Radish Pods

Here's how it goes. You start a garden and you're very excited. You get the kids in on the action. Everyone tells you that radishes are perfect for kids because they grow quickly, are brightly colored and foolproof.

No one seems to remember that radishes can be spicy. And that eating one spicy radish can turn a child off to eating garden vegetables for indefinite spans of time.

Then you quickly learn that planting 483 radish plants at once was a bad idea, because there comes a day when you go out to the back forty and find this:



But never fear! There is a solution for those bolting radishes.* Let them flower. In a week or two you'll have:



Radish pods. Radish pods taste like radish, but have the texture of snap peas. I toss them in salad. I saute them with a little garlic and crushed chile.

Yummy went out and made a harvest while I was giving his brother a haircut.



Then he and his brother ate the whole bowl.

I predict they will take the farmer's markets by storm in the next few years.

*Bolting is when your plants decide the clock's ticking and they need to grow up and make some babies.

What I Made:

Still chugging on that vest. I forgot to take my Day 9 picture though. I'm snapping Day 10 right now. After I eat some radish pods.

A Dear John Letter

Dear Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar,

We have had a long standing affair of the heart for several years now. You were there for the date nights and the break-ups, the slumber parties, the all-night crams, the PMS, the pregnancies, and possibly even a conception. Even so, sometimes a girl wants more variety.

In the past, I've gone for the cheap liaison out of desperation, but I have always come back to you. Your creamy coffee ice cream, combined with those chunks of Heath were always waiting for me with open arms.

I didn't mean for it to happen.



It started with the Blood Orange. It was a hot night and creamy didn't sound right. The sparkling sorbet made me feel...different. Lighter, like butterflies. Then I tried the Malted Milk Ball, on a night when creamy was just right and I felt satisfaction. Now I'm completely addicted to the Blackberry Cabernet--I just can't get enough--and I'm lusting for a taste of the White Chocolate Green Tea.

It's not you, it's me. I just need some space to think. I hope we can still be friends.

Lovingly,
Mountain Mama

P.S. The Blackberry Cabernet blended with ginger ale was just an experiment. Please don't hate me. You never did enjoy the blender. It's not your thing. I understand.

What I Made:

Finally! I got a reasonably sized salad from my garden. This:



Mixed with a sliced plum, some strawberries, pinenuts and goat cheese:



Makes a decent sized side-salad.

The First (and second) Harvest

This year's hot thing is garlic scapes, which I will try to grow next spring, maybe this fall.

Microgreens were the hot thing last year. I feel the need to tell you this, otherwise the following pictures are a bit underwhelming.

My first handpicked greens:



I once dined at a circus dinner theatre that served several courses in between acrobatic acts. The salad course was described as a mache salad served with a fillet of salmon. What I got looked a lot like the above picture, if everyone else at my table had put their servings on my plate.

Two leaves of mache and a sliver of salmon the size of a postage stamp does not a salad make.

The next day produced a slightly more substantial snack;



Fresh greens, with blueberries and shaved Parmesan. It was only two bites, but it was divine.

One thing I love about salads from my garden: I don't need dressing.

What I Made:

I'm still trekking on this one, but it's almost finished. I had to find different blue yarn and reknit all the blue bits.



I only need to knit the small blue piece that goes on the right armscythe (polite term for armpit) and then a band of blue around the bottom.

Then I will probably stare at it for a few weeks in the hopes that the ends will weave themselves in and the thing will block itself.

How Does My Garden Grow?

This episode of What I Made has been brought to you by rain, dirt, and sun.

You have been warned.



Isn't it impressive? Are you completely underwhelmed? Don't worry, it gets better (though arguably not much).



Yummy's radishes. He's very excited.

The first time I had a garden, it was a community garden rental. They were notorious for having about 234 kazillion weeds per square foot of dirt. I had one patch of scruffy, weedy looking plants and decided nothing worthwhile could grow there so I hoed everything up...

