plants

All of the glorious springyness in the air has me itching be do something with the pretty plants I love so much. We won't be attempting to really garden this year since our ground still needs significant preparation involving more time and energy than we have this year. (Benjamin is going to be back in school plus working one full-time job and two part-time jobs plus being an amazing husband and father. Yes, I'm very proud of him. And I have all sorts of things in my summer schedule including taking part in three weddings, investing in the boys, and having a baby.)

Anyway, all that to say that we're sticking to container gardening on our porch this year. I'm a little sad, but overall I'm very relieved to not have the burden of larger-scale gardening right now. Although it won't be warm enough to place the plants in the ground for a couple of weeks still, we couldn't resist purchasing some plants. Until they can go outside, they looks wonderful on our counter.

Brother chose these striking marigolds.

He particularly loves the reddish one.

Little Man chose these cheerful pansies.

He also chose some pepper plants.

I told him that I love him a lot to get pepper plants for him

since I really don't like them. : )

I chose tomato plants

as well as fragrant basil and rosemary.

And I simply couldn't leave my dream geranium behind.

I love the deep, richly colored blooms

and ornate leaves.

I can't wait to see these small plants flourish with a little care over the summer!

from the garden

the first two ripe tomatoes

of the 2010 gardening season

garden update

Well, my summer has ended up being more full of both good and bad than I anticipated, and I haven't even come close to reaching my goal to work in the garden half an hour each day. It makes me sad. However, along with the weeds, my garden has continued to grow even in my absence. Here are a few recent snapshots.

baby broccoli

Something seems to like the cabbage.

I've begun to wonder if we will get any of it at all!

tomato blossoms

I have some baby tomatoes too!

baby pepper

I'm afraid it looks more like a hot pepper

instead of the bell pepper the label promised.

snow peas

There are lots and lots of snow peas.

Little Man and I have been gobbling them up without sharing at all.

Pea tendrils make me smile.

a time to plant...

Yesterday was one of our first truly nice days, and in the afternoon I finally planted my garden. I'm about three weeks behind schedule because of late frosts, travel, and sickness, but I'm hoping to get at least some produce from it before our early fall frosts.

It's a cute little garden--half the size that I have tried to cultivate the last couple of years. I think that's good, though, because smaller is easier to maintain.

We planted seven tomato plants.

And surrounded them with water walls.

We planted sugar peas. (One of our favorites!)

The peas were scattered before being poked into the dirt.

I have the feeling that I will be finding pea plants popping up

in unexpected places this year.

We planted four pepper seedlings and three potatoes (not pictured).

We also planted two each of broccoli and cabbage seedlings.

In addition to all this,

we have volunteer spinach and many self-seeded baby garlic plants.

After planting, discovering, and watering,

we came inside and cooled off with creamy and cool

strawberry-peach smoothies.

They were delicious.

This morning Little Man woke up and asked if he could eat his plants yet, and I explained that we need to wait a bit longer before they are ready to eat. I can certainly identify with his eagerness! I can hardly wait to eat juicy, fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes, bursting with flavor or to munch on crisp sugar peas while watering the garden or to make our own home-grown vegetable soup. But wait and water and watch we will, whether we think we can or not.

seedling update

remember when we planted seedlings?

careful watering and days of watching

the seedlings began bearing fruit

the fruit isn't large

or even very shapely

but to us it is beautiful

and Little Man assures me

that it is delicious too

garden spinach

My spinach last year was unkempt and went to seed.

This year we have benefited from an early and generous crop

of volunteer spinach plants.

Last weekend I harvested my first baby spinach salad

of the spring.

Satisfying, fulfilling, crisply green.

Delicious.

"Shall we plant seedlings?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes, we shall," I answered.

And so we did.

Grow, little seedlings, grow.

gardeny thoughts

A couple of weekends ago, Benjamin and Little Man took advantage of the beautiful weather (and of my need for a nap) and went outside and dug up about half of my garden area for me. I was delighted.

When the weather starts warming up after the long, long winter, I just can't wait to get my fingers and toes into some nice garden dirt and start planting. (Incidentally, Little Man is watching me write and is excitedly exclaiming about this photo of me "playing in the dirt.") I am eagerly watching for greenhouses to be erected outside of our little town stores and can't wait to start buying little plants.

As eager as I am to get started, I do have to wait. A couple of days after enjoying that day of beautiful, sunny gardening weather, we woke up to about six inches of snow. That's spring in Montana for you. I am hoping, though, to be able to start planing in the middle of May.

Kitchen Ramblings

This has been my week of large kitchen projects. I started out on Monday by making apple butter. Two different friends had apples from their trees. Did you know that the small sour apples that grow here in Montana make the best apple butter? I think they do, at least, so I sat and peeled and cut apples. And peeled and cut apples. And peeled and cut some more apples.

I ended up getting fourteen cup jars and three pint jars of delicious apple butter made and processed (and oh, did the house smell good while it was simmering!). The full jars are still sitting on the counter waiting in all their autumny glory to be stored in the basement for our enjoyment this winter.

