Too many tomatoes?

Is there such a thing? After careful consideration, much debate between my mother and I, and a simple google search, what I though was a HUGE German Chamomile plant, has turned out to be several mystery tomato plants.

In the early spring when I was busy germinating my seeds indoors on a sunny window sill, I must have gotten my seeds crossed.

But here's the big question... What kind of tomatoes will they be??

I was sprouting Black Krim....

 Green Zebra...

and some kind of cherry tomato.... Oh, I do believe the wait will drive me crazy!

And! On top of that, because I thought all my tomato sprouts failed (as it turns out, it was the Chamomile that did!) I went ahead and bought a tomato plant at Armstrongs! An Old German!

The final kicker for me to look at my mom and say "Uhm, these have GOT to be tomatoes!" was that the plants started to flower today. I can spot those tiny yellow tomato flowers from a mile away.

Since I suddenly found myself with four new tomato plants on my hands, I had to totally rearrange the garden. It all makes sense now. Every time I dug up the "chamomile" I noticed that the roots had grown really fast and really deep! *head smack* I'm a dope.

So, I took down an old red wood trellis from back behind the house, cleaned it up, took it apart, then put it back together again to the size I needed, and put it in the ground. Then, I had to dig up the entire garden B, replant my watermelon and bell pepper, and stick the tomatoes along the back of the bed. As it lays, I still have two of the plants still in pots in need of homes. Perhaps a gift? Or I could let my mom take one home, but would they survive the dreadful Texas heat?

Also, it's only been in the bucket two days, and the potato is already willingly sending out several long purple shoots. I had to give it another few inches of mulch today. I am excited!

The zucchini looks better today, still sick, but better

Felines

Our first cat, Bonnie is quiet and shy. When guests come round, she would much rather sleep on our bed than make friends.

She doesn't eat treats... It's just not her style. But she will eat them if you leave it, and walk away.

She wont sit on your lap... or mine for that matter. But she will sit on Brendan's lap, because he's the daddy. I think she knows who's in charge.

She is delicate and tiny, and almost frail. She is getting over being very very sick. She is smokey and soft, and if you just saw her run by, you might think her a ghost.

Bagheera is a loud mouth. He will let you know when he is hungry, and he will let you know when he is irritated.

He stares down our dog, because he is well over half her size, and honestly, in a fight, Bagheera would win, hands down.

Bagheera makes friends, and sits on shoulders on the back of the couch. Half his body on the couch, half his body on you. When he really likes you, he walks along the back of the couch and bumps your head.

Some people find that disturbing, but I find it lovely.

He looks like a jungle cat... like a dignified gentleman when he sleeps. His jaw line, his musculature are all so refined. He is a cat you don't forget.

He was turned out on the street by his owner. For six months he wandered, and then was picked up. And then we took him home, and now he's my baby.

Powdery Mildew and Potatoes

My zucchini squash has been ravaged this last week by powdery mildew. What once was a thriving, weed like plant has been reduced to just a few weak suckers. I hope it pulls threw, as I'm afraid it is too late in the season to replace it. On top of that, all of my beans died :( It's bad luck for me this week.

I tried a heavy spray of diluted milk to the entire garden A, which is supposed to help. I will use another application next week... I'm not sure though, I may just have to go to Armstrong and see if they have anything organic. I would hate for anything else to get infected. It looks as though my yellow little neck squash had a few infect leaves today, which I pruned and disposed of.

In other news, I finally put my sprouted Peruvian purple potato down in some soil.  I am using the bucket method.


Growing Potatoes - The Bucket Method

• Place 4-5 inches good soil in the bottom of a deep pot, or bucket with holes drilled in it. I chose to use a garden center pot that my blueberry bush came in.

•  Place your seeded potato in the ground. I used a potato I bought organically at a local grocery store. Sometimes these potatoes are unreliable or diseased. For both of the reasons I chose to pre-sprout mine, and use the bucket method as opposed to putting them in my garden. 

• Cover the potatoes with a few inches of soil or mulch (I am choosing to use mulch, in the form of bougainvillea flowers, we have tons of the bushes hanging around). When you see little sprouts peeking out, cover it with a few more. 
• When your potato plant appears to be dieing, you are ready to harvest.

Fathers day and my Baeba: Babycook!

Brendans first fathers day was a lot of fun. I woke up early early on Sunday and worked my ever living but off all day cooking up a storm. I made ribs (Avoid Emerils rib rub, it's far too sweet... Unless you like that sort of thing) a bbq apple pie (see recipe below) tons of vegetable skewers, sweet potatoes, bbq corn and hot links for my baby. It was a lot of work. I was so tired at the end of the day, I found myself folding clothes and actually nodding out mid sentence to people. But hey, it was worth it!

