Happy (now belated) Valentine's Day, loves! I originally started writing this this post as I was waiting for my valentine to arrive home from basketball on Tuesday, but since we didn't get our downtime together until about 10:30pm that night, I was never able to get the pics into the post. (Notice a trend here? Belated holiday greetings...belated Valentine's greetings...sometimes I suck at life.)

I have to admit...I generally don't go crazy over Valentine's Day. As much as I love decorating for holidays (and in general), Valentine's Day isn't something I go ga-ga about. Maybe it's because I (mostly) hate the color pink. Maybe it's because I don't like how the media seems to tell us that if we aren't buying All The Things for our partner that we don't love them enough. Or maybe I'm just a believer in doing the little things that show you care about your loved ones each day, not just on a day that 'designates' you to do so. Regardless, we don't do fancy dinners, or expensive gifts or grand public gestures of appreciation for Valentine's Day. While I love seeing others become joyful over those things, it's just not our style.

So in true DIY, made-with-love form, I raise a toast of cheap champagne (though not because I think cheaply of you) to you and your valentines, and I bring you our Valentine's Day.

The morning started with Darren waking up to find 12 post it notes I wrote out last night with cupid arrows drawn on them, each saying "I love you because..." with a reason underneath each arrow. The picture did not come out clear at all, probably due to the fact that I took it on my dumbphone non-smartphone while it was still dark out. Knowing that D gets up before me and let's the dog out, I left the post it notes around the house last night in each place he wanders in the morning so that he would find them as he got ready for work.  A free and heartfelt way to tell him how much I love the little things he does. Cheesy? Probably. Did he enjoy it? Yes.

I proceeded to indulge myself in chocolate at work, thanks to my lovely coworkers. When Darren picked me up from work, he had a card waiting on the seat for me with an unexpected little gift inside - a Groupon for a wine education class, which we had been eying up last week...and which I didn't have money to buy at the time. We both love wine, but unlike beer, don't know much about it, so it was a great thing for him to gift to both of us. The somewhat-unfortunate twist was that he didn't realize when he bought it last week that the promotional value expired a week later. Meaning, Monday, the day before Valentine's Day. Shady Groupon place and their shady timeline. No big deal though, because the paid amount never expires so we can still use it, but we'll just end up paying the full price when the time comes.

When we got home, we proceeded to make dinner as usual and then Darren ran off to basketball. While he was gone, I decided to take advantage of some leftover dark chocolate we had and make chocolate covered strawberries.

Chocolate covered strawberries are just about one of the easiest desserts you can make. I wanted to jazz them up a little bit by experimenting with some salty/sweet and spicy chocolate combos, so I pulled out some sea salt and cayenne pepper. I dumped a little more than a cup of dark chocolate chunks into a small bowl and heated them in the microwave, stopping to stir every 15 seconds. I know that sounds ridiculous, but if you choose to melt chocolate in the microwave, you must stir it frequently to distribute the heat and keep the chocolate from burning. As long as you obey that rule, microwave melting is much faster than stovetop melting. My plan of attack was to dip a little more than half the strawberries in the regular dark chocolate, then mix the cayenne pepper into the chocolate to do the rest. 

Right after dipping in the chocolate and giving a little twist to catch any drips, I placed them on top of a freezer bag to cool and reharden. Normally you would put them on wax paper, but I realized after I started melting the chocolate that we were out.  Oops. I gave a little sprinkle of coarsely ground sea salt over the top of some of the dipped strawberries while they were still melty, and left others plain. When I only had about 6 or 8 left to dip, I mixed about 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper into the dark chocolate and proceeded to coat the rest. Then I quickly sprinkled some cayenne over the tops in order to identify the spiced ones from the regular ones. At this point, many had hardened enough that I could remove them from the wax paper freezer bag and put them on a plate in the frig to chill.

Since I was hoping to present them a little more fancily than "oh hey, check out the plate in the frig," I decided to make a little box to put them in. It was as simple as google-ing "paper box template" and picking one of the many options that popped up. The one I used was from mirkwooddesigns.com, and it was fittingly called "candy box." 

 

When I printed it in it's original size, it looked a bit too small to hold a bunch of strawberries, so I just adjusted my printer settings to 125% and reprinted. It was as simple as tracing the top and bottom pieces on some card stock, cutting them out, folding along the lines, and gluing the corners in place. 

Oh, and then filling with strawberries. I did a row of the salty sweet, a row of regular dark, and a row of cayenne spiced.

Then I made a little tag out of paper scraps (it says...*geek alert*... "you're spicy and sweet <3 " to match the strawberries) and I tied everything up with baker's twine. 

When Darren arrived home, he opened his card and we proceeded to enjoy the strawberries alongside a cheap, half-full bottle of champagne that had been sitting in the frig (yet was still as carbonated and delicious as the day we opened it). Classy, right?

Between the cheesy displays of affection via post it notes, a somewhat expired Groupon gift, and a half bottle of cheap champagne, you probably think we have a dysfunctional relationship. To tell you the truth, it was totally 'us' and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

PS: The strawberries came out great! I loved the salty sweet ones. The spicy ones actually weren't really spicy - you could tell there was a hidden flavor, but the heat didn't really come through. It could just be that we have a good tolerance for spicy food. I might consider adding more cayenne next time, unless I'm feeding them to spice-intolerant friends or family, of course.

