The artichokes are finally about ready. In fact, a little bit too ready:

Over the weekend I picked this artichoke. This is my first time harvesting artichokes so I was not too sure when to pick them. However I was a little late - the next day it started to bloom a little bit while sitting on the counter. I'm still going to see if the heart is good within - I'm hoping so. I also had one of the same size that I left on the plant, so I went outside and it had bloomed:

How cool! So I now know to pick them a bit earlier. Also these are Violetto artichokes. They are smaller than normal artichokes. I'm not quite sure if the petals are big enough to eat, so we'll probably just use them for the hearts.

One day earlier this week I was partaking in my usual morning ritual of enjoying a cup of coffee while taking a stroll in my garden, when I saw a squirrel jump off of the back porch onto the fence. I turned to look and it was holding one of my Tumbler tomatoes! It then proceeded to chow down on it right in front of me. So I ran in the house and grabbed a camera:

That guy looks a bit evil. But anyways it seemed to enjoy the tomato, although I wasn't really hoping to share them with the animals in the neighborhood.

Finally I have some tomatoes ripening! Check it:

This is my Tumbler Tomato that I have planted in a pot on our back porch. I also have some black cherry tomatoes that are just starting to ripen. Both of these are cherry/small tomato types. They appear to be the only ones that are anywhere close to ripening at this point, but I'll take them! Yum!

In other news, I've made two more batches of pickles. The first ones turned out really good, but I thought that they could use a bit more vinegar and more spices (I threw in some hot pepper flakes this time!). I'll see how the new batch turns out and then update the recipe if it is better.

I've also used up the last of my tomatillos from last year. I still had 1.5lbs frozen in our freezer (blanch and freeze - it's just that easy) and we were making enchiladas for dinner, so I was like "Why not some salsa verde?" And it was done. I've been using this salsa verde recipe since I've been growing tomatillos. It's really good - better than any other I've had. I tend to use a bit less jalapeños than she suggests (I only used 1/2 of a fresh one from our garden) since my partner doesn't like spicy food. Even the cilantro was from our garden, so other than the onion it was 100% Mt. Airy grown. Sweet. :)

My partner has been telling me about this site for weeks now and has finally sent me the link. It's an awesome site about growing your own food. While I'm not nearly at this stage (and honestly I don't know if I want to have a roaming chicken cage in my yard - is that even legal in Philly? It must be if Donna Reed Miller can have a horse in her backyard) I do grow a good amount of veggies to put some serious damage (the good kind) to our produce mart bill. So check it: http://www.homegrownevolution.com/

This weekend I started attempting to conquer the shed in the back of the yard. It has been full of crap that the previous owners left behind and has been a home to an opossum or two as well. So I'm finally going to try to get rid of the rusty old shed this year and replace it with something newer with doors and no holes in the roof.

So I removed all of the crap that was garbage - old tree stumps, broken bicycle, wheels, an alternator, old traffic cones (Hey! I can save my parking space all year round now!), etc. Saw quite a few large spiders as well. Neat.

Now all that is left in there is our crap. The next big step is to try to dismantle it - which should be fun. I think that will start in the next few weeks.

Other than that everything is doing really well. I'm starting to get my first ripe tomatoes - my tumbler and black cherry are starting to ripen. However a few (4) of my Mama Roma tomatoes are getting blossom end rot - that sucks. I even put down some bone meal to increase the calcium in the soil last week since I hand the same problem last year - but I guess that wasn't soon enough. It is also more common earlier in the season so hopefully it won't be so bad. Also it was the Mama Roma's last year that had this same problem - maybe it is just them.

So that's it. I'm going to taste test my refrigerator pickles tomorrow and I should have my first ripe tomato either tomorrow or Tuesday. I can't wait!

Today I made my first ever batch of refrigerator pickles! I had enough of my 'Adam' cucumbers to fill a pint jar. So I sorta combined a few recipes that I found online. Here's my recipe:

5 pickling cucumbers (halved or speared)
1/4 of a medium white onion, sliced and quartered.
2 cups water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 Tbs Kosher salt
1 Tbs sugar
3 sprigs of fresh Dill
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
red, black, and white peppercorns
celery seed

First sterilize the glass mason jar by boiling it in a large pot of water for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Combine the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar and bring to a boil. Let cool slightly.

Cut a small piece off of the flower end of each cucumber. Poke a few holes in each with a fork if leaving whole, otherwise half or spear.

Begin filling the mason jar. Put some of the garlic, dill, celery seed, onions, and peppercorns on the bottom, followed by a layer of cucumbers standing upright. Follow with some additional onions and spices.

Pour water and vinegar solution over the cucumbers and fill the jar, leaving about 1/4 inch of space on the top.

Cover and refrigerate for 1-5 days.

That's it! As I said this is my first time making these - so I really have no idea how they will come out. I'll let you know in a week!

I've made some technical updates to the site. I've replaced the header and footer images of the site (hold shift+(click refresh) to update if you still see the feather + tree images). I'm also experimenting with allowing comments, and I've added a contact form. That's it. :) So leave some comments (only on new blog posts) or send me a message if you desire.

I've upgraded (sorta) my manual watering system to a sprinkler system. By a sprinkler system I mean the cheapest ass sprinkler ($5) I could find. I have been talking with some other gardeners at work and one was talking about 'deep watering' - something which I have never done.

Typically, I'll go out in the garden in the morning to water. As soon as I get up I make some fresh coffee and then enjoy my cup while I'm out watering. I usually spend about 5 minutes watering each 16 square foot bed, usually attempting to keep the water off of the leaves of the plants.

While I really wanted to start using a drip hose (I actually have 2 already just sitting in the shed), I think the plants are way to big at this point to try to weave the hose around them. Plus I'd need some pretty slick tricks to get the hose across the paths (well, actually under them!). So for now I took the slacker route and am just going for overhead watering. The gardener at work said that is how she does it and has never had any problem. She will leave it on for about 4-5 hours once a week and that's good enough.

Wow - only having to water once a week. I honestly don't know how I feel about that. I really love my mornings when I'm out there watering. But I figured I'd give it a try since it sounds like my plants are thirsty!

So last night I hooked up the sprinkler and let it water the tomato, bean, pepper, and herb beds. I only had it on about 2 hours, but it was a first run so to speak. I kinda feel bad about wasting the water (some of it gets on the paths), but then again it will just evaporate and come back down somewhere else - so is it really wasteful (oh, how philosophical).

I'll try to keep up with it and see if I notice a difference. Next I'm going to try putting it between the tomato/bean beds and the potato/salad bed. The tomatoes will block it from getting the herb bed (which is OK - herbs do ok in dryer soil) and hopefully it will reach over the bean bed into the pepper bed. I'll keep ya posted!

Just a quick picture of my artichokes. They are looking good (I think - I've never grown them before) and I have about a dozen on this one plant. The other that I have growing in a large planter is not doing well at all. I really think that I need to put it into the ground. Anyways, I'm also testing out using inline images in this blog. I know, that's so crazy high tech. Anyways, enjoy:

Speaking of organic ant control, I just stumbled across this site (while checking my spelling of 'Diatomaceous Earth' as mentioned in my previous post): http://doubledanger.com/living-green/10-tips-for-organic-ant-control . There are some great tips on how to get rid of ants - I think I may try some!