread

 

Josephine has had a busy week!  We started our week with some Q-tip painting.  We loved this project, and you can find different printables all over the internet.  I highly recommend this activity.  It's low stress, and easy to achieve success, even for your little impatient ones.

Leftover chocolate bunnies were consumed this week, some while wearing warm footy jammies.

Today we made dandelion bread.  Josephine loves dandelions. ( She gets that from her momma! )  So today, she harvested several hundred from our front and back yards, and we set to work removing the stems and green parts to make  batch of dandelion bread.  You can find the recipe we used here.  Removing the yellow part of the flowers was time consuming, and my fingertips are dyed a lovely shade of yellow.  The bread turned out much like cornbread.  Very tasty.

We are loving springtime at the Smith house!  We have trays upon trays of little vegetable plants growing, waiting to get big enough to live in our garden beds.  Our new house lets in the sunshine, and all the natural light is doing the family so much good.  How are you enjoying your spring?

cute boy booties!

I added a couple new pairs of booties to the shop