Microflora

Or would it be fauna? We've come to really enjoy sourdough pancakes, and I figured I'd spend a few minutes sharing the love because they're so easy to make. Start with a fed sourdough starter:

For each cup, add an egg,

Add a bit of sugar,

A little bit of baking soda and a pinch of salt,

Some fat. Here, I'm using coconut oil which I'll melt before mixing, but you could use butter, oil, whatever

One of the things I like is how bubbly and light the cakes are.

Ready for syrup, or jam that didn't set, or powdered sugar and strawberries.

I've never figured out how to feed a sourdough starter with whole wheat flour, but this one has been robust for a long time.

Once more, with pictures

What they looked like and why I thought they should be transplanted. (See how weirdly sunny it was? Like a Hollywood "spring day" cliche.)

They look sort of small in those big gallon/half gallon pots.

The roots did air prune, just like they were supposed to. I think the mold is a bonus effect.

All lined up. San Marzano in the big pots, Roma in the yogurt containers. Extra ones got jammed in "community pots" when I ran out of individuals.

And then it was time to start all over again, with peppers.

These took a few more tries to get the appropriate ice creamy shapes.

And then I found the sunniest spot of the day to put them. I hoped that putting them on a board would prevent hitchikers from wiggling in the drainage holes.

Turns out they don't fit all that well under the lights, and today I put them out to spend some happy time in the rain. It's going to be in the high 40s tonight, but I'm tempted to leave them out there because, first off, it's dark already, and secondly, they're heavy from being rained on. We'll see if Lazy Gardener Ethics kill all that hard work.

Rain is General . . .

. . . all over my town.

Last night I fell asleep with the last paragraph of "The Dead" in my head, to the sound of continuing rain. Even though I know of at least three places in my house that aren't dealing well with it (not the roof, thank goodness) I'm delighted to see and hear and, yes, feel it.

What you aren't going to be able to see are all the pictures I took of me carefully transplanting paste tomatoes from their soil "blocks" to big pots, using lots of new potting soil. As the day I was doing it had air as soft as a baby's bottom, I felt foolish -- shouldn't I just be popping them in the ground? The next night, I had my answer. The temperature dropped back into the forties, and then the skies opened. I had taken careful pictures, but the camera was loaded with videos of my kids doing something they probably shouldn't, and it took too long to download. Then I mislaid the camera and it hasn't shown up again. Yes, I live in a house where these things happen.

Today is the second day of truly pissing down rain. The rain barrels are filling up, and the things out in the garden already are pretty cheerful, as am I, since I laid sod three weeks ago and now I'm not using bathwater to keep it alive, while prancing around in my jammies.

Alas, I will not be spending the day curled up on the couch knitting with tea in reach. It's Drive Around Like A Homeschooling Parent Day, so hooray for rain gear.

"Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”
― James Joyce, Dubliners

Harvest Monday end of February

Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions hosts a Harvest Monday every week. Now that my garden is producing reliably, and because I've remembered to photograph what I picked for breakfast, I can participate! If you'd like to participate, head over there.

This is just today's. Last week I might have harvested more -- I know we've had a couple of heads of lettuce from the yard. Kale is slowing down, or at least the volunteer kale in the onion bed is. This is probably attributable to the amazing aphid infestation. The cold, then hot, then wet, then very dry cycle has obviously made the plants much more vulnerable to our winter pests. That back corner is for some reason a favorite attack place -- maybe it has something to do with being under a tree? Anyhow, I either need to pull that kale or soap spray the aphids. Given what my life is generally like, I'm betting on using the kale as a trap crop in order to get the newly-planted kale big enough to resist. At least that's what I'll call it! Lazy and effective, or at least I hope so.

As I inspected the spinach, I noticed a few leaf miner eggs. Argh! The only effective control I've ever found for them is rubbing the leaves off, individual leaf at a time. Slow, and tedious when the spinach is growing almost rosette-style flat to the ground, but that's what I get for loving the same crop as those noxious pests. Today's harvest was almost five ounces of deep green yummy. It made two quick breakfasts, along with storebought eggs and vegetarian sausage patties.

Soon that aphid infested kale won't actually be going to waste any more, and the spinach won't be served with storebought eggs. The old birds are long gone, but in one of our bedrooms the replacements are peeping away:

Now it really feels like spring.

Well prepared

It dawned on me the other day that if I knocked out a bunch of meals for the freezer I could get by with "not cooking" much more often. Because I am as easily fooled as the average toddler, taking a meal out of the freezer feels like someone else made it for me, even if that someone else was me, earlier!

So last Monday, I made:
a small turkey stir fry (marinated cooked meat, chopped but raw veggies, ready to stir fry)
a large turkey stir fry
a large taco casserole
small taco casserole (two)
a large beef stew, crockpot ready (marinated meat, chopped veggies)
ten beef and bean burritos to warm in the oven
eleven bean and cheese burritos to warm in the oven
a large turkey broccoli casserole
a small turkey broccoli casserole
two turkey pot pies
four bags of spaghetti sauce + meatballs
four bags of plain meatballs for soup
two small lasagnes
one large lasagne (for tonight)
five servings of turkey soup

Then I collapsed and Eric took me out for a nice quiet small dinner and a glass of wine.

Yesterday I made a couple more things, because I had the ingredients, and I still need to make a bean/cheese/rice bake to use up the beans in the jar in the fridge. I also have stuff to make sausage/lentil soup, and I made another batch of spaghetti sauce last night, and froze six muffin tins full so the big kid can make easy pasta for herself.

That was the last batch of homemade sauce from last summer's tomatoes, though, because this

is, alas, the last jar of tomatoes from last year. I didn't have that many, and I'm kind of sad, but strongly looking forward to this year's tomatoes, which I promise to manage more carefully. I love having all the stuff made, and I'd like to do it again -- with my own tomatoes! The "raw pack as you have them" approach worked really well -- maybe I'll remember vinegar and salt this time for all of the jars -- and I ended up using them much more efficiently by not saving them for one bigger canning session.

The weirdest thing about the big cooking day was that it didn't cost much more to make that many meals than it had cost to make a week's worth usually. Of course, all of the meat had been purchased before and kept in the freezer, so that helped, but the other stuff was not much, mostly pantry items like noodles and cheese and onions. I had beans, spices, and oils, so that was easy. . . I must be sort of wasting food most weeks, or at least wasting my money.

Guess we'll find out.

Wishing you well

Although my very first official date with Eric was on Valentine's Day, it's not a day I enjoy -- nor really ever has been (so it wasn't HIS fault!!). But I can try a little something here and there.

Hope yours is full of fun.

Moving along

Life just keeps happening here.

The soil blocks are working enough that every single one has at least one tomato sprouted. Watering them is a challenge, because I haven't found a working spray bottle. That would help. Now I'm dribbling water carefully on each.

Handfuls of kale keep pouring out of the garden.

Morning sleepy children are doing pretty well with their schoolwork.

While still finding time to do things like create a "chimp nest" about 12' up in a tree. This is the view from my kitchen window. Dishes and danger are a common mix here.