welcoming spring on the south lawn

happy first day of spring. great news in this morning's new york times...the first family will break ground today on an organic garden on the white house's south lawn. yay!! excerpt and images below (thanks nyt!):

"Whether there would be a White House garden has been more than a matter of landscaping. It’s taken on political and environmental symbolism as the Obamas have been lobbied for months by advocates who believe that growing more food locally could lead to healthier eating and lessen reliance on huge industrial farms that use more oil for transportation and chemicals for fertilizer. In the meantime, promoting healthful eating has become an important part of Mrs. Obama’s agenda."

on the ground, staff siting the garden.

first lady michelle obama preparing the area for raised beds.

seedy saturday

earlier today, i snuck a trip to city people's garden store and spent nearly an hour pining over all the seed choices, browsing the fruit trees, and eying their large selection of perennials. i won't mention the damage; let's just say i'm doing my part to stimulate the economy. upon returning home, i planted three types of carrots, two kinds of snap peas, lettuce, spinach, and spicy micro greens.

i'm excited about all of the above, but particularly interested in seeing how the three carrot varieties turn out. there's a parisian market variety that looks like a miniature beet; little fingers echo baby carrots; and purple haze offer a gangly uniqueness. each mature at different times, so we'll have plenty throughout the season.

as mentioned, i also put in two types of snap peas. first, i worked some compost and organic fertilizer into the soil (we use down to earth all purpose 4-6-2 - it's made to work well in nw soils). then, i moved a bamboo tepee that we made last year into the new pea patch area, made a few rows, and set the peas out. the bamboo will provide the peas with a place to climb.



after planting all of the above, i was on a roll and couldn't be stopped...except by dropping temps and ensuing raindrops. i moved indoors to our newly built shed (good work brian!) to start some seeds that need a little more time before they can go outside. with some seed starter mix and old seedling pots from last year, i started two varieties each of cucumber and zucchini, as well as cilantro, basil, italian parsley, thyme, and (cross your fingers) muskmelon. (fyi, apparently what we think of as canteloupe is actually called muskmelon. true canteloupes are a hard-shelled melon from europe. you can learn a lot from a seed packet). anyway, we picked up some short-season seeds out of curiousity a couple weeks back. if successful, we'll be quite pleased.

looking forward to reporting back with photos of seedlings and sprouts!

signs of life

while it's still a bit brisk out, the benefit of gardening in raised beds is warm, workable soil. in the garden this afternoon, i spotted the first signs of life in the form of sprouting lettuce (see if you can spot them below).

crocuses - another indicator that spring is on it's way.

spring time?

ah yes, first post of the year and its...march. besides everyday busy-ness, it has been snowing, sleeting, hailing, and freezing much more than usual here in the pacific northwest. all valid excuses, right?

well with a few hours of sunshine spread out over the past couple weekends, we've managed to establish some new raised beds, smother some grass, and plant/transplant a few things. as the planting season picks up, stayed tuned for more regular posts. for now, a smattering of recent photos:

new beds, new technique.
we're using old NY Times to smother the
grass under and around the raised beds.

spreading wood chips over the paper.

arugula, head lettuce, leaf lettuce, and baby greens.

garlic that we planted in the fall.

in the process of thinning out
an overgrown strawberry patch.

what i found in the strawberry patch.

rhubarb nubbins - should start shooting stalks soon.

sorrel - survived all the snow.

chives too!

new blueberry plants

mobile rosemary

new shed! siding to come on next sunny day.

winter wonderland

contemplating whether i owe an apology to the lack of late fall posts. i don't know, if you live in the pacific northwest, you may be able to forgive me. you see, we've been hit by a cold blast, or as our lovely local newscasters like to call it, "winter storm 2008!" it's rather funny how we in the seattle area respond to snow.

but really, our home got hit with at least 14 inches at the height of the storm. it's just now beginning to melt away. just a few days before this began, i spent a couple hours in the yard, cleaning up old beds, checking in on some budding rainbow chard, and the garlic was just starting to push through the soil. we were also just about to finally pick the brussel sprouts. and then, the snowfall.

lesson learned: consider listening to the weather forecast when it could potentially have disastrous affects on the garden.

brussel sprouts just before the snow. we'll be sure to pick them sooner next year so we don't miss out. so good when parboiled and sauteed with shallots and a touch of butter.


ok, back to this big storm. now that i have a few days off, i'm finally able to share some photos and thoughts. the garden is completely covered, and i'm a bit worried about whether anything will survive...given that we didn't cover anything. we're thinking the strawberries and rosemary will pull through. there was some lettuce still going, but there's certainly no hope for that. crossing our fingers that the chard might be ok.


