Three seeds, two experiments, lots of growth. Way back in the middle of the summer, the kids and I planted yellow squash, marigold and bean seeds in egg shells and egg cartons. We also tried a bean experiment to see which way the bean sprouts would grow. Both experiments were fun and after the sprouts started growing we planted them in the garden.
After that we mostly just watched them grow,
and grow,
and grow.
Of course we watered them and added compost once in a while, but there was a lot of just watching. Watching and being amazed at how beautiful they are,
how tall they got,
how fast they grew from tiny to huge,
how clever they are.
It reminds me of my kids, obviously I water them and feed them (hmmm, maybe Jasper would eat compost?)
I try as hard as I can every day to nurture them and not get frustrated. I fail often. I hope for sunny days to soak up the warmth and rainy ones to splash in puddles, a good balance of both. But a lot of the time, I'm just watching.
Watching them grow.
We sent Lily off to kindergarten this month and I'm amazed for all of these reasons.
How fast she's growing,
how beautiful she is,
how clever,
how fragile yet resilient,
and how hard and amazing at the same time it is for me to just let her go (grow!)
It's that time of year again, spiders are everywhere!
Outside, their sticky webs are waiting every morning, in the doorway, strung from zucchini to sunflower, nestled around my tomato plants and beautifully attached to old anemone buds.
Inside it's like they're haunting me, appearing in the bathtub in the morning before I can barely see straight. A HUGE one racing across my bedroom floor as I turned on the light the other night. Waiting for me in the bathroom at 2 am. Am I embarrassed to say I've screamed for Greg to come save me several times from them? Absolutely not!
I love spiders in the garden, their beautiful webs and their appetite for insects, but boy they are ginormous this time of year, all fattened up from all the eating they've been doing, but I really, really don't like sharing my house with them. And, dang are they hard for me to photograph clearly!!
Lily and Jasper love to find spiders in the garden, and they love to find spiders who have trapped insects in their webs. This weekend Greg and the kids and I were playing in the garden and there were webs everywhere. Greg thought it would be fun to find a bug and toss it into one of the webs and watch the spider in action. Never gonna happen I thought to myself. I never doubted that they would find a bug, after all, Jasper is my bug whisperer, but tossing one into the web seemed like it would never work.
It took Jasper, after tipping over a few potted plants, about one minute to find and grab an earwig. Greg gently tossed it into the web and WOW! That bug stuck and that spider moved like lightning tearing apart bits of its own web to spin that earwig into submission while we watched from the sidelines. So fast it was amazing! (Off to the side is a trapped ladybug Lily wanted to save. She said, "I'm going to go find a wood chip and knock that ladybug free." Greg replied, "I think it's too late for that darlin'.")
Turns out Greg really enjoys tossing earwigs into spiderwebs. Tonight the kids found a roly poly they tossed into a web which fell off after a minute. A minute was all it took for me to capture it on camera. Not the best photos I've ever taken, but they do a pretty good job.
But then Jasper fell onto an old wooden bird feeder, broke it apart and discovered families and families of earwigs inside. Eeeeew! Greg gathered a whole cupful and while the kids ran around the yard chasing Dizzy, Greg had fun throwing earwig after earwig into a web trying to get one to stick. I could tell he was way too into it because whenever he missed he kept saying, "I can't get it into the net!" But the hockey player persevered and, finally, GOAL!!! One landed and stuck and Greg and I watched again while a spider secured its prey. I'm making us out to look like bug assassins, but really, our organic garden is crawling with them. And to be perfectly honest I can't stand earwigs. Plus watching a spider dart over and grab its prey and use its web to bind the prey up faster than you can say gin and tonic is pretty fascinating to watch!
I'm telling you, there is never a dull moment around here!!
It's squash blossom season again. It has been for a few weeks in our garden. And this year they just keep coming. I don't know if it's the kind I planted, yellow crooknecks, or the awesome compost from Cedar Grove or the EcoFeed fertilizer.
Maybe it's all the garden love.
We've had so many blossoms, I can't keep up. I wish I had a local cafe or restaurant to deliver them to. Every year in my garden I've planted some kind of zucchini, yellow squash or winter squash. They always produce; usually they produce more than enough. Many of us have had those summers where we have so much zucchini we're desperate to pawn it off on others. But this year I've had way more blossoms than squash.
The amount of blossoms may in fact outnumber the amount of hoodlums in my hood, which isn't really a very comforting thought, because I'm pretty sure if I had to stand up to one of the hoodlums, or defend my home, squash blossoms absolutely would not come in handy. Halt! Or I'll throw my small, tissue-thin, fragile yellow blossoms in your face!
Good thing we have a ferocious guard dog!!
I do love the vegetable, grilled, roasted, sautéed in some pasta with lots of garlic, fresh herbs and lemon, always the lemon! Grated and added to brownies, cookies and loaves. But it truly is the blossoms that have my heart. Why? You may ask. Two words for you, deep fried!
Lily and Jasper could care less about eating them.
(What do they know anyway!) But they do love climbing under the three-foot tall plants and finding them. Actually I think they like discovering the pollen inside and the beautiful furry black bumblebees searching for that pollen.
But these gorgeous babies, stuffed with a little bit of soft cheese like a whole-milk ricotta mixed with some fresh herbs, garlic and lemon. Dipped in a light batter, fried in hot oil and topped with some sea salt and just a sprinkle of lemon. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!
I like to pick them in the morning when they are wide open so I can pick the stamen and pistils out. Some people pick them when they are closed; it's all up to you. If I'm not using them right away, I carefully cover them with some damp paper towels and put them in the fridge.
The filling I make differs every time, based on what I have. But generally I mix about a 1/4 cup of ricotta or goat cheese with some fresh herbs from the garden, chives, parsley and basil, a bit of lemon zest, some minced garlic, salt and pepper, all to taste. Each blossom only needs a teaspoon or so of cheese filling. I fill them carefully and then gently twist the tops closed so they look like this.
For the batter I mix: 1 cup rice flour or Pamela's Gluten-Free Artisan Flour Mix, 1/2 cup corn starch, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Then I whisk in 1 cup chilled beer, milk or soda water. (Some recipes call for more corn starch.) Cover and let chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then heat up some canola, peanut or coconut oil and fry away for a few minutes each, people. Sprinkle some salt and squeeze just a touch of lemon over the finished fried goodies. YUM! We've been doing this once a week for several weeks now, and I never remember to get a picture of the finished product. Stuffed, deep fried squash blossoms beg to be eaten almost immediately, or as soon as they've cooled off enough not to burn your tongue!
Enjoy your squash blossoms!
