Starting Seeds Indoors …Free seeds

 There is nothing quite like the feeling that fills your every cell when you spot those first seeds starting to sprout.   The excitement just wants to burst from your insides as you stare in amazement at the little green stems pushing their way out from underneath the dark black soil.

The journey that lies ahead for these tiny sprouts of green is nothing short of a miracle.   From tiny seed to fresh juicy vegetables and colorful blooming flowers in a matter of months …… a lifetime for most garden plants. 

These are my pepper seedlings which I started back in December.   Rather early to start seeds indoors for the coming season, but I have found peppers grow at a slower rate than other plants.   This year I want to transplant some big ole pepper plants into the ground!   That way I will be able to harvest peppers earlier than in the past … which was late summer.   I may need to transplant these into bigger pots before they find their final home in the outdoor garden.   I have attempted to start tomatoes earlier and they tend to get leggy and unmanageable so it’s best to wait on them for a few more weeks.

Back in November I also started some herb seeds indoors and they are doing great!   I plan to harvest some this week.   I am fortunate to have a nice setup of wire shelving racks with grow lights that supply constant heat and light for my little growing garden.   I do water at least every other day since the air in the house is very dry.

Can you name the types of herbs in the three pictures above?   Three common every day herbs ….   During the winter months I go through my saved seeds every few weeks and decide if there’s something I can start planting.   Since I have accumulated quite a number of flower seeds this past season (I am obsessed with saving seeds), I decided to send some along to you!   So watch for next week’s Tuesday post and how you can receive your free seeds.   It will be easy so don’t worry.

I also like to send a Thank You to Renee’s Gardens for the recent Media Kit they sent along with a packet of  Mesclun seeds (which I might just start any day now).  Thank You!

Also take a look at P. Allen Smith’s plant suggestions.   If you are new to gardening or looking for Spring ideas, bookmark his site which is filled with helpful ideas.

Happy Gardening Thoughts!!

Monday is Food Day!

Good Monday Morning!   Let’s start the first week of the New Year with my Monday topic pick which is “Food”!   You would think I had enough food over the holidays, especially sweets, to tide me over for at least a month…but nooooo.   I was going to start with the healthy route since I am a huge fan of eating healthy except for the fact that I had these two recipes which I never “got to” over the holidays – so I baked them up yesterday.

Cranberry Orange Biscotti

Lemon Lavender Cookies

I have to mention once again Chef Paul over at The Pantry Blogger and the fantastic giveaway he held recently which I won!   I used several of the great goodies making the above cookies and I am now blessed to have a food grater that I can successfully use without grating my fingers!

My fingers will be forever grateful (nice play on words….I know, I know…corny!)  

Thank you and I look forward to many more of Chef Paul’s wonderful recipes in the coming year!

Over the holiday season I discovered The Spice House which is right in my own neck of the woods.   I was searching on the internet for orris root to use in the potpourri I am making and found them listed.    

I found the shop stocked with all types of herbs and spices, gift sets and even recipes – the above Lemon Lavender Cookies I picked up from them.   I received personal attention as each purchase I made was taken from the jar and bottled up for me.   I can’t wait to head on back there!

I can honestly say that since I have been baking with the fresh chicken eggs there is a definite difference in taste.   The chicks are still laying eggs even in this brutal cold weather but not as many as during the warmer months.  

I must also mention a spectacular email I received yesterday from Sea Willow Herbs informing me that I had won their giveaway!   Thank YOU Jennifer …… I await my gifts with much excitement!!   I am feeling quite fortunate and happy as I bring in the Year 2011 ….

Flaxseed in the Garden

Flaxseed seems so mysterious, right?   I seem to find myself drawn to unusual plants and the discovery of  how they grow;  luffa, ginseng, gourds, cotton, so flaxseed seemed to fit right in.   We have been purchasing flaxseed and adding it here and there to our recipes.   The cost is quite high but we figured our health is well worth it.   It lowers cholesterol and is a healthy addition to most any recipe; it does have a strong flavor though.   The flaxseed flower is small, purple in color and grows into swaying stems adding a beautiful scene for your garden landscape.   The flower then goes to seed at the end of the season and each seed head contains several seeds.   Harvesting the seed when they are dry is rather easy, but cleaning for the flaxseed is very, very time-consuming.

Would I recommend growing flaxseed in your garden?   Only if you are looking for an easy flower to add to your garden or if you have the proper cleaning equipment which is a huge investment then yes – Grow Flaxseed.   The seed can be ground up into powder which can be accomplished with a coffee grinder, but the time to get to this point is like I said … very time-consuming.  

I am always looking for the ultimate healthy (sweet) snack so I decided to create another cookie recipe using flaxseed and they are pretty Good!   I named them Oatmeal Apple Flaxseed Cookies and posted the recipe at Mixing Bowl in the new group Garden Dish I recently created.   As with all recipes, ingredients can be added or eliminated depending on your tastes.   I wanted to use the Sage I had just harvested also (another strong flavor) – surprisingly it’s flavor is somewhat faint….maybe more next time.

The batter was somewhat dry so I ended up adding 1 tablespoon of oil – that’s all it needed!

Oatmeal Apple Flaxseed Cookies

On my way to creating the Ultimate Healthy Sweet Snack!

I decided to start some herb seeds now under my grow lights.   I already miss my gardens and the snow hasn’t even started to fall yet!   I have a nice setup with lights to start seeds so I planted a few trays; mostly herbs with a few flower seeds.  

