Our very first harvest!!!

This past week I have noticed the green beans growing wonderfully in our garden, and today I decided we had enough for serving! This may not seem very exciting to you, but we have been working so hard to get our garden going. After weeks of just yard work and clean up came the weeks of digging and tilling and buying new dirt, and more digging and ughh, it's been rough. But then came the planning and planting and now the watering, and finally.. something for all of our efforts. Oh how I love gardening.

.

{My grandma beck used to always have me help her in the garden. I don't talk about my grandma much, because just thinking about her makes me tear up (like now). She was my best friend for a majority of my childhood and I miss her so much. I owe my love of gardening to her (and my dad, but obviously we know where my dad got it, so we both owe it to her).}

.

With this, I give you.. our dinner.

.

The next post :)

My kind of dinner...

I love to cook, whether it be recipes from a cook book or magazine, ideas from a cooking show or just creating something off the top of my head. People that know this about me often ask what I eat myself at meal time, and usually my response is a far less exciting one than expected. If I'm cooking for a special occasion or a luncheon or dinner my mother has "hired" me for, I obviously go all out; for two reasons. Reason number one; if it's for my mom, she's paying, so I can buy things I wouldn't normally be able to afford for myself. Reason number two; if the meal is for company, I'm out to impress, so I'll spend a considerable amount of time in preparation, which I don't usually do for just me.
Because of the exciting first harvest in the garden, I was set on making dinner at home tonight. (With it being just the two of us, we get asked to dinner at our parents house often, and it's amazing, we rarely have to take care of own meals. Or we have leftovers, and again because it's just the two of us, that usually will do. Or we just go out, which Martin loves to do, because it's just so easy, and we usually share something.) So, I wanted to make dinner, but haven't been to the grocery store in a few weeks, and all I had to start was a small handful of vegetables from the garden. We had to make a trip to target, so I picked up some frozen chicken breasts, which I love to have on hand. And when I was over at my parents, I picked up a potato, extra squash (they had a bunch from their garden), a leftover chocolate chocolate panera cookie, and a little bit of icecream (shhhh, don't tell anyone).
I came home, threw two chicken breasts on the george forman grill, washed the potato, poked some holes in it, and threw that in the microwave (they only take about 5 minutes in the microwave, as opposed to an hour in the oven). In a saute pan I put in a few tablespoons of butter, the green beans, sliced up pattypan squash (weird name I know, I think my dad got it from a friend's garden, they're delicious) and with salt and pepper, sauteed them for about 5 minutes. Added the tomatoes (they only take a minute or two to cook) and served them to our plates. When the potato was cooked through I sliced it open, added salt, pepper and butter, and a few thin slices of cheddar cheese and popped it back in the microwave for a minute. I had little bit of leftover alfredo sauce (from a jar) that I had used a week or so before, and I added that to the pan that had previously had the vegetables (I didn't wash it out of course). Put the chicken breasts in with the sauce (they take around 15 minutes on the forman) and let them warm up to the sauce and then.. dinner was ready. Placed the chicken on the plates, spooned the sauce over them, then added a little bit of fresh basil and shredded parmesan cheese and oh my goodness. Wonderful.

{I know that this doesn't look like much, because of the horrible camera phone picture, and the lack of presentation, but it was amazing, and either way, not the point. The point is how easy it can be to whip up a meal! It really only took me about 20 minutes!}

This meal consisted of pretty much random things that you just might have in your own kitchen. And the point of sharing this mess of a recipe, is so you can see how easy it is to cook without a recipe, and just use what you have in your kitchen. Often times all I eat for dinner is a can of tuna over some mixed greens, or a grilled chicken breast with a side of steamed vegetables; tonight just happened to fall into place a little better than we could've planned. But it can be this easy. Instead of leftover alfredo sauce, I was considering using leftover pesto, which ended up being all gone, or you could make a quick gravy (if you know how to do that, either broth or milk based). Instead of vegetables from your adorable garden you could use frozen, or canned, or whatever you have in the fridge (broccoli is one of my favorites, because it's so healthy and so easy). Potatoes are so easy and so healthy too. I always opt for a potato instead of pasta (healthier and not processed). If you wanna go all out healthy, skip the carb and throw in a salad. If you want to make things a little more gourmet, grill up some salmon. On the forman a salmon steak or fillet would only take about 10 minutes, possibly less.

