GARDEN PHOTOS

STEBBINS GARDEN 2010

Two rows of potato plants and 4 rows of green beans (50ft. long)
Pea trellis, onions, tomatoes, with corn in the background.

Two rows of red onions with two rows of pea pods between them. In the forground are 24 roma tomato plants with a few sunflowers that came up from last year.

GARDENING 2010

The garden is in full bloom. This has been a very wet year for us. Many years we have to water the garden in order to have a good harvest, but that is not the problem this year. The problem this year is that we have so much rain, that it's hard to get into the garden and keep up with the weeds. A few times Richard as mentioned that we need some kids to help him...I remind him that we are not Amish!

It's a lot of work keeping the weeds under control when there is this much rain and heat. It has, however, been ideal growing conditions and we are already eating from the garden. Our 'knee high by the 4th of July' corn is already 5 ft. tall, and last night, after weeding the green beans, Richard brought in the first delicate, sweet green bean!! I was so excited!!!

We've been eating lettuce, radishes, spinach, asparagus, pea pods, beet greens, rhubarb and onions. The potato plants are huge and full of not only blossoms but potato bugs! Richard picks them off almost daily. He plans on spraying them with peppermint shampoo. The bugs don't like it and it's not a pesticide! I think we should have some little new potatoes to enjoy for the 4th of July!!

Like I said, the green beans are coming on. We have cucumbers, squash, eggplant, peppers;both sweet and hot, corn and beets. I've frozen about 12 jars of spinach pesto and also 15 quarts of pea pods. We'll use them through the winter months. The lettuce is now too mature to use so we need to replant. I also want to plant another batch of arugala.

No need to ask us "what's new?"...it's all about gardening here on our little farm. Recently, Richard was dreaming of winning the lottery. He said he would buy some farm equipment and plow the whole acre which is now 1/4 garden, and make that his full time work. It's a lot of hard work, but he really enjoys doing it. He's a very good gardener!! The picture at the top is what he wears when he's gardening.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

I just read a friends' blog post about a childhood memory she had, and while reading it this memory of mine came back to me.

During the summer each year, our family would drive to Traverse City, Mi during the cherry harvest. We stayed in a loft of a very large barn on the property owner of a large cherry orchard. The lower level of the barn was used to house migrant workers hired to harvest the cherries. We would get up early in the morning and go out to pick cherries. It is my first memory of my mom wearing anything other than a dress. She would put on a pair of my dad's coveralls over her clothes and I remember thinking she looked hilarious! We would all get into the car and drive out to the orchard. My parents would pick from ladders while us kids had to pick from the ground. The branches were low enough that we could pick from there.

This was not a vacation, and my dad made sure we kept busy!! One benefit was that we could eat the cherries, but I do remember my mom having to stop us from time to time because she was afraid we'd get sick eating too many. I don't remember if we did or not!

I do remember all those cherries though. Once they were picked, we'd head back to the barn where my mom would then proceed to can all the cherries!! Yes, that's right. She brought canning jars and supplies, along with a large oval canner that she set on a two burner hot plate and canned the cherries. They were washed then canned whole in the jars.

Canning those cherries was hot work! It was summertime, and we were in the attic area of a barn with a canner going most of the day!!!

The part of the trip that really stands out in my mind is the evenings. The migrant workers would all gather in the open area on the lower level and we could look out over a railing and watch them. They would then begin to sing and play instruments and they had a lot of tamborines. The music was very jubilant and it scared us kids! We had never heard anything like it! I do remember that my parent's comments made me think we should not be watching. They kept telling us to just stop looking!! I also rememeber my mom saying "they must be Catholics"...hahah Isn't that hilarious? I wonder why she said that?? But I do know that growing up in a strict Mennonite home, I had the impression that all Catholics were going to hell!!!

We did look forward to going each year, but I wonder if my mom felt the same way. I can't imagine how much work that was!! Canning and preserving was a big part of my childhood, so that might be why I like it as much as I do now and continue it even though it is a lot of work!

MEATLESS WEDNESDAY

We didn't have our Meatless Monday this week due to the fact that we had guests and that included a chicken BBQ. Since I'm committed to at least one meatless meal a week today is the day. Actually, we've been having more meatless meals than meals with meat. Today will be one of our favorite meals: beans/rice/ tortillas.

A week or so ago I made tortillas and messed up the recipe. I've used this recipe for years and this was the first time I goofed. I added double the amount of shortening and they turned out like pie dough instead of bread. They crumbled to pieces and you couldn't make burritos with them. Today I'll be more careful. I have cilantro and some nice salas verde on hand so instead of spanish rice I'll make green rice to go with our meal.

I like to listen to the program "The Splendid Table" on PBS radio on Saturday's at noon. The host mentioned this last week while talking about cooking beans, that you can ignore what you've heard about adding salt at the beginning of the cooking time. It does not affect the way the beans turn out. This is the first time I heard this advice, but I am going to try it today. I've always been told that it makes the beans tough...so I never add salt until the end. When I make potato salad I peel the potatoes and add salt to the water when they cook. It flavors the potatoes while cooking and makes the salad much better, so it only makes sense to me that the beans will have more flavor if they are cooked WITH the salt.