...and discovered hundreds of the cutest miniature radishes. I quickly replanted them and prayed I hadn't killed them. I hadn't, but the critters boring holes through them rendered them inedible (to me).

Yummy's are safe from my hoe if not from as yet unknown critters.

Vish's peas:



I'm still reeling from that close-up. I wonder what else my camera is capable of?

My arugula. Mmmm. Tasty, peppery, arugula:



I snack on it like popcorn. Except I don't snack on popcorn. I snack on arugula.

Rainbow chard, a red one:



I should be harvesting any day now.

In Which The Businessman Builds Me A Garden

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial day and I hope you took a moment or two to remember those who gave their lives so we could still have ours.



Kind of appropriate that I finish this one this weekend. This gives me 'til July 4th to make it a pair.

What We Made--Weekend Project Edition:

Once upon a time, I had a wonderful little garden. It made me yummy salads for work and provided lots of flowers. I never saw a snake there. I miss it terribly.

Next to our house is a deeply sloping hillside. The previous owner thought it would be best to line the hill with groundcloth and then dump several tons of rock on it to make it look sellable.



The problem, of course, it that in a clime with regular flash-flood inducing rains, the ground cloth was like a Slip 'n Slide. As you can see in the photo above, we started placing landscaping stone to prevent the rocks from tumbling their merry way into the lawn (which has been mown since this picture was taken).

The Businessman decided it was time for action. He told me two tons of stone was going to be delivered.



I would have expected two tons of rock to look like, well, two tons. Luckily, TBM called in his Buddy and I didn't really verify if it felt like two tons.

Three yards of dirt arrived (no pic). Then a rainstorm came and out went TBM. He tarped and diverted as much water as he could while I worried (from inside the garage) about the lightning strikes everywhere and the muddy rainwater carrying our dirt into the gutters.

Sunday, he cottoned on to me and tried to put me to work. We He shoveled, pulled, lifted, heaved, hauled, and in general ruined my nails. I tried to take more of a 'Brains in this Operation' approach, but he wasn't fooled.



Then he saw I had the camera, and I got a temporary reprieve. Sorry TBM, I warned you I would post it.


I call it Man Trying To Act Cool. He strained his back here. Not really.

And now I have three large planting beds. With two more to follow next year.





TBM suggested I could shovel some rocks and dirt today while he's at work.

Hmm. No thanks. I think I'll go look at plants.

Go! Fight! W-W-What Are You Wearing?!

I don't have a scanner or I would post tons of humiliating pics of me when I was skinny, had thick hair and unfortunately had these advantages in a fashion disadvantaged decade.

But I perused a classmate's blog today and stumbled upon this:



My 8th grade cheer leading squad. I'm on the right, throwing off the symmetry of the shot. What I remember most about that uniform, was the seven inch growth spurt I after being measured. I couldn't lift my arms without showing some midriff. Quite the trauma back then.

I'm blissfully ignoring my hair, and my bangs. Horizontal stripes? Doesn't look like they helped any of us.

What I Made:

The wreath I talked about here.

After lovingly assembling and promising to give TLC during its first weeks of life so it can take root and fill out, the Businessman called to ask if I wanted to do a road trip this weekend. We'll see if it's strong enough to survive a couple days with no water.

Mini Desert Garden

Summer is making an effort to appear in these parts. For the first time in several years, I have been drawn to the plant nursuries. I don't know why I lost my gardening mojo. Probably the babies. And the snakes. And the worms. But it's back and while I wait for the Businessman to build the retaining walls that will comprise my vegetable patches, I decided to fill some planters.

What I Made:

Many years ago, Martha Stewart had a succulent wreath in her magazine. My mom and I decided to recreate it. We did a decent job too, considering there were only about five succulents available in our area, three of them being hens and chicks.

Anyway, a local nursury had a huge selection of succulents (they do well here being practically a desert), and I was reminded of the wreath. Then I saw some displays in the cactus area and thought "I can make that for less then $60.00."



And I did.

I do want to try the succulent wreath again.