Amigo and I have a tradition that goes back several years. Whenever we’re able, we go out to lunch on Friday. We choose locally owned places whenever we can, and we try restaurants that are new to us as often as possible. Last week we went downtown in our fair city and sampled a Mexican restaurant. Before we went in, we explored a junk-metal sculpture outside on the sidewalk.
Performance Art?
The food and beverages were awesome, too. This one is a winner. I’m sure we’ll be back.
This year’s rain barrel set-up is complicated. First we didn’t have a garage. Then we had a garage with no gutter or downspout. After that, we had a gutter and downspout, but we didn’t have the right support to get the barrels up high enough to be convenient and easy to use.
We now have the cinder blocks and bricks (Thanks, Home Depot and Habitat ReStore). When we can summon the energy, we’ll pile up the cinder blocks and set the rain barrels on top of them. In the meantime, I give you an encore featuring Chuck’s model train layout. Enjoy.
Chuck, dear husband of mine, models trains in HO scale. For the uninitiated, HO translates as small. Tiny. Put-on-your-glasses and look very closely for details. Itty bitty.
The building below is part of a granary in his layout. The rain barrel is about the size of my pinkie fingernail, if not smaller. Yes, dear readers; he made a rain barrel in his train layout in tribute to his wife’s green philosophies.
Now if only I can stop him from buying the shopping bag that says, “I carry this bag because my wife cares about the environment”!
We were picking up blueberry and raspberry canes to supplement what we’ve already planted. In the process, we saw some – oh how shall I say it? – creative mark-ups on planters and containers.
The simple box
The simple box with decoration
Pretty, right? And rather simple. Someone took the time to paint the boxes a nice neutral gray, and then they added a few decorative details to one box. Are you ready for the reveal? The price tag? Are you sitting down?
You read that right, people. $50 for the painted box.
I found Chuck as he checked out and showed him the outrageous mark-up on the simple, no doubt inexpensive boxes. He was shocked, too. And on our way to the car…
The popular raised bed, unpainted
These were on sale.
Ouch.
$250? Sale price?!? Give me a break, folks. This must be the new and trendy Container Gardening for Rich People. No one in my social circles would spend $50 on a wood box, much less $250 on a small wooden raised bed. Maybe I’m in the wrong field; I should be painting and repurposing my garage sale finds instead of planting in them. The profit margin would be amazing.
It’s June, folks, still June. I have a lot of sprouts growing, but not much to harvest except the ubiquitous rhubarb. The cilantro, though, is reaching for the sky.
I planted small amounts a few weeks apart so it wouldn’t ripen all at once. The batch on the right is past its prime, if I’m honest. I might let it go to seed. On the left, that might be ready just in time for tacos. In the middle, it’ll join me for salsa. I planted in sections because we don’t use a lot of cilantro at any one time. The flavor is quite strong, especially when it’s fresh.
If I have too much, I can always feed it to the pet rabbit.
For more Harvest Monday, visit Daphne’s Dandelions. I wonder if she makes dandelion pesto? I should ask.
I’ve been struggling with blogging about Charleston. Words just don’t seem to be enough. I’m not Jon Stewart (look him up, he addressed it beautifully), so I’m going to turn to another source to say it for me. Thanks, New Yorker.
The haul – week one
In case you missed it on Facebook, here’s the counter full of goodies gotten while the gettin’ was good, real good, at the first downtown market of the year.
How’s that for an amazing run-on sentence? I’m almost proud.
I did not buy rhubarb, for obvious reasons. There’s a recipe for rhubarb bread pudding sitting on the table and calling my name. I’ll freeze whatever’s left over.
Ah, the rhubarb. We’re having a bumper crop already. I used up a little in a strawberry rhubarb ice cream. For my next trick, I modified a classic cake that I usually make with applesauce. In place of the applesauce, I used rhubarb sauce (you guessed that, didn’t you?) and then baked them as cupcakes instead of in the 13 by 9 pan
In case you don’t like to click on links, here’s the updated version.
Depression Cake (named for a historical time period, not the illness)
2 cups strong coffee
2 cups raisins or chopped dates or other dried fruit
½ cup rhubarb sauce
2 cups all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour, my favorite)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. each ground cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg
1 cup chopped walnuts or almonds (optional)
Powdered sugar for garnish (or serve with whipped topping)
Preheat oven to 350.
In large saucepan, combine granulated sugar, coffee, raisins, and applesauce. Simmer 10 minutes. In large bowl, blend remaining ingredients, except powdered sugar. Stir raisin mixture into flour mixture. Pour batter into well-greased and floured cupcake pans. Bake at least 20-30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or serve with whipped topping.
The original was adapted from a recipe in a California Raisin cookbook put out at least twenty years ago.
I didn’t call it container “gardening” because it feels more like a small to medium sized planter than a garden. No matter what the label, it was fun to put this together. I think the choice of flowers is better this year. It’s bound to grow and fill in and look beautiful. I won’t mention the struggle to keep it upright – you can find that here.
Done – for now.
In a few baskets sitting on the rock garden, I have spinach, radishes, and onions. I will sprinkle all of them with red pepper flakes to discourage small furry creatures from disrupting the goodies. It’s working – sort of.
Laundry hamper, repurposed – with a cat, an attempt to scare away tiny furry creatures.
This will be radishes.
Spinach will come up here – if I can keep up with the red pepper supply.
Some small critter loves garlic, loves it a lot, loves it so much that as soon as the scapes get two inches above the soil, the critter makes a visit and nibbles like crazy.I can rule out Bunnicula, at least. No vampire rabbit could withstand so much fresh garlic.
I never had rhubarb in my yard when I grew up. If we ate it, I don’t remember. I do remember my next door neighbor having a substantial rhubarb plot behind his garage. His youngest had a little trouble saying his R sound, so he called it ‘Woo-bob’.
When dear sweet Chuck and I bought our house, we discovered rhubarb growing along the back lot line. I decided the south side of the garage would be a better location with more sun, so I transplanted the rhubarb plants. With the transplant, they spread.
Then I bought my first rain barrel and set it up under the downspout on the south side of the garage. That entailed moving the rhubarb again, this time to the patch beside the deck that had held hollyhocks. When the hollyhocks came down with rust two seasons in a row, I pulled them out for good.
Now the rhubarb is thriving in this spot. It’s growing so much that I’ve even given away a few small plants. By the reports from my friends, the transplanting worked well for them, too.
Rhubarb is often the first harvest of the year in my northeastern Wisconsin climate. So far this season I froze some, gave some away, and cooked the rest into a rhubarb-strawberry syrup to flavor my first attempt at strawberry-rhubarb ice cream. Mmm, it’s tasty. I’ll definitely do this again.
An Early Harvest
Ready to cook, bake, and freeze.
Want more harvest posts with pictures? Go to Daphne’s Dandelions for her weekly gathering called Harvest Monday.
Actual conversation in car on interstate highway —
Chuck: Is that a tanker that says “Coffee?”
Daisy: I thought it might be a mirage.
Chuck: Wow. Pull up next to it with your mug, turn a spigot, and refill in motion.
Daisy: I have an empty travel mug. It’s at your feet.
We approached the tanker. Here’s what it looked like up close.
“Best Coffee on the Interstate”
Is that a “flammable liquids” sign on the lower left? That’s some strong coffee there, driver. Better add cream and sugar.