SpiderWomanKnits

in our garden : scapes

 

Last year my visual garden crush was on our husk cherries. This year it was on our garlic scapes.

I ate my very first garlic scape about four years ago when we were members of a local CSA. My friend Amy said it best when she said, "those of you who are growing garlic for the bulbs are focusing on the wrong end of the plant!". Scapes are the flower stalk that certain types of garlic put out in early summer and they can be used in so many ways. We love adding them to frittata (of course), salads, stir frys, making pesto with them, eating them raw, adding them to fresh cherry tomato sauce, just to name a few.  But this was the first year that we actually planted garlic and harvested our own scapes. Every year we'd say, "let's plant garlic in the fall", and the fall would come and go but we'd just never seem to get to it. We didn't plant much, maybe 25-30 cloves? So, the little bit of scapes we got were gobbled up right away and any extra were stowed in the freezer for future stir frys. We intend to plant much more garlic this coming fall. What do you like to do with your scapes? Any recipes you'd care to share? I want to file some ideas away for next early summer and our future, hopeful, larger crop of scapes.

53 more mouths to feed

53 baby chicks arrived this morning. 52 of them are Jumbo Cornish X roosters, or meat birds, that we are raising for ourselves/our freezer this year. Last year we raised less than half as many and learned to process them on our own. The task of handling this many birds seems daunting but we have about 8-12 weeks to get "ready". It's almost unbelievable how quickly birds bred for meat grow. I have only 3 birds left in our freezer from the last batch. It's been such a pleasure having that healthy, home grown source of protein at our disposal, as challenging as the whole process is I couldn't go back to store bought chicken.

Oh, when you order chicks from a hatchery they always include one 'rare exotic chick'. That's chick #53. The 'rare exotic chicks' are always a rooster. Ours is an Americana.

jammin'

Two of my lady friends and our seven children hit Clear Brook Farm yesterday to pick (organically raised) strawberries. Apparently we picked them all because they had to close down the PYO today. My haul was 11 pounds of berries. We have a great little patch of our own strawberries growing in our garden but they rarely make it into the house. The kids just sit and eat them on the spot. This year I wanted to put up enough jam to meet our needs for the year so picking at Clear Brook was just the right choice.

11 pounds of berries yielded 18 half pints of strawberry jam and one quart freezer bag of whole berries. Yum, yum, yum. I used Pomona's Universal Pectin and followed their 'low sugar cooked recipe' for strawberry jam. I made two separate batches, both doubled. For the first batch I used honey as the sweetener and for the second I used organic cane sugar and added a whole vanilla bean, halved, while the berries were at boil. Oh my, my. It's heavenly.

It feels so god to have the canner out and fired up again. What a joy it is to hear the 'ping' of a well sealed jar. I just love canning. I'm sure that I'll visit Clear Brook again for more berries so that I can put up a few more pints and then have some set aside for gifting.

Photo Credit for the sweet and treasured picture of Vaughn goes to my friend Alexa.

meet madeline

Madeline is a close relative of Wee Bunny and Honey Bunny. Every now and then she wishes they would write but she keeps busy and enjoys her days.

She's a bit self conscious about the size of her ears. She's thoroughly convinced it has to do with being born on a rainy, gray day. 

Simonne loved her instantly, just the way she is, and claimed her for her very own. They make the best of friends because Simonne loves to tell her that her ears are just the right size and let's Madeline play in a way that really boosts her confidence. Madeline is her happiest when she's picking strawberries in the garden with Simonne. 

{True Love}

Just like Wee Bunny and Honey Bunny, I made Madeline using my own pattern, a recycled wool suit for her face, armsand legs and 30's reproduction fabric for her body and insides of her ears. She was, in fact, made on a very rainy day this weekend but I am sure that has nothing to do with the size of her ears.

a brother from another mother

{he surrendered}

Kimba is beyond elated to have another kitty in the house with the same energy as him. Obie and Trixie are great with any and all animals but they are settled in to their older age. Kimba and Clover Clifton play as much as they can in their waking moments and it never goes to tufts-of-hair. So sweet. Obie and Trixie are perfectly happy to just sit by and watch.

some really sweet vintage

All just added to the shop!

***Edited Saturday*** My garden is so happy that it is finally raining today! So, use the coupon code RAINRAIN at checkout (for today only) to take 20% OFF everything in the shop!

inch by inch, row by row

{on the first day of Spring}

{two days ago}

In this garden I have growing, beets, radishes, snap peas, pole beans, two varieties of bush beans, garlic, cukes, zukes, three varieties of hot peppers, red peppers, potatoes, strawberries, kale, swiss chard, arugula, spinach, nasturtium, cilantro, parsley, mint and lemon basil.

It feels so good to have the garden in and growing strong. Yet, there always seems to be room and the temptation to plant just a few more things. This year I planted all of our tomatoes (paste and cherry) and tomatillos in the 'coop garden' which I haven't gotten a good picture of yet. Let's all send each other Happy Growing wishes! I love looking at gardens! Care to share a link, post or picture of yours?

three bags full*

Well, three full size vintage sheets! And you know what they are full of?

Today was shearing day. Indy and Hayden are back to looking like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Silly little boys.

Their hair cuts are on the sloppy side because we have chosen for the past two years to not tie them up while shearing. The shearer, his assistant and Greg hold on tight while their fleece is remove. It got a little bit hairy (no pun intended) with Indy this year. He was a handful. But, they are shorn and the shearer said that their fleeces were outstanding, "unusually good". Even the seconds were excellent. Soon, there will be some pretty fabulous yarn. Oh, I love shearing day!