The Haul: Flower Power Edition

Today, at the open-air market I bought:

• 3 pints blackberries
• 1 canary melon
• 1 cuke
• 1 purple bell pepper
• 1 pint assorted cherry tomatoes
• 1 dozen eggs
• 1 bison flank steak
• 4 bison burgers
• 1 jar local wildflower honey
• 5 sunflowers!

Garden Update

Sad times in the Vegtrug last night as I put the zucchini plants and one of the squash plants out of their misery. The zucchini plants never produced fruit and their blossoms were all withering. I left one of the squash plants as it still had developing fruit on it, but by the state of its leaves, it’s not long for this world either.

BUT, removing all those plants allowed me access to harvest my first planting of carrots! One of them is quite ladylike:

I’m still struggling with blossom end rot among my tomato plants. I have managed to snag a few tomatoes off the plants as they start to turn orangey and before the rot sets in. They ripen pretty well on my window sill. I ate two last night with dinner. Yesterday at lunch I ate the only bell pepper I’ve managed to harvest so far…

I keep telling myself this isn’t that bad for my first year with a real garden. Lots of lessons learned. I am not drowning in produce as I had hoped, but it’s still a lot of fun and I’m eating really well.

Sunday Special

Tonight’s dinner was exciting for two different reasons. First of all, I re-introduced CHEESE into my diet for the first time in 6 weeks. So far so good. Fingers crossed that there are no issues and I can continue to enjoy this most essential item.

I was debating whether to go French and expensive for my first cheesy trial, but I was afraid of having a reaction and then having a bunch of pricey cheese I couldn’t eat. I settled on simple fresh mozzarella from the local Italian market and made a caprese salad with that, some of my basil and a farmer’s market tomato. Delish.

The other excitement at dinner was this:

Broiled petite filet wrapped in Amish maple bacon with rosemary sprigs.

Oh yeah, it was good. As the meat was finishing in the broiler, I popped a couple of sliced yellow squash from my garden onto the tray in the oven. Served it with my daily cocktail of sparkling water and cranberry juice. Leftovers of everything — already looking forward to dinner tomorrow night!

Sunday dinner.

Garden Update

This heat is absolutely frying my squash plants. Many leaves are crisping up into nothing. I’m still getting a couple fruits from each plant every few days or so. The zucchini plants aren’t producing, but I think they’re too crowded.

My tomatoes have been frustrating me — they’ve produced plenty of fruit, but they aren’t ripening. I read up on how to correct this and pruned back the plants a bit yesterday. I noticed a few already starting to redden today, but on closer inspection, they all had end rot. Bah! There’s no quick fix for that from what I’ve found. I’ve picked off those fruits and I’m going to back off on the watering a bit to see if that helps.

In other news, while trying to weed around my pumpkin plant early on Friday, I noticed there weren’t just bees perusing the clover that has taken over my lawn. There were yellow jackets flitting about too. I. Hate. Yellow jackets.

I tried to figure out where they were coming from with no luck. I’m assuming they have a nest in the ground nearby. I definitely don’t want to find it accidentally. The past couple of days I haven’t noticed as much activity from them, so maybe they were just passing through. I’m going to keep an eye out though. Those things are nasty evil when they are stirred up.

In the good news category, two of my kale plants are still producing (love roasted kale) and I have one good size green pepper almost ready to pick (wish there were more though).

I’ve started compiling a list of lessons learned for next year’s garden. Here’s what I have so far:

• Plant the squash and zucchini on the ground and further apart
• Peppers should be in their own container(s)
• Plant spinach earlier
• Plant garlic; plant more carrots and onions
• Carve out a new plot for in-ground planting or a raised bed (there’s a portion of my lawn that is perfect for this)
• Put in raspberries and blackberries behind the Vegtrug — it’s just wasted space right now.

Garden Update: Prison Break Edition

Lesson learned: squash plants need their own VegTrug. I got greedy and planted two yellow squash plants and two zucchini in the VegTrug and the yellow squash plants especially are taking over. I never really payed attention to how squash plants grew before and obviously wasn’t expecting these huge leaves and thorny stems. I had to cut away some of the leaves today in order for the pepper plant to get more light. The squash leaves are living up to their name and squashing the other plants around them too like the rosemary and arugula.

I already see at least one squash developing. And there are many blossoms.

The cherry tomato plant has a few green tomatoes on it and there are buds on all of the other plants.

I’m happy to report that the pumpkin plant has bounced back. The initial blooms died off, but there are several others either in bloom now or budding.

Elimination Round

Scrambled eggs with arugula and Old Bay.

This blog’s going to be taking a bit of a different tack over the next few weeks. I’ve been advised to try an elimination diet to rule out any food allergies that may be causing me problems. I am already aware of several allergies that I have to some tree nuts and fruits. I’m going to start out this diet eating only meat, veggies and a little fruit (no grains, no caffeine, no alcohol). I’ll have to stick to it for a few weeks before I can gradually start adding things back in.

