This is our oldest, about 6 years ago – holy moly – loving his blueberries. Now he won’t even glance at them but back then he could eat three of those containers in a row. And he had the charcoal gray diapers to prove it 😀
Category: fruits
We be jammin’
You have no idea how our house smelled that evening. The rich, sugary scent spread like fog tendrils throughout the rooms, even my jam-hating oldest one came in from his karate lesson and said “it smells GOOD in here!”
This madness here:
Has become this yumminess:
My husband patiently peeled each grape, cooked down the whole thing, strained it, added the peels back in, added a bit of sugar, and somehow managed not to devour the whole thing while making it. I would have just upended that pan and chowed down, seared insides be damned.
My youngest, he of the three-PB&Js-in-a-row habit, is loving his sandwiches these days. Even more than usual.
The best part is, there’s another huge bowl of grapes waiting, AND, the vine is only half empty.
Garden Update: July 2013
We’ve been enjoying our fruit and veggie bounty – I mad 2 loaves of zucchini bread and a batch of chocolate chip zucchini cookies from just ONE monster squash, and we’ve been eating our delicious tomatoes in sandwiches, salads, and a sauce that had my friend’s kids asking for lunch at 10am 😀
Some more future cookies 😀
We’ve recently planted some more corn for an autumn harvest:
And, hello! Check out the awesome planter my husband made!!! He’s planting bamboo in it, and he got his inspiration from a couple of gorgeous river photographs by Keith Liang.
Steve made the mold with a high-relief design and then built a structure to pour the cement in. This turned out amazing, and yes, I’ve put in an order for a smaller planter with a fleur-de-lis 😀 Of course.
Our strawberries continue to produce as well:
The other day we harvested some lavender for our neighbor. I think I’m going to make some eye pillows with the rest.
This crazy madness going on here is our Concord grape vine. Well, one of them. The other is just started to go all wild but this one is going to become another yummy batch of grape jam.
This is what the vine looked like in April:
Current goodness and future grape jam, nom nom nom.
Our pretty flower frames are doing great as well!
We are also harvesting potatoes and onions, and mint for our mojitos.
Gardening is to me an incredibly rewarding experience. Which is not to say there aren’t days (usually those in 100+ degree weather) where the last thing I want to do is go out there and water and tend to the plants. But homegrown veggies taste so good, and knowing that my family gets to eat fresh, delicious, healthy food is pretty awesome.
I say this every year, but next year I’d really like to get more flower plants for cuttings. I just love having fresh flowers in the house. I’ve killed some gerbera and hydrangea, though, so we’ll see how I do in that goal.
Have a wonderful week!
Delicious Fruit Salad
We love us a yummy fruit salad. Eating sweet, ripe fruit, each bite a little different, it makes me grateful for the bounty we are able to enjoy. I’ve been wanting to try something I saw on Pinterest a while ago, a little trick from Rachel Schultz to make fruit salad even yummier.
I chose some basic ingredients:
and then added Rachel’s magic ingredient – instant vanilla pudding mix!
Mixed everything well, and then the vanilla pudding powder began mixing with the juices from the fruit. So good! I don’t think I will ever make fruit salad without pudding mix – thank you Rachel for this awesome tip!
Boos!!!
When my boys were little, they loved eating their “boos”. Now that we grow them in our backyard, their taste is even sweeter when warmed by the sun.
Also peeking out last weekend were these beauties:
Homegrown tomatoes! Yum. Can’t wait to make caprese salads with these!
Garden Update – April 2013
Our lovely plants are budding and blooming and we are already enjoying some of the produce, like our chard and lettuces.
Yellow roses are my favorite and the rose bush is going gangbusters – every two or three days I bring a couple of blooms inside to enjoy.
Yummy lettuces and onions. I had a scallion omelette for lunch today, so good!!
Of course, tomatoes are the stars of our summer garden, there are quite a few baby ones growing:
The boys’ favorite fruit from our backyard are the blueberries – they run past it and grab a few to pop in their mouths as they play.
One of my husband’s favorite harvests is this vine – our Concord grapes. He made a delicious batch of grape jam last year and we are looking forward to another one in a few months!
Swiss chard – I treat it like spinach, sauteed with garlic and butter it’s just delicious. We planted it like 4 years ago and it just comes back each year.
Our lavender is just starting to bud – I’ve made wreaths, sachets, stuck a bunch here and there. I just love lavender.
We also have tons of little pears and plums that will ripen in due time, and of course our avocado tree, much beloved by us, and our family and friends 😀
Are you growing anything this year?
Springing and stretching!
These last few days have blessed us with glorious weather here in Sili Valley. The sun has been out, but it hasn’t been super hot, I’ve been loving it! This past weekend we decided to hit our local gardening stores – two of them!
Our front yard got some much-needed brightening up with these trailing white flowers on the hanging baskets:
My youngest was determined to get some yellow goodness ;D
In the backyard, we started our herb garden:
My husband added a brick border to define our salad greens area:
Caged and ready!
