Everything is coming up...

RADISHES

A friend call and asked if I would like some radishes...he said

he was bring a handful..than handful weighed

2 lbs 12 oz...so I decided to make Radish Relish

which is so simple...and tasty. The raw radish is spicey

but the relish has a sweet taste.

When we have planted radishes, there is always many more

than we can eat or give away and this is an easy recipe to

use them.

4 cups stemmed radishes

2 large celery ribs

1 large red or sweet onion

2 tsp canning salt

1 cup sugar

1 T mustard seed

1 cup apple cider vinegar

2 T prepared horseradish

Chop radishes, celery and onion in food processer or

finely chop by hand. Mix remaining ingredients and add radishes

and allow to stand 3 hours.

Bring to a boil in large pot and cook 10 min.

Pour into hot jars leaving 1/2" head space. Adjust lids

and process in boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

Yield 2 pints

Very easy

Food Fraud

I read an informative article this morning on food fraud...foods we thought were good for us...milk, olive oil, juice, honey, baby formula, spices - here's the link for the slideshow.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/food-fraud-hoax-grocery-store_n_1439995.html#s889320&title=Spices

Garden Photos

A brass bed I bought at the thrift store will be a strawberry bed.

I have day lilies planted down the side and gladiolus planted

at the head. I have a few strawberry plants in there and will

transplant more in the fall- I also have daisies (annuals) planted

with them

 

The beginning  of our vegetable garden March 6 2012

 Red potatoes..the link to building this potato planter

is on my Pinterest board. We made it 2' x 2'..planted the seed

potatoes about 6" deep. As they grow we added a layer

of soil and compost and kept doing this until the soil

portion is a little over 2 ft.  As you can see below they have

grown way over the top. The plan stated that it would

produce 100 lbs potatoes...this will be determined later.

We made the planter from an old swing that was pretty

weathered. The height now is over 3 ft

 We have broccoli, carrots, spinach, eggplant, tomatoes,

rutabagas, okra, yellow squash, zucchini, bell peppers

butternut squash and sunflowers

 We made a compost bed in the garden. Red potatoes

on the left and butternut squash on the right..they will

cover the bed with their vines. I am growing these potatoes

in compost, just to see if it can be done..I have read that it

can. The deer is made by my husband..at Christmas

he gets a red bow around his neck.

April 19, 2012 after the rain

The garden is approx 50 ft x 30 ft

Red Cabbage that we planted in late fall 2011

This is the first time I have ever grown spinach...and it

is so easy and so good. I planted the Burpee Signature Spinach,

double choice hybrid. The leaves are thicker than store bought.

When you pick it more grows from the center..how long this

will continue ..I don't know. I hope it will grow year round,

but it gets so hot here in S Ga in the summer - just have to wait and see.

Another plus...it's ready in 35 days. Even if you don't have a

garden space, try growing it in a flower bed that gets full sun.

My pictures do not show the plants because it grows close to the

ground and with the mulch, you can barely see the leaves.

HAPPY GARDENING!!



Juvenile Bluebirds

These juvenile bluebirds are been fed by their mother

 from the Cupcakes for the Birds recipe I posted a couple

months ago. The portion of the feeder they are

on is about 3 feet from the ground. They still are

not sure what to do...other birds fly in and they just sit there.

They only have a bright blue marking under their wing for now.

No matter what bird flys in they open their mouth to be fed.

This Cedar Waxwing is a rare siting here in South GA,

they are migrating north, he also tried the cupcake..but from

what I read we won't see him again since we had no fruit

or nuts for him to munch on.

Bunny Cat

I was going through some pics and found this one

he is such a good sport