Asparagus Season, Oh My Favorite!

Asparagus Habitat

If you look closely at the top photo, in the upper left hand side you can see the asparagus growing out of the ground. This is in “lake country” Minnesota. I grew up here just like this asparagus 😉 It lives really close to the lake and has some big spears because the plant base is fairly old. I think it’s going to get moved to higher ground this year because the thick grass that likes to grow in the soggy soil is really hard to keep out of the asparagus patch.

I love roasted asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper. It works perfectly in a stir fry and I’m really wanting to try and make pickled asparagus this year if I can harvest enough out of this patch.

Asparagus Spring 2014 Asparagus Harvest Spring 2014

This was my first cutting of 2014. I’m savoring it.

Asparagus Harvest Spring 2014

Container Gardening : Spring 2012

I grew up in the garden. Seriously! I think back and some of my first memories were of me standing in the garden among rows of peas on wire, smiling faces of sunflowers, and marigolds dutifully guarding the perimeter, watching my mom who was busy as a bee with the water hose.

Flowers

Growing up, my family had not ONE garden… no… more like FOUR! We always practiced organic gardening, too… composting animal manure, kitchen scraps, leaves, and grass clippings.. and always picking all of those pesky weeds by hand! That was a big chore when I was a kid. Now I look forward to it because it’s a great excuse to be outside in the sunshine with my shoes off doing something productive! However, I don’t live where I grew up.. my brother and his family does! So I don’t have 4 gardens to tend to… I have to resort to some container gardening:

Watering The Plants
Container Garden
Cilantro

Which I really enjoy!
I’m also teaching my boyfriend a lot about gardening. We both tend the plants and I can’t wait for him to eat some of the first ripe tomatoes he’s ever really had a hand in growing himself right off of the plants in the back yard. Gardening is so satisfying! Even if you don’t really know what you’re doing I suggest trying anyways.

Check out this bush tomato plant already bearing fruit!
Tomatoes!

Flowers on another tomato plant:
Tomato Flower

I LOVE the smell of tomato plants. Whenever I am out watering them I rub against them, stick my nose right up against the plants and sniff.. and sniff my hands as a I walk away. Ha! It’s such a unique, fresh scent that comforts me.

This pepper is almost big enough to eat too! Oh my gosh, it’s only mid-May!
Hot Pepper

I’m totally in love with succulent plants too.. here is one of my baby jade plants! I also have a hobbit jade and at least 6 other kinds of succulent plants to share with you in a future post! I used to have jade “trees” and think they make the coolest bonsai trees when they’re really trimmed right and get super old.

Jade

Cheers to spring and a glorious summer! 🙂

DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit – Day 8 – Final

DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 8

DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 8

DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 8

DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 8

It was a success! Shortly after these photos I cut the mushrooms up and added them to stir fry. I saved a few and used them the next day on a homemade pizza. I ate a few raw, too, and.. wow! They pack a lot of flavor!

This was such an awesome project. Many thanks goes out to my friends who gifted me this kit! I love you guys! <3

Project: Mushrooms From A Box! Day 6 & 7

They are really starting to look like recognizable mushrooms now as you can see by the bottom (latest) photo. It is so very exciting! Even though I haven’t eaten any yet, I already recommend this kit to anyone who is interested.

OK, enough words, it’s photo time!
Tuesday March 20th ~ 1pm (day 6)
DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 6 @ 1pm

Tuesday March 20th ~ 4pm (day 6)
DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 6 @ 4pm

Tuesday March 20th ~ 8pm (day 6)
DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 6 @ 8pm

Wednesday March 21st ~ 1pm (day 7)
DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 7 @ 1pm

Wednesday March 21st ~ 11pm (day 7)
DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 7 @ 11pm

Project: Mushrooms From A Box! Day 5

GROWWWWWTH!
DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 5

DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 5

See the white dots starting to pop up around the horizontal cut? That’s what the spot that sprouted up looked like last night! So fast, mushrooms.. so fast!
DIY Oyster Mushroom Kit - Day 5

It’s time for daily photos from here on out.

Project: Mushrooms From A Box!

We’re all excited over here because today in the mail I received THIS from my amazing friends! It’s a DIY kit for growing edible oyster mushrooms at home.

DIY Oyster Mushrooms
DIY Oyster Mushrooms

I’ve wanted to try this since I first heard it was possible years ago. Tomorrow I will cut the box and start misting it to get them to start growing. Stay tuned for progress posts!