First harvest of the year always makes me happy. Nothing tastes like the first sugar snap pea of the season…
midsummer garden
I started seedlings later this year than last. Despite the later start, they seem to have caught up and are all doing well so far: Super Sugar Snap peas Graffiti Purple cauliflower Mammoth Red Rock cabbage Chiogga beets Black Forest kabocha squash Cayenne peppers Gold Star summer squash Flash collard greens Rocambole garlics – Siberian Purple Stripe, Montana Giant, Russian Red Toma Verde tomatillos Waltham 29 broccoli Romaine lettuce Nasturtium, chilies (Hatch, chocolate & orange habanero, Traveler Jalapeno, Christmas Tree), tomatoes (Cherokee Purple, Climstar, Frederik, Kakao, Purple Bumblebee, Black Cherry) are also doing well so far. Dark Star Watermelon and Early Black and Black Beauty Eggplant starts didn’t make it
June 22, 2017
outgrowing the nest
Baby robins are getting ready to fledge soon. They barely fit in the nest… June 13th update: And then there was one…saw #3 fly from the nest this morning. They grow so fast!
green cherries
The first of the fruit trees I planted last spring have fruit — check out the green cherries…
baby robins – eyes open
The first of the hatchlings’ eyes have opened…
the view…
…never gets old.
hatchlings!
The last of the robin eggs have hatched! They should be out of the nest within a couple weeks (and I’ll thankfully get my ladder back)…
first elk sighting
First time I’ve seen an elk so close to the house…
pea shoot soup
Pea shoots taste like the essence of fresh peas in the pod you get later in the summer. Raw, they’re perfect on their own or in sandwiches and salads. Cooked, they marry that fresh pea flavor to a dish. One of my favorite ways to use them cooked is in cream of cauliflower pea shoot soup: Cream of Cauliflower Pea Shoot Soup Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter 1 medium leek, sliced into rings ½ cup dry white wine 1 head fresh cauliflower, chopped into large pieces 4 cups stock (vegetable, chicken, or beef – whichever taste you prefer) 4 cups fresh pea shoots Couple dashes garlic powder Directions: In a stock pot,
June 4, 2017
bumblebee?
Yesterday afternoon about a half dozen or so of these large, fluffy, yellow and black flying insects with clear wings were feeding on the lilacs. First thought it might be a bumblebee queen, but it didn’t make sense that there would be so many in one place. I asked some fellow beekeepers. Turns out it’s not a bee, but a moth — Hemaris difinis to be exact. Some call it the “flying lobster” due to its flat, splayed tail. It’s also known as a “hummingbird moth” (pic below from erie.wbu.com). Unlike other moths, these lose the scales on their wings that give other moths their wing color so the wings appear mostly clear
May 31, 2017