Harvesting Bok Choy

Maddie and Jordann hunted Easter Eggs this weekend, but they also helped their Dad harvest the late Bok Choy crop in our garden.  Now I am hunting recipes to add to our family favorite, Bok Choy salad tossed with sunflower seeds, almonds, and toasted Ramen noodles drizzled with a spicy soy vinaigrette.  This is not a vegetable that freezes well, so we will share some as well as having stir fry and trying bok choy kim chee.

This year, the girls have their own vegetable and herb garden at their house so stay tuned for more "girls in the garden" pictures.

Palette of Tomatoes

A favorite gardening project, growing tomatoes has taken wings the last couple of years.  Not only are we growing more tomatoes, but most of them are heirloom varieties.  I am intrigued with being part of  sharing history and story.  Heirloom vegetables are grown from seeds passed down by many generations in a family and shared.  Last year, our family voted one heirloom our all time favorite.  It is one of the very first known "black", or deep dusky rose colored tomatoes, and is called Cherokee Purple. It was named in 1990 by. Craig LeHoullier  , who received seeds of an unnamed cultivar in the mail from J. D. Green of Tennessee. Mr. Green indicated that the "purple" tomato  was given by the Cherokee Indians to his neighbor "100 years ago".

We love the color and taste of this tomato, and enjoy thinking about others who have liked it enough for over 100 years to share it with others and save the seeds.  We have at least 2 dozen tomato plants.  Some of the other heirlooms are named Black Plum, Brown Berry, and Purple Russian.  Did I hear you say you thought tomatoes were red?

Invitation

I read in home and garden magazines about creating different spaces in the garden that are like different rooms.  Our garden has a variety of plants and paths that lead to herbs and vegetables, roses and fruit trees, flowers and vines.  Then there are what we call our "sitting spots".  A small table and chair, benches, stone walls, and tucked into the shady background here, child size chairs with cushions for the little girls who call us Papa Joe and Granmary...our invitation to come sit awhile.  There is so much rushing about and working to mark the next thing off a list.  The sitting spots call us to just be, doing nothing but breathing a prayer of gratitude for garden beauty.

In Love with Lavender

 Spring cleaning has not happened yet inside my home, but we have been hard at work Spring Cleaning the garden.  Pruning, wood-chipping, composting, tilling, mulching, cleaning out all the debris left in winter's wake and making room for new growth has resulted in sore knees, aching backs and glad welcome for the return of a palette of greens and rainbow colors.  As we put in fresh herbs, we picked plants for flavor, color and fragrance.  I learn more and more about herbs, and use them many more places than my kitchen herb bed.  We plant several different kinds of lavender for foliage and fragrance, as well as their lovely stalks of bloom.  There is English, Spanish, and French lavender, Godwin's Creek lavender, and Fern-leaf lavender.  I have a number of recipes which use lavender. We use it to make potpourri, and have made salves and tea.  Our few plants bring us joy, but on my list for "someday" is a visit to the lavender farms in the Texas Hill country.  If you are traveling near there in the next few months, be sure to visit and tell me all about it.  The Unlikely Lavender Queen:  A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming, would be perfect reading for your trip!
                                                
                                                 http://www.blancolavenderfest.com/