I also made another batch of tomato soup from the garden tomatoes that have ripened since being brought into the house. The tomato soup is still waiting in the kitchen to be stored in the basement too.

Little Man and I also made an enormous quintuple batch of banana bread from some sale bananas (they were 43 cents a pound!) that were getting too brown to eat. Benjamin helped by mashing the large quantity of bananas, and I said something to Little Man about how big and strong his daddy is. Then when Little Man took his turn on the bananas, he exclaimed that he was strong too. : ) It is so much fun seeing him grow and try to be just like Daddy.

Tackling all these big cooking projects was fun and rewarding, but I think I'm ready for a few weeks of small, normal kitchen projects. I think I'll attempt things like making a single batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and attempting to stick to my menu plan again.

Passing on a soupy tradition

Last year I posted the recipe for the home made tomato soup that my mom and I make each year. This year I am excited to post an update to the recipe along with some photos from this year's soup making experience.

Last year I wrote about cutting the veggies into quarters or eighths, boiling them, and putting them through a chinoise though what we had sounds more like what is described as a "china cap" in the article. After that, we'd stir in the flour-oil thickener and herbs. It was a labor and time intensive process. This year my mom and I both were crunched for time and needed to develop a more efficient way of doing soup. We developed variations on the same thing. Both are faster.

My Mom's Variation:

Seed the tomatoes and juice and other vegetables. Puree the tomatoes in your blender until they are liquefied, dump it all in a pot, bring it to a boil, and add your thickener and herbs.

My Variation:

My blender didn't do so well at pulverizing tomato skins, so I cut the tomatoes in half and popped them and other veggies into the blender, seeds and all. After they resembled a tomatoey smoothie, I strained them through the food mill my mother-in-law handed down to me. I then added my thickener and herbs and proceeded as outlined in the recipe.

I enjoyed Little Man's help this year. He "threw" the tomatoes into the sink or blender, pushed the buttons on the blender, and delighted in "dumping" any measured ingredients into their proper place.

He loved the food mill.

He also loved peeling the onions.
Working on the kept him entertained
a long, long time.

Oh! And lookee!
In addition to using my own home-grown tomatoes,
I got to use my own home-grown red bell peppers!
I am excited to be becoming a better gardener.

We have already been enjoying the "vintage 2009" tomato soup.
And we are looking forward to enjoying it all winter.

Trumpet fanfare

Today I harvested my first ripe, garden fresh, home grown tomato! It is small, but I am not complaining. Last year (my first year gardening on my own) I had to harvest all my tomatoes while they were still green and bring them inside to ripen because of freezing temperatures, so this is a big and happy deal. Even happier is the fact that I have several more that are well on their way to crimson ripeness.

Watching my garden grow

This picture was taken early this spring when we were just beginning to work on our garden. My tiny tomato plants still had to be protected from late frosts and dry winds by their water walls, the weeds were prolific but small, and my vegetable seeds had just been put into the ground. It's amazing what amazing changes have happened in a couple short months! The vegetables are thriving (as are the weeds, I'm afraid, since I haven't been extremely diligent about weeding). Here are a few photos I took on a garden ramble shortly after a welcome bit of Montana rain this weekend.

My snow peas are almost ready!

The tomatoes are thriving: growing tall, blooming profusely, and becoming covered with small green fruit.

My first little pepper has even appeared. This one should turn out to be a red bell pepper. Normally I dislike bell peppers, but since they are not only prohibitively expensive but also a must in this recipe I thought I'd try my hand at growing them.

I also have wildly prolific spinach, some rather scraggly but healthy looking potato plants, four rows of feathery carrots, and a few green bean plants. I am thankful that everything escaped relatively unscathed from the violent hail storm we had this week. One lady I know smilingly says that she doesn't need to gamble because gardening in Montana is enough gambling for her. ; ) I tend to agree.

Concerning farmer's market, flowers, friendships, and fluting

This past week has been crazy. I've been restless and rather emotional. I am "blaming" my hormones for this since I'm getting close to Brother's due date. Only I'm not really blaming them because I still want to take responsibility for my choices and actions; knowing that the the hormones are there and active, though, sure helps me understand myself. On Thursday I cleaned, sorted, and tidied until I exhausted myself, and since then I've been unmotivated, unmethodical, and tired. So I'm going to present you with a rambling, unmethodical post in keeping with my general weirdness. At least I got all the topics to alliterate. ; )

Yesterday was fun. Benjamin had the whole day off of work, and we enjoyed sleeping in and spending all day together as a family. We went to the farmer's market in the morning. I was thrilled to find an amazing price on echinacea and thyme plants ($2.50 for both of them!), and we also bought some apricots. At a produce stand down the road we bought luscious peaches and tomatoes, and at a yard sale recommended by a friend, we found

some cute little boy clothes for both Little Man and Brother. We ate lunch with a friend, and spent the afternoon and evening resting and relaxing. It was a marvelous day.

