Thought of the Day #232 - Delicates

Why do raspberries $5 for a half pint? They're very, very delicate. I
suspect that the raspberry farmers crush half the crop prior to getting
'em into the plastic cases. The raspberry bushes in our yard are
producing several gallons of berries a week. Picking, washing and moving
the berries around just in my small environment results in many
casualties. Luckily most of the berries I work with are destined for
crushing anyway, but it did bring me to an understanding for the high
priced store raspberries. Severely crushable delicate beasties they are.

Thought of the Day #146 - Weed Control Going Green?

While travelling through parts of Capitol Reef National Park, I noticed
large portions of land where there was no brush, plant or weed matter.
Even in low-lying areas where the moisture level was high -- still no
plants. I assume that the area's ground is highly alkaline or acidic or
__ which prevents plants from growing. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I think
bagging up this soil and rocks (not from the actual park, obviously, but
nearby) as a natural anti-plant landscaping material would be brilliant
and "green", of course. Am I nutz or does that sound like a good idea?

Thought of the Day #142 - Garden Encouragement

We've got several veggies already "harvestable" in the garden --
spinach, swiss chard, asparagus and soon to be snow pea pods. For those
of you in the northern hemisphere, I would encourage you to get out and
plant something! There's still plenty of time to get some plants
a-growin' for the season. If you have any outside space at all, you've
got room for veggies! When I lived in downtown St. Paul, I planted
tomatoes and peppers in 5 gallon buckets some years, but not every
year. Every year I had flowers, but looking back I should have planted
more edibles. Live and learn! Anyway, give it a try if you're not
already gardening. You'll be glad you did.

Thought of the Day #129 - Nursery

There's so much promise and potential at a nursery. This applies to the
plant and human variety. The dreams of what is to come are evident all
around in a nursery. What will the future hold? Will they make it to
maturity? So much unknown...and still we plan...

Busy, busy!

So much going on, so little time to blog.

I've been canning up a storm of goodness -- primiarly apricot and plum. The raspberry onslaught is just beginning. So far I've made apricot jams and butters; canned whole apricots; dried about 7 batches of dehydrated apricots and froze a bunch, too. Then there's the plum jam and plum conserve. The latter is usually super yummy. I couldn't find my original Ball Canning book recipe, but I think this one ought to be just as yummy -- It's primarily plums, oranges, walnuts and sugar. It's a very holiday-y taste.

We've been working at re-doing are front room/entry. It's been covered by ugly wallpaper for 80+ years. Way past time for a facelift! We peeled a good four layers off the wall and three off the ceiling. I've never, ever sweated enough to drip off the tip of my nose....well, until it was 100 degrees outside and I was steamin' my butt off. A good pore cleansing, to be sure. Here's the mid-strip look:



And finally, the post-paint look. We haven't installed the flooring yet nor completely refurbed the woodwork. All in good time! The green is called "Feldspar" It's basically a light Mountain Dew tone. It really makes the woodwork POP from the walls. I picked out the color and loved it, but when I started painting I was a bit....ummm..scared. Now that it's up, I'm diggin' it!

After the wood flooring is laid down, I plan on getting this rug (linky) 'cuz it's funky and even maybe a wee bit arts & crafts like the house. When the room is completely put back together, I'll post more pix.

Finally, we've got a wedding going on this Friday. Ivan's youngest daughter is getting married. Much to-do over this to-do. Luckily, I'm a relatively minor player although I think we're paying for the reception. Ahhh the beauty of a traditional "father of the bride pays for the reception" gig. The truly lucky portion -- it's a super low-key barbeque. Not by our design, but rather the bride's. Gotta love a girl with simple tastes! :-)

Oh, I almost forgot about my weather report. I'm sure most of you heard about the huge fires in Utah. While we've recently gotten rain and have broken our several week stretch of 100 degree weather, I was able to view a sweet fire right near downtown Salt Lake City. Got some cute photos of firemen, I did. Oooh, yes, I did. Ya gotta love the fireman's stance on the left. It was hot, hot and hot in many ways, that day. :-)

Spring is Sprouting

First, thanks to all who sent expresssions of sympathy for Kipper's passing. I haven't had an opportunity to email responses yet, so don't let my tardiness lead you to believe that I didn't appreciate your thoughts tremendously! I really do. Thanks again.

