around

red hot chili pepper

lily

I was able to get about four garbage bags full of free composted manure; I checked craiglist and found several ads. The farm was just a little ways out of the city and when I got there, the horse trainer even filled up my bags for me! The annual beds looked like they needed a little extra boost this year, so I shoveled some manure around the plants. Tomatoes are on the left and then going clockwise: cucumber plants, corn, beans, cabbage, sage, melon, peppers and okra.

corn!

I found a little grasshopper hiding in the black-eyed susans

peppers

chard

sunflower

and since it is way too hot to be out in the garden all day, I've been knitting up a short sleeve cotton sweater. The pattern is called Bottoms Up by Alice of Slipped Stitch and it is free on Ravelry.

around the garden

~Basil in the top left corner...can you smell it in the picture?!? I made pesto (basil, garlic, olive oil and pecans - since these were the nuts we had on hand) and froze it in ice cube trays over the weekend.

~This is the fifth batch of mint leaves that I've picked this year; I've been solar drying the mint on a cookie sheet on the backseat of our car. This was an idea that a friend had recommended; so far I've dried mint, thyme, and sage. So the wind doesn't blow the herbs around the car, I've used an extra piece of screen mesh material that we had on hand to cover the cookie sheet. The car smells great!

~In the right bottom corner is a salad - we've been picking lettuce almost daily and (now) nasturtium blossoms for a fun looking salad or wrap. Yum!

~The red raspberries are ripe for pickin' - I picked some on Saturday and then another round on Sunday evening, which I'll throw on my granola this morning.

-The blackberries will not be rushed this season; they are such a beautiful color right now.

I've got rhubarb muffins on my mind...maybe later this week.

Our little peach tree is LOADED with peaches this year. Keeping our fingers crossed for an abundant harvest.

and the bee balm bloomed this week.

around the garden

We enjoyed eating some peas from our garden in the crunch coleslaw recipe from the vegan workshop

Here's another recipe that we've been using a lot from the vegan workshop. This is the orange creamsicle smoothie and we made some additions: 

frozen strawberres + tequila and triple sec (sprig of mint optional) = delicious!

I finally convinced David to let me make his old, worn out Doc Martin's into planters.

These boots look like they have a story to tell...cowgirl meets punk?

I've recently become obsessed with succulents. 

They are now all over our garden; I transplanted quite a few into the cement blocks that line one side of our garden...these neat plants are now in pots, in a wreath, and -well, obviously in boots!

Pinterest led me to a tutorial on making my own succulent wreath.

well - would you look at that; we've got a few peppers growing already!

Lisianthus - it has been one of my favorite flowers since I can remember.

The milkweed is blooming

and so is the echinacea

I got some mulch today for the front part of the garden

Tomato plant blossoms! 

Cucumber plants have about 8 little cucumbers on them.

more succulents

white bean & quinoa patties

We've been trying lots of new recipes since embarking on the 30 day vegan diet. Any recipe that includes quinoa makes me a little bit leery, but I decided to give the White Bean and Quinoa Patties a try and I'm glad I did.

I mixed together the white bean and quinoa along with some herbs and onions from our garden. We don't have a food processor, so we ran the mixture through our meat grinder (from my grandparents); as an aside, it is surprising how much use two vegetarians have gotten out of a meat grinder...cranberry salad, pesto, peach butter, etc. Anyway, the bean and quinoa mixture looked like ground meat and the flavors were all so good together, I ate several spoonfuls of it just like that.

Then we realized that we did not have hamburger buns. A quick search on the Internet for some vegan hamburger buns and we were suddenly pulling together a gourmet sandwich.

The buns came together rather easily and the texture was like a soft kaiser roll.

Saute the patties in a litte olive oil...

Add some freckled lettuce from the garden and served with wheat berry salad.

Delicious!

some sewing

A few months ago, I made an eye pillow out of fabric scraps from a friend. 

The pillow is filled with rice and lavender buds that I dried last summer.

It had been awhile since I had made anything at the sewing machine, so it was the perfect project for getting back to sewing. 

I decided to make another eye pillow...this time for a friend. I used fabric scraps again.

This time, I made a little indentation for the nose.

I filled the pillow with rice and dried chocolate mint from our herb garden.

Eye pillows are great for helping the eyes relax after doing yoga, or before bed.

strawberry rhubarb pie

David made the first fruit pie of the season! Strawberries are from the farmers' market and the rhubarb is from our garden.