Hump Day Harvest-Wordless Wednesday

It Ain't Easy Being Green

I recently harvested my greens...lawdy do I have a lot of greens.  In this harvest there is:

• kale
• callaloo
• collards
• green cabbage
• red cabbage
• onions, shallots
• tomatoes
• and one cucumber

I spent several hours cleaning greens and chopping greens and blanching greens and freezing greens

cleaning...chopping...blanching...freezing...

cleaning...chopping...blanching...freezing...

cleaning...chopping...blanching...freezing...

cleaning...chopping...blanching...freezing...

What a way to spend a Saturday!

Part of my planning for growing all of this cabbage included a plan to make sauerkraut for the first time.  I found and bought a two gallon crock like this one on Craigslist.  Mine came with a lid but no weights.

Having researched recipes I dry roasted caraway seeds and juniper berries (purchased here).

After pounding the cabbage with the end of my rolling pin I mixed in the spices and transferred it to the crock where it is not sitting, fermenting and funking up the joint.  In a few weeks I will hopefully have some yummy homemade kraut.

 

Pierogies and sausage anyone? I can hardly wait. ~ksp

How Does Your Garden Grow?

So, I have been gardening this season and it's been a real blast.  There is a local-to-me community garden at Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center.  My two-plot nirvana has been a blast to work.  I did some inter-planting, companion planting and succession planting all at the same time (more on all of that later).

Here one of plots at the beginning of June



Here is the other

 

And again at the beginning of July...can you say "weeds"?

One of my many rows of cabbage...and a fair amount of weeds

 

A Cabbage Close Up

This year I had particularly great luck with cabbage which is a good thing because I love cabbage in many forms...Think Bubba (from Forrest Gump talking about shrimp...steamed cabbage, boiled cabbage, kimchi, sauerkraut, sauteed cabbage...)

I used bone meal and a slow release organic fertilizer (nothing really special) coupled with some good rains and full sun, I ended up with a bumper crop. I grew lots of other things like tomatoes and potatoes and lots of onions, swiss chard, and even some herbs...

I really enjoy gardening and this was a really good season so far.

Anyone else gardening this summer?

Honoring Veterans and Good Beer

Honoring American military service with the Quilts of Valor....

Sam Adams Noble Pils

and American beer.  ~ksp

Happy to be Scrappy

Hello Beloveds:

I am working on a quilt potentially to be entered into the 2013 NJ State Fair.  It started out as scraps from another project.

They are wonky Shoo Fly blocks a la Gwen Marston in Librated Qultmaking II.  There is a tutorial here.  I'm playing around with the layout.  Here are some options:

Option A

or

 

Option B 

Any thoughts or suggestions? ~ksp

To My Friends With Opinions..

I dunno why I ask my friend's for their opinions about my impending shoe purchases...we have such differing opinions. Case in point...the following shoes purchases were knocked down one-by-one.

 I love cute shoes, but I also need function and comfort.  I spend a lot of time on my feet so comfort cannot be compromised.  The first candidate up is the Nine West Lauford seen here.

The second pair are (seen here) are Naturalizer Enchant

Here they are on me (pardon craptastic camera phone photo on the funky angle).

I get compliments every time I wear them...~ksp

Declaration of Independence...from weeds!

Work got real busy and the weeds at my Oakeside community garden plots got way out of hand...I mean WAY out if hand.

See photographic evidence here:

Q: So what's a girl to do?  A: Declare independence from weeds!

You can barely see the edible greens...there's cabbage and collards in foreground of the photo.  There are also peppers and tomatoes and a potato tower in the background.  Help me holy ghost, the strangle vine morning glories choke off everything...and the bugs...oh, the bugs.  I have never seen a more diverse bug population...darn organic gardening!!

I think I need to reconsider my mulch options. The grass that I'm using must have seeds in it, contributing to my weed population. I need to source some local marsh grass, its expensive but it's seedless.

I spent several hours on July 4th weeding.  It was hot as hades with no shade to be found.  But it was great to see the progress (sorry no "after" photo).

Hope everyone enjoyed their fourth. ~ksp