Harvest Monday & Seedy Saturday Winner

Pak-Choi

Welcome to Harvest Monday, hosted by Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions! Check it out and see what gardeners around the world are harvesting, some of them are pretty amazing.

This week, besides the usual mix of lettuces, I harvested a few other goodies, like this pretty little baby pak choi.

Easter Egg Radishes

There were some little Easter Egg Radishes. These were a bit hotter than the ones I pulled before, I think maybe they are a bit too warm in the greenhouse with the crazy springlike weather we've been having.

Baby carrots; there are beets hiding underneath them.

I pulled the last of the beets and carrots that were planted in August. They haven't grown much lately so I figured a fresh start would be good. They were in half of a small bed, so I loosened up the soil and added some compost and fertilizer to it so it will be ready to plant.

Yellow Marble Tomato in January!

I got a few more yellow marble tomatoes from the plant in the greenhouse. It's been warmer lately so it is doing well. We'll see what happens if we get another deep freeze.

Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas grow in tubs in the greenhouse

The Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas are beginning to vine in their tubs in the greenhouse, they should start blooming soon.

greenhouse growing bed

In the raised bed in the green house there are some strawberry plants, an odd onion, some little marvel peas and way down at the end, some cilantra and sorrel sprouting up.

And now I know at least one person is anxiously awaiting......Seedy Saturday's Free Seed Giveaway goes to Jennie M.! congrats Jennie!

Seedy Saturday

Rust colored sunflower

Welcome to Seedy Saturday! This weeks FREE seed giveaway is for some small seeded decorative sunflowers.

In 2009 I planted several packets of mixed colors of decorative sunflowers and they were in all shades of red, rust, orange and yellow. The plants were quite variable also, some just 3 feet tall, up to about 6 feet. Some plants had just one or two larger flowerheads while others branched out a lot and had a dozen smaller ones.

The bed they were growing in was not in the best shape, so they would probably have been bigger and had more flowers in better soil. The flowers attracted a lot of bees and butterflies and the seeds attracted a lot of finches and other small seed eating birds. My idea for growing them was as chicken feed, but the dogs got the chickens before I tried them out to see if the chickens liked them.

Since sunflowers are very much outbreeders there is no telling what you will get when you plant these, they will be a big surprise. I hope that the winner will send me pictures of them when they bloom!

To be in the drawing for these free seeds, simply comment on this post! For the fine print rules, read this post.

In other news the weather has been warm, sunny and dry and I'm having to water the outdoor gardens a bit. And the rats that have taken up residence under the house, in the walls and attic are stirring. One nibbled some pea shoots in the greenhouse. However, I set a trap and got that one. Getting ready to reset the trap as I know there are a lot more of them. Thinking maybe I need to buy some more traps. One might not be enough.

I got a windfall of two boxes of aging produce out of which I canned 21 pints of applesauce and some half pints of salsa. Just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. I'll be doing a how-to article for making the applesauce.

Seedy Saturday Winner & Harvest Monday

Cooking a ham on my airtight wood stove

 First my apologies for not getting this post done earlier today. I have been having some technical difficulties with my computer and it is a pain. But I'm working them out one by one.

The Harvest Monday blog hop is sponsored by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions.  Stop on over, say howdy and check out some of the other folks around the world and what they are harvesting.

MMmmm well now it doesn't seem that I've taken any pictures of the harvest this week! I suppose it's a bit boring to look at baby lettuce week after week any way. But I did get a whole pound of baby lettuce this week and amazingly enough, a few of the little Yellow Marble tomatoes! (about one ounce). Yesterday and today have been very grey, drizzly and cold. Which made perfect weather for my experiment which follows.

But I'll tell you what else I did this week; I bought a ham on sale (I love ham with sweet potatoes and applesauce on the side) and when I got home realized that no way was it going to fit in the crock pot. See my oven has been out for awhile so I've just been cooking on the stove top or the crockpot. So I decided to try baking my ham on top of my air tight wood stove in the living room.

