June 24, 2012 - This and That and a Loaf of Bread.

 The Honey Bear squash, seeds shared by Ed at Tales From The Mountainside, are the first winter squash to blossom and set fruit.  Two little squash have formed so far.

The tallest tomato plant, a Black Cherry, is now at 5'.

As the onions flop, they get hung in the shed to dry.  None of these will be weighed for harvest totals until they are trimmed and brought inside.  The sizes seem to be quite a bit smaller than the 2011 crop.  In 2010 I harvested about 45 pounds, in 2011 I got nearly 49 pounds.  So far this year I've brought in 9 pounds, and I doubt there are another forty pounds left.

Son John brought me a metal frame today.  He thinks I can make something super neat for the garden.  It fits inside one of the raised beds, so I'm thinking the sides can somehow be covered with plastic  and used over a winter bed of spinach.

It has a top that attaches by dropping the corner pins into holes in the bottom frame.  If I could cover this part with floating row cover, maybe it would allow winter rain to penetrate through to the greens below.  Or would it be better to also cover this with clear plastic?

Possibly the only person on earth that hadn't yet tried it, today I used Laura's version of No Knead Bread:

 18 hours after mixing up the dough (although it may have been closer to 14 hours).

 Shaped and ready to cover to let the dough rest.

 Transferred to a floured bowl for rising.

 Covered with a towel and rising in a warm place.

 After 30 minutes with a lid, then 15 minutes without, I took it out of the oven.

 A pretty, rustic loaf, but I think I should have baked it a bit longer.

Of course, we couldn't wait for it to cool before sampling!  Mr. Granny gave it a thumbs up.

June 23, 2012 - Welcome Langela!

For more than a year now, Langela has been corresponding with me via email, and I sometimes share the photos she sends with all of you.  Like this and this.  Well, she recently sent me another one and I informed her it was time she started her own blog, so she can share her adorable photos with all of you.  Today she made her very first post.  Welcome to Langela, the Iowa Farmerz Wife!

June 22, 2012 - The Garden in the Rain

It caught me with my garden tools out, so they're getting a good washing  :-(

June 22, 2012 - The Biggest Yet!

In the past few years, my broccoli hasn't been anything to write home about.  Oh sure, it's been good to eat, but the heads have been so small, they were more like side shoots.  Not this year.  We'll be eating this big baby for dinner tonight, and there are a few more in the garden that are nearly this large!

June 21, 2012 - Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

AKA Granny's Garden Meals

(garden, freezer or pantry items are in parentheses)
* means recipe is included

Thursday

Pork Stir Fry with Noodles (snap peas, broccoli, carrots, celery, onions, peppers)

Pineapple and Cottage Cheese Salad

Friday

Pan Grilled Wild Salmon Filets (dill, parsley)

Creamed New Potatoes and Peas (potatoes, peas)

Roasted Baby Beets and Carrots (beets, carrots)

Baby Romaine Salad  (lettuce)

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Chilled Raspberries for him (raspberries) Strawberries for her (strawberries)

Saturday

Crockpot Beef Stew with Vegetables (tomato sauce, potatoes, onions, peas)

Salad  (lettuce, tomatoes, radishes)

Ranch Dressing (garlic, chives, dill, parsley)

Home Made Yeast Rolls (freezer)

Sunday (Father's Day Family Dinner)

Grilled Hot Dogs on Buns (sweet relish, dill relish, onions)

Calico Baked Beans (onions)

Jalapeno Bread

*New Potato Salad (potatoes, onion, parsley)

Sugar Snap Peas with Ranch Dressing Dip (peas, garlic, chives, dill, parsley)

Chips and Dips

Strawberry Shortcake with Whipped Cream
(The teenagers were in awe as the cream was whipped.  Every single one of them thought whipped cream only came in a pressurized can!)

Raspberry Filled White Layer Cake

Home Made Vanilla Ice Cream

New Potato Salad for a Crowd

Serves 12

( I doubled this recipe, but used only 3 pounds of potatoes because that's all my salad bowl would hold.  I adjusted the mayonnaise accordingly, using enough to make the mixture well moistened.  This makes a rather bland salad, which my family loves.  I add sweet pickles to my serving.)

