Lovely Spring Days

Hello, friends.  Last week, while having a cool spell, with a couple of nights in the upper 40's, I decided to catch up on broth making.  I'd gathered 7 1/2 gallon bags of veggie scraps, which is not hard this time of year, between asparagus ends, pea pods, chard and beet stems, and the ever present celery ends.  I simmered it one day, strained and refrigerated it overnight, then canned it the next day, adding 15 pints to the pantry.  I use it regularly, and am happy to know it's there.  At last week's gathering, J's Mom had been given many loaves of day old bread.  Everyone took what they wanted, and we took the rest for the chickens, which I'm slowly adding to their daily mash.  The bread is low-quality, with some if not all of it having bio-engineered ingredients, so isn't something we'll eat.  But the chickens are delighted to eat it.  J threw some in the pond, and said the fish were also quite happy with it.  

 

I received $2 in digital credit for delaying shipping  Three books were picked up from the library, and my free Kindle book was chosen for May.  I enjoyed reading Lost Moon, a book about Apollo 13, then saw that our library had the movie, which I enjoyed watching over the weekend.  I used a $5 gift card to Harris Teeter, and shopped on senior discount day, getting 5% off.  I harvested asparagus, onions, peas, arugula, mache, radishes, lettuce and swiss chard.  I've been freezing the peas, as I shell them, until I accumulate enough to can.  I read that it takes ~20 lbs. for 9 pints.  That's a lot of peas, and I doubt we'll get that many, but I'm hoping we'll get at least half that amount.  Bananas close to getting overripe were frozen for smoothies. 

Aren't these potato blooms pretty?

The potatoes have started blooming, and the critters have begun eating our produce.  Our nectarine, which had dozens of fruits, is almost bare, thanks to the squirrels.  Peaches are similarly stripped.  The deer found our sweet potatoes, and have chewed many of them down.  We've planned to repair the garden fence, which a tree fell on, and also make it taller, as we did in our main garden, but hadn't gotten to it until this weekend.  It gave us both a good workout, as we had to do a lot of stretching upwards, putting up and flagging the deer fencing.   The potato bags from last year now have 16 returning potatoes in them, which is a happy surprise.  Stinging nettles were gathered, and dehydrated for teas.  Sweet potatoes were baked on a cool morning.

There are some tiny kiwis on the vines.  We're hoping to get our first fruit to eat this year.  The sunflower patch was a bust.  I'd see a sprout one day, and by the next day, it would be gone.  I guess the birds or rabbits enjoyed a sunflower buffet, but it was worth a try.  I used our asparagus to make soup for our dinner.  Hummer food, golden paste for the pups, and bird suet were made.  A code was used to get free dog treats with a dog food order.  I grabbed a jar of our tomatoes, our garlic and onion, and harvested oregano, basil and parsley, to have with pasta.  It's so nice to be using fresh herbs in the pasta sauce again.  Extra oregano was harvested, and is air drying.  I bought dog food on sale, and received a $5 reward after buying it.  At this time, McNibs and Guinness are on different food, and I was glad to get a little perk with each of them.

I've needed to get some more things in the ground, and got to it on Sunday.  In the midst of planting, I found this little monarch cat on the milkweed, which gave me a smile.  The wintersown calendula, forget me nots, and a shasta daisy were planted in flower beds and a window box.  All but one of the wintersown black eyed susan vines died during a cold snap, and the remaining one has been barely hanging on.  I figured it would be happier in the ground, so planted it near a trellis. The gifted marigolds and borage were planted in the garden.  Besides planting, I decided to make pizzas for J & I for dinner, which was quite an endeavor, making two very different ones from scratch.  He wanted to try a goat cheese pizza for the first time, and liked it enough to eat it again, with some tweaks.  An extra GF pizza crust was frozen, and pizza sauce, so this will make it simpler next time.  J repaired our grill, which a tree had fallen on, so we're thinking we'll put it to use sometime during the upcoming long weekend.  Wishing you a wonderful week, friends.