It's A Sign!

Put up in time for the garden walk, I presume.

In case you can't read it from the picture...

High Tunnel
High tunnels are unheated, plastic covered structures that provide an intermediate level of environmental protection and control. They can provide year-round production for some cool season crops.

Jenny's Boots

This is a picture from when our grad student was visiting. I loved the way she stored her rubber boots.

Now does that say farm girl or what?

Kale Crisps

Tear kale into pieces. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt. 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Crispy, salty and satisfying.

Garden Walk, Recap

Everytime I go to the garden walk, I end up wishing my husband was with me....so he could see the cool projects and really get behind revamping our yard. He would get just as jazzed about some of the gardens as me, I think.

I'm dreaming of hauling in soil and putting a shade garden in our front yard. I'm also dreaming about planting up our parkway--the part that won't grow any grass anyway. I'd kinda thought that was verboten until I saw this:

A few more pics from the garden walk this past weekend...

There was so much more to see, but I wasn't thinking about the blog when I was taking pictures. Sorry!

We're On the Garden Walk!

Okay so first about the picture -- I yanked the last of the lettuce this week. It lasted a really long time....and might have even gone longer if I was harvesting more regularly. (But seriously, we had a ton of lettuce). Anyway, it was all either gone to seed, or slimy underneath, or just kinda big.

So two of the paths in the high tunnel will remain bare now until August, I think, when we start the fall planting. (The other two rows have onions, tomatoes, basil and peppers.)

But now for the garden walk news--we're on it! Well the whole Extension garden complex is on it. Truth be told, I've never bothered to walk around the perennial or rose gardens before, so I'll be doing that on Sunday.

The Green Bay garden walk runs Saturday and Sunday. Info at the Green Bay Botanical Garden website.

Hearty Veggie Chili

Okay, sorry folks, I can't get my picture to load decently for this one....so you get text alone.

This is a recipe for the Hearty Veggie Chili my darling husband whipped up yesterday. He cooked sans directions (cause he can fly blind like that), so this recipe is his best approximation, after the fact.

2 cloves garlic
1/2 Vidalia onion
1/4- 1/2 red pepper
15 oz tomato sauce
15 oz diced tomatoes
15 oz red kidney beans (drained)
2-3 T ground cumin
2-3 T chili powder
1 tsp corriander
2-3 T grapeseed oil (substitute your preferred oil)

Prep: chop garlin, onion, red pepper

Using a 3qt saucepan over medium heat, add grapeseed oil, onion, garlic, and red peper. Sautee 3-5 minutes. Add kidney beans, stire and continue to heat 2-3 minutes.

Add cumin, chili powder and corriander. Stir and heat 2-3 minutes.

Finish by adding diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Stir and allow to simmer about 15 minutes. Add more or less spices to taste.

It was fabulous! Nice and chucky, so you didn't even miss the meat!


Thanks hon!

Currant Jam

Picked a nice bowlful of currants and made currant jelly over the weekend. Did you know currants are naturally high in pectin? I just read that in one of my newer jamming books (The Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves by Linda Ziedrich). That means I can skip the commercial pectin and just jell away!

Following Ziedrich's I used equal parts currant juice and sugar (3 to 3) instead of the 5 cups to juice to 7 cups sugar recipe that comes with commercial pectin. I am really working on using less sugar in my jams.

I also added a tablespoon of rosewater to the batch. Can't say that I really tasted it though--which is a bummer.

My favorite local cafe serves a rosewater lemonade that is just heavenly. Ah well, will just have to get a little more heavy handed with the next batch. It's a dangerous game playing with rosewater though--just a little bit too much and the flavor is too overpowering.

If you know of any jam recipes that call for rosewater let me know--I looking for a guide to quantity!

On Neighbors

The 1 reason I would want to move: To get a large, sunny yard so I could have my own garden.
The 1 reason I won't: Our neighbors.

We KNOW our neighbors. We wave at each other, have afternoon chats, and swap keys when we leave for vacation. We borrow things, trade books, and share our garden harvest.

Which brings me to the above. That dish of black raspberries was left on our deck this morning. Our neighbor can't eat the seeds in her raspberries--yet she took the effort to pick them for us!

And do you see the note? She apologizes for not having time to wash them!

It's an amazing thing living in a real neighborhood. I hope you live in one too.