Saturday morning, I video chatted with a friend who is in Europe. It's always nice to chat with her, although we tend to email more than we chat online.
Afterwards, I treated myself to a little breakfast of toast and calamondin marmalade:
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| Toast and Marmalade for Breakfast |
I liked the color and the flavor of the marmalade. It tasted just how marmalade should taste, I think. Not too sweet, with a hint of bitterness, and a nice consistency, too.
Yesterday, when M came to tend to the garden, we planted the nectarine (Fantasia) and plum (Santa Rosa) trees. We had to dig up and transplant two rose bushes to make room for the nectarine tree (trying to keep about 10 feet distance between the fruit trees to give them room to grow). I didn't take pictures of the newly planted trees, but, I took pictures of a few other things growing in the garden:
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| Osteospermum |
Last year, I scattered some osteospermum seeds in the back garden and a few plants came up, including one plant in a planting bed with roses. M accidentally flattened it, one day, when he was weeding and thought he had killed it. Instead, it continued to grow and became this big bush! The rest of the osteospermum that came up are spindly little plants, but, this one obviously found its niche! I will be sure to collect the seeds from this plant to scatter around, later, this year!
The Asian pear tree we planted last week has small clusters of flowers!
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| Asian Pear Flowers |
I am not expecting any fruits, this year, but, the flowers do look very pretty!
Meanwhile the mini vegetable plot is doing its best to keep me entertained if not exactly fed!
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| Mini Broccoli Head! |
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| This one is almost ready to harvest, per M! |
I have three broccoli plants, each with a broccoli floret that is about one inch in diameter! LOL! According to M, they are ready to be harvested! I shall be making the world's smallest stir fry with three micro heads of broccoli, two (maybe three) pea pods, and maybe a pea shoot or two? Well, I guess it is a good thing that broccoli leaves are edible - I can harvest the leaves if this is as big as the broccoli will grow and make cooked shredded greens ("mallung"). I picked five or six leaves of chard from one of the plants, yesterday, and pulled up three barely formed radishes to make something with them!
Let's hope I have better luck growing fruits than I do with growing vegetables!
Today, I am grateful for:
- Being able to video chat with my friend
- Phone calls with cousin P and friend R
- Marmalade on my toast!
- Mini harvests from my veggie plot
- Flowers in the garden
My joyful activity today was video chatting with my friend.
How is your weekend coming along?
How lovely to have things growing in the garden. I so enjoy seeing your plants when my whole garden is buried in snow!
ReplyDeleteI am so lucky to be able to grow things year round. :)
DeleteYou've done better with your vegetables than I usually do lol. I think I might try again this year :)
ReplyDeleteLOL, Martha; a couple of years ago, another blogger and I used to joke about growing $6 tomatoes - we'd spend about that much to grow tomatoes for the seeds or plants, water and fertilizer, etc., and get one single tomato! But, it is fun and, you know, there's always next year!
DeleteI think you're taking micro greens to the extreme 😂 The tiny heads of broccoli look good though.
ReplyDeleteYour photo of toast and marmalade made my mouth water. I forgot to say in yesterday's response that I don't bother with jam or marmalade making but Ced used to make blackberry jam every year. My sister had all of his jam making stuff but I don't know if she's ever used it ... I've certainly never received any homemade jam from her!
Ha, ha, I'll be able to say I ate a whole head of broccoli for my dinner and feel virtuous! :D
DeleteI wonder if your sister made any jam because, surely, she would have given you a jar if she did make some, wouldn't she?
You are very fortunate to have year round gardening. Ours is not year round but we do have a long gardening season. As soon as I can I will get veggie seeds in the ground, but I am not planting as many zucchini as I did last year!
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember your zucchini harvest! I had all of one and a half zucchinis from the plants I grew a couple of summers ago! I didn't even bother to plant any, last year! But, I have a new packet of seeds and will try, again, this year!
DeleteYour marmalade and toast looks like the perfect thing to have with a cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteSo the broccoli plant is supposed to be a mini? And I think you will have to consult with Dancer to get permission to use his broccoli leaves for something other than his enjoyment lol
Thank you, Debra. Toast and marmalade is good, but, I am thinking the marmalade might make a good glaze for baked chicken, too! Might be something to try, one of these days!
DeleteHa, ha, no, the broccoli is not supposed to be a mini, it's just my special talent to miniaturize everything! M showed me a picture of one of his other clients who harvested regular sized heads of broccoli from the same packet of seeds! Well, Dancer turned his nose up at the last broccoli leaf I gave him from the garden plants! I think he got spoiled by the leaves in the spring mix salad greens that daughter buys!
The marmalade looks like a great success! Exciting to see the nashi blossom, and well done on the osteospermum. They won't grow for me!
ReplyDeleteThe marmalade turned out really well. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the bees will discover the nashi flowers and do their part! :D
DeleteThe marmalade looks wonderful! I hope all your new trees do well. It is encouraging to see blossom on the Asian pear tree.
ReplyDeleteI think I should pay more attention to the outside leaves of vegetables. It makes no sense to throw edible leaves into the compost!
Thank you, Bushlady. I enjoyed toast and marmalade for today's breakfast, too! Oh, I do hope the new trees will grow! It will take up to 10 years for some of them (the fuyu persimmon tree, at least) to bear fruit, and that seems like a long time, doesn't it? I told my daughter that I am planting them for her!
DeleteAlmost all the cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) have edible outer leaves. So do root vegetables such as carrots, beets, turnips, and radishes. Sometimes, the taste can be strong, but, one can add them to soups and stews where their flavor will blend in. I recommend doing a search online, if you are not sure. :)
I grew some broccoli heads just like that last summer. :)
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm not the only one! LOL.
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