Weird little squash, but they have such a delicious flavor. I'm not sure if I've ever seen them in the store, but I'm definitely gonna try and find some seeds so I can plant them in my garden.

Happy cooking everyone! Please ask questions or for suggestions if you ever need any help. I'm working on getting my new house together so hopefully soon my kitchen will be more equipped to cook and I'll have new recipes all over the place!

with love,

Kristin Ann :)

Pretty ideas

I just had to show you some of these pictures I've collected. I love fruit trees, especially citrus, and have always been excited of the thought that I may actually have my own. At our house we have a lovely yard, after lots of work, and with plenty of room for lots of things, but if you don't have the yard, here are some ideas. Aren't they just so cute!? Well I just had to show you that even with limited space and lack of yard you can still have fruit trees (I picked mine up at orchard supply for about 24 dollars.. I have spent more than 24 dollars on much more frivolous of things).

Our Garden..

We have been working oh so hard in our yard to get it all cleared out and free of weeds for two main reasons; so that it doesn't scare our company away, and so we could grow a garden!

I wish I had some before pictures because the transformation that has been made is just amazing. Our roommates worked for a few weekends in a row clearing out the major weeds and unwanted bushes and waist high grass; thankfully they took the initiative because that was something I was not looking forward to. Since then the group of us have gone in and really cleared out the yard. We completely got rid of all plant life (i.e. grass, weeds) on one large strip of the yard and that is where we decided to plant our garden. We plotted out how much room we would need and from there went to work.

Because we were gone for the whole month of April (a crucial month in the growing season) we bought a majority of our plants a month or so old, as opposed to starting everything from seed which we have done in previous years. In the back we started with a few varieties of corn, then tomatoes (including a few heirloom varieties and your basic reds), peppers, green beans, zucchini, and yellow squash. Depending on the space needed for the plant, we only planted on every other row. The empty row will be used in the next month or so by the same varieties but ones we have just started to grow from seed. This will lengthen your production months by planting in stages. For example, the 4 tomato plants we have planted are close to 2 months old. Just a few weeks ago I planted a few varieties from seed and those will be ready to plant in a few weeks. The first plants will start producing soon but will stop in September or so. The second set of tomatoes will start producing in about 2 months but will produce until possibly November. Make sense??

With some birthday money I got from my favorite mother-in-law :) I bought those two citrus trees; a dwarf lime and lemon. We plan to plant them in larger pots, and hope that they do well in pot life for another year or so. I've always wanted citrus trees. With wedding gift money and gift cards we've been able to get a lot of other things we've always wanted, like strawberries, which I just planted today, no pictures yet. And that weird cactus looking plant is artichoke! Which I am very excited about. I hope you all decide to plant something :) Go to your local hardware store or even target or walmart and just see what they have. Maybe pick one plant, like tomato and see where it takes you.

Oh how I love spring!!

Over at the Murray and friends home we have all been working very hard towards our goal of having a clean and functional yard. We have a lot of space but unfortunately a lot of work needs to be done. Weeds, grass, and wild fruitless berry bushes have taken over the yard in the last year or two, but we're taking control. So far we have cleared out enough space for a decent size vegetable garden and brought everything else down to ground level. In the next few days we are going to purchase a truckload of top soil, incorporate that along with mulch from my dad's garden and put into place some order for our garden. We already have plants about 1 1/2 months old, and I just planted seedlings. (I like to plant in 1 1/2 month increments to keep the harvesting even throughout summer and early fall). Our plant list is as follows...

• corn (sweet and yellow)
• tomatoes (basic red, heirloom, cherry, and golden)
• peppers (sweet, anaheim, jalapeno)
• yellow squash and zucchini
• melons (water melon and cantaloupe)
• beans (green, and yellow bush)
• lettuce
• basil
• chives
• onions (yellow, white, and green)
• pumpkin (jack-o-lantern and sweet sugar pie)
• strawberries
• Mandarin orange tree

Yes, we are very ambitious this growing season. As a helpful hint, if you have a small garden space, but love to eat vegetables; zucchini, tomatoes and green beans are the best to plant. One zucchini plant last year kept us more than satisfied, and the maintenance is a breeze. Keep in mind that one plant can have up to a 3-4 foot diameter. With green beans, you can have a few bush varieties in the same area, they're a much smaller plant, but if fed well and given lots of sunshine, will also produce very well and with little maintenance. Tomato plants are amazing, you buy one plant or even one seed and you will be amazed how many tomatoes you can get in one growing season.

