When Kale gets long in the tooth

Ever wondered what happens to kale if you don't pick it and eat it in the summer of 2013 and just let it chilax in the flower beds over winter until spring 2014?

Well, let me enlighten you.

I mean, it can't just be me who finds this curious and interesting, can it?

Anyone?  Interested in kale that's gone to seed?  Hello-oooo?

The Mister, in fact, hates my kale plant and threatens to destroy it on a daily basis.

Here's a close up of the leaves so you'll believe me that it's kale.

It grows incredibly tall and produces loads of petite, jaune fleurs (I am practicing my French).  Of course, now that I think about it, is French like Spanish where the adjective comes after the noun?  Hmmm....fleurs jaune?   Or maybe fleurs de jaune?  At any rate, loads of tiny, yellow flowers.  And guess who LOVES tiny yellow flowers...

Bees!

I think I have discovered how to help the bees that are in peril.  Plant lots of kale and let it go to seed. Bees are flocking to my kale flowers.  I mean, yes, it is a terribly ugly plant, and it is right next to my front porch so everybody has to beeline (haha) through a hoard of bees to get in my house, but, it's for the bees. Come on folks, let's do what needs to be done.

SAVE THE BEES!  NEGLECT YOUR KALE!

It's better than eating the kale, after all.

And now for the blowsy, show-offs of the flower bed...The Peonies.

The kale flowers feel a bit intimidated sitting so close to the peonies, but they have their righteous indignation that even though they might be plain, they're saving the bees and anyway, they like the comfort of their crocs and ponytails versus the 5 inch heels and fluff and spray the peonies have to maintain to look so fancy.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Thanks, Chickens.

There is a lot of good that comes with having chickens.

I get gorgeous, high-quality eggs every single day in a rainbow of colors.  I know my chickens roam around, peck the ground and eat all kinds of creepy crawlies that strengthen the healthful qualities of their eggs.  I get the pleasure of watching them wander around, pecking and babbling to each other.  Watch them as they race across the yard at full speed, wings splayed, to chest butt anyone in their way.

Buuuttttt....there are some drawbacks.

If you have chickens, they will dig and scratch and make a complete disaster of your yard.  This is just part of the mess they have made.  Rocks and ground cover all over the lawn instead of where they should be, in the flower beds and borders. Thanks, chickens.

Side rant.  Do you see all the raspberries that are deciding my grass is the perfect place to spread? Yeah....not awesome.  Couldn't they spread in the flower beds where I would appreciate them?  Guess once we put all the rocks and bark back, we'll mow them down and see what happens.  Thanks, raspberries.

Back to original rant...

sigh

My gooseberry bush.  Pecked to bare branches.  Only bits of green left. If you'll notice I am trying (unsuccessfully, I might add) to keep the chickens away.  The tomato cage, T-Ball stand and one of Ginger's bowls haven't exactly turned out to be the super good gooseberry bush protectors I was hoping for.  At least they've stopped them from digging and exposing the roots.  Thanks, Chickens.

This is my hope of harvest, this bit of green.  Think I'll get a handful of berries?  Luckily the thorns are growing and maybe that will deter them.

To try and change their taste buds, I ripped off a handful of tarragon and tossed it in.  

Yay!  Snacks!!  

Wait....what the hell is this?

Come on chickens, eat the tarragon!!  You can eat all of it!  I grow it for you.

Whatever, we're totes out of here!  Come back when you've brought us some bits of ham and cucumber shavings.

Thanks, Heather!

Oh yeah, well, right back at you, thanks, Chickens!

Heather

A letter to Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature,

I need another month of weather just like this.  70 during the day 40 at night.  Appreciate it. 

Thanks in advance,

Heather and her Garden.

p.s. I've included some pictures.  Please review and consider extending this gorgeous Indian Summer.  Pretty please?

 Lavender re-blooming.

 Peppers just wanting a chance!

All those luscious bread salads I dreamed about this summer that never came to fruition thanks to lackluster growth. 

The tomato variety I never got to taste because it's growing now....thanks again, guys.