I’ve been doing so many projects over the past week or so that I haven’t even had time to write about them! But I wanted to jump in today with a quick post about how I spent my evening last night while Darren was at his pickup basketball game.

The holidays are my favorite time of year, and I’m always looking for ways to prolong all the delicious smells and dishes that seem to go along with the season. This is especially the case for the hellish three and a half months of Cleveland winter that follow, during which time comfort food is the only means of sanity survival. For me, apple pie is one of those comfort foods, along with apple crisp or any other dessert that remotely resembles apple pie and does not come from an aluminum can  (which is just gloppy and unacceptable). So, let me tell you how to savor the flavor. Do your own canning. Go ahead and laugh. What is this, the early 1900s? No, friends. It’s 2011, and the economy is crap. So let me teach you how to be resourceful. And lazy. At the same time. I’m blowing your mind right now, I know. Canning may seem like a lot of work on the day you are preparing everything, but it allows you to indulge in cold-weather-laziness for the rest of winter knowing that half the work of a delicious homemade dessert is already done for you. That’s a win in my book. Canned apple pie filling has its obvious use – pie – but can also be used as the base for apple crisp or topping for ice cream, waffles, pancakes, and any other creation you can think of. And, if you were an overzealous apple picker at the fruit farm this year, it’s a great way to use up any extra apples you might be tired of eating without letting them go to waste. Maybe you can even give the jars as cheap but yummy gifts to your pie-loving coworkers. (Spoiler alert if any my coworkers are reading this.) If you’ve read this far, I think you know what I did last summer was doing last night...canning apple pie filling!

Canning is different from regular cooking in that you have to precisely follow a recipe that was specifically created for home canning. Unfortunately, you can’t just take any old recipe and throw it in a ball jar, nor can you just eyeball the ingredients and make modifications to suit your tastes (which is usually my preferred way of cooking).  The reason for this is that there are food safety standards you need to adhere to when preserving food. Blah blah , standards, blah blah....Just kidding.  It’s important to find a canning-approved recipe in order to avoid the food spoiling, or even worse, getting someone sick from botulism. Don’t get freaked out. Just find a book on home canning, do a Google search for “canned <insert name of food>”  or look up your state university food safety extension office which will have all the recipes and guidelines laid out for you. Here’s the apple pie recipe I used, laid out in a nice pie chart, from the Ohio State University Extension Office. Whatever you use will likely be the same, or similar, so I’m just going to give you a little play by play of how it all went down.

Knowing I would need to move pretty quickly once the apples were prepared, I gathered up all my necessary 'equipment' and washed and dried everything. This included my water bath canner (you can find them at Walmart and most grocery stores starting around late August), 7 quart sized jars with never-before-used lids (the sealing compound needs to be intact so an airtight seal will form), a funnel, a stock pot for the 'syrup,' another pot to blanche the apples, a cutting board, bowl, and if you are lazy lucky, an 'apple machine.' Needless to say, my little kitchen was quite crowded with all this stuff. And don’t forget the apples! I gathered up the two giant bags of apples we picked at the end of September and gave them a good rub scrub down. I think they were a mixture of Cortland and Jona-gold, but I don't remember because it was so long ago. There we a few bad ones I had to throw out, which didn't surprise me because it had been awhile since we picked them.

Enter stage right: The Best Kitchen Invention Ever. Action!

It's an apple corer-peeler-slicer thingy...aka torture device...aka apple machine (I think that's its real name)! Mine was a gift from my mom, but I think you can find them on Amazon. Even if you only make apple pie once a year, you need one of these. It simultaneously peels, cores and slices your apples in a matter of seconds. I think I was able to get through all the apples I needed for my 7 quarts of pie filling within 15 minutes. Ah-mazing.  Anyway, before I got carried away with my apple torture device, I started heating a stock pot half full with water in preparation to blanche the apples. I also filled my water bath canner half full with water to start bringing it to a simmer. (I wanted it to be ready ahead of time because as soon as the jars are filled, they need to start processing in the water bath canner immediately.) I cut the apple rings in half and set them aside with a bit of lemon juice until I could get through all of them. Then I blanched them in batches.

(I promise my apples weren't really a freakish yellow color. I just have terrible lighting in my kitchen, along with yellow painted walls, which tends give all my in-the-kitchen pictures a yellow tint at night.) The already blanched apples stayed warm in a covered bowl while did new batches. When all the apples were ready, I prepared the 'syrup,' which consisted of spices, water, apple juice, sugar and a canning-specific thickening powder called UltraGel. (UltraGel takes the place of cornstarch and also happens to be a pain in the arse to find. Hence the reason I picked apples in September and am just now canning them in November. I ended up ordering it online.)  It all went in the pot to bubble and thicken, while I whisked away so nothing would clump or burn on the bottom.

Once everything was nice and thick, I added the apples back in, folding them so they wouldnt break apart while being fully coated by the syrup. Oh boy were things starting to smell delicious. I wish they made scratch-and-sniff computer screens for your benefit. Now that the whole shebang was ready, I spooned the mixture into my quart sized jars, using a wide mouthed funnel and leaving an inch of head space at the top.

