Just thought I would share some pics of what we have growing. These are about a week old, but you get the idea. Tomatoes Cherry Tomatoes 2nd planting of lettuce, starting to pick this week 3rd and 4th plantings of lettuce outside Outside tomatoes and peppers, still more to plant! Inside Peppers Potatoes Hilled up Garlic Inside Squash Inside little cucumbers Sweet potatoes and okra Jay

New Potato Digger

I saw this on our Local Facebook classified and I thought it looked neat and it would be very useful. So I just bought it and brought it home and for $25 how could I go wrong! I was build out of scraps laying around the farm. The previous owner said his grandfather built it and he remembers using it and using it along with his kids. They just don't have any use for it and nobody in their family was interested in keeping it. I am sure I will try it out and see how it works! I may even try to mount it on a 3 point toolbar so I only takes one person to operate. Enjoy! Jay

New Potato Digger

We have been busy!

I finally have some time to take a few pictures, We are really planting like crazy. It is time to move the movable buildings this weekend too!

Lettuce


Mid February planted carrots


Outside Carrots (just coming up)


Radish, Haikuri Turnips, Beets, Onions


Onions in Movable building




Broccoli and Cauliflower in movable building




Outside location, to be moved to this weekend


New plot, 16 by 160


New plot 12 by 100


Peppers will fill this building the first of the week



Late planted Leeks in new movable spot


Potatoes


Potatoes


Leeks and Potatoes


Onions


Onions, Cherry Tomatoes, Carrots



Potted tumbling toms, Romaine lettuce, Tomatoes


March 20th planted tomatoes, Bell peppers to be transplanted next week, radishes


More TOmatoes, onions, head lettuce


Cabbage on the outside, haikuri turnips, tomatoes, Napa Cabbage


I think that is about it! We still have 4 more spots to till and plant. Green beans, cucumber, zucchini, sweet potatoes and more.

We have been busy!

Potato Planters

I am biased, but I think we have the cutest potato planters on the block. I am amazed at how quickly our two-year-old figured out what we were doing and how much she wanted to help. The rows get finished faster and with a lot more giggling when we are all out there, buckets in hand... even if it does mean Jay has to go back and thin the seed potatoes a bit before covering them up.

Potato Planters

It's in the mail.....

Sure, we have all heard that one before, usually when it is a bill collector calling for that bill that you forgot to pay!

However, to me it is a fun little game I like to play. Using the tracking numbers to track your shipment of gardening supplies. It always amazes me at how technologically advanced UPS and FedEx is.

So my onions and potatoes are "In the Mail"!

Here are my onions from Texas. Delivery on March 9th.


My Potatoes from Colorado, I guess the shipping label got printed, not shipped yet.

It's in the mail.....

Friday's Featured Food: Q...

How about, Q is for Quite a Fair! Before I share the pics, let me add that the girls each selected their own veggies from those already picked for the Market. We told them that they should try to find 3 (or 5 or 12) that match exactly, and this is what they came up with:

Lainie's yellow tomatoes

Jay's red tomatoes, Grand Champion open class

Lainie's snow white cherry tomatoes

Maggie's black cherry tomatoes, Reserve Grand Open Class

Jay's Display, blue ribbon

Maggie's purple heart potato, "novelty vegetable"

Jay's Green Beans

Katie's Sweet Gold cherry tomatoes, Grand Champion Jr Division 4-H

Katie's Big Beef red tomatoes, Reserve Grand Jr Division 4-H

Lainie's pink potatoes, white... and proof that she picked her own.

Katie's garden display for 4-H

Katie's reserve champion pig. She also got Reserve Grand swine showmanship.

Like I said, Quite a Fair!

Friday's Featured Food: Q...

Friday's Featured Food: Potatoes

Blame it on my Irish heritage, but I think every meal needs potatoes. I almost feel guilty if we sit down to eat without some kind of potato on the table. Thank goodness Jay is a potato-planting fool! This year, he ordered 200 pounds of seed potatoes... and then got laid up and was unable to plant. So, this is how our potato planting looked this year:

This year, we planted Yukon Gold, Red Norland, Purple Majesty, and Mountain Rose potatoes. The Purple Majesty seed potatoes were tough to find, and we ended up ordering them online, despite the shipping and handling. It was worth it, as these potatoes are double the size and twice the color intensity of the blue potatoes we grew last year. It's been a good potato year, thusfar.

Nutritionally, potatoes get a bad rap. How can a vegetable be bad for you? That, I will never understand. According to potatoes.com, the average potato with skin will provide:

• 5% of the daily value for vitamin C
• 620 mg potassium, comparable to bananas, spinach and broccoli
• trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, magnesium, phosphorous, iron and zinc
• have 110 calories and no fat.

As far as cooking them, we make the potatoes in so many different ways: fried, grilled, baked, sauted, stewed, and of course mashed:

I have a fabulous potato soup recipe, but I'll save that for the fall, when it's truly soup season. This time of year, it's too hot to heat up the kitchen, so our favorite right-now potato recipe is grilled potatoes.


Campfire Potatoes
5 potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
1 medium onion, sliced
6 T butter or margarine
1/3 c shredded cheddar cheese
2 T fresh parsley, minced
1 T Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 c chicken broth

1. Place the potatoes and onion on a large piece of heavy-duty foil (about 20 inches by 20 inches). Dot with butter.
2. In a separate bowl, combine cheese, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper; sprinkle over potatoes.
3. Fold foil up around potatoes and add broth. Seal the edges of the foil.
4. Grill, covered, over medium heat for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Friday's Featured Food: Potatoes