Heather

Hardening Off

My beloved Grandpa Ralph was not a born farmer.  He was the son of an electrician, born during the Great Depression.  His mother died when he was just a young boy, and as the youngest of three brothers, he became a home-maker, of sorts, for his family. 

He married my Grandma Evelyn, the child of a sugar beet farmer, and I guess a love of the Earth came with marrying a pretty farmer's daughter.  I spent a good portion of my childhood playing in and around Grandpa Ralph's garden.  The first thing that came up, were the peas.  I can remember picking them and eating them straight off the vine.  Then came the radishes, long and white...and spicy enough to tickle a sneeze out of you!  Then the onions...Grandpa would pick one, brush off the dirt and eat it like an apple.  And finally the pumpkins he would grow for his grandchildren, for carving jack-o-lanterns in the Fall.

I come by my love of the earth honestly enough, even though my Mother tried to weed it out of me by countless hours spent fruitlessly weeding the flower patches.  Luckily for my kids, I don't have the wretched ever green shrubs my mom had that would cause rashes all along our arms.

Almost everything that goes in my vegetable garden each year, I grow from seed.  I love watching for the first sight of a spindly nubbin of a plant push its way through the earth and begin to unfurl.

Here's where they are now.  Doing so great.  The thing about growing your own seeds, is there's a heck of a lot of stuff you don't know.  Luckily I learn a bit more each year.  Today I am helping my plants to "harden off".   The very brush of a breeze over a new plant's leaves and stem cause it to become tougher.  The slight movements enable a reaction in the plant to thicken the stems and make them stronger against the elements and prepare them to be planted.  Look at them...growing big old muscles.

They are currently resting on the trampoline where the dog will not destroy them.  The trampoline is next to my veggie patch...and I just had to take a peak at the project that is to come in the next couple of weeks...you do not want to see what is going on there after a long winter...or do you?

Mmm hmmmm...you ever just sit and think...where do all the socks go? 

Are those carrots...growing?  I clearly did not clean out the garden very well last fall...I think by having left the carrots in all winter, if I left them there they would now grow seeds and I could harvest my own carrot seeds...I'll think about leaving them, just to see.

The raspberry canes!  Did you know that you harvest raspberries from last year's growth?  There you go.  Don't prune your new growth each year or you'll get no berries.

And lastly my lovely perennial herbs.  You know it's spring when the chives, tarragon and mint start growing.  I've got to get the rake out and clear last year's leaves away.

I am loving all the green that is emerging everywhere I look.

Happy spring day everybody!

Thanks for reading.

Heather

Spreading Spring Tidings

Winter has been especially cruel to people in Salt Lake City this year.  We welcomed December with open hearts and glad tidings for the holiday season and got dumped on with snow.  Now, normally this would be fine....it snows, a few days later it melts...repeat.  This year the snow came...and never left.  It brought with it the worst air in the country...cough...cough....gag.  And visions of my family moving to Hawaii lodged itself in my brain. I promise, when The Mister finishes with school, I will be hearkening to more gentle climes with my little family.

Now it is the middle of February...we are still waiting for the winter thaw.  I can remember times in Elementary School when February would be so warm, we were desperate to wear shorts to school. Where is my 60 degrees?!? 

Luckily my heart thawed a bit today...if nothing else did, when I got a package in the mail, with some sweet little packets of hope inside...

That's right....you are reading correctly...dandelions.  Now before you think I've lost it completely...Mister, I'm looking at you here, in Italy, at least, dandelion leaves are eaten more than lettuce, and as we've all heard, the Mediterranean diet is apparently the best for us, but what you don't think about much when you think about the Mediterranean diet is the amount of greens they eat.  And it's weeds they're eating.  So, I am not going to just plant these in my garden, I will plant them in containers, and hopefully we are all the healthier for it.

These little beauties are a mutant.  I am game for mutant produce.  They have the most anthocyanins which are very powerful anti-oxidants than any other tomato.  This gives them an extremely dark, blueish black color.  I am not a huge fan of genetically modified food, but these are done naturally by Jim Myers over at Oregon State University.  So, here's hoping they're awesome!

