Brown Stuff: Baskets

"Brown Stuff"

is the theme in my sewing space this month.

In April I told you about some fruit and veg HST parts that were given to me.

This month I'm putting more of those fruit and veggies into brown baskets. I have a lot of brown scrap chunks (less than a Fat Quarter [FQ] and greater than a six inch square) that I decided could be used to make baskets. 

Actually I'm putting the fruits and veggies into 15 inch (finished) Cake Stand blocks. 

I have a few fruit and veg fabrics I think I will add to the mix so I can get those used up.

And at first I thought quilt but now I think these will make a nice tablecloth.

In the real world I don't use baskets to harvest my fruits and veggies.  I used recycled plastic containers. 

My asparagus patch has been put to rest for the year but I'm still harvesting some rhubarb and still need to make some strawberry-rhubarb jam and maybe another quick bread or muffins to eat for breakfast with my yogurt. 

Despite the hot and dry conditions I have been harvesting salad crops almost every day -- mustard greens, spinach, lettuce, green onions, radishes. 

The strawberries are smaller than usual this year but at least I was able to harvest some (and get a lot of exercise picking them). Early on some critters were eating them but they were nice enough to save some for me. 

I picked some Snow Peas. They are good raw or in stir fry or lightly steamed. I have found the variety Green Beauty to be the best Snow Pea so far.   I also have Sugar Snap peas (Sugar Daddy) but they aren't ready to harvest yet.   I was lucky this year. A lot of years the deer or rabbits eat the pea sprouts, the plants get stressed and then don't produce much. The critters left the plants alone this year. 

Garlic scapes.

I have a lot of rocambole garlic planted here there and everywhere in the flower and veggie gardens because it is supposed to repel deer and rabbits. The garlic basically grows wild now because if it is not harvested and left alone it produces bulbils at the top that fall over and plant themselves or they can be harvested and planted where you want them to grow or used as garlic. The first year after planting a bulbil produces a "round" garlic below ground. It can be harvested and used or left in the ground to produce garlic with cloves.   Garlic can also be used to make a lot of sprays to repel bugs and other critters.   And garlic has a lot of health benefits. I love it!

Back to the garlic scapes.  Those are the tops of the garlic before the bulbils form on top. We harvested those yesterday and sauteed them with a few other veggies to use on top of our homemade pizza last night.  

 

Wednesday Wandering - In Search of Green

Oh, deer!! 

Reading before it is banned.

Aha! Some green!  A Hellebore patch! I'll bet if I check back in a week or so there will be some blooms there. Stay tuned!

Those Rascally Rabbits!! 

Someone or something has been pruning my roses and...

...pruning my Azaleas! 

Flamingoes laying down on the job. They usually mark new plants or stake plants. But they don't keep deer, rabbits or raccoons away. 

Some winter sown seeds. A few weeks ago they had about six inches of snow and ice on top of them. 

The deck still contains an iceberg. The snow and ice was up over the arms of the chairs...

...but the iceberg is slowly melting. 

Back inside and in a corner of my sewing space an orchid blooms have been opening since late February. 

I've had the orchid for a long time and it blooms around the same time every year just when a touch of Spring is needed. 

I took a hardwood cutting of Pineapple Sage last fall and now it is blooming. Pineapple Sage is not hardy here so I bring it into the sewing space every year and take it out in late Spring. I like to keep it near a garden path because a slight brush against the leaves releases the strong scent of pineapple. Now I have two plants of it! 

I love plants and flowers that are scented. Heliotrope is another one of those old fashioned plants with a vanilla scent. Heliotrope is not hardy either so it also comes into the sewing space for the winter. I started four plants from seeds many years ago and these usually go out on the deck in the summer. 

 

Wandering Wednesday

Time to move off the beaten quilty path and into the garden. 

We are still harvesting lots of peppers. These are all different varieties of sweet peppers. My husband has pickled some, used some in canning spaghetti sauce and salsa, dried and ground some and we eat them fresh for lunch every day. Now we have been giving them away to family and friends. My sister-in-law came with one of her granddaughters to pick up a big paper grocery sack of them. Her granddaughter picked several of them out of the bag and ate them like apples while we were chatting.

The wild asters are in bloom.  They just appeared in the flower garden last year and were a pleasant surprise again this year. Since I didn't plant them I've probably pulled them out in the past thinking they were weeds. Since I've retired I've been studying native species including the leaves and stems so I can recognize things that just pop up here and there. 

It is finally cool enough during the day to see the Four O'clocks open. Despite their name they are temperature sensitive and not daylight sensitive so open when the temperatures are cooler. Usually during the summer they open in the late evening and close up in the early morning so I rarely get to see them open. 

The Japanese Anemones are blooming. 

