May 10, 2010: Mother's Day Love & Harvest Monday

What a wonderful Mother's Day I had! It started with brunch at my youngest daughter's house. Mr. Granny and I drove over to West Richland to spend the morning with Amy, Bryan, Alicia and Alicyn. Grandbaby Alicyn was so happy to see us, and full of kisses for her Grandma and Grandpa. We were served hot biscuits with sausage gravy, a casserole of hash brown potatoes, eggs, bacon and cheese, fresh mixed fruits (melons and grapes), deviled eggs, apple and cherry turnovers, orange juice and coffee. Everything was so good, Mr. Granny threatened to go back the next morning for leftovers.

We returned home in the early afternoon, and I went out to the garden and planted the first four of a dozen Quadrato Rosso D'Asti peppers into the garden. These have been well hardened off, but I want to see how they respond to transplanting before I put in the rest of them. I think our cold weather has passed, but I'm not going to bet the farm on it.

While I was in the garden, my youngest son, Scott, and his family showed up with hugs, lovely roses and card. Shortly after they arrived, here came my older daughter, Shannon, with three of her children and that new great-grandson that I wasn't able to hold and spoil on their last visit, as I had the flu. I made up for it though. We headed straight for the squeaky rocking chair, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting acquainted. They had also come bearing gifts and candy.


Great-grandson, Remington J. Ripley, at 7 weeks of age.


Later that evening, son John came with lovely red roses for his Mom. So my day was filled with good food, beautiful flowers, lovely gifts and, the best gift of all, my loving children and grandchildren.

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This week's harvest................

I'm not surprised that Annie and Otto both love fresh veggies, as they have been my garden companions for their entire lives (which is only two years). I doubt it's unusual for dogs to enjoy the things they like to consume from the garden, such as raw green beans, peas, carrots and strawberries, but I am surprised at their latest rage.....radishes! Annie is especially fond of them. She stands by me at the kitchen sink, poking me on the leg with her nose, begging for "just one more radish". Otto seems to like them too, but he's more fascinated with playing with them than he is with eating them. So my harvest totals for the past week include the 23 ounces of radishes (cleaned weight, no tops) that I put in the refrigerator, but not the ones that went to my two little beggars.


The first of several handfuls of radishes that were harvested this past week.


Eleven ounces of spinach were harvested for some wonderful salads. Mr. Granny likes his with ranch dressing, but I ate all of mine with sweet green onions, dried cranberries and a sweet balsamic vinaigrette.


I'm using the thinnings from the Walla Walla sweet onions, which are sizing up nicely, and the flavor is fantastic.....sweet with just the right amount of "bite". Five ounces of onions (cleaned and trimmed weight) were added to this week's harvest total.


Salad fixings for the week.


Oh, man, I shouldn't even show these next photos on my blog! But this is what I look like when I garden........if I'm not in my pajamas and slippers, I'm all about baggy jeans and wonky sweaters. Alicyn was looking at my garden, from a safe distance behind the fence. Later she wandered over to the corn and tried to "weed" it. Luckily, no baby corn stalks were lost in the process. I caught her just in time.



Psssst, Granny, watch your posture! And buy a new sweater. And wear the tight jeans.....you know, the ones where you have to lie on the bed to get them buttoned. And for heaven's sake, comb your hair. You never know when someone will take your picture! ;-)


To date, the harvest total for 2010 is 7.25 pounds. Please visit Daphne's Dandelions to check out what other garden bloggers are harvesting.

26 comments:

  1. Now those are the radish photos I love. The red round globes of goodness. My late dog loved when I chopped vegetables. She would sit there just waiting for me to toss things over. I think carrots were her favorite, but cabbage ribs were much loved too. I don't think I ever thought to try radishes.

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  2. What a wonderful Mother's Day and harvest too! Your great-grand baby is precious!

    Granny, you look fine from behind :)

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  3. Glad you had such a nice Mother's Day!

    Don't be too hard on yourself b/c of your gardening attire. We all do the same thing! Besides, it makes me like you even more to know you're so "real". :)

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  4. What a wonderful sounding Mother's Day. We enjoy our salads the same way (well, I like feta/cheese instead of the onions), and so do our DH's! LOL

    Hey, gardening is all about comfort. A loose shirt is imperative, otherwise everyone would see what's being squeezed out of the tight jeans when bending over! But how in the world are you going to bend over in tight jeans anyway? LOL

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  5. Daphne, when Annie began begging for a radish, I gave her one and figured she'd just abandon it. Wrong. She ate 3-4, and they didn't seem to cause her any gastrointestinal distress, so I hope they are OK for dogs to eat. All of my other dogs ate foods with added onions, and none suffered from them. Now they are on the "poison list" for dogs.

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    Ha-ha, Robin! Possibly better from behind than from the front!

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    Kathy, I'm very "real". LOL.

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    Gosh, Momma_S, I can't hardly bend over in loose jeans any more! When I do get down, it's nearly impossible to get back up ;-)

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  6. The radishes and spinach sure look good! As do those Walla Walla thinnings. Did you overwinter the onions or plant when you got back to WA?

