April First And Time To Walk In The Garden And See What's Cooking (Page Two)
Det er April først og tid til at gå i haven og se hvad der er Cooking
Visit The Front Yard Learn About Squash See The Garden Grow April 9th
Velkommen venner
Wecome til Californien! Vi er glade for at møde dig.
Vi er så glade for, at Charlotte har sendt dig disse billeder.
Når vi ikke spiller golf eller dans, vi arbejder i haven. Min smukke kone, Sue gør magi fra grøntsager!
Kom og besøg os snart!
Farvel for nu
Paul & Sue
The Danish on this page is for Charlotte's family who live in Denmark! They enjoy garden pictures so we wanted toshare and say hello to them.
Remember? - Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. - Doug Larson
Den forventede levealder ville vokse med stormskridt, hvis grønne grøntsager lugtede så godt som bacon. - Doug Larson
Sometimes it is difficult to garden because you just want the little guys to grow and then, all of a sudden, the veggies get some traction and you can't keep them in the ground! It's always a challenge for Sue as to what she will have as raw ingredients on any given day!
The transplanted nectarine tree is doing fantastic!
This year we can
simply reach our and take them without having to trample though the garden!
We planted onions around all the borders and they are doing well
Pull them out and cook them - 30 seconds from garden to grill
Did You Know? - The onion plant has a fan of hollow, bluish-green leaves and the bulb at the base of the plant begins to swell when a certain day-length is reached. In the autumn the foliage dies down and the outer layers of the bulb become dry and brittle. The crop is harvested and dried and the onions are ready for use or storage.
First time for kale... Small beets are along the border
There are four different apples on this tree!
The south yard has three trees plus peppers and room for other plants later on
The blueberries are turning...
Time to put up the nets!
We will have three months of blueberries
Did You Know? - Georgia has a long harvest season, lasting from late April through the end of July. In a little more than 10 years, Georgia has become a major player in the global blueberry market.
Georgia is the fourth- or fifth-highest producer of cultivated blueberries in the U.S., with almost 10 percent of production. In 2012, Georgia produced 77 million pounds of blueberries from nearly 15,000 acres of orchards.
Maine produces 25% of all blueberries in North America with 24,291 hectares (60,020 acres) under cultivation. Wild blueberry is the official fruit of Maine.
Hammonton, New Jersey claims to be the "Blueberry Capital of the World, with over 80% of New Jersey's blueberries coming from this town. Every year the town hosts a large festival that draws thousands of people to celebrate the fruit.
See The Garden Grow... Seven Weeks Of Cauliflower
The cauliflower heads are just beginning to form deep inside the plant
See what they looked like seven weeks ago
The cauliflower looked like this February the 8th
Cauliflower is excellent for you...
Look at the vitamin C
Did You Know? - Cauliflower traces its ancestry to the wild cabbage, a plant thought to have originated in ancient Asia Minor, which resembled kale or collards more than the vegetable that we now know it to be.
The cauliflower went through many transformations and reappeared in the Mediterranean region, where it has been an important vegetable in Turkey and Italy since at least 600 B.C.
It gained popularity in France in the mid-16th century and was subsequently cultivated in Northern Europe and the British Isles. The United States, France, Italy, India, and China are countries that produce significant amounts of cauliflower.
Tomatillos
will soon be made into sauce for our Mexican meals
The husks are forming... We will keep an eye on them
Did You Know? - The tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica), known as the Husk Tomato or Mexican Husk Tomato, is a plant of the nightshade family, related to the cape gooseberry, bearing small, spherical and green or green-purple fruit of the same name. Tomatillos originated in Mexico and are a staple of Mexican cuisine. Tomatillos are grown as annuals throughout the Western Hemisphere.
The tomatillo fruit is surrounded by an inedible, paper-like husk formed from the calyx. As the fruit matures, it fills the husk and can split it open by harvest. The husk turns brown, and the fruit can be several colors when ripe, including yellow, red, green, or even purple. The freshness and greenness of the husk are quality criteria.
Might be a little late for peas but we are giving them a try
Peppers, Swiss chard, beets... Living together in harmony
We plan to harvest the larger leaves of the Swiss chard this week
Did You Know? - Swiss chard isn't native to Switzerland. Its actual homeland of chard lies further south, in the Mediterranean region; in fact, the Greek philosopher, Aristotle wrote about chard in the fourth century B.C. This is not surprising given the fact that the ancient Greeks, and later the Romans, honored chard for its medicinal properties. Chard got its common name from another Mediterranean vegetable, cardoon, a celery-like plant with thick stalks that resemble those of chard. The French got the two confused and called them both "carde."
Notice, we gave the string beans a left-hand turn...
We are trying to keep them from going over the top of the cage
Cherry Bomb peppers
Did You Know? - A pimiento, pimento, or cherry pepper is a variety of large, red, heart-shaped chili pepper (Capsicum annuum) that measures 3 to 4 in (7 to 10 cm) long and 2 to 3 in (5 to 7 cm) wide (medium, elongate).
