it's a beautiful April day - woohoo! if you notice in the pic above, our stream, Strachans Stream, is very low. our water table is also very low right now - our naturally-occurring pond is almost empty and it is normally 4ft full!!!
in the below pic, i present the first 2 Framboise Manor Flowers of 2012. take a bow, little flowers!
next up - the most awesome seed-starting tray known to man! built by jambaloney's Mom and Step-Dad and used by them for many years. they gave it to us a few years ago while we were still living in the city. the thing weighs about 3 million pounds but we shipped it here because we love it!
it lives on our plastic-wrapped porch and you guessed it - we wrapped IT in plastic, too, for the cold nights that we are still having. the other night it was about -2C outside, about 1C on the porch and 5C inside the seed starter. this baby is gonna work like a charm out on the porch!
and here it is wrapped in plastic. jambaloney stapled plastic on three sides and then made a nifty drop down plastic sheet that we then bungy cord all together.
during the past few days it has been in the high 20C's on the porch - wow - it really heats up on a sunny day. good thing we put 2 doors at each end of the porch in order to open the windows and/or the doors when necessary. it sure tricks you being out on the porch, though - you step outside and it is only 4 or 5 or 6C!!!
and here it is proudly displaying it's seedlings. i started a bunch of herbs, asparagus, celery, broccoli, lettuces, etc. in past years, i have used plastic baggies for greenhouses. but since we have moved to the Manor, we have been saving all of our salad containers or any other clear plastic containers for greenhouses. i think that they are gonna work out just jim-dandy!
and last but not least, i know that i have been lax in updating our recipe blog. i promise to get around to it soon. jambaloney and i had been working since early morning and at 10:30 decided to stop and make "leftover" salad - a salad made from whatever is left in the fridge that needs to be eaten up or else thrown away - something we try NEVER to do!
once we finished making our "leftover" salads, jambaloney said i should take a picture as our "leftover" salad looks better than most salads in a restaurant. i always like for food to look pretty and special - even if it is only liver and mashed potatoes, i will still pick some flowers for the side of the plate or make a pretty arrangement with sage leaves and blueberries - bahahahah!
the one above is jambaloney's. his has baby romaine, tomatoes, red onion, lemon chunks, sprouts, chopped hot peppers, leftover chicken, leftover vermicelli and a sprinkle of parsley.
mine has baby romaine, tomatoe, sprouts, lemon chunks, leftover vermicelli and leftover shrimp - yummeh! i make a dressing with lime juice, crushed garlic, a dollop of honey, a dollop of vinegar (with the mother), a dollop of fish sauce and a few splashes of sriracha hot chili sauce - man does that dressing have bite and near knock you off your feet. jambaloney adds crushed chilis to his portion of the dressing but that's only because he's nuts - bahahahaha!
he's outside right now building some new shelving for the kitchen - woohoo! it's a little too windy for me right now although it was wind-free all morning while we were doing our jobs and chores. i think i will check in on a few of my blogs before straining my home-made beef broth and putting into containers to freeze.
i hope that you are all having a lovely day!
in for a few..struggling to empty compost bin...I envy you your seed starter tray. I have one green house window that is jammed full, plus another large window with a table set up before it, plus cans of seeds in most of the other windows. We almost invested in a cheap plastic one this year but now I will show the Grey Knight that one and say build me that Please!
ReplyDeleteBeth - the tray is not hard to build and can be built out of scrap/junk lumber. ours was lovingly and solidly built by jambaloney's parents - but we are thinking of throwing together a few more, out of junk, based on how well this one is doing (that, and the fact that it is filling up fast!). ours has standard, doubled fluorescent bulbs hanging from underneath the first 3 shelves. very easy to wire up, allowing each shelf to be turned on or off at will.
Deletejambaloney can send you some more detailed instructions on how to build it, if the the Grey Knight is interested.
hope you got that bin emptied, hon! your friend,
kymber
(p.w. - got the email and am in the process of responding!)
Would love to see the plans Thanks tons for the offer!
DeleteEventually I will get it all done, hard on the weeks where he works 7 days a week. Compost bin is nearly finished, should be able to get to finish it over the weekend along with fixing the mower etc etc.
Beth (with the dirty hands)
dear dirty hands - jambaloney says no prob. give him a couple of days and then he'll write it up and i will send it.
DeleteYour refrigerator must be leftover heaven!
ReplyDeleteEd - our refrigerator is smaller than a standard apratment-sized refrigerator and can barely hold a few condiments...trust me, it is not leftover heaven. we have to eat stuff even when we aren't hungry in order for it not spoil. oh buddy - ya gotta see this sad little fridge!
Deletekymber,
ReplyDeletePlastic over anything always heats things up. That is a good sturdy stand that does not look like the wind will topple it. I put seed trays in the car seats to germinate. But, this year, nothing.
PracticalP - why, you wouldn't believe how hot it gets out there this past few weeks??? i am thinking about moving the seed tray to the basement in order to set up a proper sun-tanning area on that porch - bahahahahaha! i hadn't ever thought about germinating seeds in the car - brilliant, buddy!
DeleteKymber - Your seed starting tray is ingenious and I'll just bet you'll have a great harvest in the fall thanks to that baby !
ReplyDeleteIf that's leftover salad girlfriend, then fresh must be out of this world ! It looks to die for - and yes, no restaurant can match it. We went out for supper last night for the first time in ages. What a mistake - the food was crap and cost a fortune. I was sick to my stomach most of the night. Nothing like home cooking !
Have a wonderful week-end you guys !