Photo courtesy of www.pickyourown.org

I found the funnel (along with a magnetic lid grabber and plastic spatula) as part of a canning tool kit when I bought the water bath canner. Not only does the funnel fit perfectly inside the jar, but it reaches exactly an inch down into the jar, which serves as a foolproof guideline for the highest point to which you should fill.

Remove the funnel and take a look at the sides of the jar. You will likely see a few air bubbles, so use a spatula or knife to slowly push along the sides and get rid of them.

Then I placed the lids on the jars and attached the screw caps. Most water bath canners come with a metal rack that perfectly holds up to 7 quart sized jars.


Photo courtesy of www.pickyourown.org

I put 6 in mine, then used the handles to lower the rack into the pot (which should be at a simmer by now if you started it earlier.) The water should cover the jars by 1 to 2 inches, so if it doesn’t, add a bit more.


With the water at a boil, I put the lid on the pot and started the processing time according to the recipe – in this case, it was 25 minutes. When the processing time was up, I pulled the hot jars out using a jar grabber (also in the canning tool kit) and set them on a towel to cool. I also checked the lids to make sure they were concave, meaning they have sealed properly.


Photo courtesy of www.pickyourown.org

In the words of Borat - great success!

You might have realized at this point that the recipe makes 7 quarts of pie filling, but I only processed 6 jars. Well, you didn’t expect me to stand around smelling all this deliciousness and not eat any of it, did you!? I mean, how could I give away all this pie filling without even knowing how it tastes? So, I dumped what would’ve been the 7^th jar of filling into a small baking dish and whipped up a quick crumble topping. If you needed to be convinced of the convenience of this recipe, it took me about 5 seconds to put the filling in the pan and mix it with a dash of vanilla extract, and only another 5 min to make the crumble topping ( 1/3 C oats, 1/3 C flour, ½ C brown sugar, 6T cold butter, a dash of salt and a dash of cinnamon mixed with a fork until crumbly). I baked it at 400 degrees for 30 minutes – a sweet surprise for Darren when he returned home from basketball.

Who am I kidding. It was really just a sweet surprise treat for me. Wink!

Happy Halloween everyone! I think what might be scariest about today is that it has been nearly a MONTH since I've posted anything! Admittedly, life has gotten in the way a bit this October - a trip to Chicago to run the Chicago Marathon with my good friend, Jeff, and a trip to Toledo to see my Grandma and visit my brother at BGSU, among other things -  so I haven't been doing as many projects and posts as I would like. However, there must be some sort of voice inside my head telling me to make up for lost time, because I’ve decided to cram in a number of projects between last week and this week. I must be crazy...Is there a full moon tonight?...Sometimes I hate that little voice...Anyway, you know what ‘lots of projects’ means. Lots of things to post about! So, I will be back in a couple days to dish on some typography art I made, and then soon after that with an outdoor house upgrade and some DIY baby shower gifts. But for now, in honor of Halloween, I thought I would share our pumpkin carving activities from this weekend, along with a few tips and tricks my family likes to use.

This weekend was another busy one. We hit up The Brew Kettle on Friday to buy some ingredients so that we could homebrew the second of two beers we plan to have ready for our holiday party in December. (Check out this post for a glimpse into how we brew beer in our kitchen.) On Saturday, my dad came over to help Darren with an outdoor project that we needed to finish before the ground freezes (which is quickly approaching!). Meanwhile, I did a little cleaning and worked on a typographic art gift for Darren’s niece/my goddaughter Olivia’s first birthday. I can’t believe how much that sweet little one has grown over the past year. This is a picture of her from last Halloween, wearing a pumpkin hat I made, just a week after she was born.

We brewed the beer on Sunday morning and I had Olivia’s “art” printed just in time to go to her party. Here’s a little preview (I’ll tell you more about how I made it on Wednesday):

Her parents did a great job with the party – yummy food, an activity for the kids, and lots of people. Afterward, we went to my mom’s house to carve pumpkins. In true Corrie-and-Darren-procrastination-spirit –  because planning ahead is for smart people lame – we waited until the day before Halloween to buy our pumpkins. Bad choice. I/We stopped at 5 different places trying to find pumpkins, and were overjoyed to finally come across some pathetic looking, on-the-verge-of-rotting ones at Giant Eagle. Didn’t matter. It was something to carve. All was made better when we arrived at my mom’s house, where she had everything ready, including drinks and a cozy fire, which our dog, Remy, loves. (To clarify, Remy loves the fire, not the drinks...though she HAS been known to try stick her face in my wine glass when I’m not looking, so maybe the latter is true as well).

My mom tried to get in some pics when she wasn’t doing her own carving. Since most people probably already know how to carve a pumpkin, I don’t feel the need to give you a complete rundown, but here’s the pics with a few tips...pics and tips...that sounds fun.

Look for a pattern online. Better Homes and Gardens has some great free ones for all experience levels, including dog breed patterns, though Remy was offended that they didn’t have a Great Dane. Print out your pattern and hold it up to your pumpkin. Cut inward slits in the places where the pattern is not laying very flat to help form it around your pumpkin. Secure it with tape or pins. Use a pen, pushing really hard, or use something with a point to poke holes in order to trace the pattern onto the pumpkin. Putting transfer paper under your pattern is the easiest, if you have it, and you don’t have to press as hard when you use it.

