Beans!

We've been a little dry lately so Eb and I gave the garden a little drink and found a surprise in the process - our beans are already coming up!

Eb wasn't excited about the beans, but he did have fun "helping" me get water :)

Garden Gnomes!

We are finally getting some garden planted!!!  Chris was awesome and got the panels set up as trellises and we acquired   some of Granddaddy's extra tomatoes (including red and yellow 'Garland Mountain Tomatoes!).  I'm so excited to see the start of our first real garden together!  Of course it wouldn't be planting a garden if we weren't racing the rain.  While we only got the tomatoes in today we hope to get the rest in tomorrow, before it rains.

It wouldn't be garden if the whole family weren't involved, and since we were playing in the dirt I don't think we could have kept Eb away!

I LOVE getting good mail!

I'm sooo excited to get our garden started!!! I know it's too early to set out many plants, but I'm looking forward to starting seed - and I'm even more excited after getting the mail today!  My tomato seed came!!!  Yes, these are all tomatoes.  Yes, I know it's extreme.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for all the lovely shapes, colors and sizes of heirloom tomatoes!  I can't get most of these as plants, I can't even find most of them in magazines, but this magazine has virtually every kind of tomato your heart could desire (except one, but we won't talk about that).  I can't wait to make some colorful caprese salad!

In case you are wondering, I got Isis Candy (a bi-color cherry), Georgia Streak (a meaty yellow), Yellow Pear (a miniature pear shape), Red Pear (miniature pear shape), Jolly (a peach shaped cherry tomato) and Black Krim (a beautiful, medium sized black tomato).  And yes, that was my extremely narrowed down list.  Don't judge me.

Eating for Two: "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean Fifteen"

I really like to buy as much organically produced food as possible, but, as with many people, we have a limited budget (if you ever want to hear my reasons I would love to share, but I don't think I have the room in this post!). Buying organic when possible has become even more important to me since we found out that we are pregnant.  While pesticides aren't good for anyone, even in the residual amounts found on lots of produce, they can be especially dangerous for someone as small as the baby in a Mom's tummy.  Because of the way the Mom's system works, much of what we eat goes for the baby's needs before it goes for Mom's, all the good and the bad.  Because developing babies are so tiny even amounts of pesticides that are "safe" for adults can be detrimental to the baby.   This is often a source of much internal debate at the grocery store: Is it more important to get organic strawberries or squash?  What about blueberries, do they really get sprayed that much?  Does the spray they put on the tops of potatoes affect the roots (the parts we eat)?  

I finally found a tool that has helped us in this area and hopefully it can help you too!  I had heard about the "Dirty Dozen" several times before but didn't really understand how accurate it was until I started doing some research of my own.   A group of independent researchers has been sampling fruit from the grocery store from 2000 to 2008 (which is an impressive study, if I might say) for pesticide residue.  They tested the amount of pesticide residue after cleaning or prepping the fruit in the same way as the majority of consumers would to eat them raw (either washing or peeling depending on the fruit/vegetable).  They ranked the fruits and vegetables based onthe concentrations of pesticides left after that prepping.  The 12 worst (or highest concentrations of pesticides) are the "Dirty Dozen" and the fifteen best (lowest concentrations of pesticides) are the "Clean Fifteen".  This list has been very helpful in settling some of the above mentioned debates for me!  I know that the ones most important to get organic come from the "Dirty Dozen" list and I'm okay to save some money and get conventional fruit/veggies from the "Clean Fifteen" list.

This link  will take you to a pdf file that has both lists on it and you can print off.  You can search around and learn more, or get the whole study at this website.


If you are curious and don't want to try the websites, here are the lists!


The Dirty Dozen (Buy these Organic when possible)
1-Celery
2-Peaches
3-Strawberries
4-Apples
5-Blueberries
6-Nectarines
7-Bell Peppers
8-Spinach
9-Cherries
10-Kale/Collard Greens
11-Potatoes
12-Grapes (Imported)


The Clean Fifteen (You can buy these conventional)
1-Onions
2-Avacado
3-Sweet Corn
4-Pineapple
5-Mangos
6-Sweet Peas
7-Asparagus
8-Kiwi
9-Cabbage
10-Eggplant
11-Canteloupe
12-Watermelon
13-Grapefruit
14-Sweet Potato
15-Honeydew Melon


I hope this helps some of your organic shopping dilemmas!
 

Tomatoes!

I really love raising and eating our own tomatoes, but unfortunately our patio doesn't get enough sun for growing tomatoes.  So, I needed to plant them somewhere else!  The guys at the farm helped me find some big tubs and I put them out of the way behind one of the greenhouses.  While I am a little late for planting Spring tomatoes (most other people had them out late March) I am still hoping to get a few tomatoes off them before they succumb to the heat!

Grow 'maters, Grow!

Blueberries!

