End of April Garden Update 2022

 It's that time. I've had a bit of a growth spurt on my plants, so let's go stroll the garden and I'll show you what's growing on in there.

 
These are Concord grape cuttings that I traded for on Facebook. We dipped them in rooting hormone and put them outside after they started producing roots. We have our cutting production line going on in our shower. It's warm in there and we have a skylight so that was the best place to put them...and I can keep the cats out of them in there, too. It gets to be a pain to shuffle them in and out when we shower, but we only have polar berries left to go, so there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Polar berries are really cool. They are white blackberries. I was lucky to be able to trade for them.

These are our currant cuttings. I think that our freak snowstorm on the 10th may have wiped some of these out, but I think that there will be enough to survive that we'll be swimming in currants within the next few years. There's red, white and black ones. I'm only missing pink. On a side note, we discovered that we have a whole bunch of indigenous red-flowering currants all over this property. I saw them at Wilco. They are selling them for $20 each for a 2 gallon pot. I'm sitting on a goldmine!

In here, we have gooseberries and currants. If I get some of the gooseberries to go, I'll be quite happy.

I've had these two pots for years. The broken white one contains my ramps and garlic that I use for scapes. I have had these for like 5 years now and they never fail to produce. The one next to it contains my chives.
Behind that, in the upper right corner, that is the pot that contains my Jerusalem artichoke tubers. I'm still trying to figure out where I want to put them.

My potato bed. I wasn't sure if this would work or not. It seems to be doing just fine, including going through that snowstorm. We had leaves poking up, so we covered them in a layer of straw. The next layer will be a bag of mushroom compost. The great thing about this straw is that it simply breaks down and helps create soil.

This poor rhubarb has been through the wringer. We bought it when we lived in our old fifth wheel, the first year we gardened in the last RV park. I put it in one of my Trex grow boxes. It did fantastic in there. Then, we moved into this new fifth wheel and we moved it over and put it in a raised bed. The raised bed had the bottom fall out of it. The poor plant was traumatized. It did grow, but it didn't reach optimal potential...and THEN, we uprooted it and moved it up here where it sat in a bucket for a few months. That's when I decided that it just needed to go in the ground. I'm amazed at it's tenacity. It's still growing. It's going to look rough this year, but it should bounce back next year and be back to it's amazing self after that.

We cleared the old bullet casings and golf balls out of this hollowed log and I planted it with violas. Next to the violas, I put a pot of Night Sky petunias.

Night Sky petunias. These are my favorite petunias. They got hammered by rain and snow, so they haven't opened their blooms yet.

A pot of pansies because everyone just needs to have a pot of pansies. Pansies are edible, just as violets and violas are. I want to grow these out for a year or so and then make jelly with them.

In this bed, I have broccoli rabe, radicchio and bok choy. I need to start thinning. I practice the art of cramscaping, as you can see.

This is my bed full of mixed kale. You can see the Ragged Jack (also known as Russian Red) poking up in there.

Here's a look at my mixed kale bed. I have like 6 or 7 different types in there.

This bed has cilantro, spring rapini (broccoli rabe), black Spanish radishes and a yellow radish variety.

Mixed lettuce bed. I have around 10 different types in there. I mixed the seeds and broadcast them. I will use these for the 'cut and come again' method of harvesting.

The speckled variety is Drunk Woman Frizzy Head. Ask me how I know.

In this raised bed, I have red turnips and mibuna. Mibuna is a Japanese mustard green. It works great in stir fries.

The Egyptian Walking Onions are starting to develop their bulbils.

These poor garlic are like the rhubarb. They were planted, doing so well and then they had to be completely uprooted and replanted after they were up and growing. These are pretty tenacious little plants. I'll probably let them go another full year before I harvest them.

Bob planted out 100 multi-colored onion sets. We love onions in all forms, if you couldn't tell.

My peas are sprouting and starting to grow. We had to take the trellis down for now because of the wind. It just about wiped out my bucket of my most hard to find variety called Spring Blush. I was rather hacked about that. It seems I'll get just enough to come up to save seed from.

As soon as it dries out a bit, I'll have Bob go down and buzz this area with the weed whacker. But I still have beds galore to plant out with corn, squash, pumpkins, celery, celariac, etc. I'm not done planting by a long shot.