When you cut out your pumpkin lid, be sure to angle the knife outward from the center of the hole so that there is a slanted ridge for the lid to rest on when you put it back in place. Otherwise, if you cut straight up and down, you risk your lid falling through your pumpkin. Take it from Darren. He had to rig his up with some toothpicks. Rookie mistake.

For a sweet smelling surprise when you light your pumpkin, sprinkle cinnamon on the underside of your lid after you cut off the goopies. Goopies is the technical name, you know.

It's worth picking through the goopies to pull out all the pumpkin seeds - think of it as a bonus snack. Lay them on a baking sheet to dry a bit, then mix in a bowl with 2 teaspoons of melted butter (or olive oil) and spices. Try chili powder with cumin or cayenne for spicy, cinnamon and brown sugar for sweet, or just plain ol' seasoned salt. Spread them back out on the baking sheet in a thin layer and roast them in the oven at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, or until the seeds are light brown.

If you’re unsure of your carving abilities, pick something with simple shapes, like Darren’s owl. It wasn’t too challenging, but turned out super awesome. He was seriously doubting his carving abilities, but I think he did a great job. And now he has renewed confidence for next year.

Or, if your eyes are bigger than your carving skills, you want to spend a couple hours getting to know your pumpkin, or don’t mind ending up with a claw hand by the time you’re done, pick a more complicated pattern with small openings, like I did. Overachiever mistake.

Ironically, the very last piece I carved out caused some other thinner sections to detach. If this happens, don't despair - you can use pieces of toothpicks to re-stabilize them.

Maybe carving out pumpkin chunks isn’t your idea of a good time. You can always ‘shade’ your pumpkin by just cutting away the outer skin and a little bit of the flesh. The light will still shine through, but with a softer glow that creates a different effect. Most of the pattern I carved two years ago was done using this method.

Enjoy it as much as you can before it rots, or in our case, before the squirrels eat it! These were what my mom and sister carved.

Feel free to share links/pictures of YOUR pumpkins – it’s so fun to see what everyone made! Happy haunting tonight!

Just the fact that I named this a 'recap' is already terrifying me into jibber jabber submission, so I will do my best to tame my feverish fingertips and keep this briefer than last time.

I'm going to be real with myself and assume that my tendency to blab might have kept some people from reading through all of my last post. (Hey, I don't blame you. Confession. There are a number of blogs I wish I could be as awesome as adore/follow and some days I just don't have the time/desire to read through long posts either.) Besides that, I was super charmed that a few people not only read my whole seed starting post, but enjoyed it so much that they actually asked me for advice. Since I'm feeling a bit more humble than masterful, I thought I would include the most helpful references I used in my gardening adventures, because what fun is knowledge if you can't share it with others?? So, in this post, I will attempt to do an abbreviated recap - kind of like a little step by step cliff notes version of seed starting with tips and tricks - along with my fav references, and a couple bonus recipes for what I like to do with my garden goodies. Sharing is caring. I feel like I'm channeling my inner Mr. Rogers today.

In that spirit, I will proceed to put on my blogger sweater and slip on my indoor blogger sneakers so we can get this party started.

Pause. Let's do this in reverse order. Recipes, Refs, Recap. Just like that. That way the people who are thinking 'I hate vegetables. Please stop talking about them' or 'I'm only here because the word recipe was in the title and I want food' don't have to scroll through the longer part to get to the goods.

The Recipes.

Margherita Pizza
This is what I have been obsessively wanting to eat all summer with the tomatoes and basil from my garden. I have a picture, but can't seem to find it. We make a baking sheet-sized pizza, so all ingredient amounts are based off of that. You can use our sauce and yeastless dough recipes, use your own, or buy premade.

Ingredients: 

2-5 tomatoes (depending upon the size you have), sliced; 1 (16oz) ball of fresh mozzarella; 20 fresh basil leaves, torn ; flour (or cornmeal)

Lightly sprinkle flour or cornmeal on a baking sheet. Roll out the dough into a rectangle and transfer it onto the baking sheet, stretching and evening out the dough to fit. Crimp around the edges for the crust. Spread the desired amount of sauce out on the dough with a spoon. Lay out the slices of mozzarella on top. They don’t need to be overlapping because they will spread out as the pizza bakes. Top with tomatoes. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, or until done. (Alternatively, you could try grilling the pizza on low heat).  If desired, with 5 minutes left in the bake, mix together equal parts olive oil, liquid from a jar of minced garlic, and a pinch of sugar until the sugar dissolves. Brush onto the crust and continue baking. Garnish with fresh basil before cutting and serving.

Yeastless Dough:

Ingredients:

1 cup flour, 1/3 cup milk, 2 T veg oil, 1 t baking powder, 1/2 t salt

Measure out the liquids over a bowl and let them spill over just a bit. Mix everything together with a fork until it mostly comes together, then finish mixing with your hands and let it sit, covered, for 15 minutes. For a baking sheet sized pizza, make two balls of dough and then combine them before you let them sit for 15 minutes.

Sauce (makes enough for 2 baking sheet sized pizzas, depending upon how ‘saucy’ you like it):

Ingredients:

1 can condensed tomato soup, 1 (6oz) can tomato paste, 1 tsp. Paprika, 1 Tbsp. dried Oregano, 1.5  tsp. dried minced garlic (or substitute 1 T fresh minced garlic), Crushed Red Pepper (to taste)

Combine everything.

