Garden Update: How's it Growing?

I took some photos today to share our progresses with you! We are very close to summer. Historically, there is no risk of freeze after June 1st here, but there is lots of warm sunshine in my Southerly Exposed picture windows so the seeds that were started in March are getting kind of big. Hang in there, little fellas!

The herb garden. Planted March 8th. The dill and sage have been very abundant so far. The basil and oregano, not so much. The chives not at all. Strange they grew in order like that. I turn the pot daily so it gets even sun.  I finally gave up and  I replanted chives about 2 weeks ago but still no show. The front row is all calendula. The two outer plants were planted Mar 8 along with a bunch more that never germinated. The little ones in the middle were planted about 2 weeks ago and started just fine. Beats me.

Chamomile, planted April 26. The seeds are like dust and the starts are so wee and cute!

I filled some empty coconut shells with dirt and started more calendula there. I'm hoping to get plenty of flowers.


Note to the vegan police :) Yes, the planter next to says "ice cream". Sadly, I do NOT live in a vegan world no matter how much I want it. Luckily for me there is no cooking of animals in THIS house but the guys still eat animals products such as ice cream and I can't bear to throw those perfect plant starting boxes out. I don't eat the products, but I AM in charge of waste management in this house and I re-purpose some of the trash that is created when the people I live with buy and consume animal products. I have thought hard and I feel very deeply about this and I think using the containers to grow plants is the best conclusion to two bad situations: the eating of animal products and the disposal of the wrappers that they come in.

The cucumbers have flowered. Is it just me or does that sound like a spy identifying to another spy?

There are actual BEAN PODS on my bush beans.

 This is a tomato I started last year. It gave me HUNDREDS of cherry tomatoes. I grew it in a pot. I brought it inside and cut it back at the beginning of winter except for one branch that was still flowering, I let it continue. Immediately it leaves branches and tiny flowers that didn't produce started growing back. I kept watering and feeding it rocket compost all winter in the warm, sunny window and now it has three wee tomatoes and lots of flowers on it!!! Has anyone else ever had a tomato plant grow for more than one season? I didn't think it was possible.

Here is a full view of the 2nd season cherry tomato:

See the stumps where it was cut back?

Ahoy! Cilantro!

More basil.

I want to have too much basil this year. I don't think it's going to happen but I will keep planting.

Bell Peppers. I hope I have as good of luck with peppers this year as last.

Flax and fenugreek in the yellow pot. The pods are fenugreek.

Orange pot is pumpkin which is also starting to bloom.

I put some fennel seeds to germinate April 27 but I don't see anything yet. I know from sprouting them that it takes a while.

There are more but uploading is a... very slow thing so that's it for today.

1 more month until we begin planting outside. I'll post another garden update around that time. So, how's things growing with you?

Fresh Pasta Ravioli Dinner for Valentine's Day

Making pasta. Raviolis ready to dry in the dehydrator.
















We bought a pasta maker at Goodwill for $4.99! One of the nice manual ones that really works.

Vegan Noodle Recipe Pasta Dough
3 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 tbs olive oil
Put it in the food processor with the dough blade until it forms a ball and starts to clean the sides of the bowl.
Turn it out on a lightly floured board and knead it for about 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, silky ball.
Place dough ball in a lightly greased bowl to rest for 30 minutes.

Form the dough with your pasta machine or with your hands. I'm not gonna go all technical with a description on how to make noodles, ok? I will say that this machine makes fresh, home made pasta possible. I have made it with my hands before and that is a waste of time, IMO. This machine is fantastic.















Filling was vegetables, Gimme Lean and seed cheese.















Vegetable Filling for Vegan Ravioli
1 medium white onion, chopped
3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, pureed
1/2 cup broccoli, chopped
pinch of salt
Sautee onion and garlic in a little oil and broth until very soft
Add pureed tomato and broccoli and cook until tender and most of the liquid is gone.

Sunflower seed cheese
1 cup soaked sunflower seeds
1 tsp paprika
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs olive oil
all in food processor until a thick paste
Add water a tbs at a time as needed and scrape the sides often.

