Garden bed prep for spring 2013

I Pulled baby carrots from our raised garden beds today. They were planted last year just before the Frost. We are redoing the garden bed getting it ready for this year's harvest. Everything but the new strawberries must go. Tonight we'll be eating a salad. Take that Monsanto! #Grow your own food #sow true seed

This Spring

Since moving in to this beautiful home which I like to call "a cabin in the city", because we are still in the city but also surrounded by the tallest trees. Let me share that is was vacant for a long time so everything on the property was overgrown and just lush with life by the end of summer 2011. Experiencing the changes of the season from the comfort of a cozy sofa on the back deck where I'm able to look out into the trees and watch the leaves fall, and return. I sit here now listening to the many song birds echo for miles in the light rain. Spring has blessed our home  with a birds nest inside the drain pipe against the side of the back deck. Friends for my beloved Cat... Consuela. There's a stream that wraps around the long half of the property which adds that extra sound of water trickling off in the distance. The wild coyotes that use it's path to cross the stream and freely roam over the back 1.5 acre which we don't use is now completely hidden for safe passage. They were so beautiful to watch during winter with tan coat of fur.

Since this post upon moving in, We've answered the question. "Where will our garden go?"

Right here.... well partially. ;) 

click on image to enlarge

Say hello to our raised garden bed. We used large and small rocks found scattered around the property without disturbing the grounds foundation. We also have the large pots from last year we can use so we washed them out and gave them a good scrub with a small bit of all natural dish soap and a scrubber. 

click to enlarge images

Here are the tomatoes we started indoors while there was still a bit of cool weather and frost. This year we bought our seed from a company in NC, Sow True Seed who sells open-pollinated/non-hybrid and untreated seed. So what you are looking at are the Native Cherokee and the Yellow Pear tomatoes.   

photo courtesy of sow true seed

photo courtesy of sow true seed

I plan on jarring plenty of tomato sauce using old authentic Italian recipes ;) Yummy, and hope to share them on etsy.com Who knows... Is there a market for that? 

Where was I? who knows here's some more photos and we're done till next time. 

wild strawberries 

The warmest wishes to the 4 people that read this blog.... May you be inspired to start growing within. 

Biodynamic Winemaking

Around my early 20's I began to fantasize about owning and belonging to a wine vineyard somewhere in Spain, Italy, or France. It wasn't hard because I had been living in Germany and had visited the countries which was just a train ride away. I still like to daydream and since have brought the winemaking to my kitchen with a cabernet sauvignon and complete winemaking kit. 

Since then, I have been reading up on everything related and found something interesting called "biodynamic winemaking", and takes things a step further than "organic winemaking". 

Biodynamics mixes sustainability with more celestial beliefs and takes a spiritual as well as mystical approach to conventional farming methods. The practice of biodynamics views the vineyard in its entirety as a living system. And, it's not just about the vines and grapes. It's also about the soil, compost, insects, and other vegetation and animals that inhabit space in the vineyard, all working in harmony to bring you some incredible-tasting wines.

Check out these vineyards here in the US that have been practicing biodynamics for some time now. 


Araujo Estate
Resonance Vineyards
Grgich Hills
Beckmen Vineyards
DeLoch Vineyards

Okay, so I'm not quite there yet in my kitchen but it is fun to dream, and I really like what I've taught myself this far. Who knows, maybe someday. Why not today?!

Updates from Lance

This morning I over-watered a jalapeno pepper plant in hope of  diluting the amount of nitrogen. The blossoms on the pepper plant have been dropping. Researching the dilemma has informed me that it is either getting too much heat, not enough water, or too much nitrogen. The heat could be an issue, but don’t think that it is. Although this one particular pepper plant was started completely under fluorescent lighting and then moved to fluorescent lighting plus sun. So this could be an issue, but it will have to adjust to that, I won’t be moving it again. The not enough water issue, is not the issue, I have kept it well watered and wet. It’s thirst is quenched for certain. That leaves the too much nitrogen thing. I read that if the soil has too much nitrogen, you can clear it out by over-watering, draining, over-water, drain, &c &c. However, the pot the pepper plant is in has a drain built-in that is not detachable, so I decided just to flood it and see if this can dilute the nitrogen some. Only time will tell. The jalapeno plant is the first of all the jalapeno plants to flower, so I have been hoping to see and eat some jalapenos and all their delicious hotness. Mmm… positivity mixed with pro-activity equals hope in the right direction. J

All of our tomato plants are getting huge and flowering. The fruit is coming, and our mouths are watering for them. After growing our own tomatoes and eating them, I don’t think we’ll buy any more tomatoes from the grocery store. The artificially colored red balls they call tomatoes are not even close to tomatoes compared to home-grown fresh ones. There is no comparison!!! Grocery store so-called tomatoes are grown to travel and look good upon display. They are not grown for taste and flavor. That is a shame. If you don’t grow your own tomatoes, go to your local farmers market to buy them. For a tomato purchased from the grocery store is basically the same as plastic fruit on display in your rich aunts home. And the taste is about the same.

We are growing more lettuce in hopes of more lettuce, we’ll see on that. It’s not lettuce growing season, but hey, this whole greenhouse room is meant for growing what we eat and we want to try it all whenever we want. That’s the idea. Oh yeah!

All of the other plants in our garden room are well and thriving. We’re growing more as we go. For as we go is how we grow. J how’s that for some buddha of the day?!

Peace, love and green...

Here are two links to our local farmers markets for those of you in Atlanta. 

http://www.grantparkmarket.org/ (Sunday) 

http://www.peachtreeroadfarmersmarket.com/ (Saturday)