Vegan Dish in 5 minutes: Summer Squash with Herbs

August 26, 2012 Ottawa, ON Canada

Scallop Squash - Sunburst Hybrid 2-3 inches long

 I was out gardening today for the day, and believe me, I am tired. I needed a 5 minute meal. So I went in the backyard and I picked the scallop squash. They are young and tender at 2-3 inches long, and I cook them like Zucchini.

I cut some onions and ginger and put some EVOO in the skillet. I toss the onion and ginger, and some diced tomato and cover it. I set the temperature to just below medium and I headed out in the backyard to get some herbs and greens. 

I was gone in the backyard for maybe 1-2 minutes. When I came in, I added the thinly sliced summer squash to the skillet and cover it again. I washed my herbs and greens.

Here is what is in my bowl of herbs and greens: beans, basella rubra, sweet potato leaves, lemon balm (Melissa offiicinalis), Orange mint, Golden Lemon Thyme, oregano, basil and that's right, marigold flowers. I just use the petals and throw out the center. I grow these marigold from seeds, so I am sure no pesticides are sprayed on them.

After washing my greens, I opened the skilled and stir the mix. The squash is cooked and I added the herbs and greens - I covered for another 1 minute.

Herbs and Greens added in the skillet

Cover for another 1 minutes. Optional (Add your salt and pepper!)


And my meal is ready!

My dinner - ready in 5 minutes, from vegetables grown in my backyard. Summmer 2012.

Where are the honeybees? ottawa city, ontario, canada

my impatiens balsamina is a honyebee magnet!
love it1

How to cook squash flowers, zucchini flowers and bittermelon leaves?

i thought i would share my grandmas old recipe. this is boiled chicken, with vegetable soup stock. once the chicken is cooked, about 7-10 minutes of boiling, add the herbs: basil, lemon thyme, lemon balm, oregano, and chives. I added the traditional filipino tinola: squash flowers, zucchine flowers, and bitter melon leaves. hope you like it.

Cultivate skin-soothing calendula - Canadian Gardening

 i always use marigold in my veggie garden to help me stop nematodes, fungi and other garden pest.

On top of that, it is also good for your skin and it is edible.

what more do you need from this plant from the humble plant who even survive until first frost? this year, I have them in pots, along with my container peppers, beside container okra. Amazing little plant, everyone should have it.

Container Garden: Growing Peanuts (Arachis hypogea) Ottawa City, Ontario...

Basella rubra (Malabar Spinach) Growing in Ottawa City, Ontario, Canada

How to save bitter melon seeds? Bitter gourd - Momordica charantia (Otta...

How to save bitter melon seeds? Bitter gourd - Momordica charantia (Otta...

Sweet Potato - Blackie (accidental harvesting)

august 15, 2012
ottawa city, ontario, canada

i knocked down the pot of my sweet potato blackie, and it was totally upside down. I got no choice but cut off the vine, put it in flower vase to have another sweet potato.

so, i have harvested 3 small tubers. the color is white.


we have a BBQ in the afternoon - and the color of the sweet potato is light yellow. the taste is really sweet, and i really love it. so I am hoping to harvest more sweet potato soon, around fall.

sweet potato blackie in a pot

3 small sweet potato tubers - light yellow when cook, very sweet.

harvest for the day - ready for the BBQ: eggplant, okra, young sweet potato leaves, mints, lemon thyme, lemon balm, oregano.

Container Garden: Pepper Little Blue(hot) and Pepper - Medusa(sweet) (O...

Growing Tomatoes in Pots: Container Gardening (Ottawa city, ontario, can...

Book: Edible Grdening, Any Size, Anywhere (William Moss)

august 15, 2012
ottawa city, ontario, canada


I got this book in the mail today, and I am very excited. I always way there must be a way to maximize yeild to my small backyard, so this is it! I will be reading, and reading this week, and I will get back to you on what tips and tricks I learned.

interested in getting to know william moss: https://www.facebook.com/williammosstv

and this book is available on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Any-Size-Anywhere-Edible-Gardening/dp/1591865085/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343682210&sr=8-1&keywords=any+size+anywhere+edible+gardening

Coleus 2012

The ugly coleus - pale brown with green edges were almost toss in the compost. However, I planted them along the fence as slug bait for my hosta. And guess what? - honeybees love them! Ugly Coleus rocks!

Coleus flower with a bee - can you see the bee?

august 12, 2012
ottawa city, ontario, canada
Coleus collection in my backyard.

