This season I plan to use Tagro once again.  The expansion of the garden will require us to purchase the mix instead of the bucket method of last year (if you go to the Tagro facility you can shovel as much as you like for free).  We are estimating 10 yards to complete the garden.  Since our soil is very hard from years of compaction we are taking the lazy man’s way out with building the garden.  I’ve been hoarding newspaper and cardboard and I’ll rake all of the Photinia leaves once we are ready.  I will lay down many layers of paper and cardboard and then the Tagro on top.  We are not removing the grass underneath.  This will either work out well or be a very bad thing.  I hoping for the former.

We are also putting in a meandering gravel path, but we will put landscape fabric under that.  We would eventually like to till the garden beds, but not the path.

As for the raised beds in the back we will amend those with Tagro too.  In addition I add Soundgro to those and I’ll sprinkle in a little bid of worm castings.

Next year we should be able to rent a full sized rototiller for the main garden and add more Tagro and various manures.

Now the straight Tagro method may not work for the full vegetable garden since Tagro is a little more acidic than I would like, but again gardening is trial and error.

My plan for the garden is what factored in to the very ambitious list of seeds that I purchased last fall.  I also went out and purchased a few seeds that weren’t available from Heirloom Seeds.  I will likely need to fill in with a few others, but for now I think I’m set.

This year I am not going with the square foot gardening method.  I didn’t find that it worked for me.  It was too constraining.  Think me crazy, but I’m a sucker for rows of vegetables.  I also like a flowy garden.  Contradictory?  Probably, but go with me.  The new garden is a meandering path with intermittent raised beds.  It will (hopefully) allow for both sides of the equation.

I stared (as usual) with my trusty Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades book.  It helped me determine which vegetables I could grow or attempt to grow and which to leave to the farmers (I don’t think I could do Celery).  I then employed a new program that I found on the internet.  I made a list of the veg I wanted to grow and then pulled out my trusty calendar and garden plan.  I translated the hand drawn plan into the GrowVeg program and then started laying in the plants.  I’ll get to a review of the program in another post, but for now I’ll just say it is worth the money (that I haven’t paid yet because I’m still in the free trial period).  I also stuck a few things into spots that won’t actually exist just to get planting dates.  Those plants will go into the 150 sq. ft. raised bed garden in the West yard.

GrowVeg will give you a chart that shows when to start seeds indoors, when to start outside and when to expect a harvest.  I followed the chart for each month and cross checked it with Growing Vegetables West to get a more accurate indication of when things should be started.  GrowVeg is also handy because it tells me how many of each thing to plant so I’m not grossly over planting pumpkins like I did last year.

Now I have my plan, my list and when to plant.  I am keeping track of when to plant and when I actually get around to planting.  I also don’t start my seeds indoors in a light box or other lighted room 1) because I don’t have either of those and 2) because I have a cold frame outside.

My calendar indicates that I should have started broccoli and cauliflower inside on February 5th.  I did not do that.  I wasn’t ready.  My cold frame needed repair.  The beautiful weekend weather allowed me to make the repairs and broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage were all started on Sunday.  Peas should have been put in on President’s Day weekend, but I’ve found I have better germination if I wait just a few weeks.  Theoretically, I could start trying lettuce right now, but I’ll wait on that one too.  First lettuce will go into the raised beds and they have been tilled, but need the addition of more organic material to bring them back up to the proper level.

Hopefully we will be able to start building the new garden in a few weeks and this season can really get going.

So when some good friends asked us to join them for dinner on Valentine’s Day (at one of Tacoma’s most expensive restaurants) it wasn’t just the price that made me say no.  Instead we elected to invite their whole family to our house for a nice dinner (and a just a little kitsch).

For the meal I served:

Avocado Seafood Cocktail with Chipotle Adobo Dressing

Cabbage Slaw with Orange and Pumpkin Seed Dressing

Black Pepper Honey Steak

Melting Greens

All of the recipes were out of the Splendid Table cookbook and I settled on them because of their (somewhat) seasonal nature.  Granted, the seafood cocktail did include grape tomatoes and bibb lettuce (avocados are never in season here) and Cabbage isn’t 100% in season, but close enough.

Just the thought of spending a nice evening with good friends and sharing a meal is what makes the day special.

Instead, I’m happy to say that my wonderful husband installed a gate on the arbor in our back yard thus containing now giant puppy to the non-working area of our yard.  Working as in this is where we store things and use for edibles and the cultivation thereof.  Non-working as in the was pretty at one point and will likely become a destroyed dog run.

This means I can now seriously begin thinking about my edibles garden and prepare the early stuff.  I’m going to refurbish my greenhouse (that the dog destroyed) and use it to grow an early crop of spinach and lettuce.  I’m desperate for a good salad and my little cold-frame greenhouse should offer enough protection from the elements.

