Peas Leave Us Alone!

Peas have become the vegetable of choice around here and we like to grow as many as we can. Easy to grow, easy to freeze, easy to cook or throw in pasta, soup, or a casserole, easy peasy.

It is easy to see then why we were dismayed to find something was nibbling on our pea plants when they were only a few inches high. All the other plants in the garden were undisturbed, and it didn't look like bugs were chewing the leaves; it actually looked more like they had been snipped off with scissors. After a little searching online, we decided it was probably birds going after them.

Without anymore netting on hand like we use to cover the strawberries and blueberries, I had to come up with another plan. (Anything to avoid a trip to the hardware store with children in tow...) I thought a bit and it came to mind that my mom had used the film out of an old video tape strung around fenceposts to keep deer away from their small apple tree and blueberry bushes. Since the peas are planted next to small fences, I thought maybe I could make a similar setup work.

I traipsed down to the basement to dig out an old video tape, then tore it apart to get the spool of film out.

Then I worked it back and forth over the outer fence and two pea fences, let it hang loose for maximum flappage (yep, that's now a word). I secured it with twist-ties.

I am sure the neighbors are curious to know what redneck thing we've got going on this time...

...but I knew there was a reason I kept a box of old videos and an absurd amount of used twist-ties around. Borderline hoarder tendency for the win.

A week later, it appears to be working. The peas plants are growing and I can't see anymore damage to them. From what I read, I should be able to take this all down once the plants get a little bigger and the birds won't bother with larger plants. I hope that's the case, because I failed to consider how I could get in there to weed and the weeds are definitely coming.

Just for kicks, here's my little helper from that morning, who will probably ingest more peas raw than cooked in the course of the summer.

How the Garden Grows

A little bird told me that a garden update was needed. To update you on the garden, I needed to actually do something out there. To be fair, I had put peas and carrots in, along with a bit of spinach, lettuce, and radishes. And we did buy some plants for the garden. They just desperately needed to get in the ground. Yesterday, while the boys napped, I finally got to it. Somehow it was much easier to attack the planting when I knew I had a couple of free hours later in the day to squander while Keith took the boys to see his parents. And, since I didn't have to rush, it was a lot easier to get a few photos too.

First up were the tomatoes. I planted twelve this year: four Roma and eight Amish Paste, a new variety for us. Since we mostly do sauce, I was looking for a variety that would be thicker and hopefully this will be the one.

Look! Action photos! Proof that I do some of the work around here.

We are also trying placing crushed eggshells in the holes where the tomatoes are planted. The calcium in the eggshells is supposed to help the tomatoes regulate the water it absorbs. I put about a quarter-cup in each hole before putting the tomato plant in.

Peppers (four bell, two sweet banana) also went in, along with two broccoli plants.

Then there's what I refer to as the salad bed, with radishes, spinach and lettuce that I planted a couple of weeks ago. I actually did a second planting of each so we have salad greens (and reds, I suppose) coming on for awhile.

It might be time to thin the radishes a bit more.

Four cabbage plants around the bottle tree again. 

While we were both able to work together, we laid the soaker hose around the tomato, pepper, and broccoli plants, running it right through the cages to help it stay put.

The peas are up, and we are hoping for another good crop this year.

We put a fence in each year for them to climb, helping to keep their footprint manageable and making them easier to pick.

We have some dill volunteering yet again.

Colter even has a little garden, complete with a fence to keep the bunnies away. He and Keith planted peas and carrots in there a week or so ago.

The apple trees have blossoms, having survived a tough winter and some miserable rabbits who chewed down the bark while standing on top of our multiple feet of snow, which rendered our 18" fences around the trees utterly useless.

I planted some cucumbers as well, and will plant the green beans in a week or so (I'm trying to time it right so they don't all come in during our trip to Maine). I also need to get some onion sets to put in. Definitely behind the eight-ball there. We are skipping potatoes this year as we seem to have a vole population to battle, but otherwise the garden list is much like other years. It is still one of our goals to do some late planting of brussels sprouts and cabbage in the fall. Maybe this fall won't slip by us like the last did with Elliott's arrival. But let's just soak in these beautiful spring days for the moment, and not jump ahead to fall!

Happy planting, happy growing everyone!

Good Garden Eating

Somehow each year we end up with a cherry tomato plant. It is never our intent, because mostly we grow tomatoes for sauce. But once those cherry tomatoes start coming on, we feel obligated to use them. This year, the plant is larger than some Christmas trees we've had, and about to overwhelm us.

In an effort to stay ahead of them, I've been trying to incorporate them into a couple meals each week. This recipe helped up use up a bunch of them, along with some cucumbers. It came from our local newspaper a couple years ago, but this was the first time I tried it, and I made a few changes to it.

Bread Salad

For salad:
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, at room temperature, halved
2 cucumbers, halved the long way and sliced into 1/4" half-moons
2 Tbsp. finely chopped red onion
1 glove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 c. thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
1/2 tsp. coarse salt

(The recipe calls for 2 pints tomatoes and 1 cucumber, also a chopped bell pepper and a chopped roasted pepper. We like cucumbers better than tomatoes so I adjusted that and I didn't have peppers on hand so I left them out. I also reduced the olive oil from 6 Tbsp. to 4 since I had less "bulk" to my salad.)

For bread:
1/2 pound Italian bread, cut into 1"cubes
1/4 c. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/8 tsp. coarse salt

Toss: In a large bowl, toss tomatoes, cucumbers, (peppers if using), onion, garlic, vinegar, oil, basil and salt. Let rest while preparing bread.



Toast: On a rimmed baking sheet, toss bread, oil, sliced garlic, and salt. Slide into a 350˚ oven and toast, shaking pan once or twice, until bread is crisp and golden, about 15 minutes.