Broccoli!  This particular broccoli does very well in hot climates.  Someday when it's summer, it will be very hot here.  I have never grown broccoli so I am excited to give it a go!

These are those cute little yellow squashes that cost a bundle, so you never buy them at the grocery store.  I am going to grow me some.  I decided again zucchini because...well...I don't eat them well enough, but I figured because these are so pretty, my girls would like to pick them and I would enjoy eating them more.

The three kinds of lettuce I am growing.  They are so colorful, I can't wait to pick them.  We are eating a lot of salads these days and I figure I will need a lot of lettuce!

And these little peat pellets are what I'm going to start my seeds in...here in a couple of weeks.  I've never used them before...so I hope they are amazing.

This is my grow system down in my sewing room.  I know, it is seriously freaky pink down there.  It was formerly my daughters' play room...until we discovered my kids don't like to play where I'm not.  So it didn't get used until I claimed it as my own.  These were last years plants.  I will show you this years when I get them up and planted! 

Awww, summer, wherefore art thou?

Thanks for reading!

Heather

When your baby niece needs a pillow...

...because you didn't make her one before now, you just gotta make it.  Thanks to my previous post on making spur of the moment pillows, my beloved sister reminded me that I never made my sweet baby niece a pillow.  Well...luckily for her, I had it covered.

I had started making this hexi-patterned quilt for my turn on Inspiration Cafe, but I wasn't feeling it.  It was too busy.  There were too many bold fabrics that took away from the unique pattern I was going for.  So I had to start over with different fabric.  Of course, I kept what I had made, even though I wasn't going to use it.  Look, I am crafter, therefore I hoard.  The fabric is pretty and the turtles are fun, so I felt I could do something with it eventually as it was pretty good sized...but not square...so I was just going to hold onto it for a bit.

I mean...look at that face!!  She needed a pillow.  I like making my children and nieces their first pillows because it allows me to make them small, and not stuff them too full.  This pillow is 12.5" by 15.5" (that means before it was sewn it was 13" x 16"), and it's perfect for a little head.  I think toddlers get lost in a full-sized pillow.  They really need to learn how to sleep with a pillow and a little one like this is perfect.

So there you have it.  Another pillow.  This may well be turning into the pillow blog.

Here's my Older Niece with her pillow by Auntie.  This one was fun because it was simple, just cute fabric, but I took the time to trim it with some ric-rac.  The possibilities are endless.


How about an update on how my garden is doing...

Great!  These tomatoes are about to overtake the entire planet I think.  I am so proud of my little seedlings.  I wasn't sure how they would do, and they're doing amazing!

Thanks for reading!

Heather

What's Coming up Summer...WIP

Not a lot of new sewing going on in my neck of the woods right now.  Just been busy.  Instead of crafting I've been doing a lot of...

This year, as you can see I am gardening partially in pots.  I am rotating my crops to help prevent diseases from infiltrating my garden plot...and I don't have anywhere else to put them really.  So pots it is.  I am going to do a little series on gardening as I have been taking gardening classes for the last several weeks and I am going to put to use my new knowledge.  I am a walking tutorial as we will see if this knowledge pans out at the end of the growing season.

Plus, we'll see if my seedlings actually grow and thrive...or fail completely. 

So, gardening has been my thing for a couple of weeks.  I'll get back to sewing...after today, when I plant my garden plot with corn and beans and beats and carrots and parsnips.  Yumm!  Plus, I really can't wait until I am harvesting  all this good stuff again!

In the first of my gardening series, I'm going to give you the recipe for what you should put in the pot before you put in a plant.  It's a witches brew.  It's science.  It's a witches brew and science all mixed up into one pot...or 10.

Okay, so onto the sewing.

My babies

Lots of babies in the house right now....not human babies....but still babies.

Can you see it?  It's so tiny.  But that is a Padron Pepper just germinated.  This is the plant I wanted the most out of all the seeds I chose...but wouldn't you know this has been the longest one to germinate and out of the 10 or so pots I planted them in...probably 3 seeds to a pot.  I have only this one sprout to show for it.  I am nervous.  I want a few more.  Cross fingers.