i took this photo before the really massive snow fall. at one point, gus' little red had was just about entirely covered. it provided a nice gauge. and yes, that is our dilapidated fence in the back. the snow really points out its flaws.

anyway. garden time is a bit dormant now, but we built five new beds to fill next planting season and are plotting out what might go where. we're also still searching for free wood chips to fill the spaces between the beds and to create some perennial planting beds in the front yard. we're a bit anti-grass, or maybe a better way to put it is pro-best use of space.

fall plantings, apple cake, and a lovely dahlia

with the weather getting much brisker and the sun not shining on us quite as often as during the summer, we've been spending a little less time in the garden. but, we managed to muster up the motivation to get out and plant some garlic and rainbow chard.
back in july, we bought several heads of garlic at the farmers market on lopez island, knowing that we'd be able to plant it in sept/oct. considering october is quickly passing, we decided it was about time to get these guys planted.

we also inherited some garlic from brian's late uncle bob's
farm in montana. it was really a special feeling to plant these in our garden - i really hope they mature and we can keep saving cloves to grow year after year. all in all, we planted 4 long rows of garlic.

on sunday, we also planted a couple rows of rainbow chard. we've been really pleased with the swiss chard we planted months ago that is still coming up after we cut it. had some yesterday with some chicken sausage, white beans, and fresh rosemary - a really delightful autumn meal.

the rainbow chard (assuming it germinates!) will provide some much needed brightness in the garden as winter approaches. we're hoping it's not too late in the season to start. with our relatively mild winters, kale, chard, and other hardy greens tend to do really well here (though this is our first time ever really testing out that theory).


all this talk about vegetables...after planting the garlic and chard, i headed back inside to make use of some apples we'd had sitting around from last week's farmers market and a friend's yard. several week's ago i saw a recipe for a raw apple cake that sounded delicious. by the way, the blog where i spotted it is just great - mixed greens.

anyway. apple cake. i love apples and they are in abundance this time of year. but one of the secret reasons i decided to test this recipe out was to further convince my dear husband that we really should purchase a couple of apple trees. i also wanted to test out our new bundt pan - something i've always been intimidated by, for some reason. perhaps because "bundt" is a funny word that is strangely difficult to pronounce.

regardless, the apple cake turned out quite well - very much like a carrot cake. i tweaked the recipe just slightly by using whole wheat pastry flour, and i made up my own cream cheese frosting by whipping it with a little powdered sugar, cinnamon, and chopped walnuts.


to round out this piecemeal post, i photographed a lovely dahlia - my favorite flower. we planted a handful of bulbs late this spring - some of which my mom gave to us from her massive stock and others we purchased at...costco. i believe this stunner is actually from the aforementioned big box. dahlias remind me of pike place and northwest summers. we'll be planting many more next year.

green tomatoes

so we put together an assembly line for fried green tomatoes. step 1: slice tomatoes, salt and pepper them, let sit for 10 minutes. then proceed to dip in the following items in the following order: milk, flour, eggs, and cornmeal. be prepared for the mess and have patience to wash your hands once you get these guys into the fry pan.

cook on each side for just a couple of minutes in a few tablespoons of oil (we used olive oil). put them on a plate with a paper towel and salt immediately. we had some sour cream and sweet chili sauce on hand (an odd combo that worked quite well). i imagine some fresh squeezed lime on top would be pretty good too.














in round two of the green tomato experiment, i ventured into the sweeter side and tested a recipe for green tomato bread (recipe below). it turned out very much like zucchini bread. don't know that you can actually taste the tomatoes, but my coworkers seemed to enjoy it.

in non-green tomato news, we went to the last MI farmers market of the inaugural season yesterday, and i got greenhouse tomato envy (i could make a really bad joke here about being green with envy, but i'll spare you...kind of):


green tomato bread
3 c flour (i used "white whole wheat" whatever that means)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c white sugar (preferably organic evaporated cane juice)
1 c brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 c veg oil (i used a light olive oil)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c finely chopped green tomatoes
1 1/2 c chopped pecans or walnuts

preheat oven to 350 degrees. grease and flour 2 loaf pans. in mixing bowl fitted with paddle attachment, sift together first 6 ingredients. add eggs, oil, and vanilla until just incorporated, then add tomatoes and nuts. (i found the batter to be a little dry at this point, so i added a little bit of milk - 1-2 T - to bring it together). pour into loaf pans. bake about 50-60 min - test w/toothpick. cool on wire rack.