gardener to farmer, too

It took me at least two and a half days to renovate this bed that sits outside our kitchen window. This is an after picture…I wish I had a before…The landlord had planted about 8000 grey ornamental thyme plants and this little Japanese Maple in the plot so it wouldn’t be bare. And that was unfortunate for two reasons…one, I couldn’t stand to have the perfect herb garden right outside of my kitchen and NOT use it for herbs and two, when it was planted, weed seeds were disbursed throughout the bed…shortly thereafter resulting in a lovely crop of weeds all mixed in with the thyme.

So I, in my “I am the best tenant in the world, please let me do this” persuasive voice convinced him to let me rip it all out and start over. In hindsight, I realize I was committing to a LOT of work…and might have let my enthusiasm get the better of me…nonetheless…I did what every good gardener does, went out and bought a bunch of herbs to motivate me to clean the mess up…

Now, just look at this picture…doesn’t it make YOU want to plant?

This is a variegated basil called “Pesto Basil” next to a yellow (!) pineapple sage. This variety has…to read the rest of the post, join us at www.gardenertofarmer.blogspot.com ….

Waaaaay back in March, I brought the strawberries into the greenhouse, hoping to have an early treat… As the plants started warming up and growing, some hateful insects started eating the leaves…

I didn’t know what it was or what to do about it…You all gave me suggestions, and several of you identified the problem as weevils. In fact, strawberries have their own special weevil…called, wait for it, the Strawberry Root Weevil, dun, dun, dun….Aack, what a gross pest…anything with larvae really freaks me out.

Anyway, I grabbed up the plants and put them out into the yard…away from my seedlings. They sat outside for the next two months or so… During that time, we had a couple of freezes (which is ridiculous…Mother Nature is seriously acting up)…didn’t kill the plants, but they stopped growing. As we moved into the spring, I noticed the new growth on the plants had no notches in it…
I kept an eye on it, waiting to see the evidence of my strawberries turning into a buggy snack…for the rest of the article, join me at Gardener to Farmer …

This is one of my favorite ways to eat fresh sugar snap peas…for information on how to grow peas, see the full post at Gardener to Farmer .

Fresh Sugar Snap Peas
Ravioli
Half and Half (can use non fat)
Parmesan Cheese, grated
Butter (can use butter/olive oil blend)
Flour
Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Nutmeg

Prepare ravioli according to instructions, set aside. Place a saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp of butter, let melt and start to brown. Add 1 Tbsp of flour, let cook for a minute or two. Whisk in 1 cup of half and half, add peas, bring to a simmer and let thicken. Add parmesan, salt and pepper. Let simmer on low for 2-3 minutes, whisking occasionally. Add ravioli and a tiny bit of freshly grated nutmeg. Take off of the heat and let stand for a minute or so. Serve.

Enjoy!

OK, seriously, people…Since I got a laptop and ditched the family computer, I have become engrossed with all of the new ways to connect and build community online. I hate to say it, but I am addicted to social networking and social network marketing.

Sites like Facebook and MySpace are usually the first things that come to mind when people think about social networks. But, as I have discovered, there are so many more. One of my new favorites is Twitter. It is a “microblog” that asks you to answer the question “what are you doing?”. I know, this sounds odd…and it did to me, too…until I started “tweeting” regularly.

I found a group of gardening folks, started “following” them, and now I get updates about who is planting what, what kind of weather is happening, who is having pest problems, etc…This format is particularly great for gardeners…it allows us to be connected to a community, with little time investment…and everyone knows that is important during growing season. I particularly like to follow Kate Smudges…she has a wonderful way of writing…

I am also excited about sites like Stumble Upon, Reddit and Digg. These are sites that allow you to identify cool posts, pages, sites,etc, review them and post them to a publicly viewed page. For those of us who have businesses attached to our blogs, or if you are trying to build readership, these sites are great ways to get the word out there. They are generally easy to use, and (this is big) they are fun! I particularly like the feature on Stumble Upon where you click a button and go to one of the higher rated sites…it lets you “stumble” around the net, randomly unearthing cool sites.

Finally, my most used site is Flickr. I post all of my pictures here. I am able to share photos with friends and family and also easily upload them to my blogs and other sites. A certain amount of storage is free, but I use the paid membership version. It essentially gives me unlimited storage and other options, like on line photo editing.

Believe me, this is not an exhaustive list. There are plenty of other ways to connect. These social networks are built around all kinds of themes, bookmarks, photos, even gardening (find me at Gardener to Farmer on Blotanical and MyFolia). There are also blogs that have their own social networks on site. Amazing…and just in case this seems too overwhelming to follow, there is a site that collects all of your sites… Friend Feed is a great place to keep tabs on your friends…and your teen aged daughter who just got a laptop…no more searching for all of her, I mean, your, postings…this aggregator has it all in one place. Check me out at http://friendfeed.com/jeanannvk.

And what I like the most about social networking and social network marketing, and really all emarketing, is accessibility. In a way, the internet has become the great equalizer. We have the opportunity to reach readers just as effectively as the big guys. We only need an internet connection and a computer (now found at local libraries) and we are ready to take on the world.

Do you use any of these networking sites? Do you use others? Are there some I should join? Let me know!

In my produce supply business, I have “Produce Partners”. These are small restaurants who believe in the concept of a boutique farm and value the small scale, unusual varieties that I grow. Little t Bakery is my second partner…Let’s start by saying that the Little t Bakery is adorable and so is the owner, Tim Healea.

