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| “Jo! This is the BEST day of my LIFE!” Question: Who said this to Jo??? And what could spark such a spectacular comment? ...Was it Jane on the afternoon when she finally figured out how to jump into the hammock on her own? Nope. |
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| “Jo! This is the BEST day of my LIFE!” ...Was it the Handsome Bret Sr. on his 20th wedding anniversary? Sadly, NO. |
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| “Jo! This is the BEST day of my LIFE!” ANSWER: the morning the first EVER avocados started to grow on the tree he had been nurturing, pruning, shading, composting, wrapping before a frost, and then hacking to a single stick after a 3 day freezing rain. (I feel the need to add that I'm pretty sure there's been under-the-breath-cursing... but I was not a witness to that.) |
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| There were only 2 avocados located on the aforementioned morning-of the "BEST day" of his life. You can see how small they are... Hopefully we find more in the coming weeks as they all grow and become more visible. |
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| Our lovely garden helper Jane Austen would like to add that HER contribution to the avocado tree has been digging, rolling in muddy dirt and in general making and/or leaving a mess of the area around it. |
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| Cantaloupe from seed saved from last year's harvest. Spring has SPRUNG! Seedlings started in the garage... planted in the backyard in various areas to vine, and all the extras shared with gardening friends. |
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| The Handsome Bret Sr. a week before these began to leaf confided with me that he thought he may have pruned the grapes too much - not so. |
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| Every grapevine has leafed. It is lovely. I love Spring! |
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| Sugar-Snap Peas * 2020 |
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| 2020 has been a hard year for a few items we have usually grown in the spring. Mostly it has been the garden terrorist (THE reason there's now a fence and gate...) AND it's been: Too hot. Not cold enough. And finally too late to plant/repeat plant for this season. |
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| Tropic Snow Freestone Peach * 2020 |
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| Tropic Snow Freestone Peach * 2020 |
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| March 2020 This plum tree bloomed for the FIRST TIME since we planted it nearly 7 years ago... We will keep you posted if there is any fruit this year! I will be honest - We've nearly chopped it down a time or two. But we have kept it for its shade over the chicken coop. Walking out to the backyard and seeing this at the beginning of the COVID-19 stay-at-home order felt like a hug from heaven. Having blossoms on a tree that that has NEVER bloomed felt like a visual reminder of God's love. |
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| I honestly cannot remember a time when Bret Sr. did not garden like this... His garden beds typically have 2-3 items growing at a time PER HALF. In the "green-smoothie" garden bed this year he has planted 2 varieties of spinach, 2 varieties of kale (though he planted MOSTLY purple curly kale - THANK YOU! - ) and around the edges of one side of this garden bed are garlic bulbs growing. |
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| Spinach * 2020 |
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| From this angle you can see what I had mentioned before: two kinds of spinach, green and purple kale, and if you look closely here at the above photo on the bottom left - there is a reddish green plant that we thought was Swiss chard but turned out to be a beet!!! No matter. Its leaves ended up in our green smoothies quite regularly. |
BEFORE
AFTER
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| You can see here after being cut how much space a spinach plant needs to grow. |
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| While collecting what I needed for the evening's dinner recipe, I kept a pile of spinach leaves that were yellowed or bug eaten for the chicken-ladies. |
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| OR as Bret Sr. says: LAAADDDIIIEEEESSSS! |
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| Gardening RULE: GROW what you EAT The Handsome Bret Sr. had been asking me for over a week to harvest and use the spinach from four spinach plants he was growing in the green-smoothie bed. "Not for a smoothie!" I told him; I was saving them up! I was going to use them all at once... He didn't believe me. And then I only used 3 of the 4 plants. While harvesting this mountain of spinach I decided to just use 3 plants. Beware: SPINACH CAN BE DECEIVING!!! Its downsizing while being steamed is incredible. ...I really needed all 4 but didn't realize it until I was done making dinner. |
"URBAN" FARM-TO-TABLE
- USING YOUR FOOD FROM THE GARDEN -
Cheesy Spinach and Sausage PASTA
1 box of pasta (Gluten-Free at our house)
- cooked - drained - rinsed and set aside
2 SMOKED POLISH Sausage links (Gluten-Free, Nitrate-Free) sliced
1-2 medium onions, cubed
2-3 red peppers, cubed
1 bundle garlic, minced
1 pound mushrooms, rinsed, and sliced
2 TABLESPOONS Better-Than-Bullion paste
8-10 cups fresh spinach
NOTE: Use baby spinach "ready-to-eat" from the store; or rinse, slice and drain large spinach leaves from the garden
2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1/4-1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
In a large pot cook sausage link slices and onions on Med-High heat. Cook until sausage and onions start to brown.
Then add cubed red peppers. COOK for 5 minutes until peppers begin to soften.
Add minced garlic and sliced mushrooms.
COOK for 5-9 minutes until all the vegetables are softened and fragrant.
Add Better-Than-Bullion paste.
STIR well to combine.
ADD spinach - DO NOT STIR.
Put your pot lid on and steam spinach for 3-5 minutes.
ADD cooked pasta and both cheeses.
STIR well to combine one final time and serve hot.
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| I know my recipe says "2-3 red peppers"... This enormous thing from HEB was defiantly 2-3 peppers worth!!! I love using this recipe when we have a garden overflowing with red peppers. This recipe is in fact a product of me looking for a "good use" of garden peppers, and has morphed into the recipe my family loves and I've now shared with you! ENJOY! |