2 pounds new potatoes

1-1/2 cups light mayonnaise 

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 tablespoon mustard

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 large stalks celery (1 cup), chopped

1 medium sweet onion (1/2 cup), chopped 

4 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

Boil potatoes the day before preparing the salad,  chill overnight. 

Peel and dice potatoes into a large bowl with the celery, onion and eggs.

Mix together the mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.  Gently stir into the potato mixture.

Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours to blend flavors and to chill. 

Monday

Leftovers

(Beef Stew from Saturday)

Yeast Rolls (freezer)

Salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion)

Ranch Dressing (garlic, chives, dill, parsley)

Tuesday

Fried Chicken Breast

French Fries (potatoes)

Cole slaw (cabbage, onions)

Zucchini Fudge Cake (zucchini)

Home Made Vanilla Ice Cream

Wednesday

Meatloaf (freezer, from last week)

*Baby Red Salt Potatoes (potatoes)

Buttered Peas (peas)

Salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion)

Ranch Dressing (garlic, chives, dill, parsley)

Angel Food Cake with Raspberries and Whipped Cream (raspberries)

*I was going to include the recipe for these, but I won't be making them again.  I found them horribly salty, and couldn't eat them, while Mr. Granny thought they were delicious.  The recipe has excellent reviews, so if anyone wants to try it, it can be found at 

http://www.food.com/recipe/baby-red-salt-potatoes-113564#ixzz1Q88QbdcN

Our hostess for Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard is Robin, The Gardener of Eden. Be sure to check out her blog to see what others have been using from their gardens, pantries and freezers.

June 20, 2012 - Wednesday's Walk Around the Garden (part 2)

The tomatoes on the west fence are the least lush, but all are fruiting.  I fertilized and gave them some fish emulsion yesterday.

 I ran out of room in the gardens, so even the irrigation system cover holds potted plants.  There are three peppers, a Pixie tomato, a bucket of Fortex pole beans (being grown for seeds) and a pot of flowers that just got clipped back, hoping they will blossom again.

 Tomato Alley, where the best tomato plants grow big and lush.  The three pots of peppers in the front have lost their identification tags.

 This unidentified pepper is probably a Happy Yummy, but I don't know if it's the sweet or the hot variety.

 Victor

 Bloody Butcher

 Mountain Princess

 Rio Fuego

 Four O'Clocks have volunteered everywhere.  I've probably pulled out a hundred or more already, and they're in dire need of removal again.  The special color (salmon, from Ed) has been marked so it will not get weeded out.

 A lone Black Cherry tomato at the corner of the patio.

 Under the lilac tree, the purple alyssum is now blooming, the zinnias are beginning to fill out, the chives are reproducing and the sweet potatoes are growing in the barrel.

 The sweet potato slips aren't growing very fast, they really need some hot weather.

 Sweet potato slips, grown as a vine in the hanging planter, are doing better than those in the garden.

 There are two broccoli plants under the lilac tree, too.  They haven't yet begun to form heads.

 Yukon Gold potatoes.

 Walla Walla sweet onions.

 Russet Norkota potatoes look close to dying back.

 Only a few Walla Walla Sweets left in this bed, and it looks like they'll soon have to be pulled.

 Dark Red Norland potatoes.

 The later planted Silver Queen corn is about 2 feet high now.

 A pot of cantaloupe is growing faster than those in the main garden.

Hard to see, but there is a pot of Spacemaster cucumbers behind the nasturtium pots, and it has already given us two nice cucumbers.

June 20, 2012 - Wednesday's Walk Around the Garden (part 1)

I have to make more than one post today, because there are so many pictures!

 I'll start with the North and Kennel gardens.

 Jackpot Zucchini on the left, Early Yellow Crookneck squash on the right.