Then there's this puppy.  That is a Perisienne Pickling Cucumber.  I have loads of these.  Hopefully they will grow once planted and not be bitter and blah!  That's usually how my cucumbers end up.  I'll have to research what cucumbers need to be delicious.

Want to know what it's like to play God?  Plant seeds.  As you can see in a few days I am going to have to go through and decide which one I want to live and which ones are going to be made obsolete.  Can't have crowding if you want your sprouts to do well.

My Swoon quilt's mitered corners.  I was going to add one more white strip...but I am all mitered out.  It might be a tad smaller than what I wanted...but I am content.  I am currently working on piecing the back together and soon...very soon it will be sandwiched and the quilting will have commenced.  Yay!

Thanks for reading!!

Heather

I don't want an epic fail

Gardening is on the brain...so that got me thinking about my Grandma's childhood on her family farm.  So here's a little story for you.

1940's.  A sugar beet farm in rural Utah, springtime

I hope Daddy doesn't come round and see that I've replanted a beet after it's been thinned.  How many times has he told me to leave one of the beets in the ground after Nadine and Beverly, my older sisters, have gone through and blocked the rows with their hoes.  I am supposed to remove all sugar beets except for one so that one can grow nice and big.  If you forget and take out all the sugar beets and then try and replant one, it'll wilt.  I can't tell the difference between one I've replanted and one that was left in the dirt properly, but I'm only 10.  Daddy can always tell the difference...and I know that sugar beet won't grow now. He'll say to me, "Evelyn, if I  told you once, I told you twice to leave one beet in the dirt."  Maybe he won't notice this time...

Jay, my younger brother says his knees hurt.  My knees hurt too.  I forgot to bring the pads Mama made for me and now I have to climb all over the clods of dirt on nothing but my hands and knees.  I'll be glad when thinning is over.  I'd sure like it if Daddy'd hire some workers to help with the thinning of the beets, but he never does.  It's just us kids and Daddy doing the work.

Harvest time later that same year

Daddy went to the work camp today in his big old farm truck and brought back a bunch of German war prisoners to help in the field.  Mama and Daddy don't let my sisters and me work beets when the prisoners are here.  So we stay inside and help Mama make bread so they have something to eat after working all day.  Some of the prisoners wear gold watches and speak English.  Daddy says that means they are educated and had high positions in the German army.  When the work is done for the day, Mama takes our big aluminum coffee pot, a couple loaves of bread and a jar of jam out to the prisoners.  Mama says if it weren't for Daddy's mama, she'd never have learned to cook, on account her mama was a fancy lady who liked to get dressed up and go to town instead of cooking and cleaning. 

I like it when the German prisoners or the Mexican migrant workers come around, because that means I don't have to work in the field and get all sun burnt and messy.  But when no one is around to help, that means it's me, my sisters and brother who get to do the work.  First the plow digs up the sugar beets and by harvest time, boy are they are big!  We walk down the rows with our sugar beet knives that are strapped to our hands  They're about 10 inches long and on the end of the knife, there's a  hook so we just dip it down and up comes a beet that the plow has exposed.  We lay the beet across our knees and use our beet knife to chop of the green stem...but sometimes we smack our legs instead.  We toss the topped beet aside and continue on down the row.  When we are finished topping the beets, we go back around and load all the beets into the wagon and then Daddy takes them to the beet dump to be processed.

I'm always happy when winter comes round because that means no more thinning and topping beets...but I also know that spring is right around the corner...

The end

Just FYI, the warm days and cool nights make Utah an excellent place to grow sugar beets. They are particularly sweet when grown here

Okay, back to the present.  I've done it.  The Mister got my grow light system up and running this weekend and I planted my seed starts.  I didn't have any Popsicle sticks to mark what my rows were...so duct tape was my method.  It's fine.  I am so nervous that nothing is going to grow and this is going to be a most heinous epic fail.  I've got some fun things this year.  Cross fingers in a few days I see some green.  I told My Sister that I would donate some of my seedlings...but only if she promised to water her garden this year.  She couldn't commit.