Tim is an amazing baker…internationally renowned, even…he was a part of the US team in the 2002 World Cup of Baking, where the US took a silver medal.

In any case, Tim will have a wonderful, and no doubt successful, bakery…especially if I have anything to say about it!

Since the bakery opens next week, he is in a frenzy getting things set up right now. Which works well for me since the 4 days of raging heat we had this past weekend stressed the veggies… It is raining today…(go here for the rest of the post)

Yesterday, I was frantically trying to plant…so many things still need to get in the veggie garden…and at the same time, I decided to start using Twitter…talk about frantic! The result was a day of gardening and twittering, the likes of which have never been seen…Below is an excerpt from yesterday’s twitters…

All my veggies previously planted are growning beautifully…some of these veggies are second round…still more to come about 14 hours ago ummm I forgot cucumbers about 15 hours ago Beets, mescalun mix lettuce, carrots, onions…whew…and I didn’t get everything planted that i wanted to…oh, and I weeded about 15 hours ago Black turtle beans, another variety I can’t remember now, delicata, lumina pumkin, spaghetti, 3 kinds of summer squash, french green beans about 15 hours ago from twhirl

I am wishing that I didn’t have to work today, since a) I am exhausted from yesterday’s planting and b) I have more to do!

This is the first year I have grown produce to sell. Consequently, my flower garden is suffering significantly…I will just have to keep at it… I had fun with Twitter, though. I have installed a widget on my original Gardener to Farmer blog so people can track what I am doing in my garden…that will hopefully be interesting to people other than myself…if you have a twitter account, sign up to follow… I found other gardeners, farmer and foodies there too. I am sure I will learn a lot, as well as work out my need to be in touch with people incessantly…

Today, I am participating in Green Thumb Sunday…it is a fun gardening meme where you post about what is blooming in your garden that week…It is good for me because it requires me to post about my flowers…and I have become so focused on my veggies, I neglect my flowers…for shame!

Here is one of the pictures I used…it is a wonderful ranunculus, though I don’t know which one. I was really looking forward to growing these little guys since my move to Oregon.  They do not like heat…seriously, I am not kidding. And so far, we have had a very cool spring…until Thursday…and for the last three days we have had 90+ weather…all the plants are looking a bit worse for wear.

Nonetheless, here is what you need to know to grow.. You can plant these bulbs (really tuberous roots) in fall or early spring. Pop them in a full sun, well draining bed, preferably amended with compost…and that’s it…they pretty much take care of themselves…In my experience, the thing to be the most concerned with is the amount of heat the plants experience. Check out this site for more information. Have fun!

 If you are in the Pacific Northwest, you know that we have had a really cold and wet spring…so much so, that my garden is behind in production…Fortunately, we have warmed up now…unfortunately, we went directly into summer…90 degrees or so, yesterday…

So for now, I am buying most of my veggies at Trader Joe’s …which includes beets…Last night, I tried something new…beets on the grill. Here’s how it worked: Wash and peel beets, cut into chunks, place in foil and drizzle with olive oil, add flaky sea salt, freshly ground pepper and fresh thyme sprigs. Wrap into a cute little bundle (it does not have to be as fancy as those places that send your take home in a foil swan ), then plop it on the grill for 20-30 minutes, depending upon how big the beets are and how hot your grill is…

I cheated (on my own recipe!) and used dried thyme…didn’t have the other available…I also made a pouch of carrots the same way, using olive oil, salt pepper and buckwheat honey.  Are you kidding me????? So yummy…try it!

No, not the country, the veggie! Brussel Sprouts have an undeserved bad reputation for tasting horrible…But as is so often the case, it is operator error…Don’t blame the produce, people! This is the Falstaff variety that I am growing in my garden at Windy Hill…it is a purple variety…yes, that’s right, purple…

And I fear that I have also committed operator error by planting them in the spring…I was thinking, “hmmm, we have cool springs here”, forgetting that they take 90 days or so to mature…ok, so not good planning. I will replant them in the summer…around august…so they will have a chance to mature before we get too cold…

One of my favorite, and one of the easiest ways to prepare them, is to halve them, lay them on a baking sheet, drizzle olive oil on top, then add a really great sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss them to make sure they are covered and roast at about 375 for 20 minutes or so. Don’t let them get too brown, but you definitely want some caramelization going on…

Give it a try and let me know how it turns out! For more information, check out www.gardenertofarmer.com.

Hi there…I am starting a new blog on Today.com…it is the son of Gardener to Farmer, aka Gardener to Farmer, Too.  It will still be the same cheeky style that my readers have become accustomed to, but there will be bits of extra goodness here…more info on the plants, methods and other gardening secrets I have been harboring from you all…

For example, recently, I posted about Beets…and I had the most comments I have ever had on a post…a lot of beetfreaks out there…  We talked about a lot of things, but what we didn’t talk about is how to grow them.  I planted a wonderful mix of beets that I purchased from Pinetree Seeds. Just laid them out in a few rows, of cultivated soil, enriched with compost, and not too close to each other.  Then I waited for what seemed like forever…our unusually cool spring slowed germination…and they started to pop up! Beets are without a doubt, one of the easiest veggies to grow…you just need to remember that they like it on the cool side…once summer hits, no more good beets until you plant them again in the fall.

So add this rss, too, and you will get the whole story, from beginning to end!