Spring Planting

So looking forward to trying my hand at whole new crop of veggies.

I have tried green peppers, Walla Walla sweet onions, zucchini, pumpkins,tomatoes lots of spices and eggplant (so much eggplant). This year I am thinking, green beans, more onions for sure (you can simple cut them up or slice for onion rings, freeze and pull those out all winter long).cherry tomatoes and carrots, I am sure my list will expand as the season nears and as I get into the green houses and see what they have to offer.

I have all the beds ready and I am just waiting to the last freeze, let the fun begin.

Meyer Lemons

If you ever want a lemon that is sweet and mild give these Meyer Lemons a try. They make a great lemon pie with a very delicate flavor.

I am very much looking forward to spring we are seeing the first signs in Southwest Washington. The winter bring nothing for me to blog about. No fresh veggies, so I am looking forward to my summer garden.

End Of Harvest

My plants had finally reached their end. There were some real pretty interesting colors and flowers as the plants went to seed. I feel a bit lost without being able to view the growth every day. Look forward to next year to see what new item I will add to the garden.

As we drove around the country side I was able to see some other harvests that came to an end.

The blueberries were beautiful when all the blueberries were picked and everything was pruned and ready for next year.

I found a farm that had a lot of pumpkins left, they were a good price I hope they finally sold them all. Thanksgiving pumpkin pie? I enjoyed all the pumpkins in a pile they were beautiful. Not at all like my small ones.

Pineapple Sage

Looks like the garden is about done for the year, I have a pumpkin that is trying to turn orange, some sage, basil, rosemary that still have some life in them.

When I was looking for plants for the garden I knew I wanted sage, for Thanksgiving fresh sage sounded wonderful. All that was available was pineapple sage, never heard of it, but that doesn't mean anything. So I planted pineapple sage and I did find the regular sage also. Totally different plants, the regular sage was just a small brush with large leaves, the pineapple sage was a different story. This thing grew to about 2 feet and produced lots of leaves to dry. There were a few strange things about it that made it an interesting plant to watch. A cat kept jumping down from the fence onto the sage and would break the branches off, so I took the branches and put them in water until I got to drying those leaves. To my surprise the branches sprouted roots and started growing in the water. As the other plants in the garden started dying for the winter, the pineapple sage grew more. It was getting a bit worn, but I decided to let it do its thing and it started going to seed and getting real bright red flowers. Interesting in the fact that Hummingbirds loved the flowers, the plant became so popular with the Hummingbirds that they would have regular fights over the flowers. Interesting to see them fight crashing into each other. 

I do believe for the entertainment factor I will take the pineapple sage plant that grew in the water and plant it again next year. I have not tried it in dishes yet, but I will give it a go at some point.

Eggplant

OK, I thought I would get only one eggplant. But I did not realize the amount of eggplants that would come from one plant. They just kept coming and I had to find ways to store them, no-one else wanted them I tried to give them away. I don't get that, it has a very mild taste.

I used them for eggplant parmesan, I fried them as chips, put panko on them and made a side dish, they are great. Just peel, rinse, flour, coat with egg, and bread with panko they are great. I also used the same step only cut the eggplant in shape of fries, a great side dish.

I also peeled, riced the eggplant added parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, egg formed into a patty and fried them. It was really pretty good.

For storage I tried several different things, the best was blanching, (better cut a large pieces small ones just mush up) wrap in plastic and freeze. We will see how that works in the winter.

I probably will not try that again, buying an eggplant at the market is probably enough, I had more than I could have ever imagined. 

They start out innocent like this.

Soon they grow into many, many large purple vegetables, that no one wants but me.

BeefSteak vs Roma

I decided this year to try Roma tomatoes, last year I planted Beefsteak and I wanted a sweeter lighter tomato. I did my research and decided to try Roma tomatoes. So I got the plants and planted them, began to care for them, water, great garden potting soil and watch them grow. The two plants really took over and produced lots of tomatoes, I made tomato sauce, pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce. I froze lots of the tomatoes and will have plenty this winter. I was able to use the basil and onions I planted also, great sauces.

I used some metal galvanized containers and filled them with garden potting soil which really seemed to help. Last year I used large round plastic pots which worked well, but the containers gave the tomatoes more room to grow.

