We have received the additional shipment of 25 asparagus crowns and John has torn up a new patch of earth, tilled it well, added the needed soil and chicken additives, straw, etc and they are all in. The other first bed has now 11 root-systems working. We know to leave the tips alone for two years to establish the roots and really, they are so scrawny I can't believe anyone would bother to snip this off. We would have had to plant 50 to get anything worth turning the stove on for.
I have spent the past week out there in the two beds fertilizing, hilling up the potatoes, cleaning the coop, planting the last of the seedlings and marigolds. Everything is so beautiful and to see how quickly it all leaps forth is enough to make me cry. Every possible shade of green is out there and then some.
Oh By The Way..... swiss chard, I wish to offer a sincere apology for any disparaging remarks I might have uttered below my breath or outwardly to this noble green. I had planted quite alot of it last fall ad watched with dismay as snails feasted on my work. As winter progressed and the snails went who know where, they began to flourish and today we have huge healthy stalks of the stuff and when I tried to nibble on some (they LOOK like salad stuff to me) I thought, YUCK! Who wants THAT?
Rachel was here last week and whipped up this marvelous dish from the Smitten Kitchen (I don't know why I call it the Smitten Kitten) with chard and sweet potatoes that blew my preconceived bias out the parish. And tonight I followed a recipe from Epicurious for chard and raisins (below) that tasted delish.
I made pork medallions with satay sauce and guacamole as a side. So I am ever so glad I didn't yank the chard out screaming last month. As we have a lot of it, I shall continue cooking and using it up.
One problem with the variety of what we have out there is not enough meals a day to use it all and MOST of what we have at this point in time won't freeze as well as it tastes fresh. All the leafy greens for example. I know I can freeze kale but I still have a few small bags of the stuff left from last year so that tells me that, like microbiotics, I refer to eat that which is in season. We still have a little of frozen vegetables left from last tear, most of it has been made into stews, gumbo, quiches....etc.
I am charging the camera batteries and will DL and UL some pictures tomorrow....
Hurray!!! It's tomorrow!!!!
This is Chinese Cabbage and was taken last week.
They have doubled in size since then and I only post this shot of them because the chickens are in the background and I haven't been posting about them much lately.....Mesclun Mix
This is the salad mix we bought on a roll of tape I wrote about last month. We planted only 2 4' rows and you can see how prolific the growth has been. Along with the Giant Caesar leaves we have an amazing salad every night. I added beet leaves as they were growing but I harvested the last of them yesterday and will pickle them today. Fear not! i did plant several rows of new beets last month and they are doing just splendidly.
Did Somebody say SALSA????
This is one of 6 tomatillo plants we have out there and I LOVE green salsa. I had no idea what the plant itself it looked like and it grows faster than a tomato bush but not much faster. The fruit does not set like a tomato either, several in a cluster. No, they grow one at a time from the crotches of the stems.
Oh By The Way, if you are reading this and live anywhere near Madisonville, LA, I would like to recommend a cafe that has just opened we dropped in on to eat a quick bite for breakfast. I ate the quiche and John had the biscuits and gravy and boy, was it ever tasty and then some!!! I know what you're thinking... what's so special about biscuits and gravy or quiche for that matter? Well, these WERE different. (I don't wax on about breakfast food. Much.) The gravy, for example, was flavorful with sage and the biscuits were fresh and homemade. The quiche was creamy as well as eggy and very rich and fresh-tasting. About the ONLY thing that could make better still would have been to use some of the girls eggs from out back. It's called the Madisonville Cafe and is located on Hwy 22 right across form the old library building. I had the coffee with chicory and it was terrific!
Rooster Stu is calling. Time to let the flock out.
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