Serve: Scrape bread mixture onto tomato mixture. Toss gently. Enjoy.  (I just topped the bread with the tomatoes, etc. on our plates and kept the leftovers separate so they could be enjoyed the next day without getting soggy. Just let it rest a minute or so and the bread will start soaking up some of the juices.)

I have never thought of myself as a fan of tomatoes, but I told Keith last night that I might just have to give in and admit that I like them. I still have no desire to pop one in my mouth straight from the garden, but I have been enjoying them this summer when they are tossed with oil, vinegar, and other herbs, and I don't think it is just a pregnancy thing. Though maybe Baby 2 will pop out with some inherited Italian taste buds if we keep this up, huh?

The Orange, White, and Blue

With nothing else on our plates for the Fourth, we decided to jump on some garden work. Namely, canning carrots. The pulling, scrubbing, peeling, rinsing, chopping, canning process took most of the day, and netted us 15 pint jars of carrots. And we also did 6 pints of green beans. Keith had never been in the house last year when I used the pressure canner, and was a little concerned about all the hissing and noise it made. But we got through the day with no kitchen explosions (or marital ones, which is always a good thing when both of us try to work on our limited counter space).

The nicest part of the day was spending part of the morning pulling the carrots and scrubbing them outside, while Bert ran around.

And how about that volunteer sunflower? We have to remember to cut the flowers off before it goes to seed and we have a hundred of them next year!

"Hmm...let's try a carrot!"

"I think this one needs to be scrubbed a little more."

"Never mind, I'll just suck the dirt off of it."

Along with the peas, spinach, and green beans he has been eating out of the garden, our little herbivore has also started sampling basil, parsley, and sage. He goes back for more on the basil and parsley, but he was clawing the sage off his tongue. And the nets over the blueberries keep the birds out but don't work so well for a toddler with pretty good fine motor skills.

Really, Get on Those Greens

These days are filled with garden chores, toddler chasing, and – do not be surprised – sneaking in an afternoon nap most days. I do my best to make the morning productive for me and fun for the little man, because once the afternoon rolls around, it is often uncomfortably hot to play or work in our unshaded yard.

The other morning, we picked a bunch of basil for a big batch of pesto, and green beans for the freezer.

But not before Bert sampled his share of them, straight out of the garden. Eating fresh green beans in just your skivvies. Ah, to be (almost) two!

Then, as dinner time came along, it was apparent our cabbage needed to be dealt with. I said before that  with baby #2 on the way, I wanted to start making meals for the freezer, and the cabbage has prompted me to do just that, utilizing a couple recipes from my mom.

The first was stuffed cabbage, which got too messy to take pictures of while making so I'll just share the recipe.

Stuffed Cabbage

Inside: 1 lb ground beef 1 lb ground pork (I used ground turkey) 1 egg beaten 1/4 c milk 1/4 c chopped onion 1 c cooked rice 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper Outside: Steam the cabbage just enough so that you can pull off the leaves easily (you can cut out some of the core before you start). I steamed for about 5 minutes, pulled off everything that seemed tender, then put the remainder of the head back in the pot while I stuffed the leaves I had. Also, you can cut out the biggest of the veins to make it easier to wrap the stuffing. Put the stuffing on the cabbage leaf (I would estimate about 1/4-1/3 cup in each) and fold/roll sort of like a burrito. Lay in crock pot. Sauce: 8 oz. tomato juice 1 Tb lemon juice 1 Tb brown sugar 1 tsp worchestershire Mix sauce and pour over pigs in crockpot. Lay 2 slices of bacon over top. (The recipe comes out fine if you don't use the bacon.) Cook on high 4-5 hours; low 7-9 hours. I was a little apprehensive about this recipe because it seemed like a lot of steps, but really turned out to be not much more work than making a big batch of meatballs. Bert liked them, and we had plenty left for the freezer, so it was definitely worth the time. The next recipe is sort of like a cabbage stromboli. And if that sounds odd, I understand. But these are really good, so give them a chance. Beef and Cabbage Runzas (I went ahead and doubled the recipe to have some to freeze. Ingredient list below is for a single batch.) 2 Tb butter or marg. 2 c thinly sliced cabbage 1 small onion diced 1/2 lb ground beef 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 1 Tbs flour 1 egg beaten 1 loaf bread dough (I made a batch of regular white bread dough but you can use a frozen loaf.) Melt butter in skillet. Stir cabbage and onion until coated. Cover skillet and cook 10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add ground beef and cook over high heat until beef loses pink color. Reduce heat to medium-stir in salt and pepper, then sprinkle flour evenly over meat mixture. Cook 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Heat oven to 350. On lightly floured surface, cut dough into 4 pieces (8 if recipe is doubled).  Roll and stretch into oval about 6x4.  Spoon 1/4 of mixture onto half of dough. fold over and pinch edge to seal. Place on cookie sheet. Brush with egg and sprinkle with caraway seeds if desired. Bake 25 minutes until golden brown.

So that's how we are using up cabbage around here, and prepping a bit for the chaos that ensues after bringing a newborn home. Because that event is only three short months away!

Get Your Greens

Bert, he's a funny kid. He loves to eat spinach straight from the garden but won't touch it when it is on his plate at supper time. Peas are fantastic raw, only so-so cooked. So these days, we basically let him eat as much raw out of the garden as he wants and don't worry too much when his plate looks a little light on the veggies.

Here's our jolly little green giant, helping out with the cabbage and peas that are coming on.

He acts like it is the best magic trick ever for Keith and I to pop open a pea pod for him, and he's starting to get the hang of it himself.