Posted on November 23, 2023November 23, 202311/23/2023 peaceful thanksgiving! The Chef and Chef Paula made a lovely Thanksgiving dinner they considered simple but they were actually having a good time in the kitchen all afternoon. I kept out of the way and napped with cats on the couch. The turkey was raised by Paula’s uncle. The dumplings are cream cheese and onion pierogis. The Brussels sprouts are from the farm share and caramelized in crabapple syrup (jelly that didn’t jell). Our sparkly beverage was 2021 vintage neighbor crabapples with added cranberry, bottled in 2022. Cheers everyone!
Posted on September 23, 2023September 23, 202309/23/2023 hors d’ourves The Chef pours the house wine (from farm share muscadine grapes). The cucumber appetizers are topped with feta and tomato (farmshare) and who knows what else. They were good!
Posted on December 16, 2022December 16, 202212/16/2022 rosemary recovery The rosemary was unhappy near the raised beds as the irrigation leaked there. The roots were rotting. The second plant was almost dead. Hopefully it will be drier here. Basil getting some sun. We’ve been nursing it along with nights in the garage. This Euphorbia maculata is still alive and looking lovely. Wes did some wine bottling today. The muscadine grapes were from the farm share and the elderberries were from our yard! Shackleton was enjoying scritches and sunshine until Briar showed up to gaze admiringly. He does not like the dog.
Posted on August 14, 2022August 14, 202208/14/2022 fermenting slimy seeds I did some reading and it seems like we should actually be fermenting the canteloupe seeds, so I threw out the others (which were crunchy with dried goo/slime). Here’s the seeds from today’s snack. White currant tomato seeds looked pretty fermenty in the cupboard today so I rinsed them in the strainer and plopped them onto a paper towel. We set the paper towel by an air vent. This has worked for these seeds in the past, as this year’s plant is from harvested seeds.
Posted on June 28, 2022June 29, 202206/28/2022 The accidental shot of the week. I didn’t notice this bee kicking a wasp off its foot until I looked at the photo later! The bumblebee is feeding on Echinacea purpurea. Front of the bumblebee face is yellow. A zoomed in shot. The short overall hairs, all yellow on thorax and head, smoky dark wings, and minimal color on abdomen have led me to think it may be Bombus griseocollis, the brown-belted bumblebee. I have entered the sighting and photos on Bumble Bee Watch’s community science website where they can verify or correct this identification. This would be our fourth bumblebee species for the yard if I have identified it correctly. 🤞🤞 I found a second partridge pea plant blooming in the “prairie”! An all orangish solider beetle on a Rudbeckia flower. Shackleton the cat enjoyed hiding in brown crinkly paper. He has such big eyes! Paula is experimenting with kombucha fermentation thanks to a culture from Abby. This is the first sample and contains a garden strawberry for added flavor. It was good! Briar helps us observe bees out front. I’ll do a separate post with evening bees if any pics turned out. A baby moon and stars watermelon!! A baby praying mantis on the mint! Paula and I weeded the orange and red section of the rainbow garden. It has a lot of invasive grass in it.
Posted on June 27, 2022June 27, 202206/26/2022 kimchi pancake dinner Paula made dinner with kimchi pancakes (with plum sauce) and egg foo young on rice to go with it. Cilantro from the garden is garnishing all of it, plus the kimchi contains walking onions. Red cabbage kimchi makes a mess. More walking onions from the garden here.
Posted on June 20, 2022June 20, 202206/19/2022 Will Rogers Zinnias came back true. A little Solanaceae volunteered in the rainbow garden. It conveniently has a yellow flower. Paula started a batch of kimchi fermenting. Walking onions for the green onion. Who is this This friend not want to play
Posted on May 29, 2022May 29, 202205/27/2022 home Stripey plant hoppers are still abundant. Often on ironweed. Briar observes Shackleton from an enforced respectful distance. Shackleton does not want to be observed from any distance by a Dog. Gross!! The Chef has designed and had printed reusable vinyl labels for his brewing endeavors. Art deco cat, maybe? I think this is a common oak moth, Phoebaria atomaris. It’s on coreopsis flowers. I don’t think I’d seen one in town before, only at home in the woods, so this was pleasing. Correction from Mom: this is Isogona tenuis, the thin-lined owlet. Thanks for the catch, Mom!! Matches the striping much better. Internet says a hackberry tree specialist, and happily I have a little hackberry tree in the backyard I keep trimmed so it won’t get into power lines, but it can still feed our neighbors like this friend.
Posted on January 22, 2022January 22, 2022Frozen summer tomatoes become winter tasty foods Pasta sauce over The Chef’s homemade pasta contains white currant tomatoes from freezer. Paula’s focaccia bread (in front of pasta) is also topped with white currant tomatoes cut in half. Note the cranberry-crabapple wine in the background.