 One of the girls in my office is working with different blueberry varieties and methods of propagation (making new plants-cuttings versus tissue culture specifically), so that means we've got to help her harvest and sample all those berries right?  And of course there will be extras and something has to be done about that! :)

Last week she let us know it was time for her to harvest again so we spent the day in Citra helping here pick and weigh the ones for her research... and then picking a whole bunch for ourselves too!

There was netting over the rows to keep the birds away.  Since the rows were so long it was easier to crawl under than take it all off and put it all back on!

The netting kept trying to grab my hair!

 We came home with SO MANY berries!  And the season isn't even over yet!  Here are some quick shots of washing up!  Right now we are going to just freeze them all.  Most will probably go to smoothies in the near future, but I hope to post about some other fun things I have planned for them (such as cobbler, pie and smooshed fruit!).

The size variation was amazing, we picked some as big around as quarters and some much smaller than dimes.  While the smaller ones had more taste, I kept going back to the bushes with the bigger berries because they filled my cartons up faster!  Here are some next to a dime for size comparison...

Sylvia (my office mate) said the variation was mainly due to the different varieties.  I guess just like you can have all different kinds of apples, you can also have all different sizes of blueberries!

Hope you find something to sweeten up your week!

Herbs!

Before...

I have been itching to plant stuff ever since we moved in, but between being super busy and not sure what would do well down here we haven't gotten around to it... until now!!!  We finally have a few herbs on our patio as an experiment for what we can successfully grow!  I am very worried about the excess shade they receive from the porch roof and surrounding trees, but the need for something green has beaten out these concerns.

I love using our own basil for most of my pasta dishes and we also LOVE caprese salad, which needs fresh basil.  Chris has become really interested in growing herbs that can be used for home made teas, his favorite being mint tea, and I'm interested in more medicinal teas.  So our next two picks were Sweet mint and Lemon Balm.  Finally, I'm just a sucker for Lavender, it is so pretty growing and fresh crushed lavender is a really soothing scent to me. 

So those were our criteria and here are the results!

Chris' mint!

After!

            We will keep you updated on the progress and resulting yummy teas and treats!

I know we have a trowel somewhere, but I couldn't find it!

And so it begins!!!

Seeds in the bag with pearlite.

So I started planting the peach seeds for my rootstocks this week!  It is so crazy to see the material confirmation that I am really committed to a four year project.  

When you eat a peach and find that hard pit in the middle that is actually part of the fruit not part of the seed.  Back in August I took 1,000 of those pits and cracked them open to get the real seeds out.  Then I soaked them for five day and put them in a bag with pearlite (kind of like little pieces of Styrofoam, it is the white things it bagged soil mixes).  Next the seeds went into a big cooler that kept them at a constant 45 degrees Fahrenheit.  This was to trick them into thinking they were experiencing winter so they would germinate.  Well now they have germinated (well half of them anyway) and it is time to put them in some soil and into the greenhouse so they can start growing!

New baby roots starting to grow

Hard to see but there are seeds poking out of each cell!

Only about half of them were far enough along that I could plant them so the rest went back into the cooler and should be ready in the next week or two.  We wait until they start germinating and growing their radical (baby root) before planting them to be sure they have had enough of the cold.  It was interesting to see how shallow they wanted me to plant them too, they wanted the tops of the seeds poking out!

It is exciting to see this progress but strange and a little scary at the same time because it is evidence of my commitment to this project and our time in Florida.  The Lord is good though and continues to reassure me every step that this is where we are supposed to be.  One of the assurances was actually in these seeds germinating.

In the same cooler as my seeds is a bag of a different variety of seeds that one of the professors needs for a project next year.  They have been in the cooler since July 4th and not a single one has germinated yet.  It should only take peach seeds about two months in the cooler to trigger germination.  They haven't molded or decomposed in any way, they are just sitting there.  Everyone is stumped.  At first they were concerned it was a problem with the cooler but now that mine have germinated they know its not the cooler.  So in a way I feel that the successful germination of my seed is another confirmation that this is what I'm supposed to be doing!  


It is always so amazing to me the ways Gos has designed His creation for success.  I mean think about it, if these seeds didn't require soaking with lots of water and a cold period they would germinate as soon a the peach flesh came off... at the END of summer.  They wouldn't have enough time to establish their roots, get good mature leaves and stems or store carbohydrates for the coming winter months.  They wouldn't survive!  But God designed them so the would have to be exposed to lots of water and a long cold period before they would start to grow, so that when they DID start to grow it would be at the best time for a new plant to start, spring!  And they would have all summer to grow and store up carbohydrate for the coming winter!  So Cool!

We serve a God who plans ahead, can see what's coming next, knows how to best prepare us for it and wants our good!  If He cares so much for the next generation of peach trees, how can I doubt that He cares for me, who is much more precious to Him?  Thank you Lord for the visible reminder of what you told us in Matthew 6:25-34!    

