Garden Progress

Because it's an unseasonably warm March, our garden has exploded much earlier than normal.  We've got more growing now than in April of last year. 

 

The forsythia bushes are gorgeous.

 

Similarly, the helleborus is all in bloom.

 

I have hyacinths that I didn't even know existed just in front of our coldframe.

 My roses have new growth all over the place.

*B* bought me a very little lilac for a bare spot along our fence.  I hope this little guy makes it.

Our clover cover crop has really sprung up.

*B* bought some arugula plants the other day from Southern States.  While I'm not a fan, he will definitely eat them.

The rhubarb is just taking off.  We have two plants this year - I need to find recipes quick!

Even the garlic that I was worried about a few weeks ago has grown much sturdier.

 

I tend to collect mint plants.  Right now we've got peppermint, chocolate mint, variegated mint, and pineapple mint.  I need to repot the chocolate and variegated mints.  I didn't actually expect the peppermint to survive - *B* ripped it out of the front bed last fall.  We threw a couple of roots that we found this spring into a pot, and they're already sending up leaves.  We will have quite the mint harvest this year!

Preparing for a New Career

This pregnancy is flying by faster than I had expected.  I'm already in my third trimester with a little less than three months to go.  I've finally started showing in the last month or so.  I've always been heavy, so for a long time I didn't look that much different from what I was last year.

I've found that I am more domestic than I used to be.  I've fallen back into the routine of making our bed every morning - flat sheet and all - and I love the way it looks and how I feel when I'm done.  In the mornings, I'll find myself a little behind schedule because I'm washing dishes or putting away laundry.

I'm trying to make foods that we like from scratch.  I just tried whole wheat bagels yesterday from a recipe at Home Joys.  They were okay given that I was a little lax on the timing of things (they were a little chewy for my taste), but I am going to try them again - cinnamon raisin next time.  I made stock and wheat bread without hesitation or fuss, as if it were a normal Saturday afternoon activity.  Come to think of it, it is becoming a normal Saturday activity.

I've started an attempt to make liquid laundry soap.  I can only say started because I grated up the soap and got my borax and washing soda together when I realized that I don't have containers to store it in yet.  As soon as my current laundry soap is used up (any day now), I'll be able to finish off that project.  In that vein, I'm researching cleaning methods, tools to maintain my home, and making lists of things that I'd like to do while I'm home next year.

Where I was unimpressed with our garden last year, I'm taking much more care to get our plants started on time and manage our little sprouts.  Rather than feeling guilty about thinning seedlings, I'm pulling them out without much thought because I know we'll get a better yield when the strong ones have room to thrive.

I am scrutinizing our budget and we are watching where every cent goes.  By the middle of April, if all goes as planned, we will have saved all the money we need to live on next year while I'm at home.  That means that our goal is met in half the time we needed, so I might be able to stay home two years if we can save at the same rate.  I do have a small part time job as well that will help us stretch that money out.

With all of these things that I've been doing over the past few weeks, it hit me just this morning that I'm subconsciously preparing for my new career.  I'm falling into a routine and learning how to take care of my home and family.

Beginning of Spring

We've had really strange weather as of late. Last week, the temperatures were in the 70s. Today, it snowed all day. None of it stuck, but it was definitely strange. But even with the weird weather, *B* and I started the garden this past weekend.

We first took a little survey of how things made it through the winter.  When*B* started sheet mulching, everything had died back, so we had to go hunting for daffodils.  None of them have bloomed yet, but they survived suffocation.  Our three little crocus plants survived too, as did the lilies.

 Little daffodils are starting to poke out.

One of our three crocuses - this one is right on the edge of our lawn.

 

 

 Our Alabama crimson honeysuckle flowered really early this year.

 

Our hens-and-chicks survived the mild winter.

 

True to its name, our Lenten rose (hellebores) is flowering.

 

 

 *B* had ripped a rhubarb out of our raised bed last year and threw it behind our shed in an empty space.  That little sucker is coming back strong!

We have some radishes and spinach (I think) coming up in *B*'s cold frame.  That's been his project over the winter.

 *B* planted the tops of some parsnips last fall.  If you look hard on the left, they're starting to sprout.

 

We're growing red clover next to our barren footpaths in the back garden.   They're inoculated, so they'll help fix nitrogen in the soil.

In keeping with the bulbs, we have a garlic problem.  Last year, I planted a ton of garlic because I wanted to make garlic braids.  No matter how long I waited, the bulbs stayed small. So I ended up letting them go over the winter and now they're sprouting again.

The three in the back are still tiny.  Some in the front are a little narrower than the width of my pinky.

This is the biggest garlic we have.  The scape is about the width of a pencil.

