Baked Kale CHIps

How to make Kale Chips:

HArvest a big bunch of Kale from the garden.
Wash it and dry it.
Line a cake pan with parchment paper.
Heat of to 350.
Drizzle Kale with Olive Oil, sprinkle spices and kosher salt.
Bake 15 minutes or so....

Bet you can't eat just one!!!

Seed Garden is Growing!

We are happy with the results of our seeds vegetable garden.  We planted Kale, Peas, Beets, Beans, Spinach, Lettuce, Nasturtium, Cilantro, Basil, Broccoli, Carrots, Cucumbers, Dill, and Bunch of Squashes.   The seeds we planted straight in the ground are doing better than the seeds we started earlier under the grow lights...hmm.

How to stake tomatoes?

I am looking for a good way to stake tomatoes.  Every year I create a chaotic web of saved string and sticks to hold up the tomatoes.  I have never had to great of a crop but things are looking better this year...Hopefully my system works for our produce.... 

Butterflies FlutterBy

6 day old gardener

What a worker...for 6 days old, Isla is hanging...literally in the moby wrap, hanging out in the pea patch tilling up weeds.

Harvested Peas!

Fresh Peas for father's day dinner...yum! Paul caught nine trout to grill and we had a nice simple evening...

Do bees like breastmilk?

Why do I think bees like breastmilk?  Finally getting out to weed the peas...after looking at them and needing to get to them for a week or so...I was happy.  Weeding crab grass out of peas is not fun...it's actually a fairly delicate task...but it leads to training peas up the trellises...which would be fun for my kids at school...we should grow peas next year.  Finally the sun was hot and the sky was blue, Isla was sleeping and I was able to concentrate of weeding.  The birds were chirping like crazy and the bees were buzzing all over the purple Salvia and Sage blossoms...when all the sudden a bunch of geese honked, flying overhead and all the sudden I felt my milk filling up, and all the sudden the wind blue, and all the sudden I looked down and all the sudden I had to wet circles the size of softballs on my shirt...and all the sudden a bee buzzed to me and hovered around me until my chores were done.

Mulching Peppers and Tomatoes

The day after planting, we noticed pepper plants were being cut at the base of the plant...about a centimeter from the soil.  We weren't sure what the reason was but after this cutting phenomenom continued every night....

Getting Rid of Cutworms Organically

After losing 6 peppers and 2 tomatoes in two weeks, we finally figured out that cutworms were destroying our plants.  We tried mulching the plants with chopped leaves and 6 month old... we tried spraying a homemade insecticide we made of dishsoap and water on our plants, then rinsing it off, I purchased a chemical insecticide to see what inredients were in it...then returned it without using... still kept losing somemore....eventually, we figured out we had cutworms.  Cutworms are gray worms that come out at night and cut the plant just above ground level. They attack new plants in May and June.  To get rid of them you can go out and hand pick them off the plant at night.  Or you can do what we did and cut some old tubing that has been laying around the island, use a tin can or make a paper plate funnel to put around the bottom of the plants and into the ground a bit.  We'll see how that works.

Planting Dahlias and Kale

Today was one of those misleading gardening days...65 and blue skies...sunny and beautiful. Usually I get so excited and go plant all of my tomatoes and peppers and squash. I work hard all day and feel content at the night...until I wake up in the morning and scrape the frost off the windows and realize...my plants will now be suffering for the rest of the season.
But today I had patience... I must be growing up, or perhaps waiting for this baby is giving me self control in gardening that I never had before...Patience...I did work all day in the garden hoeing, watering and weeding. I only planted Dahlias and Kale...I hope they grow...It's good medicine to work in the garden, just when I was feeling like I have no hope, nor patience left...I found some in my garden.

Paul's Composting Machine

One of our goals out here has been to grow a better garden than last year...which means we need better soil.  Paul has been bringing buckets and buckets of topsoil over on the boat...but even ten buckets full is pretty unsubstantial. We are counting on our compost to be better this year than last.  So Paul designed this composting machine to chop up all of our leaves so that they compost faster....It took him all day push the leaf pile for through the tube, where it hits the chopper and shoots out to another new pile. 

Planting Potatoes

Today we planted potatoes. Paul dug two long trenches and we planted red and gold potatoes. We're not sure if we pretreated them right, but we followed directions from Gurneys. We covered them in plastic for a few weeks to get them sprouting, then cut them in chunks before planting. We've heard of lots of ways to plant and grow potatoes...so we'll keep you posted on how this method works...

Tilling Time

My favorite days of the year are when we can finally start working in the garden for the year.  This year is a little different with a 20 lb. bowling ball baby in my belly.  Using the hoe, hauling peat and manure, or just shoveling involves a lot of noises and grunts.  Thankfully Paul doesn't mind helping...depending on your husband to do your dirty work is a new situation for me...He's realizing just how much I like to garden...I  had to confess early in the season..."honey there were a lot of bags of peat and manure you didn't know about last year."  Some couples keep secrets of infedelities or affairs...probably a good thing I exposed my gardening habit early on in the marriage before it buries us in debt!

Planting Asparagus

To plant asparagus you need to dig trenches 6 inches deep, lay the crowns(asparagus roots) and cover with three inches of soil. It works good with tow people...It was a great way to strengthen pregnancy squats. I would lay down the crown and Paul would cover them with soil. He was could shovel much quicker than I scoot down the trenches but it worked out. When planting asparagus you can't pick it for three years. So plant it in a spot that you won't want to till up and be patient!

Peas Please Grow!

Planting round two of peas...hopefully in about two months we will be eating fresh peas, freezing for baby food and stir fry mixes....we'll see?

Paul's 30 Birthday

Today was fun... I had field day at school, we played Duck, Duck, Water balloon!  Then I went shopping for our canoe trip weekend.  It was fun to spend money on things for a fun weekend, and not worry about it.  I knew it was Paul's birthday and we could celebrate.  Then I came home to Paul doing chores...Good boy!  We planted his grape vines from Kari and Brian. The Sunflowers are growing!!! It was such a nice evening Paul felt like weed whippin.  Then took a boat ride and had a fun night. Later Tim and Erin came over for a night cap.  Good Times.

Vermicomposting

   

Finally, we are starting to compost with worms...I tried it once by myself at my pottery studio and was successful until the substitute janitor threw them out.  I failed at it last summer...Big huge, stinky mess!  Too much waste, to big of chunks, Gross.  Now we are working together.  Paul is following Joe's direction so it'll probably work out this time! Hopefully 3rd time's a charm. I'm excited to add the castings to out garden! Maybe I can make some compost tea.