I am also looking into seed starting options for some of the early crops.  My lighting situation is a little questionable so I’ll do my best.

January is over and the gardening season can now begin.

With any luck the 2010 Sprouting Off garden will be bigger and better than ever.  Trick is, we have little money to build the garden with.  In addition, a portion of our garden space might be unusable this year with the addition of a new member of our family.  In December we were gifted (a wanted) 8 week old Boxer-Mastiff puppy.  She is now 3 months old and thinks the raised beds in the back are her personal play area.  We have plans to add a gate to our back arbor, but that may not happen in time for the first planting.

In any case the garden must go in and we must do it on the tightest budget possible.  Instead of putting in the whole garden all at once we are doing it piece by piece.  Hopefully at the beginning of March we can add all of the gravel paths and then just fill in around them as the season gets started.  Next week I’ll share the drawing of what the side garden will look like.  In the mean time, I’ll share my list of seeds for 2010.  Some are the same as last year and some are new to us this year.

Lettuce:
Buttercrunch
Flame
Salad Bowl
Tango
Yugoslavian Red Buttercrunch

Giant Thick Leafed Spinach

Winter Squash:
Sweet Potato
Cheyenne Bush Pumpkin
Rouge Vif d’ Etampes Pumpkin
Amish Pie Pumpkin

Summer Squash:
Straita de Italia
Yellow Crookneck

Giant Musselburg Leek
Early Snowball Cauliflower
Arugula
Yellow Sweet Spanish Onion
Melitopolski Watermelon
Golden Acre Cabbage
American Purple Top Rutabaga
Hollow Crown Parsnip

Cucumbers:
Lemon
Mexican Sour Gherkin
Boston Pickling

Beets:
Ruby Queen
Bull’s Blood

Cilantro

These are just the seeds I’ve ordered. This does not include the lettuce, broccoli, pumpkins, squash, peas, beans, corn or carrots I already have. Nor does it include the few plants I will buy like tomatoes and peppers. In addition, we will be adding a few perennial items to the mix. We have a few, but some need replacing. We will add horseradish, artichokes, raspberries and asparagus and replace strawberries and blueberries. Next year we may add a few fruit trees if the budget will allow. Those will hopefully take the place of the raised beds in the back.

In a nutshell it is an ambitious goal for the season. I know it will keep us busy and full of good food.

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  At the current moment we have reached our $3000 (gross sales) goal.  With about $650 more in sales we could be close to having $3000 in profit!  That would men we could almost double what was sent to Baby Home #2 last year (that was $1700).

There are only 2 more days to order truffles and caramels.  We will take orders until midnight on November 27th.  If you haven’t placed your order yet do so quickly.  If you have placed your order thank you very much.  The Baby Home is very excited to make the childrens’ Christmas a little extra special.

If you have tried to order and the system won’t complete the payment portion please contact us.  We are aware of some problems with being able to complete some credit card transactions.  The system is secure it is just an issue with Paypal (we always have at least 1 glitch with them every year).  We will make sure you can arrange payment so you can get your order.  We don’t want anyone to miss out on the deliciousness.

As always, if your waistline won’t allow candy please consider making a donation to Sweet Hope.  There is a donate button on the ordering page of our website.  Donations are welcome all year long.

Thank you to everyone for doing your part to spread the word.  We can’t do this without you.

www.sweethopefoundation.org

In 2006 my husband and I sold and made chocolate truffles and caramels to raise money to bring our son home from Russia.  After our son was home we were repeatedly asked to make the candy again and we did… and did and did.  That one little fundraiser turned into a very large production that consumes the better part of 3 months for me.  Which would also explain my significant lack of posting about gardens and garden related topics.

Every year we sell chocolate truffles and caramels and we give the money away.  We’ve given it to other families adopting children and last year we gave it away to our son’s former orphanage.  This year we are doing the same thing.  Only this year, we are making more varieties of truffles and caramels in the hopes of sending even more money.

Check out the website for Sweet Hope.  It explains the whole story much better than I can throw together in one blog post.  If you go to the ordering page (since you are going to order, right?) and click on the photos of the candy, they get bigger.  I hold no responsibility for any drool that may end up on your computer screen, desk or keyboard.

100% of the profits from the sale of Sweet Hope candy goes directly to Baby Home #2 in Khabarovsk, Russia.  The candy comes gift boxed and makes great Christmas gifts.  All orders ship on December 16th, just in time for Christmas.  You (or your loved ones) get candy, and a child gets a Christmas.

