Indoor Garden - First harvest!

Last week I posted that I was growing an indoor lettuce garden. And this week I did my first harvest! Following the tips from others who have the same garden kit on how to properly harvest the lettuce I went with the whole leaf method. On the right you can see the before picture. This shows that the Red Sails (the purple one) and the Black Seeded Simpson leaves were covering up the pod that has yet to fully sprout and the others were also fighting for light. So I cut them down a bit.

You can see here on the left what I kept on the plants after the harvest. I might still trim a few more but this was a start. They say not to take more than a third of the plant at each harvest so that it can recover and grow. The plants are quick growers so I am not too worried. Just have to figure out what to do with my small pile of fresh salad greens. Yes, make a salad is the typical answer for what to make with lettuce. And maybe that is what I will do. Start simple, to get to know the flavors then go more advanced in my salad making or lettuce uses.

It is nice that even while it is snowing outside I can still have my own bit of green and fresh produce. This is a great way to let kids see where food comes from, and grow their own salads and other veggies. Even if you don't get a fancy kit to create your own indoor garden there are other ways to start one. You can take empty food containers and fill with soil and plant seeds, get some small pots, or other recyclable containers, even toilet paper tubes can work for starting seeds. Take the tube, cut four slits on one end to fold over creating a cup, fill it with soil stand them up inside a cleaned food container, getting 4-6 of them in the container depending on size, and place by a window to watch the seeds grow. Remember to water them each day as needed. Enjoy your own indoor garden grow, Meet Me Outdoors.

Indoor Gardening 2021

My indoor gardening over the years has typically been some version of volunteer garden. Or basically whatever mysteriously grows out of my compost is what gets to be watered and nurtured and let grow until it is finished its season.  I have gotten squash plants and tomato plants out of it in the past. Not the best of produce but worked well enough. Last spring I did do some planting of basil seeds that I got and the result was quite nice. Fresh basil has been a great addition to my meals. Other seeds I tried planting a month ago didn't grow because I wasn't keeping up on my watering. That has been something I have forgotten to do even when I do walk by my window garden entering my kitchen all the time.

So this year I am trying something different. A garden system that will tell me when it needs water if I forget, and when to add nutrients, too. An AeroGarden. I am not one for brands or anything, but this is something I have wanted to try for many years. And now I have! It has been two weeks since I planted and four of the six pods have made some great progress. The other two I am giving another week before calling it, and the company has a guarantee if any of their pods don't grow by sending replacements.

I started this as a project for one of my classes, was hoping to do weekly check ins with my students to see how the plants progress over the semester. Then for fun I decided to do daily growth check ins in between the class time since the first sprouts were super exciting for me not to share. I took a couple pictures two to three times a day depending on when I was home or out. The resulting video was made with a stop motion app with eight frames per second timing.

I have yet to try any of the lettuce leaves, I am waiting until they get a bit bigger. For harvesting they say to just pluck the leaves and eat. Right now they are small so maybe next week or a week after that I will try one. I also have a plant your own seeds kit so I might add those in the spots where the plants didn't grow and see what may come out of it. I have some more basil seeds and some other herbs I can plant.  It is early for planting outside, but this has been a fun way to bring the outside in. Looking forward to watch this continue to grow. Try some new ways to plant your own indoor garden or start some seeds for an outdoor garden and watch it grow, Meet Me Outdoors.

Peach picking!

I went peach picking with friends. While I probably got more peaches than I would be able to eat on my own, it was lots of fun. A great thing to do with family and/or friends. Now I have to figure out what to with all of the peaches. A pie or jam could be a possibility, maybe find a smoothie recipe.

Apples coming in season soon maybe I will go for those next. Hope you can get out and get some fresh fruit or veggies from local farms, Meet Me Outdoors.

Richmond, VA - Maymont Park

Spring is here!  It finally feels like springtime and I was able to go visit with some friends down in Richmond, VA. While there we went to Maymont Park which is a great place for families. There are different habitat regions, gardens, and farm animals.

 I really enjoyed seeing the different animals and gardens.  The first animals we found were bison, they were on the way up to the Children's Farm. At the farm there were goats, chickens and a cow. Of course I got pictures.  Though it was hard to get some of the animals to stand still for the camera, the bison were the only ones to sit still. 
Some of the animals at the park that were in the wildlife exhibits had already gone in for the night. But the ones that were still out did come and say hi.

While we stuck to the Children's Farm, wildlife exhibits, and some of the gardens, there was far more to explore than we had time.  There is a Nature Center & Visitor Center which highlights the regional habitat. 

The chickens definitely kept moving around the most.  This is why they are off to the side of the picture.

 No, this isn't a two headed cow, the second one just had to be in the picture. 

