Homemade/Homegrown food

Gluten free dough

Gluten free English Muffins- Buckwheat, Amaranth, Tapioca & Millet flours

Kabocha pumpkins

Cooking pumpkin in the SunOven for pie

More Pumpkins

Mini Pomegranate...these are in the front yard. Mostly just a decorative plant, the fruit is small and the juice is very tart. But if you need some vitamin C it's edible!

Garden Updates

We think these mystery Curcurbits are melons. We give them soy yogurt diluted with water almost everyday and they seems to love it.

Marigolds bursting with color

Mums whispering in the shade

"British Wonder" Shelling peas sprouted

future site of a new garden bed!

Lori the kitty basking in the sun

we tried growing kidney beans but it didn't produce very well.

Homemade Food

Tomato Veggie soup with homegrown Zucchinis and Carrots along with other veggies.

Kneading the gluten-free dough

Gluten-free English Muffins

Pumpkin cooking in the Sun Oven

Harvest Updates

Pumpkins!

Front Yard's Miniature Pomegranates. The insides of these never get red, they stay pink, and tart!

Harvests and Canning

The rains caused lots of guavas to crack their tender skins, so off they came from the tree. Some went to neighbors as gifts and others ended up in preserves.

Garden Updates

Garlic is happy

Carrots sprouting(circled in red)

British Wonder Peas sprouting

our Last Tomato plant. This one was cloned from one of the earlier plants

chrysanthemums singing after the rain

Lettuce enjoying the cooler weather

mystery curcurbit started growing in the strawberries... it must have survived the composting

front yard Mikan Mandarines turning orange

Sweet Potato growing in the front yard, most people wouldn't know the difference between it and ivy!

This little white hive is waiting for the swarming that will occur in spring. Notice it's right by the sprinkler box that keeps getting taken over by the honeybees.

Amazingly large Spider

I wanted to share this pic of a very large spider I found in our Valencia Orange tree after the rain. It was busy trying to fix the damage caused by the wind and rain on it's web. The spider's abdomen itself is 3/4" round! The whole body with legs is about 1-1/2"! That's one of the largest spiders I've seen here in the roaming around this area!

Garden Updates

Fall is definitely here, and we are readying our garden. This bed is growing Hairy Vetch, a green manure cover crop. It helps to fix much needed nitrogen into the soil We'll plant some Napa Cabbage in soon. The Brassicas(cabbage family) loves nitrogen. Green manures are a great way to add this nutrient as it will not leach into the ground water as steer & chicken manures would. I do use steer manure too, but in moderation.

Pumpkin ripening on the vine. Almost time for harvest!

White Guavas slowly ripening. The good thing about these is that they ripen one by one and won't overwhelm you with a sudden burst of a tree full of ripened fruit.

Kabocha pumpkin growing

First Rain of Autumn

We received our first rainstorm, and it is very refreshing! I am worried for the hillsides that were ravaged by the Station Fire(the largest fire in recorded history in these mtns). There's a high probability of mudslides there.

Rain drops on Lemon grass

Marigolds refreshed by the showers

Banana Leaves sparkle with rain beads

Columbine leaves enjoying the cool weather

Saving Seeds and Eating Local

We try to save as much seed as we can, to keep the Heirloom seedlines continuing. Royal Purple Bush Bean seeds on the left, Blue Lake Bush Bean seeds on the right.

Homegrown Lettuce for our Dinner salad. The Tomatoes were bought from the farmer's market.

The foods that included home grown and local produce:

Chicken Veggie soup with "HG" Carrots & Zucchini

Sauteed Veggies with Ground Turkey (HG Zucchini, Carrots & Chinese Chives)

"HG" Bittermelon sauteed with "HG" Carrots, "HG" Zucchini and Sausages

Sun Oven cooked Chili with "HG" Peppers

Fried Rice which included "HG" Carrots, Zucchini & Green Onion.

Meatloaf which included "HG" Zucchini, Carrots, Peppers and home-baked bread crumbs

"HG" Mikan Mandarines, Guavas and wild Strawberries.

Homemade yogurt (soy, since we are allergic to dairy) with Frozen "HG" figs

gifted Peaches that have been frozen and Persimmon from the Hacienda Hts home

Home baked Bread for sandwiches and toast

*HG stands for Home Grown

Harvest Updates

Lots of Peppers, we made Chili with this batch. yum!

Bittermelon, I'm finally getting used to it's flavor, C is eating the dish too, I'm proud of him

More Peppers! This might be the last batch this year, I picked all that was left on the bush. However, there are lots of pepper blossoms ready flower, so who knows! Peppers in Jan? Maybe, we'll see how the weather fares.

September 2009 Harvest Tally

Carrots 16.20 lbs

Zucchini 09.43 lbs

Pumpkin 06.19 lbs

Peppers 04.76 lbs

Watermelon 03.88 lbs

Bittermelon 03.30 lbs

Tomatoes 02.23 lbs

Tangerines 01.75 lbs

Japanese Cucumber 01.53 lbs

Guava 01.34 lbs

Asian Pear 15.25 oz

Basil(sweet&purple) 12.00 oz

Eggplant 13.75 oz

Figs 05.70 oz

Beans 05.00 oz

Chinese Chives(Nira) 04.50 oz

Strawberries 04.10 oz

Baby Corn 04.00 oz

Broccoli Greens 03.50 oz

Stevia 03.50 oz

Lemon Grass 01.50 oz

Myoga 01.00 oz

Lettuce 00.50 oz

Foraged:

Limes 09.00 oz

Pounds tallied: 50.61 lbs

Ounces tallied: 74.30 oz = 4.64 lbs

Total: 55.25 lbs

Daily Harvests

Thursday, Oct1st Harvest:

Carrots, Bittermelon, one of the first White Guavas of the season and a mini Kabocha Pumpkin.

Oct 2nd Harvest:

8 pounds of Carrots! (not pictured some more Guava)