It’s brown. It’s white.
(Both from Romy. We’ll see what tomorrow’s is.)
Category: Eats
Dramatic Tomato
Garden is still booming. I still have no idea what to do with turnips.
Soggy
Our doors may not be closing completely because the wood is swollen, I may have almost killed myself sliding down the ramp in our yard because it is covered in moss, and Nerlens may have spent the last week making a racket on the back porch because he was confined to sitting under the overhang…but all this rain has been good for something:
Surprise! Our heirloom tomatoes are orange this year. At least they’re not all tiny deformed roma. One of the perks of taking random plants from the in-laws.
I know that doesn’t look like a whole lot of bounty, because it’s not (though, to be fair, we accidentally pulled up like 6 pre-mature radish plants before we realized they were radishes and not weeds. Who knew the tops of radishes grew to be like 2 feet tall with flowers?) But things this year are looking much better than things did in the brutal heat of last year.
last year
And things been blooming kind of consistently, in a staggered way for some reason. So we’re having a steady stream of veggies.
Next: learn how to cook turnips. Because Paul planted like 30 of them.
…and the excitement continues…
Tomainbows!
I love it when the garden starts blooming. I think this is going to be a good year.
Monday Monday
hula greeter at the autoshop in the late afternoon sun.
Glorious Monday!
8am. In the office kitchen minding my own business, making myself some breakfast, when my coworker walks in. She takes one look at me, points to the breakfast I’m mixing together and, with a completely appalled look on her face:
“What. Is that.”
“Oh, it’s just plain yogurt and some dry cereal mixed together.”
“What is that stuff?”
“Jam.”
“Jam?”
“Yeah, like strawberry jelly. I mix a little in there too because plain yogurt by itself is…well, plain.”
“Yeah. It looks horrible.”
…says the woman who introduced me to chitlins and chicken livers, which look like this:
i chose the most appetizing picture of chitlins i could find, you’re welcome
Great week ahead!
Spring Garden
…or not. This picture was taken on Thursday.
This is a battle we have every year: how to get the garden growing before the weather warms up enough to plant anything in the ground (here in Kentucky that magical date is Derby weekend, or the first weekend of May.) Historically, we have tended to take the greenhouse route starting early March, and have experienced about 50% success rate (see: here and here.)
Generally in March/April the biggest hurdle to overcome is high winds. This year, it’s straight up lack of sun. Days have been cloudy and dark and cold, and those that are clear haven’t ventured much higher than 40 degrees.
Effing. Miserable.
BUT! I figured why not take advantage of the lag and put some real thought into what we plant this year? Right? Right!
Our yard has two garden boxes, one in the front by the garage where we plant tomatoes and peppers, and one in the back against the back fence.
Both face the same way, so we figured would get comparable sun.
Wrong.
Garden box #1 has been amazingly fruitful, giving us more tomatoes and peppers than we know what to do with. Garden box #2, as you can probably see, ends up in the shade as the trees fill in and has continually failed to produce much of anything. The only marginally successful crops we’ve planted back there have been beets two years ago:
…and kale last year, which got eaten up by bugs.
I am determined this year not to let that whole back box go to waste. Also want to have a SUPER successful herb garden. None of this.
Poor cilantro.
More of this:
Basil! (We had more than we knew what to do with and ended up drying it. We’re still using it for sauces and stuff).
Last week a coworker gave me the UK seed catalog which, in addition to providing all sorts of instructions for how to grow things in Kentucky. also discusses local bugs. Talk about excitement. I’m in the early stages of review. Update to come.
I can’t wait for spring.
Weekend
This picture is so creepy. Yes, we are the weird neighbors that the kids dare each other to ring the doorbell.
The girls have had a change of heart the past 2 weeks. I don’t want to jinx it, but we’ve been consistently getting big, beautiful, fully-shelled eggs. It’s wonderful. This one had a few calcium deposits on the shell, maybe they don’t need all of those oyster shells? Whatever.
Helping Paul get his work done. Always.
Dammit. My pretty blue shoes. That mudhole just looked like dirt.
Sunday morning pancakes. I haven’t made pancakes in forever, I never think to. They were delicious. I ate 4.
So yes, things here are HAPPENING.
Valentines Day Gift from the Girls
The ladies have decided to start laying normal eggs again. For the most part. I think they’re liking the (slightly) warmer weather and sun coming up at 7 instead of 8.
Then we got this.
Interesting. And kind of normal. It has a shell (albeit partially deformed and discolored) and has not been eaten. I’ll take it.
Happy Valentines Day.
Why did the chicken…
Let me tell you what I dream of. I dream of a better world where chickens just lay their eggs, with shells, and don’t take part in cannibalistic infanticide.
The past few weeks we’ve seen a few more rubber eggs, which had me concerned, followed by…nothing. We’ve actually had a few days where no eggs have been laid, and many days with just one egg.
I was starting to freak, thinking dammit, it’s over, we’re going to have to send Romy to the big freezer in the sky…when I came across this:
It’s the middle of winter. You’re getting very few eggs from your flock, if any at all. They’re still in the stages of molting, or they’re just finishing up their last molt. …
Many chickens cease laying during molting as they need to channel all that energy — and all available protein — into growing out their feathers, which are almost purely protein (keratin fiber, to be exact).
Oh, Garden Betty. You’re good for more than just Xmas presents. Though, in addition to putting our coop to shame, she also makes me feel like a negligent chicken owner.
Our chickens are molting?
I’ve maybe seen a few extra feathers lying around, but no piles of discarded down or balding spots on the ladies or “crazed porcupine” necks. Nothing freakish.
This change did coincide with a few weeks of no sun, meaning it stayed dark until well past 8am, and a pretty extreme drop in temps (I went running the other morning–17 degrees out, felt like 3.) So it is possible.
Paul spoke with the woman at Southern States, who assured us that the feed we’re buying is infused with plenty of protein for winter. So…fingers crossed that I am just unobservant and this is what’s going on.
P.S. Thanks goes out to Uncle Joe for the opening picture.
Ho-Ho-Horrifying
If I’m going to suffer, I’m going to make sure everyone who is subjected to this vision of me running by suffers too. Oh my god. Where did my chin go.
Work has been super busy this week, so I’ve had an extensive “recovery” for a race that really shouldn’t have required a lot of recovering (I’ve run a total of 2 miles). Fortunately today is our holiday pot luck at work, which means a heart healthy lunch is just around the bend. Last year people brought chitlins and chicken livers.
HAPPY FRIDAY!
Rambulatory Ambulatory 