April 30th

Today is National Oatmeal Cookie Day!

These tasty cookies have been around 

since the 1800's.

Soldiers carried Oatcakes as a 

quick and simple meal.

The exact origins are unknown,

but the oldest known recipe is in 

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

She was a Boston area native, who

created the Boston Cooking School,

and wrote the best seller 

cook book in 1896.

Amazingly, this cookbook, with

a few new recipes,

is still in print!

I wasn't able to find the original 

Fannie Farmer recipe,

but there's a really good one on

the Quaker Oats box.

(I've made these several times, YUM!)

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Our first Big Boy tomato.

It was absolutely delicious!

Dark purple cherry tomatoes.

This plant has about 13.

A recent harvest of red and brown potatoes.

Carrots - orange, purple and white.

Beets - white, red and orange.

Cauliflower - purple.

The darker the color of the veggie,

the higher the content of antioxidants

and nutrients will be, and the healthier

the food.

Brussels Sprouts

Eggplants

Corn

Cucumber

cooked carrots for tonight's dinner

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It rained hard yesterday and the taller

flowers took a beating, so

I cut them to enjoy inside.

These are snapdragons.

Red and peach Gladiolus.

More red and peach gladiolus

and red snapdragons.

Red gladiolus.

Peach gladiolus.

Mary's Garden

with sweet peas

on each side of Her.

Can't wait'll they bloom!

Begonias

The CEO got some wildflower

seeds and planted these beauties.

Mandevilla

Pansies

Marigolds

Rescued Mums from

a garden department garbage heap.

Literally covered in blooms!!

Fence garden.

Blueberry bushes and flowers

to attract bees and butterflies.

The helper, Lucy, looking for 

tasty morsels.

Lazy Ethel.

Sleeping in the shade.

Backyard critters.

Baby possums.

Miss Minew.

She is not predatory at all!

It's a boy!

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Beautiful morning sunrise!

And this...

We were at a local nursery

for chicken feed, when we saw this.

Looks like a Victorian era insult, 

if you ask me.

"You hairy vetch!"

In case you're wondering,

this is a flowering ground

cover, typically used as pollinator plants

around fruits and vegetable plants.

The hairy part refers to the small numerous

leaves that resemble hairs and the word vetch

is an old English word referring to legumes.

It is toxic to humans and some animals.

so, by that nature, it's a big no for us.

🐔

I love chicken jokes!

Thanks for viewing.

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April 18th

Listen my children,

and you shall hear

of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

Yep, that's today.

248 years ago.

Amazing.

Here's a few things you may not 

know about Paul Revere.

1. He wasn't just English. He was part French.

His Dad, Apollos Rivoire, came to Boston

at 13 years old and Anglicized his name.

Paul was one of 12 or 13 kids. 

2. He fought in the French and Indian war,

but was a silversmith by trade, and his

side job was a dentist.

This makes sense because gold

or silver wires were used to hold

ivory teeth together for dentures.

(Nope, he didn't do the dentures 

for Washington.)

3. He was a bit of an artist too.

He did copper plate engravings for

books, pamphlets and menus.

4. He was a spy. He founded a 

group called the "mechanics" after the

Boston Tea Party, who

spied on English soldiers. That group

evolved into the Sons of Liberty.

5. The poem wasn't totally correct.

3 men rode out on the 18th, 

not just Paul, and they met up

about 40 more guys so the 

word would spread.

(Did you think the Revolution

depended only on 1 guy?)

Revere was temporarily detained 

by the British at Lexington, 

and never finished his ride.

Dawes lost his way and Prescott 

was left to alert Concord.

6. He never said, "The British are coming!".

Why go to all the trouble to be covert

only to yell at the top of your lungs

alerting the British militia?

And,

a lot of colonists still considered

themselves British,

so why stir up that bees nest?

So,

how can you celebrate this day?

Listen to a few 

Paul Revere and the Raiders, songs!

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A few of our harvest.

Beets (white, stripped and red),

Carrots (yellow, white and orange)

Purple Broccoli

Tomatoes

Tomatoes, Banana Pepper and 1 

Cherry Tomato.

Broccolini

Yellow Squash

More Yellow Squash

Corn

Asparagus

 

Thyme

Chicory

This plant is a kind of experiment.

We're letting it flower to attract bees.

I wonder what the flowers will look like.

The leaves make great salads,

and the root, when dried, can be added

to coffee.

No, we don't intend on doing that,

we will just eat the leaves.

😃

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Louisiana Irises

Gardenias

Amarylis

Snapdragons

Pansies

Aloe and flowering Portulaca

Sweet Potato Vine flower

Heavy rains the other day

beat down some of the flowers,

so I decided to cut them to

enjoy inside.

Lucy and Ethel patrolling for a meal.

Marigolds

The girls are following me while

I putter in the garden.

Minew has to get in on the fun too.

Nosey cat!

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Blooming Echeverria

African violet leaves.

Hopefully, they will grow!

Mother of Thousands,

closeup.

Blooming Echeverria

on the kitchen window sill

on a rainy morning.

Rooting a piece of 

Holy Basil

Rainy morning window sill.

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And this...

Stuffed artichokes for the win!

(no, we didn't grow these)

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Thanks for reading...

💓

💙💚💙