Sunday, February 23, 2014

Cacti creation for the old bathroom sink

Among our fun weekend projects was placing succulents in the old bathroom sink. The herbs didn't do great in here last time. ... Just planted over the past five days of intense gardening (I count this toward my daily exercise given I've been pulling out big rosemary bushes, using a hand saw to cut branches off trees to get more sun, etc.): four more kinds of potatoes in buckets and some in the ground, green and white onions, zucchini, cucumber, mesclun lettuce mix, three kinds of strawberries, asparagus, broccoli rabe, beets, edamame (very excited to see how this works), red cabbage, four kinds of tomato by starters and another by seed, more herbs like cilantro, flat-leaf parsley, basil, even some flower seeds from our wedding that may no longer be good. With the drought, it has been working great to collect rain water in big containers and use it for watering, so we have those out with rain expected this week.Can't wait to start padron peppers for the first time when they come in sometime late March!
 Emma got this great gift from Evan, Petra, Elise and Finn for her birthday made by Green Toys (same as the tugboat I got Holden for bathtime, Rach), and within only a few days indoors everything has already sprouted - sunflowers, basil and some flowers. Such a fun idea, thanks guys! Emma is such a great helper in the garden, harvesting arugula (our best crop yet given it has yielded some 4 or 5 harvests), regular broccoli for Lily right off the plant for immediate consumption, herbs and more. Last night I made stir fry in which I first marinated tofu in soy sauce and siracha, then used broccoli, purple cauliflower and green onion from the garden along with yellow onion, garlic, Chinese broccoli, snap peas and mushrooms and a few leftover carrots from the girls' dinner plates. It was so good over 10-minute farro from Trader Joe's.

Friday, February 21, 2014

The "Colors of Us"

Such a fun project at preschool ... Emma is top right with bright green eyes and bright red lips

Sister love





Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Friday, February 14, 2014

Monday, February 10, 2014

Winter harvest

 Tonight's garden salad: spinach, kale, arugula, green onion and young celery.
 Emma and Lily are loving helping out with the vegetables. Fun!
 Our very first successful spinach ... some hasn't even sprouted ...
 But we didn't give up on it!
 Purple cauliflower coming along nicely
 And we've got some Brussels sprouts
A bit gross but we carefully shoveled up our pathway covered with worms and moved them into the compost bin to see if that might work. We are all about experimenting.

Puddle jumpers

 We had lots of fun with the long-awaited rain!


Emma chose boots over bare feet

Friday, February 7, 2014

Silly sisters in the rain... we love this rain!



Fun work outing

I had such a fun 230-mile round trip yesterday to see former Mets and White Sox manager Jerry Manuel and his son. I've gotten to know Jerry over the years during his Bay Area trips. They have reopened a shut-down middle school by bringing mostly young African-American teens to work on baseball and life skills in a rural town north of Sacramento. The school is drawing from all over the area thanks to these two. Pretty neat. Story to come next week.