From the Garden

I fully intended to share a post about the results of the cold-frame, and our first harvest (which was ages ago!), but what with one thing and another (and then another) I never got around to it. But a few days ago I snapped some photos of a basket full of greens I was picking for lunch. We’ve been eating salads daily. They are made up of mesclun, baby swiss chard, kale thinning, radishes, wild sorrel and, of course, chives. We have an accidental red cabbage plant left over from last year that is flowering, so I’ve also been tossing in the purple buds, which make a nice touch.

I’ve been seeing the value of successive planting and am trying to keep up with that so that when one row of mesclun/lettuce gets old I’ve got another just coming into its prime.  Which reminds me, I should sow another row today!

The cold frames were great, though they have not be necessary for quite some time. I used them mainly for the greens I mention above, though I also started some kale plants which have now been planted out.

The rest of the garden is planted and I’m looking forward to the coming season.

Good Cheer Goats

Meet the Good Cheer Goats: Gertie and Gretel.

(I have to say I have been trying to get some good photos of them and having NO LUCK! They move about so, and are always too close. And in addition, it seems that EVERYBODY (baby, goats) wants to get at the camera, which is not helping. So please take my word for it: they are really cute. Hopefully I’ll be able to get better photos soon, perhaps when I am able to pass Little R off to Daddy!)

These two little ones arrived this morning and are settling in to their new home. They are missing their mother a little but seem to enjoy our company and are friendly and gentle.

Oh, the adventures we shall have!

Rhubarb

I’ve been trying to make the most of our rhubarb. Nothing we’ve planted, and growing as it does in various odd spots, it’s fun to tramp about and harvest. (Incidentally, I can’t believe I JUST learned that you are meant to pull and not cut rhubarb!)

So far I’ve made rhubarb muffins and rhubarb oatmeal scones (instead of apple). I also tried a small batch of rhubarb chutney, which was so successful I made a larger batch and canned it. And most recently a rhubarb pie. My pastry left a little to be desired, but the filling was perfect.

I feel like this is just the beginning of the rhubarb, so I’ll probably end up exploring more rhubarb recipes. I’m learning that sometimes baking recipes are too quick to sweeten the rhubarb into submission, so I generally cut back to let the rhubarb shine, or zing.  And I’m particularly interested in the non-dessert recipes. Let me know if you have any!

Dandelion….Syrup

A few days ago I set out to make Dandelion Jelly, inspired by all the cheerful dandelions flowers that seemed to appear over night. Seemed like a fun way to feel productive, while milling about outside with the baby. So we picked some dandelions on a sunny day (or I picked them, will Little R did her best to scatter them about, despite several decoy containers) and the next day I separated the yellow and white parts from the green.

Making the jelly was easy, but unfortunately it didn’t set. I followed the recipe meticulously, but it didn’t say anything about testing the jelly stage, so I didn’t, and I should have. The flavour of the “not so jelly” is pretty subtle, but nice. When I first tasted it all I could taste was sugar, but the next day it had more of a sunny honey flavour. There are, of course, ways to fix runny jelly by cooking it again but as it was just meant to be fun, and dandelions are free I figured I’d follow the advice I read on a website and “label it syrup and move on with my life”.

And so: Dandelion Syrup. To be enjoyed in fizzy water for a drink, or drizzled on fruit salad!

One

Little R is one. (well, one and a day now…) We planted an apple tree for her. Something we had intended to do on her birth, but I’m actually just as happy to be doing it now, since it seems a fitting thing for a first birthday. There were no hand-made gifts from mummy, but there were decorations, and cake, and well-wishers. And flowers. When I look at the little arrangements on the mantel and table I am reminded of picking flowers around this time last year with Little R on my chest. Those first flowers are one of the beauties of a spring birthday. I love that each year, when we come to celebrate her special day, there will be primroses, forsythia, plum and quince blossoms. Just perfect for my sweet girl.

Birthday Bunting

We have a little birthday coming up; a first birthday.  Strangely, I do not seem to have made anything yet for Little R’s special day. A  bit of in decisiveness, a bit of just getting caught up in things, I guess. (Really, what have I been doing? Not blogging, that’s for sure!)  Feeling badly about this, but am reminding myself that I don’t seem to have any problem making her things for no special reason at all. What I have made is  a quick birthday bunting from some scrap fabric. Double triangle pieces zig-zagged together and attached to some bias binding I had lying around.  Since gifts might go largely over her head anyway, maybe it’s just as nice to make something that can start a tradition of birthday decorating.

 

Fair Weather

Little R very much enjoys being propped up on the back of a chair or sofa to look out the window. Enjoys sitting there, and bitterly resents being removed. This morning, as consolation, we headed outside in that half hour chunk of time before her nap normally reserved for….well, what really? – bathing, getting things organized, whatever.

We checked on the little plants in the cold frame, all happily doing quite well even after a slight drama on Easter. I managed to leave the light propped open over night, which in the end was OK since it didn’t get so very cold. I hurried out Easter morning (in a snow storm, it should be said!) to address this, and when I tried clearing the snow from the light I was too heavy-handed and broke the (already cracked) glass. The short story is that a huge clump of heavy slush fell directly on my mesclun, flattening them severely. But today they are fine, so no harm done. (“Poor man’s fertilizer” !)

Then we visited with the cat, and with the green man in the apple tree. A little chickadee hoped from branch to branch, chattering cheerily to us. Little R was entranced. I noticed the buds on the apple are starting to pink up. When we came away the chickadee was on the top-most branch of the tree, merrily singing “so-mi, so-mi”, or as Gary tells me it is known “Fair-weather, fair-weather”. I do believe you are right, little chickadee; it is certainly a beautiful day, and one to be spent outside! Hope you can all enjoy it too!