New Border, Stinky Kitty

I forgot to mention the half row of English Peas that I planted last Thursday under the trellis. Today I added some sprouted garlic that I had in my kitchen. Although my original 2011 garden plan called for onion sets, I never got around to buying them so garlic will have to do.

Miss Cha Cha crammed herself into a 12 pack box a while back and looked positively pleased with herself.

Sometimes she spends hours contemplating what it means to be so fuzzy and to have such a big pink nose.

Other times she explores her relationship with her environment: What does it mean to be "in"?

Sowing the Seeds

The gardening has begun. Last Thursday I spent most of the afternoon rebuilding my plot walls, adding a little sprinkling of compost, and turning the dirt. After consulting my 2011 plot plan (drawn up way back in January when the first seed catalogs came in and my dreams were a little bigger) and editing it based on the seed selection available to me at the local Shoprite, I got to sowing. Thus far we have: Mesclun "Spicy Mix" Radish "Cherry Belle" Carrot "Nantes Half Long" Beet "Detroit Dark Red" Swiss Chard "Fordhook Giant" I tried to rotate my crops and I adjusted my rows this year to accommodate more carrots and fewer beets. After several years of meager radish crops with fancier varieties, I stuck with the old standby "Cherry Belle". I also opted for Mesclun instead of lettuce this year hoping to get a little radicchio and frisee out of the mix. I'll try to remember my camera next time so you can see my fancy plot walls. Also: I had one head of Escarole survive the winter and my oregano is springing back to life.

Spring

After an action packed weekend with sunshine and pleasant weather and back-to-back activities totally unrelated to gardening, I find myself behind on this year's gardening season. Last year the lettuce and radishes were sown by this point. I haven't even restrung the trellis or pulled out 2010's pepper and tomato carcases. My soil has not been amended. My seed order was never placed.

As many of you know, I'm hoping that my gardening situation will improve this year. We've been contemplating a small move (same general locale) to an apartment or house with a little outdoor space. The possibility of uprooting ourselves mid-season has been a little detrimental to the gardening plans. I have renewed my plot membership and I have drawn up a planting scheme but I have not begun.

While all this sorts itself out, I'll be watching episodes of The Horticultural Channel and Victory Garden and dreaming about my own personal green acres.

Marshmallow World in Jersey City

Snowstorm 05: January 26-27, 2011

Every horizontal surface received a healthy coating of the white stuff.

The old snow was forgotten under the clean, white blanket.

The backyard got a similar treatment.

Erie Street became a thoroughfare for pedestrians toting shovels.

16" of snow transforms a Mustang into SUV proportions.

Car, sidewalk, parking spot, and street all compete for snow removal.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from picturesque New Jersey!

(Actually, this was in Pennsylvania. Figures.)

Last Beets, New Brew

I pulled the final beet crop yesterday at the garden. After snapping their portrait, I removed all the greens for salads and sauteing and bagged the beets. Since they've been in the ground for months, I'm not sure how they'll taste. Maybe it's time to learn how to make borscht?

The marigolds are still doing their thing and I'm a little reluctant to remove the garden's final splendor. The pepper plant is still flowering so I didn't have the heart to pull that either. I have one bunch of escarole that's survived the frosts and harvestable. I pulled some leaves for yesterday's salad. Everything else was relaxing under a blanket of fig leaves, including some little lettuce sprouts.

In the kitchen we have a new batch of beer that we're drinking: Hopp'd Chipotle Ale. After tasting it for the first time last night, I think we're all impressed with our efforts. It has an up-front smokey pepper flavor, it's clean on the palette, and it has a warm-on-the-back-of-your-throat finish. A chocolate and coffee stout or porter is next.

We're gearing up for the holiday season here. We'll be kicking it off this weekend with a craft show at a friend's apartment in Brooklyn where I'll be selling some Mao Mao Kitty jewelry. Then it's Christmas shopping on Sunday (guess we'll miss Eagles vs Giants) and holiday baking next week for Thanksgiving. I've already seen Charlie Brown trees for sale at the grocery store and I'm thinking about locating our box of decorations. I love this time of year!

Eggplants

I picked the last two eggplants today in the garden. I also grabbed a handful of escarole and beet greens for a salad and noticed that I have some lettuce and spinach sprouting. I'm hoping some of that matures before frost. There isn't any frost in the forecast this week but we will be getting temperatures in the forties at night. It's time to start thinking about cleaning out the plot, adding compost, and planting garlic bulbs for next year.

Kitchen Adventures

Some things are still blooming in the garden so I made myself a pretty little bouquet for the kitchen. (Yes, we have a green wall in there. The color is called celery.)

The hot peppers are still going strong so after reading an inspirational blog post (sorry, can't find the link) about making hot sauce, I decided to whip up a batch of my own. I seeded, deveined, and sliced a green bell pepper, 8 salsa peppers, and a handful of itty bitty jalapenos. I threw them into a saute pan on low heat with four crushed cloves of garlic, a chopped green (unripe) tomato, and the smallest amount of oil necessary to get a little sizzle. After everything got a hint of color, I put a lid on and added about a 1/4 cup of water and let them cook for 20 minutes. When everything got soft, I put it all in the blender with 3/4 cup of white vinegar, the juice of a lime, a teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and blended the mix until it was smooth and sauce-like. Then I returned the mix to a saucepan, tasted and seasoned it, brought it up to a boil, and decanted the mix into a sanitized bottle.

Besides feeling amazingly cool for having made my very own hot sauce, I now have a super delicious condiment to put on everything from chili to chicken to corn chips. This stuff even has potential in the cocktail realm but that's more Josh's area of expertise.

Collecting Pumpkins and Stretching the Harvest

Three additional pumpkins were acquired at a coastal Jersey farm last weekend.

Mao Mao inspected the minis as soon as they arrived.

Late ripening Mortgage Lifters are resisting late season blight and slowly turning pink in the garden.

There are a couple inch long cucumbers forming on these vines but they'll probably need some doomsday-type global warming for any chance of maturation.

I do think we'll have one last eggplant harvest this season. And yes, we still have plenty of hot peppers. See them hanging out in the background?

Bird Alert

At the garden yesterday I spotted an unusual bird feeding on some of the dried up plants in one of the other plots. It caught my attention right away with its black face mask and bright yellow breast. I made a mental note to figure out who this fancy visitor was the next time I was in front of a computer. After narrowing it down, I'm identifying this guy as a Common Yellowthroat but I would hardly call him common for Jersey City.