MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND

FUN WITH FOOD

No farming/gardening this weekend. Too much rain.

Put a steak on the grill Saturday morning, then went off with Emily to air up our bike tires at the corner gas station. Found an awesome puddle in the church parking lot on the way home, huge and deep with a pothole in the dead center for a sudden drop. Had to make several passes, got pretty soaked.

Remembered the steak when we got home...






A couple of friends from the neighborhood showed up and we make "spiders" instead. Turkey dogs with spaghetti noodles shoved thru. Thanks for the idea, Mom. The side of marinara counts as a veggie, right?

A few thunderstorms later, got out the cotton candy maker.

It takes less than a tablespoon of sugar to make a wad of cotton candy this big.

Sunday morning, frying sage and whipping up a mess of quiches to freeze for next weekend's camping trip and Mother's Day festivities.

And worm porn! Caught these two trysting in broad daylight in my backyard.

HAPPY MAY DAY!

FUN WITH CORKS!

A few years ago I worked at a restaurant that served a lot of good wines. I saved the corks, thinking that someday I'd make a cork garland to give to my sister and her husband the winemaker. Years passed and my husband politely inquired from time to time whether the giant box of corks in the garage still had a purpose.

This weekend when I cleaned out the storage shed, out came the box of corks. I realized I would probably never have the time to individually drill out and string every one of these corks. The garland was a nice idea, but a pain in the ass project I'd never actually do.

Later while potting up some stuff and looking around for mulch my eye wandered to the box.

SHABAM! CORK MULCH!

Now my plants are mulched, the cats are deterred from scratching & depositing in the fresh compost, the box of corks is no longer taking up space in the shed and I am reminded of many fine glasses of wine served and sampled.










The old barbecue is another recycling project. I used it for a little potting bench for awhile, then filled it with cannas. When the fall frosts arrive, I just wheel it into the garage for the winter and don't have to dig up the cannas. The cannas are kind of recycled too - given to us by two neighbors who had cannas to spare. (Cannas are like irises. Once you have either, you have plenty to spare.)











































Corks are still good for forks, too.

garden tip (FBF)

Here's a garden tip from Carol: after you've harvested your lettuce and the weather's too hot for a second crop, sow new seed in late August and cover the row with straw. The lettuce will grow a bit in the cool fall weather before the frosts. The starts will then hunker down for the winter under the protective layer of straw. When spring rolls around, your lettuces already have roots down and will start growing again, and you'll have the earliest-possible greens. Here's Carol's row with lettuces and spinaches ready to eat in April.