This was nice stream we passed moving from one habitat area to the next. We were heading to the Japanese garden.  Walking through the gardens was really peaceful, a nice break from city life. 

This was a surprise find in the Japanese gardens. There was a snake slithering by and it looks like it had dinner recently. The snake is a bit camouflaged on the grass near the tree, but look for an oddly smooth branch like animal with a large bump in the middle.  It was certainly an interesting discovery.

I am looking forward to the new season and getting a chance to explore more outside.  Time for all of us to go outside and explore, Meet Me Outdoors.

The Garden Needs Some (a lot of) Work

I was checking on the garden at the Sunday school after being away for the summer.  My friend was nice enough to take a picture of me while I was standing in the garden.  I was standing on tiptoe so she could see me better. I am not well camouflaged in my bright pink shirt.

Yes, most of what you are seeing is weeds. There are some baby fruit trees in the mix that are surrounded by fencing, but mostly weeds in there.  At this time I don't think I feel safe letting the children into the garden, mostly because anyone shorter than me... will be lost. I was having a hard time finding a place to stand having to step on plants to make my own path. 

One idea was to let the children just pick the flowers around the edges of the garden and we can work our way into it. Knowing the nature of children they will not say at the edges and likely would get lost in the field. 

I could take a weed hacker and cut it down to size, most likely would let landscapers do that.  A greener option is to rent goats and let them eat the weeds leaving me with a lovely garden and some natural fertilizer.  Not sure I have the budget for that.  Strap some tennis rackets to my feet and trudge out a path like I am snowshoeing... not so easy.

If I figure out a way to hack out a maze path in the garden like the corn mazes that are popular in the autumn, that would be awesome.  If anything I might see if there is a good corn maze in my area and trek out to one with some friends.  Find a corn maze near you and join the adventure, Meet Me Outdoors

A Day Outside: Berry Picking, Orioles Game AND Concert in the Park!

What a day!  I basically just spent the whole day outside.  What could have been a cloudy rainy day according to the forecast on Friday turned into a hot and humid day in the sun.  I brought my big sunhat, sunglasses and lots of sunscreen... still got a bit of of a sunburn but not as bad. Now on the aloe treatment.  Next time more sun screen!

Today started early with a trip to Larriland Farms were I met one of my friends and we picked raspberries.  They have both red and purple variety at this time of year and even blue berries.  We stuck to the raspberries and got over 5lbs worth that we split between the two of us to take home.  It was getting to be really hot out with the sun overhead so we didn't stay much past noon.  I have already eaten a bunch and the rest are in the fridge waiting for me to blend into a nice smoothie that may turn to sorbet if I decide to freeze it.  Seeing that the rest of this week is looking to be another lovely heatwave, having some sorbet might be perfect use for the berries... Boiling them down into jam is a great way to help preserve them, maybe even a fruit pie, but I enjoy quick and simple so blend, drink, freeze.

Right behind home plate!

 Midday, after I sorted and cleaned the berries I brought back I went to the Orioles vs Blue Jays baseball game.  I traded in the tickets (thanks Grandmom) for a seat that was in the lower level and with some shade.  Turns out I got a great seat, just a few rows below the press box and right behind home plate.  Of course there was a tall guy sitting in front of me who blocked my view a bit, but otherwise really good seats... My brothers might be a bit jealous, but I can't control that.  Because I didn't have too many distractions of other people I actually was able to pay attention to the game... O's won!

Panorama view from my seat

Even a dragonfly wanted to watch the game (it's on the wire)

The panorama view is from the game midway through. I took it from my seat above the head of the tall guy you see in the above picture to the right of the frame. My standard baseball game snack is cotton candy but I also got a fruit smoothie as a nice healthier drink choice that also is very refreshing in this hot weather.

After the game continued on to phase 3 of my day outside in the sun... interestingly enough it's a Sunday.  I moved on to Patterson Park for their summer concert series.  Today's musician was Ellen Cherry.  The concerts are held outside on the eastern lawn of the Patterson Park Pagoda.  Bring a lawn chair, picnic blanket, kids, dogs, munchies, whatever and chill out to some awesome music. Concerts are free and open to the public from roughly 6:30p-8:30p. 

Before the concert by the Pagoda

I tried to get a group of people together but only one person found me, it was pretty crowded.  There was a nice ambiance, for lack of a better word. We picked a nice shaded area below the Pagoda to sit and listened to music.  I brought munchies... including some of the berries I picked.

