Front Yard Garden
Today we started the first bed in the front yard area. This marks the first in ground area we have started at this house. We have had the bed prepping with chicken manure from the neighbor since last year so now we have really rich dark soil that should be just what the squash are looking for. Fingers Crossed that this gives them the space they need as the raised beds were not big enough […]
Pickled Asparagus
This week we had the opportunity to get asparagus from the group that is driving to eastern Washington to get excess produce that would otherwise go to waste. We decided to pickle it to preserve it. We found an awesome recipe in WECK Small-Batch Preserving, see recipe below.
Pickled Onions
We are still working our way through the 50 pound bag of onions that I got. Seemed like an awesome deal until you have to do something with all of them. We are about halfway through the bag with a lot of work left to do. Today’s endeavor was pickled onions that I canned for long term storage. I am not really confident in my canning efforts yet as I haven’t done a lot of […]
Bearded Irises Make Their Appearance
I found these irises in the side yard of the house after we had lived here a year. They never bloomed because they were in the shade under a cherry tree. I dug up a bunch of the rhizomes last year and transplanted them to the front garden and they appear to be a LOT happier here. They started to bloom this week and aside from being beautiful they also smell awesome! Not sure what […]
ONIONS!!
We have a local couple that has decided to help us all support the farmers on the east side of Washington that have a surplus of produce that they cannot get rid of. So we got 50 pounds of red onions for $10! We have turned most of them into fermented onions and pickled onions of several flavors including some with turmeric which are awesome. We will be enjoying these onions for months to come.
Garden Update – 04.24.2020
Today I had a helper in the garden so we took advantage of a break in the rain to get some root crops planted. We planted Parsnips, Carrots and Beets in one of the raised beds in the front garden. Also I realized that the back yard fence is another trellis just waiting for a purpose in life so I gave it some peas to see what would happen. Meanwhile, the rest of the starts […]
Garden Update – 04.20.2020
Updated Garden Layout including the recent additions of Asparagus(which will take 3-4 years to actually product any that we can eat), and Nasturtiums. If the weather holds out this week we will be added the following to the mix. Radishes Beets Parsnips Carrots
Kamut Sourdough
This weekend I tried a new recipe for sourdough using a combination with Kamut Flour. I wasn’t sure it was going to work as it didn’t look like it rose as much as my regular sourdough recipe. However I was pleasantly surprised with the oven spring and the awesome sourdough flavor. It had a stronger sourdough flavor than my regular as well as a closer crumb and heavier texture. It was a blend of 80% […]
Water for the Garden
We are saving some of the spring rains for the garden. Since putting on the new metal roof it is easier to get cleaner water to save. So I ordered a recycled barrel from Azure Standard (www.azurestandard.com) for $20 and used a canning jar filler that I already had along with a $20 diverter I ordered from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005V3QVRM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)for a cheap solution.
Garden Update – 03.28.2020
Today I set out the first round of onion starts that I grew from seed in the grow tent. Anxious to see how they do instead of buying starts. Also transplanted some strawberries that had decided to run into the herb bed into a container of their own. They only have to share with the cannas when they decide to come back around this year. With last frost still a couple of weeks away we […]