Gardening Term of the Day~ Open Pollinated

Hello! Well, I'll bet you have all heard of "open pollinated" (a.k.a. OP) plants. For those of you who aren't 100% sure what this means, I thought I'd talk about it. OP varieties are seeds that result from pollination by insects, wind, self-pollination (where both male and female flowers are present on the same plant)or other natural forms of pollination.

These are the plants that are great to save seed from because they will be "true to type", meaning they will have the same traits as the parent plant from which it was harvested. However, this is not fool proof! You know mother nature! Both wind and insects will pollinate different plants planted close together. Some will "cross pollinate". And if you are raising plants for seed this will be a factor that can be controlled, but if your a home gardener, it's not a big deal. Squash and pumpkins are notorious for this, but hey, maybe you'll invent something interesting!

Home Made Granola! Yum!

I love granola. So today I decided to show you how easy it is to make your own. I found this recipe on the 100 Days of Real Food website and I just HAD to try it~ Here is the list of ingredients. Of course you could tweak this any way your heart desires. PREHEAT OVEN to 250.... 3 1/2 cups rolled oats.... 1 cup raw sliced almonds.... 1 cup raw cashew pieces (or walnuts or pecans).... 1 cup unsweetened coconut (I couldn't find unsweetened so I used sweetened).... 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds.... 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds.... 2 tsp ground cinnamon.... 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger.... 1/2 tsp grated or ground nutmeg (I actually forgot to add this- HA! Just keepin' it real, here, Folks) Then, melt 6 tablespoons butter, and 1/2 cup honey in a saucepan and pour that all over your dry ingredients and stir till well coated.

Spread this onto TWO baking sheets lined with parchment paper in an even thin layer. Bake for about 75 minutes.

My house smells delicious right now....

Delish! With a spoonful of honeyed greek yogurt on top is one of my favorite ways to enjoy it~ I hope you love it!

Gardening Term of the Day~ Double Digging~

Double digging, you say??? Whaaaaat??? Sounds like a lot of work, right?? Well, since some of you may be starting to plan out your Spring gardens, I thought I'd talk about it. A friend of mine and I were talking about her future garden. She has a section of her yard that gets enough sun and wants to make a garden there. Since this is just old, hard, clay soil, she thought she should remove a lot of the soil and bring in new stuff. Heck, NO! With some elbow grease and some compost, peat and/or some worm castings (all of the above, preferrably), she could have some really super yummy soil! But, I digress....Now, what's all this nonsense about double digging?? What is it? Well, it's the systematic loosening of the soil to about 12 inches (roughly two shovel depths) to ensure that the roots of your babies can wiggle their toes!

Does this make sense? Basically, it's digging a trench or ditch, dumping the shovel of soil down at the other end, then starting a new ditch, flipping the soil you just dug out into the first ditch. Nice way to zen out on a cool day, right? Add your organic matter to the top layer and work into the soil, then smooth out and start picking out what you want to grow! As they say, dig now, chow down later! P.S. Get those kids to help! Take shifts! Bribery with cash and prizes works!

Gardening Term of the Day!

Damping Off: This is an important one to know about when planting seeds or managing your seedlings. Damping off is a fungus condition, usually affecting seedlings, that causes the stem to rot off at soil level. Looks like this :(

It can also rot seeds before they even have a chance to germinate! Boo hoo! Sterilized seed starting mix and careful sanitation can usually prevent this. Care not to over-water and good air circulation are good things, too. <3 Happy Planting!

Time to Trans-Pot, Most Likely, Right???

Good morning, my lovely gardening goddesses and gods (hehe)! So, for those of you who wanted to get a jump on your Spring planting and, like me, started your seeds indoors in January :) Then they might look something like this:

This guy is happy as can be right now, but he won't be if we don't get him into a Big Boy pot, soon. Because I will be able to plant out pretty soon (zone 10b here) I go with a pot the size of a Solo cup. And I like the clear ones so I can see his root system:

I use a good fluffy mix of equalish parts coco peat (or peat moss), potting soil, and vermiculite. If you see those tiny shriveled seed leaves on the stem, carefully pinch those off. Now, plant that guy up to his neck. Right up to the big leaves. The reason for this is that all those little hairy things along the stem will become a big strong root system. This is what we want. The more roots, the more nutrients this little guy will uptake and that makes everyone happy! At this point I give mine a weak dose of fertilizer, and give him a little peace and quiet to get used to his new pot. Now of course if you live in zones where you won't be planting till May or so, then you'll have to trans-pot again to bigger one. Happy planting! :)

Gardening Term of the Day!

