9 hours ago
Monday, June 10, 2024
Gardenias & A Fairy Egg
Hello, friends. I was surprised to see how much there was to harvest, after my
time away last week. Almost all the broccoli was ready, and I harvested approx.
9 1/2 lbs. That night, I made broccoli almond soup, then blanched and froze the
remainder, in meal-sized portions. There was also bountiful chard to be
harvested, as well as all the radishes that hadn't started going to flower. I
experimented with the broccoli plants, after reading a tip in
This Organic Life. I usually cut the broccoli just below the head, and end up
getting some more side shoots, but the tip said to cut down to the last two
leaves, for more substantial heads to regrow. We'll see how well that works.
There are some recipes from this book I printed to try. Besides the broccoli,
chard and radishes, I also harvested a few more peas, foraged chanterelles,
lettuce and beets. I let the carrot patch go too long, and pulled all but the
two for seed. Our gardenias are blooming, and they smell just heavenly.
For the drive to Asheville, I picked up an audio book at the library. Driving time was 6 hours, and the book was 10, so I finished it while working on
packing orders and wrapping soap. Home canned black beans and homegrown onion,
garlic, and red pepper flakes were used to make veggie burgers. As of midweek,
we hadn't had to use a/c this spring. It's been pretty warm inside some
evenings, up to 80 before we can open up, but we usually manage as long as
nighttime temps are below 70. It cools down enough that we can close up in the
morning, and be reasonably comfortable during the day. Looking at the long
range forecast, with several 90 degree days coming, it looks like that may be
coming to an end. While shop sitting at a local pottery this week, I finished
removing the lace from the nightgown, which I'd started some weeks ago. Though
tough to get to while I'm at home, it was the perfect task during down time at
the shop. J tried our a/c one evening, which didn't work. He checked it out,
and found a bad contactor, ordered one for $12, and fixed it. He's my
homestead honey!
I handwashed bras in handmade soap gel and dried them on the line. All other
laundry was dried on the line. Rinse water, warm up water, and water from cups
were used for flushing. I added the beet greens to the chard bag, and will
saute them together. On the way to the garden, I was delighted to spot four of
the rose cuttings I potted up after pruning had roots, and one was even
blooming! This is the first time I've had rose cuttings take, much less bloom.
I'll have to decide good spots to place them. One evening, when I gathered
eggs, I found a green "fairy egg" amongst them. As we don't have any newly
laying hens, we think it must have been from our older Americauna hen. Blogger
has really changed things the past couple of weeks, making it a lot harder for
me to post. For example, they now use code for photos, paragraphs and such,
among other things. I really hope this is a
short-term glitch, though that's probably wishful thinking on my part. Here's
to a smooth week for us all.
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9 comments:
Your garden is producing so well! What a gift.
We had a fairy egg a few weeks ago. Our brown egg layers are not very old, so I'm not sure why that happened. What a brilliant green that egg is!
I have a suggestion to correct the italics. Not sure if it will work, but I know that when I have issues with placing the cursor (center, left, right), I hit the return key several times to move the page down, and then change the cursor selection. Then I moved back up to where I wanted to type, and it stays in the center. Not sure if this makes sense to you, but I hope you find a solution. It can be frustrating when things don't work as expected.
I'm amazed that y'all do without the A/C. That wouldn't happen here without an act of God, as my boys both run warm and like their air conditioning. I'm usually under a blanket. ;0)
Have a lovely week. We got some much-needed rain last night. Hope you did too.
Aren't the fairy eggs always a fun surprise? I will try your cursor fix. Thank you! Are the recent posts you've worked on giving you code for pics, paragraph starts and endings and such? If I changed anything, I don't know when or how I did it!
We did end up running the a/c some last evening, while I was cooking, which was appreciated. I lived here the first 12 years without any, and wouldn't care to do that again!
We did get almost 1/2 inch of rain last night, which was perfect, as J had planted the last of our peppers last evening. They're still small, but needed to get in the ground. I'm glad you got some too.
Well, I just took the italics out entirely! It seemed better to have the post easier to read than worrying about the book title.
"My homestead honey." That phrase (and praise) just makes me smile!!!!!!!
Ha! He regularly makes me smile!
You've been busy! And productive! And went on a trip also. Very nice. That's a lot of broccoli! Your gardenias are so pretty. Mine are struggling. (My climate is not so good for them). Near fairy egg! andrea
Thankfully, your climate seems to be excellent for lots of other pretties.
Actually, I think Daisy was having problems a year or so ago with blogger making everything into paragraphs. I had the problem just before her and found it easiest that as soon as I start a post, I hit enter so that my cursor goes down one and then 6 over from the left at the top where it likely says "paragraph" I change that to "normal" and then type my post. It stays "normal". I've never had it require a code for photos though....
That's a lot of broccoli! I'll be interested in hearing how the cutting of it works for you. I've not heard of cutting it down that far.
Wow - no a/c yet. We turned ours on for sleeping a couple of weeks ago but haven't had to use it since as the temps dropped quite a bit. We've had a high in the mid 60's this week and lows in the mid to lower 50's. So strange, but we'll take it! We're back to the 90's next week so if the nighttime temps are also warm the a/c will make its return for sleeping!
I LOVE gardenias. The only time I've been able to grow them was when we lived in Hawaii. I miss those as well as jasmine, hibiscus, birds of paradise, plumeria.... and the list goes on.
Have a wonderful rest of the week!
Isn't that interesting that the blogger challenges come at different times for each of us? I wonder how that happens. I appreciate your explanation, and will see if that makes a difference to what it's doing.
I'm interested in the broccoli experiment too. Many garden things I read don't pan out, but it'll be nice if this one does. I've done the same with some cabbage plants, just to see.
We used the a/c one evening so far, but there are 90's on the way, so I expect it will be put to use again soon.
Oh, I've been to Hawaii a couple of times, and didn't know you lived there! It really is a paradise!
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