Drying parsley: a how-to in progress

Some random images and thoughts on drying parsley for the first time. I’ll put it all into one post at the end if it turns out well!

Started out with the biggest parsley, and grouped them into small bunches. Tied them with the left over twine from the trellis, and hung on a curtain rod in a window that gets a lot of direct sunlight. They are nice and bushy here, yesterday. Today they are wilting and I’m watching carefully to make sure they get good heat and airflow.

Beans and other photos

Here’s the green bean pictures, I found 3 more on the other plant. They’re so cute!!

And some more pictures from around the garden, please excuse the weeds, they are trying to take over!:

Zucchini on the right, summer squash in the middle and onions on the left edge.

Tomatoes…more are flowering but I haven’t spied any fruit yet, plus some corn to the right:

Potatoes on the left of the trellis:

2 rows of carrots, half a row of beets and a few more radishes coming up:

Big broccoli:

I died.

Really. When I saw the thermometer in my van and it said 106F, I died. Thankfully the a/c brought me back. Well, maybe not so much, it’s still 80 degrees inside my house at 11pm and I’m miserable. I’m sure I sound melodramatic, but I tend to get awful migraines with the heat (got one yesterday) and it just makes me feel so horrible. Blech. I’m really not thrilled about this climate change stuff!

The garden is doing marvelous (I felt compelled to use that word, I don’t know why)…I finally have a teeny tiny oh-so-cute little green bean that I will get a picture of tomorrow. I dug up a little russet tater too, so see how they were doing, and it looks excellent. I will be cutting and drying parsley tomorrow, it’s taking over! I wish the basil would do so well. And the oregano and thyme…and chives…I’m getting the distinct impression my herbs don’t like this soil, at all. Time for a container herb garden?

The peas are producing like crazy. So far, no one else likes them much so they are ALL MINE! HA! Their loss! I found I much prefer the sugar snap to the Oregon snap, better flavor and crunch, but the sugar is tasty too. Lots of strawberries, and the kids and Chris report they are awesome. Tiny little things even fully ripe, but very juicy and tasty. The pumpkins, zucchini and crookneck squash are growing very well, getting big and leafy, but no blooms. I’m guessing in the next 2 weeks I’ll see some.

See you soon!

Someone bite the weather “forecaster”

How rude is this crap?? Being very careful to keep the garden watered well without overwatering!

Translucent pea pods, other minor news

I haven’t had a lot of time the past week with family coming, but they are gone now and as soon as I catch up on work, I’ll have more blog time. Even the garden was getting neglected, I wasn’t watering enough, but I made up for it and it’s happy again.

Peas in the sunlight, I saw these and had to snap a couple pictures (too bad my camera’s focus is going to shit and it didn’t focus on the peas themselves, grr):

In other news, the potatoes are getting very big, I need to get some more dirt to cover them with. I cannot wait to eat freshly harvested and roasted taters!

I’m it!

I’ve been tagged! By Compostings

Blogging tag games are a good thing – better than the traditional chain letter. Usually, in a chain letter, the sender threatens you with some kind of imagined “bad luck” or curse if you do not forward the chain letter. Those kinds of things are stupid. But blog tagging is a nice way to create traffic and awareness for your blog and for others and there is no hooey associated with it. Here are the rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on the blog.
• Write six random things about yourself.
• Tag six people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Here are my six random things:

1. I dye my hair to keep it red – I had fiery red hair until I started having kids, with each one it goes more brown. I’m still a redhead at heart with a redhead complexion, so I dye. Chemicals and all.
2. I’m allergic to most my favorite foods – if I love it, it gives me a migraine, including strawberries (no, I can’t eat any of that jam I made! It’s for the kids so I can keep dyes and high fructose corn syrup away from them.)
3. I’d dump my husband in a second for Will Smith :drool
4. I don’t actually want to “be” a web designer. If I hadn’t had kids, I’d be an archeologist, probably specializing in Mayan and Egyptian cultures. Maybe if I ever get rich and get my student loans out of default and the kids are grown, I’ll do that. Yeah right!
5. I’m having a hard time thinking of 6 random things so I’m using this one as one :p
6. I can’t wait for the Stargate Worlds MMO to come out. Hoping I get into beta.

And here are the people I am tagging:

Double Danger

Gardening in Suburbia

Little Beach Homestead

Not So Crafty

Alberta Home Gardening

Oklahoma Grown Veg