Hiatus

Firstly, THANK YOU. I really appreciate your kind comments and supportive emails. It’s hard not to feel a little dorky. =)

The garden is at rest this week. My house is getting fumigated for termites. Fun! Wrinkles is visiting his second family. Rocky has been at the pet motel/hospital since Tuesday morning and is being neutered today. Sniff sniff. And I am commuting from Ontario, CA because H is taking a very important exam. Fingers crossed.

So, what’s a vegan in the IE eat? Beside the massive sack lunch I packed for the week I visited Veggie Era in Upland and picked up freakishly good vegan food. More on this later!

Rocky managed to sit still for exactly one second. Get behind me Satan. This is as close as Wrinkles will get to him.

Sunset Magazine

Hi guys! I'm on page 16 of the March Issue:

A very special thank you to Sharon Cohoon and Gina Sabatella for making me look good.

Cabbage: The Unsung Hero

Cabbage. Not a vegetable I usually care for. I’ve never felt compelled to purchase cabbage. The very idea of cooking with it perplexes me. Where do I even start? Cole slaw? Yawn. The only memory I have of the shredded stuff is of grams topping off posole (pork and hominy soup) with it.

At first, I grew cabbage purely for novelty reasons; for garden kitsch. Then it became a challenge. The cabbage worm and his hooligan wigglers were real jerks but I wasn't going to let them take over my turf. It became my version of the $64.00 Tomato!

Finally! Here she is, Cabbage Copenhagen Market. I sowed these Botanical Interests seeds who knows when. The point is I got a cabbage.

I couldn’t stop eating it raw; mild, buttery and delicious. I didn’t make anything exciting with it last night. Atop homemade bread I topped a Smart Dog with a handful of cabbage, avocado, and tomato. I think I’ll make a variation of Rustic Cabbage Soup tonight.

Those cabbage worms were really onto something!

Garden Interrupted

Hey dude! It’s been a while, I know and I apologize. What’s new? Well, my newly planted basil is getting pounced in the rain but never mind that. I’m going to shift the onus for my absence onto the newest addition to the family. Our brood has grown; we are now parents to a sweet Rottweiler/German Shepherd pup. He’s not exactly a puppy. Many have told us he may be between 8 to 12 months old. Long story but we found him on February 6th by the Metro station, running wild in the rain and ID less.

We named him Rocky and he won’t sit still long enough to have his picture taken so instead here’s an illustration of what he looks like. Handsome, right?

The victory garden has remained rockin’. I transplanted six different types of eggplants into separate containers. I tilled New Zealand White Clover where corn will grow. I amended one of my beds with compost and I harvested a cabbage. It took lots of tries for the one cabbage but success against the cabbage worm was finally mine!

Till next time!

Victory Home Appliance

Gone are the days of $4.50 bread! They really need to husband proof food labels. If they did the husband wouldn’t buy bread containing bleached flour. What?! Oh yeah, and once H bought full price bread. What, you didn’t buy the sale bread? How could you! By the way, I wasn’t even going to eat the bread. I just had a problem with the price. Which leads me to my next dilemma I can’t eat store bought bread! Most market bread has honey in it so I have nothing to spread wonderful organic peanut butter on. Boo!

I’ve been eyeing the Breadman TR875 for a while now. I tried my hand at making wheat bread once sans a bread machine and ended up with an inedible loaf. I’m hoping this guy makes my bread life easier.

First Seed Order of the Year

The Fresh Dirt folks have been engaged in seed catalog talk for a couple of weeks now. I on the other hand have been hoarding seed catalogs and have placed zero orders. That is until now. I know what you’re thinking; she has over one hundred seed packets she couldn’t possibly want more! Oh contraire.

The kind people over at Botanical Interests offered me a nice discount on my seed order. I restrained myself and only purchased the following:

Turnip Purple Top White Globe Organic Seed
Tomato Pole Aunt Ruby's Green Organic Seed
Tomato Bush Ace Organic Seed
Squash Winter Vegetable Spaghetti Seed
Squash Winter Pink Banana Seed
Squash Winter Burgess Buttercup Seed
Pepper Chile Pepperoncini Greek Organic Seed
Parsnip All American Seed
Melon Charentais Seed
Leek American Flag Seed
Gourd Luffa Seed
Edamame Soybean Butterbean Seed
Corn Sweet Painted Mountain Organic Seed
Corn Strawberry Popcorn Seed
Broccoli Di Cicco Organic Seed
Beet Early Wonder Organic Seed

Inspired by Kathy at Skippy’s Vegetable Garden I chose Strawberry Popcorn Seed in hopes of popping my own corn. How rad is Gourd Luffa? Is there anything you can’t do with it? I plan on growing my own sponge but if I’m hungry I can harvest it young and cook it like squash or toss it in a salad. The whole darn thing is edible!

I’ve never grown winter squash, parsnips, turnips, or leeks. I can’t wait to grow and pickle my own pepperoncini! I could eat bowlfuls.

I’m a big fan of Botanical Interests and have used their seeds with great success. Besides conveniently finding their seeds at my local Henry’s or Whole Foods I feel like I’m purchasing art with every seed packet. Tips and recipes can be found inside and out. They also offer a flat shipping rate of $3.95 on all interweb orders. Score! I’ll be patiently waiting by the mailbox.

Not Just Veggies

Look at me, I grew flowers! A while back Renee of Renee’s Garden kindly sent me her new 2009 offerings. I was a little intimidated when I discovered several of the seeds she sent were flowers. I typically do not grow flowers from seed because I’m just not that good at it. I can’t even get cuttings to root so I usually let my local nursery grow the flowers for me.

But on December 15, 2008 I brought my A-game and sowed Summer Splash Marigolds, Scented Gold Wallflowers, Bouquet Cosmos-Double Click and Bergamo Bouquet. Unfortunately Bergamo Bouquet did not germinate but the others are thriving.

My favorite, Summer Splash Marigolds, will mature to a height of 1 ½ feet and they’ll anchor the corners of my raised bed. Cosmos are neat and I’m looking forward to having a garden full of butterflies and bouquets of cosmos all summer long. The Scented Gold Wallflowers will only mature to a height of 9 to 12 inches. The seed packet suggests planting these is a pot. I think I’ll solicit my favorite container gardener for ideas.

I’m pretty proud of myself for growing these but I think thanks should go to Renee and her high quality seeds for most of my success.