Big Ass Raspberries from the Backyard

Ghost Blue

I've had these patio chairs for very many years. I've moved them. Twice. They were a little worn - the original Hunter Green paint was chalky - and it was time for a refresh. After mulling over the myriad colors in which Krylon spray paint is available, I settled on what they call "Blue Ocean Breeze". But I call it Ghost Blue. I love the color on these chairs. It makes me happy. And, they will go with the colors I'm going to paint the house without being too, you know, matchy matchy.



The table, which is what Hunter Green looks like, will also get a new paint job just as soon as the strawberries finish fruiting. The trouble is that a few of the stringers grew through the table, so a fresh coat of Hunter Green will have to wait until those strawberries are eaten.

More Bounty From The Garden

Well, the-world's-greatest-neighbors and I are just tickled pink at the produce the garden patch is pumping out this year. And to think it looked like this just a few months ago! Now it's bursting at the seams. Here are a few pics of the lovelies I have eaten this past week.

I do love me some artichoke! The most perfect vehicle for warm garlic butter. This is the first one of the season (more are on the way) and a right good size. Yum.












These were the main ingredients for a lovely cold zucchini soup I made. Wonderful onions, heaps of fresh mint and a zuke that measured in at 14"! We have had several of these monsters already and needed to come up with something - besides zucchini bread... - to not let them go to waste. With a little creativity you can use a mess o' zukes to make this soup. Very tasty and perfect on a hot summer day.

And last in this little photo tour is the sweet corn that we just started to harvest this week. I was so excited, I peeled it and started eating it while literally still standing in the garden. Couldn't resist! As delicious and juicy as it looks. Pretty thrilled that the corn matured properly this year as it was less-than-stellar last year.


I currently have red potatoes, eggplant and beans in the fridge waiting for my next culinary adventure.

Raspberry Sorbet Fail

Heap o' raspberries.

I'm thinking the cuby part
isn't supposed to be sitting
directly on the base.

It's been a bumper year for raspberries at Le Jardin du Curly Girl. Koko and I have been eating as much as we can right from the bushes and I've been harvesting the rest. This week I decided to try making sorbet. I borrowed an old ice cream maker from the-best-neighbor-in-the-world since I didn't have one and just learned that you need one to make sorbet. TBNITW had never used it as it was handed down to her and had been since sitting in her basement. I even found the user manual online, read up on what I needed and I thought I was good to go.

I love this juicer! It's from my mother's
house and goes perfectly with the
color I painted my kitchen.

I don't even know why I have paper cups
in the house, but I'm glad I do.

I went out and picked a heap o' raspberries, juiced an orange (ok, it was a Cutie, but since I only need a couple of tablespoons it would more than suffice), zested a lemon and combined all the prepped ingredients in the freezer bowl of the maker. I then layered the ice and salt in the maker to the top like the instructions said. Turned it on and zippo, immediately realizing that there was some major piece of the ice cream maker that was missing. I think it needs the blender bottom part between the base and the maker cube. TBNITW wasn't home and wouldn't be for the rest of the day. What's a Curly Girl to do? I broke out the paper cups I happened to have in the house and the bamboo skewers I happened to have in the house and (hopefully) rescued my failed sorbet by making popsicles. It'd be a damn shame waste of a quart of lovely, fresh-off-the-vine, organic raspberries if they don't work out. We'll see in a few hours...  Next up: Raspberry Buttermilk Cake!

I've Been Waiting All Year For This

This photo was taken moments after they were picked from the backyard
and seconds before they were eaten for my breakfast. Ah, summer.

Reaping Dinner from the Garden

Stepped out the back door the other night and into the garden to collect a few ingredients for my dinner. The garden is producing some yumminess! For my casserole, I harvested a couple of eggplants, a few potatoes and some basil. Muy delicioso!

I also picked some corn. Although sweet, the ears are pretty small and, um, have issues. Anyone know what causes this and how to make it better for next year?

Great Neighbors and a Growing Garden

When you buy a house, you can have inspections for almost all aspects of the property. The one thing that you can't account for and that's a total crapshoot are the neighbors. Well, I totally lucked out. I have great neighbors! This one will walk the dog, that one has power tools I can borrow, that one will bring in the garbage cans if I'm away and my best neighbor is Karen (and her husband Chip). Karen is the dream neighbor. She takes care of Koko while I'm at the Saturday Market (that's a whole other blog post!), always offers help with this or that, AND is gardening my side yard. Their yard is completely landscaped, so when I offered my yard for a veggie garden she thought it was a great idea. The two photos to the left are the before and current states of the side yard. It probably was always gardened, but hasn't been in several years. It was all grown over and weedy. Now it's alive with yumminess!

 

The photo above shows what we planted (I might have missed something or other). We went a bit nuts with all that we put in, but we are learning a lot. As very novice gardeners we are feeling our way along, it's been fun and we are starting to see the fruits - and veggies - of our labor.  Because of our cold wet spring, things have been slow to get started, but everything is showing itself and will hopefully take off now that the warm sunny weather is finally here.

Garden Necklace

Ok, so I think of it as the Peas and Carrots Necklace, but I couldn't bring myself to call it that. It's officially Garden Necklace. I love the warm coral color of the vintage Lucite. I added cool green howlite beads on the chain for a perfect summery mix. The howlite is graduated up the chain for visual interest. Might have to keep it for myself, but for now it's available in my Etsy shop.