and another sweater was born

Paulie sweater by Isabell Kraemer - more pictures and details on ravelry here.

weekend

learning two stranded knitting also a Latvian plait cast on! fancy.

freshly baked bread

new hat for david

The reversible Christopher hat, using Cascade yarn. Double thickness and two looks to keep David warm these cold months. As an aside, I really like Jane Richmond's patterns; I've also made her oatmeal pullover.

ginormous carrots!

use-up-random-garden-veggies torte

This recipe was adapted from Smitten Kitchen and it is delicious - - plus it is a great way to use up a random veggies from the garden.

From our garden: 1 squash, 2 cloves of garlic, two carrots, two tomatoes, four kale leaves, and thyme.

Saute 1/2 onion in some butter in skillet

add four chopped kale leaves and chopped carrots

Simmer on low

Combine in a bowl:

1 c. of shredded pecorino romano

1/2 tsp of pepper

2 tsp of salt

2T of flour

1T lemon juice

2 cloves of chopped garlic

2T of freshly chopped thyme

Butter a cake pan and layer like a lasagna:

thinly sliced squash

onion/kale/carrot mixture

cheese mixture

sliced tomato

repeat until you've used all of the ingredients

Top the layers with freshly grated pecorino romano (at least 1/2 c.)

Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 30 minutes

Take off the foil and bake for another 10 minutes

Slice and enjoy!

I ate mine with a slice of French bread covered in almond butter.

now harvesting

I don't think we'll be picking 316lbs of tomatoes this year, but we are enjoying what we've got!

Recently, we've enjoyed tomato, basil and mozzarella salad.

Also, I made pasta with pesto, using our homegrown garlic and basil -- along with easy peasy alfredo sauce (thanks, Dorothy!). Right before we were about to eat, David went out and picked some tomatoes, which we sliced up to have with the pasta and the taste was heavenly!

evening

stroll by the river
and eggs benedict for dinner

tried to copy what I ate at J'eet last weekend:

hollandaise sauce (used Mark Bittman's recipe)

poached eggs

steamed baby spinach and oven dried tomatoes (from last year's harvest)

all piled on top of a toasted kaiser roll

now harvesting

lettuce, garlic, peas, apricots and carrots (picked the carrots early to thin out the patch).

this and that

the zinnias are kind of showing off this year

carrots!

lily -- these blooms are huge!

lantana

echinacea gets a visit from a pollinator

apricot deliciousness!

We got an apricot tree last spring, knowing how many dried apricots we buy in bulk at the co-op for snacking and to mix into our granola.

We planned on drying out our own homegrown apricots; well, this was our plan until last night.

Yesterday, David picked the first ripe apricot and it had such a delicate flavor, it was juicy and delicious! Kind of like a peach, but milder in flavor, not as stringy and smaller - of course.

Now I'm wondering if we'll have any apricots left to dry...I may be eating all of the fresh fruit instead. :)

7.4.11

just how tall is that sunflower?!?

the apricots are almost ripe! It looks like a bug may be munching on the leaves.

and not a bad haul for the first year of our raspberry bushes.

last weekend of june in the garden

front of the garden; to see notes on this photo, click here.

milkweed (butterfly weed)

columbine in dark purple

milkweed in pink; this plant is about 4' tall

These Boots Were Made For Plantin'? They didn't fit, so I repurposed them.

what is it about the first gigantic bloom of a sunflower each summer?

lots of volunteer dill everywhere...this one just happened to have a little visitor.

chicory...you know that weed that you see along roads; well, I think it is beautiful. We've also heard that grinding up and roasting up the root makes a good coffee substitute. Has anyone tried this before?

apricot!

the egyptian walking onion

this plant is so spectacular, it deserves it's own post.

hello, girls!

the three sisters: corn, beans, squash

I love the idea of interdependent plants.

simple

now growing...

dwarf sugar snap peas (pink blossoms), baby kale, columbine, black-eyed susans, raspberry bush, parsley, iris