This week in the garden

Planted five raspberry plants this weekend... they are called Caroline and are an everbearing variety. Some of them already have little berries on them.

The orange bit is actually a California Poppy in the background.

Today, Loret and I went to a local nursery on our lunch hour and each bought a bunch of plants.  Here are some of mine: 

When I got home, I gathered the egg...

Hmmm... Is it called "gathering" when there's only one?? Oh well, once the pullets start laying, I won't have to wonder that anymore.  Only about another 3-4 weeks to go.

Then I planted a couple of flowers.

Martha Washington geranium

A purple flower added to the center of an herb pot

A quick walk through the garden revealed broccoli ready to cut a few florets...

And the kohlrabi will be ready soon.

This week in the garden

The cold frame where we started seeds in February. This included onions, turnips, kohlrabi, broccoli, radishes, parsnips... am I forgetting anything?

The Man did some more tilling in the garden and we transplanted a bunch of stuff over the weekend. He also got seed potatoes into the ground.

I went to Loret's house on Sunday afternoon to get tomato starts from her since she had about 100 volunteer plants in her garden. We of course, shared a bottle of wine and ate cheese, crackers, veggies, and okra pickles (I know, right!?)  I did not get any pics... so I will share this one when she came over in February and helped me can sauerkraut.

Canning sauerkraut on the wood cookstove

Yes, we drank wine that day too...  :)

Here are a couple of other random pics from the herb garden:

Sage

Columbine

California Poppies

Rose

Strawberry blossoms

Pears

Asparagus in with the 4 O'clocks

Horseradish

Dinner Bell

Peas

Chia & Cheese

Projects this past weekend included cheese, gardening, and wine with friends. But first, a chia pet update...

The Man's Christmas present from his nephews finally grew a coat, which was much easier when the sun started shining regularly. In the meantime, the poor thing grew mold spots.  

Teenage Ninja Turtle Chia Pet

It's the pottery that grows!!!

Okay, onto Cheese.

I get fresh milk from Rene down the road. This weekend I made a batch of Paneer, an Indian-style fresh cheese.

Bring a gallon of milk up to 200 degrees F.

Add 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice, stir. 

Curds will form; take off heat and let rest about 5 minutes.

Scoop curds into a lined colander, then I salted, and put into the cheese press for a few hours.

Here is the finished firm block on the butter muslin. In the bowl is the ricotta cheese I got out of the fresh whey. 

The remaining whey

It's a Blanket With Sleeves

The Man's Christmas gift from his dear cousin... "How Clever!"

A Snuggy in hunting camo no less!

Paint Job in the Shower

Projects this past weekend included painting the shower surround, working on a quilt, and gardening.

Look at these beautiful turnips we picked tonight!  Oh, and a radish...

We were so surprised the turnips were this large. They were in the cold frame we had planted in February and most of the stuff has already been transplanted into the garden. So yummy, peeled and sliced with a little sprinkle of sea salt.

My big project this past weekend was sanding and painting the shower surround since some of the paint had been peeling from it. (Who comes up with this kind of material!?) We would really like to remodel the whole bathroom and thus didn't really feel like putting in tile which would be the right way to fix this.

Here is the before...

Ugly, huh?

After scraping, sanding, removing old caulking, and washing down the walls really well, the paint job could finally commence.  Wow, what a difference!

The Man re-caulked the edges and voila, it feels like a new shower!

My other project this week has been to work on a Trip-Around-the-World quilt.  I've got the center done and decided to machine quilt this part first, then add 15 inch borders all the way around and continue the quilting.

The Machine Quilting Large Quilts on a Domestic Machine class (I think that's what it was called) from Craftsy had this suggestion and I thought it sounded like a good one to try.  So far it's working out really well!

The weekends never seem long enough.  Or maybe I just have too many things I want to do...