This is the cherry tree behind our house. First it leafed out with red leaves, changing to green and now it is starting to bloom dark pink. We have no idea what it is, but think that it is a cherry meant for fruit (i.e. not ornamental)--when we moved in there were a couple of large cherries (gone bad and soft by then) on it. I guess we'll have to wait and see what it does this year.




Last weekend we planted three blueberry bushes on the hill behind our house. (Yum--I can't wait). The women who checked us out said that she has 4 ten-year-old blueberry bushes that give her more blueberries than she can handle! Apparently blueberries do better with different varieties, so we planted a 'Premier,' a Climax,' and a 'Woodard'. I love blueberries and hopefully in the year to come they'll give us delicious fruit--I'm not expecting much this year since we planted them while they were blooming (see close up, above). As a bonus, some varieties turn red in the fall--not sure if these do, but that would really look nice on our hillside if they do!

This weekend was a really busy weekend. We planted rows of salad greens (kale 'Winterbor,' a mix of our old lettuce seeds, a "Zesty Italian" mesclun mix and an arugula start. Also, the beans pictured above: (Clockwise, from top left: Potomac snap pole beans, Goldrush wax beans, Blue Coco pole beans, Jacob's Cattle Beans, and Blue Lake 274 bush beans).

Stay tuned for more--we're aiming for ducks and chickens!

Earlier this year I happened upon a few recipes that piqued my interest. I'm going to be sprinkling posts on them in here from time to time as I have a moment so that I can share them (I don't do the cooking but I do love to bake). =) The first up is a wonderful recipe for pita bread. The pita bread was tons of fun to make---although it was definitely a little bit time consuming since S. and I tried to bake them on individual foil pieces--and we couldn't fit more than maybe two at once in the oven! (Also a warning: the pita will not last long once it's out of the oven. We had eaten it all in, I think, two days---and the only reason it took two is because we were stuffed on humus.)




We didn't have great luck with the puffing part of the process--although it was really very cool to watch them puff (even asymmetrically) in the oven---like magic! No point in re-posting the recipe--I used Foodie Farmgirl's pita recipe (which I was ogling for some time). She also has some great tips for getting them to puff (although ours came out with mixed results...but who cares? Flat or not, I'll never look at pita the same way again!)

We made our own hummus at the same time (toasted the sesame seeds and everything). I printed out the recipe from a website (but I don't remember which one!) Will link or post when I find it). My only complaint with that is we couldn't quite get the seasoning perfect--tried adding more salt, some more lemon juice, some garlic powder, etc etc---but as good as it was, it was still a teensy bit bland. Maybe I'll come across the perfect hummus recipe sometime and try it again (and I definitely want to make roasted eggplant dip with eggplants from our garden later in the year!)

Thank goodness for the wonderful weather! This past weekend was nice and we got a lot done for the garden. We tilled the potato bed, and planted 20 hills of Yukon Gold potatoes (finally had a nice weekend to do this.) We also got the rest of the fence posts in, and put the fencing up for the main vegetable garden (above). Once the fence was up we planted one row english pea starts, two rows english pea seeds (approx 15 feet long each), and two rows sugar snap pea seeds (better a late start than never...) Now all we have to do is figure out trellising when they come up! We also have arugula and kale starts to put in (and seeds to sow) so hopefully next weekend will be just as nice!

Our daffodils are going crazy, and it really is fun discovering everything that's already planted. There's a few grape hyacinths in the bed with some of the daffodils, and there are some very nice forsythia bushes in a couple of different places, too. Oh, and some of the cherry trees in the woods are just starting to bloom.