Gimme Lean sausage is broken up into 1/2 tsp sized chunks and heated in a skillet until it begins to brown.

I thawed the frozen tube in the dehydrator, 95F for about an hour.















This is about 2" of the tube broken in chunks and heated in skillet w a tsp of oil until browned.















Each ravioli contains about a 1/2 tsp each of vegetables, cheese and sausage. Don't overfill.





























I started making them in sheets then remembered that I had the press. Much easier.















Let the raviolis sit and dry out in a warm place. I put mine in the dehydrator at 95F for about 1 hour.

Just before serving place each ravioli in a large pot of boiling water, do not crowd. Boil for 5 minutes or less, it doesn't take too long for the fresh pasta to cook up.

Serve with marinara sauce.

1 chopped onion
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tomatoes pureed
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1 tbs Italian seasoning
Water or broth as needed.
Saute onion and garlic
Add tomatoes, mushrooms and seasoning
Add about 1/2 cup water
Simmer until thick and delicious
Salt if needed.


We also made some fettuccine and some linguine.
The linguine was just like fresh ramen. I used to live on ramen noodles and haven't had it a LONG time so homemade ramen was quite a treat.














The extra raviolis, enough for at least two more meals, were dried and put in a big ziplock in the freezer.

To be completely honest with you, in all the excitement last night we forgot to take photos of the plates. They were beautiful. I made roasted sweet potato and yam with black pepper and an organic red leaf lettuce salad with spicy pickles.
These photos were just taken today and with a different sauce.

Vegan Pizza!

I made a yeast pizza crust from the recipe on the Bob's Red Mill flour bag, but I used whole wheat flour and I add 1 tbs garlic powder (not garlic salt) to the recipe.

I rolled the crusts out super thin for a change, I usually make them thicker. Both are good :)

Crust drizzled with olive oil.















I like my home made vegan pizza sauce-less so it is topped with sliced tomatoes, basil, grilled onions, green olives, chopped seitan nuggets, chopped pickled garlic and cashew sour cream.















Bake 15 minutes at 425F, until crust is browned and crispy. Don't bake too long or the crust will be like a cracker.

Nom.

Cleaning the Property

We rent this beautiful 10 acre place with a modest 4 bdrm, 2 bath house on it.

When we moved in the house was clean enough but the property is really a mess.

The former tenants burned all their garbage. All of it. Everything. Soda cans, food cans, glass and plastic bottles, paper, plastic plastic, plastic, ohdearlookatalltheburntplastic, radios, disposable diapers, make up, nail polish, aerosol cans, lunch boxes, toys, shoes, clothes, screen doors, tools, bicycles... I could go on and on.

Everything. They just burned everything. They apparently bought into the idea that "fire cleanses all" but didn't follow through with it so nothing burned completely and there are a number of stinking piles of half burned garbage in various locations around the house.

Today we cleaned up two of them.

This is the pile next to an old trailer. This used to be the first thing you saw when you drove in the driveway.














This trailer was probably used for dump runs in the last century circa 1993 or so. That would have been before the tires went flat and the rats moved in.


This is a close up of the burnt garbage. I wish you could smell it.














This is a rat nest under the trailer.















This is the second pile that got put in the back of the pick up.














It will go to the dump on our next run.



















After.
















I feel like such a weight has been lifted. I'm so happy that I won't have to look at or smell those piles of burnt garbage any more.

We found this many car batteries. One was buried in a ditch like part of the erosion control.
















Dental Hygiene is important.
















We started the garden. Erik built a box out of old pallets about 3x8 ft. We will probably build one more and we are going to put a wire fence around the outside of the sidewalk to keep the deer out of the plants.














See the reflection of the lake in the window?




We filled the bottom of the box with lava to level it up and for better drainage.















I'm looking forward to spring, aren't you?

After all that for dinner we made vegan pizza. I got some great photos and will post them tomorrow. Now I'm going to bed!

Orange Juice and Oatmeal Weekend Vegan Breakfast

I squeezed a some oranges and grapefruit and we had juice then I cooked some oatmeal.