The picture on the left is from before the concert.  I was walking over a bit early and stopped in the shade a bit before climbing the hill.  Did I mention it was hot outside?  People do climb up inside the Pagoda to see the skyline view of Baltimore.  I prefer the ground level maybe a hill view as you can see in the picture below.  I guess you can call it the "after picture" because the hill is filled with people and you can see Ellen Cherry in the white dress on stage singing. The Pagoda is behind me.  As the sun got lower into what photographers "Golden Hour" which is when everything seems to have a nice golden glow at sunrise and sunset.  I wasn't quiet able to capture that effect in my own pictures, but I was able to observe it from my spot on the hill. 

After my long day outdoors I am happy to be relaxing indoors again wondering where my next adventure may take me.  Stay cool everyone, Meet Me Outdoors.

Driving through the middle of nowhere...

Many days of this road trip that I am on have been spent driving through the middle of nowhere. From Spokane, WA to Salt Lake City, UT have been filled with roads that go through mountains and trees and more mountains. Some areas we went by have lakes, rivers and even farms.

These are just to give an idea of some places we drove through. While I couldn't tell you where half these pictures are from it has been an interesting time driving through and seeing the beautiful sights.  We soon discovered that calling out every cow, horse, tree and mountain can be tiring after the first ten that you see.  However, a quieter game of road trip bingo is sometimes needed for the sanity of other riders.  Sometimes its just easier to pick up a camera and record what you see, of course taking time to just enjoy the sights and sounds is just as good.  The road trip continues, Meet Me Outdoors.

Pick-Your-Own at Baugher's

Last week I went to a Pick-Your-Own farm that was near me called Baugher's Orchard and Farm.  I originally wanted to do apple picking but that season is over here so I went pumkin picking which was just as fun.  There were lots of families and groups of people of all ages taking part in the adventure of finding a pumpkin to call their own.

It starts with a hayride out to the fields, once there you are set off to find your pumpkin.  There were a variety of pumpkins: big, small, orange, green, white even tan colored.  (The farm's market had some oddly shaped pumpkins even a multi-colored one.) Interestingly enough, a pumpkin is a fruit as it is the part of the plant that holds the seeds like an apple or tomato. They had some trivia cards up for while you wait for the hay ride to take you out there.  Thought I'd share the wisdom.  Another interesting fact is pumpkins are 90% water.  Cool stuff.

I went with some friends to the farm to share in the adventure.  The day before we were going to go it snowed, I still wanted to go and a couple of them were willing to join me.

While most of the pumpkins were a little buried under a thin layer of snow, I was set on finding a perfect pumpkin. You can see the snow in most of these pictures, if not the mud that followed its melting.

By the time we got there, most of the good pumpkins of the big and orange variety that people typically associate with, and use for Halloween carving were picked.  Left behind were some that were broken and some small decorative type pumpkins.  I ended up finding a part of the patch with some small white and orange pumpkins which I thought would be great table decorations for the holidays so I picked it out and brushed off the mud.  As there were a bunch of these in the area my friend grabbed one of his own as you can see in the picture on the right.  We also found some tiny orange ones that looked just as festive.

The adventurer in me wanted to explore more of the pumpkin patch so I got a few more pictures of what I found.  Glad I wore my mud friendly shoes because there certainly was a lot of it as we walked through the patch.

There were lots of families there and one way that Baugher's made the patch even more exciting was setting up a simple slide of large tubing and some hay bales that you can see of the distance of this photo on the left.  When we got closer we saw there was a bit of a mud puddle at the bottom and some carefully placed pumpkins so the slider won't land in the mud.  Needless to say, as big of a mud lover as I am, I was not about to slide down that. It was cold out, and cold and wet don't go well together. But I did see that some adventurous kids did go down, hopefully stopping at the bottom before getting to the mud part. Below is part of the patch that had a bunch of the large orange pumpkins that are great for carving.

Also at Baugher's was a petting zoo.  Most of the animals were typical farm animals like pigs, chickens, sheep, goats and turkeys, though we did come across a lama.  The lama was nice enough to pose for a picture.

After the trip to the pumpkin patch and the petting zoo on the farm we stopped at the market to buy some more fresh from the farm treats.  I got some apples, acorn squash and a spaghetti squash.  I still need to figure out what to do with those, so on the hunt for recipes.  My friends picked out some dried fruit packages and a pie from the market. 

There are lots of Pick-Your-Own farms out there so no matter where you are you can join in the fun.  All you got to do is wait for the fruit or veggie to be in season for picking then go for it.  Some have for strawberry, cherry, peach and apple picking but you have to come at the right time of the year.  For example if you want to go to pick strawberries you would need to go in the spring time, for peaches go in the summer time, apple season is near the end of summer through the early parts of fall.  Each farm will tell you when to come for the pick-your-own items, and some will have markets with the items fresh from the farm that they pick for you.

While the picking season my be over for my area of the world it could still be open for you.  Or perhaps it's just getting started.

Enjoy some farm fresh produce, Meet Me Outdoors.