Coleus Salmon Lace - nice big leaves to accent my Hosta Guacamole

 

Coleus Apple green and some Coleus Scarlet Wizard!

some garden pictures thriving after the heatwave, and loving the rain!

coleus collection - violet tri-color with some coleus velvet lime

A collection of  Coleus Velvet Lime

coleus collection in a pot

coleus-fishnet stockings

Coleus Giant exhibition - Palisandra

heirloom coleus

Container Garden: ginger (Zingiber officinale)

august 14, 2012
ottawa city, ontario, canada

in may, i mentioned that i toss in a chunk of moldy ginger in the pot. just plain garden dirt with soil, and i put it in a sunny corner.

so here is the video of my ginger and it has grown more than 1 foot.

Bush beans planted today

saturday, august 11, 2912.
ottawa city, ontario, canada


despite rain forecast, no rain here on my end of the city.

i went to goodlife for a body attack class - and it was fun!

then went home to my kiddos.

my kids went out in the backyard, with their bikes. I find time to deadhead flowers, and remove brown leaves. This to make sure that squirrels, snails, slugs have not cozy bed to nest on.

kieren napped at lunch time so i got time to work in the garden.
i removed the beans - all done, and plant seeds for second harvest. Really???? yeah - im not sure, but worth a try.
i also put the volunteer seedlings of tomato in bigger pots. I did not have the heart to pull em out, so I got tomatoes this year.

Did i mentioned last year that i won't plant tomatoes? Yes - i never did. but the volunteer seedlings were never pulled out! So, I am back with 5 or 6 pots of them? I hope these are cherry tomatoes, so I can get some for kids to harvest.

So, off to another work now, and hope it won't rain while I am biking out.

What have you been doing lately? 

bean harvest

miniature white cucumber and beans

kieren and karlina

beans climbing my backyard canopy

Loving the rain, trying to make a video.

so, here is the video of my bitter melon plant, and beans.

so, how is everyone's crop doing? I am very impress with my beans yield, not only I can pick it anytime I want, i have way more than what I need, and I have given some to neighbors.

beans and lots of beans

bittermelon (Momordica charantia)

Coleus as Houseplants

coleus chocolate mint in my room by the computer table.

monday
july 30, 2012
ottawa, on, canada

I read many articles about coleus as houseplant. I have to say, it has to be a specific one to thrive indoors. Since last winter, I put the coleus - salmon lace in Karlinas room. she likes her plants. it is an old heirloom coleus, and it survive for about 7 months now. but her color is not as pretty.

Coleus Salmon Lace - karlina's room since Jan. 2012

Coleus-Chocolate Mint

coleus rattlesnake by2nd floor hallway.

I bring in 2 other coleus for an experiment - see how they retain their beautiful color.

One in the 2nd floor hallway and the 2nd one in my bedroom by my computer table.

The first one in the hallway is colues - Rattlesnake, maybe look alike as the Glasshouse Works Coleus Eruption

The 2nd one is Coleus Chocolate Mint - more chocolate and mint on the edges.

Minneola Seedlings (Citrus x tangelo)

July 30, 2012-Monday
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

I bought some Minneola last March 2012, and I end up with seeds. I spit it out and put in 4 inch pot and see what happens.

I am busy with other plants, and I found them germinating, I have no idea when, but yesterday, I transferred them to their individual pots. I re-call bringing the pot outside around May, because I saw something coming out. Since then, it was just mingling with all the vegetable pots outside.

I am equally excited about the potential of this fruit, but it also means I need more space indoors to overwinter them. They look nice with shiny leaves. The seedlings grow at a different rate, some are at 6 inches while there are few that are like 3 inches.

A wikipedia picture of Tangelo (Citrus x tangelo hybrid) tangerine x pomelo

Here is the Wikipedia enty on Minneola:
"The tangelo ( /ˈtændʒəloʊ/ TAN-jə-loh; C. reticulata × C. maxima or x C. paradisi), Citrus × tangelo, is a citrus fruit hybrid of tangerine and pomelo or grapefruit. Widely known as honeybells,^{[citation needed]} tangelos are the size of an adult fist, have a tangerine taste, and are juicy at the expense of flesh. They generally have loose skin and are easier to peel than oranges,^[1] readily distinguished from them by a characteristic "nipple" at the stem."

8 seedlings of citrus x tangelo - Minneola

the slow growing batch of the citrus x tangelo seedlings

the stronger seedlings - look at the glossy leaves

Question: what are you gonna do with these seedlings? 

Maybe keep one or two for myself and sell the rest?

How much would you pay for it?

Miniature White - Cucumber Seedlings, and Harvest today

i am planning to save the seeds of my organic mini cucumber seedlings. the harvest is plenty and my kids love it. plus it grows in a pot!

i also keep harvesting my Provider Bush beans - and I happy to feed them to my kids everyday.

My Basella rubra thriving in heat. 