 

This past summer I ordered and planted Stevia seeds.   When I received the seeds there were very few in the package – about 5.   I thought this must be an expensive, unique plant so I saved seed from my own plants and this is one I just planted under the lights.

Stevia seed – I didn’t really do much with the stevia as far as cooking, but I made sure to taste the leaves and they taste just like sweet sugar!   I hope to create some healthy food this coming season – I already see there are a few cookbooks using Stevia out there!

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Herb Show and Herb of the Year!

We visited the Midwestern Herb and Garden Show this past weekend and had the privilege of hearing Mel Bartholomew speak about his “All New Square Foot Gardening” method and book.  He is very knowledgeable and his mission is to end world hunger by teaching his square foot (meter) gardening techniques around the world.  I was surprised to learn that he also offers a course whereby you can become a certified teacher at one of the 3 day SFG Symposiums that are offered.  The next one being offered is in North Carolina and then one in Hawaii – you can read more about these on his website.  There is also an online course offered from the SFG University.   A young man named Josh was there to assist in the presentation and he is the youngest person to complete the course (he graduated 8th grade last year).  I was very happy and impressed to see a member of the younger generation with such interest in gardening.  There is also a cookbook published and Mel did mention that he will be writing his next book on Herbs!  He will be asking for the assistance of the Midwestern Herb group who hosted this event and mention them in the book  (I thought that was pretty cool)!

Speaking of herbs … I just recently started planting some herb seeds.  Since it is still too early to plant most of the vegetable seeds, I reason that I can get a good headstart with the herbs and even start using them for cooking.

 Dark Opal Basil

 Dill seedlings

This Rosemary and Stevia I did purchase at the show even though I have planted seeds of my own.  This is the first time with stevia and the seeds are very tiny and there were only a few in the packette so I thought I would purchase a plant already started.  Same for the rosemary – it can be fickle at times to start from seed.  Other herb seeds started are lemongrass, oregano, marjoram, lavender, winter savory, thyme, sage, anise, cumin and lemon balm. 

Each year the International Herb Association chooses the Herb of the Year and this year’s choice is Dill.  You can find information on their website and I also discovered this nice post along with some recipes by Jim Long on his blog.  He is author of 25 books on herbs, gardening and cooking.

Advice from “Great Garden Companions” by Sally Jean Cunningham states that “dill is a great companion for cabbage family crops, such as brussels sprouts.  The brussels sprouts support the floppy dill, while the dill pulls in the predatory wasps.”

“Planting squash with plant friends, like dill and nasturtiums, gives the squash a competitive edge against pests.  The nasturtiums help repel squash bugs and the dill attracts aphid predators.”

Also … I received word yesterday that my blog was added to About.com which is very exciting!  I submitted my information and if you have a gardening blog of your own you would like added there you can go to the above link and submit your information.

Garden Talk

I did spend time over the weekend reviewing past garden plans and new seed catalogs and have added my 2010 Garden List to the Gardening page on the blog.  Of course … there may be additions since it is so early in the year!  The list is a combination of new choices along with others I have grown in the past and saved the seeds.  I have a new interest in dried beans and hope to also can some beans if I have an overabundance.  The dried beans and the canned beans will be great pick me ups during the long winter months!  The pepper and tomato choices are favorites and all will be grown from seeds I have saved with the exception of the Principe Borghese Tomato which lists as a great sun-dried tomato – this will be my first year growing these.  I have tomatoes dried in my dehydrator and use them as sun-dried in recipes so this new choice should work well.  Those that have grown the Cherokee Purple Tomato can vouch for its superb taste and wonderfulness as Annica from Roots and Flowers commented in a previous post!  The Amish Paste I use for canning since they are meaty and don’t have an overload of seeds.  There are so many different types of both tomatoes and peppers and it can be difficult to narrow down the choices.  I had great success with the Tam Jalapeno and have some frozen and canned – these were great gifts over the holidays.  The Cayenne I hope to dry and include along with my garlic harvest.  The Alma Paprika peppers are remarkable and Lisa at GetintheGarden commented she plans to grow these this year also.  These peppers have 3 color stages – yellow, orange and then red.  They mellow out a bit as they turn to the final red color.  Little did I know my first year growing these – I was so excited to try them.  I grabbed a nice big yellow Alma off the plant and bit right in ……..Ouch!  They are hot!  My favorite dish with these peppers has been Pepper and Tomato soup – roasting the peppers, peeling off the skin and then blending them in the blender before adding to all the other soup ingredients.  I made this soup up and froze it using all my peppers.  This year I plan to actually dry some and make paprika powder!

 I have an area which I plan to revamp and create a nice herb garden.  Dill is the Herb of the Year for 2010 and you can read more here .   Lemongrass and Stevia will be two new herbs growing in the herb garden this year.

 Flaxseed grew very well last year and Gigi at Plangarden commented on this healthy addition to meals in a recent blog comment .  I hope to grow much more of the seed this year and continue to add it to our meals .

 In past years I have grown Luffa and find this to be an unusual and fun plant to grow for sponges.  Gourds were a focus last year and they are beginning to dry completely now so I will be working on these soon and hope to show all the neat works of art I create!  I found Cotton seeds and will try my hand at growing these – should be interesting!

Thank you for the nice comments and I hope you are busy making all kinds of gardening plans for a great 2010!!!