I've tried separating and transplanting some of these but evidently they are happiest where they are.  They are basically growing in gravel along an old gravel drive now overgrown with grass that goes through the lean-to next to the barn. I planted two plants about 25 years ago. They are an Autumn delight. 

I'm still harvesting broccoli side shoots. These will be for broccoli cheese soup for supper tomorrow night along with some homemade sourdough bread. After the main head of broccoli is harvested a lot of side shoots appear for later harvest. I soak in salt water to lure out any little critters that may be hiding within. 

Yesterday's harvest included several Butternut Squash, Delicata Squash, Zucchini and some small cabbages. Usually my cabbages are really big heads but I think the hot temperatures and drought conditions had an adverse affect on them. The last several years I could use on head to fill a gallon jar to make sauerkraut. I probably won't make sauerkraut for hubby this year. 

Sweet Autumn Clematis is in bloom. It fills the air with a vanilla scent. I guess it can be invasive but I keep mine confined to the trellis and look forward to the blooms and sweet scent that is a sign that Summer is winding down and Autumn is near or is here.  It is time to start collecting seeds. More on that on the next Wandering Wednesday. 

 

Wednesday Wandering

 

It's Wednesday again. Time to mention some non quilty things that have gone on here the past week. 

It was hot, hot, hot most of last week. However, the tomatoes did not take a break from ripening.  They were and still are everywhere.   We grow a lot of heirloom varieties that we save from seeds year to year.  My husband was proud of his Rainbow and Gold Medal varieties this year. Several weighed over a pound and one weighed 20 ounces. Gosh they are so juicy and tasty and great on a hamburger or in a BLT. 

We also grow a couple of varieties of paste tomatoes we use to make sauces, salsas, ketchup, and so on. 

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! 

Peppers, onions, tomatoes, cilantro...all from our garden. 

Salsa!

I've been slowly, slowly clearing an area of brambles, maple trees, honeysuckle, stinging nettle and other weeds. I'm making a few paths and have been doing some research on native wildflowers for both sun and shade and have found a good seed source. I hope to have this area turned into a native wildflower area in a few years. 

Another weed I've been lopping down is Pokeweed. There was a forest of it in there. I was watching Gardner's World a few weeks ago and had to laugh when someone told about growing it in their garden.  I was always going to try using the berries as a dye but that's for another day and another time. I want these in this area gone!! 

Pokeweed is edible but poisonous if not prepared correctly.  The most common dish prepared with this weed is called Poke Sallet. 

Tony Joe White and later Elvis sang about this weed in the song Polk Salad Annie. 

And Pokeweed is often represented in appliqued quilts. Barbara Brackman wrote an interesting blog post on Poke Weed and Politics that includes images of quilts with Poke Weed applique

Goldenrod also grows wild here but I leave some patches of it because I can normally keep those patches under control so it doesn't become invasive.  Several varieties of goldenrod are listed as native wildflowers of Iowa so I don't have to worry about buying any of those seeds for my wildflower plot.  I've actually dried goldenrod in the past and used it in wreaths I made of dried flowers. 

In the cottage garden I have one lone sunflower finally blooming. The deer ate most of my sunflower plants before they even bloomed. A few plants that were left and ready to bloom were blown over in the derecho and did not recover.  Earlier in the year some type of critter (maybe a groundhog or raccoon or even a big free range cat) got into my fountain and completely knocked it over and broke part of it and pulled out the pump. One of these days I'll look into fixing it. I like the sound of running water in the garden. 

The burgundy flower there is a rose. I added four of those to the cottage garden last fall. They were eaten down by deer earlier in the spring. I think all of our measures to keep deer away may have kept them away long enough for a few of my roses to bloom. The plant with the purple flower that is near there and now blooming is Obedient Plant or False Dragonhead. I planted one plant over 20 years ago and now Obedient Plant pops up here and there in the cottage garden. While doing my research on native wildflowers I found out that Obedient Plant is native to this area. So I will probably dig some of it up and transfer it over to the native wildflower garden whenever the time is right. 

I've gone off the beaten path and read a few books within the last couple of weeks too when it was too hot to do much else during the day. I do a lot of my reading in the middle of the night when I have a difficult time sleeping or if it is too hot to sleep. 

I love the author's writing style. I loved the story too. Will read more by this author. 

Supposed to be a thriller but I wasn't all that thrilled although the ending did surprise me. I got bored about half way through so did some speed  reading (skimmed through the pages). 

Do you believe in magic? (I do). All loose ends were tied up, thank goodness! 

Sometimes you just need some life changes. Another good one by Catherine Ryan Hyde. And I'll probably read even more by this author.  I saw one source (Wikipedia) describe her books as: "generally optimistic explorations of ordinary people, characters who are troubled or down-on-their-luck or recovering from past difficulties or abuse. "

I am fortunate I can stop and smell the roses from time to time. Oh, the miracles of a garden!