We still need to build out a pole bean area, too. I am growing out for Russell Crow (not the actor), so I'll need to keep those beans isolated and separated. With my own personal ones, I'll plant in blocks and save seed from those in the middle. Here's Russ' website if you're into cool and unusual beans. Tell him that Laurrie sent you. Also, if you're interested in joining any of my gardening groups on Facebook, here they are:

Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Bean Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Pepper Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Herb & Flower Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Lettuce/Greens Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Root Vegetable Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Cucurbit Addicts Anonymous

Make sure to answer the questions if you want to join.

Moving on...

This is that big raised bed that was left here. I have it planted out with cabbage, broccoli, Walla Walla sweet onions and various beets.

Pink Lemonade blueberries (we're trying to figure out the perfect spot to put these in the ground after toting them around, in that same container, for the past 9 years). Behind that is my rosemary bush.

Once everything gets planted out, we can situate these benches, etc. This is at the very top of my terraced garden.

These are honey berry bushes that our old neighbor (from the RV park) gave us. I have no idea of what honey berries are, but I'm game to try. There's supposed to be 3 different types. She also gave me a boatload of different mints: chocolate, pineapple, lemon, apple and peppermint. I have a spearmint plant. I think I'm well rounded in the mint department. I expect that I'll be able to have some amazing tea blends come this fall.

I'm going to be swimming in strawberries if I can keep Rose and Sasha from running through them.

So many strawberries. There's also other random things planted out. Some of the things, I know, some I don't.

Here's one of those random plants that I have no idea of what it is...but it likes it there and, unless Bob takes it out, it can just grow. I'm okay with it.

I actually have a large growing area in my terraced garden. This is my raspberry patch. I have red raspberries, golden raspberries, black raspberries and purple raspberries. I just need white raspberries to round out the color spectrum. There are a lot of volunteer raspberries coming up. I need to get some lumber to corral these suckers somewhat.

The sage needs to be put into the ground. I think I've taken it as far as I can in a pot. It's in a 30 gallon pot and it's root bound.

I'm going to start a few more sage plants, as well. Sage is deer proof, or so they say. We'll see.

This is oregano. There are several that were tucked in here and there. I'm glad of that because I left mine behind at the old place after we put it in the ground. I think we've found this growing in 4 different spots so far.

Now, let's head over across the driveway, past the well, to the side of the bluff. (Rose, get away from the well!) I'll show you what's growing on over there.

We bought a fig tree! Bob cut the bottom out of that pot, we filled it with garden soil and we put it here on the edge of the bluff. Eventually, if the other figs take hold, I'll plant a row of them over here. Once it's established, we'll cut the pot off of it and let it go.

It's hard to tell it from this photo, but it's a pretty much straight 260 foot shot down to Owl Creek from that edge.

Now, into my plant 'nursery'. Not all of my peppers made it. I think we have a critter that is nibbling on them. They are ready to be repotted into bigger containers. I'm going to separate what I can so that I can make up for what has been lost.

I sure have some healthy looking baby tomato plants, though. Today and tomorrow, we'll work on repotting them.


So, that's the end of my garden tour. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Let me know what you'd plant in those empty raised beds that I have.

Thanks for hanging out with me for a while. We'll do this again next month.

Spring Frittata

 We decided to have a veggan meal today. Not vegan. It's veggan. Veggans eat eggs. It's spring. I have some fresh veggies in my fridge. I felt like making a quick meal and that would be a Spring Frittata. This is fantastic served with toast or with a green salad. We made a couple of pieces of toast from that loaf of bread I baked off yesterday.

This recipe starts out with a bit of milk and a cast iron skillet. It doesn't matter what type of milk. You can use whole milk (like I did), you can use 2%, you can use skim, you can use half and half...you can even use oat milk, if that's what you like! It doesn't matter. Just use what you have or what you want.

Next, you crack 6 eggs into the milk. I added in some herbs and freshly cracked black pepper before I mixed it all up.

I used a Penzey's Spice blend called Parisien Bonnes Herbes.This blend contains chives, dill, basil, tarragon, chervil and white pepper. It's absolutely delicious and it's right up there in my top 3 favorites from Penzey's.