I hope that you all consider at least one little plant, especially if you have kids. My nieces and nephews love gardening and I think it serves as a great educational tool. Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions, if I can't help I'll ask my dad, he knows everything :)

My biggest gardening influences...

• My Grandma Beck (who I've been missing very much lately)
• My Dad
• Martha Stewart :)

Martha Stewart has gardener, Jodi Capobianco, seen in the two pictures on the left, and she must just love her job. If I could garden and cook for a living, what a relaxing and wonderful life that would be. I commend the two for their work and the educational tools they have available to the public. Isn't their garden just beautiful!??! I love all these pictures. There will be pictures of our garden once we get everything settled.

oh how I love...

orchids, and all potted plants actually!! I wanted some pretty and green for my bathroom, so I created this little number. I bought 3 mini potted plants (ferns and some other leafy green) and a mini orchid (from trader joes, they're so awesome there), found the perfect size pot at target, and combined them all. Orchids don't actually grow in soil, so, I kept it in the pot it came with (a double pot, so that you can pull the plant out and put it anywhere). The other three plants were taken out of their pots and put in the large one, and then surrounded with soil (that I bought separately). I left a pretty decent size space for the orchid and nestled the pot in place. Now I can pull the orchid out once it loses it's bloom, because it is in a tiny plastic container but the ceramic pot remains with the rest of the plants, and you can just replace it. Orchids are awesome because they can keep their bloom for several months if you keep them in the right environment. They like indirect sunlight, and lots of moisture in the air. Our bathroom is perfect because there is no fan and after every shower it is quite steamy. The shelving unit was found at ross, isn't it great!!

The baby tears (little green leaves growing around the rest) are from my dad's garden, I thought it would be a nice touch. You could also use rock or bark or pete moss to fill over the dirt to make it a little more in house appropriate.

compost!

The two of us (Martin and I) have had a lot on our minds lately. And to be honest, from the time we started spending most of our time together we realized we often have the same questions and concerns. Number one on our list for a while now has been the current situation of our earth, and how we as humans (especially Americans) affect it. Did you know that if everyone in the world lived like the average American, we would need over 7 earths to provide the resources used. (Just a not-fun fact). Of course we live here, so resources will be used, and hopefully in time we will learn to use less, but something we have 100% control over is what we throw away, and what we ourselves choose to use and reuse and use less of. We both have always tried our best to recylce, and not litter, and reuse water bottles, but really that only goes so far. When we started our garden, I immediately thought, we should start a compost bin. Compost is great for your garden, you can put all food and yard waste in it, and it's that much less that's going somewhere else. The problem, that we learned is, we don't know that much about building, or compost ;) My dad also told us that compost bins can attract rats and can really smell up your yard, so we put that idea to rest, but we looked into other forms of composting. After a few weeks of google searches and researching we found the perfect solution, and we think it may be the perfect solution for all of you as well!!

The Nature Mill Compact Composter is an amazing new product that allows you to compost all food waste right in your kitchen. It's about the size of small trashcan, and flows with the look of a kitchen. You can put almost all food waste and paper in the nature mill, eliminating so much of what you throw out day to day. Also, it provides you with an incredibly rich soil for your garden, which we're most excited about! Hopefully by next growing season we won't even need to buy top soil from the store because we'll have so much stored up. Essentially how this mini composter works is the waste you throw in it, is tossed every few hours, allowing the food to oxidize and deteriorate. It uses very very little electricity because it's only technically on for a few seconds a few times a day. After just a few days anything you put inside starts to look like compost, but I think 2 weeks is a sufficient time. So within a few weeks, you can fill it, push the button, and a few days later that food waste will be composted and dropped in the bottom container where you can then pull it out and put it straight into your garden. You can compost up to 120 lbs of food waste a month, which is 5 lbs a day!! You can compost anything from moldy or dry bread, to fish and egg shells, stems, leftover dinner, anything!! The first day we had the composter we cleaned out the fridge and filled it almost half way with things that were going to be thrown away in a day or two anyways, and it was awesome!!

