Summer has arrived early

This is my usual morning pick before I go off to work.  With the weather less wet and a lot more warm now, we have 90 degrees in the afternoons, my strawberries are ripening as fast as we can eat them. I have never had strawberry shortcake 3 times in one week before. I am NOT complaining.  Now I will save the rest for Jam!
Asparagus is coming in nicely, although it was slowed down with the drought last year.  Its like we are back to picking for the first year instead of the second full spring of picking. I will freeze a bit too, to have for the winter.  Especially since I have found a fantastic and delicious way to make Quiche that has been one of my favorites this spring.  It would be great in winter too.

French Herb Cheese & Asparagus Quiche:
1 pastry crust, cooked in a 9 inch pie pan
1/2 cup French Herb cheese (see recipe below)
1/2 pound of asparagus, cut in 2" pieces and blanched until soft  .
6 eggs
1 cup cream
salt & pepper to taste
Place cooked asparagus pieces in bottom of crust.
Combine eggs in a bowl and whip by hand while counting to 80. Add salt & pepper to taste.  Pour eggs into pan, over asparagus.  Drop small dollops of French herb cheese (about 1 tbsp. in size) in  egg mixture until distributed evenly.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Check that crust does not get too brown, cover with foil if needed.
The French herb cheese gets bubbly and delicious.  I serve this with a mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette.  Outstanding but light. Oh and a glass of chardonnay too, of course.

French Herb Cheese (borrowed from one of my favorite cookbooks) Beyond Parsley by KC Junior League. Fabulous book.  If you ever see a copy, pick it up. Timeless and classy recipes.
1 8oz. pkg cream cheese
6 tbsp. softened butter
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 dash of Tabasco or other hot sauce.
(I add 1 tbsp. minced fresh chives as well)
Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.  Chill remaining cheese for another time.

Memorial Weekend- 3 days of planting

3 full days off with Steve ready on the shovel, we began planting.  Steve dug all the holes for 48 tomato plants and I placed and covered them.  We also got 24 squash plants in and I transplanted 4 broccoli plants that needed more room.
Everything is in now except the seeds for the sunflowers.  I have to pick some up this week.
Steve dug draining trenches on the edges of the garden, because we needed a bit more drainage in the center of the garden.
I have lots of cultivating to do this week in the potato area and beans. Lots of grass is already popping up.
Picked 2 pounds of asparagus, we are now getting about a pound every two days. Lots of lettuce and the Swiss Chard just keeps on giving.  I picked about a pound of carrots, they were leftovers from the winter planting.
Steve was highly motivated this past weekend, he pulled up the wall-to-wall carpet in the office and is going to install new hardwood flooring. I can hear the house saying "thank you". We need to get it done before June 8th though.  Will and Lexi are coming to visit.

Planting done, just in the nick of time!

Woke up early on Saturday.  Had a quick breakfast and while we were eating we had a visitor. Our crazy rooster heard us talking because the windows were open and here he came for attention.  He hopped up on our patio table and let us know he wanted an invitation. He would come in the house if we let him.
Steve was on the tractor doing a final tilling in the garden, by 9:00 AM.
I picked some produce while that was happening.  4 lb. of Swiss chard, 2 lb. of asparagus, 4 lb. of lettuce and 1 lb. of spinach.  I dug up a few carrots to test for size and they need another week at least.  Garlic and onions are doing well and finally the potatoes are popping out.  It's been so cool up until this week everything was a bit slow.
So, by noon I was ready to plant.  First I went over to our second garden, which is in our neighbor Jim's yard.  This year he said we can garden in his yard as he is too old to garden the whole area. We tilled a plot that is 20' by 50'.  I planted 18 tomato plants, winter squash (both butternut & acorn) and planted seeds for Bull's Blood beets, two kinds or carrots, (yellow and orange), watermelon and cantaloupe.
Then went back to our garden and planted 22 cucumber plants, 8 peppers, 4 eggplant, 2 honey dew, musk melon and4  tomatillos.  Then I added some lavender plants and Rosemary. Those were the only herbs that didn't come back on their own this year.  I have 16 tomato plants still to go in but I was exhausted by 5:30 PM I just couldn't did another hole. I was going to put them in Sunday afternoon but as soon as I finished making my weekly batch of quiche, the storms came rumbling in.  We got a great dose of rain. Very good for my seeds.
We also stopped and bought some gold fish for our pond. We put in about 30 carp to keep things clean.  We'll add more at a later date, if we need them.
Quiche selections this week, 1. Spinach with bacon & Swiss and 2. Asparagus with French herb cheese. I try new recipes each week. The spinach, bacon & Swiss is definitely a repeat.  That was fabulous and I'll use that recipe a lot.  Then I make an experimental one and will add only the best to the list.  I may start taking orders for these. They are definitely good enough to share!