Next up, I opted for some nice spring type flavored veggies. I used some spring onions, frozen peas and asparagus.

Just measure out your veggies so that they total one cup. 

These get cooked in a tablespoon of olive oil for about 7 or 8 minutes. You don't have to cook them that long. You could just sprinkle them over the eggs, but for Bob, they have to be cooked. I'm okay with that. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Add your beaten eggs in. Sprinkle the top with 1/3 cup of cheese (again, whatever cheese you like will work). I used pepper jack. This goes in to the oven for 20 minutes and it comes out like...

This was our veggan dinner tonight. 

So, this dinner was completely from scratch and that includes the strawberry jam, as well.


Spring Frittata


6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup grated cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup total chopped spring onions, asparagus and frozen peas
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Penzey's Parisiene Bonnes Herbes herb mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk eggs with milk, pepper and herb mix.
In cast iron skillet, saute vegetables in olive oil for 5-8 minutes, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add egg mixture, shake to distribute evenly.
Put in preheated oven. Bake 20 minutes. 

Bread Making Day

 Today was my day to bake bread and cinnamon rolls. Bob has a medical procedure in a few days and he has to eat a low fiber diet for next few days. Anyhow, I didn't feel like going to the store for white bread, so I decided to just make him some. Since I had enough time leftover and I found the optimal place to let dough rise, I decided that I would make cinnamon rolls for the first time ever. He can eat those, too. They are basically white bread and he's allowed to have sugar and spices.
Anyhow, I started with the white bread recipe. 

The bread starts out with proofing the yeast. I always do this. If you use instant yeast, I think you can skip this step. I don't use instant yeast, however.

Whenever I work with yeast dough, I let my KitchenAid stand mixer do the work for me. 

I don't even have to knead it! I'm all about work smarter, not harder. 

There was a lot of humidity in the air today, so this took quite a bit more flour than the recipe called for. 

The dough gets covered with a clean towel and I set it up on top of my Keurig coffee maker. It's pretty warm and it did the trick nicely.

I put it into a loaf pan. I wanted a more square shaped loaf, so I flattened it out a bit. 

It may not be a thing of beauty, but it turned out exactly as I wanted it to. This will slice up nicely.

After a quick round of washing dishes, and having Bob dry them, I decided that I had time to make cinnamon rolls, too. 

These were a bit messy to make, but I was able to contain it all on my cutting board for the most part. 

I fit 10 into a 9-inch pie plate. There were another 4 that went into another pan. 

They baked up really nicely. I impressed myself!

Of course, I had to gloop them up with cream cheese icing! That's a given!

So, on a day when the skies looked like this...

and Ravioli was playing with Lily-Pill, like this...

It was a good day to just bake bread.

Click here for the bread recipe.
Click here for the cinnamon roll recipe.

Bread recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction.
Cinnamon roll recipe is from Ambitious Kitchen.
Both recipes are keepers in my book.

Our "Livestock"

 I was washing some dishes this morning. I want to get a jump start on our Easter dinner menu. Anyhow, I had just filled the sink with dishes that needed to be rinsed when I heard Bob exclaim, "Look at all those elk!"
I thought he saw the bull that was hanging around when we first moved in. I looked out the window and was pleasantly surprised! Bob counted 15, but they were on the move, so there very well could have been more.

I know that bull had been in our yard a few months ago because I found evidence of him all over. 

I love having the elk around. I just don't want them in my garden. We'll have to take the good with the bad. The previous resident had a couple of dogs that had all but run the elk and deer off, or so we've been told. Our dogs don't do that because we supervise ours when they are outside. If they are outside, we're outside.
Here's our Grr-ells. We have Rose on the left and Sasha on the right. Hopefully, with their scent all over the yard, the elk won't find my garden so enchanting and won't mistake it for an all-you-can-eat salad bar.

I don't think our Grr-ells would hurt the elk. They would probably try to herd them. They are Australian kelpies. That's what kelpies do.

This is what we woke up to on Monday (just 5 short days ago). It all melted off rather quickly, but we were in about 8 inches of snow here. You can see that hill that the elk were on in the background. When this melts off, we get quite the pond down below. 

