Birthday Gardening

For my birthday this year I decided that the best gift my parents and Brendan could give me was a day helping me in the yard. After years of father's days weeding and doing whatever other garden chore my dad requested I figured it was my turn! We'd picked out a spot in the yard that would be perfect for growing tomatoes and peppers, but it needed some work (existing plants moved/removed, path reset, considerable slope dealt with, etc...):


So dad and I devised a plan for the space, Brendan and I schlepped some very heavy basalite retaining wall bricks from Home Depot and I promised my workers a lovely Easter brunch in return for their manual labor. My parents picked out some interesting tomato varieties that they had success with in the past or had heard good things about and I started my pepper seedlings from seeds I'd saved last summer from a variety of peppers from the farmer's market. On Saturday afternoon my friend Erin who was in town visiting for the weekend helped me weed and pull out the existing plants the day before so we were ready for birthday gardening. After a lovely Easter brunch (which included egg shaped lemon poppy seed muffins with different colored lemon glazes, much tastier than colored hard-boiled eggs in my opinion) we covered ourselves in sun screen and started digging...

A couple hours later and we had reset the path so it's now nice and level, shored up the slope and created a nice bed for the veggies, attached 6 tomato cages to the fence for the plants to climb up and fertilized and mulched the new bed. We still need a couple more bricks to finish the wall and we're waiting for my pepper seedlings to be ready to finish the planting, but I'm thrilled with the result and we can't wait for fresh ripe tomatoes straight from the yard!

Spring arrives

I love this time of year as everything come to life after winter. On each walk through the neighborhood there is more and more color everywhere, from the freesias exploding in bright, bold yellows, pinks and purples to the pear tree in our yard putting out delicate white flowers. Even my favorite weed, Kenilworth Ivy, is starting to bloom and the Graffiti Cauliflower is starting produce gorgeous purple heads that almost look like flowers.

Unfortunately my Swiss Chard got some sort of caterpillar that has burrowed into almost all the leaves and laid eggs on them too. So I've cut out all the leaves with any sign of caterpillar and sprayed them down with an organic insecticide I found (Safer brand Insect Killing Soap) and hopefully the next bunch of leaves will be caterpillar-free.

There was finally enough kale on all 6 plants to cook and share with some friends and it was great. It was much more tender and a little less bitter than store bought. Here is the recipe I found that used several of the ingredients I typically keep stocked in my pantry:

Pasta With White Beans and Kale

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups uncooked radiatore pasta, (or rigatoni, penne)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 (7-ounce) bottle roasted red bell peppers, drained and diced
12 cups coarsely chopped kale (about 1/2 pound)
1 (16-ounce) can cannellini beans or other white beans, drained
8 oz crumbled feta
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (or red wine vinegar)
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
6 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preparation
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta in a sieve over a bowl, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid; set pasta aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add minced garlic and sliced bell peppers, and saute 1 minute. Add kale and cannellini beans; cover and cook 5 minutes or until kale is wilted, stirring occasionally. Add cooked pasta, crumbled feta, reserved cooking liquid, 1 tablespoon oil, lemon juice, and pepper, and stir well. Spoon the pasta mixture into serving bowls, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.