December 3, 2010

garden fresh broccoli

I was out of vegetables that my son likes yesterday evening. Rather than go to the grocery store, I went to the cold frame. By flash light, I found a handful of little sprouts still on plants I started last spring. (My fall crop is still small – Looks like a winter crop if it survives that long.) I sliced the broccoli, fried it briefly in olive oil with crushed Thai hot chiles. Then added water and steamed 4 minutes. My son said it was good – there wasn’t any…

December 2, 2010

gray gardens

Our community gardens are looking like winter. Only a few greens left growing here and there. The haphazard fences and gates are bits of color on the drab background. A photo of my empty plot is below.

December 2, 2010

watching the thermometers

My gardening has turned into watching the thermometers from inside the window. The bigger monitor has a sensor inside my cold frame, and the little one is outside. (The balmy 63.3 is inside the house.) I took this photo on a recent chilly night. The cold frame stays warmer when the temps dip low. They go up quite a bit when in the morning when I get a bit of sun on the frame. But right now, as I look, outside is 55* and inside the frame is 50*. The…

November 28, 2010

turkey sandwich

I love leftover turkey sandwiches. This one is kind of a vegetable club. Some bacon in there, and avocado. The surprise was that I found a couple garden tomatoes that I didn’t know we still had. They were ones I picked green before the frost several weeks ago. They were perfectly ripened today. The purple onions are also ones I grew.

November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving

What a great day! We had a lot of fun. My parents and brother and his family and dog Bannor visited with us. Our menu was very traditional this year: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc. With some special highlights. My husband grilled a fantastic turkey that had I brined in bourbon and orange slices. The recipe was from “Grill It“, a Schlesinger cookbook. The stuffing, a Chez Henri recipe with fennel and dried apricots (recipe link) was excellent. I was able to pick even more fresh lettuce from my cold…

November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving menu

The big feast is just around the corner now! I am starting to figure out what I have to serve to the 6 guests (and one dog) who will join us for dinner. I will get a turkey tomorrow morning (should I hunt a wild turkey in the fields or go to Star Market?). I will also be making breads all day tomorrow. I heard a great stuffing recipe on the TV the other day that I will try. Chez Henri’s Turkey Stuffing. It sounds fantastic with fennel, celery, onion,…

November 24, 2010

amaryllis bulbs sprouting in a south facing window

I bought 5 really nice looking amaryllis bulbs a few weeks ago, mail order from Sheepers. It was a good price for 5 big bulbs, unlabeled – so I don’t know which is which. I think a couple are not going to make it 🙁 But one or two are sprouting well in my south facing window. Not the best success rate, but I will wait a while longer and maybe more will come along.

November 22, 2010

November garden aerial

November 22, 2010

memorial

My project this week was to construct a website for a soldier from Belmont killed in Afghanistan earlier this month. He was a scout in my son’s troop, several years before him. Here’s a link to the website.

November 20, 2010

new garden bulletin board

Last weekend a scout from our local boy scout troop started his Eagle project to make a bulletin board for our community gardens. A group of 6 or 8 kids, a bunch of parents (and a couple dogs) dug two 4 foot deep holes. They mixed cement and filled footings in the holes. The footings will allow them to set up their hand made board in a month or so – after our ground has frozen. The scout has done a lot of work to design a nice board. It…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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