Here's a little information from the company:

The Biodegradable Irony
Food and paper decompose by themselves in nature. They are, however, the two largest components in landfills, accounting for nearly 50% of all municipal solid waste. There is more food and paper in landfills than diapers, styrofoam, and tires — combined. According to the US EPA, food waste is the #1 least recycled material.
Landfills are layered deep and saturated with water. No oxygen can penetrate. As a result, even "biodegradable" waste will remain embalmed for centuries to come. Landfills produce methane, a harmful greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide (according to the US EPA), and leach toxic chemicals into our air and drinking water.
On a more urgent note, we are running out of landfill space—that is, open space reasonably close to population centers. Stories abound of trash barges with no place to dock, ocean dumping, and trash exported to poorer countries. Landfill costs are skyrocketing, which means higher fees (or taxes) for everyone. The organic nutrients present in food and paper waste are removed from the food chain, requiring gardeners and farmers to instead rely on chemical fertilizers to replenish their soil. National and local governments around the world are enacting regulations to limit trash and increase recycling.

NatureMill brings composting to the home user. It is essentially a miniature in-vessel system. Waste is collected right where it is generated—in the kitchen. A computer controls the temperature, air flow, moisture, and mixing to accelerate the process and eliminate the backbreaking work. Everything is fully self contained in a modern, attractive container. Just a few square feet of floor space is required. No special plumbing or electrical connections are needed, other than a standard electrical outlet. There is no need to handle and transport the rotting material.
Best of all, NatureMill provides home gardeners with a source of rich, organic fertilizer. And there is something uniquely satisfying about witnessing the entire food chain: from the garden, to the dining table, and back to the garden again.

Check out the NatureMill website, and at least give it a read though. We can all do our part to help out the earth and at least be educated on the matter.

Also, I just read in the news that California has so much waste per resident that we can no longer keep our garbage in our own state!! How crazy is that?! We are going to have to start shipping our garbage and anything that would be going to a landfill to other neighboring states because the current landfills we have are not decomposing at a rate fast enough for the amount of trash we have. There's a big problem, and I know there are problems in every area of life and all over the world, but this can be such an easy fix. Just use and waste less. And if you have a family and live in a home, it is even easier. Because you have a yard, and you have a garbage service that collects your recyclables. A composter might not work for your lifestyle, but you can still make some changes!!!

just a few more plants...

we decided to plant just a few more... peppers, and basil (more basil than peppers, you go through it much faster)
basil can be grown indoors, in planters outside, or just straight in the ground, and it's so amazing in almost all foods, why would you not
still planting in containers, just to let a few more weeks of possibly bad weather go by before putting our babies out in the real world
I love my sister jennifer. she helps with most of my projects, and she makes me smile.

the garden...

This is our garden away from home. We usually have a small garden at my parents house, but mostly flowers and the usual yard plants; Martin and I started a vegetable garden at his house; but this is THE garden. This garden is where our chickens roam, our bees used to reside, and where the majority of our yard work is done. Grandpa Beck was a friend of the owner of the land and has had berries and grapes here since I can remember. It has only been in recent years that we have actually gardened here. The vegetables are in the works. We love it. This is my dad's pride and joy.



The berries will come on in late summer (boysenberry pie is so delicious, you have no idea). The grapes are usually in their prime late summer early fall (we make jars and jars of grape juice, delicious, and so good for you).

we have chickens...

these are our chickens.
we give them love, they give us eggs
and we live happily ever after



For those in our ward or nearby, if you and your kiddies would like to hang out with the chickens for a little bit, gather some eggs and what not, talk to my dad or myself! My dad loves showing off his little friends to people :)

They live at the garden across from the church, just in case you were interested (I think it's illegal to have them at your house)

Happy Earth Day!!

Our garden hit 6 weeks today, and to celebrate earth day we planted outside!! For the last 6 weeks I've been taking care of my plants that I started in small containers. This week really would be the first week that you could plant anything outside, because last week we had a night of frost, so with the frost gone, grow your garden outside!! You don't have to deal with the planters and moving them in and out of sun and all that; plant straight into the ground and watch that garden grow!! Unfortunately Martin's yard was a tad overgrown, and not used to being planted in, so we took a trip to Dale Hardware, bought a few bags of planter soil, and mixed that into our dry and hard dirt we have to work with. We've also had a few days of weeding and shoveling away brush, so today was a great day, finally getting those plants into the ground.