Star of Yelta morning glory and Johnny Jump Ups

The flower corner.  Pink hollyhocks have begun blooming, as well as the Shasta daisies.  The lettuce in the foreground has been nipped off by the sparrows.  I had it caged, but the openings in the wire were too large, so the birds still got in and had their buffet.  Parsley under the ladder, and two leftover pepper plants in the foreground.

 The cantaloupe in this hill is not growing well at all.  This was a compost mound, and should have been an excellent spot for them, but they are stunted and chewed up.

 These four cantaloupe plants, seeded later than the others, are growing much better.  I'll soon have to decide which two to keep, and which to pull or move.

 White onions, grown from seed, have not yet formed round bulbs.  The remainder of this bed has been planted in carrots.  Three of the rows have germinated, the remaining rows were just planted last week.

 Strawberries in the raised bed are just beginning their second round of blossoms, which should finally give me some decent berries.  These plants were just moved here this spring, and the first flush of blossoms resulted in some very small, useless, berries.  Two broccoli plants in the foreground.  The one on the right was "dead" a month ago, but is now almost ready to give me a nice head of broccoli to harvest.  The large one on the left is just now showing a little broccoli button.  All of the broccoli plants are from a packet of mixed seeds (3 varieties), so I have no idea what they are.

 The best of three beds of Fortex beans.  Yesterday I sprayed them (and myself) with fish fertilizer.  They seem to be snapping out of their bug chewed state now, and have begun their climb up the fence.

 Dill, in the pot, has begun to go to seed.  Camomile is blooming, and cilantro, in the smaller pot, is sporting its true leaves.

 Raspberries and zinnias.

 Beets are sprouting under cover, protected from leaf miners.  A few carrots, from an earlier (spotty) planting are in the foreground, and the rest of the bed was planted to carrots last week.

 A triangle of bush beans emerging on the left, cauliflower on the right.  I put in a few celery plants behind the cauliflower.  I'm hoping they grow by fall, as the earlier celery has bolted to seed.  Yesterday I pulled out the sugar snap peas and planted more Fortex bean seeds against the chain link fence on the far right.

 The oregano is beginning to flower.  I really don't need any, so I'll let the bees enjoy it for now.  Sweet peas are just beginning to blossom, but I pick them before they can give much of a show in the garden.  They smell so sweet in the vase on my desk.

 Lettuce is happy in "The Thing I", untouched by hungry sparrows and still sweet and crisp in the light shade of the kennel garden.

 Three broccoli plants shading three lettuce plants.  That's a volunteer nasturtium in front.

 The kennel garden seating area, with Grandpa Ott morning glories beginning to grow behind the bench.  The morning glories are late, due to the cold spring and the semi shaded area in which they are planted, but in past years this has been the best area for them.  I expect once they take off, they will cover the chain link and be beautiful.  All of the nasturtiums and alyssum are volunteers.

 Yellow crookneck squash in front of the Honey Select corn, which has now reached the height of 3 feet.

 Waltham Butternut squash, in the barrel and on the ground.

 Velour beans (left), mixed varieties of sweet peppers (center) and Gourmet Green French beans (right).  All of these beans are covered with blossoms and forming tiny beans.

 Pixie and Gonzales dwarf cabbages (left), celery that has all bolted (center) and carrots that may or may not be affected by nematodes (right).  I'll have to make a decision on whether to just pull out the celery and plant another row of bush beans there, or try to harvest a few more small stalks.  It was planted out way too early, before the night temperatures were 50F or higher, which caused it to go to seed.  This was my first try at growing celery, next year I'll start the seedlings much later.  I picked my first cabbage, a Pixie, this week.  At two pounds, it was quite large for a dwarf variety.  The Gonzales cabbages are much smaller.

 The triangle beds are full of broccoli, carrot seedlings a single volunteer tomato plant and flowers.  I just harvested the lettuce, which gives me room for even more carrots.  I'm determined to grow enough carrots this year!

The tomatoes next to the shed are strong, healthy and blossoming and/or fruiting.  There are basil and lettuce plants in between the tomato pots.

To be continued in post #2.