happy first day of summer, more gardening, dang-stupid aphids, more fresh trout and lobster! now there's a mixed bag for you!

Happy first day of summer (well, the actual solstice started last evening at midnight but you know what i mean!). our first day of summer was quite cloudy - but even when it's cloudy, it's still paradise. have a look:




now on to a bit of a rant! dang-stupid aphids - arghghghghghghg! we had trouble with them last year attacking our poor apple trees. this year, they are trying to attack our peppers in the greenhouse! but jambaloney noticed them right away and we have been spraying the pepper plants every morning and evening for the past 2 days. a few of them took a hit but they have all bounced back. i hate spraying them with soapy water but that is the best thing we could find on the internet to ....ick....kill them. i just hate doing it but i want healthy pepper plants - i have tons of salsa and hot sauce making in my future plans! here's a pic of some of the newest plants that i started from seed:



and here's a pic of the ones we over-wintered:



like i say, we caught them early and the plants are bouncing back. fingers crossed folks!

anyway - trouts for breakfast, along with some carrot and radish kimchi - deelish!



imagine how fresh these fish are? jam gets them out of an ocean-fed river and has them home and in a pan in about an hour - that's pretty darn fresh! the carrot and radish kimchi is light and refreshing and you all know what i say about getting home-made fermented food in your daily diet! natural, healthy, in-your-own-environment probiotics people!

here's another great breakfast! we got 2 more 1 and a half pound lobsters, cooked to perfection, they had been caught that day - again back to fresh! - and after we had eaten all of the lobsters, we saved one claw, all of the legs and both knuckles. we had the knuckles for breakfast with local apricots and home-made pickles - yummeh!

a nice mid-day snack - chew on all of the legs of the 2 lobsters. they are juicy, filled with meat if you run your teeth across them properly and can really fill you up if all you are looking for is a quick snack. this pic is of the remains - teehee. we eat every last bit!

and for all of my friends from new england - lobster rolls baby! the buns were oiled with garlic and olive oil and toasted in the oven just until warm. there's some more home-made pickles - a perfect accompaniment!

i loooove scalloped potatoes! like loooove 'em! so the other night's supper was local sausages, scalloped potatoes and some sides.

for the past few days i have been working on planting some beds of beans and transplanting all of the cucumbers - have a peak:

this bed has 3 rows of garlic, 12 cucumber plants, a row of fennel, a row of romaine lettuce, a row of boston lettuce and a row of melons. tomorrow i will finish this bed by adding whatever i have laying around.

tomorrow is also the day to move the zucchinis to the huggie-kulture (hugelkultur bed) that already has my strawberries in it. i will put the zucchinis there this year and then let the strawberries take over the whole bed next year.

tomorrow is also the day i plan to put the squashes and pumpkins into our ginormic compost pile. tomorrow is also the day to do our first hilling of the potatoes. woohoo - they are coming up like gangbusters!!!! then i want to start working on building a triangular, permanent herb bed made out of rocks and 4 tiers high. i have been playing with the design quite a bit and i know that jambaloney can build anything. it's just gonna take us a while to gather up all the rocks. but we've got 2 garden carts and that big trailer thingy so i don't think it will take too, too long. that's all i got for today folks. i hope that you have had a brilliant couple of days! and happy first day of summer to all of you!