Grilled Zucchini & Squash
Ingredients:
Olive oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, Dried Oregano, Dried Basil

Slice your zucchini and squash lengthwise, approximately 1/4" to 1/2" thick. If your vegetables are very large, you might want to cut them in half widthwise before slicing. Lay out on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and dried herbs to taste. Let marinade or mix around if desired. Grill until the veggies just start to become tender.

Preserving Herbs

What do you with all the fresh herbs you've grown if you want to make them last through the winter? If bringing them inside isn't an option, dry or freeze them.

Drying:

Cut the herbs, wash and let dry. Tie them in loose bunches with a rubber band or string. Poke a few holes in some paper bags and place an herb bunch upside down in each one, closing the mouth of the bag around the stems. The herbs should be hanging freely inside the bag. Doing so will keep the oils of the leaves from rubbing off on the bags, therefore losing flavor. Hang them in an area with low humidity and good air ciculation for a week or two. Store them in jars or bags on the stem, or remove the dried leaves and store in a small container.

Freezing:

Cut the herbs, wash and let dry. Most herbs can be frozen in a plastic bag, placed directly in the freezer. Another method, which I used for cilantro, was to remove the leaves from the stems, spread them out in a dense arrangement on half a baking sheet, then just barely cover with water. I used folded plastic wrap to keep the water and cilantro from flowing into the empty half of the baking sheet. Place in the freezer until frozen. Pull out the sheet and break the 'herb ice' into chunks. Place in a bag back in the freezer for future use. You can also do this in ice cube trays. Basil turns black when it freezes, so despite the great flavor it retains for general cooking, it is not worth freezing basil for use as a garnish.

Garden Mint Mojitos

Check out my post from awhile back for individual and pitcher-sized recipes.

The Refs.*

Here's a couple books that I used as my holy bibles of container gardening. Not only are they practical for anyone with even the tiniest smidge of a concrete or balcony 'backyard,' but they emphasize ways to grow a flourishing garden without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers = my kind of jam. Plus, they elaborate on and go beyond much of what I touched on here, but in a much more eloquent and intelligent way than my lowly blogger self ever could. Seriously, if you are considering planting even one thing and have any intention of eating part of it, you need to read one or more of these books. All hail to these awesome gardening folk: 

Fresh Food From Small Spaces – R.J. Ruppenthal

- If you are a city dweller or apartment resident who claims to not have space for a garden, this book will blow all your preconceived notions out of the water. As a city dweller himself, the author tells you how to make the most out of every square inch you have, indoors and out. He provides information on making your own self-watering containers and using vertical gardening and reflected light strategies to maximize your space and lack of sunshine. Apart from your typical container gardening advice, he covers tops like grain/salad sprouting, making yogurt and kefir, and cultivating mushrooms (all which can be accomplished in an urban kitchen), as well as raising chickens and honeybees in the city. He also touches on composting and vermiculture (composting with worms). For those concerned with living sustainably , his last chapter is dedicated to ways in which you can apply the book’s methods for getting through small food shortages,  creating small scale energy solutions, and building a sustainable future. He concludes with a list of helpful tools and suppliers.

The Bountiful Container – Rose Marie Nichols Mcgee & Maggie Stuckey

- Don’t leave home try container planting without it. The ladies give detailed info on container types (anything can be a container!), planting by color, and succession planting (cool season, warm season and extended season crops). They discuss pests and treatments specific to container gardening, and they tell you which plants are not worth your time to grow in containers. The majority of the book is dedicated to giving detailed info on the vegetables best suited for container gardening, with notes about tried and true varieties, including sections on fruits, herbs, and edible flowers. There are illustrated, theme-based container garden plans and recipes scattered throughout, with mail order resources at the end.

Carrots Love Tomatoes – Louise Riotte

- The definitive companion planting guide, this book has everything you could ever want to know about the ways in which vegetables , herbs and fruits can mutually benefit or hinder each other when planted in certain combinations. Going even further, she also covers companion planting for nuts, wild plants, grasses and grains, and ornamental trees and shrubs. The author gives garden techniques for intercropping, mulching, shade planting, and vertical gardening, as well as insect control through companion planting. Her section on natural pest control methods is quite exhaustive, and you might be surprised by her poisonous plants chapter, which discusses some common plants you will find in the garden, or even in your kitchen. The last section is dedicated to all sizes of illustrated garden plans, including small scale and window box options.

And handy websites:

USDA Hardiness Zone Finder - It's in the name. Know before you grow. 

Cubit's Organics - Organic, family run seed company on Etsy that has "high quality organic, rare and heirloom seeds." Not only do they have some unique varieties, but their pictures are gorgeous and I adore their well-designed, sustainable packaging. Their blog is also fantastic and they post some great recipes.
Seeds of Change - Organic seed catalog (online or by mail). They carry heirloom, rare and traditional seeds with the goal of "preserving countless heirloom seed varieties in danger of being lost to the 'advances' of modern industrial agriculture." These people make me want to start a farm and grow all their vegetables. Most of their products are seeds, but they also carry live plants and have a wealth of resources on their site.
Companion Planting Chart - A fantastic companion planting resource that puts the most popular veggies in a table comparing which plants benefit and hinder each other. This is the best visual summarization of companion planting that I've found. 

