Monday, May 14, 2012

My, how you've grown!

Back in early March, the boys and I spent some time planting vegetable seeds Weeks of gently misting the dirt with water and providing enough sunlight has produced:







Real, live vegetable plants!

Two weeks ago I started hardening these little plants to prepare them for the big planting day.  You see, seeds grown indoors have it easy...no big temperature variances, no wind, no pests (other than the occasional poke and prod from young, curious fingers), no real weather changes.

To harden seedlings, begin about two weeks prior to planting and give them short exposures to the elements.  Don't put the coddled plants outside when it is 90 degrees and brutally hot or in the 40s and raining.  Pick times of the day, as much as possible, that are similar to your indoor conditions.

Slowly lengthen the amount of time your seeds are outside and give them more exposure to the elements, until you are finally ready to:


Plant the plants in your garden.  They look so small and slight in our garden, but I know before long they'll look like our sweet pea plants:


These plants have literally dozens of pea pods growing and swelling with tender sweet peas inside.  I can't wait to start harvesting them soon and using them in our kitchen.

Speaking of our kitchen, here's our meals for the week:

Grilled Portabella Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries, Green Beans
Summer Rolls, Asian Quinoa
BBQ Chicken Quesadillas, Mango, 5-minute Corn Salad (recipe coming soon)
Lemon Dill Couscous with Cashews
Gnocchi with Zucchini and Roasted Peppers in a Goat Cheese Sauce

Have a sweet week,
SPC

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