Indeterminate: (I or IND): Generally larger and rangier than determinates, the indeterminate tomato plant will not flower on the terminal or main stem so it continues to grow. The plant fruits on the side branches that grow off the main stem, providing steady production all through the growing season. Though the list is never ending, here are a few of my favorite indeterminate types: Speckled Roman: A beautiful and delicious paste tomato with orange and yellow stripes! Yummy flavor and nice and meaty for sauce, canning and freezing :)

And a real special one, Black Krim: A beautiful, dark purple-black fruit, with a rich, old-fashioned flavor with a hint of smokiness. Very productive in my experience :)

And one more for kicks, Green Zebra; For anyone who loves a sweet tomato, or has issues with a tomato too acidic, this is your girl! She is delicious!

Well, I hope this was helpful. And please, if there is ever anything that confuses you about gardening, ask me!!!!! Stick it in the comments here, or over on Facebook. Talk to ya soon! :)

Gardening Term of the Day!

Determinate: This tomato class produces fruit on the top or end of main stem. When that happens, upward growth ceases, so as a result this class tends to be smaller, tidier, and sometimes won't need staking. Don't pinch aggressively, as side branches will be productive. More fruit on a determinate plant will ripen at the same time, making it practical for making sauces and other kitchen uses.

There are "early season" varieties that ripen in 45-60 days, which are great for short season growers, like Glacier and Legend or Bush Early Girl pictured below:

And there are the "main season" types, maturing mid to late season, needing 70-80 days.These are great for warmer climate growers. There are too many varieties to even mention, but Celebrity is one of the more popular, pictured here:

Home Made Ranch Dressing

I LOVE RANCH DRESSING! There! I said it! Everyone else in my house thinks it's horrible, but I just love it. BUT...I actually do not like the pre-made, store bought ones. Funny, when I go to a restuarant, I like their ranch, but not the bottled kind. Maybe because it has 10+ ingredients I would never add to MY food. Some of which are: phosphoric acid (fake lemon flavor) xanthan gum (thickener, eww) modified food starch (another weird thickener) monosodium glutimate (flavor enhancer) wait, why not just make it taste good in the first place? artificial flavors (no idea) disodium phosphate (increases shelf life...great) sorbic acid (preservative) calcium disodium EDTA (preservative that may cause kidney damage and blood in the urine. Double great) disodium isonate (flavor enhancer...again, why not just....oh, never mind) disodium guanylate (flavor enhancer) I don't know about you but I don't keep these types of strange chemicals in MY pantry. But I'll show you what I DO keep: Ranch dressing should be no more than a few ingredients most of us have on hand. So here's what I do: I go snip some chives, parsley and dill if I have it (I only grow dill in summer, so I use dried). I happen to be blessed with 365 days of gardening (Southern California) so I go pick my salad greens and carrots and radishes or whatever I have. So this recipe calls for buttermilk, which you can buy. But, your gonna buy it and chances are you will only use a teeny bit of it then it will sit in your fridge and then your gonna chuck it. Instead, make buttermilk as needed by mixing in a bit of lemon juice to your milk. Let it sit and within 5 or 10 minutes it turns all chunky and gross but, folks, that's buttermilk!!! So, just mix together (I like to use a mason jar) 1/2 C sour cream, 1/2 C buttermilk, 1/4 C mayonnaise (you can leave this out if you don't like it), 2 garlic cloves crushed or minced, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1-1/2 tsp dried dill (a bit less if it's fresh), 1/4 C chopped chives, 1/8 C chopped parsley, dash of Worcestershire sauce :) Shake your jar all up and taste. Add more salt, pepper or whatever till it tastes right to you. Keep playing with the recipe till it is perfect for you because Ranch is important. :) Bye! I gotta go eat that salad, now :)