Earlier this weekend, I lived it up, eating pizza, drinking beer and sangria. I gradually weaned myself off of my daily green tea and so far, so good. I haven’t had a headache yet today. I did allow myself two glasses of decaf iced tea.

Herbed grilled chicken.

Breakfast was three scrambled eggs with arugula and chives and a sprinkling of Old Bay (above). Lunch was an Italian tuna salad salad from Piazza Italian Market. I picked up some raw pumpkin seeds and roasted them for an afternoon snack. Dinner was herbed grilled chicken and grilled veggies. I nursed a lemonade throughout the day (yep, I’m counting that as fruit).

Herbed grilled veggies.

All told, it was pretty easy to follow the diet today. I’m concerned about sticking with it at work. I cooked enough chicken and veggies to take some with me for lunch tomorrow. I hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, which I’ll have with some strawberries on the side. I picked up some green grapes and carrots to snack on, along with the pumpkin seeds. Here’s hoping I can resist the temptation of all the processed foods at the downstairs cafe of my building.

Garden Update

My squash plants are gigantic and there’s already several buds on both. The zucchini plants are doing much better. Three of my tomato plants are thriving. The fourth is the runt of the litter, but I hope it will still do well. I scored a pumpkin plant from friends over the weekend, though I’m not sure it’s going to make it. The large leaves wilted on the drive home. I planted it and watered it right away, but only the baby leaves appear to be surviving. Fingers crossed. It would be so cool to grow pumpkins. I planted it in front of my tomato planter, dislodging several spring bulbs in the process. Ah well…

The Haul: Sweet and Sour Edition

I didn’t make it to the markets this weekend because I was visiting friends, but they happened to have a sour cherry tree that was ripe for picking in their backyard. I scored enough cherries to make a pie or crisp at a later date. It was a lot of fun picking the cherries with their fam (pitting them, a little less so). We probably picked enough cherries for 10 pies and the tree was still laden.

The Haul: Feta Compli Edition

O. M. G. Fresh rosemary feta. That is all.

Well, not really, I was quite loaded down when I left the open-air market today, but I was most excited about the fresh feta from Chapel Country Creamery. They had samples out and were selling quite a lot of it.

I also bought:

• Vanilla yogurt
• 2 quarts strawberries (plus one more quart yesterday at the Amish market — can’t get enough of them!)
• Baguette (pictured with the feta)
• Cranberry orange scone (second breakfast)
• Asparagus
• Bison sloppy joe mix (to replace what I used this week)
• 1 dozen large free-range eggs
• Potted chives (I already have chives growing in a pot, but they’re being suppressed by mint that is in the same pot)
• A potted bell pepper plant (my seeds never germinated)

Which leads me to…

Garden Update:

I’ve been harvesting tons of kale and had to cut back the original arugula plant, which had bolted. The two younger ones are still producing small, tender leaves. The zucchini plants I transplanted last week seem to be bouncing back. I finally thinned out that squash plant with yellow leaves — the other two were gargantuan in comparison.

I planted the pepper and chives that I bought today and watered everything thoroughly since it’s going to be so hot the next few days. I also tried direct seeding some parsnip seeds today — the only surviving seedling bit the dust this week.

I think some of the originally planted spinach seeds finally germinated. It will take a few more days to see if it was just a weed invading their pot instead.

Baby Tomatoes!

The tomato plants I bought last week are doing well and the cherry tomato plant already has buds on it!

Garden Update — Tomatoes Are In

“Tomato Success Kit”

I spent a lot of time out in the yard this weekend (man, my legs are screaming). One of the things I did was put together my “Tomato Success Kit” from Gardner’s Supply Company and plant the cherry and Rutgers tomato plants I bought at the farmer’s market yesterday.

First, I had to clear out a bunch of weeds and dying spring perennials. I installed the tomato container in front of the VegTrug where it will get plenty of sun. I appreciate that it came with a cage that will keep out the cats and provide a support for the plants as they get taller.

Earlier this week, I transplanted my squash and zucchini seedlings, plus the second planting of arugula. In a last-ditch effort to save them, I moved the one spinach seedling and surviving parsnip, too. I don’t know how that’s going to end, but I don’t have my hopes up too high.

Not quite sure what’s going on with the one squash plant that has yellow leaves (they were like that before transplanting). Looked it up and that could be a result of over-watering, under-watering or a type of disease. But the other two squash plants are flourishing. The zucchini’s not doing so hot either, so I seeded some more this weekend, just in case.

I complained to one of the farmer’s market vendors that I’ve had a really hard time getting spinach to germinate and he said that for ever 200 seeds he tried to start, maybe only 12 germinated. He thinks it’s something about the weather this year. That made me feel somewhat better.

The arugula and kale that I transplanted a few weeks ago are doing really well and I harvested some of both for dinner tonight, along with some parsley.

And dinner ended up being chock full o’ veggies — I made scrambled eggs with some of last night’s leftover asparagus (also some grated halloumi cheese), sauteed the kale in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then made an arugula-strawberry salad.

In other garden news, my peonies are in full bloom. I cut a bunch to put in a vase — they smell great too.

