Let the Gardening Begin!

February 18, 2010

Seeds Packets

It’s official now! We have ordered the garden seeds.

Spring is definitely coming.

After perusing the catalogs, researching the varieties, and studying all the options I have  finally decided to plant <insert dramatic pause with drum roll> the very same things I planted last year! :)

The only difference is that last year I didn’t start the seeds – they were given to me.

One of the guys my husband works with is big into gardening. He ordered several packets of heirloom seeds and took them into a local nursery to have them started. He specifically told them to start 25 of each kind.

They planted every seed.

Instead of several hundred plants to deal with – he know had several thousand!

He handed out heirloom tomato plants like they were zucchini’s in August!

I will admit that I was not happy when my husband brought home several plants (over 100).

My only experience with heirloom tomatoes was the year I didn’t get to the Amish store soon enough to buy my bedding plants. All they had left was the Brandywine variety.

What a disaster! Have you ever seen a bulbous nose? That’s what those tomatoes looked like. They never really turned a true red – and part of the tomato would rot while the other half was still green.

The texture was funny and they didn’t work well in my spaghetti sauces.

Major tomato fail.

But we planted the heirlooms anyway. At least they were free – and there wasn’t a Brandywine in the bunch!

It was a very wet year – and nobody had a very good tomato crop – but the ones we did get were really nice!

But the real winners were the peppers – both sweet and hot. We had a jalapeno variety that made the absolute best poppers known to man. The kids and I ate them every day for lunch for weeks on end. Seriously. Every day.

I crave them even now as I’m typing.

My husband found out where these seeds came from and last night we finally made out our order at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

I haven’t started plants for at least 10 years – the old house was just too small and cold; last year was just too confusing with trying to move and settle in.

This is the year.

In a few days a packet full of springtime will arrive in my mailbox – tiny little seeds full of potential and hope.

I will plant them, water them, and watch them carefully. All the while dreaming of my beautiful, weed free garden full of luscious healthy produce.

I can just taste those poppers now!

So – how about you? What state is your garden in?

By Country Gal | Posted in Gardening, Spring | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

Amaryllis Bulb

January 5, 2010

Winter has hit hard here in Iowa. The landscape is white and barren with snow drifts so deep we’ll be driving around them until spring. The garden catalogs are coming and we’re all craving a little color! My mom shares one way to find some…Amaryllis Bulbs

Our daughter keeps a collection of  Amaryllis bulbs over each year, and she has shared one with me. The blooms are so majestic – which is especially welcome when the winter snow is lingering.

It is like watching creation to see the green leaves sprout from a round brown ball!

To keep your own Amaryllis , clip the blooms when they fade and keep watering it. Clip the stalk back as it browns and plant the bulb in the garden as soon as all danger of frost is past. Keep fertilizing it all summer.

In the fall dig up the bulb and place it in a pail with no soil. Keep it in a cool place and let it dry out for 60 days.

Clip off any foliage before you plant the bulb in a container. Amaryllis like to be crowded, so only put the bottom few inches in the soil in a pot without a drain hole. Water about once a week until you see green emerging, then water as needed.

Place near a window with plenty of light.

The first green will be leaves, but watch for another growth beside the leaves–this is the bud.  You can fertilize at this time, my sister-in-law does, but my daughter does not and they both blossoms.

The leaves and bud stalk can grow up to 30 inches high and will need to be supported with a dowel and a yarn tie. (I’ve even used one of my wooden spoons!)

The bigger bulbs have blossoms. Sometimes you will find some “baby” bulbs growing on the bigger bulb in the garden. We are experimenting with them, but it will take several years before the “babies” are large enough to bloom!

Enjoy!
Nana Shirley

By Country Gal | Posted in Gardening, Winter | Tagged | Comments (0)

Sweet Corn – First Fruits

September 16, 2009

Sweet Corn Finally!

After several years without, we have finally harvested our very own sweet corn from the garden!

The weather cooperated.

We were able to finally out- smart the coons.

And our 3 layer fence kept the deer out.

It was late – very late. But that just made it more delicious!

We’ve enjoyed several “all-you-can eat” sweet corn meals and even put a few bags in the freezer.

There’s nothing quite as sweet as the food you grew yourself. All the labor, all the effort, all the waiting pays off as you enjoy bite after luscious bite of corn – butter and salt dripping down your chin.

It’s a good life.

By Country Gal | Posted in Cooking and Food, Gardening, Harvesting | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Patti Pan Summer Squash

September 9, 2009

We spent a wonderful weekend on the prairie with Papa Jim and Nana Shirley and enjoyed these Patti pans every morning! There were yummy in our omelets and so cute!

Patti Pans

Are you tired of those long green things that remind you of smooth cucumbers? Want something frilly & white for a change? Try the Patti Pan!

Their official name is Early White Bush Scallop Squash. We were introduced to them many years ago when visiting friends on one of our fall Minnesota fishing trips. Finding seeds here in Iowa was a challenge, but they are now a tradition in our Prairie Garden.

You can plant them directly into the garden in hills of 3 to 5 seeds after all danger of frost is past.   In a week you will see the green leaves emerging and a Patti Pan will be ready to eat in 50 days!

They do the vine thing so give them some room.

Patti Pan’s are very mild, low in calories and a good source of Vitamin A. For optimum flavor pick when about 4 to 6 inches in diameter. You can use the bigger ones, but the outside is tough, making it necessary to peel.

We like them sliced and sauteed with onion & green pepper as a side dish for any meal. This year we experimented with some zucchini recipes and found that they were interchangeable.

Next year we will try a yellow variety that we found after the garden was planted!

-Nana Shirley

By Country Gal | Posted in Gardening, Harvesting | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Waste Not Want Not – Cherry Peach Jam

July 22, 2009

Jam Our cherry crop this year was dismal. We harvested a small amount of very small cherries – hardly enough to do anything with.

But I adore cherries and was not about to let them go to waste!

Dagmar came to the rescue – deciding to turn them into jam.

They were too small to pit – so she put them whole in a saucepan with some water and boiled them until the pits came out.

Then she measured out the juice that was left – but there wasn’t enough for a batch.  So she headed to the freezer and dug around until she found a package of frozen peaches.

Perfect!

She added the peaches to the cherries and viola! She had enough for a batch!

Great taste and no waste!

A real winner!

Cherry Peach Jam

1 pound tart red cherries
1 1/4 pound peaches
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 – 13/4 ounce package fruit pectin
4 cups of sugar

Sort, wash and remove stems from the cherries. Pit and coursely chop them, measure 1 1/2 cups. (We used the juice and whatever cherry parts we could salvage from the pits.)

Peel, pit and coarsely chop the peaches, measure out 2 cups. (We used the frozen peaches from the freezer – we just thawed them and rough chopped them.)

In an 8-10 quart kettle or dutch oven combine the fruits and lemon juice. Add the powdered pectin and mix well.

Bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Stir in sugar. Bring to  full rolling boil again, stirring constantly.

Boil hard, uncovered for one minute.

Remove from heat and quickly skim the foam from the top with a metal spoon. (This is harder than it looks – the fruit floats to the top as well and gets stuck in the spoon with the foam – just do your best. A little foam on top of your jam is not the end of the world!)

Pour at once into sterilized canning jars, seal and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. Or put into freezer safe containers and freezer.

Makes 5 half-pints.

By Country Gal | Posted in Canning and Preserving, Cooking and Food, Gardening, Harvesting, Thrifty Ideas | Tagged , , | Comment (1)