-
Lettuce Mesclun
I pinched my first harvest today, and it was the Lettuce Mesclun I received as a gift along with the rest of my order from Botanical Interests. I planted the whole package of Lettuce Mesclun on February 17 and started pinching individual leaves about 4 inches long today. Anything smaller is left on the ground…
-
Alfalfa Sprouts
Alfalfa sprouts are so good! We used to buy them at the grocery store. We’d take this little plastic box home, open it and find alfalfa sprouts that were overpacked and soggy. So during my shopping splurge at Botanical Interests I bought Alfalfa Seeds for sprouting. The packet states that alfalfa seeds have the possibility…
-
Carrot Cupcakes
When my daughter was two we spent the year in Maine. Her Grammy grew a garden and took the wee one out to pick carrots throughout the summer. Grammy has now been dead for two years, but my daughter, now 8, still thinks fondly of her and those freshly picked carrots. So in honor of…
-
Garden Update
My Shade Garden is coming along nicely. Most of it, at least. I planted early spring plants such as peas, sugar snap peas, broccoli, lettuce, radishes and beets on February 16 and 17. Remember those Sugar Snap Peas I got from Botanical Interests that I planted a while back? Here they are now! Aren’t they…
-
Quinoa Asparagus, Oregano Chicken
Doesn’t that sound like a martial arts movie with English subtitles? Maybe not. How about this one? Vegetarian cook for meat-loving… what rhymes with cook? I have a new challenge in the kitchen. I don’t want to eat meat anymore. Why be a vegetarian? I came up with these answers when I was 16, the…
-
Soaking and Sowing Sugar Snap Peas
Some of the earliest crops to arrive at the Farmers Markets are peas: Snow Peas, English Shelling Peas, Sugar Snap Peas. We love them. In our family we just shake some kosher salt with Sugar Snap Peas and snack on them when they’re fresh in the spring. I can’t wait to taste them just-picked from…
-
Garden Plan
As soon as my seeds arrived from Botanical Interests, I sorted them out in order of when they need to be planted. I also included seeds I bought last year, and seeds we’ve been saving all year. I came up with a rough garden plan. It went through several revisions once we started working and…
-
Botanical Interests
I got my seeds from Botanical Interests! They came in this pretty box which fits nicely in my mailbox. A while back I was thinking about seeds and the recent defeat of Proposition 37 here in California. Without mandatory labeling of GMO seeds and food, I will have to assume something is genetically modified, unless…
-
Husband’s Breakfast Recipe: Emphysema Lambada
Yes, you read it right. My husband made me breakfast. How sweet! He really is a good cook. Check out his bean soup here. And he also came up with the idea for Bumblebees. But in true Jay fashion, he gave his recipe the unappetizingly strange and thoroughly nonsensical name, Emphysema Lambada. It’s good, though.…
-
Beef Barley Soup
A big vat of hot soup is comfort food in the winter. What’s really awesome about soup is that it gets better after it has sat together, chilled in the refrigerator, then reheated next day. This recipe feeds my 3-person family for two days, and is a great classic meal. Ingredients: 1 lb. lean ground…