I'm Not Crying Over This

Last winter my winter gardening experiment turned out to be discovering how to keep plastic sheeting on the bed through the winds.  I say "turned out" because my original experiment was to plant seeds and grow vegetables under plastic.  The seeds never sprouted.  And the plastic kept blowing off.  I did find out that a long heavy metal pipe laid on the plastic close to the bed is the best method to hold down plastic in our high winter winds.from Johnny's Seed http://www.johnnyseeds.com/.  We did "improve" on my wintering garden project by making frames to put the plastic over creating low tunnels. 

















 This is what the bed looked like on one of our 4 x 10 beds that had a low tunnel over it.  Like I said, I'm not crying over it.  This chard survived through 9 degrees F and gusts of 35 mph winds.

The chard up close

New Growth on 1/11/2013!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look new growth!  No, I'm not crying. I had  my regular weekend scramble of super foods - ground beef, onions, garlic, tomatoes and chard (form my winter garden!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love it!

Wuuu Whooo!

One of the first things I do in the mornings is check on my plants and turn on their lights. I hadn't had  much luck lately starting seeds.  I was beginning to think I had lost my seed starting abilities or that soil blocks weren't the way for me to go. But those are spinach seedlings started 4 days ago.  Wuuu Whooo!  The package says seed  germination times of  6 to 10 days.  Spinach is a diamond super food for me.





















My indoor garden is doing OK.  Yes  that is a tomato!  I have had several and the taste and texture have been good.  There are tomatoes, collards, cilantro, collards and lots of basil in this garden.

I'm feeling good today because I got the greenhouse refilled with water yesterday.  Getting it ready to start humming.  I hope today to get a bunch of goat poop, homemade compost (yes, I'm proud of it being homemade) and Happy Frog soil amendment.  I need to harvest some vermiculture compost.  One of the trays is overflowing.  Then I'll have worm poo to add to each planting hole.  Oh yes, and egg shells.  Did you know egg shells are 95% calcium carbonate?

I'm in Gluten Free Cupcake Heaven

Chocolate Gooey Peppermint Cupcakes (GF)

Guava Guava Cupcakes (GF)

 

 

 

I found Gluten Free Canteen while surfing around the internet. http://glutenfreecanteen.com/  First I made her Pie, Oh Pie crust for my Christmas pumpkin pie.  I used rice flour, sweet rice flour and arrowroot starch.  I was unsure during the baking, because it smelled just like rice cooking in the rice cooker.  But the pie was incredible (my husband's description).  By the way my husband does not like pumpkin pie, or at least he didn't used to like it. I made two over our Christmas shut down.

She also had recipes for cupcakes.  I haven't had a cupcake in 1 1/4 years and sometimes you just really need that cakey texture.  I made the Chocolate Gooey Peppermint cupcakes 1st and the next day it was the Guava Guava cupcakes.  Gluten Free Canteen had the recipe for Strawberry Strawberry cupcakes, but strawberries are an avoid for me.  But guava is a diamond supe rfood,  so I made the substitution.  I follow a genotype food list from Dr. D`Adamo that is gluten and mostly dairy free.

Thank you Gluten Free Canteen.  My holiday was extra special because of you.