I started out wanting to include my young in the process....started out.  Let's just say the first several rows I have no idea what is going to come out of them.  I tried to show them which rows to put which seeds....but...well....yeah....so then I banished them to finish out the planting and let them help me water.

At least I'll know what 70% of my seeds are for certain.  Thanks girls.

The alien glow of my grow lights...the walls are pink in this room.  As you can see this room is now my greenhouse/sewing room as the growing shelf is nestled in next to the fabric shelf.  All that is good is in this room.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Seeds to be sown and St. Patty Breakfast Sandwiches

First things are first...St. Patrick's day is in a few days and if you're searching for something easy and fun and tasty for St. Patty's breakfast, then make this...

Green Eggs And Ham Breakfast Sandwiches.  Super easy.
How to make green eggs and ham as follows...
 Ingredients you need are:

English muffins-Toasted

Canadian Bacon-fried up nice and tasty

American Cheese-a classic

Kraft Sandwich Spread-Never heard of it....go look next to the mayo...I think it's thousand island dressing mixed with mayo and pickle relish...trust me.  It's good....on this at least.  I've never had it on anything else

Scrambled Eggs-With green dye added to the un-cooked eggs.  Once cooked they will be nicely green.  My kids were mightily afraid of eating these eggs...and I was a bit heavy handed with the food coloring. I think I did three largish drops of gel food coloring...so, take it a little easy on the dye.

Put all these ingredients together and you have a tasty breakfast that's a little bit green and freaky.  Just what you need on St. Patrick's...or the day after when you've had one too many Guinness Pints and all you want is some yummy hangover food.

Now, let's talk the time of year.  30 degrees one day, 65 the next.  You know it's got to be spring.  The Mister has a big project this weekend...making me grow boxes for my seeds because they have got to be planted in the next couple of weeks.  What seeds you might be wondering?

These seeds!  My order was just delivered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  I have no science really behind choosing them as a the provider of my seeds...except that they have a store in Missouri and one in California.  I live in Utah...so, I felt like I was right in the middle of the two stores and surely that meant the seeds sold at these locations would clearly thrive in my desert clime.

I mean, some of the online heirloom seed providers are located in Maine.  Come on, I know for a fact that a Maine sown seed is definitely not going to work for me.

Wanna know what I'm gonna attempt to grow?  I am only doing two re-grows.  Everything else is a complete experiment.  And starting my own seeds is a complete experiment...this could be the worst garden disaster EVER!

Purple Podded Pole Bean...they're purple.  How could I not choose them?

Country Gentleman Sweet Corn...sounds so refined

Parisian Pickling Cucumber or cornichons...this group of three is going to be my attempt at re-creating the Native American growing practise of the 3 Sisters.  Normally there would be squash in there..but I feel that Parisian Pickling Cucumbers will work just as well as squash...right?

Detroit Dark Red Beet

Golden Beet...Yum on the beets.  My husband who swears beets are the devil....actually loves them.  Well, he loves the beet greens lightly steamed with lemon juice, salt and pepper sprinkled on top.

Parisienne Carrot...These are supposed to taste just like a carrot is supposed to taste...and are small and round!!!  Can't wait to see these pop up!

Honeydew Tam Dew Melon...I have a terrible record with melons.  I have never attempted honey dew though...cross fingers.

Padron Peppers...these are supposedly Martha Stewart's new favorite pepper. 

Emily Basil...chosen strictly because of a beloved member of our family has the name Emily.

Blue Curled Scotch Kale...these are going in my flower beds.  Shhhh... don't tell The Mister...he has a thing about planting produce in the flowers.  Whatever.

French Breakfast Radish...yes, there is a French thing going on here...but from what I've heard the French are very finicky when it comes to their produce.  They only want the best.  So if it's good enough for the French,  yeah...you know.