So the elk come down to drink. They like to browse on vegetation, too. They can nibble over there all they want. I'm happy to coexist with them as long as they stay out of my garden.

They were there for quite a while.

We've had deer right up here in the yard. This was a week ago.

There was 3 of them. They were not even scared. This was right before the snow came. 

 

 The livestock grazed for around 20 minutes until they sauntered off into the treeline. 

These are neighbors that I shall enjoy immensely...as long as they stay out of my garden.

Meal Planning & Budgeting

 I thought I would try a bit of a different type of blog post today. I wanted to show you all how I go about meal planning, how I budget and how I shop for groceries each week.

What I do is allot us $100 per week for groceries and necessities. Necessities are things like shampoo, dish soap, laundry soap, toothpaste, etc. Whatever I don't use out of that $100, I roll it over to the following week. I try to buy a few items each week that will stock us up so that we don't have to buy that product for quite some time, like toothpaste, razors or shampoo. I did a toothpaste stock-up about 3 years ago and I still don't need to buy it. We just recently ran out of shampoo, so we did a minor stock-up yesterday at Rite-Aid. I watch sales. I read the ads. I figure out how to get the most bang for my buck. I like walking out of the store with 5 bags full of stuff and paying only $35 for it all. I find this to be one challenge that I'm always up for.

The very first thing I do is figure out a menu. I try to utilize what I have on hand, for the most part, but I usually do have to purchase chicken. We eat a ton of chicken.

Here's what my meal plan for next week looks like. I went heavy on the chicken to compensate the heavy ground beef menu that I have for this week.

My two main supermarkets are Safeway and Fred Meyer. I do the majority of shopping there because they both offer online grocery shopping and grocery pickup. I got used to grocery shopping this way. It's economical and it's easy to comparison shop with 4 different stores at the same time (Safeway, Fred Meyer, Walmart and Amazon).

First, I figure out what even sounds like it would be tasty. I generally just go with the main dish when I do these meal plans. Side dishes are easy enough and I have a fully stocked pantry, which includes many types of rice, pasta, etc. I always have potatoes on hand, as well. If worse came to worse, I can forage a nutritious veggie side dish out of my yard. I don't worry about those things. Side dishes are not written in stone and are subject to change, depending on what we feel like and what we can find. While I figure out what we'd like, I'm also jotting down what I will need from the store and any good deals that particular store has going on. I plan my meals between Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesdays are when I get an online sneak preview of Wednesday's sales items for Fred Meyer and Safeway. Wednesday is when I finalize what we will be dining on and that is when I start adding items into my grocery carts.
I usually purchase my groceries every Saturday for pickup on Sunday. However, Safeway has their $5 Friday specials, so I will venture into the store on those days to get the best deal, if it is something that I need. If it's just a bunch of bakery goods and chips on $5 Friday, I skip it. If it's $5 per pound good ground beef, I'll drop $25 stocking up on it. This Friday, they have 5 for $5 bags of shredded lettuce and shredded cabbage. I'll pick up 3-5 bags of the shredded cabbage because I can put it into my Ninja and blitz it up into small pieces that can be frozen and added into soups and stews and I have yet another stock up item that cost $5 or less and it will last for several months in my freezer. On my list, you'll see grocery items with an S that's circled. That simply means that those items are cheaper at Safeway this week, like half gallons of milk for 97 cents. I'll buy the limit of 4 of those because I'll be making my own yogurt.

Granted, a lot of this produce will not be purchased once my garden produces, but, for right now, I have to purchase it.
If you notice up at the top, I have tabs open for Fred Meyer, Safeway, Walmart and Amazon. It's super easy to go between them all and see where I will find the best deal. I do not buy anything fresh from Amazon. We don't have that option available to us. 

I leave specific instructions on how I'd like to have them pick out my produce. The way that I figure it is that these people are taking my place in the store, so it's up to them to shop as I would. It's my responsibility to be very precise on how I like to pick stuff out. 

I feel that if I'm not this precise with my special instructions, I wind up with half green oranges, like what happened last week when I was in too much of a hurry to specify that I like my oranges to be all orange all over.

I also opt to not substitute some of the items. I do not want low fat or fat free cottage cheese or sour cream. That's just my personal preference. Everyone has their own.

