This week in my kitchen…
Enjoying the first garden cucumbers and tomatoes
Loving fresh raspberries from a local farm
Canning dilly beans
Drying spearmint from the garden (a drying success, finally!)
What have you been cooking this week?
Linking up with Heather.
I’ll do a proper garden update soon, especially since everything is changing so quickly, but for now, two new happenings- mint harvest and a few new herbs. The spearmint is spreading quite quickly, so I’ve hung some of it to dry. I haven’t had much success with air drying in the past, but there’s so much mint that it was worth another try. I think it would be so nice to be able to make tea from dried mint in the winter months.
The garden centre near our house is selling a lot of discounted plants that have been in the centre for awhile- if you’re willing to pick through to find some healthy plants, there are some lovely herbs for great prices. I picked up some rosemary, pineapple mint, and a plant labelled “curry”. Based on my reading, I’m not sure whether the flowers or leaves will actually be useful for food, but the yellow flowers were just too pretty to leave behind. I also loved the smell of the lemon balm, but I wasn’t sure of its uses- if you grow it, what do you use it for?
What were you up to this Friday?
I am loving how late it’s light out now that it’s getting to be properly summer! We’ve been spending evenings out on the deck, planning meals and making packing lists for our first camping trip in a few weeks.
This week in the garden :: Spearmint (it seems to have recovered and is spreading quickly), cucumbers, and broccoli. One of the tomato plants has also grown a ton this week and we should have the first few tomatoes in a couple of weeks!
What’s happening in your garden this week?
Kentucky wonder pole beans
Spearmint – Do any plant experts know why some of the leaves have turned purple/ red? The most likely explanation I could find was that they were in a small container for too long before being transplanted into the raised bed.
Broccoli
Cilantro
Tomato plants – these are Carolina Gold
A quick garden update from this week- everything that is going in the raised bed this year has been sown and sprouted or transplanted! Most of the plants are doing really well, although a few of the smaller bell peppers and tomatoes are looking a bit worse for wear after transplant. After a few good rains this week, though, they seem to be on the mend, so I’ve got high hopes. I’ve also got lots of herbs and salad greens in planters up on the deck.
What have you been working on in your garden this week? Are any of you lucky enough to be harvesting already?
I only posted about my garden a few times last year, and I’d like to post a bit more often this spring and summer as planting gets underway! I’m going to try to post every Saturday or every couple of Saturdays, depending on how fast things are changing.
In the garden this week:
See all of this year’s garden posts here.
Let me know in the comments if you’re planting a garden or any container plants this year… have you started seeding or is it still too cold?
Getting up on the first Monday after the time change, even after sleeping in a bit, is pretty painful. Nothing lots of tea can’t fix!
Knitting a pair of Saartje’s Bootees (Rav link) because I needed a break from all of my long-term projects and these are a really quick knit. Finished pictures coming tomorrow or Wednesday!
I’m still deciding what I’m planting in my garden this year… it’s only 6′ by 5′, so there isn’t a whole lot of space. So far, perusing the seed catalogue, I’m thinking cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, peas, beans, cucumbers, butternut squash, zucchini, iceberg lettuce, and spinach. Spinach and zucchini would be new ones for this year. Any advice?
I hope you are all having a tea-filled Monday!
Apparently fake fall is over, Ontario. You know, the one where we all pretended it was fall, and picked apples, and flavoured everything with pumpkin, while enjoying the still-above-20 weather? Turns out real fall has arrived. I even heard something about… snow.
Ah well. It was nice while it lasted.
(To tell you the truth, I’ve actually been enjoying the cooler weather. You might just have to remind me of that in January.)
I decided that the real arrival of fall meant that I should sort and edit the photos from Thanksgiving weekend. Turns out most of the photos I took are of food… I’m not sure what that says about us other than my mum and I really like making food.
(The lone surviving squash from the garden… and the last harvest from this year’s garden!)
A note for knitters: There are 65 days left until Christmas. I give you permission to panic.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend- I’ll be back tomorrow with a knitting-related post!
We’re being overrun by cherry tomatoes lately. I planted 4 plants and they’ve done better than anything else I’ve planted. I think I’ve picked 3 litres in the past week alone!
The trouble with cherry tomatoes is that it’s hard to find ways to use them up before they go bad. They aren’t typically used in sauces or anything else that can be preserved easily. Luckily, I found a recipe for canning them plain that works well. Since they are plain, they can be used in sauces, on pasta, in soup, and so on. I’ll share the recipe here once I’ve refined it a bit.
What is abundant in you garden right now?
It’s been a busy week- lots of work and lots of planning for my return to school in just a few weeks. I also turned 19 last week. I had a great dinner out with some friends and cake with family.
My little brother bought me a skein of sock yarn… he knows the way to my heart by now! It’s Dye-Version BFL Sock in the colourway Morgan Le Fay and I am pretty much in love with the colour. It definitely needs a special project. (Rav link)
The garden is coming along well. I’ve been harvesting lots of herbs (basil, chives, parsley) and some cherry tomatoes and a few beans. Cucumbers very soon, and the squash plants are flowering. I’ll do a more in-depth garden update post soon!
Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you’ve all had a lovely week!
I’m totally stealing this idea from the lovely Karen over at Chookoolonks! I’m going to post four months worth of favourites from this year each day over the next 3 days. Each photo is linked below it to the post in which it first appeared. It’s been so much fun to sort through all of the great moments from this year- I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! This is part 3- September to December.
September
Moving and starting university!
New Pattern- Modulation! (Buy It Now)
Beautiful fall at my university
October
A trip to the 2012 Creativ Festival
November
December
New pattern- Vivacity (Buy It Now)
Christmas baking (Heart shortbreads)
Stitches and Spoonfuls 