While the outside is warming up, we've started some projects inside.  *B* wants to put in a small pond this year, and he's been experimenting with watery plants.  These are the roots of run-of-the-mill grocery store watercress that he's been growing:

 

 I've been lamenting the fact that I can't find grow bulbs at our local stores.  *B* came up with the great idea of using full-spectrum turtle lights to help out our tomatoes.  It works great!

 

 I'm looking forward to the warmer weather to come and getting back outside again.  We've put a lot of thought into the garden this year as it might end up being a significant portion of our diet.  Here's to the beginning of a good gardening year!

A New Way to Save

*B* gets a hair cut every two months or so.  At $15 a pop, this quickly adds up.  We bought a home haircut kit at Costco the other day for just $25.  This was my first attempt at cutting someone's hair.  A little short, but not bad!

Ready-to-bake Freezer Lasagne

I've always liked my mom's lasagne.  I don't make it often, though, because it seems like it takes forever to make.  I tried once to make a Martha Stewart lasagne that took less time, but it was terrible.  So this time around, I broke it up into a couple of steps, and finished off the easiest ever freezer lasagne.

Two weeks ago, I took an hour to make spaghetti sauce.  My mom starts with ground beef, but I made a cheese lasagne this time. All I had to do is mix 1 tsp onion powder, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 1/2 tsp Italian
seasoning, 15 oz can tomato sauce, 6 oz can tomato paste, and 1 cup water in a big pot.  I doubled the recipe so that I could get more product out of my time.  I also used homemade tomato paste from my San Marzano tomatoes that came in last year.  Once everything is combined, all you have to do is simmer for about 1 hour.  When all was done, I threw the sauce into sealed glass jars in the fridge.


This morning, I was ready to tackle the second half.  I mixed 2 pounds of ricotta cheese with 1 egg, 1/2 cup
parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, and 1 tbsp parsley.

I bought square glad containers that work for both the freezer and the oven.  In the bottom, I put a thin layer spaghetti sauce.  On top of that, I put two no-boil lasagna noodles.  My mom said three, but only two fit in one layer in the pan without too many gaps and without too much overlap.  Then, I spread 1/2 ricotta mix over noodles, spread thin layer of spaghetti sauce, and sprinkled with mozzarella cheese.  I did the ricotta, sauce, cheese step again.  Then, I layered two more noodles, put the rest of the tomato sauce, and a ton of mozzarella on top.  Slap on the plastic lid, label, and throw it into the freezer.

When ready to cook, just pull it out of the freezer, take off the lid, and bake at 350 degrees until hot throughout and golden on top.  With the zucchini bread I made at the same time, this is a perfect dinner.  Yum!

Prepping Made Harder

When *B* and I were on our honeymoon, we read The Omnivore's Dilemma.  It is a fantastic book, but as of late it's been making my life difficult.  While I had a hard time giving up "conventionally" raised meat, *B* has really stuck with it.

Our meat comes from a local butcher shop, so it's probably not product of a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO).  I know for a fact that the beef we eat was raised in a lady's backyard - my mom works with her.  But our chicken and the little bit of bacon we get are of somewhat indeterminate origins.

When eating with *B* now, I feel really guilty about eating meat.  When we eat out at a restaurant, *B* always gets something vegetarian.  When at home, if I make something with chicken, I feel bad because I know he has reservations about eating it.  But the problem is that I have not found vegetarian meals that I like.  While he's happy eating lentil soup and vegetable curry, I'm not.  I haven't had pork loin in well over a year, and that used to be one of my go-to meals.  I just don't like sweet and sour chicken without the chicken (a meal we had last week).

Day to day, I deal with this fairly well.  I'm grumbly, but I manage.  I eat meat at school and when we go out.  In prepping, though, this issue is almost painful.  I see tons of interesting freezer meals on Pinterest and others' blogs, but they're usually based around a meat.  All of the vegetarian meals I see seem terrible to me.

The problem is that I'm very picky when it comes to vegetables.  I don't like onions and tomatoes unless they're cooked and diced fine.  I don't like olives, most beans, peppers, cucumbers, winter squash, arugala, beets, turnips, or rutabegas.  I also don't like any kind non-cow milk cheeses like chevre.  I'm not a huge fan of barley, quinoa, or couscous.  I would kill a bowl of fettucini alfredo with broccoli with no problem, but *B* isn't a huge fan of pasta.

What this boils down to is that my freezer is stocked with two types of food right now: food I'll eat and food he'll eat.  I can't find enough meals that will satisfy both of us so that we don't get sick of them.

Finally Finished

Yesterday, I finally finished my last class in my master's program.  I have an A so far in that class, not including the final.  If I got an A on the final, I will graduate in may Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 in all of my graduate coursework!

Mind you, I'll graduate two weeks before my due date, so I may or may not actually walk, but I'm happy to be done.  It's been a long road, and I have so much free time now that I can focus a little more on my projects at home.

Whew...