Spring Garden--Aaaah!

Our spring/summer garden is almost fully planted.  I'll share photos later, but here's what's in the soil now:

35 Tomato plants -- romas, juliets, marvel stripe, brandywine, sweet 100s, yellow pear, solarfire, sunpride, celebrity, bin 44 and a couple miscellaneous I can't now remember

42 Pepper plants - poblanos, habaneros, anaheim (green hatch), serranos, green bells, red bells, jalapenos, thai chilis

4 Tomatillos

12 Eggplant

2 Zucchini - That will be more than enough

More corn than I can count at the moment--we're adding more every 10 days

28 Haricot verts

15 Red chard

12 Collards

Every herb you can think of--They have their own home on the opposite side of our property, but we do plant quite a bit of basil and chives in the veggie garden

Our five blackberry bushes look better than ever this year - We'll probably be doing quite a bit of freezing (and some canning of blackberry jam for my husband)

Marigolds take their place at the end of each raised bed--they add beautiful color and help confuse some of the not-so-sweet buggies

Everything looks just absolutely fantastic so far, but we'll see what weather God has for us.  Sometimes the garden has been awesome in the past, and then a lovely storm with gusting winds and hail comes along and pelts holes in the tomato plants and blows over the peppers.  We're just praying for good rains and glorious sun (we'll no doubt get the latter).

I'm tasting that rainbow platter of tomatoes already.  Yummmmmmy!

Birthday Roses

My husband did it again! Beautiful yellow roses tipped with peach. It's really sunny looking around here.

Modified Juice Feast

My oldest daughter joined in on the global juice feast this month. She's now started on a more modified juice feast adding blended soups and smoothies. This was a great soup--tomato and basil. It's from sunnyrawkitchen's ebook. The picture doesn't show, but I served mine in a BIG white mug with chunks of avocado on top.

Salade Du Jour

I felt like a salad with grated veggies. This salad was a mix of greens with all sorts of goodies on top--grated beets, carrots and zucchini. Then I sprinkled on some kohlrabi microgreens and capers. Had my usual lemon juice and olive oil dressing on top. Delish!

My Birthday Cake

My daughters surprised me with a raw chocolate birthday cake! They decorated it with strawberries we received in our Greenlings local box Tuesday and fresh mint from our garden.

The picture doesn't show my ONE candle they placed in the center. They said 49 candles just wouldn't fit on my little cake. :)

This cake is scrumptious. And the strawberries made it taste really alive and fresh--kinda cut down on the richness.

YUMMY!!!!

Miso Shiitake Soup

Wow! This soup was soooo good. It was Ani Phyo's recipe for Miso Shiitake Soup. Ingredients included light miso, grated ginger, minced garlic, scallions, olive oil and water. The shiitakes were first marinated in Nama Shoyu and olive oil. Just a few ingredients and unbelievably simple to make. The only change I made in Ani's recipe was to back off on the olive oil by around half. And I could have even used less.

This soup is just packed with nutrition. I had it as my only lunch item, but it would make a wonderful starter to an Asian meal. It's really light, but filling as a large bowl.

Garden Babies

Putting our tomato babies out to get a bit of sunlight. We're still experiencing a freeze or two at night between our high 80's days. But soon these babies will be ready for the big garden. We'll probably transplant them into larger pots this week and let them sit like that for a couple more weeks while we're waiting to plant. Can't wait for those REAL juicy tomatoes.

Love Kale Salads!

Nothing better than a kale salad--of any kind. I enjoyed this as an all green kale salad. I added avocado, green olives, olive oil, lemon juice and sprinkled it with pine nuts.

Kale salads are so quick and easy to put together. I just make sure that my additions are hardy enough to stand up to the firm kale--red pepper is one of my favorites to add. Avocado can be put in as chunks or can be massaged into the kale leaves. Raisins are also nice in this salad.

To soften the kale, just add your lemon juice, a tiny drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of celtic sea salt. Then, using your hands, rub all your kale bites together. This will break it down, and the lemon juice will help wilt it a bit.

My absolute favorite salad!