Cooked Oats
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
2 cups water (add more if needed while cooking)
2 tbs Vegan margarine
pinch salt

Cold water and oats in a saucepan on medium heat. Stir constantly until nice and gooey, about 5 minutes. Add more water for thinner oats.















Shown served with sliced bananas but the sky is the limit with toppings.

I used to like to put jam in it when I was a kid.

You could add dried fruit like raisins while cooking.

Maple syrup is nice, that's what the guys had on theirs.

Peanut butter.

Cacao.

Cinnamon or nutmeg.

Peaches or other fresh fruit.

Nut milk or cashew cream.

Or you could go savory and have ginger and garlic, it's up to you!

Sunday Brunch with Deer and Compost.

Dinner last night was roasted veges and stuffed squash
















Vegan Sunday Brunch:














English muffin bruschetta with tomato and avocado slices and red leaf lettuce. The bruschetta sauce we picked up at Big Lots. It's Cucina Toscana Artichoke Bruschetta

I looked out the window and saw this deer eating my compost.














































He's a young buck with little bitty antlers.


I updated the tutorial about crocheting plastic bags. Check it out here.

A FUN Weekend!

We drove up to Grants Pass and rode the riverboat up to Hellgate Canyon.

This is the OK Corral. A beautiful restaurant with all outdoor seating.















There we had a huge brunch. I told the waitress I just wanted a big plate of strawberries and grapes. She was more than happy to bring it to me. Everyone else was munching "down home cooking" and I just packed away a platter of grapes and strawberries. There was champagne and orange juice so I had a couple of mimosas, too. It was heavenly.
Yay!

This is the place card that was at my seat.
















My giant platter of fruit. There was more I ate before the photo was taken















I was told there would be a meal, but nothing vegan to eat so I brought food with me. I was very pleasantly surprised to get treated so very well by the wait staff. I wasn't going to say anything about being vegan, I just asked for the fruit but the man said it to the waitress. She was nice enough to let me know there was a tofu, broccoli, rice bowl but told her I was VERY happy with the fruit. She came back later to ask me if I wanted some eggs with no cheese but I stuck with the fruit.

It was a very nice brunch, great company and I had a lovely time eating grapes with a fork! I took some strawberries with me since I had my cooler and we ate them later on the ride home.

After the very wet ride back to GP on the jet boat, we went to Griffin Park and played in the river.














I stacked some rocks.

And we saw the very same boat that we rode earlier that day. The name of the boat was the Blue Heron.















I had a really nice time. I grew up in GP but I had never been on the riverboat tour before so I'm really glad I had an opportunity to go.

Young Thai Coconut

We went to SF to pick up the boy from his month long stay at his mother's.














I love Golden Gate Park. Hippie Hill Rocks.



Shopping in San Francisco is so much better. We stayed at the boy's mom's apartment in the Tenderloin. Half a block from her place is a Viet Namese market that I used to frequent when I lived in that neighborhood years ago. I don't miss the sirens at 2am or the steaming puddles of human excreta, but I do miss the produce and spice markets. You just can't get this stuff in Kfalls.

Among other things, we got a flat of 9 young Thai coconuts for about $12
















We got a bunch of lychee fruit, about a dollar a pound

















Sesame oil which is for drizzling, not for frying. Vegetarian shrimp which are made from yam flour and are surprisingly shrimp-like. Preserved orange peel which is salty AND sour. Seaweed strips which can be snacked out of the bag, soaked and used like noodles or cut up in stir-fry. These were between 50c and $1.79 each.
















Coconut and banana raw picnic at a rest stop in California.




That's MIL, the boy and the man.








The man is an expert coconut opener.


Vegetarian shrimp, carrots, onion, garlic, sea vegetables (dulse and nori) and rice
















Carrots, seaweed, dandelion leaves, potatoes and rice.














Both of the above "stir-fried" dishes were prepared with vegetable broth in place of the oil.

It's good to be home. I wish I could go once a month to SF for shopping.