cold frame

this is my cold frame with the windows pushed to the left.
done right it can produce a LOT of good food.

leaves

Ok this was last fall, but the colors are fun.

first seeds

Having been particularly glad for a bit of spring weather, I have been working outside.

Spring stuff. There is plenty to do, maybe since this is the first year that I haven’t “worked” I can keep up with the work better, we will see.

We have too much land for one person to keep up with and have a job. Miriam used to take care of the flowers and the house side, but that stopped a few years ago.

Anyway, I really got the itchy fingers and planted some seeds as well.

I have a cold frame, which is a small unheated greenhouse like structure. Mine is about 4 by 8 feet with a couple of old windows on the top. Last fall I planted some lettuce seeds, for eating about now, but half the bed was empty.

So I planted. There is a bunch of veggies that have this message on the label: “Plant as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring.” So, I did it.

It will be may before much of that is eatable, but just putting some seeds in the ground was exhilarating.

Yo spring, almost.

This morning, for breakfast I made a fruit smoothy.

That is not unusual, I do that often. But this time it had a secret ingredient!!

I started out with a bit of plain yogurt, added a cup of left over applesauce, and a half cup (more or less) of some pineapple left over from my last upside down cake.

Put in a fresh banana and a big fistful of frozen strawberries. I looked at the tofu but didn't add any!

That is all pretty standard stuff, but along the way I included the secret ingredient.

There was part of a can of diet cola in the refer and it went in too.

When I talked to Emily (granddaughter 2) on the phone, she summed it up: Icky.

But it was pretty good, but I made too much so what is left is in the bread I am making now (along with a pint jar of home canned prunes, for good measure). So, as I said to Emily, there is diet cola in the bread.

You know what she said!

spring orchard and grapes

We sure aren't here yet. There is snow on some of the garden yet, but there is promise in all of those buds.

the b word

Daughter one sent an email to me saying that I had not cogitated lately.

Hmm. Interesting way to say it. Much of my life is pretty boring, I fear.

I did pick the first Mesclun from my cold frame this week and include it in our daily green salad. The last couple of days I have been pruning our grapes and our orchard. We have about 20 grape vines and close to two dozen fruit trees.

I am not a great orchardist. Miriam’s dad made a good living with an orchard of rather small size, but I don’t work so hard at mine. Maybe with retirement I can do better.

We don’t get a fruit crop every year, a late frost often takes out the crop, but even then the trees and vines provide us with sufficient fruit and grape juice.

I don’t make wine, like I said, it is boring around here often.