Rolling Through Spring

I received many meals for a month following Lizard's passing. The best one, of course, was the gift basket with soup, rolls and cookies.

But there were other memorable offerings, too. I received a loaf of homemade cherry bread, similiar to raisin bread, but with cherries. I'm sorry for not photographing it. (Above is the last loaf of homemade bread I made for Lizard.)

One of my cycling friends brought me a tray of spring rolls from a nearby restaurant to which I'd never been. I'm not even sure I'd ever had a spring roll before. The peanut sauce that came with the meal was addictive.

I wished I had discovered this restaurant while Lizard could enjoy it, too. I'm not sure he would have liked it as much as I did, but I do wish we'd been able to try the menu together.

As a result of this new sensation, I decided I need to learn to make spring rolls. I could not find most of the ingredients at my local little grocery store. I found rice paper, ginger and sprouts in a neighboring town. (I grow my own sprouts, but I don't have quite enough yet.)

My first attempt was a total bust. I followed the directions on the back of the package of rice paper, which said to use hot water to soften the wrappers. My first spring rolls were more like spring salad or spring mess. The wrappers did not wrap; they just tore and left little goodies all over the counter and kitchen floor. I should have taken a photo.

I looked up "how to make spring rolls easier". I found a suggestion to use cold water and begin before the paper fully softens. My second batch worked much better. I think it's going to take some practice, but I was able to enjoy my second set of spring rolls at the table without making such a mess. Next, I'm going to try making my own homemade peanut sauce, but with almond butter instead of peanut butter.

UPDATE: I tried again over the weekend, and one of my spring rolls actually looks like a spring roll!!! I'm getting the hang of this!

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Veggie Paradise

I've had a multiplying mystery plant flourishing beneath the spigot on the north side of the house for years. I finally dug up and replanted in a pot the nearly two dozen separate plants – bulbs – last week. Once it appeared they survived the trauma, I did the Google photo search and discovered I have a very healthy crop of garlic chives. I must have planted some in a pot on the nearby porch when we first bought the house, before we received permission from the HOA to transform our front and back yard into gardens. I don't even remember a harvest, but I'm sure there was some homemade spaghetti sause in there somewhere. The seeds must have blown to more fertile ground. I will try to harvest the seeds and put them in the raised bed gardens this fall.

Most of my tomatoes got a very late start this year, but they are making me so happy now.

My pepper plants also got a late start, and only one plant is tall enough and bushy enough to produce blossoms so far, but none of the buds made it to pepper. A second round has begun. Fingers crossed for at least a few homegrown this year. But, I did buy some roasted Hatch chiles last weekend. And spent about four hours skinning and freezing all but about six, which promptly went into scrumptious meals.

Even though we've been in a heat dome for about three or four weeks, my sugar snap peas – cool weather plants – have produced enough pods for a meal (for two!!!) for my first time ever. We've typically split a pod or two or three times each new growing season. Our first real pea harvest!!!

Green beans were another first this year. These are from my first harvest a few weeks ago. I think we'll have a fresh new harvest in a few days, and it will be enough for another meal (for two!).

The spoon tomatoes have been the garden sleeper. I didn't think the seeds were any good because they took so long to germinate. Now all nine plants are exploding with blossoms.

Some of the blossoms are beginning to turn into tiny little tomatoes!!!

And some are beginning to mature! I think I'm going to have luscious salads every day very soon!

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Tomatoes!!!

Off to a slow start, but my first year of veggie gardening totally from seed is out the gate and making a good run!

I've already harvested my first few tomatoes. They are small, compared to grocery store and/or farmers market offerings, but they really pack a punch. They are SO tasty!

These are going to be SO awesome with grocery store cucumbers and a couple of onions from my garden. Just add a skosh of vinegar...

I enjoyed tiny little spoon tomatoes from the grocery store in my salads last winter, so I searched and found seeds a couple of months ago. I planted 20 seeds, and I've got four plants, one of which is beginning to blossom! Fingers crossed!

First peas weren't enough for a meal, but they made a great snack.

