gardening

Making Lavender Wands

Projects

I have always admired lavender wands. They are so pretty with their beautifully woven ribbons. Having an abundance of lavender in the garden, I decided to make lavender wands myself.

Having never tried this before, I looked up the basic instructions and started my task. First, with scissors in hand, I marched out to the lavender plants and trimmed 10 long stems. This was my first mistake. (I’ll get to why later.) I set myself down at my table and laid out the lavender, gathered them and tied them together just under the blooms. Next, I took a spoon and pressed on the stems just below the ribbon. This step is important so that when turning the cage of the wand the stems don’t break. I carefully bent the stems down around the lavender to form a cage. I started weaving the ribbon. It wasn’t going so well. My unders and overs were starting to duplicate themselves, the pattern was broken. Had I gone under instead of over? What was going on here?

Remember when I said my first mistake was trimming 10 long stems? Well, what my instructions failed to tell me (when it said to trim 7-15 stems) was that the number trimmed had to be an odd number. This, I finally figured out on my own. So, I plucked out one of the stems and started over. This time, the pattern worked just fine.

As with most diy projects, the first one is usually a learning process. Now I know what I would do differently next time. I would cut an odd number of stems and I would leave a longer tail on my first knot to tie the bow with. Not bad for a first attempt. Live and learn..

As always, Happy Crafting!

Roasting Peanuts

gardening

I let the peanuts (I harvested from the garden) dry for a couple of weeks. Now it was time to roast them. I set the oven to 300 degrees F and got started.

First I got out a colander and rinsed the peanuts. To get all the dirt off, I scrubbed them with a vegetable brush. Then I set them on a towel to absorb the water while I got out a baking sheet. I placed them on the baking sheet and popped them into the preheated oven. I set the timer for 20 minutes and watched them like a hawk. I was not about to ruin my first and only batch of peanuts.

Rinsing Peanut

My directions said to roast the peanuts for 20 to 25 minutes, but to check one to see if they were done. After 20 minutes, I popped one in my mouth. Chewy, not crisp. Back in they went for another 10 minutes. I tried another and popped them back in the oven. I think the roasting time was closer to 35 to 40 minutes.

Once out of the oven, I let them cool and served them with dinner. Everyone enjoyed the peanuts. To me, they tasted extra fresh. I really enjoyed them. I just wish there were more of them. This planting season, I plan on planting a lot more peanut plants. Watch out Planters!

Fresh Roasted Peanuts
Roasted Peanuts in the Shell

As Always, Happy Gardening!

P.S. — Check out my earlier peanut posts to see the entire process.

Our First Peanut Crop

gardening

If you’ve been keeping up on my gardening posts, you may remember that we planted peanut plants this year. I read that the peanut plants should be harvested when the plants turned yellow. Ours never really turned yellow. What degree of yellow were they talking about? I started to think that I’d better check out the peanuts. This was taking way too long.

I dug around and found a peanut under ground. A real home grown peanut! Oh boy! I was over the moon with excitement.

Peanuts out of shell. Success!

My bubble was burst a little when I actually dug up the plants. Hoping for loads of peanuts attached, I was surprised to find very few. Some had burst a bit and were sprouting. Oh no, I think I waited a bit to long.

I did manage to harvest some peanuts, just not as many as I had hoped for. I will not find out if the peanuts are any good for a while though, it seems. First, I have to dry the peanuts for a couple of weeks and then I have to roast them. A lot of waiting for such a small crop. This, perhaps, is why Planters is king of their domain.

It was fun to grow the peanuts. I think if I try this again next year, I will check on the peanuts sooner. My version of yellow leaves is not the correct version apparently. Don’t worry Planters, you haven’t lost my business, not yet anyway.

If anyone wants to share their peanut growing wisdom, please do so in the comments below.

As always, Happy Gardening!

Finally Getting the Hang of Gardening (After All These Years!)

gardening

This is the first year I can actually say that my garden was under control. Weeding, check. Watering, check. Harvesting, check. Uprooting, check.

Normally, I have to admit, the garden controls us. More weeds than wanted. Zucchini too large for a giant to eat. Plants past their prime still in residence. But this year things have changed. The garden looks great! So what was the big secret to a well kept, beautiful garden? I got my lazy self into a daily gardening rountine, that’s what.

Instead of checking on the garden when the thought came to mind, I made it a daily task. In this way, I could tackle a few weeds daily, in mere seconds, instead of a load of weeds that would take forever. I knew how my produce was coming along and when to expect being able to pick them. Instead of letting my plants, that were past prime, hang around rent free, I evicted them. All of this daily upkeep was far less work than checking on things less frequently. It also led to far less waste in the garden.

So, gardening really takes commitment and dedication. Sure, anyone can plant a garden, but the upkeep is the secret to the garden and the gardeners success.

As always, Happy Gardening!

