Tag Archives: hops

Clearly I am not taking enough pictures with my SLR when the cat sleeps in the backpack.

Reading: Still reading American Cakes, and I am thinking about revisiting some recipes so I can make another post in here. Some of the most interesting cakes are actually ones that are published in passing like the War Cake, mayonnaise cake, or the original brownies. So I will probably be making some of those as well.

Watching: I’ve been watching lots of Adventure Time. I use to walk Wolfie in the afternoon but moved it to the morning for the summer so I could run/walk before it got too hot. So that means I am bored as heck in the afternoon. So Adventure Time has been something good to watch since it is short, and Wolfie tends to not care about what is going on the TV screen. I’ve also been watching the FIFA Confederation Cup as well. This, unfortunately, Wolfie loves to watch. So I have a feeling he will be a team sports type of guy.

I’ve been also obsessed with Crash Course Mythology Series. I’ve always loved mythology but sometimes it is hard to find (and cheap) sources to that aren’t Eurocentric. But this series talk about lots of different areas, including myths from China, Japan, India, parts of Africa, and the Americas. Heck even Hawaii! I strongly recommend checking it out.

Every single cat for my quilt. Click to see the full sized image.

Crafting: Still working on my cat quilt. We finished all the patches! Yey! Now the boring stuff- making it into a quilt. lol. My Mother and I need to make a trip out to Intercourse (yes that’s the name of a town) to get more of the grey fabric. I will be so happy when this is over. Our current blanket it too warm and too small for the summer.

Listening: Charli XCX released her new album so I’ve been listening to that on Spotify. Jon and I have been checking out albums from the library and transferring them to our computer. I found Foo Fighters and now I am suddenly remembering how awesome they are.

This guy sits in the house all winter and gets shoved outside all summer

Garden: My garden is doing much better than last year! After owning it for 3 years, my amaryllis FINALLY BLOOMED! My Mom got it for me one winter and it bloomed when we got it, then it just didn’t after that. It was pretty exciting to see the red flowers, but we might have to give it to someone else since it is poisonous to children once winter comes. Our succulents bloomed as well! They are spreading quite a lot which was the plan for them. We even had a few lilac blooms as well. 

The mystery plant that I got from Lowe’s has been thriving! It is much bigger than what I expected so this fall we will move it someplace different. I think it has been blocking the light for the balloon flower. The gladiolas keep getting nibbled by bunnies. And I think I have watermelon seeds that sprouted. Wut?  Which is nice but a bummer since it looks like the hops vine didn’t make it. T_T

Podcasts: Now that Wolfie has been sleeping more through the night I’ve been listening to less podcasts. But when he wakes up on rare occasions at 4 in the morning I’ve been listening to Oh No! Ross And Carrie’s Scientology series. It has been pretty funny. They also have a really funny series featuring their trip to the Ozark UFO Conference. Highlights? The Owl speaker, a penis star map, and a woman who thinks we had our memories wiped away after 1996. 

CSA: I tried to keep a log of all of the food I got from my CSA. Yeah that didn’t last too long. Well here is a fairly basic summary-

  • half a bag bok choy
  • half a bag beet greens + extra beet greens from parents
  • 2 bunches of beets with greens + 8 leafless beets
  • 2 bunches of collard greens
  • 7 heads of lettuce (almost all frozen in fridge)
  • 1 pint strawberries
  • 1 bunch turnips + greens + 5 solo turnips
  • cutting celery
  • 3 bunches of scallions
  • 7 garlic scapes
  • 5 kolhrabi
  • 1 1/2 bags of kale
  • 3 bunches of parsley
  • 1 quart snap peas
  • 1 1/2 bags of tatsoi
  • 2 heads of nappa cabbage
  • 2 heads of cabbage
  • 6 zucchini
  • 10 or so small carrots
  • 2 slicing cucumbers
  • 5 pickling cucumbers
  • 4 broccoli crowns

A fancy tea party for my Mom’s 60th birthday. Wolfie eats radishes, pesto, and cucumbers from our CSA

CSA Meals: I’ve been going nuts with stir-fries- Pad Kee Mow, Pad Thai, Moo Shu using bok choi, tatsoi, kolhrabi, and summer squashes. I am probably maxing out my sodium intake. Oops. 

I’ve been busy making lots of dips and spreads. I tried out a creamy radish dip that was in our CSA newsletter, parsley and cutting celery pesto, and a beet hummus. All of which has been put on toast for Wolfie. He’s been digging some of the produce eating sticks of kolhrabi, golden beets, broccoli, and cucumbers. Hubby’s been eating the snap peas raw with his lunches.

Since the early produce days consistent of mostly greens, I’ve been busy eating salad (whenever the lettuce doesn’t freeze up) mostly taco salads. I used some of the beet greens instead of spinach in a florentine. I’ve made Chana Saag with kale and coconut milk. And pretty much blending extra greens in smoothies whenever I can.