Anyhow, my grocery total this week, before they weight the chicken thighs, celery, chicken breast, etc. is approximately $85. It will, most likely, be a lower amount, but when I'm estimating, I'd rather estimate and budget for too much than have to scramble to take the money from another part of our monthly budget. That $85 amount is also before I figure in digital coupons I have added or the free dozen of eggs that Fred Meyer has.

So, in a nutshell, I budget $100 per week for the 2 of us. I make it a game/challenge to come in as low as I possibly can and spend as little as I can each week. I shop the sales. I comparison shop. I always find at least 2 or 3 items to stockpile a bit of. This week, it's rennet (for making cheese), pectin (for making jam) and cabbage to put in the freezer for meals another time.
Most of all, I make shopping fun because I can do this in my PJ's and I don't ever have to leave home. I can have Bob pick up the grocery order(s) whenever he's got something scheduled out in that area of town. We do not make special trips. We bunch errands, etc. up to maximize our gas. Washington state gas is close to $5 per gallon.

If you're interested in how someone else likes to save money, be sure to check out my friend, Patrick's blog, Southern Dreams Homestead. He's got great tips and tricks. Make sure to give Southern Dreams Homestead a follow, too.

Let me know if you found any of this information useful in the comments below or if you even like these types of blog posts.
Peace!

Arroz Chaufa (Peruvian Fried Rice)

 I prepared an Asian chicken recipe last night and cooked extra chicken to make dinner tonight. I've created a week's menu and I'm determined to stick to it. I'm trying to cut down on grocery costs and I'm also trying to make less work for myself. I'm getting older. I'm getting lazier. I am not even ashamed to admit it.
Anyhow, I read several recipes for a Peruvian version of fried rice. This is right up my alley. I can make a pretty mean fried rice, if I do say so myself.

This is what I came up with and it also uses up some of the random things rattling around in the produce crisper drawer.

As usual, with any recipe that has an Asian inspiration, make sure to prep all of the ingredients and have them ready to go. I cooked the rice this morning and chilled it down in the fridge. Rice cookers, I now feel, are a necessity. The funny thing is that I refused to use one until we bought this fifth wheel. Now, I can't imagine not having one. I just add everything in, set a timer and forget about it.

When I chopped the green onions, I separated the white parts from the green parts. This recipe starts out frying a bit of bell pepper (color doesn't matter, just use what you have) and onion. 

As long as carrots are not boiled into a mush, I don't mind them. I added in a small grated one so that I could get more veggies into Bob.He did get his new dentures, but, after going through those radiation treatments, he's left with an overactive gag reflex. So, they are making him gag. He's going to make an appointment and go in and have them fixed. 

After everything (yes, this fried rice has hot dogs in it) gets added in, hit it with a tablespoon or two of soy sauce. Don't judge for the hot dogs. Once in a while, I just crave one.

Top with a sunny-side up egg. Make sure it is crispy on the bottom. 

See? Perfectly crispy. Perfectly cooked. Perfectly delicious. The perfect thing after getting stung by a yellow jacket today...hence, the hot dogs comfort food addition. It's fried rice. It is a dish that you can put anything in and it will taste delicious.

Arroz Chaufa

2 tablespoons avocado oil
4 green onions, sliced, separate the white parts from the green tops
1/2 bell pepper, diced (use whatever color you like, it doesn't matter)
2 hot dogs, sliced
1 cup cooked chicken, cubed or shredded (whatever you like to do)
2 beaten eggs
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 small carrot, peeled and grated
3 cups cold cooked rice
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce (or to taste)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 sunny-side up fried eggs with crispy edges

Prep all the ingredients and have them ready to go.
In a large wok, or skillet, over high heat, stir fry the white part of the onions with the bell pepper for 2 minutes. Add the carrot. Continue to stir fry for another 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and hot dogs. Cook for another minute or so. Add the rice. cook until everything has a slight coating of oil and is hot completely through. Add soy sauce. Toss to coat. Drizzle with sesame oil and garnish with the green part of the green onions. Set aside until you've cooked the sunny-side up eggs. Place a sunny-side up egg on top of each serving. There will be leftovers if you're making this for 2 people. Just reheat the leftovers in the microwave and top with a freshly cooked egg.

Enjoy!