I've got nothing. Not even a little photo of what I've been eating. Life has been too busy this week. At least I have been eating from my stores. I even made dinner for a sick friend and used my spinach and squash as sides. I was trying to get everything done so I could take my vacation. My MIL takes all her daughters (including DILs) to Canyon Ranch every couple of years. It is so nice and relaxing there. Exactly the opposite of my last week. My husband will hold down the fort here. I've got some onion seedlings all up and growing. He is not a plant person, but I think it will need to be watered just once when I'm gone. I've shown him how to pet my onions (I pet them to keep them growing strong and healthy in a windless environment). And I've shown him how to water (bottom water always as top watering erodes the soil blocks).
Have fun enjoying your harvests without me this week. I'll be back by next Monday.
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
No harvests here. It snowed again over the weekend. We only got a few inches this time. Thank goodness. Last week was filled with calzones of different kinds. I had made some pizza dough and only used about half on pizza. So for lunch each day I made a fresh calzone. The above calzone was Jarlsburg cheese, and spinach and Korean Purple sweet potatoes from my garden stores. Korean Purple is only purple on the outside. Inside it is white. It also has a more starchy potato like texture than other sweet potatoes I've tried. My favorite filling was a mixture of mushrooms, spinach, cheese, and ham. I really love the combination. So much so that when I made a quiche yesterday that was what I put on the inside.
I swear my stores aren't going down very quickly. I might have to do an inventory soon and see what needs to be eaten. I can send extras to my townhouse mates. Though they aren't going through the garlic very quickly. I basically told them anytime they need garlic, sweet potatoes, or squash they could come over and get some. It used to be true for onions too, but I just have a handful left. I've put the last remaining few in the fridge so they store better.
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
I've got nothing except snow here. Certainly no harvests. I have been using my preserved harvest though. Some dinners have more garden produce than others.
After shoveling on Sunday I felt a great need for carbs. So I made pancakes for dinner. Not our norm, but it does happen. I opened a can of homemade applesauce (sadly not from the garden, but it was from the local farmers) and a can of my homegrown strawberry syrup. Yum!
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
I was getting a lot of calls from family asking how we weathered the blizzard. Our power never even flickered. We did get about two feet of snow. The government closed down the roads for about 24 hours so clean up would be easier. It went on record as the fifth largest snowfall in Boston's history. I'm sure power is still being restored to many, but for us it wasn't too hard. The hardest part was wondering when they would finally plow the roads. But our neighbor called the town about it complaining that there are elderly living on the street and they might need emergency services. So they finally showed up. Our road is a small private road, just one car width wide and dead ends at our house. There are only five houses on it (though some are multifamily homes), so we tend to be forgotten.
Friday afternoon just as the storm started
Saturday afternoon after it was starting to wind down
The main garden after - the bamboo poles sticking up way in the back are 3' tall
Today after shoveling a path to the compost
That big pile of snow we made to the right of the path is my overwintering spinach. I was worried about it since we had no snow and some very cold windy weeks. The spinach was starting to brown on the larger leaves. Well I should be more specific on what I want. I would have been fine with about 9". I really didn't need 2'.
Walking will be interesting for a while. The sidewalks are now a challenge. Sidewalks in Arlington shoveled by the homeowners and sometimes it is spotty. Joel complained most about a hotel that is just a few block away. He said they barely shoveled. Just a small path through. The intersection at Mass Ave and Route 16 is the worst as there are 6' piles of snow that have to be climbed over. It will be interesting when I have to walk to work.
I had no harvests this last week. We got snow. We got rain. We got a wind storm. We got a day that went up to 61F (almost a record). We got a low of 13F. So it was a wild weather week. But sadly no harvests. January once again has been warmer than normal. Or at least the lows haven't been as low. We went to 3.2F for a low. I'm supposedly in zone 6b. My lowest low should be between 0F and -5F. Not so far. But it is still early February.
For those of us in the US we spent yesterday evening watching football. (The American version, not what we call soccer. And why did it get named football anyway? The most common time the ball comes in contact with the a foot is when a team has to give the ball to the other team. Why did someone name it after the team's failure? Personally I'd name it yardball after the two most used words in the game.) It was Superbowl Sunday. It is always a good excuse for a party so we spent the day with friends. Half the people watched the game (or the commercials depending upon their preference). The other half played Cards Against Humanity to pass the time and to give us opportunities to snort beer up our noses. Really never drink beer when you play this game. It is a bad idea.
But I digress. Parties are always about food and I have a pantry filled with squash still. The squash are keeping very well. I've found that butternuts can keep easily into the spring if not longer. So that morning I baked up three squash. Some got pureed and frozen (above photo). Some got pureed and put into a squash casserole (only photographed by my husband's iTouch but never sent to me so I couldn't use it).
And some got cubed and put into a squash and bean salad. Squash, beans, and red onions were all from the garden. Sadly not the apple. but maybe this year we will get our first apples.
Much of the food at the party was theme based. We had crabcakes and sourdough bread. The fried chicken was made with Old Bay Seasoning. And beer was brought from the appropriate cities. One person made mincemeat pie (in honor of those that didn't make it to the Superbowl). I ate a slice in honor of the Patriots.
And totally off topic, don't you wish you had this library in your town?
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