The top of the stove runs 150-200 degrees F. so I figured it would work just like those big electric roasters and it did! It was delicious! I think I will experiment with this some more.

My ham cooked on my airtight wood stove.

And now I know everyone is waiting for the winner! The winner of this weeks Seedy Saturday is Katie Hertfelder Congrats Katie! Send me an email to hysong AT cableone DOT net with your snail mail.

To the last couple of winners, I haven't forgotten you, I just haven't made it to the post office yet, hopefully by Wednesday for all of you!

In the meantime, for those of you stopping by for the first time, I write articles on Squidoo. I have made a list of my Organic Gardening articles to make them easy to find, if you want to check them out.

Seedy Saturday Free Seed Giveaway!

Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas

Welcome to Seedy Saturday! This weeks free seeds are for Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas. These are the little flat snow peas that you get in Chinese food. They are great raw in your salad or on a veggie party platter, as well as stir-fried. They easily fit into the edible landscape with their beautiful pink and maroon blossoms, resembling Sweet Pea flowers!

These seeds were homegrown in 2009 and still have good germination, at least 80% should sprout. I'll send you about 25-30 seeds, enough to have a some to eat this year and to save your own seed for next year.

If you don't know how to grow peas, or you've had trouble in the past, I've written an article to help you grow the best pea crop ever, How to Grow Peas.

To learn more about saving your own seed check out Garden Seeds, Grow Your Own.

Seedy Saturday Rules: Basic rule, just comment on this post and you are in the running to be drawn for the free seed. There's a couple of other things which you can read on this post.

I will announce this weeks winners on my Harvest Monday post, so be sure and check back on Monday to see if you are a winner!

Harvest Monday & Seedy Saturday Winner!

baby lettuce, violas, society garlic blossoms, chives, lemon thyme

Welcome to Harvest Monday! This weekly bloghop is hosted by Daphne, over at Daphne's Dandelions. This week of course saw more baby lettuces, along with some herbs and edible flowers.

yellow beets, baby carrots, tiny potatoes

One day I pulled a couple of big yellow beets, some baby carrots and emptied a tub that grew potatoes. The potato plants have looked quite pathetic all fall and all I got were these 3 tiny potatoes. I think the problem was the soil was just not fertile enough. Looking at the plants I'm sure they didn't have enough nitrogen and looking at the potatoes I'm equally sure they didn't get enough potash. Ah well, there is always next year!

Pineapple Sage flowers are great in salad

The small Pineapple Sage plants that I bought recently have begun to bloom. I sprinkle the flowers in my salad. They have a lovely sweet, floral flavor with hints of pineapple. Their bright lipstick red color adds another dimension of color along with flavor.


Many people look askance at me eating my salad without dressing. While I do like Ranch dressing, it is way too heavy and overpowering to put it on baby lettuce. It is better as  a dip for things with more robust flavors, like hot wings.

I don't even usually use vinaigrette these days, preferring to actually taste the different flavors of the lettuces, other baby greens, flowers and herbs.

yellow marble & Princepe Borghese tomatoes

Since we were expecting snow and freezing temps I picked all the little tomatoes that were at least beginning to turn color. Since it is predicted to be in the high 20's overnight all week I suspect these will be the last.

This weeks harvests:
lettuce, herbs, edible flowers           1 pound  5 oz

potatoes                                                        3 oz
beets & greens                             2 pounds 14 oz
baby carrots                                                  5 oz
tomatoes                                                       1 oz

total                                              4 pounds, 12 oz

This week's Seedy Saturday giveaway is for Sweet Magnolia, a purple podded snow pea. The seeds were saved in 2009 and should have good germination. The plants will go to 6 ft+ on good soil. I wrote everyone's name on a slip of paper and folded it up. Then I tossed them in the air and picked up the slip of paper that landed closest to me. And the winner is......... Shannon B.! For the rest of you, stop in and try again next week.

PS. I have one more space that I might plant Sweet Magnolias in and after that I might give away the seeds that are left in the jar, so be sure and check in every Seedy Saturday!