First beans weren't enough for a meal, but I stuck them in the veggie bin in the fridge until I had enough, and oh, were they heavenly!

We still have plenty of rhubarb. I bought strawberries and bananas from the grocery store and then cooked up some rhubarb.

Lizard is LOVING the strawberry banana rhubarb sauce with his plain yogurt every day. I just love to make him smile!

No red sunflowers yet, but still hoping. However, I had a very pleasant surprise last week... I put my amaryllises on the (very hot and very sunny) front porch each summer before I put them in the basement for three months in the fall. Sometimes I will get an unexpected blossom in the hottest part of the summer. I'm so tickled peppermint with this year's bonus!

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A Different Kind of Yum

I've been trying to make all our bread homemade for the past month or so, and for the last couple of weeks, I've wanted to try pizza or calzones.

Calzones won on Saturday. I didn't have enough homemade spaghetti sauce left, and I didn't want to buy grocery store tomatoes. (I've got my first two tomatoes in my garden, but they are way too tiny, so I've been buying a few tomatoes every couple of weeks at the Farmer's Market. Oh, are they yum!)

I did have about a cup and a half left of homemade green chili chicken (with my own peppers (from last year), onions and cilantro) we've been making into burritos, so I decided to try southwest calzones. Added in some grocery store corn and black beans. Drizzled with grocery store green enchilada sauce.

Oh, my gosh! We are in heaven!!! I can't wait to try this again!!!

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The Garden's End

We got a full extra month out of this year's garden. Our first overnight freeze didn't occur until last weekend. So I had fresh tomatoes and peppers all the way up until Friday.

I tried to cover the raised-bed planters Friday night, but the plants didn't care. When we removed the blankets the next morning, the plants that should have been toasty warm were dead. This happened last time I tried to cover the plants prior to a freeze, which I think was spring last year, but I had to try again.

Prior to covering, we brought in all the baby peppers and all the tomatoes that looked like they might be mature enough to turn red in the window. I'm not sure how many will actually turn. I gave my mom a good belly laugh because she loves fried green tomatoes, and she remembered the year I tried to make a baked version with my green tomatoes. (Miserable fail.)

We had our first snow Sunday night, and now the flowers are gone, too. I am going to miss my garden for the next five months, but I'm hoping I will get many chances to shoot snowflakes while I wait!

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Holey Rhubarb!

Some really big leaves popped up in the lower level of one of my raised bed gardens this summer. I hadn't planted anything there. I assumed it was a weed. Things were so busy, I didn't bother pulling it.

My dear friend Sue from Mr. Micawber's Recipe for Happiness educated me. Once you have a rhubarb plant, you have rhubarb for life. That suits Lizard just fine; strawberry rhubarb pie is one of his favorite deserts.

I assume some critter planted the rhubarb for me, perhaps a bird, but I guess it could have been a racoon or squirrel. Whatever planted it didn't come back to eat it. We have had more than our fair share of grasshoppers this year, and they have stripped my salad greens to the stalks. Made a mess of a few peppers, too. I keep finding chew spots on the giant rhubarb leaves, and I assume they come from our ranch of grasshoppers. Perhaps that's helping keep the numbers less than what it could be. One leaf bite, and no more grasshopper...

The rhubarb is definitely a photogenic plant. I've read new leaves look like green brains. So I keep trying to get photos, but the leaves grow and spread out too fast. I think the stalks are beautiful when they turn red.

I finally worked up the courage to snip a few stalks. If I was still natural dyeing, those giant leaves likely would produce some wonderful spring shades on yarn. For now, I'm just composting them, but not for the vegetable garden.

I bought a big container of strawberries (because I've never been successful in growing my own), then chopped them and the rhubarb stalks. I put them in a glass casserole dish with about a quarter cup of agave syrup. I baked for 45 minutes.

Lizard enjoyed the jam-like concoction warm out of the oven with French vanilla ice cream. I also put some in our plain yogurt, and I froze the rest.

I had never tasted rhubarb. Now I'm as hooked as Lizard. I might even start buying rhubarb from the grocery store when I'm not growing my own!

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