Author Archives: Karin

Aug 7 2011

Parsley

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Italian Parsley

Parsley is a great herb to have around.  It’s pretty easy to grow too.  Like most herbs you will want to plant it in a pot because it has a tendency to spread and take over.  I have another spot on the side of the house that really nothing grew in because it is too shady.  We planted some parsley there and it loves it and is now starting to take over.  I planted parsley in this pot because I wanted something that was a perennial.  We have planted rosemary, mint, and basil in this same pot but because of our harsh winters they always die out.  This pot doesn’t have a bottom it really is just a cylinder and I think is actually part of the chimney  that I just recycled.  If it was a normal pot I might consider bringing it in during the winter to make the herbs last.  Parsley is great in soups and stews.  It’s really easy to dry and store so you can potentially have parsley all year round.  Parsley is also nice as a garnish.  I just used it this week to garnish my beef stroganoff.

 

Aug 5 2011

Onions

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Red onions

I know it’s been a while since I have posted anything.  That is one thing about gardening that is really tough.  After all of your spring harvests like peas, radishes, spinach, and lettuce it’s just a waiting game.  We planted some red onions this spring.  My onions have already fallen over (that’s how you know they are ready to pick).  They weren’t very big but then again mine never are.  I grew up in Ontario Oregon, the onion capital of the northwest, and they always have these huge onions.  I remember getting in the car, and if there was an onion truck in front of us and it drops a few onions, my mom would stop the car and make me get out and pick them up so we could take them home.  I don’t remember my parents ever growing onions.  I don’t think we had to because we could just go and pick them up off the road.

The best way to grow onions is to purchase the onion starts and not plant them from seed, unless you have some kind of green house which I don’t.  You know they are ready to be harvested when the green tops fall over.  Then you take them out and let them dry for a few days.  I’ve already used some of mine in a salad.  Onions are pretty resilient and don’t have a lot of pest problems.  This is the first year we’ve planted the red onion.  In years past we have planted a yellow onion.  If don’t like onions but don’t mind having green onions you can plant the starts closer together and harvest the green tops.

Jul 16 2011

Asian Lettuce Wraps

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I just made this a few nights ago.  I’ve seen these and have always wanted to try them.  Now I have to ask myself “Why haven’t I tried them before”.  This was so good.  Well at least I thought they were.  My kids didn’t like them as much but that leaves more for me right!?  I thought I would share the recipe with you so maybe you could give them a try.  I got this out of my “Taste of Homes” cook book.

Asian Lettuce Wrap

Asian Lettuce Wraps

1 lb ground turkey

1 16 oz package frozen oriental mixed vegetables, thawed

4 green onions

Sauce: 1/3 Cup teriyaki sauce

1/4 Cup hoisin sauce

3 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter

2 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger root

3 cloves of garlic

1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp sesame oil

I used fresh veggies instead of frozen.  Just use what you would normally get in the package.  I used red pepper, onion, mushroom, green and yellow zucchini, and cabbage.  I chopped them into small pieces and put them aside.  Then I mixed the sauce and set it aside.  Earlier in the day I picked fresh lettuce from my garden washed it and put it in the fridge.  Heat a little bit of canola oil in a pan and then brown the turkey.  After the turkey is brown add the veggies and mix.  Pour the sauce over the top and mix until everything is covered well.  Cook for another 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally.  You know it’s done when the veggies are still  crisp tender and everything is heated through.  Sprinkle with the green onions.  Put a spoonful into a lettuce leaf  and enjoy.  Our leaves were a little small so we wrapped them like a taco instead of a burrito.

Tip:  When I buy ginger root I never use it all.  I peel the whole thing and put the rest in the freezer.  It last for quite a while in the freezer.  When I need some minced ginger root I just take it out and grate however much I need and then put it back.

Jul 14 2011

Reed’s Dairy

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We are so fortunate to live so close to Reed’s Dairy.  It’s our favorite place to go on a hot summer day with the family.  Last night was especially great because Reed’s was celebrating that they were voted #1 in the area.  Reed’s gave out free ice cream and cake.  They started to hand out the cake and ice cream at 6:00 pm.  So we headed out after dinner and got there around 5:50.  A line had already started but it wasn’t too long by then.  We got our cake and ice cream pretty quickly and were able to beat the crowd.  We sat down and enjoyed.  I didn’t tell the kids we were going there so it was a nice surprise for them.  I love these moments I have with my little family.

enjoying the cake and ice cream

Having fun

 

 

Jul 13 2011

Peas

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Peas growing in my garden

I have the fondest memories of peas.  My mom always grew peas in her garden and I remember sitting on the porch with my mom on a cool summer night.  My mom would have a bag full of peas and a bowl.  We would just sit there talking and opening up peas and, of course, eating them.