My mom got me one of those neat Baeba baby food steamers/processors when Levi was around five months, and I've only really just started to use it on a regular basis. (If you are unsure as to what a Baeba: Babycook! is, see here)

Considering all the time and money you would spend on going to the grocery store and purchasing old dingy baby food, I would say you save on both. Not to mention your child learns from an early age what real food actually TASTES like!

Basically, I set it up on the counter, it doesn't take up much space and is pretty easy to clean. When I cook dinner at night, I select a vegetable once a week or so that we are eating, and I just cut up a bit more of it. Tonight we were eating caldo de pollo, one of my grandmothers recipes, which calls for carrots. I usually buy all my root vegetables organic so I just chopped one up uniform and small and tossed it in the steamer pot.

(Lots of people are stumped on how to make your own recopies with the Baeba as it uses that funny steamer method, and gives you the water to mix it with after cooking (to much your food is runny, too little and your food isn't done cooking!).... just put the food in the blender, no steamer basket, and pour in purified water, just enough so that the food is covered. Then pour that liquid into the water holder, and then steam!)

When it is done, you just pour the carrots into the pot with the remaining steamed liquid (it should be full of the nutrients that were leached in the steaming process) pulse a few times to the babies ability, and then there you have it. Home made baby food. What could make a mama more proud?

Though... most times, Levi is more interested in playing with the nifty Baeba spoon than eating his meal...

The negatives for the Baeba?  Not all the parts are dishwasher friendly, it doesn't give you a perfectly uniform puree, you always have lumps you have to squish out. For the price tag of $150, it seems a little flimsy and the blenders blade is nothing to brag about. More than once, the food has backed up into my machines water cavaty and I've had to clean it with a bottle brush. Yuck. Overall though, I would say it is worth it, as it eliminates all fuss and any excuse a lazy parent might have.


Cinnamon Carrot Puree

• 1 medium sized carrot
• Enough water to cover carrot in shallow pan
• dash of cinnamon 
• pinch of nutmeg

Cut your carrot into small, uniform pieces to ensure no lumps or hard bits.Place water in double boiler, shallow pan, or your Baeba: Babycook! if you wish. Steam until tender. Place ingredients into blender and blend to desired constancy.

BBQ Apple Pie

Crust

• 6 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 ounces vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• Water to moisten
• 12 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 2 3/4 cups, plus extra for dusting
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Filling

• 3 to 3 1/2 pounds apples, I chose 4 Fiji and two Granny Smith
• 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon orange marmalade (my secret ingredient)
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• A dash of cinamon
• A dash of nutmeg

Preheat grill to 400 degrees .

Place butter and shortening into fridge for 1 hour.

Combine flour, salt and sugar. Cube the butter and shortening and pinch in by hand, until mixture looks very mealy and pea like. If you like, you can use a food proccessor for this step, but I like to do it the way our grandmothers did.

Add water until mixture is just moist enough to stay together. Divide the dough evenly into two halves, round them out, cover with plastic wrap. Leave in fridge for at least 1 hour.

Peel and core the apples. Slice into 1/2-inch thick wedges. Toss all of the apples with 1/4 cup of the sugar, place in a colander set over a large bowl and allow to drain.Toss the apples with the remaining sugar, flour, jelly, lemon juice and salt.

Roll out dough, assemble pie. Place pie in either propane or charcoal BBQ for 50-60 minutes. If using propane, use care, as high flames will cause the pie to burn.

***

I was told it was the best pie I've ever made... and I've made a few in my day

Kats in the hause

We have four little kittens who have been under our foster care for the last month and a half now...

Brendan and I are pretty much totally in love with them, but with Levi still being so young and difficult, already having two cats, and now the arrival of my childhood dog, we just can't spare the room. Not to mention the expense of four more animals in the house.

The mother clawed into our crawlspace through a small grate that vented it. I don't think she was a very experienced mother, as she left them a lot and we heard them crying all the time.

We found baby Juno first. Her tiny mew broke my heart, and after about 12 hours of enduring her calls, I opened up the crawlspace (after first lifting a few deck boards, as I thought she was under there) and there she was... her little pink nose and tiny white body calling up to me.

I pulled her out, and after the day I had had and all the trouble we went through getting to her, I cried.


She was fully bottle fed, and is such a love bug. She will make someone a great lap cat.