 

More new sights from Florida...

As promised here are a few more photos of sights around campus!  Next time I will try to show more pictures of buildings on the rest of campus, but you know me I love the plants!  Also these are all really close to my building and on the southern part of campus!

My cubicle in the Grad. Office

There are big live oaks all over campus, when it rains they have ferns in them!

Small walking garden near my building.

Nifty leaf prints in the garden walk!

Can you see the lizard? He's there!

Ferns in the palm tree! they are all over!

Really pretty, tiny cathedral near Lake Alice.

No, not a wildlife preserve, its on campus! (Lake Alice)

More big oaks...

Island in Lake Alice... with Cypress Knees!

Squirrel! With a nut!

One way to reduce water runnoff! (Holes in pavement)

This is perennial peanut! Its used as a ground cover and all over the place!

These are Bat Houses!  Apparently there are a lot of bats and they help a ton with bugs!

Borsch!

When my parents went to Ukraine for the first time they discovered an amazing soup called Borsch.  I really didn't want to try it when Mom made it the first time because it had beets as one of the ingredients... but I did and it has become one of my favorites EVER!

It is now one of my 'home foods' that Mom makes almost every time we go to her house!  Just in case you are curious it has roast beef, potatoes, carrots, celery, beets, onions, cabbage and tomatoes.  You can either boil the roast to make a beef broth or boil the vegetables in water to make more of a vegetable broth.  This is a great winter soup (since all of those veggies store well) but we got to make it from veggies fresh from the garden, all we had to purchase was the celery (we haven't tried growing celery yet!).  It was marvelous!  Hope you can try something new this week! Maybe you will find a new favorite! 

Asparagus Season!!!

So to those of you who are in the no-greens-are-good-greens category this post will seem odd, but I am SOOO excited by Asparagus today!!! It is finally in season and not being shipped in from Chile and you can tell! I found some in the store yesterday for 1$ per bunch and had to get it to share with the family! It has such better flavor and texture than the bunch I was tempted to buy a month ago that was still out of season. I was re-introduced to Asparagus two summers ago when the couple I was working for (B&P) sent me home with enough for a couple meals. I hadn't eaten Asparagus since I was very young and Mom had a patch. She hasn't had the time or space to grow more and I never liked the canned option. I forgot how much I loved it! Last summer B&P weren't able to share as much but I found a good source at the local farmer's market, what we got there was so fun because they came in so many different sizes than you see in the store. We don't have a market here so I am settling for the best I can find in the store while it is in season, and it's pretty darn good!

In case you are curious in the picture below I sprinkled garlic salt over the spears with thinly sliced butter and broiled them until the spears were tender (about 7-10 minutes), if you are not a butter fan olive oil will substitute but I adhere to Julia Child's theory that a half pound of butter makes everything better! Delicious!

Gardening...

Good Friday always marks the beginning of gardening season in the Garland household. My Father and his father and his father before him have all insisted on getting potatoes in the ground on Good Friday.  When I asked Granddaddy once (it was probably an icky Good Friday) why we HAD to plant them on Good Friday, he responded that Christ went into the ground on Good Friday and HE rose from the earth so if we plant potatoes on Good Friday then THEY will rise too! 

Whether that always works or not it marks when our Garden gets started.  Inevitably it tries to rain on Good Friday even if the ground is in perfect shape before then.  This year was no different so Mom and I were frantically marking and digging rows before rain and wind interrupted us.  Some of the potatoes had to wait until Saturday to be planted along with our cold crops, peas and some lettuce plants (but I don't think it has hurt them too much!).

Last week we direct seeded more lettuce (so it will come in waves and not all at once), radishes, onions, carrots and spinach.  They are poking their heads out this week and I can't wait to make a spring salad from the garden!   The ground was trying to crust over, so the boys set up some sprinklers to keep the new babies from breaking their necks while pushing up through the soil.

I can't wait to get the rest of the garden out, even though we won't be here for all of the harvesting.  I'm not sure why, but I find so much satisfaction in growing and storing our own produce.  Part of it is knowing where our food comes from and what methods and chemicals had been used in its production.  Part of it is the superior quality when you grow on high quality soil, are able to grow unique/heirloom varieties of vegetables,  pick them at the peak of freshness and store them in ways that preserve flavor.  There is also the joy of looking out your window and seeing the neat rows of plants and different shades of green.  All of these things combined contribute to my enjoyment of gardening, but beyond even this there is a wonder I experience every year as the seed push up through the soil, flowers pollinate to form fruit and we enjoy the bounty.  I know these things will happen, and they have happened every year in the past, yet the fact still amazes me when the new year comes. 

It is such a comfort and wonder to me that God has embedded some of His characteristics in the world He created, like His faithfulness.  He will never fail, He always follows through, He always keeps His promises, and He always watches out for His children.  He can be depended on, just like Spring.