Saturday, June 26, 2010

Meanwhile Back At the Ranch-ette

OK, a raised bed and a bunch of containers from the dumpster and recycling center aren't a ranchette, but still, one must pun in the title.

So, I now have 10-15 baby tomatoes. 3 baby pea pods, parsley, cilantro, 8 radishes harvested and 8 more in the ground, 3 volunteer squash plants, 7 buckets of potatoes (4 full to the top and 3 nearly to the top), lettuce, chard, kale, spinach, onions looking good, carrots making tops, beats, kohlrabi in pots, basil starting, 3 types of mint (two from Sally! Thanks Sally), strawberry plant growing but no berries yet, sage, a bit of oregano starting and a variety of other things trying to start.

Today, I had a nice salad entirely from the garden with a honey balsamic vinaigrette.
Of course Sally trumped that when I visited and she handed me strawberries out of her garden. Oh well. It was all good.

I also hung out laundry today. 6 loads. I can now see the floor where once was a 3 foot pile of laundry. Nice. There is a dry hot wind so the dish towels dried faster than I could hang them up. Even the jeans were dry in an hour.

There are a few sweatshirts out there still that I should go get momentarily. Stuff smells better when dried outside (and not just because I have salmon eggs curing for bait in dishes on the dining room floor...). And it was windy enough that things didn't come out all stiff. That is one very minor drawback to hanging things inside. When they just hang and dry slowly, they get a bit board like. With a good wind, the towels are actually soft. This is probably not a treat for most people, but for me it's a nice change after a winter of drying off with flat, stiff towels. Sure they fluff up by the second use, but still. Not quite as nice as summer towels.

Good thing stuff dries faster in the summer. I've been going through a couple outfits a day. Sweat plus dust blowing in wind does not do clothes any favors. In the winter I can get more wearings out of a pair of jeans.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see that you had a salad with a honey vinaigrette. Did you harvest the honey from your own beehives that you fashioned out of some cardboard boxes and hamster bedding? (Previous sentence makes it very clear I know nothing about beekeeping. However, my good friend Cheryl is a bee keeper should you ever want some tips.) Jill, I'll give you credit; reading your blog ALMOST makes me want to eat a vegetable :-)

Jill said...

wow! That is the best complement I've gotten on the garden.
The vinaigrette was good. And the spinach continues to grow, though no to the lush clump shown on the see packet. Oh well. I may call for beehive tips. I really want bees