Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Green Peppers + Sadness



Hey look! I grew this! We are also eating lots of fresh basil and have just started on the lettuce (I've been happily helping my landlady with her lettuce overabundance, very nice as mine is puny). I will be eating chard and kale soon and the tomatoes and zucchini are just around the corner.

The sadness is that I finally got out to the store where I like to get eggs and learned that it is apparently now illegal for stores to sell farm fresh eggs unless the farm has been inspected and approved and so on. I was so mad I actually cried a bit. It's bad enough that it's hard to get good meat and illegal to get fresh milk but I thought I would at least be able to enjoy fresh eggs. I am so tired of having a government who feels it's okay to sell us cigarettes and aspartame but heaven forbid we get some eggs with actual nutrition in them. Thanks so much, for saving me from healthy eggs. It's so hard to feed my family well. I get so very very frustrated. And I wish I didn't feel so alone about it.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Recipe | Potato Salad with Yogurt Dressing


I cannot lie, I made this off the top of my head and now I'm trying to remember it. So hopefully I get the proportions right! It would be local if it weren't for the lemon juice. Lemons kill me, why can't I get them here! Oh right, I live in Canada.

Serves 4-6 people. Ish.

Dressing:
1 cup plain yogurt
juice of one lemon
chopped fresh basil, maybe 1/4 cup. (dill would also work great)
3 Tbs whole grain mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp of paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Salad:
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 shallot, minced
1 sweet bell pepper, chopped
4 waxy potatoes, chopped and boiled with a glug of vinegar and a bit of salt (try not to over boil or they fall apart in the salad)

Mix with dressing! Eat. Mmmm. Hey look, the baby woke up. See you all later :)

Friday, July 16, 2010

Gardening | the plan




Here's my garden, and here's how it's doing so far.
*** = Thriving
** = Surviving
* = Fail

Side A = Full Sun
Side B = Lots of Sun
Side C = A very little Sun

1 - Green Pepper ***
2 - Jalapeno **
3 - Scarlet King Pepper ***
4 - Gold King Pepper ***
5 - Parsley ***
6 - Basil ***
7 - Rosemary ***
8 - Lemon Boy Tomato ***
9 - Pink Cherry Tomato ***
10 - Stupice Tomato **
11 - Marigolds ***
12 - Roses **
13 - Zucchini - ***
14 - Carrots - ***
15 - Snow Peas - ***
16 - Beans - ***
17 - Chives - **
18 - Lettuce - **
19 - Shallots - *
20 - Swiss Chard - **
21 - Kale - **
22 - Arugula/Cilantro - *
23 - Impatients - **
24 - Hosta - **

Notes:
- Side A & B have a buried soaker hose. Side C had a sprinkler hose but it was leaking into the basement. So I hand water it.

- The shallots looked awesome and then all died. No idea why.

- The lettuce next to the beans was not as happy as the other row. When I thinned I replanted some to take over the shallot spot.

- The cilantro bolted before it hit the garden. The Arugula bolted before becoming edible.

- The pot of oregano was happy until I left and it went without water for 5 days.

- The hosta was happy in the spring but angry when the hot weather came.

- A bunch of seedlings on side c were killed by rain pouring off the roof. Need to fix the eavestroughs.