Vegetable Garden Planner - Experiment with garden designs or plant placement. Most useful for people doing square foot or in-ground gardening. It gives you frost dates, best planting times for different veggies, and cute little icons for your plan design. Free 30 day trial if you just want to make a couple plans and be done, or sign up for a full year. 

Better Homes and Gardens - "Garden by Number" is what I like to call it. They do the work for you by putting together garden plans that work well, then they give you the plant info so you can replicate it. Many of them are for flowers gardens, but they have some vegetable plans too.

Home Depot - If you sign up for their free garden club, they will send you coupons and monthly updates/reminders about regular garden maintenance for your region. Might be more useful for people who have a yard. 
Zone 5 Planting Calendar - Wowzers. If you live in Zone 5 (aka anywhere near Cleveland), check out this guy's planting schedule. Talk about maximizing your growing time. Whether you want to get really ambitious or just inspired, the author gives a full run down from planning to garden productivity 12 months of the year. 

 

Recap. The no-B.S. seed starting run down.

If you plan on starting your own seeds, you need to start planning in January or February. That might sound a little crazy, but for anyone doing seed starting, you will need to start your seeds in March.

1. Determine your available space and any space constraints - Maybe you don't have garden beds or much of a yard, but you have room for a small square foot box. Maybe you are a city dweller and only have a small balcony or fire escape to use. Maybe your space doesn't quite get 8 hours of sun. Good news. You can grow veggies in all these places. But these are all things that will determine what you can successfully grow, so you need to consider them first. 
2. Get in the zone - I'm not talking about Auto Zone. Your garden climate hardiness zone. Cleveland is in Zone 5. You can find out yours  here. This is important for knowing what plants will tolerate your climate as well as when the first and last frost dates are for your area. Frost dates determine your growing season aka the earliest date you should put your seedlings in the ground. You don't want to spend three months trying to grow those little guys only to kill them off by planting them too early.
3. Decide which veggies/herbs are most important to you - Which do you consume most? The ones you think will give you the biggest bang for your buck (slash that will produce a lot from a small plant in a small space)? The ones that are most expensive to buy at the store? We eat tons of peppers and tomatoes, and peppers are pretty expensive, so those were important to us. I knew I would get a lot of green beans from a small space, so I thought they might be worth planting. How big will the plants of your favorite veggies get, and do you have room for them? Though squash and zucchini might be yummy, the plants get Enormous with a capital E, so they might not be the best choice for a container garden on the balcony of a high rise in NYC.
4. Decide on something new/different/fun to grow - This step is kind of interchangeable with #5. Experiment with a new type of veggie or herb that you think might be fun, something that looked cool in a catalog (like the amazing and organic eye candy in Seeds of Change ), or something you like but don't eat very often. If your space is really limited, it might only be one plant. It will be exciting if it grows well, but you won't be too heartbroken if it doesn't, and in the meantime it's not taking away much real estate from more productive or desired plants.  
5. Pick out/order your seeds - Seed options are everywhere. You can go to your local garden supply store, Home Depot or Lowes and they will have some of the most popular varieties of vegetable and herb seeds, some of which are organic. If you are really concerned about organic gardening or are looking for special or unusual seed varieties - heirloom tomatoes, purple beans, spicy mustard greens, or chocolate spearmint, perhaps - you might want to consult some gardening catalogues or websites (see my favs in the refs section). These is where the real fun happens. The whole world of different vegetable and herb varieties is amazing and you might never have known they existed because you don't see them in the grocery store. Only by growing your own can you experience them. I guarantee you will be like a kid in a candy store, but try to restrain yourself and only choose one or a couple 'splurges' to experiment with. 
6. Start your engines seeds - Around mid-March, purchase some peat pots or reuse old egg cartons (not the plastic/styrofoam kind), potting mix, any seeds you want but don't already have, and some plant markers. Dampen the potting mix, fill the peat pots to the top, then follow the instructions for planting each seed type at the appropriate depth (the packet tells you). Do a few peat pots of each type of seed because you are guaranteed to have some failures, or at least a few plants that aren't exactly D-1 superstars. Water them all when you're done and use plant markers to note the names and date that you planted them.                                                                             A few notes...Peat pots are preferable to the little plastic ones because they decompose, meaning you can plant the entire thing without having to remove the seedling from it's container later. Use potting mix, not garden soil. Most garden soil isn't naturally nutrient rich, but potting mix is specially balanced specifically for seed starting. More deets in the books about that. Also, instead of buying pre-labled or plastic plant markers, you could just use popsicle sticks which might be cheaper (or free). (The plastic ones I used that I labeled with supposedly permanent marker all ended up fading in the sun anyway, so I probably wouldn't recommend my method.) 