Where, oh where can she be? The sun that is!

 

The sun has disappeared!  Third straight week of cloudy, dull skies and I am wondering what has happened to the sun!  This spring has been so cold, we really are having a hard time getting our garden started for the growing season.  Finally on Sunday it was close to 70 degrees, although still gray skies, we were able to get a first tilling in.  I planted our onions and potatoes.  After checking with my growing record for last year I see we are an entire month later this year than last year. UGH!
We want warmth and sun.
4 to 6 inches of rain expected in the next two days.  Might as well plan on other projects while we wait!  Cleveland Town Garage Sale coming in a week and our visit to St Louis this weekend to meet our grand dog should be fun.
Now an update on the continuing saga of our crazy pet rooster.  Mr. Grey as we call him, loves us more than his hens. He is now 1 year old and no sign of mating with any of his hens, but sure loves to have sex on our farm boots each morning.  OH well, anyway, since we now only have one adult duck and she does not like to be by herself during the day, she has taken to following the rooster around.  Each morning she waits for him to come out of the chicken coop, eats a bit of breakfast with the hens then when the rooster starts his farm yard patrol, the duck is right there with him.  She makes cooing sounds at him and bobs her head in respect!  So, we have a crazy gay rooster and a duck who is attracted to a chicken, who knew?   A match made in heaven for sure!

is spring here yet? New babies have arrived!

Winter is just not going away here.  It is Easter Sunday tomorrow and we have a chance of snow again on Monday.  So we are doing the things we can do to prepare for spring.  My Spinach is doing great, picked about 4 lbs so far since the begining of March and we have 5 new baby ducks in the barn.
They are two weeks old and just as cute as they can be.  Our single adult duck (female) has taken to sleeping with them and doing a lot of quacking at them.  We are hoping she will teach them the ropes.
We received over 30 inches of snow this winter and a lot of rain also.  Our pond is completely full and the ground is mud! As the ranchers say:better mud than dust! We are hoping the drought wioll be eased this year.
Trees are all budding except my fig and olive tree, the last ones we planted in the fall.  With the drought I may have lost them.  I'll wait till mid-April before I replace them.
Our cold frame box kept us in greens over the winter.  We had 3 months of Pak choy, radishes and now I have lettuce. I planted some bush beans, today, for an early pick. 
Our crazy rooster kept eating all my swiss chard.  We had to clip his wings so he can't fly over the fence, that was sadder to Steve than losing the swiss chard!
Now we wait to see if all the fruit trees will bud and bloom in late April. And, if warm weather ever gets here we will plan out last tilling and start to plant.

Hummus recipes

I love making hummus and so many friends love eating it.
Here are a couple of recipes
First, the basic
Ten two different versions

Classic Hummus
1  can garbanzo beans or Italian chick peas (meme chose)
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp salt
2cloves fresh garlic minced
3tbsp tahini. Sesame paste
1tsp white pepper
2tbsp plain yogurt
2tbsp lemon juice
4tbsp olive oil
Place beans , tahini , spices and garlic in food processor, pulse until chopped
Add yogurt lemon juice and process with motor running add olive oil through the feed tube until completely blended.
Scoop out into a bowl
Voila

Artichoke hummus
Same recipe as above but use 1 14 oz can artichoke hearts quartered and omit the yogurt
Add more garbanzo beans if consistency is too loose

Sweet red pepper hummus
Same recipe as above but omit the yogurt and add 1 12 to 14oz jar of roasted red peppers drained and chopped
Enjoy!

Too much snow