We also planted more potatoes, including some purple varieties. Our potatoes come back every year but we wanted some russets as well, and then we saw the purple sets. Can’t wait to eat some of those! Our onions and chard are doing great, they come back, too, and hopefully our garlic will do well this year. My husband planted two blackberry bushes in the side yard. We have a blueberry bush that is my boys’ favorite treat. Hopefully the vine will do well again this year so we can make some grape jelly again, and I look forward to the lovely scent of my lavender plants.
My husband and I have the sorest hamstrings ever from all the planting and weeding, I’ve been stretching because otherwise the pain doesn’t let me sleep very well. I hope you’ll follow our gardening adventures this year, I’m very excited to see how our veggies do!
I’m a convert!
Okay, so the subject of grape jelly is one that has been hotly debated in our household for the past decade. Steve, my husband, LOVES it. I think it’s bleh. So when he came up with the idea of using our Concord grapes to make jelly instead of just eating them fresh off the vine, I was all “what the . . . ?” Seriously, you can get grape jelly at WalMart for under two bucks, why go through the whole production of making grape jelly?
I watched him harvest about half of the grapes on the vine. The rest were still greenish and have been maturing these last few days. He came back into the kitchen with this:
which I looked at kind of like this:
Undeterred, Steve found a recipe (or three, he scanned a few, got the idea and then did his own thing) and began cooking it down – and oh my goodness it smelled SO GOOD!!!
I kept looking over and over, and finally he gave me a taste of super hot jammy goodness.
I told him that even though it looked like the remains of a vamp on True Blood, it was Oh. So. Fricking. Delicious!
So, yes, I now love grape jelly. But not the store-bought kind. So I guess we’re going to plant some more Concords next year ;D
Garden Update: First Week of May
There has been a lot of growing going on in our backyard — I can’t wait for harvest time to start enjoying our veggies and fruits, do some canning with friends and family, and feed my family lots of wonderful, homegrown food!
Imagine about 40 of these babies and you’ll get an approximation of what we have in the backyard. From the original 72 plants I grew from seed, I gave some away and donated some to my youngest’s school. I figure a few are not going to make it, but the truth is, I need to buy more cages — eek!
We grow some of our strawberries on the top of those upside-down hanging tomato planters. Last year we got lots of berries and lots of tomatoes, so we’re going for it again. A friend gave me another planter so hopefully they both do well.
My roses make me smile every time I go out to the backyard. I think some of them are going to decorate our home this week.
Our plum tree will give us lots of sweet, juicy plums this year. Plum jam is a pain to make but just so good!
There are hundreds (thousands?) of tiny grapes, the size of a pin’s head, all clustered and green right now. They’re Concord grapes, and once they’re ripe, my boys love to run around the backyard, scooping up a few each time they pass the grapevine.
I had never heard of Swiss Chard until I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle — and no wonder Barbara Kingsolver likes it so much! We bought the plants once, three years ago. It just comes back on its own. I did get some Chard seeds for my 40th, so I’ve added to Chard Row.
One of my favorite fruits to eat as I’m working in the backyard are blueberries. I’ll be weeding for half an hour or pulling tomatoes off their plants and run over to grab a few blueberries. Then the boys see me and pretty much empty the plant of its fruits within 10 minutes. And hey, that’s why I grow stuff, right?
I have lots more to show you in the next Garden Update – peas, broccoli, corn, carrots, beans, etc. Stay tuned!
Garden update
Wanna see what’s happening in my veggie garden?
Two pumpkins have started to grow – my husband took last year’s Halloween pumpkins and planted their seeds:
Apparently they are similar to our potatoes in that they are mature when the plant is shriveled and you have to leave them in the sun for a bit after harvesting. These are not the best for eating but we’re just growing them to see if we can.
We have over 50 of these on our plants:
We got 3 plants from a school fundraiser and 3 more because my son insisted, so we’ll see what their final output is.
Our grapes are doing very well
I don’t think we’ll have enough for making jelly but if they’re as sweet as last year’s we will enjoy them in their natural state.
I’m thinking it’s about time I harvested my lavender:
I’m torn between making sachets like I did last year or maybe a wreath like Centsational Girl’s.
The plums are ready for me to pick and make jam – so good!
In the front yard, my little one’s choice of plant from the school fundraiser is doing great and provides sweet color:
My oldest chose a blue plant since that’s his favorite color, and it’s also given place of honor in our front yard:
The hibiscus my husband chose is radiant with color, I just love the bright yellow!
The bamboo, however, might need some more wiring to keep it back, it’s like a jungle to get to our door!
These pretty lilies are gorgeous in the afternoon, they open up and brighten our gray front walls:
As a final surprise, this is what the onion flower I posted about a few weeks ago looks like when opened up – who knew? I sure didn’t. 
Have a great weekend!
Casa de Berry 