This afternoon we attended a playdate at a preschool classmate’s home.  We’ve been trying to set this up for weeks, but well… I get distracted by shiny objects and it just hasn’t worked, until today.

I must say I had a lovely time and got to know what I hope will become a new friend.  Someone quirky like me (in a good way) and easy to talk to.  My son had a wonderful time and behaved himself nicely (despite the one near catastrophe).

Oh wait… this isn’t the mommy blog is it?  Darn it.  Bet you thought I got confused there for a minute.  I’m getting to the point.  Keep your pants on.

I mentioned to the other mom about my chocolate “business.” I went to pull out a business card (which I totally left at home) and while I was rummaging in my bag she handed me a business card.  It just so happens that this mother owns Trails of Crumbs Bakery.  Even better, she writes a blog too.  Honestly, what mom doesn’t write a blog these days.  I assure you, this is not a mommy blog.  It is a blog loaded with recipes and photos of delicious baked goods.  Check it out.  You can have a little piece of Tacoma delivered right to your door.

What does this have to do with gardening?  Nothing.  I just like cookies.

Gardening has also taken a backseat in our lives.  The Autumn rains have started and the weather forecast shows some kind of sky wetness for at least the next 7-10 days.  I am currently trying to devise a plan to tie my lightbox around my neck and find a very long extension cord.  Gardening has been so bad that when I got to take the garbage out I keeps seeing one little orange pepper staring back begging me to pick it.  However, I’m usually in my slippers and the grass is often wet.  There it sits.

The one thing I do enjoy about this time of year are the birds.  For some odd reason we get a hoard of small birds every October.  The cacophony of sound is very Hitchcock-esque.  It reminds me of the days when we first purchased our house and I spend all day stripping wallpaper, painting cabinets and ripping out caret.  I had no radio or TV.  I sang to myself and listened to the birds.

As the health of the writing contingent for Sprouting Off continues to improve we will once again be bringing you useful (or not so useful) information on how to prepare for next year’s garden.  We will be welcoming a feature writer who will contribute stories about sustainable eating.  Mom is actually going to retire so hopefully she will find a few moments now and again to update you on how her gardening adventure went this year (just ask her about radishes).  I’ll bring you a few book reviews and some entertaining bits found in a few vintage garden books.

Stick with us.  We’ll make it worth your while.

The tacos were like none I’d ever had before. They were small fillets of whitefish, lightly breaded, and served on a soft corn tortilla with a little bit of fresh salsa. It was heaven. I came home from that trip in love with Mexican food only to find out that real Mexican food was nowhere to be found.

Years later I took a group of high school students to Tijuana to build a house. As part of the trip the organization took us to a roadside taco stand for lunch. It was our “authentic Mexican meal.” A week in Mexico and we only ate cafeteria food. That one afternoon at the taco stand brought back the memories of my previous experience sitting by the pool with my cousin and I remembered how much I loved true Mexican cuisine. Back in the US I was left with greasy cheese laden enchiladas and stale taco shells.

Recently my husband and I had happy hour at a local Mexican restaurant. Then again at another. Both of these establishments seeks to put an end to congealed cheese and cheesy mariachi music. Masa and Matador serve up Mexican food as it is supposed to be cooked. With my re-found love of Mexican food I set off to create a dinner for my family that was worthy of eating.

Fish Tacos with corn salsa and avocado cream

2 tilapia fillets (or other flaky white fish)
Salt, pepper, cumin to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a baking pan. Season the fish with the salt, pepper and cumin. I like more cumin so I put more on. Bake the fish about 15 – 20 minutes or until cooked through. (we had to bake the fish because our grill is currently out of commission)

Corn Salsa

1 cob of corn (cut the kernels off)
1 can black beans
1 medium tomato diced
1/2 sweet onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
Handful chopped cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
salt, pepper and cumin to taste
oil

Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat. Saute onions and garlic until fragrant. Add corn and black beans. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add Cilantro and lime juice. Cook 2-3 minutes more. Season with salt, pepper and cumin. You can add chili powder or peppers if you like it a little spicy. Remove from heat and stir in tomatoes.

Avocado Cream
I make this and put it in a squeeze bottle in the fridge and serve it on everything

2 avocados
2 cloves garlic
handful chopped cilantro
1/2 c. cream
2 T. butter (I never said the cream was healthy)
Salt to taste

Puree the avocados, garlic and cilantro in a food processor. Heat butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add avocado puree and heat through. Add cream and combine. Season.

To assemble the final dish: heat soft corn tortillas in the oven (wrap a stack of them in foil and throw them in the oven while the fish is cooking). Flake fish apart and put on tortilla. Top with salsa and cream. You may want to double the tortillas since the salsa can get a little messy.