Vine-ripened today....Salsa tomorrow!

We're moving quickly on this....





















Because tonight I discovered this...

Fish Tales

Over Memorial Day weekend, we had special visitors....long-time neighbors, Kevin and Sue...(think about 23 years long-time) and s-i-l Irene.  Fishing was the order of the day and evening.

A nice basket of 16" fat white bass....so fun to catch!

Told you they were big!

Daytime fishing was not all that great...until Kevin caught this:













  What you don't know is that one end was capped....NOT GOOD.  There was a total of 7 tired stressed catfish caught inside...Four thwumped (??) out pretty quickly.   Once the cap on the other end was removed, here came 3 more.   PLEASE do not report us to PETA!









SAD....they received a proper burial.






But now....Harvey has a great idea for a new fish habitat....just make sure both ends are open.

Blackberries, watermelons and bunnies

Check out these blackberry vines at our favorite berry patch....our first picking was very early...walked lots of rows to get a couple of little cartons of ripe berries.    Vines were LOADED!   Second picking, we learned...don't go on a Saturday afternoon....berry scavengers had already cleaned up.   Hopefully will pick this week, on a Wednesday this time (luckily the patch is closed Monday and Tuesday) and pick our fill of this seasonal fruit.  

Moving on to watermelons.... what's your secret to picking a ripe one?   After googling the subject, some pointers I found were....make sure the bottom (ground side) is yellow, dry twisted stem, hollow sound with thumping (or beating) and making a scratch with your fingernail on the rind.   If you can see white under the scratch, it's ripe (or so they say).   So I must have scratched half a huge box of melons in the grocery....secretly hoping no one was watching.   I tried to be very inconspicuous....and I only made one scratch per melon...So this is what I came home with.

Yellow bottom - check

No stem.....no check

See my scratch???   Told you I was inconspicuous!

 

 

 

 

And voila....ripe melon!   Of course, tasting the "heart" is the first step!

So, with watermelons on my mind, here's my first melon in our garden  (actually I think it might be a cantaloupe....the vines are all mixed up)...

Enter this....

Now...don't get me wrong....bunnies are cute....but only outside the garden!   The garden was enclosed but it didn't take Bunny long to squeeze through the fence squares for his escape.  Stay tuned....

 

Garden faves

Received this cute kitty planter for Christmas....


















I'm excited about my little hydrangea bed...they really like their home....have 2 "rebloomers" (Twist and Shout and Blushing Bride) and one of the typical pink hydrangea plants; also have a fourth plant, which I purchased at the spring plant sale last year in Nacogdoches last year.  It had light greenish-white blooms last year; will see what happens this year.

Garden....April 25, 2012

On one of the blogs that I follow (See here), Sheryl takes pictures of her garden once a month....a great way to compare progress and give self a little pat on the back.   I started with our vegetable garden...just a few random but specific shots...

Watermelon Vine

Tomatoes (look closely!)

Yellow Squash

Elephant Garlic

Zucchini

Malabar Spinach

We found this warm weather spinach at The Natural Gardener in Austin.   Check them out here  This is probably my most favorite nursery...to buy and to enjoy the views and landscaping!  Plenty of swings and benches to soak up the sights and rest your feet.  If you have a chance to visit, check out their AWESOME artichoke plant!   Wish I had taken my camera...the phone camera just didn't do any justice....

Some more jammin'

After our 2nd strawberry picking outing, we made more jam....we are no experts in this jam-making business, but we have learned a few things along the way!

If using pectin, use the makers recipe...it doesn't work to use your favorite recipe and just dump in a little box of pectin!   If not using pectin, expect to get less of the end product because the jam reduces with prolonged cooking.  

A full cook-top!

 Either way, the finished product is fabulous!    If too thin, just pour on angel food cake, pound cake or ice cream!   No wasting here!

 Kitchen CLOSED!

Strawberries and Bunnies

The Berry Patch in Fairfield...awesome and bountiful berries...the fruits of my labor!

Next up...strawberry jam!   No pics yet, but 2# of strawberries, 4 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of lemon juice yields just a tad over 2 pints of fabulous jam....I see a return trip for more berries in the near future! 

 Cute bunny, compliments of Kendra....she's turning "Martha" on us!