It wasn’t a terribly productive week. I spent the first few days in standby mode. I didn’t want to buy groceries, start ongoing projects, of mess the house up in case I was deployed for disaster relief work. I finally decided to stop acting as if I would be deployed on Thursday. This almost guarantees that I will get the call tomorrow.
Gardening: Started research and planning for fall gardening. Summer things don’t require more than water from me at this point. Found a buy one get one free sale on plants so I picked up some more herbs and some lettuce transplants. I also picked up 4 sweet potato plants to try. I know it is late for both the lettuce and the sweet potatoes but the sale prices made it worth taking the risk.
I transplanted the lettuce and some of the herbs today. I started the borage seeds I received from Green Bean. I realized that between lack of planning and impulse purchases my garden is a bit out of control. Spending part of today thinking about what I have and what I need to do. The what I need to do includes buying more containers and soil. My peas are finally blooming and the peas have started blooming.
The green onion experiment continues; I tucked some more sets in the container to replace those that I have harvested. Planted some kale seeds since my current plants are not producing enough to keep me happy. I really like kale and didn’t know it until I started eating it a few weeks ago.
Harvest: Sprouted wheat for the first time but it didn’t work so well. Harvested a small broccoli head and more Swiss Chard. Picked my first tomato on the first day of summer. Harvest herbs for immediate use and drying. Giving my kale a chance to grow by switching to picking young chard leaves for daily use. I need to plant lots more kale.
Cook something new:
Prepared Quinoa for the first time, Inca Red Quinoa to be precise. I cooked it the way I often prepare rice with some spices, honey, and dried fruit. I will be using more Quiona in the future.
This will sound silly but until recently I had never made quesadillas. They are becoming a mainstay. A whole wheat or multigrain tortilla browned lightly and then moved out of the way. Then lightly brown a second tortilla on both sides. Top with whatever cheese I want to use up, a handful of greens and herbs from the deck and top with the first tortilla. Serve with salsa and sometimes Greek yogurt. mmmm, mmmm good. Kale and Sweet Swiss cheese from Fair Oaks Dairy was especially tasty.
Preservation: Currently drying parsley, lemon balm, and chives. Have 4 quarts of strawberries and 4 of sugar snap peas to freeze.
Preparation/Managed: Purchased a dehydrator. Bought some of the seeds I want for fall planting. Found a cookbook that looks like a wonderful resource, A Midwest Gardener’s Cookbook by Marian K. Towne. I reviewed it here. I purchased some more dried berries, beans, and popcorn for storage.
Manage: Finally finished reorganizing the office/storage room. As I open new products, I am labeling them with the date so that I can get a better sense of how much I need to have in stock.
Local Food Systems: Celebrated summer with a round of local food stops. Strawberries are nearing their peak and cherries are starting to make an appearance. I wrote a fairly long post about those adventures here. I discovered some wild mulberries and raspberries. Sadly they are in a public park wildlife area so I can’t ask permission to pick them. 
I will did taste one mulberry and it was delicious. It is sad to see them going to waste. This is true of the crab apples that grow on campus too. This past week I also had several people notice and comment on my garden; perhaps I planted some seeds about starting their own.
Waste Management/Consumption reduction: My gasoline consumption was up this week because I drove to the other corner of the state to see a friend who was visiting from Florida.
I set up an account with Catalog Choice to get rid of the catalogs I get but don’t want.
I stopped a water waste issue by repairing the toilet.
Learn something new:
Not entirely new but I reminded myself of some maintenance skills be repairing my own toilet. The repair will avoid wasting water and lower my frustration level.
I learned some new uses for redbud trees. These just happen to be the state tree for my home state of Oklahoma. I am not a huge fan of redbuds but knowing these uses earned them some points. Here is a quote from the article linked above.
“Redbud trees are planted as ornamentals but also grow wild through the eastern woods. The flowers are edible, and add great color to salad, or you could use them as a colorful edible garnish. This time of year though, the pods are what we’re after. They will look just like snow peas but will be growing on a tree with alternate, heart-shaped leaves. Don’t confuse with locust beans. Locust will have many tiny compound leaves and usually larger, tougher pods. Cook and use the redbud pods just like snow peas.”
More links for redbud trees and their uses:
- Great Plains Nature Center
- Abstract of study of their nutritional value
- Mentioned in a post on Edible Wild Plants of Houston in Merriwether’s Journal
