Raised garden beds

Both of my grandfathers were farmers and my brother has made his career in agriculture. While I do not aspire to have a working farm I do love fresh vegetables and flowers and feel a great sense of accomplishment when I can pick them from my personal garden...which brings me to this post.

Last month I purchased two raised garden beds from Sams club and bought the dirt, seeds, landscape fabric and other items from Walmart (I work for Walmart) and Lowe's. I decided that since my space was so small that I would use the square foot gardening method. This would allow me to plant more items in a smaller space.

After thirty five bags of dirt and countless plants and seeds I got everything planted and have been bitten by the plant bug! I have been checking on the garden daily to be sure no little critters eat the plants and veggies before we do!

I will share the list of what i planted and more pictures soon, but for now here are some pictures when the garden was first installed:

 

 

Do you garden? If so, what do plant? If not and you would like to, what is keeping you from starting?

Talk to you all soon?

 

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Flour's Banana Nut Bread

I bought the new Flour Bakery cookbook and decided to try their banana nut bread recipe. Their method of whipping the eggs makes for the lightest and most moist banana bread I have ever made. I haven't made anything else from the cookbook, but i have been hearing nothing but great things about it! 

What quick bread recipes are your favorite?

 

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Homemade Mozzarella Cheese

Oh My Goodness! I made homemade mozzarella cheese this evening and it was so easy! Had I known how easy it would be I would have made it along time ago. There are several websites that give the directions on how to make it, but I used Eat. Drink…Better’s instructions. I did not see the measurement for salt in the recipe so I just eye-balled it…probably less than ½ tsp. There are two items that you probably don’t have in your cabinet…citric acid and rennet, however, I found them easily at Whole Foods Market. If your store doesn’t carry the products both of them can be found via the internet.

Anyway…Here’s a quick rundown of the pictures.


1. Citric acid and the rennet.




2. What the milk looks like when the curds separate from the whey (the whey is the almost clear liquid underneath the white curds).





3. The curds and a small bit of whey after I scooped them out of the pot.





4. Curds after the first kneading.





5. The finished, shaped mozzarella balls.




Making homemade cheese was an awesome experience and has fueled my desire to try more projects that were everyday practices for my ancestors. Cheese made at home…in 2010…who would have thought!?

Toodles!

 

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