Sweet corn: Plant about six inches apart, we have about 8 plants, we'll plant more in a few weeks
Green beans: Plant about six inches apart, we have about 6 plants, we'll plant more in a few weeks. If you're planting green beans, which I definitely suggest, grow bush green beans if you don't want to build a structure for them to grow on. Ours are pole green beans, so eventually we'll have a wire structure up.
Tomatoes: We have 4 tomato plants (which need a lot more space than corn or green beans, which grow straight up). Give your plants at least a foot of breathing room on each side.
Yellow Squash and Zucchini: We have 3 yellow squash, and 2 zucchini plants, which also need a lot of space around them. You can put the plants close together, but they're going to need a few feet between them and any other plants.

Fertilize your plants once they're a few inches high, about the size of my plants now, so around 6 weeks. Then again in a few weeks. And make sure to water them everyday!!

We're growing a pretty hefty garden, and we're going to have lots of vegetables!! But you don't have to go as full force as we have; planter boxes or just a small strip of your yard would be great if you just have a few plants.

keep working on that garden!

My little ones are now at week 5, how are yours doing?! I started early, just to let everyone know. I have to take them in if it's raining too hard or if there may be frost during the night, so it's been more like babysitting. But this week is pretty much the okay week to start a garden, because there shouldn't be anymore chance of frost at this point. So, you can plant your little ones right in the ground and not have to deal with the frost and transplanting, etc. So grow a garden, or at least a few plants. Even with no yard it's still possible. Tomato plants are great in planter boxes, or an herb garden! Just this week I fertilized the plants; on most of the little bags of seeds it says when you can fertilize and I just assumed I could do them all at this point. They're all developing quite nicely. I should be planting them in the ground this week. Hopefully my garden buddy and I can get a spot in the yard cleared out. In a few weeks I'm going to plant the same plants over again, so I'll be starting when all of you should be starting!! By spreading out when you plant by a month or two months you're opening up your window of production.
Here are the little ones at 5 weeks...



They were planted in just your typical soil, I water them once a day, and keep them outside where they get as much sun as possible.





This is my garden buddy, although this is what he does most of the day, not much help :)

Be Green! Grow a Garden!

I'm going to share another avenue of my life with you, gardening. It's not a common hobby among most in their young twenties, but it has always been one of mine. When I was a little girl I used to spend so much time in the garden with my grandma, and I just loved it. And because my dad picked up her green thumb, it is something I have always had the opportunity to be around. To take care of a whole yard can be a task, that is true, but a simple summer garden is so much easier than you would think. So think about it! You have the next few months to decide, and I think you should decide to plant a few seeds, grow some fruits and vegetables. Be green :)

I went to rite aid the other day with Martin, we saw the large assortment of seeds, and we couldn't help ourselves. So 15 dollars later, I had the seeds, potting soil, and containers for an amazing summer garden. All seed packages have directions, you don't even need to research, just go for it. To be honest, gardening is a lot easier than most of my recipes, and, you're getting healthy fruits and vegetables in return! Almost all of the seeds I chose should be planted in may or june, after the last possible frost, but if you plant them in containers first, you can just keep them indoors at night, and then you can see the fruits of your labor (no pun intended) months earlier. Also, instead of planting the whole container of seeds at one time, I usually do them in thirds. So plant a third of my selection in march, another in may, and another in july. Then your crop is spread out, and you're not overwhelmed with your fruit and vegetable supply. My family uses a plot of land close to home for most of our gardening since we grow a lot, but we've planted in our backyard for a few years and you can still do a lot in a small space. And we have a tiny backyard, so you have no excuses. If you really are feeling lazy, you can buy all these already a few weeks old to plant, you don't even have to deal with seeds. But really, seeing the first sprouts come up is my favorite part!!!



So, I'm growing zucchini, sweet corn, cantaloupe, tomato, green beans, and the camera shy yellow squash. These are all smaller plants and most likely Martin and I will find a place in his yard to grow them, since he has a good size yard with plenty of sunshine. In my family's garden I will be growing pumpkins, butternut squash, and maybe a few other things. At the garden all year round we have our boysenberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and concord grapes. But all these plants take up space, time, equipment, and they really are better done in a large area; which I why, for the most part, I'm just going to keep you updated with my summer garden project.


Maybe just pick one plant to grow, if a whole garden sounds overwhelming. Try a tomato plant. They're very hearty, and they'll have ripening tomatoes until late fall. Good luck, I'll keep you updated!