It's important to build flavors when you cook. Just adding the salt at the end doesn't have the same result so I'm looking forward to this mini experiment. I'll saute onions and garlic in olive oil first then add that to the beans as they cook for a little added flavor.

I was so excited last night to be able to make salads for dinner from our garden. The lettuce is coming on strong and we'll be overrun with it before long. We had spinach and lettuce and it was so delicate and nice to use! Arugala isn't far behind. Can't wait for the radishes to be ready, too!

Remember to eat at least one meatless meal every week!!!!

DATE PUDDING

Here is a favorite dessert recipe that came from my grandma. My mother would make this recipe typically at Christmas, but it was also made for special occasions during the year. I don't have a picture of it to post, which I wish I did, because it's a beautiful dish. It's served in a trifle dish, layered with dollops of whipped cream.

At Christmas my mom would use food coloring to make the whipped cream pink and green and then layer green, pink, and white cream in the dish. I actually prefer the whipped cream without the food coloring but you could make it whatever color you wanted, I suppose, if you wanted to coordinate with a theme.

What's YOUR favorite dessert recipe??

Date Pudding

Syrup:

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. water

1 Tbsp. butter

Combine water and sugar and cook together for 3 minutes to make a syrup. Take off heat and add butter and set aside.

Batter:

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. milk

1 c. dates, chopped

1/2 c. chopped nuts (I usually use walnuts or pecans)

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add milk and stir until smooth. Fold in nuts and dates. Pour syrup into greased baking dish. Pour batter over the syrup and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Serve topped with whipped cream on in a trifle dish with alternating dollops of pudding and whipped cream.

My mom baked this in a 9x13 dish.

Asparagus & Chive Season

I haven't been very good at keeping up the blog lately. I usually at least post on Meatless Monday, but this week, our monday menu was just left-overs and it didn't seem like anything to blog about!!

I'm a member of The Food Network on facebook and each week on Friday they post the same question : What are you cooking this weekend? I look forward to reading the 'hundreds' of answers, and sometimes wonder if people just write something to impress, because it doesn't seem like some of the answers are very reasonable! But, this week was different. The posts were all very down-to-earth recipes and I get ideas for the weeks' menu by reading them.

On Friday we always plan our next week's menu and grocery list. This weekend we have a wedding to go to on Saturday so I probably won't be cooking that day. On Sunday I'm making paella!!! I'm so excited, because I haven't had a pan to cook it in for a few years after I had to get rid of the old one. I now have a nice big pan to make it in! It's one of my FAVORITE recipes. I'll take pictures and post them after the weekend and share the recipe I have.

I'm also making 6-week muffins. You know the ones. They make a huge batch and you bake a dozen and put the remaining batter in the fridge where it keeps for 6 weeks! They are so delicious and you can have fresh warm muffins when you want them! I make some in my large muffins pans for a breakfast treat, and also some in my mini muffin pans for tea and coffee breaks.

What are we eating this week? Meatless Monday: zucchini casserole. The rest of the week: cipotle beans, spanish rice, homemade tortillas (we have this almost weekly), mushroom barley soup, and the ever abundant asparagus. I'm getting some prosciuitto to wrap the asparagus in before grilling them. Since we have so much right now, I'm also going to do a creamed asparagus to eat over baked potatoes with lots of chive clippings from the beautiful chives in my herb pot.

WHAT ARE YOU COOKING THIS WEEKEND???

Cinco de MARCO!!!

Charlene with some of the nieces

In our family, the 5th of May is Cinco de MARCO!! Let me explain!

My brother Lamont's wife Charlene, is from Canada. You wouldn't think there would be a lot of differences but there are. There are a lot of words that they use that we have never heard of, and when Char says something that we think is funny, my brother gets on the phone right away and calls to tell me and we laugh and laugh. Being with Lamont and Char is always lot of fun and laughing...sometimes at her expense, but she knows we love her. In fact, I consider her a sister...I will miss them soo very much when they move to Phoenix this month. We have wonderful memories of times together. I'm sad to see them go.

Their daughter, Julia, was born on the 5th of May and Lamont was mentioning the fact that she was born on Cinco de Mayo to Char, when she said "what's Cinco de MARCO??". Well, of course, he played along and aswered her with this explanation. "In Mexico, there is a holiday on the 5th of May for all families who have children born on that day who were named 'Marco'...thus..Cinco de Marco"...and she fell for it!!!! Well, he got on the phone right away and told me and I think that I laughed harder at that than anything before!! It was soooo hilarious!!! SO...of course, being the teases that we are...it's always Cinco de Marco day in our family.

I'm smelling my pinto beans cooking, thinking about making tortillas, and realizing that in just a few weeks, they will be moving to Arizona and couldn't help posting this funny story.

So..what are YOU eating for Cinco de 'Marco'???