7. Mr. Golden Sun - Put them in the sunniest spot you can find, preferably a south facing window. If you have to fudge it with a west or east facing window (or perhaps you have tall buildings very close by that prevent you from maximizing all your south facing sun), try putting a sheet of foil underneath your peat pots so it overlaps around the sides, absorbing more of the warmth. Plants need lots of light and warmth to grow. If you notice this seems to be frying your little plants (I didn't have any problems with it, but you never know), get rid of it. You can also try empty 2 liter bottles cut in half to make covers, or buy a rectangular plastic cover, either option would help retain heat and humidity, which the baby plants love. Obviously, you can use grow lights or fancy hydroponic systems, but those can cost a lot of money and waste a lot of energy. If environmental impact is one of the reasons you're growing your own seeds, these methods might defeat the purpose of your efforts.  
8. Water - Yep. It's really important. Your seedlings' soil should always be damp. Never let them dry out. If that means watering them twice a day, so be it, but they won't grow without H2O. Don't drown them, however. The soil should be damp, not soggy. 
9. Thin your plants - If you planted a few seeds in each peat pot and all of them sprouted, your baby plants might be getting a little crowded. If this is happening, pinch off a couple. This is calling 'thinning' your plants. It may seem counterintuitive, especially because the plants are so small and fragile looking, but it actually encourages growth. The couple times I did it, some of my seedlings were nearly an inch taller by the next day - no joke. 
10. Harden off - Not to be confused with 'hard-on', sickos. Harden off. The week before you are ready to plant (and any chance of frost is clear, of course) you gradually transition your plants from their indoor environment to their new outdoor environment. They haven't been exposed to wind, pests, heavy precipitation, or intense heat yet, so this process helps them adapt and become a little stronger before you put them in the ground. Start with a few hours in the shade and work up to a full day in the sun by the end of the week. 
11. Plot your plot - Sometime between deciding what you will plant and actually putting your seedlings in the ground, figure out where will put your plants. This means assessing your garden bed, plotting your square foot box, or determining what size containers you will need (they should accommodate your plants at their biggest size). This should also involve a sunny spot, with around 8 hours of sun per day for most veggies. Determine your plant placement based off each plant's growing requirements (on the seed packet or plant marker if you bought nursery plants). Also consider which plants are good 'companions', meaning they are mutual beneficial in enhancing flavor and preventing pests. This is known as companion planting, which is a method I used in my square foot box. For example, tomatoes and basil are mutually beneficial - perhaps ironic because they also taste delicious together. Sketch all this out so you don't forget. It doesn't need to be fancy. Or, if you're a technology geek, then maybe it does. They make online garden plotting gadgets just for you. You can even find pre-made plans online or in books (see the refs section) that do all the dirty work 'research' for you.
12. Planting day - Aka seedling graduation day. Prep your soil - whether it be more potting mix in containers, soil in a bed, or soil in a square foot box - by mixing in some compost for nutrients and any other amendments you might have decided on. You can also use other natural additives for 'fertilizer,' such as dried egg shells or coffee grounds, at this time. But research what is appropriate for your veggies. Make sure the soil isn't completely dry. Insert plants at their appropriate depth and spacing requirements, per the seed packets or markers (if store bought). Water thoroughly. 
13. Water - Again. And again and again. The dirt should always be damp, but never soggy. If you aren't sure, stick your finger in it about halfway. If it feels dry, it needs water. Plants in containers, hanging baskets or otherwise in a location in which there is a lot of airflow underneath the pot will need more water than plants in square foot boxes or beds. The added airflow causes the roots to dry out quickly, so they might even need water twice per day. Tell tale signs are usually browning leaves. The best times to water are early in the morning or around dusk (the best, I think) because the plants have maximum time to absorb the water before it's sucked up by the heat/sun again. If you are really struggling in the hydration department, you can try covering the top of the soil with peat moss (thanks for the reminder Christin!) or mulch. Or for container gardens, consider planting in a self watering container, such as an Earth Box. They are expensive to buy, but you can DIY your own version...something I actually started doing and never finished, so that will be a blog post for next spring. 
14. Watch for pests - Check the leaves and any appearing 'fruit' regularly to see if pests are getting at your plants, and try to identify them. If holes appear all over your leaves, that is one of the most common signs. Some natural remedies that generally won't harm plants include sprinkling cayenne pepper on leaves or around the base of the plant (or making a spray out of it) or using diatomaceous earth, which is natural powder that kills most pests (but can also kill good ones if you aren't careful or use it too liberally). If you tried companion planting, hopefully pest problems will be unlikely. However, if you have to deal with them, there are many other options beyond what I mentioned that don't involve chemicals. The books I reference are especially helpful in this area.
15. Harvest - Yum. The best part. Don't forget to pinch of browning leaves as they appear, which can often encourage new growth in it's place. 