Now That’s a Spud!

gardening

I had not checked the garden in a few days. It had been so hot and I just wanted to keep out of the sun. However, yesterday, I braved the heat and made my way to the garden.

First, I picked another cucumber. That one got made into fried cucumbers per Nancy’s suggestion. Thanks again Nancy! They were great. Next, I picked more tomatoes than I care to count. It was while I was picking the tomatoes that I saw it. A potato just grazing the surface. What! I went running in to tell the boys.

After dropping off my tomatoes, I went back out and dug-up my first ever, home grown potatoes. They looked wonderful and I could not wait to cook them last night. After the long wait of growing these spuds, I must say, they were delicious. Freshest potatoes I have ever had, as they were picked and eaten the same day.

The good news is, there are still more in the garden. Now, I am having visions of moving to Idaho to become a genuine potato farmer.

As always, Happy Gardening!

Overflowing With Cucumbers

Cooking

Wondering what I’ve been up to lately? I’ve been up to my eyeballs in cucumbers! One plant in the garden is producing way more cucumbers than I had ever imagined possible.

I have never been super crazy about cucumbers. Yes, I ate them in salads, but that was about the extent of it. Something changed this year. Now I have a new love for the green vegetable. However, things have started getting crazy. I picked eight cucumbers yesterday morning. Upon returning to the garden to collect tomatoes, I noticed three more cucumbers hidden down below tucked under leaves. What! That made eleven cucumbers in one day. By the way, my refrigerator bin was already packed with cucumbers. My children wanted to know if they could be cooked. I didn’t think so, until I did a little research. Turns out cucumbers can be cooked pretty much like a zucchini.

My favorite way of eating cucumbers this summer has been as a little salad for lunch. I chop the cucumber, add halved cherry tomatoes, a dash of fresh ground pepper, equal amounts of extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, and sprinkle on some feta cheese. Oh yum! I also made a couple of jars of refrigerator pickles. I even turned to adding sliced cucumber in my water. Ah, refreshing! However, with all the cucumbers, I need some new ways to use these bad boys.

I found a recipe on-line for cucumber bread. It was yummy and used one whole cucumber (one cup). Let the baking begin! I did cut back on the sugar in the recipe. Instead of a cup of sugar, I used half a cup. I also left off the frosting. I didn’t want it to be too sweet. It tasted fine to me. The recipe can be found at: https://brooklynfarmgirl.com/sugar-glazed-cucumber-bread/

Have a great recipe for cucumbers? Please share them with me in the comment section. I need all the help I can get..

As always, Happy Cooking/Baking!

The Potato Plants Have Flowers

gardening

A quick update on our potato plants. Today, as I was trimming away some of the tomato vines in the garden (that were overtaking things), I discovered flowers on the potato plants. A very good sign I should think.

The flowers were a pale shade of purple with yellow centers. Who knew potato plants could be so lovely? I am getting more excited every day as I tend to the plants. They are growing quite tall now and I am crossing my fingers that the potatoes underground are maturing as well.

Who knows, maybe if this potatoe thing works out, I’ll start a potato farm in Idaho.

As always, Happy Gardening!

Peanuts and Potatoes

gardening

This year we are trying to grow peanuts and potatoes in the garden, both of which are new to our garden. Having never grown these before, we can only hope for the best. Both seem to be thriving as of present.

I have posted about our peanut plants before. Compared to my earlier posts, the difference is amazing. The plants are growing and look very healthy and happy. I am just crossing my fingers that the peanuts are doing their thing under the soil as that is where they grow and I can not see what they are up to.

Peanut Plants

Potatoes are something I love to eat. I am hoping to be able to get a home grown baked potatoe out of this crop. Initially, I left some store bought potatoes on the counter to sprout. These were then planted in the garden. One important thing I forgot to do was tell the other gardener in the family, my husband, that the potatoes had been planted. I should have put up a marker, but alas that would have been too simple. So, thinking weeds were growing in the garden, my husband tried to pull a couple and then realized what I had done and put them back. They must be hardy little guys because this uprooting did not seem to faze them at all. The plants look wonderful and are green with life. As with the peanut plants, the potatoes grow under ground so I am again crossing my fingers that all is well.

Potatoe Plants

I will be sure to post what happens with the crops when they are time to harvest. Stayed tuned.

As always, Happy Gardening!

Peanut Plants Update

gardening

Back in early April, my husband and I planted peanut plants in our garden. ( See post: https://wordpress.com/post/anotherdaywithjulie.home.blog/4783 ) It is now late May and I am happy to say that the plants are growing and have yellow buds.

The buds are an exciting thing to see as flowers are needed in order for the plants to make the peanuts. I am going to keep a close eye on the plants, hoping to see the flowers poke into the ground where they will, hopefully, produce peanuts.

Stay tuned for further updates from me on the progress of our peanut plants. For now, them seem to be healthy and heading in the right direction. As always, Happy Gardening!