I love to eat fresh garden peas.  In previous years we grew a Lincoln pole pea and didn’t have very much success.  We would only grow enough for a handful and the kids always ate them before I could do anything with them.  This year we tried a new variety called Little Marvel.  This is a bush pea.  So far we have a lot more peas than we ever had.  I have enough to feed the whole family peas, as a side, dish for dinner (although I think they like them better raw).  Corey said that he didn’t think he planted enough last year.  He really packed the seeds in together this year.  Along with a better watering schedule the peas have really taken off.   I think next year I’m going to grow at least twice as many so I can have some to freeze.

Pole verses the bush pea.  On the package of the Little Marvels it said that there was no need to stake the plants.  Pole peas grow tall vertically and will fall over if not staked.  When I bought the Little Marvels (a bush pea) I was under the impression that we didn’t have to stake them.  They did pretty well until the pods started to form and now they have fallen onto themselves and have become a tangled mess.  I think that maybe next time we will set up a trellis along side them so they have something to attach themselves to and maybe stay standing.  Picking the peas can be a back breaking job.  It is better if you have somewhere you can sit or kneel.  I, however, had to bend over for about 15 minutes to pick all the peas.  When I finally stood up my back was very stiff.  Over all I’m pretty satisfied with the results.

Freshly picked

Carrying on the tradition

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophia and her peas

What we have so far

Jul 10 2011

Radishes

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Radishes fresh from the garden

This year we planted some radishes.  I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t had very much luck with these in the past.  I say “ashamed” because they are actually very easy to grow.  In previous years when I’ve planted them the bulb never developed and grew.  My theory is that we just weren’t giving them enough water.  This year we have a more consistent watering schedule due to putting in a sprinkler system last year.  My radishes this year have really taken off and are doing so well.  I love to put radishes in my salad.  I like the crispiness they add to a salad and I also like the slight spiciness they have.  This is another crop that we like to plant in small amounts and then after they have sprouted plant another small crop.  This way I have radishes the same time I have lettuce for salads.

Jul 7 2011

Lettuce and Spinach

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Lettuce and Spinach earliest planting in back to new planting in front

I love love love having lettuce and Spinach in the garden.  I’m a big salad person and it is great to be able make one anytime you want.  My husband and I have found that when planting lettuce and spinach it’s better to stagger the planting rather than plant a whole row.  We never eat a whole row of lettuce and spinach before it starts to flower.  Once they flower the leaves start to turn bitter.  By staggering the planting I can continually have lettuce and spinach throughout the season.

Spring mix variety

 

Lettuce is a pretty easy plant to grow.  It is tolerant to cold weather, which is great around here.  I usually get two different varieties.  One is a spring mix and the other a buttercrisp. The spring mix is a mix of different lettuce varieties put together.  I like those because you get a colorful and different tasting variety.  Some leaves are purple others have a different leave shape.  Some taste a little bitter or more salty, and some are sweeter.  I also plant a buttercrisp variety which is your usual green leaf lettuce.  I happen to like the taste of this variety so if I were you just pick a variety that is your favorite.  I don’t usually have any problems with the lettuce I guess the only issue I have is sometimes when I pick them there are earwigs on them.  I absolutely can’t stand earwigs.  So before bringing the heads in the house to wash I just give them a good shake.  The lettuce when I pick it sometimes feels a little wilted but that isn’t a problem.  All you need to do is bring it in and wash it really good and put it in a container and then put it in the fridge.  It crisps right up after it chills for a while.

Spinach

Spinach is nice to have but takes a little more work to grow.  I haven’t been very successful with growing spinach.  This year has been better than most.  Spinach loves sandy soil and we just don’t have that.  Our soil has a lot of clay and makes it really tough for spinach to thrive.  The best solution would be for us to amend our soil with some sand but we just have not done that yet.  Another problem I have discovered is that something is eating my spinach.  The leaves were turning a weird almost opaque color.  At first glance I thought it might have some kind of fungus.  Then I picked a leave and noticed some kind of grub eating between the outer layers of the leaf.  Yuck! I don’t want that in my salad.  I don’t usually like to use pesticides or harsh fertilizers on my garden.  This time I decided if I wanted spinach I had to do something.  So I removed all the infected leaves and spayed on Fungicide 3.  It’s a product from garden safe.  It is supposed to be a fungicide, insecticide, and miticide all in one.  I’m not sure what I’m trying to kill so I’m not sure if this will work.  You’re supposed to spray it on every 7 to 10 days until all leaves are uninfected.  I sprayed it on last week and again today.  Each time I remove the infected leaves.  Hopefully the spinach starts to look better soon.  Do you have any ideas?