This is clearly not comprehensive advice, but hopefully gives you a few tips that worked for me, as well as some new tricks to make growing your own organic food easier for you. Or I guess semi-organic if some of the seeds weren't labeled as 'organic' to begin with. But you get the point. I really encourage you to check out the books I reference because they have such a wealth of knowledge and options, even for those with the tiniest spaces. Don't forget, you can grow upward too - vertical gardening!

Ok, so I failed at keeping this short. Like, really failed. But maybe it was useful at least...?


*I wasn't paid/perked in any way for offering up the references I listed - I only WISH I could be cool enough to get offers like that. They are just what I found to be the most helpful for me.

Last night I shared the outside tour of our house, which included a glimpse into our ever-changing gardens. Almost all the updated pictures I posted were of the flowers that have popped up - but that's not the only stuff that's growing out there. While some people grow food in their gardens, I grow 'drink accessories.' Just kidding. By drink accessories, I meant herbs, but I grow veggies too.  My next post will be about this year's seed starting adventures - my first time trying it! - but I thought I would take a little break from the garden mumbo jumbo and share something you can use, regardless of whether you have a garden. 


My overly ambitious, type-A self was hoping to plant a window box full of herbs this spring, but due to all the rainy weather, I only got around to planting basil in the square foot box and two kinds of mint in some containers. These were priority herbs for me because we like to make margherita pizzas from scratch (fresh basil goes on top after the bake), and I often drink mint tea before bed or as a way to settle my stomach if I feel sick or eat too much. Instead of buying prepackaged mint tea, I thought I would do a little 'experi-mint' (yay for bad puns) and try making my own. I started the basil from seed, and planted three containers of mint - one container each of peppermint and spearmint with seeds and two small plants in each (as a backup if the seeds failed), and one container of spearmint completely from seed. This is how the mint started out:

And this is what it looks like now:

Wowzers does that stuff grow fast! (Tip: If you attempt to plant mint in a garden bed instead of its own container, it's advisable to plant it in a bottomless coffee can or other small container, and then bury the whole thing in your garden. Mint spreads out quickly - and I hear is hard to remove - so this planting method will help contain it.)  It was even more lush looking before our heat wave last week. Plus I've experimented with some tea already which has made it a little more sparse. Anyway, I've rambled on about gardeny stuff and still haven't gotten to the fun part you can use: a mojito recipe! (Was my 'drink accessories' comment from above a good hint?) We had some friends visiting from Columbus this past weekend and it occurred to me that growing your mint has yet another fantastic advantage. Mojitos. And so ladies and gents, I bring to you my fabulous Garden Mint Mojito recipe, in both pitcher and single glass form, as adapted from a variety of recipes I found on the internet. (The pitcher version was Columbus guest tested and approved this weekend, and the single glass version tested and approved by me after my 27 mile bike ride on Monday night.)

First a few things to note. The key to a mojito is freshness. Fresh lime juice + fresh mint = fresh tasting drink. It's a little labor intensive, which is why I recommend the pitcher version. Although I grow both spearmint and peppermint in my garden, spearmint imparts the more desirable flavor for this drink. If you are buying your fresh mint from the grocery store, it is likely spearmint, so you shouldn't have to worry about getting the wrong kind. I choose to use entire sprigs - stem and all - when I muddle, because much of the minty oils come from the stem and I think it helps create less 'debris' in the drink than using loose leaves. Don't over-muddle. Your mint should not end up in itty bitty shredded pieces. I know the amount of sugar looks like a lot, but it is necessary. Sugar helps cut through the acid of the limes and enhances the flavor of the mint, so you will want to go with the recommended amounts. Lastly, you might want to consider using simple syrup in place of the sugar because it dissolves instantly. I didn't this time because we made them spur-of-the-moment, but I will likely try it next time. Sip slowly and enjoy the way the flavors meld as you drink. On to the recipe...

Garden Mint Mojitos

For a pitcher: 
Juice of 8-10 limes (depending upon how large they are)
5 springs of mint, intact (about 10 leaves per sprig)
Scant 3/4 cup of granulated sugar (or about 1/2 cup simple syrup - see below)
1-1.5 cups of white rum (depending upon how rough of a week it's been) - I recommend Bacardi
Chilled club soda/sparkling mineral water

Place lime juice, mint and sugar in a cocktail shaker and muddle, releasing mint oils and dissolving sugar into the juice. If the mint is floating too much in the liquid, strain some out into your pitcher and continue muddling in the shaker. (You can always muddle directly in the pitcher, but mine has an oddly shaped bottom which would've made it difficult.)  Strain all liquid and throw some of the muddled-but-still-somewhat-intact mint springs into the pitcher. If you have a clear pitcher, add a couple of the used and abused lime halves for decoration (only if you're optimistic and think the drink will last that long).  Fill glasses full of ice and pour the drink over top. Add a fresh, extra mint sprig to each glass for garnish.


For an individual drink: (Cue George Thorogood's 'I Drink Alone'...anybody? anybody?)

1 whole spring of spearmint (about 12 leaves, intact on the stem)
2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar  (depending upon how sweet you like it. Or, substitute .75oz. of simple syrup - see below.)
Juice from half a lime
2 oz. of white rum - I recommend Bacardi
3 oz. chilled club soda/sparkling mineral water
(That's 2 parts rum to 3 parts soda/sparkling water, for those who don't like to measure...which is me sometimes.)

In a tall glass, add the whole mint spring, sugar (or syrup) and lime juice. Gently muddle to extract the mint oils and dissolve much of the sugar. Just don't go too nuts on it. Add the used lime half from the juice you squeezed out and fill the glass with ice. Pour the rum and soda over the ice and stir until the glass is frosted. Garnish with another mint spring if desired. I recommend a straw if you are 'put off' by the mint bits floating around in the glass. (Sidenote: for those who don't like the muddled remnants in their glass, I think you're crazy. you can do the muddling in a cocktail shaker and then strain the resulting liquid into your glass with a little mint garnish at the end.)

Simple Syrup:
It's called 'simple syrup' for a reason. It might be the only thing simpler than boiling noodles.

2 cups (or 2 parts) granulated sugar
2 cups (or 2 parts) boiling water

Stir together until clear. Let cool and move to a bottle for easy pouring. And that's it. This stuff can be used in a number of cocktails or to sweeten non-alcoholic drinks like lemonade or iced tea - it really gets around.

Cheers! Let me know what you think if you try them! Any other fun uses you can think of for mint from the garden?