Roasted Purple Asparagus

I hate asparagus. 

I love this asparagus!

Purple asparagus from my Dad's garden.

It's the only asparagus I will eat.  I cooked it at 400 F for 15 mins.  First I coated it with olive oil, sprinkled it with salt and lime powder.  Roasted to perfection!

I'm not sure if it is the lime powder or the salt that makes the little red pokadots, but it's cute!  And yummy :)

Signs Of Spring

Garden 2011 - Spring

A lot has changed in the backyard since last year.  I planted grass, for one thing.  This is the first time I have ever planted grass in my entire life.  I have killed a lot of grass over the years, but NEVER planted it.  Turns out it is kind of difficult to grow.  Well, if you have a puppy that insists on running across it and trying to dig it up :)

The pond.  The white trellis fell over a couple days ago.  Well, actually it was picked up and twisted around by the wind.  It was a strong wind, because that is not a light trellis. 

The water lilies over wintered with the fish in the pond.  They seem to be fine.  I replanted them and there are many leaves already floating on the water.  Soon water lilies!  I also added some water lettuce, water hyacinth and parrot feather.  I also added 40 Japanese trapdoor snails.  There is a toad that lives in the rocks around the pond.  So lots of wildlife in/around the pond.  I wonder what happened to all the salamanders and frogs I added to the pond last fall?

Only 6 garden beds.  I took out 7 beds.  I wanted to cut back, because it seems like - yes I can grow a ton of food in my backyard - but why am I doing it?  A lot of stuff went to waste last year, because I didn't have enough time to care for everything.  I want to have a garden that is productive and looks good too. 

View from the porch of the grass.

I'm really happy with the changes that I made.  It's pretty and now I have more time to enjoy it, instead of only having time to take care of it.

Can't remember what the garden looked like last year?  Neither could I :)

Click on the links below if you want to see the yard last year.

Garden Sept 2010

July 2010

June Garden Update 2010

May 2010 - easiest on this post to see the difference between this year and last year

Rhubarb Soup

*Sorry about the photo quality. I dropped my camera, broke it and had to borrow my dad's Kodak.*

Rhubarb Soup
Nope you didn't misread that! It's soup with rhubarb AND it's delicious. Really. I had 4 servings and everyone else had seconds - :P

This is my adaption of the Spring Pottage Recipe from this article in the Grit magazine : Sweet and Savory Recipes for Rhubarb. This is a great article with lots of interesting facts about rhubarb.

~
Rhubarb is a leafy green vegetable like celery or swiss chard, but in 1947 the U.S. Customs Court passed a ruling that rhubarb should be classified as a fruit and forever after rhubarb was eaten with pounds of sugar.

This recipe uses the tartness of rhubarb instead of covering it up with sugar.

It adds a touch of citric acid without the danger of curdling the cream.

Just remember, the ancient Chinese used rhubarb as a purgative. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Rhubarb Soup

2 Tbs olive oil

1 cup chopped yellow onion

2 cups potatoes - cut into 1 inch pieces

1 cup carrots - cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 cups celery - cut into 1 inch pieces

2 cups diced rhubarb - soaked in salt water before using

2 tsp roasted garlic paste

2 Tbs honey

4 cups hot vegetable stock (*cheater's recipe below)

2 bay leaves

1 tsp sweet marjoram

salt and pepper

1 cup heavy cream

Saute onion in olive oil until golden. Add vegetable broth, potatoes, carrots, garlic paste, honey and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender. Add celery and rhubarb, simmer for 2-3 mins. Add marjoram, salt and pepper. Remove and discard bay leaves bay leaves. Remove soup from heat and gently stir in cream. Serve.

Cheater's Vegetable Stock

1 pkg Knorr Vegetable Soup

1/2 cup white wine

2 Tbs golden miso

2 tsp soy sauce

4 cups water

Fresh rhubarb from my garden. Since moving into my house, this is the first time in 5 years that I have harvested any rhubarb. Or eaten any rhubarb.







Chopping rhubarb

Soaking rhubarb in salt water

Sauteing onion

Simmering soup

Almost ready!

Adding cream.

Yum!

This is sooooo tasty!

My Mom hates rhubarb and she even had seconds!

This is the best rhubarb recipe ever and it can make a rhubarb hater a rhubarb lover.

Garden Redo - Totally New!

I changed the garden!

Now, there are 12 beds in the veggie half with 3 foot paths between each bed.

I LOVE the 3 foot paths. It is so much easier to get a wheelbarrow in between the beds. Also, the layout is much easier to navigate.

Finally - FINALLY! I have the pond exactly the way I want it. No more moving- I promise.

This will be a little patio area, as soon as I can move the tulips.

I still have a lot to do. There are some interesting projects I have in mind.

Re-a-lly interesting.

If you speak Minnesotan, you know interesting has a different meaning here.

It is a polite way to say- gross, disgusting, never-do-that-again, but this time it means strange, unusual, weird.

Wa-ha! Stay tuned!

Garden Clean-up

I have been working on cleaning my garden up this week.

It was a long, hard winter and there was a lot to clean up.

First, I picked up all the junk, trash, ect.

Then, I fixed the pond.

Last Fall I took most of the rocks off of the liner and took out the stream. I ran out of time and it got too cold, so I finished it this week.

Finally, I have the pond exactly the way I want it!

After only moving it 10 times!

Then I placed 2 more raised beds in area I want to make into a small patio. I just have to wait until the tulips bloom, and I can move them, to get started on the patio.

Then I started moving all my raised beds. Again.

Yes, I am crazy.

Tansy and Crocuses

I took a few pictures of Tansy outside in the crocuses.

Just pictures of Tansy!

Spring!

She really liked the flavor of crocus flowers.

Jump! Whoops, she's still a baby and she couldn't quite make it over the crocuses.

"Nummy mo fwowers!"

Cute Tansy

Tansy is getting bigger every day!

I love this first picture, because it shows off her cute little mohawk. :P

She likes to tug on the ribbon in my PJ pants.

This picture is a little hard to see, but she fell asleep upside down in the crook of my arm.
She really likes to have her ears rubbed.

Tansy's favorite spot - on my lap.

New Bunny!

Do you remember in Anne of Green Gables when Matthew Cuthburt goes to the General Store to buy Anne a dress with puffy sleeves?

He ends up buying a rake, 50 lbs of brown sugar, ect.

Well, today I went to the "General Store" looking for straw.

I thought the Ladies might like some straw to dig in. I gave them a couple bales last Spring, they had fun digging through them and then I composted the straw.

I didn't find any straw.

It couldn't hurt to take a peek at the baby chicks - right?

Awwwww - there was one baby bunny all alone.

It came right up to my hand and let me pet it.

Awwwww - it fit perfectly in my hand.

It was so cute!

No.

I bought some canning jars, a magazine, some more canning lids and went home.

.

.

.

Then three hours later I went back to the store and bought her!

I think she is a she, because she was in the bin marked female, but of course she might turn out to be a he.

Only time will tell.

Now I need to name her.

She was only sniffing.


Catty says, "Whaz that!"



"Lemme out! I chew you big fur ball!"

Update: She has a name! - Tansy Tweed.