Lettuce Today

Today was lettuce day. I picked quite a bit of Black Seeded Simpson today. I only picked half of what was there. After I cleaned it, I mixed it with some Romaine from the store. It was really nice to see the light greenish-yellow mixed with the darker green sitting on our plates tonight. I make a large salad and put meat, cheese and oven baked french fries on it. Served with a favorite dressing and you have a whole meal in a bowl. The heck with the meal in a bowl you see on TV. This is much better tasting and has everything in it you want. Yum!

Take care.

Peas, Please!

When I came home this evening, Hubby and I went out back to pick strawberries and PEAS. I love to put peas in my soups and some potato dishes. These were an experiment this year. I don't remember if I mentioned this previously. Bear with me if I did. Anyhow, we could never get peas to grow. This year I planted when the people on TV said so. Well, we got a lot of peas this year. I put in one packet of seed from the discount store and we were rewarded with beautiful plants. We have lots of pea pods. But when they're shelled, you don't get so much. Right now, I have two cups in the freezer. There are more pods on the vines, but the aphids are starting to find them to suck out the juice.

Next year, I'm going to get my seeds from Heirloom Seeds and I'll be planting about 2 rows of them. That will be a lot of peas!

Now, I'll have to figure out what we're going to plant in their place. I may put in another round of lettuce.

Speaking of lettuce...my Romaine is doing well. I'll plant some more of that with the hopes of another small bumper crop.

Take care.

All is Well and Gardening

All worked out well at work re: yesterday's post. Hooray!

We've been picking a lot of strawberries lately. Today was about 1 quart. Yesterday about a pint or two. Same for the day before that. All in all, we've been having loads of strawberries to eat. More is on the way. AND the next round is coming on. The plants are growing large leaves which stand really tall. Some of them have thrown up flower stalks already. This is a good sign! I will also have enough to either freeze or make more jam. Hmmmm. Not bad either way.

Today I also picked a handful of leaf lettuce and the last few radishes to mix with our salad this evening. 

This weekend we'll be picking more peas. There are a lot of full pods out there. I should pick tomorrow when I pick berries.

I made a really yummy chicken pot pie with some of the peas. You know, it feels pretty good when you can cook with food you grow yourself. It also tastes a whole lot better, too.

I hope your garden is prosperous this year.

Take care.

Blessings from Our Garden

Here are some pics of what we've been getting from our garden for the past several days.

Monday's Picks

Here we have Ozark Beauty strawberries...about a pint, a few leaves of Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, and the last bit of radishes worth anything.

This year, the strawberries are abundant, but they are malformed. I think it's because we had warm weather and cold weather and back and forth for a couple of months. The plants would bloom then freeze. This happened several times and I had to remove the flowers every time. Some of the berries are really nice. Some are small. Anyhow, they all taste the same and I'm not out to impress anyone with my berries. We pick them a little yellow, as you see. This is because the birds will get to them if they are really red. Right now, slugs are the enemy. We'll eat these on Monday after they ripen overnight.

Tuesday's Pick

We have about a pint and a half of nice strawberries here. These will be eaten on Tuesday. Sunday, I made a vanilla pound cake from a very old recipe book that I have. It makes the most wonderful shortcake for berries! Yummy!

Today's Picks

There is about a half-pint of strawberries here. This is the first picking of peas. There is a gardening show on TV called Making It Grow. It is on on Tuesday nights at 7pm. I learned when to plant the peas from listening to the experts saying when they plant. Here in SC, you actually plant them in February! It worked. The plants are healthy, large and are filled with flowers and ripening pods. I had only about a cup of peas from this shelling. I put them into the freezer so I can get enough either for a meal or two, or use them in minestrone soup that I make. Next year, we're putting in a lot more peas. We're also going to plant them on a higher fencing as they are about 1-1/2 feet above the fence we have them on. Right now they're on a 2-foot fence.

I hope you enjoyed the pics that I finally got to take. I hope YOUR garden is doing well if you live in the Southern regions like we do.

Take care.

First Harvest of 2013

Guess what! We've had our first harvest of 2013! Take a peek.

French Breakfast Radishes and One Cherry Belle

I know...it's not REALLY a harvest. But to us, it is. These went into a salad for this evening's dinner. This is a start. We see some more that will be ready in a few days.

Good Friday is coming and it is tradition to plant your garden on that day. It means a good harvest. So, my seedlings, which are quite large, will soon be planted in the great outdoors. I still have a ways to go with hardening them to the sun, but they are coming along. I had to bring the seedlings in last night because of the cold. They'll be in tonight, too. I may take them back out in the morning since it is supposed to be a decent temperature, but it's supposed to rain.

We'll see how things turn out this year. We have summer squash, radishes, peas, 2 lettuces, onions, carrots, green, red, yellow and long peppers (for stuffing). Oh yes. Did I mention strawberries? They are looking good right now. They should be bearing in a couple of weeks.

Take care.