Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category

So I’ve been getting all this great, fresh, organic produce from Grant Family Farms, but half my family is in Texas! So what have I done with it all?? Well some of it I shared, but the rest of it I prepared and either ate it or froze it. I wanted to share some of these wonderful recipes with you.

Since we are currently harvesting our cold weather crops, I had a lot of spinach to work with! The day I brought it home, while it was still crisp, I made a Spinach Strawberry Salad with it.

Spinach Strawberry Salad

Chop spinach leaves into bite-size pieces. Place in big bowl.
Slice Strawberries and place on greens.
Drain one can of mandarin oranges and place on greens.
Sprinkle with pecans.

Sprinkle salad with salt and pepper to taste.
Then pour a little olive oil and vinegar over the salad.
And eat up! It’s so simple, yet so yummy! You can even add some grilled chicken if you have some.

The rest of the spinach I cooked. I ended up with 10 cups cooked spinach! That’s a lot of spinach. So I made Spinach Balls and Spinach Lasagna. I froze the remainder in 2 cup portions.

Spinach Balls

In a large mixing bowl, mis together:
2 cups cooked spinach
3 cups bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
6 eggs
3/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1-2 cloves garlic
1/4 t black pepper
2 drops pepper sauce
1/4 t nutmeg
2 t soy sauce (I use Braggs Amino Acids)

Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Then shape into 1-inch balls. I chose to freeze my balls by placing them on cooking sheets not touching. Once frozen I placed them all into a zip-loc freezer bag. Or you can proceed to bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Spinach Lasagna

In bowl mix:
1 pound Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan
2 1/2 cups cooked spinach
3 eggs

Cook Lasagna noodles according to package.

Spread spaghetti sauce on bottom of casserole dish. Then layer noodles, spinach mixture, Mozzarella cheese, and sauce until all ingredients are gone. Be sure to cover the top of noodles with sauce.

I chose to freeze mine at this point, but you can follow thru and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

I also had some rhubarb to experiment with. I’ve never had rhubarb before, so this was fun.

First I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch and the kids LOVED it! It was yummy. But I do suggest eating it all up while its warm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix these ingredients together in a casserole dish:
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 pint sliced strawberries
1 T honey

In a bowl mix together:
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 t cinnamon

Pour oat mixture over fruit. Bake for 40 minutes. Your whole house will smell like strawberries!

This week I’m gonna try Strawberry Rhubarb muffins. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

My challenge this week is to try growing something new, strange, or unusual. My favorite “experiments” was pineapple sage. What a beautiful flower with the sweetest aroma! I haven’t been able to find another plant when I was ready to plant one, but I am always on the lookout. So today I am going to mention a few interesting plant varieties for you to try.

Pineapple Sage is really a beautiful addition.

My parents owned and worked a nursery and landscaping business and we were always getting in new plants. And every year my mom would order Venus Fly Traps. What a wonderful discovery for a kid! Now you can get them at wal-mart. They can be a little tricky to keep alive so follow the directions carefully. And if trapping flies is in your agenda, check out the Dragon Arum. And you won’t want to keep this one in the house! My mom bought one, one time. They are very intriguing, but very stinky!

One year we were given a bunch of discarded tomato plants. About half of these plants were Mr. Stripey’s. At that point I had never heard of this variety, but planted them anyway. Oh what a surprise! They were interesting looking and very tasteful! The only trick was knowing when they were ripe. They are not a dark red tomato, so we let the first ones stay on the vine too long.

I’ve never grown any, but I have sure enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen with different varieties of potatoes. You can get fingerling potatoes, blue potatoes, and the all red potato. 4th of July here we come!

And one of my more memorable plantings was a moon flower. My mother mailed me seeds from her plant and for a year we enjoyed the beautiful white flower that you had to get up early to catch. Another one of my mom’s gifts was a potato vine. It’s heart-shaped leaves are unique and lovely.

What have you grown that was different?

Its getting that time of year. You know, the time of year where your pants start itching to plan a garden. Its too cold to actually get outside, but I love looking thru catalogs and drawing diagrams. My tip today is all about seeds!

I already have my garden plotted out and as soon as I get a pretty day I will get out there and clean it up. You know, use a piece of machinery to tear up the ground! Of course I need to wait until its not frozen anymore.

Have you ever gotten into companion planting? I have tried it, but never gotten too into it just because of lack of time to research it. But I found this great website with lots of helps for companion planting. I do plan on adding some of this in this year.

Another great addition I am going to do this year is rabbit manure. I have a load of manure that I am gonna mix into my sandy soil. Thank you my bunny friends!

Another part of planning your garden is figuring out what you are going to plant. What do you eat throughout the year? How much do you need to plant? Can you can the excess produce? What will grow well in your area and what won’t? How much access do you have to water? How many people do you need to feed? Do you want to save your seeds for the next year? After you have answered all these questions, you can start shopping!

Here are my favorite seed catalogs:

Burpee Heirloom Varieties

Heirloom Seeds

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Seed Savers

Please feel free to share your favorite shopping spots.