Peonies 2017

I'm a bit behind on blogging but I wanted to share photos of these beauties.  Peonies are one of my favorite flowers.  I have this bush growing in my side yard.  These buds started blooming on May 29th.  They're continuing to flower.  The smell is intoxicating and they're very lovely.  I've long since forgotten the name of this variety of peony, but they're pink with a hint of cream of yellow.

Farmer's Market - 6/10/17

It's June in the Pacific Northwest.  Here's what I've been buying at our local farmer's market this week.  Yakima Valley asparagus are beautiful and delicious!  I also couldn't resist the pea shoots.  These veggies will make for delicious side dishes for the week.  

Meatless Monday: Kale and Grapefruit Salad

I wanted to make a nice salad with my freshly picked kale.  I also had some yummy grapefruit that I needed to use up.  I thought they would make an excellent pairing in a salad.  This was a nice and refreshing salad for the warm weather we were having.  It also was great for a Meatless Monday meal!  I also love how kale keeps well as leftovers even after the salad is already dressed.  Bonus!  I was able to take my leftovers to work the next day without it being a soggy mess.  Bring on more kale!

There wasn't really a recipe for this salad.  I threw in things I already had at home.  I made a grapefruit/dijon mustard vinaigrette for the kale and poured the dressing on and made sure I tossed them well.  I let it sit for about 15 minutes to wilt a bit while I segmented the grapefruit.  I added some candied pecans and shaved parmesan cheese to the salad too.  It was delicious!

The Matador

Working late at night can be a drag.  When my coworkers and I want to get something to eat at 11:30pm, there are very few places with legit dining options that are open.  Dive bar food sometimes does not cut it!  One of our favorite places for late night happy hour is Matador.  They serve delicious margaritas and their nachos that are on the happy hour menu is your best bet for $5!  It is a beast of a plate of nachos and is easily shared among a few friends.  Their tacos are good as well.  My favorite is the chorizo tacos.  Yum!  

Hanging out at The Matador during nice weather is fun too.  They open up their big windows and let the breeze in the restaurant.  It makes for great people watching as well.  I was there on one such warm, sunny Portland day.  My favorite drink is their tamarind margarita.

Of course, friends don't let friends not share a communal plate of the delicious grande nachos!

While I usually order the chorizo tacos, I decided to try their grilled pork al pastor tacos today.  It was delicious!

There are several locations in Portland.  I highly recommend stopping by during happy hour because of the nachos on the menu for cheap!

Harvest Monday 5/29/17 and 6/5/17

I didn't post last week's harvest because I was out of town.  Last week I decided to pull the rest of the lettuce that was inter-planted in my brassica bed.  The broccoli and cauliflower had grown enormous and was shading out the lettuce.  Besides that, it was getting harder to get to the lettuce and wage war against the aphids.  I ended up with a nice lettuce harvest and salads for the entire week.  

This week, I've been monitoring my broccoli.  We had very crazy weather over the last few weeks.  It went from 60 degrees to 80 then 90 then back to 60.  The broccoli was having a fit.  One of my broccoli heads appeared to be bolting.  I made a mental note to harvest it but when I finally did, it was sprouting flowers.  I also harvested a second broccoli head because it appeared that it may start to bolt soon.

Now I'm no broccoli expert but can someone give advice?  Did I harvest this one too soon?  Should I have left them a little longer?  It looked like the little florets were going to start to open up.  This one was about the size of a softball.  The rest of the broccoli are still small and appear to be doing okay.  We'll see.  It's supposed to start to warm up again this week - a high of 77 today and 82 tomorrow.  🙀

Besides broccoli, I also harvested some near perfect kale!  This was exciting after having aphid lettuce.  The kale was buggy free and will make for delicious eats this week!

Last week's harvest totals:

- Lettuce 0.6 lb

This week's harvest totals: 

- Kale 0.77 lb

- Broccoli 0.3 lb

Happy Harvesting!!

Farmer's Market - Hood Strawberries

I've been stalking the local Farmer's Market for the past few weeks for my favorite early season strawberry variety, Hoods.  Because of a wet and cold winter/spring, berry season has been pushed back a few weeks.

I finally found some this week!  They're very sweet but these were very tiny berries.  I'm a little disappointed but beggars can't be choosers.  Next week they'll be out on abundance!!  Wish you had smell-o-vision cause these are when strawberries should smell and taste like!

Late May Vegetable Garden

It's mid-spring here in the Pacific Northwest and everything in the garden is a few weeks behind because of the cool and wet spring we've had.  My spring garden is coming along.  Some of the seeds I've sown have come up - here you see the spinach and some swiss chard. 

The peas I pre-sprouted inside then planted out are doing well.  These photos are from a week ago.  Today when I looked outside they've grown quite a bit more.  The peas are about 4-5 inches tall now. The second batch of staggered planted peas are about an inch tall now.  Radishes are sprouting in the same bed as the peas.  My brassica are doing well in the raised beds with row covers.  They're probably planted a little too close together, but you gotta do what you gotta do.  😏

I'm hoping the hot spell we had won't cause the spring veggie to bolt.  It was 90+ today.  Wowzas!