Infected Spinach Leaf

Jul 5 2011

4th of July

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I hope everyone else had a great 4th like we did.  It ended up being a pretty busy day.  Corey was gone before I even had a chance to wake up.  Every year the city puts on a 5k fun run that runs the parade route.  This is Corey’s second year of doing traffic control for that event.  He was gone by 6:30 am.  He made it back just in time for us to head out and see the parade.  We had a great time at the parade.  Sophia looked so cute dressed all patriotic.  After the parade we went home and packed up a lunch and headed out to meet some friends at Gem Lake.  The kids loved eating and swimming with their friends.  We spent a good 2 hours there.   When we got home we finally had some time to relax.  The kids and I watched a movie while dad took a nap.  After dinner it was time to head out to the firework show.  Idaho falls has a pretty big show.  It’s actually the biggest firework show I have ever seen.  They light them off at the greenbelt and since we don’t live too far from there we only have to go a couple of blocks to get a great view of the fireworks.  By the time we got home it was around 11:00 pm and the kids were beat.  We had such a wonderful day and I feel such a great gratitude for all the men and women in the world who have made it possible for us to have the freedom that we do.

Sitting and waiting for the parade to come

Sophia waving her flag

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids swimming at Gem Lake

Amy and I watching the kids swim

 

 

 

 

 

 

playing frozen bubble while waiting for the fireworks

fireworks

Jul 5 2011

Chives

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Chives

Chives are another easy plant to grow in the garden.  They can over take the garden if planted right into it.  It’s best to plant in a container so that it won’t spread.  We planted our chives about 5 years ago and haven’t had to plant them again.  That’s right these are perennials which means they come back every year.  We weren’t sure if they would come back since we have really cold winters but they did, and have ever since.  I love having these on hand.  When ever I need them I just go out and snip a few off and chop them up to use.  They also have a very pretty purple flower.  The flower smells like onions but at least it looks good.  At the end of the season, right before we have a hard frost, Corey will go out and cut the rest of the chives and freeze them.  Then I use them in some Asian dishes like Mobodofu.  After they have been frozen they aren’t great to use as a garnish but you could put them in soups or breads for just a little onion flavor.  You could also dry them instead of freezing and use them the same.  So easy and very low maintenance.  I really don’t have to do anything to them, they just sprout up every year, it’s great.

Jul 3 2011

Garlic

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Garlic

I find garlic to be one of the easiest things to grow.  My husband and I started growing garlic a few years ago and we have kept doing it since.  We use garlic for so many things and it’s nice to always have fresh garlic around.

Growing garlic started with a trip to the grocery store.  While buying some garlic at the store we were curious about growing it in our own garden.  So we bought a couple of heads of garlic and separated the cloves and planted them in the garden just to see what would happen.  You plant garlic in the fall just like you would any type of bulb (ie tulips).  In the spring we were surprised to see garlic sprouting up.  It was great.  The garlic we bought from the store worked but the bulbs when harvested were smaller than what you bought at the store.  The next year we kept some of our bulbs that we had harvested and planted them again.  We also went to our local food co-op and bought some garlic that someone had grown on their farm locally.  It was amazing the difference in size each variety had.  The locally grown garlic was much larger than the grocery store.  This year we just planted some of our bulbs from last and it’s doing great.  I suggest buying the garlic from your local farmers market or co-op if you want to plant.  I tried buying from the local garden store and it was expensive ($4 dollars a bulb)  The co-op was only selling it for $1.00 a bulb.  Now we have an unlimited supply of garlic.  I planted about 6 bulbs of garlic which for us yields about 24 bulbs in the spring.  So that leaves us with 18 bulbs to use during the year.  The garlic when stored correctly last until your next harvest or until you consume it all.

Garlic is known to have many medicinal properties.  Garlic is great for your heart and helps regulate blood sugar levels.  There are a lot of reasons you should grow garlic.  Not only is it good for your health but it taste good too.  We use it in sauces, salsas, Asian foods, mix it with olive oil and use as a dip.  The possibilities are unlimited.  One down fall of garlic is that it can cause some really bad halitosis.  Also if you eat a lot of garlic your sweat could have a garlic odor.  I happen to like the smell of garlic but most people don’t.  Garlic is hard to smell on other people when you yourself have been eating garlic so if you’re worried about the smell just make sure everyone else is eating it too.

Garlic growing in our garden