House of Roses

Meat Haul for August

While I’m enjoying the meat from the new farm, I’m missing all the lamb we used to get from Stillman’s. I’m also a tad bit tired of beef. I think I prefer pork and lamb. And I think I have more uses for non-ground meat. Ah, well.

But anyway, here’s the haul:

1. 1.5 lb beef top round steak
2. 1.5 lb fresh ham steak
3. 1 lb ground beef x 2
4. 3/4 lb ground pork
5. 1 lb hamburger patties (4 patties)
6. 1 lb beef chuck steak
7. 1 lb lamb sausage
8. 2 lb chicken breast

I am still at a loss, however, one how to cook fresh ham steak. It’s got a really different flavor which I haven’t managed to complement well yet.

The chicken breasts, I think, will become shoyu chicken. Yum.

Poor Peppers

Last weekend I found that too many of my peppers had these soft, brown spots:

Talking to my dad, I learned that they are what happens when pepper mold attacks your plants. The mold’s a result of too much moisture, which the peppers have had, between all our thunderstorms and my not-so-careful watering methods.

So, I made up some anti-mold spray and went to bathe the peppers.

Combine the following with one gallon of water:

1. 1 Tablespoon baking soda
2. 1 Teaspoon dish soap
3. 1 Teaspoon vegetable oil

(I think soap is what saves us from bugs.)

After a few days of washing the (remaining) peppers, watering more carefully, and shaking the peppers to remove extra moisture after the rains, they seem to be looking better.

City PSA

To the folks across the street, diagonally:

It’s pretty damn discourteous to park your honkin’ huge car smack dab in the middle of a 2-car long space.

I’m not even sure SmartCars could fit on either side of your car. And I know you folks have lived in the city for a long time; why is it that you’re so unneighborly, uncharitable?

Or is it just that you’re not smart enough to think about other folks? But haven’t you lived here long enough to know that you have to be kind to your neighbors?

As soon as I can figure out some way to ask you to park smartly, I will. At the moment though, having spent so many years listening to you scream at your children and your spouses, I think I’ll wait until I’m fast enough that you won’t deck me.

Eaten

We have eaten the tomato, my precious. Delicious.

Escaping Squash and Newborn Okra

First, my fire engines:

Black zebra tomatoes (although they have been anything but “late season” for me).

I am still loving the variegated leaves on the fish pepper:

The squash is a monster. First, it tries to escape:

I rigged a sort-of trellis for it’s upper limbs:

which may be amusing me more than the squash.

This morning, I find a bee in the squash:

Beautiful, beautiful okra:

With plant:

And an update on the flying tomato in its new home:

More and Less

There were blueberries at the farmer’s market. So, there are now blueberries in my house, my tummy, my fridge. I am sad to realize that I should have bought two. What was I thinking??

While paying for dirt at the nursery, I looked over and saw my weed. So, no weed. How sad. (But still pretty!)

Garden Update: Breakfast

Tuesday night I picked an actual meal’s worth of stuff from the garden:

One carrot large enough to eat (and the rest I pulled up because they were too close together and wouldn’t get too much bigger). This one I grew in a small, flower pot, so I’m replanting it, since it’s definitely big enough to call a real carrot. And it tasted so good!

Three peppers, green but cut off to encourage further growth. Two okra (with some more which were waiting in the fridge). Woot. Also, a handful of Thai basil, since it was beginning to flower (and I’d rather have leaves).

I ate the Thai basil right away, munching on some and throwing the rest into the Sloppy Thais that I made that evening.

Wednesday morning I took the rest of the haul and added it to some eggs and cotija for breakfast:

Garden Update: We Blush

Garden Update: Plants with Flowers

The garden has been persevering through the nearly-flash floods we’ve been having. Almost four inches of rain yesterday!

First up: Amanda’s tomato (yes, I know, but she brought the pot and plant and dirt over, it’s not my fault) has flowers:

The beans are flowering:

The poppies finally made a flower neither yellow nor orange:

The weeds are flowering:

The squash is flowering, climbing, and clustering:

Even the flowers are flowering:

By Twos

Two days ago there was a cherry tomato with a golden blush. Today there are two orange tomatoes on the vine.

Today there were also two okra long enough to be picked:

Tomorrow I will sautee them with summer squash and sprinkle them with cheese and it will be (part of) breakfast. Yum.