Leaving the pots unplanted with soil still in them I noticed a small weed grow up in the pot. I thought the thing was a dandelion and I should pull it. But I didn't I just left it grow, what was the harm I didn't need the pot anyway. It got little yellow flowers and I thought soon they would be big  old dandelions, but I still did not pull it. The flowers did not turn to big yellow flowers, but they went away. The plants got pretty big and was for sure not a dandelion, but I still thought I should pull the thing. Then I noticed it had tiny green balls. What! The balls grew into Beefsteak tomatoes from last year. It took the whole summer before it produced tiny beefsteak tomatoes. So Funny!

Seaside

We finally got the opportunity to take a few days off. We decided to stay in Seaside, OR. We used to frequent Cannon Beach and Seaside and there were some restaurants that we really enjoyed and planned to visit them while there.

The first was the Great Wall just outside of seaside, the best Asian food ever. We showed up and they were closed on Monday. So we just grabbed something at Pizza Hut. 

Nest day after our site seeing decided that we would eat lunch at the Ecola Seafood Market in Cannon Beach, amazing fish and chips, salmon, halibut, cod and once they even had red snapper. Great place, well when we arrived it was being renovated because of fire. Strike two.

We had to eat somewhere so we remembered that we enjoyed the Local Scoop in Cannon Beach, they had a great cheeseburgers. They were open, the most important thing at this time. We ordered the burger and I have to say it was really good and the people were very nice. Now the down side. The guy that served us wore a tight T-shirt and shorts, OK we were at the beach, but the clothes could be a least clean. The utensils were dirty I could write my name on the greasy knife, then the food came and there was a plate underneath the sandwich for us to share and it was full of water. Come on guys!

Good Hamburger!

Next night the Great Wall was open and it did not disappoint, we had shrimp, sweet and sour chicken, won tons and cashew nut chicken. It was so good that I actually forgot to take a picture until everything was almost gone. Don't miss this if you visit Seaside, OR.

Next day we spent the day in Cannon Beach, wanted to go to Morris's Inn, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Next Driftwood was closed also and there were lots of people in Cannon Beach for the day. Apparently a Cruise ship stopped in Astoria and dropped off a bus load of people. We grabbed a Sandwich at the Cannon Beach Bakery, it was very good.

Good Hamburger!

Next night the Great Wall was open and it did not disappoint, we had shrimp, sweet and sour chicken, won tons and cashew nut chicken. It was so good that I actually forgot to take a picture until everything was almost gone. Don't miss this if you visit Seaside, OR

Next day we spent the day in Cannon Beach, wanted to go to Morris's Inn, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Next Driftwood was closed also and there were lots of people in Cannon Beach for the day. Apparently a Cruise ship stopped in Astoria and dropped off a bus load of people. We grabbed a Sandwich at the Cannon Beach Bakery, it was very good.

Basil

Basil was a herb that I really wanted good luck with, I use it in a lots of dishes and thought it would be the one that I would need the most. At first it started with lush leaves then seemed to die down. The leaves became yellow green and not producing the way I wanted.

In research there was not a lot that I did wrong.

Putting the plant outside after the last frost.

6 to 8 hours of sun, shade in the afternoon.

Rich fresh potting soil.

Keeping the soil moist and well drained.

The thing I did not do because of lack of knowledge, was to check PH and fertilize with bone meal or cottonseed meal.

I will give those a try next year and hope to have a better crop of basil to dry and use fresh.

Parsley

This great little Herb is so useful, I love it. I make a salad with it adding walnuts a few dried cranberries and a touch of balsamic dressing. it makes a great pesto adding mint, a tiny touch of garlic and of course the olive oil. I use it in dressing for turkey, also great in my spaghetti sauce, soups, delicious on fish, meats and in salad dressings. Also is a lovely addition if you make your own condiments. This is one of the herbs that was a garden hero providing lots of parsley, more than I can keep up with, I keep cutting it down and drying it and it seems to come back even fuller than when I started.

Herbs in my Garden

I decided to plant some herbs in my garden, if I could not harvest them at least they would smell good. Stepping outside and having a fragrant aroma from the herbs greet me would be wonderful. The herbs did very well and I was able to harvest and dry them and have fresh herbs through the winter. Not all did well, but the ones that did supplied a lot of dry, jarred herbs.

Not only did I have fresh herbs but I was also was able dry them by I turned the oven to 400 degrees and after the oven reached 400 I turned the oven down to 170 degrees. I put the herbs on parchment paper and left them in for 30 minutes or until crisp. When the herbs were done I let them sit until cool and crushed up the herbs and stored the herbs for later.

The Greek Oregano did very well and provided lots of leaves to dry.

Sage was a really good producer