On Wednesday some of the ladies from church had a special little prayer meeting to pray for me and another mother whose baby is also due in August. It was an encouraging, uplifting time. I was encouraged to be full of God's peace and joy as I have my baby and as I adjust to having two little boys instead of just one. One of the ladies who came brought these these brilliant orangy-red sunflowers for me. Aren't they pretty? I put them in a dramatic green heirloom vase that seldom has something bold enough to balance it.

In February we started attending a new church. It was a hard and overwhelming change. I've adjusted now, though, and am excited about the number of new friendships opening up to me. However, as I develop new friendships perplexing questions come up. Questions about old friendships. Are they truly worthwhile, uplifting, and satisfying? Should they stay the same?Should I boldly confront troubling issues in them or should I merely put in a word here and there? What does God think? Questions about new friendships. Which ones should I cultivate? Which people will be good close friends, and which will be good acquaintance friends? Earlier this evening I was all worked up and worried about all these questions. Now I feel more peaceful. I have prayed for wisdom, and I trust that God will give it.

Last week I got to play the first movement of Telemann's first cannonic sonata as a duet with my flute student. I was so excited; I've been wanting to play these sonatas for a long time, and now I have someone to play them with. Speaking of flute music, I think I'll go play my flute for a while. Fluting seems to unwind me and helps me regain my equilibrium.

pillows and potting soil

This afternoon I went out and bought pillow forms for my two new couch pillows, and now I can post pictures of them! The only problem I'm facing is that both sides are so cute, I don't know which one to face out when they are sitting on the couch. The one on the left is the back of the two new matching pillows. The one in the middle is the front. I love how the antique buttons sewn in the middle of each flower turned out (my mom sewed them on for me). And the oblong plaid pillow is one of a pair that I made over a year ago. I like how they turned out.
We bought a bag of potting soil while we were out and about so that I could re-pot a few of my root bound house plants. You can see from the picture how much fun little man had helping me.
He loves dirt but usually isn't allowed to play with it since that means digging it from around my poor little plants and scattering it all over the floor. Today was an exception. He found a pot that had some dirt left in it and had fun experimenting with it trickling through his fingers.

As the afternoon has progressed, I have gotten a yucky headache. Which is why I'm indulging in afternoon blogging instead of doing other stuff. I still need to finish dinner in addition to having some other things I'd like to take care of tonight, so I will now diligently go take care of them headache or not.

Carrying on a Soupy Tradition

When my parents were newlyweds, my dad persuaded my mom to make tomato soup from the jealously guarded family recipe passed down from my great-grandmother to my grandmother to my dad (and mom) to me. Not knowing the family significance of the precious recipe, my dad got my mom to give the recipe to someone else. Long story short, "leaking" the family recipe was an unforgivable "crime." Years of happily making better-than-Campbell's soup and zealously guarding the recipe passed, and we found out the the precious recipe was originally a clipping from a newspaper. How ironic. Now we aren't afraid to give it away when asked since it couldn't have been that secret in the first place. ; ) All I can say is families are interesting.

Today I enjoyed making a batch of this renowned soup from my own home-grown garden tomatoes! (Yes, I was so excited about them that I had to take a picture.) I was thrilled to be able to achieve a goal that I started last spring when I planted my tiny tomato plants and tended them though cold and hot weather. I'm hoping that next year I'll be able to enrich my soil, have better success than 50% tomato plant survival rate, grow a bumper tomato crop, and be able to make even more savory soup!

I will post the recipe to the best of my memory. I'll have to check with my mom tomorrow and make sure there are no glaring mistakes.

Tomato Soup

4 heaping quarts of tomatoes, cut into quarters or eighths
3 or 4 onions, cut into eighths
1 stalk of celery
1 bell pepper
a few cloves of garlic, if desired
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup olive oil or melted butter
1 tablespoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
marjoram, thyme, basil, oregano, or your favorite spices to taste (sorry, this is something else I do by "feel")

Bring the tomatoes, onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic, and bay leaves to a boil. Boil, stirring occasionally, about 10-20 minutes or until celery and pepper are soft and the mixture is very juicy. Strain. (We use what we call a ricer, an inverted cone shaped strainer that sits on a stand and comes with a wooden pestle-type-thing to force liquid though the strainer. It also forces some bits of the vegetables though so it's thicker than V-8.) ; ) Bring to a boil in a clean pot. Meanwhile, mix flour, oil, salt, and spices. When the soup is hot, whisk a large ladle-full of soup into the flour mixture until smooth. Repeat 2 or 3 times, then whisk the flour-soup mixture into the large pot of soup. Pour the soup into clean jars, seal, and process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes.

Just in case someone is tempted to feel discouraged as I rattle on about my soup-making adventure, I will add this confession: I neglected to vacuum and mop my floors. ; ) But I don't regret it. After all, the autumn harvest time only comes once a year, and we will be enjoying the fruit of my labours many months from now. The floors will wait until next week.

Update: for a couple of new variations on how to make the soup look at this post.