Finally, with the few strawberries that I got I made the chocolate pudding that Jenny got me from our package exchange. It was awesome and easy to make. 

OMG so fancy!

Other Eats: Ice cream! Store bought ice cream! I’ve been snacking on little ice cream snacks when possible in stores. And MOM’s Organics have had my favorite Sorbabes on sale- Peanut Banana with chocolate fudge. We’ve also been to VEDGE! I am so excited to write up the review for the blog. And I got some sick photos before I drank too much and it started to get dark. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What have you guys been digging for the month of June?


mysteryplant

I’ve done gardening in the past. When I was younger I had a garden underneath our old swing set. But let’s face it, I was more interested in picking flowers to go in the garden than actually maintaining it. As I got older I went through many apartments that kind-of made gardening something unmanageable. I’ve always lived on the 2nd floor, making the only plant option indoor ones. I also lived in Philadelphia for a few years, and if plants went outside I risked someone kicking and breaking the pots. When I moved back to the burbs, I was still on the second floor and the rules of gardening was really murky, so I chose to avoid it.

So when we bought our row home, it was the first time we had a small plot of land to grow things in. The problem was that the previous owners wanted more patio space and filled the soil with rocks and stepping stones. At first I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, just pick out the big stepping stones and then pick out the smaller rocks. In fact my bosses took the stepping stones to use in their own gardens, so I just had to pick out the smaller rocks in-between the stones. I think my tip off that it would be hard was the fact that there wasn’t any weeds. So. Many. Stones. There was a layer of pretty store bought stones, and then just a foot of stone filled soil. It took about 2 months of random rock picking with my husband to get the stone situation to an controllable state. Even still, there are a good amount of rocks in our soil.

squirrelattack2

Aside from that we have had a few challenges- mostly squirrels. I brought out my amaryllis plant that I got this Christmas. I also tried starting seeds for a few flowers and herbs, starting them inside but putting them outside on warmer days. Well, it turns out that the squirrels were still pretty hungry from the winter and kept digging through my plants. I pretty much gave up hope for the flowers and herbs, but a few of the Black Hollyhocks have lived, though I still need to transplant them. None of the Purple Perilla have lasted, they seeds got washed away.

blackholly

cilatnro

As for the herbs… I don’t know what is growing. Well, I do know some of the cilantro is growing. I know this because I saw some of the seeds stuck the sprouts and because the leaves are starting to get all cilantro-y. I am excited because it is one of the herbs at my CSA that gets cut down fast. I also planted mint and basil, but squirrels pushed the dirt around so much that I think some seeds got buried too deep. Everything got moved all over the place.

lettucearug

There are two more edibles that I planted, lettuce and hops. I planted two types of lettuces, one I can’t remember the name of (oops) and the other is arugula (or rocket). Again I planted these because my CSA isn’t the best suppliers of lettuce. We might a head or two in the spring and another 2 heads in the summer, then that’s it. So I figured it would be nice to have more. 

I have no idea what I am doing with hops. I am taking a chance and trying to grow it on our fence, and I think a neighbor is using the community fences, so I think it is allowed (technically we own the inside of the house, and not the outside, so it makes things a little weird). I picked the Cascade Hops plant because it sounded like it might do well with my soil and it sounded like it would be nice and fragrant. We have no plans on using the hops for brewing, though maybe we can get some extra cash on the side. Where’s the dollar sign emoji face when you need it? Anyways, after a lot of waiting I THINK I see the the hops starting the grow. Either that, or it is a weed. So fingers crossed.

gnome2

Other things? Well, we got a beautiful gnome for the garden, with a golden cone hat. And he is planted to a bush that I got on sale at Lowe’s. Sadly I can’t remember what the bush is. Womp womp. It was really pathetic when I bought it, all dried out. Now it looks like there are fresh shoots coming out, so that’s reassuring. Maybe at some point I will be able to tell what it is by searching the flowers.

stepping

There also two stepping stones jointing out porch area to the sidewalk, and I bought these cute succulents that looks like some sort of stonecrop/sedum. Again, I am an idiot who forgot to save or label the plant. It will hopefully crawl and fill in the spaces over time, might not happen for a few years though. I might have to ask my boss if I can steal some of his succulent plants to help fill in the gaps.

Speaking of my boss, I’ve been getting some other freebies from him. See he LOVES gardening, and all the companies he orders from tend to give out free bulbs and the like. (for example I got free dill seeds when I ordered from Thyme Garden Herb Co.) So I planted some Balloon Flowers and Gladiolus. So it looks like we will have a fairly full garden for the first year. 

So that is what is going on with my garden right now. Hopefully I will try and post updates ever month or so as my garden fills out.