Green Smoothies

I know they're not for everyone, but I personally love a green smoothie. And I prefer them on the savory side. Don't be mixing sweet fruit juice with my veggies! Rouse the Spouse is right on when he calls my concoctions liquid salads.

I thought today's version was delicious. Wanted to get the ingredients down for future reference.

Toss all of this into a blender ...

Start with the green stuff:
2 cups packed spinach leaves

Add something for creaminess:
1/4 avocado
1 tablespoon ricotta cheese

Add enough liquid to mix well into a drinkable solution:
5.5 oz V-8 juice (one individual serving can)
about the same amount of chicken broth

Extras for flavor:
1 tablespoon chopped shallot
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
salt / pepper to taste (if you use chicken bouillon, skip the extra salt)

• Blend well.
• Pour into a tall glass.
• Feel good about treating yourself to all that green goodness!

Unseasonably cool temps ...

... may delay germination of all those nice beans I put in the ground recently. Add plenty of rain in the past week, and those seeds may rot in the ground before germination ever takes place. Time will tell!

Parmesan Spinach Cakes

This recipe is a definite "do-againer" ... and I'm doing it again this morning, following it to the letter this time. Here's what these tasty "cakes" look like as they come out of the oven. They're actually more like spinach-loaded mini-quiches than cake. Good for breakfast, lunch or dinner! Find the recipe in my blogpost of April 23, 2013 .

Looks like salad to me!

One lone lettuce plant survived the winter and will now matriculate to the salad bowl.

How about some tender baby arugula leaves to spice it up?
This patch needs to be thinned, anyway!

More Summer Stuff in the Ground

Filled up one raised bed with tomato plants:

• Big Boy (4)
• Celebrity (2)
• Cherokee Purple, heirloom (2)
• German Johnson, heirloom (4)

Planted one bed each:

• Jade bush beans
• Pink-Eyed Purple-Hulled southern peas

Baby Loves Spinach

My witness in the garden. She watched me do a few garden chores this morning while gumming a spear of asparagus. Notice the big bunch of spinach in the cargo hold of the stroller. Now she's ready to roll! Quit taking my picture, Mumsi!

Asparagus

We're cutting the asparagus, a few stalks at a time. It takes a few days to save up! Tonight, I made an asparagus frittata, with chunks of ham and plenty of tasty cheese.

I based our supper on a recipe from Simply Recipes.
Of course I had to make it my own, so I increased the shallots, added bite-sized pieces of ham and lots of freshly ground black pepper, leaving out the tarragon and chives. The texture of the eggs with the ricotta cheese was very nice.

Frost Date is Past

Time to sow some summer crop seeds. Today:

• Edamame (green soy beans)
• Rattlesnake pole beans
• Garden of Eden pole beans

Garlic

This is the first time I've tried growing my own garlic. Cloves were planted back in the fall (see blogpost from November 2, 2014). The crop has grown beautifully over the winter with no extra attention.

Now to learn more about harvesting garlic. When the leaves go yellow it's about time, but don't allow too many of the leaves to turn brown! The bulb will be over-mature and the cloves will begin to separate from each other, resulting in decreased shelf life.

Margaret, at A Way to Garden tells all about it.

I'm getting antsy ...

For gardeners, the last spring frost date can not arrive too soon! Visions of fresh veggies have been dancing in our heads all winter. We are anxious to sow our seeds. It can't hurt to get a little head start, can it?

Of course, some seeds may be started indoors … broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, etc ... but I'm thinking about the direct-sown crops such as beans and southern peas.

Well, it might not hurt (although seeds may freeze and rot in the ground), but in many cases it won't help, either. Each type of seed has its favorite range of soil temperature at which it will germinate. Outside that range, there's little hope of success. Radishes, beets, spinach, etc will do just fine in cooler spring temps, but one might as well wait until nighttime temperatures are reliably in the 50's to stick the seeds of summer into the ground. For reference, here's a handy-dandy chart from Gardener's Supply:  https://www.gardeners.com/how-to/when-to-plant/warmenuflp.html

Can't forget Radishes!

I cleaned up the kale bed and planted three rows of radishes (several varieties) down the center. My plan is to put tomato plants on the outer edges of the raised bed. By the time the tomato plants get going, the radishes will be history.

Starting a few Seeds

Peppers are on my mind, plus two of my current favorite cherry-type tomatoes. Sort of late, and not under the best circumstances ... I don't have a good set-up for starting seeds ... but at least I'll know which seeds germinate! They will go into the garden.