Short Update of the Garden

My Early Girl tomato has many flowers on it! Will have some tomatoes very soon.

The Early Girl in the main garden is growing quite tall.

My bucket and bag of taters are doing awesome. Now, I hope that they are producing potatoes too ;)

Carrots are peaking through, they aren't very long. I cheated & pulled one out its quite short. Hope they grow more.

My cucumbers are doing great! There's even a little cuke starting to form. Hope it pollinates.

Number 2 of the cucumber plants that grew to this size is doing well too.

The peas are producing. I harvested 4 pods today and munched on them while I worked in the garden.

My biggest onion plant, still no onion forming but I'm waiting patiently.

My first pepper bud on my peppers that I started from seed. I am so proud! :)

Half of the pepper plants. They are all growing pretty nicely.

It's no lie when someone tells you that Bhut Jolokia plants grow very slowly. They are super duper slow. These are the only two that survived off the 4 seedlings. Only 4 of the 10 seeds germinated.

Pink Brandywine tomato plant is growing quickly.

My reserve Okra plants need to be transplanted soon. 

Seeds from Japan

The bush beans from Japan were pink! :)

A very dear and special friend of mine recently went to Japan to help with the tsunami relief. While he was there, he managed to buy me some wonderful seeds. The seed packets are really cool and have bright and beautiful pictures on them. Most of the packages are covered with Japanese writings but a few do have English names too. It is exciting to receive seeds, but foreign seeds brought especially for my garden means so much more! I want to thank my friend Hector for being so thoughtful! I ¤ you! 

Garlic or is it?

While out in the garden after the brief rain we got here in Sacramento, I noticed that the garlic I had in the containers were drooping over and dying, so I decided, out of curiosity, to see what had happened to them.

Now, before I continue, let me give you a background story on the garlic. Last year in summer, my brother-in-law's grandfather gave me some garlic that he grew in his garden. They were pretty small but not too bad, so I figured I would try to grow some more garlic as an experiment. I stuck those cloves in the ground and watched them sprout and then grow throughout winter. In spring, I decided to check up on them so I poked my finger in the dirt and saw that the clove was still just a clove. I left them alone and they have been "growing" since then. I have harvested a few since then and none of them had formed cloves, but rather looked like small onion bulbs and they tasted quite delicious.


After noticing the plant dry out and fall over, I assumed that it was done and pulled it out. As you can see, the garlic had formed cloves but they were quite puny. I laughed as I opened the bulb and found 4 small cloves. It was also exciting as this was the first time I grew garlic and now, I can assume that I can grow them. So next season, I will be ordering some hard neck garlic to grow. The ones I just pulled up are soft necks.

Homemade Jams

Yesterday was quite a blessed day for us. We were able to get about 10 lbs of free strawberries. Not all of them were  in the best shape, but after I picked the trays, we had about 8 lbs left and the other "bad" two lbs went to the worms. After tasting the strawberries, I realized that they weren't at their peak yet, but still delicious. Well, with 8 lbs of tart strawberries, I had to make homemade jam as my family loves it! So, today I was off to the store to get some mason jars and pectin. I also added 2 pints of blueberries that I had previously frozen to half the batch. Since I had so much, I decided to try to can them for the first time. I don't have most of the canning equipment, but I improvised and got the job done. The jams are DELICIOUS! I have eight 1 pint bottles of jam now and I have a feeling they will be gone in about 6 months, if not sooner.
Here is the recipe I used:


Ingredients: 
4 cups mashed berries abt 2 lbs.
2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 pkt pectin* You can put the whole pkt in but I decided to split it because I only had one pkt.

Directions
In a wide bowl, crush strawberries in batches until you have 4 cups of mashed berry. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil for about 10-12 mins,  stirring often. Add pectin and boil for 1 minute. Take off heat and transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. Process in a water bath. If the jam is going to be eaten right away, don't bother with processing, and just refrigerate.

