Short veggies and apples

Just a quick post.

We wrapped APPLE SEASON up nicely. Shana made some apple sauce with Talia which I even liked. (Not usually a fan) It's grand actually being able to use the apples this year. Last year, they were hit with some buggies or some such, but this year we treated the tree with an oil, hung buggy catchers and seemed to be able to fight off most of the bugs leaving us a lovely crop. Next year, will hit things a little harder and save more apples.

I made some fried apples that were....so damn good. :)  A lovely breakfast for the family. I followed this recipe and it was a sweet treat for all.

http://divascancook.com/best-southern-fried-apples-recipe/

We're looking into building a new planter box next year as well. We think our soil isn't deep enough to get large, full grown veggies.So, next year, we're going to build a deep wood box, bring in better soil and try for larger veggies.

I've dropped in images below.

Cheers!

Best Southern Fried Apples

 

Author: Divas Can Cook

Ingredients

• 2 large granny smith apples
• 4 tablespoons real butter, chopped
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Learn More From a BBQ Expert.

 

Instructions

1. Peel, core and cut apples into even slices.
2. Melt butter in skillet over medium heat.
3. Add apples and drizzle them with lemon juice.
4. Let apples simmer until most of butter is absorbed and apples are tender. (do not overcook. Apples should be firm to the touch, yet tender with a little give to the bite.)
5. Stir together sugars and sprinkle them over apples.
6. Toss to combine.
7. Lower heat if needed.
8. Let apples cook until sugars are completely dissolved and syrupy.
9. Remove from heat and sprinkle apples with cinnamon.
10. Toss to distribute cinnamon.
11. Plate apples and serve piping hot!

Notes

Cooking time will vary based on apples used and thickness of apples.
Granny smith makes the best apples for fried apples.

Fun in the sun

Seneca filling her potty with water. Classic. :) Our green beans are growing like weeds. Definitely our most successful efforts.

Apples

 

July in the garden

The garden is moving along, but not as lush and large as i thought it might be. I think this was mainly due to the way we planted things this year. We were doing rows, keeping distance and not paying 100% attention to the watering and care due to life items (kids and the like), so there were times things got dry or needed a bit more attention.

However, we do have some winners in the bunch, this round going to the Black Krim Tomatoes. They really came out in full force and seemed to thrive in the area we planted them in.

Talia and Seneca love planting and tending to the garden. I think next year will see Talia putting even more energy into planting, watering and tending to things. We'll see. :)

Gathering onions and chives

Onion taste! :)

Early Krims were a beautiful green color

Chives

Onions

Black Krim

Our other tomatoes.....well....they didn't thrive. :)

Meh

Shana's delicious tomato soup with some of ours in with some other items from the garden

We planted green beans and they shot up in about 30 hours! Crazy!

Green beans

 Corn shot up as well. They both seem to love the sun they are getting.

And, the other benefit of being out in the garden - the done we purchased from Talia's old school when they moved locations. The kids love it. Talia is getting really strong climbing the thing! :)

It was really nice taking some time to just hang out in back today. I was just talking about the fact that we have not had many "summer days" to just sort of hang out. Shana pointed out that we did actually have the days, but we were not chilling in back during them. We were GO GO GOing, as usual. So, making more time to enjoy the yard and garden in on my list! 

We're feeling the effect of the California water crisis as well. We've just let our lawn go, which isn't saying a whole lot - it was really in bad shape already. I'm looking into more planter boxes or raised beds to take over some of our lawn space. While it's nice to have a place for the kids to play, it would be nice to have a little more garden space as well. We'll see. I still have strawberry gutter planting in mind, so the extra space would be fun.

Our plums have come and gone already and we really didn't do much with them this year. We didn't even get jam or jelly made this round, but some were eaten by friends and family at least.

We didn't get apricots this year which was sad. I think the tree produced around six in total - two of which ended up on the ground, sadly. Maybe we'll have more next year.

Our fig tree produced a ton this year as did the olive tree. We need to see how to process them both and when to pick 'em. 

CHEERS!

Black Krim

WOW! We grew this! :)

I love that. Can't wait to taste it!

 

 

The garden winner is...

Our Black Krim tomatoes are the clear winners in the garden. They are doing really well and are producing like crazy. We're going to pick a few today and try them out. Next year we're going to have to do more of these for sure. It's nice to have something that's actually doing what it's supposed to do in the garden. hehehehe

I'm going to do another round of planting today. Just try some items out to see what happens with a later planting. Wild flowers in the front, sweet corn, another style of corn and peas, I believe. We'll see how it goes. I know it's late, but I want to see more green in the garden and less dirt. :)

July 6th Update

Well, we survived the 4th here in the East Bay - where people love to shoot off fireworks the whole week of the 4th and beyond. Clocks be damned! We need to shoot off explosions at 3am!  :)

The garden is coming along, though it's starting to go a bit sparse and dry in areas. We've lost our garlic and the kale is slowing down it's production. One of our tomatoes is fantastic and thriving while the other is still limping along.

I think our plan for next year is to clump more of our veggies together - doing away with all the rules of planting on the back of the package. We visited a cousin recently and she was "clumping" and her garden looked lush and alive. We'll give that a shot.

I also want to try out strawberry gutter growing. We'll get some gutters, build a structure to support them, then plan the strawberries in the gutters so they hang over the sides. It looks amazing and will keep the strawberries off the ground and out of the dirt.

Our apples are growing. We have a ton of 'em and it looks like our battle against our little apple eaters is working out. FAR less apple damage this year. Not as many black spots on them.

Our main garden is slowing down with many of our items ending their cycles for now.

Our plums are being snagged from the tree more often, but there are still so many that the deck is littered with them - squished and lost, sadly. I was thinking that a few nets hung under the tree might be fun. 

July 4th was great in the back this year. Had a few folks over and grilled up various forms of hot dogs and brats. Its a lovely space for meet ups and just hanging out in the sun.

I'd like to devote more hours to the garden. I need to research planting schedules to see when we can start a second round of veggies. I'd like to pack some more into the space.

CHEERS!