February 20th

It's almost Mardi Gras Day.

This year it'll be on March 1st,

later than usual so the weather should be nice.

We have a door wreath to

celebrate

Our decorations for Valentine's Day

And my flowers....

**********************

It is a beautiful day today.

The sun is shining and it's 59 degrees.

We've been in the garden all morning

to pull out dead plants and prepare the

beds for our seedlings.

Artichoke.

I'm amazed that the cold weather 

and freezes didn't kill it.

Purple Broccoli.

It looks like 2 different colors,

but,

if you keep the large leaves over the 

head of broccoli, the colors

remain dark. This is true for

the green and the purple

ones.

👇

This is a side view.

The top is the broccoli from 

the first picture, but the bottom

is another smaller one.

Green broccoli.

It looks bleached because there wasn't

any large leaf cover.

Today's harvest.

I sometimes blanche them to freeze

but lately they get eaten too fast.

The onions are doing well too.

🧅

This is a bunch of shallots

that is re-grown from 

a bunch bought at the grocery.

Tokyo Bunching Onions.

Never tasted them before, so

it'll be a new experience.

Creole Green Onions.

I've used the green tops several times already.

Creole Garlic.

I've used the green tops on these too.

Very tasty!

Yukon Gold Potatoes.

🥔

They are almost ready to harvest.

A potato plant usually takes between 60 to 90 

days before it flowers, then they are

ready to harvest.

It's still a bit too early for these.

Red Beets.

A root veggie is usually ready to harvest 

when the "crown" pushes up from

the soil.

We eat beets several ways.

I boil them till tender and serve with butter.

We eat the tops as a kind of lettuce.

I also pickle them the same way as a cucumber.

My favorite is roasting them in

olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Lollo Rosa Lettuce.

It is an Italian lettuce that tastes similar

to Romaine, but a tad bitter.

It's great in salads paired with

a Roma tomato.

Italian Oregano.

We also have mint gradually coming back

from being dormant in winter,

along with parsley, Thai basil and stevia.

**********************

The splendor of sunflowers!

I love them.

We were going to cut some for 

the dinner table,

but decided against that

so we can admire them for a 

longer time on their stalks.

As the flower head turns to seed,

it becomes food for the hens as well

as the squirrels and wild birds.

The bees really love them too.

Hazel in the blueberry bed 

taking a dirt bath

and tilling the soil.

Win, win!

Nugget.

Ethel sitting while Lucy clucks.

She's impatient to sit in that box.

Everybody uses the same laying box

and they can get very vocal when

a sister won't hurry up.

Reminds me that when I was a kid,

we only had one bathroom that was

shared by four people.

😆

Minew the cat.

She follows us all the time.

And...

when we are doing something,

she'll come lay close.

She probably thinks she's a hen.

😺

My Paperwhite Lillies 

in the mailbox garden.

A Coleus I rescued after

I accidentally broke the stem

off the main plant.

The original plant died in

the cold weather.

Pink Begonia and Scarlet Geranium.

(Sounds like a double billing for

2 millennial singers)

******************************

So, I've been wondering...

What is this actually used for

other than deviled eggs,

or potato salad

???

That is literally all I've ever used it for.

Oh, 

and I've seen it on hummus too.

So,

I looked it up.

Domestically sold paprika is a blend

of peppers, some sweet and some mild.

The Latin American paprikas are

usually dried or smoked which

alter the flavor to make them more intense.

Hungarian paprikas are mild to hot.

But in my kitchen,

I've got good old

Mc Cormick's.

That means I use it for

looks and not flavor.

Ha!

😃

So, my new endeavor will be to try it

in different recipes.

(We'll see how that goes....)

***********************

Hugs!

💚