Perhaps I Have a Green Thumb!

It's that time of year: gardening time! Over the past week or so, I have been reading up a lot on vegetable gardening, and Mom's annual trip to K Drive Greenhouse for flowers provided a perfect opportunity for me to get a few vegetable plants that I could easily grow in pots. I have wanted a vegetable garden the past few years, but had never thought of trying a few plants in pots before this past week. I didn't realize so many vegetables were actually quite successful in large pots! Mom and I purchased two varieties of bell peppers and one of cherry tomato: Cajun Belle, Better Belle, and Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes.

My seedlings!

All the plants, ready for new homes!

The transplanted lilies

Time to get dirty!

My first vegetable garden!

I've only helped plant flowers a bit (and done my fair share of weeding) in the past, so this is a chance to really try out gardening and farming a bit. I hope to have a huge vegetable garden someday, so this is a place to start. Someday I'm hoping I won't need to go to the grocery store every week for produce!

Unfortunately there are two sorry circumstances of this summer's growing season: 1) we had an early warm spell, followed by a few very cold nights, which decimated the majority (think in the 90-100% range) of Michigan's fruit crop, and 2) I will only be here until August, which prevents me from picking apples (provided there are some), squash, etc. to can. I can do some canning, but I won't really be able to reap the benefits, unless I brought it to school with me, which is a possibility! It would be simply delightful to have home-canned food in my refrigerator!

Yesterday Mom and I had an excursion downtown to go to the library and the farmer's market. Because it was pouring rain, we stopped at the library first. That place is dangerous. I intended to just find a couple books, maybe, since I already have a stack of nearly a dozen next to my bed, but instead, I came home with a treasure trove--nine more! It included a few cookbooks, some on gardening, a novel, a scrapbooking one, and a few others. It is delightful to just peruse through them looking for ideas!

The farmer's market was also a worthwhile stop, and it had stopped raining, which made it much more enjoyable. Despite the warm spring, this early in the season doesn't have too many different crops ready for harvesting. We did find rhubarb, beets, and spring greens, all of which have been delightful. I can't really take credit for doing anything with this set of vegetables, as Mom did the labor this time. She made a rhubarb sauce, which we have been enjoying over frozen yogurt, and cooked the beets, which we tossed with sweet onions and red wine vinegar for a nice salad. If I had remembered to take photographs, there would have been some...but alas, as usual (except for my gardening escapade!), I forgot. Sorry, folks.

Besides having a green thumb, I also spent a bit of time in the kitchen making Valerie a loaf of Oatmeal Bread. She had mentioned having homemade bread while she was home, but since we did not get a chance in the short 48 hours, I decided to bake her a loaf to bring with her instead. It was super easy--except for the fact that the bread machine's motor kept jamming, but we eventually got it to work. The bread turned out very well: sweet, doughy, and delicious all the way around.

Oatmeal Bread:

3 1/3 c. bread flour

1 c. quick oats

1/2 t. salt

1/4 c. brown sugar

4 t. vegetable oil

3/4 c. milk

1/2 c. water

1 1/4 t. active dry yeast

1) Pour wet ingredients into bread machine.

2) Put the dry ingredients--except yeast--on top of the wet.

3) Dig a small well in the dry mixture and put in the well.