FLOWER GARDENS
Linda and I have been doing a lot of work the past week or so in the back flower garden. Linda pulled up a bunch of old Cranesbill plants that were getting huge and taking over and I got everything watered and cut back some old blooms. One of the most beautiful things in our yard is in our backyard flower garden and it is the Stargazer Lily. This plant gets more and more blooms each year, and it is spectacular when all of them are open. A friend gave this to us a couple of years after we moved here and it has always produced the most beautiful flowers. It is right beside the area where we sit under the tree so we can enjoy the blooms and the lovely scent when we sit outside.
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| Stargazer Lily |
Right now a lot of our flowers have bloomed out so the dazzling array of color is somewhat scattered. But we do have several Sunflowers in the front yard that are starting to bloom. I tried planting some special sunflower seed this year in hopes that we would get some of the Mammoth Sunflowers. These are the ones with absolutely huge heads measuring 12" across. I also planted some Autumn Beauty seeds, which produce a red-orange hued flower. Alas, I do not think any of those seeds germinated. We'll have to wait and see when all the sunflowers are in bloom. This year, everything is about 2 weeks behind schedule due to the cool spring we had. So we only have a couple of sunflowers blooming right now, but they are still so beautiful. The ones in the picture below are volunteers that come up from sunflower seeds that fall from our bird feeder. We probably have at least 25 plants out there, all surrounding the bird feeder. It will be gorgeous when they all bloom!
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| Sunflowers |
AN INTRODUCTION
Let me introduce you to the newest member of our family, Elizabeth the flamingo. She is a distant cousin to Fanti and Mingo, our garden flamingos. She joined our family on my birthday, having been flown here to Yakima courtesy of my sister and her partner. She was named for Queen Elizabeth, who became Queen the year I was born, 1952. We welcomed her with open arms (wings). She is most energetic when it is sunny, flapping her wings with great abandon. Her wings will get a workout here in Yakima!
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| Elizabeth |
GARDEN UPDATE
The vegetable garden is starting to slowly take off with most of the plants producing small versions of their offerings. There are a few troublesome areas, such as the Sun Sugar tomato I planted in a pot. We used to have it in the front yard near the front porch, but we have since moved it back to the garden because something is causing the leaves to turn yellow. I at first thought I was watering it too much, now I think I might have been not watering it enough! Anyway, it is in the back with all the other plants so now I can monitor the watering more closely. The little Hab plant is still struggling. It is hanging in there but is looking puny. I moved it to the patio with the herbs because I thought the intense hot sun was scalding the leaves. I do not know, it's all a guessing game. It does seem to be growing bigger but the leaves are a funny, light-green color, especially when compared to all the other peppers.
We do have some pepper plants that are actually producing peppers now! I was shocked when I went out in the garden one day and saw peppers on the Anaheim plant, the Sweet Banana plant and the Tam Jalapeno plant.
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| Clockwise from left: Anaheim, Sweet Banana, Tam Jalapeno |
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| It's a jungle out there! |
RECIPE OF THE DAY: CHERRY JAM
One of things I love most about Yakima in the summertime is the large variety of fresh, locally-grown produce that we have available. In addition to the same vegetables that I grow in my backyard garden, the Yakima Valley offers a large assortment of fruit. During the summer months we have several varieties of cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, pears, grapes, and some apples, towards the end of summer. Apple season gets in full swing in the fall. We are currently in the midst of cherry season, my absolute favorite. I have been on a search for different recipes in which to use cherries this year. Last week I made a fantastic cherry BBQ sauce which is second in flavor only to the blueberry BBQ sauce I made earlier this summer (here is the link for the Cherry BBQ Sauce recipe from the Serious Eats blog). Today I am going to try my hand at making Cherry Jam. I am following a recipe from the Kitchn blog (click here for recipe). I'm going to put my own spin on this recipe by adding a little crushed pineapple to it. I am hoping to recreate a jam that I remember fondly from my youth. There is a company in Florida that makes Cherry Pineapple Jam that I used to love and I bought a jar of it every chance I got. So keep your fingers crossed that I come up with something similar. I wanted to use Bing cherries for this as they are the sweetest ones, but when I went to the fruit stand they were all out of Bings. I had to get Rainier cherries, which were on sale for $.99 a pound. What a deal! Rainiers are almost as sweet as Bings, so I'm sure it will turn out fine. I will post the results next week.
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| Rainier Cherries |
One kitchen gadget that you absolutely need to have when cooking with cherries is a cherry pitter. It's an unassuming little gizmo, but it will save you a ton of work in the prep. You place a cherry in the cradle with the hole, and then press the plunger against the cherry until the pit shoots out the hole in the bottom. Genius!
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| Cherry Pitter |
PARTING SHOT
Summer Girl has been working hard on her relaxing skills this summer. I think she has it down to a science now. It sure looks to me like she has all the kinks worked out!
That's all for this week. Please check back next week to see the results of the Cherry Jam recipe, among other happenings!
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