Most recipes call for a lot more sugar but I opted for less sugar since there are some diabetics in my family. I canned approximately 9 pints of jam. It is delicious and my family loves it. Give me more reason to make homemade biscuits now. :)

Started off with two boxes like these

Washed and separated

I set aside a basket aside to eat fresh.

 

 

I used the food processor to chop all the strawberries :)

I had a ton of fun making the jam! I added blueberries to the second batch and now I have a few bottles with both strawberries and blueberries. I am so proud of myself too. All the bottles sealed nicely and now I have about 6 months supply of jam! I hope ya'll try this recipe. :) 

An Update

Two heirloom Pink Brandywine tomatoes. Their leaves are like potato leaves.

We have had a beautiful visitor to the garden a few times. It returns almost daily.

The wildflower "patch" is doing great. Lots of seedlings popping up! I can already decipher the CA poppies.

We added two new beds to the front yard. This one has some herbs and some succulents along with a few wild flowers. In the back, I have my blackberry plants that I purchased from Stark Bros. last year. They are doing wonderful.

This is the second bed. It has different bulbs, a few herbs as well and some wild flowers.

Those green things aren't bugs! They are beans! My dwarf Hestia bush beans are blooming beautifully and they have beans on them as well. :)

The Hestia Beans. They are doing wonderful and I sowed some more seeds to the container so it looks full. I planted these more for their beautiful flowers, the beans are a bonus ;)

Hestia Bean blooms are gorgeous!

Our volunteer CA poppy plant has its first bloom. I love these!

These wild flowers come to our garden year after year and I must say, they are one of my favorites. They bloom in different colors and oh my do they add a distinctive beauty to the entire yard. I see them popping everywhere in the yard and I leave them alone as they blend well with almost everything. If anyone knows what these are called, please let me know.

Mom's "bell" flowers as she calls them are blooming as well and they are VERY beautiful.

In the main garden, the bokchoy has started to seed and I am letting them. I did pull a few to eat but the small ones remain.

These "volunteer" bokchoy grew quite impressively to my surprise. I harvested these today to add to dinner. They were delicious!

My radishes are peeking through now and I have been harvesting these for the past week or so. They are very delicious!

My early girl tomato have blooms on them. I can't wait to get the tomatoes. I plucked the blooms prior to these to let the plant grow but now they are strong enough. I am very excited. I love tomatoes!

The bag o' taters are huge. They are quite big and growing now. They are hilled to the top and now I am just waiting for them to grow more and die back... a sign that they need to be harvested.

The "experiment" lettuce is doing good. I got these gourmet lettuce seeds from ebay and wanted to see how they grow. They grew really quickly and really well so I will definitely be adding this to my fall garden. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I harvested these from the garden today. Nothing beats the taste of freshly harvested veggies. They bokchoy was one of the best tasting I have ever had and the radishes were mild adding a much needed zap to dinner. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Tribute to Mothers

I can't find the words to describe how much I love my mom and how much respect I have for all mothers. I know first hand that motherhood is an experience that is hard to explain. So today, a day decided to mothers everywhere, I would like to thank every mother out there for trying her best to be the best mother they can be to their child. I thank all of you for the sleepless nights and the tiring days. I thank all of you for all the effort. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is your love, your care, your warmth and  your strength that keep us going. Thank you! I applaud each and every mother! Happy Mother's Day!  

A Heart Just like Mom

I May not pray often, and I may not pray enough
but when I do, this is all I ask of you...

God please give me a heart just like hers
She loves unconditionally, no matter what, no matter who..

God give me courage to be like her
She's very brave, she makes me unafraid...

God give me wisdom just like hers
She knows everything, big and small, she's there to help through it all..

God give me strength just like hers
She's been knocked down, yet she stands strong for another round..

God give me beauty just like hers
When she smiles it gives me that feeling that everything will be okay,
and all my problems disappear for awhile....

God give me generosity just like hers
She helps the helpless, she never thinks of herself and she's so un-selfish....

God- someday, if I'm at least half the mom she was to me,

I'll know that you were listening On the day that I prayed.

-Anonymous 

Flower garden