A slew of tomatoes...Green Zebra, Black Cherry, Pierce's Pride, Fox Cherry and Egg Yolk.

Lincoln Garden Peas and a bunch more. 

You may be wondering at the size of my garden...

Extremely petite.  This is a photo from last year's weeding attempt.  I would say it's approximately 8 feet by 8 feet and that might be generous.  This is why I am desperate to convince The Mister to let me tear up some grass on the side of our yard.  This is where my precious 3 Sisters are going.  I need more space.  I'll keep whispering sweet nothings in his ear until he consents to my wishes.

Now, one more thing...You may have noticed I was wearing something in the top picture...

Only the sweetest most perfect pair of slippers ever!  We searched high and low for them.  I wanted a soft sole.  Because, how can you get comfy if you're wearing shoes...which a hard-soled slipper basically is.  I wanted a back on them and I wanted them to be perfectly fuzzy.  They are called Sophie Soft Sole Sheepskin Slippers and I bought them on Amazon.  They are truly amazing. 

Granny Square Pic of the Day

As always, thanks for reading!

Heather

Anyone from P.E.T.S. don't read this!

P.E.T.S. People for the Ethical Treatment of Snails...I am not a part of your organization.  I hate snails.  Well, okay I don't 100% hate them, only because of one simple fact...my Oldest LOVES snails.  She kisses them on their slimy underbodies. She places them gently on the picnic table so they will be safe.  She pets their shells and brings them the most succulent selection of grasses for them to nibble.  She thinks we should be a snail habitat. 

What's that you say?  There's a snail in danger?  I must soothe it and love it and give it sweet kisses and call it my own sweet dear.

Mama on the other hand...well, let's just say that on an almost daily basis...Good Lord, I am turning into my Dad....I go on a snail hunt.  I know where they like to lay low.  Under my dianthus plants.  So, I scour them.  I handpick through each stem and look under each leaf and along the flower bed where there might be some rotting leaf that they've attached themselves to.

I look through the leaves and stems of my Salvia Nemorosa...are you there little snails?
Maybe you're hiding in my peonies?  Let me just browse through my lettuces and along my dahlias (which by the way is their newest favorite SNACK!!)  And which also is one of the main reasons for my devotion to becoming THE SNAIL HUNTRESS...I think I might need to make me a warrior outfit creation that I wear while on the hunt.  My vision is all buckskin with the occasional bead, crystal and fringe thrown in... knee-high boots, a nice little loin cloth/mini skirt-type business and a buckskin bikini with fringe...I also see a tattoo across my chest...            Snail Death

Triumphant

I mean…I am not a hateful person, but, really, do you have to eat my flowers?  Last year it was my basils and this year it's my dahlias.  All I ask is for the snails to mind their own slimy business and leave my plants alone.  If they did this...then I would surely leave them alone!  Because, it's like I said my Oldest is a fan, so I'm sure she'd be quite saddened if she didn't have the chance every once in a while to love a snail to....death...

I am not going to mention my method of destruction.  I do not want PETS to be on my back....let's just say I get my method from my Grandma...we're talking old school methods.  No sweet and gentle, let them live out their days at a snail farm where they can procreate and munch tasty nibbles the live long day.  NO!  Straight up, ugly death. 

So...anyway...how's your day going?

Now that we've got snail death talk out of the way, let's talk about WTF...

I was pressured into it.  I can't even blame my Oldest for these purchases.  I can however blame Mr. Because I Can and My Sister!!  Where are the Munchkins?  Where's the Wizard?  Where's Glinda the Good Witch?  Where's the Emerald City?

Fine!  I am not a strong woman.  I give into peer pressure.  Plus, the black and white panels...Freaking cute actually.  So, I went out and bought more fabric for the back of my Oldest's Wizard of Oz Quilt.  Not my fault.  Oh yeah, and no Munchkins.  I could not find any fabric that had a Munchkin on it.  Oh well, I did try.  We will have the Horse of a Different Color though.  So that should be good.

Everyone have peace and love fill your day thanks to this uplifting post about having love for your fellow creature and hopefully...no more munched plants.