The flesh of the pimiento is sweet, succulent, and more aromatic than that of the red bell pepper. Some varieties of the pimiento type are hot, including the 'Floral Gem' and 'Santa Fe Grande' varieties.
Pimiento is an originally Spanish term that was added to English (a loanword). The fruits are typically used fresh or pickled. The pimento has one of the lowest Scoville scale ratings of any chili pepper.
Eggplants are just forming
... Amazing colors
Learn About Squash
Paul grabs a squash blossom to indicate the size of the blossom
The plant is just going wild!
Good because he might be dinner tonight!
Yummy!
Take A Look At Sue's Approach!
A beautiful specimen of a squash blossom
Ready to stuff it with cheese...
Well... After we wash him up and dry him
Just one of many plants around our garden
We have crook neck, straight neck, patipan, and zucchini plants
The baby squash are delicious
Radishs Make A Great Salad
Radishes... Never knew they were so good until Sue made a radish salad
Did You Know? -We use the parts of foods we often throw away was radish top soup.The peppery taste of the leaves from radishes. Most of the time the leafy greens from radish plants get thrown away or composted, but they're edible and delicious. Here are five recipes that make use of radish leaves.
- Radish Top Soup – This is the recipe I used for that first foray into eating radish tops. Mixed with potatoes and topped with sliced radishes, this creamy, pureed soup will turn you into a radish green lover.
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Radish Greens Dal – Radish greens and lentils are the base for this spicy curry.
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Radish Leaf Pesto – The greens from radishes replace the basil and parsley in this pasta topper that can also be used as a dip.
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Spicy Stir Fried Radish Greens – Garlic and a sauce are added to the greens and stir fried for one of the fastest side dish you can make.
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Radish Leaves and Avocado Quiche – This is one green quiche. The recipe calls for making mini quiches and topping them with sliced radishes. Very colorful.
Amazing use of radishes!
The radish salad was wonderful!
We had red and white ones so far.... More are now planted
The bush bean blossoms are coming along nicely
Mr. Tomato is getting ready....
We are trying some new staking and pinching techniques this year
We planted "Duck tomatoes" for our son Joe!
The north wall is covered in tomatoes
These will be carrots in a few weeks
and remember to save the leaves...
Makes a great pesto sauce
The four-foot wide beds are just perfect for us old folks
De fire-fods brede senge er bare perfekt for os gamle folk
More onions.... They look so good!
The perlite is working well keeping the soil moist
A look across the pool
Time for a veggie sandwich!
Let's Also Do The Front Yard
Herbs and lettuce are doing well... They get visits all the time
From the chef.... Nothing like fresh herbs
We keep the mint separate as it is so evasive
The blackberries are forming blossoms now
The spaghetti squash will end up 30 feet long and run along the top of the fence
Did You Know? - Spaghetti squash can be baked, boiled, steamed, and/or microwaved. It can be served with or without sauce, as a substitute for pasta. The seeds can be roasted, similar to pumpkin seeds.
When raw, the flesh is solid and similar to other raw squash; when cooked, the flesh falls away from the fruit in ribbons or strands like spaghetti.
Tomatillos are blossoming...
Our new pomegranate tree has not a single blossom
but the internet says it may take two years
It looks healthy enough
The artichoke was just planted
String beans in the back, bunching onions next and three rows of onions you see
just peeking out of the dirt!
The Japanese grapes are really looking great!
The orange trees have fruit from six months ago and new
blossoms that will be fruit by November
Our Mediterranean orange tree is loaded!
Herbs are always ready to pop into the skillet... Cilantro and parsley here
Urter er altid klar til at pop i stegepande ... koriander og persille her
Limes anyone?
Along the driveway we have grapes and they are already forming
Langs indkørslen vi har druer, og de er allerede danner
Onions are looking good!
Carefully look and you will see peas from the fall garden peeking through
The apple tree is loaded with blossoms and fruit!
Den æbletræ er fyldt med blomster og frugt!
Note that the tree is fruitless on the bottom (where people walk by and get them)
The plum tree is full of blossoms and small fruit! We will have plums this year!
This orange is loaded with fruit
and blossoms... This is a Valencia orange
Inside our front yard wall... Note the onions
We can sit in the hot tub and listen to the fruit and veggies grow
Orange juice later this week
Appelsinjuice senere i denne uge
The basil always grows well
April 9th...A Walk To See The Details
The onions are beginning to expand!
Another month they will be big and fat!
The little cauliflower is working hard
Buried deep in the leaves
Well hidden
We are watching you!
The bush beans are foing well
Blueberries are amazing
The garden is in full bloom
Thanks to Hans, we have FANTASTIC blueberry desserts for breakfast
Nummy nummy!
Goodbye for now from California
Farvel for nu fra Californien
