Barter Gardening

I planted a chunk of seeds and seedlings in my friend's garden that i'm planting as a barter for drum lessons.  It was a beautiful day! I'm always amazed at how time flies when I'm gardening–I tend to forget to eat...

We made a bed of beans, tomatoes, peppers and spinach, and a second bed of bok choy, beets, and arugula.  Yum!

More Direct Seeding and Bean Teepees

More cold-tolerant veg in the ground:
Garlic Seeds
Beets
Mixed Greens
Radishes
Shelling Peas
Scarlet Runner Beans
Wee!

Also, here's my hopefully not too rickety bean and cucumber teepee structure!
Simple to build and free!  I used donated bamboo and wood stakes, and simple twine–
1). Dig deep and narrow holes in the ground for your stakes
2). Put in each stake and fill in with soil (should stand on it's own)
3). Creatively tie together with twine (I am not a girl scout!)
4). Lay the longest top pole across and tie to other stakes with more twine.
Voila!

I tied my whole structure to a stairway overhang so hopefully it won't fly away or topple over anywhere!

Successful Juicer "Garbage" Wraps

So my second attempt at using my juicer "garbage" (beet, celery, apple, orange) to make a fruit leather turned into a wonderful mistake–I turned it into wraps instead!

For some reason, this time around, all the sweetness disappeared from the leather so it was great with savoury foods.  I think by leaving it in the stove longer (I forgot about it and ended up leaving it a day in the stove) it had longer to dehydrate and all the sweetness disappeared...  Maybe... It was also quite dry so I wouldn't eat it by itself but hummus or guacamole or a bean dip would have also been nice!

It worked much better on parchment paper, where it came off in one whole piece instead of in chunks (as it did off the tin foil). I rolled up the parchment paper to save for next time. Yum!

Easter-y Beet Preserve

With a desire to preserve one of my favourite bits of my Ukrainian Easter remembrances, I took it upon myself to make a simple version of one of my favourite dishes. I took 4 medium sized beets, grated them finely into a bowl, then grated a medium sized stick of horseradish in there with it (careful! It will make you cry! Do it outside or put on a stove hood fan)

I didn't necessarily want this to keep forever (it's too delicious!) but generally the more preserved stuff has some vinegar in it. Its also usually blended with cooked beets. As I said, my version!

I usually ate it with pressed cottage cheese on a sweetish egg-type bread, but am currently eating it with goat cheese on home-made wraps–see tomorrows recipe!