Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Been There, Done That

Looks like the birds found the birdbath...

Sunday, August 29, 2010

CSA: Week 17

Starting to get some fresh greens back in the basket this week, hopefully that means the weather is going to start cooling down...hopefully...

Saturday, August 28, 2010

August

August is the month where things start to feel tired and crispy in the yard. The vivid bright greens of spring and early summer change to an dusty army green, and then pale brown. The smell in the air starts to change from a lush, wet dirt to a dry, sweet leaf.

Not that August is without it's own palate of colors...




I haven't posted much lately about the yard because, well, there isn't a whole lot going on.


The tomatoes are tapering off, the herbs are doing a nice job of drying on the plant for me, and the squash plant has one butternut squash that it's been able to offer up - we'll see if it actually makes it to full size. The exact opposite of last summer, this year has been HOT, HOT, and HOT, with a side of DRY and NO RAIN. Guess this is the hand that mother nature has dealt us this year.


I've been doing a lot of cooking and canning with my new job working from home. I have more energy for the things I love, which is, well, great. I put away more than our fair share of whole tomatoes, tomato juice, and marinara sauce. We're stocked to the hilts with jam. We've probably both put on a few pounds with the good food I've been cooking. Something I'll need to keep my eye on...


I did have one exciting new addition to the garden this past week. During these hot months, every time I would water the plants a small group of sparrows would hop around the perifery of the water, springing in every now and then to sneak a drink and a splish-splash. It got to the point where it seemed less FUN for them and more DESPERATE, like they were having a hard time finding drinkable water around here. So, this led me to investigate bird baths, and I ended up purchasing a small cast-stone one, very ye-olde-english-garden-ish. It's only about 14 inches high, so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in the front flower bed. Now I just need to let it sit and acclimate, and let the birds start investigating.

CSA: Week 16

And here was last week's share.

CSA: Week 15

Running way behind on my updates lately. I have no excuse other than I've been on the computer too much.

Observe the eggplant!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

CSA: Week 14

Today we decided to sign up for Eaton Farm's Fall CSA - running for 5 weeks through October and November. I'm looking forward to some delicious squash this fall!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Bragging Rights

Not to sound too conceited, but I have to brag a little bit about the flourless chocolate mocha cake I made this past weekend for family. I'd say if dark chocolate cake and dark chocolate mousse got together and had a baby in a pool of espresso, this would be their sinful lovechild:


Snauce

Last weekend when the family came over for dinner, my mother brought me a present - more fresh tomatoes - four flats of them, to be exact. I was a busy girl Sunday; all day was spent canning, doing both whole tomatoes as well as a batch of marinara sauce.


A couple years ago my mom and I made a batch of my grandma's pizza sauce, but I had yet to make actual marinara sauce. I used the basic Tomato, Garlic, and Basic Sauce recipe from the Ball Blue Book and jazzed it up a bit with some dried oregano and red pepper flakes. I was really pleased with the taste, and ended up doing 10 pints. My goal is to perfect this recipe to the point where I never have to buy jars of marinara from the store again.

CSA: Week 13

I'm a shamefully late posting this week - lots of family/friend entertaining went on last weekend and this week. I love being able to incorporate CSA produce as well as produce from our garden when cooking for company - thankfully when you're using such yummy in-season ingredients, your cooking skills don't have to be anything fancy. Nature speaks for itself!