Bunny Stink

I got to pay bills today sitting in what smells like a barn but is my kitchen. That's urban farm living for you. That's the dirty underbelly of this green revolution everyone is so hot for. It's not all sexy.

Poor Bunny

I was chastised once for not having a separate place for my rabbit in our house. I was assured she could not be comfortable just being "free" in our house when we have a 125 lb dog. "That is a natural predator," this person told me. The rabbit must live in constant fear. This is Pirate Betty and Porter this morning, just after I kept PB from shooing Porter away from his own food so she could eat it. Now she's drinking while he eats. 

Lazy, Will Offer Urban Homestead Experience

Yeah, um, the garden and house just aren't that attractive to me right now. They are not tops on the priority list. The garden has gone bad - rogue chard is invading each bed, radishes gone to seed, flowering broccoli (how indecent), and the lettuce has had the nerve to bolt.

No grandiose home improvement plans for the next month. Work gets the kitchen remodel attention.

2010 can come and go for all I care. Bring on 2011. Let's just skip fall and head right into New Years. The cool mornings make it seem like mama nature agrees with me.

War

There's a war going on in our back yard. Grenades, guns, surprise, stealth, sabotage, and.... laughter. Yup, it's a water fight. The vision of our neighbor daughter running around the back yard in her swim panties and rubber galoshes, screaming with joy as she gets caught in the crossfire; late afternoon sun giving everything a golden tinge, will stick with me forever. Jovi sneaking up on Cheryl "watering the garden," George resorting to the low, low tactic of the garden hose, me giggling behind the bedroom curtains as I hear the water splosh on our new deck... Happy suburban times.

Our First Broccoli

I'm so proud! OK, so I think I picked it a little late as you can see some of it has started to flower. I'm thinking broccoli salad.

It's All Greek

It's 90 today and time to break out the grill. I refuse to cook indoors in this weather. No AC and SUNSHINE in the Northwest; not cooking inside and not heating up my house. It's my own recipes tonight and floating in our kiddie pool.

I have my own chicken souvlaki that I've concocted based on taste tests at my favorite Greek restaurant, Cafe Akroteri in Bellingham, Washington. I start with the dry herbs and I only use whole herbs from my garden when possible. Tarragon is the secret ingredient, oregano, savory hand rubbed. Add fresh ground pepper - lots of it. Fresh ground coriander and this time I'm trying a bit of sumac berry and the slightest amount of cardamom. Last, I add some coarse sea salt. Oh and fresh chopped garlic - one or two cloves. Toss in a little good olive oil and red wine vinegar and the juice of one lemon.

As for the red wine vinegar, I never buy that anymore. I just let part of a bottle of fairly cheap red wine stuff go to vinegar.

I'll let this sit for a while and then cube chicken to marinate for a couple  hours. All this will get skewered and grilled with red onion and green/red/orange peppers. Then we dip it in a cucumber, mint and yogurt sauce.

Side of greek salad. Yum and hello lobster floaty.

Herb Time

OK, so it's sunny out and my day off which means I'm not going to write much!

Things are finally growing in the garden and we may eek out a few tomatoes and zucchini, but not sure if we'll have a chance to grow any other sun loving veggie. Going to have to buy some new starts today. Think I'll give basil a try. That said, the peas and broccoli are super happy and you can even see little baby broccoli heads starting! Exciting as this will be my first year for broccoli success.

Today I decided to collect and preserve some of the herbs. The mint will get leggy soon as it gets hotter and dryer (yes I'm being optimistic) so I picked some to dry and some to make mint water from. The mint water is delicious when it's hot out. I just steep a bunch of it as if I were making a very concentrated mint tea. Then I add that to a pitcher, fill with cold water and put that in the fridge for when we're thirsty and hot.

I also picked chives, which did I tell you I figured out how to preserve last year? If you try to dry them whole they shrivel up like dead grass. If you chop them fine then lay them out to dry, they stay nice a green and the taste is great.

The lavender is just about to flower so I rushed to pick as many stems with unopened buds as I could. I'll dry these and use them for baking this fall/winter. They are delicious in orange scones. I made a lavender ice cream last fall that was tasty too.

Lastly, I picked a bunch of lettuce as it's finally warm enough for me to crave salads. Fresh lettuce from the garden will actually last a long time in the fridge. I discovered two years ago how to make greens last longer. I just wash them well and then spin them dry. Next I wrap a bundle of them in paper towels and place that in a glass storage container. All of that goes into the crisper bin in the fridge and will last at least a week. That way you only have to wash lettuce once a week! To combat spiders, slugs and such that like to get in the folds of lettuce, I just soak it in the sink for a half hour or so.