Bombshell came next. She was heard about two weeks later, crying and scratching and trying to get free. I opened up the crawl space and there she was! Her color took my breath away! It is amazing how two completely different looking cats can come from the same litter. She was a wreck for a few days, and then finally adjusted to life in the bathroom with her sister. Juno wanted nothing to do with her at first, but now you never see one without the other.

If I had to keep one I would keep Bombshell... but then I would be forced to keep Juno as well, because you just can't separate them.


The strangest cats were the last two, Koshka and Hex. Koshka wasn't in the crawl space, he was sitting in front of our bedrooms french doors as if left there by his mother.
I came out, picked him up, and there above me on the houses overhang was his mom, staring down at me with her harvest yellow eyes. She could have jumped me so easily, and done real damaged, but she didn't.

Hex was in the exact same place, but the next day. She was curled up in a little ball, and I thought "Oh god! Shes dead!" I went out and moved to pick her up and she lifted her little head and hissed at me. "Oh, thank you Jesus!" There again was the mother, balancing on the fence, watching me. She hissed quietly and took off.

I saw her a few more times in our front yard, but haven't since.

Life Thrives

About 3 months ago, on a very gloomy day I went into the garden...

I carefully threaded a string onto the corner of two small, commercially farmed praying mantis cocoons and hung them in the bamboo...


It was awfully gloomy out...


I left them there, hanging delicately. So vulnerable, I did my best to hide them. I would check on them every day, but after a few weeks, I forgot. I was so sure the rain and gloom of June killed them. Their pupa like state too delicate to withstand the chill...

But then, just a few days ago, I noticed the oddest figure perched gracefully atop my patio table. As if doing Tai Chi, he barely moved, and when he did, he did so slowly.I picked him up with a leaf and placed him on my bell pepper plant.

The next day, I went out to water the garden, and noticed another small mantis struggling in a puddle. I put my finger down next to him, he reached out for me, and hoisted himself onto my finger, stared up at me, swords brandished, and then jumped onto my blueberry bush.

My mother and I noticed one on the zucchini, and we speculated as to whether or not we were just seeing the same one over and over again, but then no! Look! "There's one here, on your blueberry bush!"

Life thrives in my garden.

Raised Beds Changed My Life

I was contemplating raised beds for months. Since we moved into our new place, all of the yard space and spring air has made me feel very back to nature. I had been coasting by with a few containers and a obnoxious Topsy Turvy, but it felt incomplete.

With the baby and my busy husband, I never felt I had time to ever put it together. But my parents have been staying with us for the last week, and in their first couple of days here, my father helped me put them together. Here is a quick run down of supplies and cost for 2 very efficient 3x3 raised bed...

• Two 12' x 10" boards, cut into 3" pieces by the good people at the Home Depot - 24$
• Eight 12" stakes - $4.80
• Four bags of 'Rose Grow' 1.5 cu.ft. - acquired at your friendly local Armstrong or nursery - $36
• 1 large bag vermiculite - $13
• 1 bag composted cow manure (not necessary)
• 7 organic starter plants from nursery - $14-$16
• Total cost =  $91 - $93

A raised bed can be done for a considerably smaller amount of money if started pre-season with seeds and if your current soil situation is more favorable than mine.

We broke ground around 2pm, and had our holes dug about 3.30 (about 6 inches down). You must be sure to dig the holes larger than what you need, and fill dirt around the boxes after setting them in. We assembled the boxes in that time with two 1 3/4 inch wood screws on each panel.

After putting them in the ground, we leveled them by eye (nothing fancy here) and staked them in by placing one in each corner and screwing them to the boards. (Important) We then turned a bag of vermiculite and half the cow manure into the dirt dug up to place the boxes in the ground. After evenly distributing the mixture between the two boxes, we put two bags of Rose Grow on the top of each box. I then worked in the plants, being careful to not disturb their roots, most vegetables do not like this.

DO NOT STAMP DOWN THE DIRT! It should be so light and airy, that you can just place your fingers in the soil and push it around a bit to get the plants in.

All of my vine plants were put into one box so I would only have to build one large trellis. The bush beans fell through, as a local cold snap killed my seedlings. The picture above is not an accurate representation of what lays in my garden, it is rough and does not include the Yellow Little Necks and Eggplant I purchased at my last trip to the nursery - after this photo was taken.

Discovering the space in between the two boxes was just a few inches too small for me to get my feet in between, I put bricks on either end, filled the box with left over dirt, and sowed butterfly garden seeds to attract beneficial insects.

I go outside most days and just stare at our garden, or sit on the walkway with Levi, admiring our work, naming all the insects and plants we see. I can't wait until he is older and can grasp what a neat thing this all is.

I am amazed I've lived so long without a garden. I am completed