Love Always - Helga xoxox
oh Helga - i certainly hope we have a brilliant harvest - keep your fingers crossed for us eh (yer mah good luck charm!)? and girlfriend - that WAS leftover salad - we get some really good produce from around here from the local farms - the island ain't very big!!! oh so sorry that you had a sucky night out at the restaurant! there really is nothing as good as home cooking!
Deletehave a wonderful Easter Weekend my dear, sweet friend! xoxo
I love your seed shelf! I wondered how you were doing it this year.
ReplyDeleteThe salads do look yummy...especially yours with shrimp.
Take a bow little flowers...so cute. You have us beat. Nothing here blooming yet. I think I should get some grape hyacynth and snowdrops to plant in the fall. Then we'd have something to bloom early :-)
Do you make bone broth or meat broth? I do bone broth every week in the slow cooker now. Calogen and glucosamine in a cup! lol
Have a Happy Easter sweet lady.
hey Sue - yep we have those little flowers popping up everywhere - i'm not sure what they are but i love them! i make everything kind of broth - i save all of the cleaned trimmings from vegetables, as well as vegs that are about to go off, in containers in the freezer. i also save all of the bones, meat and carcasses from beef or chickens. then if i am making either broth, i throw in a pile of bones, leftover meat and the veggie scraps. i slowly melt it all over low heat in a few cups of water until it all melts. then i add as many cups of water as i need to fill the pot and bring it to a boil. once at a boil, i lower the heat and simmer all day. i love home-made broth! and use it in everything!
Deleteoh one last thing Sue - i put a ton of different spices into my broths as well....the normal ones like sage, rosemary, thyme, etc., but i also turmeric, curry, cinammon, etc. - i just toss it all in! i also put crushed garlic (a ton), vinegar with the mother and a huge dollop of honey.
DeleteWow! It sounds like you've been doing this for a while. I just started making broths. I got a stewing hen at market the other day. Hope that works out well. I think I'll try using more spices the next time. The turkey bone broth I made last is nasty, but I heat it really hot and add a sprinkle of sea salt and gulp it down. lol
DeleteSue - i have found that you need more than one carcass when making turkey/chicken broth. i usually use 2 carcasses and all of the wing bones, leg bones, etc. i also put in all the leftover meat if there is any. for beef i use whatever bones i have, stewing bones, stake bones, roast bones, etc. i also put in all of the fat. and i throw in a ton of veggies - veggies really add to the flavour! and tons and tons of spices. i can write out exactly what i do in a recipe for you - i don't have a recipe i just throw it all together. but i will write it out if you would like! xoxo
DeleteThose salads look so yummy, I am going to go make me one for a snack....LOL
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your seed starting!
i hope you enjoyed your snack Mamma! and thanks for the well wishes!
DeleteWell, it all sounds good but the lemon chunks!
ReplyDeleteoh Mr. Smythe - the lemon chunks make the salad - really!
DeleteI love your seed starter! I'm going to have to put one of those on my (or my mans) project list!! I bet it works great!
ReplyDeleteMM - it does work great. back in the city, we had a solarium and that's where it lived full time. trying to figure out where to put it last spring - we had to put it in front of our front door - and it's huge!!! this year tho, what with plastic wrapped porch - we knew that it would live out there. and it is doing an awesome job! your man and Columbus could whip one up in no time!
DeleteI am envious of your seed starting tray! Fabulous! Your lunch looked pretty good too :)
ReplyDeleteDonna - that seed starting tray is like a god-send! it has made seed starting so much easier since we got it! even back in the city when we didn't have it - i had little seed baggies on tables and chairs all over the solarium!!! it is really huge and you really can get all of your seeds ready if planned correctly. i love that thing!
DeleteVery nice indeed Kymber. The salads look great!!!
ReplyDeletethanks a bunch PP, buddy!
DeleteLovely salads!
ReplyDeleteYour little yellow flowers, I do believe, are coltsfoot. According to Euell Gibbons in his 'Stalking the Healthful Herbs' it is an amazing herbal cough medicine. Cough drops and cough syrup from the fresh leaves, tea from the dried leaves. I forget where I read it, but it said you could burn the flower stalks to ash and use the ash like you would use salt. Who knew:-)
Elizabeth - thanks so much for identifying that flower for us - it is amazing all of the medicinal flowers that grow right in our yard like Heal-All, St. John's Wort, Evening of Primrose, etc. - and now this! i will do my research on this flower for sure! and i will definitely look into that ash thing - again - thanks for taking the time to identify it!
DeleteIsn't life strange. I've just made a salad (one bowl for myself) and then sit down to read and here you are with those nice pictures...great minds to indeed think alike.
ReplyDeletedear sweet one - i couldn't agree more! bahahahah!
DeleteThose are cool seed starters. I love a good salad. Those look yummeh!
ReplyDeleteya - i love that seed starter! and i love a good salad, too, buddy!
DeleteGreat seed starting shelf! Hope the covered porch helps keep that thing warm.
ReplyDeleteSummer is definitely not here yet either, but the warmish weather plus the fact that the ground is no longer frozen means I can catch up on weeding and getting things ready for when it is time to plant.
Mrs. S. - we keep a thermometer in the seed starter and on the porch. during a sunny day, like yesterday, it was 25C on the porch and 32C on the seed starting tray with the plastic front all the way open!!! and we had both windows on both doors open!!! and it was only 4C outside!!! so the covered porch and seeding tray are really tricking us into it being the middle of summer!
Deletei am glad that you are able to get out and start getting to plant. that's what we've been doing for the past few days too - weeding our beds and whatnot!