    I'm generally careful when commenting on any woman's appearance (a lesson learned the hard way) but I have to say your gardening attire looks fine to me! I'm all about comfort when I'm outside.

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  7. What A Cutie Patooti!!!! (talking about that baby! lol)Glad you got to hug on him!

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  8. Glad you had a good Mother's Day, Mom. That picture of Remy is adorable, and I'll warn you in advance the next time I start shooting photos of you from behind ;-)

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  9. Villager, I planted them from seedlings purchased here in WA. We can buy them by bunches of 65 big, healthy plants for $1.39. For that price, I won't even attempt to grow them from seed.

    I'm all about comfort in the garden, too. You're lucky I wasn't in my PJs and slippers!

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    Aww, Shawn Ann, I thought you meant my patootie was a cutie! Yes, hugging on him was nice.

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    It was a wonderful day, Amy. The 10 or so kisses in a row from Alicyn were exceptionally sweet. sticky, too ;-)

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  10. Nice Harvests! I read about all your radishes and then came across a recipe for roast radishes on the NY Times. Here's the link if you're interested. Roasted Radishes

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  11. Happy belated Mother's Day, Granny! We wear similar uniforms when gardening. No way am I going to wear nice clothes that will only get holes and stains on them in no time! Plus, they have to be baggy -- so I can bend over and stretch wildly and reach at crazy angles to do everything I need to do. ;)

    Glad the corn was saved from the littlest weeder. That is too sweet, that she wanted to garden, too.

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  12. Emily, I would never have thought to roast radishes! Of course, now I'll have to try it. Thank you for the link. I think the toaster oven would be fine for roasting a small trial pan full.

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  13. Meredith, thank you! Yes, my grandbaby thinks she's Granny's little garden helper. Unfortunately, I'm running out of places for her to dig! I had always let her dig in the half-barrels, but that's where I planted the corn.

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  14. Stop it. You're a sexy beast no matter what you're wearing or what your hair looks like. And no. There's not an emphasis on the word "beast."

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  15. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, Ribbit!

    Actually, I changed "sexy jeans" to "tight jeans". I didn't want all you other gals getting jealous, ya know.

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  16. Sounds like wonderful family time!
    Those radishes are so dang pretty too.
    I like your "sexy" garden attire. Personally I ban bra's when working in the garden. Heh. ;^) And the plants don't care so why should we?

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  17. Jenn, bras are banned around here on sweatshirt days. In fact, I went to the store braless today! I had a sweatshirt on, and I asked Mr. Granny if it looked like I wasn't wearing a bra, and he said he couldn't tell. And I didn't even trip over them ;-)

    I was going to say I tucked them under my belt, but I wasn't wearing a belt :-D

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  18. You gardening attire looks like high fashion compared to mine!

    Those radishes look wonderful, as well as the spinach and the onion. You must have perfect conditions for walla-walla onions, lucky you. I love their sweetness but in my garden they get a little too pungent.

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  19. Your Mother's Day sounds wonderful. Glad you enjoyed it!
    As for the garden attire, I sincerely hope nobody ever takes a picture of me while I gardening! Sweat-soaked, the baggiest jeans I can find without looking like I belong in the 'hood, definitely no bra in this heat, and a funky old T-shirt or "muscle" shirt. Oh, and let's not forget the funky old Yankees baseball cap to keep the hair out of the face and off the neck. Scary, huh?

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  20. LOL, SB....I think we need a group photo!

    Would you believe I once had a friend who wouldn't come out of their camp trailer until she had her makeup on, and she wore dresses and heels to go fishing from the dock :-D I should say, her husband was our friend, we just put up with her because he was so nice. My REAL friends would wear baggy jeans, no bra, T-shirt and baseball cap.

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  21. Angela, Walla Walla sweets grow very well here. After all, we're less than an hour's drive from Walla Walla ;-)

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  22. Granny, thought you might get a kick out of this gardeners ensemble... ;^)
    http://community.livejournal.com/gardening/3116211.html

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  23. Jenn, I couldn't view it without creating an account. So....I created an account, and then tried to view it and got "Error - You are not authorized to view this protected entry."

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  24. Oh for pete's sake, what a hassle! Sorry I wouldn't have posted it if I'd have know it was going to be such trouble... So I stole the pictures and made a post just for you. =)
    Sexy in the garden!

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  25. Lovely mother's day and beautiful harvests! I adore spinach salad with craisins, crumbled goat cheese, and a raspberry walnut vinegarette dressing. Delicious!

    You look dressed for a night out on the town compared to my usual attire in the garden.... baggy shorts, oversized t-shirt, and usually flip flops! I put jeans on and sturdier shoes when I have a digging, brush clearing, or weed whacking project - or if the weather is cold - but otherwise it is shorts.

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  26. Kitsap, if it would ever warm up here, I'd also be in shorts. And that's really not a pretty sight. :-D

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