And So It Begins…

… a new chapter in Freezer Full land.

Bye-bye, holly tree. Hello, veggie patch.

A tree in my yard fell earlier this month, clearing a space for a vegetable patch. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but my yard is super-tiny and somewhat over-landscaped from when it was put on the market by the previous owners. Previously, the sunniest spot for a vegetable patch was smack-dab in the middle of the lawn.

I have to be careful though. There are many cats who wander my street and I don’t like the idea of eating things grown in an outdoor litter box. Therefore, I’m splurging on this, even though I really can’t afford it after paying to have the tree removed. I also bought one of their tomato-success kits.

The first seeds I'm starting inside: kale, carrots, basil and arugula. Those are plastic knives serving as plant markers.

The night after the tree fell in my yard, I knew what I was going to do with that space. I started making a list of the seeds I wanted to purchase. They have arrived and I’ve already planted a few in containers to start them indoors. Here’s what I got:

• Arugula
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Celery
• Kale
• Onion
• Parsnips
• Peppers (Bell)
• Spinach (hot-weather)
• Yellow Squash
• Zucchini
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Rutgers Tomatoes

I ordered the seeds from Organica Seeds. I wanted to buy organic, non-GMO seeds for heirloom plants. I also bought seeds for basil, echinacea and lavender. While shopping over the weekend, I also bought a package of wildflower seed bombs. I’m thinking of spreading these in a bed where I had a landscaper rip out a bunch of overgrown bushes.

My notes on when/how to start each type of seed. We'll see how well this works!

I really don’t have a clue what I’m doing. I haven’t planted vegetables since I had a small container garden on my deck in Somerville, Mass., several years ago. I fully expect that I won’t have success with all of the plants above (especially with things like celery, which is notoriously hard to grow). I’ve been relying on this site for tips on how to take care of these plants, when to start the seeds, etc. It’s for the New York area, but I’m adjusting as necessary for the climate down here in Maryland.

My Only Slightly Tipsy Kitchen*: Cranberry-Zucchini Muffins

When left to my own devices on a Friday night, I often bake. And drink wine.

Recently, I had some extra cranberries about to go bad and so I froze them, thinking they would look awesome alongside shredded zucchini in muffins. You know who else had that idea? Martha, as stated in the recipe that I used here (thank you, Ms. Food Librarian).

I made a few changes. Firstly, I didn’t have enough all-purpose flour, so I substituted 3/4 c. whole-wheat flour. While I was inadvertently healthifying these muffins, I threw in a tablespoon of ground flaxseed. Sip of wine. I only halved my cranberries where the Food Librarian had quartered hers. I have to be different, right?

Sip of wine.

I mixed the wet ingredients with the dry and started filling my muffin cups. And then I realized I forgot to add the cranberries. So, I finished ladling one spoonful of batter into each of 11 of the muffin cups on my tray, sprinkled in the cranberries, spooned the rest of the batter pretty unevenly among the cups and then stirred. And prayed. And sprinkled on some turbinado sugar. And put the tray in the oven.

Sip of wine. Rinsed the dishes. Ran the dishwasher.

Waited while the muffins baked. Precariously stacked pots on one half of the stove to make room for hot muffin tray on the other half.

Sip of wine.

Et, voila:

So good!

*Paying homage to My Drunk Kitchen (check out the Taco Episode).

Vegetable Soup with Corn Dumplings

This is one of my go-to winter soups. I used a lot of the veggies that I froze over the summer: green beans (in place of the canned beans), zucchini, yellow squash, corn and tomatoes. I also added onion, carrots and part of a huge sweet potato purchased more recently (I boiled and froze the rest of the sweet potato for later use). I used vegetable broth that I made in my slow cooker today (using a recipe from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook).

The recipe makes a ton of soup. I have four pints to take for lunches this week and still more to have with dinner throughout the week.

Close-up of the dumplings.

It’s important to store the dumplings separately from the soup, otherwise, they’ll dissolve into it.

I didn’t have one of the corn dumplings tonight. Instead, I had a cup of the soup with a fried flounder sandwich. I used New Belgium’s Snow Day in the batter for the flounder (and omitted the nuts).

The Haul: Perfect Day Edition

I cannot communicate how gorgeous it is here in Easton today. To top that off, I got to sleep in, I had a delicious crepe for breakfast and I even missed the proselytizers who stopped by my house while I was out at the markets. Win!

And the day’s only gonna get better — I’m off to celebrate my BFF’s birthday at yummy restaurant later tonight. Can’t wait!

Here’s what I picked up at the markets this a.m.:

• The hugest butternut squash I’ve ever purchased, destined for soup.
• Zucchini and squash (to be sliced and frozen for future veggie soup)
• Garlic (for the butternut squash soup)
• Free-range eggs
• Kettle corn
• 7-grain bread
• Vanilla yogurt
• Colby jalapeno jack cheese (to eat over some chili my aunt sent home with me last weekend)

All that’s needed to top off today is a Terps win versus Clemson. It’s Homecoming — GO TERPS!