The First Signs of This Year's Garden

 One of the highlights of gardening is having the ability to start your plants by sowing your own seeds. I like the variety you can get and I love the fact that I can stagger when I plant which then allows me to stagger and prolong the harvest of a variety of plants.

I have a confession. All of my seeds are an heirloom variety of one sort or another except for my Sweet Bell Mix. This sweet bell pepper has a nice number of peppers on each plant and they tend to range from yellow, to orange, to a red-orange. It's a hybrid, but I just love it!

My eggplant is something that I have been experimenting with. It seems to produce quite a bit and I just love how much you can use eggplant in different recipes. This year, I have 5 different varieties! I am excited to see how they all compare to one another.

Most of the seeds that I have started were started on February 17th. Some of the seeds were started on February 20th.

At this point I have seedlings for my cabbage, eggplant, chile peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet peppers, and a couple of varieties of tomatoes.

I have found that I really like the seed starting mix from Henry Fields. My seedlings are kept in that until they reach pretty good size with good root development.

Once the seedlings have a pair of true leaves set, then I will transplant them so that there is just one plant per cell or peat pot.
I will be looking at my seedlings this weekend, unless we get another snow day, and then it will be sooner! When I look at how the seedlings have developed, I will decide which ones I should replant. Some of my seeds were packed for 2014, so I want to be sure they are still viable. Unfortunately, it seems that as soon as you carry over seeds to the next year, they only germinate 50% of the time. So far, it looks like I have a pretty good success rate. Time will tell.

I have a plant rack that I set up in the kitchen. I ended up getting aquarium hoods to use for my lighting and I have found that this system works pretty well.
I'm looking forward to seeing how these seedlings develop and I'm looking forward to transplanting them soon!

Right There With Me

I was shocked to see the date of my last post until I began to think about the various things happening in my life since that day. Okay, in the list of priorities, this blog did not make the cut. I can live with that. I do apologize for anyone who had started to wonder if by chance I had fallen off the face of the planet! All is good, no worries.

I found myself thinking about this blog again because of a need to share my gardening experiences with someone. One of my best friends, and someone I considered to be my Mom, was also my gardening buddy, Carol. As of June 6, 2014, unexpectedly, Carol is no longer here. I have found that beyond the obvious reasons that I feel a loss without her in my life, I find that I miss our garden chats. There was a point when I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go back to the garden at all. Last summer, each time I stepped into the garden, I found I was frustrated, angry, and unmotivated.

Looking out the window now, under all of the snow we have on the ground, I know there is a garden that has suffered my neglect. I find that as I see little hints of life such as bulbs starting to send up their stems, I can't help but to start to feel an energy and fullness that I have always felt with nature and gardening. I think about Carol and I think about how we could get lost for hours anywhere there were plants! When something we planted began to grow, we would get absolutely giddy with excitement. Those conversations and the sharing of articles and books over an afternoon cup of coffee were special and will be sorely missed.

I've come to the conclusion that Carol would actually be quite upset with me if she knew I was dragging my feet and not taking time to garden. I know it's going to be difficult at times, but as I watch my seeds begin to germinate and take form as seedlings, I begin to find myself thinking about the garden again. Each time I work in the garden I know Carol will be right there with me, and there are some things I will have to plant, just for her.

So, starting today, I will post my experiences, thoughts, and musings about the garden here, as a way of sharing all that the garden has to offer.

Kimchi- First Thing Canned from the Garden!

 The weather has been kind of odd this year, a little cooler and a lot more rain than normal. But then you'll have crazy days where it's in the 90's! It's been hard to get a handle on. The good news is, I was able to harvest some chinese cabbage about 3 weeks ago. Many years it bolts and I do not get as much, but it grew quite nice this year.

I found a lot of different recipes and as usual for me, I kind of created my own recipe using the parts I liked the most from each. The only thing you have to be careful of is acid content and sugar and fat content if you are canning. I followed the fermentation guides and hot water bath canning guides and it looks like everything came together pretty well.

My Recipe for Kimchi

The following ingredients are layered with salt (Approximately 2 cups of Kosher or Sea Salt)  and soaked in cold water for 24 hours.

6 small heads of Chinese Cabbage (chopped into 1 inch pieces)

3 Baby Bok Choy (chopped)

1 1/2 cups of Carrots (cut up, thin)

1 bunch of spring onions

 Rinse the vegetables.

The following ingredients are put into a food processor or blender until smooth to make a sauce.

2 1/2 inches of fresh Ginger grated

1 head of Garlic (peeled, and minced)

1 large White or Yellow Onion

1 Pear cut up

8 oz jar of Chili Garlic Sauce

Mix the sauce in with the vegetables until everything is coated. Pack down into a clean crock.Seal the top of the crock with a plastic wrap. Then cover with a kitchen towel and tie in place. Place the crock in an area that stays a pretty consistent
temperature, but not too warm.



I let the Kimchi ferment in the crock for 3 weeks. I uncovered the crock, tasted a piece and found it to still have crunch, a nice combination of salty and spicy.


Next, I heated the Kimchi in a pot on the stove while I prepared my jars and my water bath canner. I packed the jars hot and put them in the hot bath to process for 20 minutes. I was able to can 10 half pint jars and 1 pint jar.