Black radishes and random ingredients

Black Spanish radishes that really didn't turn out. Perhaps they were not spaced far enough. The tops made great stewed greens.

The few Black Spanish radishes that turned out.

Not that big and Kyle says the taste bad.

Some cooking ingredients I gathered for an Indian dish. Broken green onion tops, chives, parsley, and cilantro.

Spinach and sharing

Spinach

The first spinach was picked today. Really it's just thinnings, but they are about as big as mature spinach. I am not very impressed. The lettuce seems easier to grow. Perhaps spinach is something that should be left to the local growers and just be purchased at the farmer's market each (and every) single time I go.

All this garden-fresh produce is educating me on the water demands of our food. The lettuce, spinach, and greens all require extensive washing to get out all dirt and grit. Think of those lettuce and spinach bags at the grocery store. Triple washed....in California. The water used to wash your spinach might have been transported by canals and pumps for 300 or 400 miles. Then that water usage is basically exported to Arkansas. By not buying spinach locally, you are letting big agribusiness take very subsidized water resources out of a state facing consumer restrictions. Some Wiki reading on "hidden" or "virtual" water.

Sharing

The first batch was for Gail (sp?), one of Kyle's colleagues. The second bunch is for my food systems doctoral friend Angie. A third bag (unseen) of prepped radishes goes to my friend Laura.

PS. I was wrong about the rain....it was 7 inches in just a two day weekend. Four day total is 8 inches....with more falling today. We have plenty of water hear....why should we export our water from California?

More signs of spring

Spring means April showers....and these April showers are too much. 2.85 inches BEFORE the constant rain today. We will probably close to 4 inches in the past four days. Even the raised beds have standing puddles.

First full salad, April 19th: baby romaine, mesclun, chives and radishes

This is one of the two rabbits that reside under the deck. They like strawberries, sweet potato leaves, soya leaves, and other dry bean leaves.

Clematis bloom

I think the dark red and the pink one are different varieties that made it into the wrong seed pack. I hear there is a variety likened to Easter eggs....and that pink one sure looks like one!

Radishes pulled April 22nd:

Hail and lemonade

This is the second time this week we got hail....much worse this time than last.

Some damage to lettuces and quite a bit to the onions. To turn these atmospheric lemons into lemonade I gathered all the broken onions and garlic leaves. These will cook up very nicely..and with great delicate allium flavor.

And several pounded radishes.

More Radishes

Casey got the first bunch, but I got the bigger... and there's hundreds more out there where these came from!

Update: Casey beat me to posting the picture. But it's staying, because I don't post here often enough. :-)

Here come the radishes!

First radishes were pulled April 16th.

Pulled a little bunch April 18th

Pulled two bunches worth on April 19th. Took one bunch to my mom.
(yes, I am a good son....and I can't possible eat this much)

Thinning, chores, and a question

The cute round red radishes need less room in between them and are further along, but the Black Spanish radishes needed quite a bit of thinning. These are the tops I pulled out that will be cooked as greens.

Now they have room to spread their leaves and expand their roots.

Those two sugar maples dumped tens of thousands of these darn seeds. They are the bane of this garden's existence. This year we are smartly hand picking them out of the fertile soil before they root.

Do you think they neighbors may suspect that we are growing marijuana?

First sprouts!

Radishes!

Spring workday in the garden

This Saturday in the garden was an EARLY one. 7AM because I had to get to a mini-retreat for the county party and Kyle...wait, I don't know why Kyle was up that flipping early. Anyways, some early work plus returning in the afternoon made for a big jump start to the spring.

Prepping the existing beds this year meant raking off the leaf cover and the big chunks that had "risen" through the compost. The loose soil barely needed a two inch deep raking to fluff the soil for planting.

Not purely the square foot method, but marking the areas this year with string helps us know where and when we are planting what.

Most of these long strings have quick maturing radishes planted under them for a living divider. Several large section of lettuces planted as well.

Early Direct Seed: carrots

Early Direct Seed: leeks (that's the garlic in the background)

Onion rows as dividers.

Old fence sections for trellis. This will be for cucumbers.

Planning helps....this map changed several times and is bound to change again.

Just another day of glass :-(