Basella rubra (philippine spinach) - thriving in heat

Bean harvest today - various variety, pole beans, bush beans, good lunch

miniature white cucumber - i let it ripe, because I want to save some seeds.

Open Backyard Sunday - July 22, 2012

OPEN BACKYARD GARDEN 

I decided to celebrate my birthday by inviting friends over and opening my backyard edible garden to the public. My friend Winn took the pictures, and it was amazing! Here are some of them.

me - feeling short, as you can see the Lilium in the background (red) is taller than me. 

backyard entrance: a child centric universe. sled and sprinklers.

coleus selection pot, with a job to get shade for the small Hosta Praying Hands

Coleus, lambs ears, rosemary, lavender, sweet potato vine-blackie, squash - volunteer seedling

cream liliums

shade section with hosta, bleeding heart, ladys mantle, coleus, single lilium bloom

leek flowers with Echinacea purpurea, a butterfly magnet

Pole Beans, cooling off the canopy in summer heat

Hibiscus mosquetos "Luna" (perennial), scarlet runner beans on the fence, hanging pot of golden lemon thyme, Impatiens balsamina, tall liliums (maybe tree?) and eggplant, with ginger on the pot.

yellow lilium in bloom, looks pretty in person.

cherry tomatoes in hanging pot.

Liliums Blooms today

july 20, 2012

i never stop to smell the roses, but I have to take a picture of this upright Lilium bloom.

Trip to Fort Coulonge, Quebec, Canada

Noodle LightSabers fight - go Kieren!

Lawn Dart - Kieren picked it up, he thought it was a hola hoop!

Kieren and Karlina enjoying the visit at Aunt Leonette and Uncle Gordie's cottage. Kenneth and Lolo Fern ride the Seadoo and the rest of the gang drive with Lola Sher!(see the grapes in the table? they finished it all)

July 6-9, 2012

Summer is here!

Trip to Fort Coulonge, Quebec with Lolo Fern and Lola Sher Boucher

Kieren on deck - Fort Coulonge QC July 7, 2012

Another event was trip to Fort Coulonge, QC(http://www.fortcoulonge.qc.ca/)

Kids enjoyed 3 days with Lolo Fern and Lola Sher just running around like crazy. Far from parking areas, close to Coulonge river, there were many things to do and see. We walk by paths, gathering rocks, eating wild raspberries to our hearts content.

A walk around Doyle Street, it is a walking path along Fort Colounge River. 

We also visited Lolo Ferns sister - Aunt Elaine and Uncle Norbert. They have a property overlooking Fort Coulonge River. It was very nice, and lots of beautiful flowers and greens. I love the frontyard Heuchera collection and it is very well landscape. I learned from Aunt Elaine that Uncle Norbert build it among with family and friends. I wish I can say I will build my house too, because it is so awesome and personal.

The kids enjoy rolling down the hill and we played tag. We got a treat from Aunt Elaine, it was a chocolate popsicle. Who can resist that? Even Kieren eat the dripping chocolate. We also met Aunt Paulette at the residence, we chat  for short while, but then I am out again chasing the kids in the hill.

Karlina rolling down the hill - Aunt Elaine's backyard

Karlina having fun at Aunt Elaine's

Kieren with his classic giggle after he rolls down the hill and said "Again!" - Aunt Elaine's

The after being tuckered out running around the hill, we head out for dinner with Lolo Fern. We have fish and chips, it was so good. I wish I recall the name of the place, but it was near the gas station, and right across the cemetery. It was like 5 minutes away from the cottage, so I should be able to find it next time. The picnic table where we eat was nice and rustic, and has pebbles as we walk to it. Nothing like it in Ottawa, it was a very nice indie, rustic appeal.

Waiting for our dinner - the background shows a daycare of some sort, karlina was trying to climb the fence. LOL

Kieren after dinner - he was ready for another play time.

We came back to the cottage for bonefire - and it was nice. The smell of wood burning, feels like home to me. We roasted big chunk of marshmallows - smores? Don't know the canadian term for it, but karlina and kieren have sugar overload. In fact, we all have hard time sleeping as kieren and karlina bounce up and down.
The good news is - i was so tired keeping up where the left-over mashmallow was, and we left it outside. The animals get to it...................so yay! no more marshmallows, the next night will be normal.

The Saturday morning was nice, calm and sunny.

The kids enjoyed much of what Fort Coulonge river has to offer, life jackets on, we did enjoyed the river. Kids and their floaties and Kenneth was having a blast. He was riding the tube, pulled by Lolo Ferns SEADO!

karlina on deck - mudpie anyone?

Lolo Fern and the gang getting the SEADO ready for the day!  Fort Coulonge River