Garden Report 03.21.2011

Today I planted some of the onions from the Intermediate Day Sampler from Dixondale Farms. I planted six assorted rows (because the intermediate day sampler is all mixed up), with three "ditches" of fertilizer. The rows are like so: onion, fertilizer, onion, onion, fertilizer, onion, onion, fertilizer, onion.
I also planted some leeks today. They will be sharing a bed with the artichokes (all of which seem to have overwintered. I pulled the straw off that bed yesterday.), squash, and cucumbers. On the west end of the bed, I planted two rows of leeks with one row of fertilizer down the middle. On the east end of the bed, I planted three rows of leeks without any fertilizer. This is an experiment to see if the fertilizer is necessary.

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Onions and anxiety

Today I ordered my onions from Dixondale Farms. I was going to get around to it, but earlier this week I got a reminder email from the Owner (well, probably his secretary, in an automated email) that I hadn't ordered my onions yet and this is the time I ordered them last year. I felt a little whipped into shape after that email, and also appreciative that they would take time to email a reminder like that. So I ordered a bunch of lancelot leeks (I was only going to order half a bunch, but a full bunch was only $2 more), and a mixed bunch of intermediate day onions. I was going to order some of their special onion fertilizer - it's all nitrogen and no P-K. But I decided instead to use up some of the fertilizer in the garage. I think it's the Lowe's version of Miracle Grow. Not the best stuff, but I'd rather use it than throw it away. It has a pretty high nitrogen content if I remember correctly.

I'm getting really anxious about my sixth exam on Tuesday. Mostly because this will probably be the hardest exam for me. If I fail any of them, this will be the one. I've been reading the material for several months now, but still not scoring very high on the sample exams. However, it's been my experience that the practice exams for the other sections were a lot harder than the real exam and I passed the five I've taken on the first try. The other reason I'm anxious is because it may snow again early next week and I'd hate to have to reschedule it. The Hubs said he'll take me to the testing center if need be, if I can't get there in the car. I should probably read up on their snow cancellation policy, too, though.

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Vegetarian Meal #1: Lentil Vegetable Soup with Wild Rice

I am a member of www.sparkpeople.com. On this website, I track the food I eat (when I remember) and my exercise (every time I go to the gym.) I track my exercise so I can say "I went to the gym twice last week" and be honest about it. Otherwise, a month goes by before I realize I haven't been.

Part of SparkPeople is a website full of recipes, some healthy, some not so much. The whole point of www.recipes.sparkpeople.com is to figure out how many calories your homemade meals have in them, and then you can share them with other members. I have a lot of pantry staples that I need to get rid of (the recipe book I created on Spark Recipes is called "Getting Rid of Cabinet Items"), such as beans and rice and pasta. Some are a year old or more, but they're dry and sealed so they're bugless and not stale. But I still should get rid of them and get some fresh. Two of the items I need to get rid of are lentils and rice, so this is the recipe I found:

Lentil Vegetable Soup with Wild Rice

Ingredients

3/4 cup lentils, sorted and rinsed 

3/4 cup diced carrot 

3/4 cup diced celery 

3/4 cup chopped onion 

1/4 cup wild rice 

1/4 cup converted rice (like Uncle Ben's) 

2 cloves garlic, minced 

1 teaspoon dried oregano 

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme 

5 cups water 

4 teaspoons vegetable bouillon seasoning 

1 bay leaf 

1 14-1/2 oz. can cut up tomatoes 

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley 

2 tablespoons minced fresh basil, optional

Directions

Combine all ingredients on the list through the canned tomatoes in a large pot (do not add the Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, parsley or basil yet). Bring to a boil, then simmer until lentils and rice are tender (about 35-45 minutes). Remove the bay leaf. Scoop out about two cups of the soup and blend well in the blender. Return the blended soup to the pot. Now stir in the Worcestershire sauce, the apple cider vinegar, the fresh parsley (and the fresh basil if using). Makes 4 servings, 2 cups each.

My notes: 
I didn't have wild rice so I used 1/2 c of Uncle Ben's instant rice. Instead of vegetable bouillon, I used a low sodium chicken bouillon. I didn't have a bay leaf and I didn't use the last four ingredients. Honestly, I forgot to add them!

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Seed starting while drinking wine!

Today I planted the following herbs inside:
Dill, Sweet Basil, Cilantro and Flat leaf Parsley

I still have several varieties of basil to start, as well as castor beans and marigolds, but there is no room for them at the moment.

I planted onions outside today also. This year I purchased onions from Dixondale Farms. Usually I would purchase onions from the local nursery, but after reading the Farmgirl Fare blog I decided otherwise. And because I wanted different varieties of onions, and I wanted to know the real name of the onions besides "red", "white" or "yellow" because that's the only label they ever give to the onions at the nurseries around here.

So, I bought the Intermediate day sampler and a bunch of Borrettana Cippolini. The intermediate day sampler has: Candy (yellow), Super Star (white) and Red Candy Apple (yup, red!). The cippolini is a flat white onion.

I decided to plant the intermediate day sampler in the same bed where the tomatoes will be later this season. We'll see how they do together as companion plants. I planted a double row of each onion, which divided the rest of the bed into four spaces. Each of the four spaces will have two tomato plants.

The tomatoes I am growing for this year are Amish Paste (for making homemade tomato paste and pizza sauce), Thessaloniki (a slicing type from Greece, hopefully to make juice from), Cour di Bue (hopefully also for juice. This was a free packet sent to me when I ordered seeds from Baker Creek.), and Black Cherry (for eating straight off the vine, and for salads).

And now for the wine! I enjoyed a bottle of Sutter Home Moscato. I have this mental image of Sutter Home being a cheap wine for those who don't know how to choose wine. (right up my alley, right?) It wasn't bad at all. I like Moscato because they're always sweet and I never have to worry about the lemon drop pucker. There are two other Moscato wines that I like: Barefoot and Allegro Moscato. I like drinking Barefoot (not just the Moscato) because part of their profit goes to clean up beaches in California, so people can safely walk on them barefoot. Allegro Moscato is one of my mom's favorite wines, and is easily spotted in the wine aisle because the bottle is taller, the cork cover is lavendar, and there are ballet slippers on the label.

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