Katiebird's Garden & Wildcraft

First batch of big jalapenos are ready to go!  We usually make turkey-bacon-wrapped, cream cheese stuffed, grilled peppers, but didn't have time last week, so I tried some pickles.  Plastic gloves were a must, they were super hot! An awful lot of mustard seed in this recipe, but hopefully they taste delish!   My beautiful Trionfo Violetto beans, or as I have come to call them camo-beans and when they're steamed just to heated, they start to lose the purple coloring and look like camouflage.  We had some for dinner last night and they were nice and full-flavored. Leeks!  They will be used to make potato soup with my potatoes I have growing in pots. Pepperoncini!  Next to be pickled after the party this weekend.  I didn't realize the plant got so big!  It's nearing 3 1/2' and doesn't look like it's stopping soon.

Has anyone noticed that it's damn hot in Minnesota?  My cat Stickee, hogging the fan this morning I've been fighting with my One-Touch Ping meter remote for the past 2 mos.  It had "Ping-ed" out.  The thing didn't seem to read or sense the strips when inserted or when blood was added.  I finally got fed up with swearing and throwing strips around and called One-Touch and they promptly sent me a new one!  Awesome customer service they have.  How nice it is not to waste 3-4 strips per test!  Back on track with my awesome testing schedule.  As for the home front: Too hot to paint right now... The garden is going insane with this humidity and heat!  I have to take pictures this week.  We've been eating snow peas regularly for a couple weeks and I've already harvested my first 1 1/2 cups of garden peas.  I really enjoyed sitting on the stoop shelling them :)  I quick-blanched and froze them.  I'm hopin...

    D oesn't this look lovely?  A bit stormy, but the rain and warmth are needed.  I'm hoping my little plants will get all jazzed up with the warmth and double or triple in size by this coming weekend. This week I planted the Scarlett Runner Beans, Scarlett O'Hara & Grandpa Ott Morning Glories, and Trionfo Violetto beans.  I came across a description of these heirloom beans on the You Grow Girl blog-which has tons of useful garden info on it-recommend reading this for urban-gardening info also.  The rest of the patio garden (6'x25'+?) is now all weeded and chopped up, waiting for the rain.  I have chosen to fill my gardens with vegetables first and then pack in the flowers once the veg are established.  Last year I planted over 100 annuals in the patio garden and it was amazing and jungle-like...though I only had about a 6'x12' area for vegetables and it wasn't enough for me!  I think I may put a couple of the t...