On to Spring and thoughts of renewal. The photo above is that of cinnamon basil sprouts. The weekend just before Kipper died, I started some seeds in a Jiffy Greenhouse. (I don't think it's related to Jiffy popcorn, but it acts as if it is when you start with little peat pots that blossom when wet. Good times.) The first bunch of 72 sprouts were pretty successful thus far. I've had a few seed varieties that haven't sprouted, but hopefully will soon. The seeds were a couple years old and may have gotten wet, so I'm not certain they were viable. In any event, I bought another Jiffy Greenhouse 'cuz the first one was so fun. (It brought back memories of Kindergarten's foam cup, dirt and pumpkin seed excitement.) So, the other day, I planted 72 more little Jiffy pots with seeds. And, no, I didn't stop there! I bought some seed starter mix and started seeds in egg cartons. I hope they'll end up being as successful as the Jiffy Greenhouse, but I have my doubts. I'll be doing a little "how to" page on this crud shortly. I've documented it in photos, so I'm half way there!

Anyway, gotta get back to work. Happy Spring, ya'll!

Deep Thoughts About Sunflowers

I was removing seeds from giant sunflower heads and it just got me thinkin'...

>> The person who invented barcodes must have been doing the same thing at some point. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of variations in the lines in sunflowers. Some even have no lines. Does it indicate a difference in the genetic code? Maybe.

>> 8 foot tall flowers have an amazing structure. The stalk is nearly as hard as wood, yet the growth of these beasts is so much faster than a tree. Weeks, rather than years. The heads easily weigh a few pounds, so there has to be some major structure inside to keep it up, but if you look inside, the major support is a whole lotta cotton-candy fibre. Very odd.

>> The thousands of flowers and seeds on the head are in very strict rows. A very orderly flower, yet every once in a while you find a seed pod without a seed. Why was that particular flower overlooked by the insects? Did they somehow know it was going to produce a bad seed or did they simply miss it by accident...a matter of random misses? Or did the insect do its job only to have the seed aborted? Hmmm..

>> There are heads which are whiter than the others yet they seem to happily coexist with the ones that have more dark stripes. Hmmm... a world lesson to be learned?

>>I found a recipe to make salted/roasted sunflower seeds. It's pretty easy and tasty. It takes me back to childhood, really. A pretty healthy snack food! Simply soak the seeds overnight in a bowl of salted water (1/2 cup to 2 qt of water). Bake in the oven until dry roasted. The time will vary depending upon how many you're bakin'. With four heads, I get enough to fill the largest bowl that Tupperware makes. LOTS of seeds! I may try experimenting with flavors. Watch out "David" , I may beat you at your own game.

Tomatoes Coming Out of My Ears

We've got a crazy amount of tomatoes this year. I mean, typically we have a LOT. This year we've got double that many and 1000 more. We've canned tomatoes (48 quarts and counting), 12 quarts of spaghetti sauce, given away bushels and bushels and we're still overrun with 'em. It's crazy! If you're in Utah and need some tomatoes, let me know. I can hook ya up for free.

Gone! All Gone!

In my last post you may have seen my list of yummy jam flavors all containing apricots. I had only half of the apricots from the tree to make those jams and a couple of trays of dried apricots, too. I got up early this morning, grabbed a sack with which to put the remainder of the apricots. I went to the orchard. I looked at the tree. Where were the little yellow orbs? I rubbed my eyes and looked again. No yellow? NONE at all?! Where did they go?!?! (said in the tone of A Christmas Story's turkey debacle...) No more dried apricots. No raspberry apricot jam. No apricot syrup. No apricot chutney. No apricot leftovers. Dang! It was a bad year for apricots around these parts. A lot of the trees' buds froze before they produced, so it's likely that we've got an orchard thief! I would like to think it was just the painted desert sheep that live in the orchard. Yeah, that's it...they figured out how to shake the tree or maybe they climbed up and nabbed 'em. Ya never know...