Cabbage and Carrot Slaw

This week I went to visit my sister.  One thing we have in common is our love of vegetable gardening. We both live in Florida which means our gardens grow year round.  Collards and Cabbage are still growing in her garden so I was excited to gather the collards and one of the purple cabbage. 

As soon as I got home I washed, cut out the stem, and cut the collards into strips.  In boiling water I blanched the collards and then shocked them in an ice bath to cool and stop the cooking.  These went in the freezer for future use.

The carrots in our garden are finally growing so we pulled a few.  Putting the purple cabbage with the orange carrots sounded like a beautiful dish. 

After I grated the cabbage and the carrots I decided to put in 1 cup raisins

Generally I make my dressing with buttermilk, mayo, sugar, celery seeds, salt, and pepper but this time I was out of buttermilk.  Ranch dressing is basically buttermilk and mayo so I took the chance and started my salad dressing with 3/4 cup of bottled ranch dressing.  To the dressing I added 1/8 teaspoon celery seeds, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar.  It did not taste exactly the same but it was good. 

Poured the dressing into the slaw and combined then put it in my serving bowl and added a sprinkle of fresh parsley.

The visit with my sister was quite delightful and the fresh vegetables I came home with was a special treat too. Did I mention it was her birthday.  So Happy Birthday sister!!

 

It is Looking a Lot Like Spring

Wow the yard and garden is beautiful this morning.  As I walked outside I could hardly wait to take photos of all the new blooms and other things that is showing signs of Spring.  It has been an unusually warm winter in Florida but there are signs that Winter is over and Spring is officially here.

The pear tree that looked like a dead tree is full of blooms and is showing the beginning of leaves. 

 

One of the blueberry bushes has blueberries but the other 6 bushes only have blooms

 

 

The smell of the blossoms on the citrus bushes is one of my favorite scents.  If we are blessed with as much  citrus as we have blossoms we will be lucky this year.

 

This morning was the first time I had seen any life in the persimmon trees.  Its not much but it lets me know they are alive and will be putting on fruit soon.  Big problem is waiting until November for the fruit to be ripe enough to pick.  These persimmons are as sweet as candy and worth the wait.

 

 

This fig tree was planted last June and was barely a foot tall when we bought it.  Over last summer the tree grew very fast and is now over 8 ft tall. 

 

 

Each side of the flamingo is pomegranate trees.  Sad to say they have been planted for over two years and still look skimpy Hopefully they will both grow this year and maybe we will get a pomegranate.

 

 

Nothing says spring like a bush of azalea flowers.

 

 

The girls are happy to see spring too. They are really enjoying the last of the BokChoy.  When the hens are happy we are happy with all the eggs they provide. This has been a really good egg week.

 

This little girl is having a good time playing in the green grass. She is hoping to find herself a few bugs.

 

There is nothing like living on a farm and it is more special in the spring of the year.

 

 

The Garden

 

This is what I harvested this week.  It looks like slim pickings but in a few weeks the veggies are going to be bountiful.

Only a few heads of lettuce left in the floating pond system but I did plant more in the vertical pots the first of March. Tomatoes have been producing since October and I can't wait to see how long we can keep them growing. The strawberries are beautiful and taste as sweet as they look.  Please don't laugh at the three little heads of cauliflower.  Maybe my fall crop of cauliflower will produce larger heads. 

The asian pear tree bloomed out this week and it is a beautiful sight.  The pears will start ripening in August and I can hardly wait to start eating and canning the pears. This tree is over 50 years old and still produces great pears each year.

 

Can you believe all the yellow summer squash on this bush and it is only March 20th. 

Behind my flower pot sculpture is the onion crop.  The stems are starting to yellow so I know it will not be long before its time to start harvesting the onions.

Part of our hydroponic garden.  The pots are filled with coconut coir and the drip igrigation provids the nutrients and water through the black tubing on top.  The irrigation is set on a timer and runs for 15 minutes twice a day.



Strawberry Plants in the Vertical Pots

Eggplants in Vertical Pots



Jalapena Pepper



Mustard Greens

 





Eggplant Bush in Hydroponic Dutch Bucket System               

 



I am very proud of our garden and I hope you have enjoyed the tour this week.  

Homemade Buttermilk Buscuits

  

Woke up this morning and its raining outside.  Thank goodness it isn't raining and cold just wet out.  Since I will be inside this morning I decided a big breakfast would hit the spot. Biscuits are quick and easy to make. Here are the ingredients to make buttermilk biscuits.   This recipe is on back of the White Lilly flour bag.

2 cups White Lilly All-Purpose Flour (of course any all purpose flour will work)

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 Crico Shortening --chilled

2/3 to 3/4 cup of buttermilk

 I add a pinch of baking soda which is not listed in the white lilly recipe

heat oven to 500 degrees

 I grease my skillet lightly with the crisco shortening

 

 

Combine the flour, baking powder,baking soda  and salt and stir together.  Cut in shortening with a fork until it looks like little peas

Blend in enough buttermilk with fork until dough leaves side of bowl

this is how the mixture will look after everything is mixed together

I shape my biscuit by hand but the dough can be rolled out and cut with a biscuit cutter or glass. I use my thumb to press down in the middle, this keeps the biscuits flat across the top.

I use cast iron skillets in most of my cooking.  A cookie sheets work too.

In only 8 to 10 minutes the biscuits are done. A little pat of butter and some homemade strawberry jelly and it is a perfect part of breakfast.

My biscuits may not look as beautiful as some but they are flaky and tender. Just how I love my biscuits

Roasted Vegetables are the Best

Here is the last of my fresh picked Brussels sprouts and my second head of cauliflower. I used my extra large cast iron frying pan but a cookie sheet works great too. This time I used a little bacon grease to roast my vegetables, sprinkled the veggies with salt and placed the pan in a 400 degree oven .Takes about 30 minutes check veggies and cook until light brown or soft.  The bacon grease was okay but I wished I had stuck with olive oil.  Next time I will use olive oil to roast the veggies but still crumble bacon over the veggies for a little extra crunch and flavor.

 

If you have never roasted vegetables in the oven it really brings out the flavor. Only one pan is needed to roast several different vegetables, since the flavors stay true to each vegetable.  If you cooked on the stove top each veggie would need its own pan. 

 

 I can't wait for my first picking of squash and zucchini so I can roast up a big platter of oven roasted squash.