Sprouts!

I will have to add pictures later, but for those truly interested in the status of our garden:
Radishes have sprouted. Cute little rows of little leaves.
Cabbage has sprouted. I have found a whole mess of cabbage recipes that I am dying to try, so I am excited!
Romaine and arugula are both sprouting up nicely.
Should be delicious over at casa Jenson starting shortly!
Also, we are hoping to have a big announcement for you all reading at home in the next few days. Normally, when people in their twenties say things like "big announcement," I know you all assume the same thing, so I will just go ahead and let you know that I am absolutely not pregnant. The belly is strictly from my deep love of all things food.

Question to all of you gardeners

I love basil. I love it all the time. I have tried to plant it in sunny spots and water it daily and give it worm juice for food (my grandpa is a worm juice farmer) SO WHY DOES MY BASIL KEEP DYING? Help me, please! I just found a new pesto recipe, and I am a good share-r....

Happy Friday!
Allison

Aaaaaaaaaaand we're off!

Garden is in! Not all the way, of course: we still need to put in the cucumbers, tomatoes, zuchinni, squash, and eggplant. However, we dug around in the dirt for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday. It took a little extra time, because we had to rip out all of these little tiny trees that had apparently planted themselves in our garden over the winter. After getting the trees and the weeds out and grating our the soil, we were ready to plant. Now, we had treated the soil by adding in some compost a few weeks ago. Tedious, but now it's done!
So far, we have planted: broccoli, onions, kale, potatoes (both red and white, but no sweet potatoes, unfortunately), some more herbs, romaine lettuce, arugula, cabbage, spinach, radishes, and carrots.
And, I might add, looking cute and like it will be delicious.

Oh, and check out our really cool looking rhubarb:


Wahoo!
The Jensons

Big endeavors for jardin de Jenson

So, as you may know, this garden thing is in part an effort to green up a little bit, and an effort on Allison's part to channel Laura Ingalls Wilder. But, most of all, we wanted to save money. You know how it is: the economy, the single income thing, the price of food, and so on.
Then, we had a brilliant idea: why just save money when we could MAKE money off of our garden??
Desmond is using his deep knowledge of all things science-y (thank you, Wikipedia, for the free education on everything), and Allison will be managing our new crop: corn. We are plowing up everything we can and just growing corn. Grass? out. Trees? out. Herbs, flowers? out, out. Veggies? Well, if it's corn, it's in. Otherwise, out. We will be plowing up the concrete if the landlord okays it, and then: corn driveway.
Here are some of the many things we will be making with our corn; popcorn, delicious movie treat; cornmeal, mmmm cornbread; Corn starch, for thicker gravy; Xanthan gum, for spelling bees. Sorbitol, food additive to many of our favorite non-expiring treats; Hominy, corn soaked in lye, yum; Maltodextrine, no explaination needed; High fructose corn syrup, for the people in those commercials; Corn mash, for our moonshine makin' side business; Gum arabic, which I am pretty sure is in Snapple; Dextrose, which you probably use with the maltodextrine; Corn cob pipes, in case Frosty comes to town; tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol, used to make paint and varnish (who knew?); monosodium glutamate, better known as MSG; and ethanol, which makes me feel better about my Escalade.
Hmmm... I don't know if we have a future in satire. Hopefully, Big Veggie doesn't find out about our lil blog.

All April fools joking aside, we both love delicious corn on the cob in the summer, but we choose to get it from the farmer's market, because it isn't the best for your soil. Interesting to learn what all shows up in the stuff we now consider food, isn't it?
Did you hear/ see any truly hilarious April fools jokes today?

Wishing you a corn by-product free evening,
the Jensons

Awesome image by Natalie Dee.

Dressing up your salad.

So, if you have ever gardened, you know that one of the first and most plentiful veggies you get is salad greens. Especially if, like us, you plant a lot of salad greens. Now, hopefully you know about the amazing versatility of spinach. Maybe I will write a whole post just about the amazing number of things you can do with spinach. Popeye got that one right, friends. Spinach is awesome.
But this post isn't about spinach. It's about salad dressing. Since a garden = lots of salad greens, and we want to eat what we grow, we eat a lot of salads. Some for meals, some for side dishes. What was that? You want to know how we dress our salads? Well, I will tell you: we make our own salad dressing!
I don't know who it was over at "big salad" who convinced us otherwise, but seriously friends, salad dressing is unbelievably cheap and easy to make. You probably have all of the ingredients in your house right now. And a jar of dressing costs probably like 40 cents. Not only is it cheap and easy, but people will think you are fancy and they will be intimidated by you, and they will think that you did something special, and it will take you like 15 seconds.
I made some salad dressing today to take with a supper (fantastic veggie lasagna, recipe will be forthcoming, and a salad) to take to my awesome cousins and their new baby Aldous. I am in love with that kid: a totally awesome mellow beautiful little man.
Here is what you do:
1. Gather your ingredients. You probably want an oil, a vinegar, and some seasonings. I usually use fresh or dried herbs and salt and pepper. You can add fruit, citrus juice, mustard, hot pepper seeds, sesame seeds, or other things. Pretty much whatever.
2. Put like 1/2 of a cup of oil, 1/4 cup vinegar, and other ingredients to taste, into a mason jar with a lid.
3. Close jar and shake.
4. Taste the dressing and add stuff if you want.
5. Eat it. Awesome.
Ok, so I know that you can get salad dressing seasoning packets. Or, you can look at the ingredients list on the packet and pick them our of your garden or get it at the farmer's market. This makes your salad dressing preservative free. Doesn't even need to go in the fridge, if you don't want it to. We also play around with different vinegars and oils and what we add in. If you want ranch dressing, just swap the oil and vinegar for mayo and buttermilk. The only thing we wouldn't make ourselves is Caesar dressing, and that is an raw egg fear plus anchovy gross out factor for us.
Oh, and if you don't have any, you should go get some mason jars. You can do a lot of stuff with mason jars, and they can be frozen or heated way up.
In summary: STOP SUPPORTING BIG SALAD. Don't be afraid of salad dressing: if you can "shake well before opening," YOU CAN DO THIS.

Herbs for everyone!

Hmmm...
So I wrote this post yesterday, and then couldn't figure out the picture poster thing. Still couldn't get the picture of the herb garden picture to upload. So, you'll have to use your imagination. The plants are green, the soil is brown, and they all look fresh and happy and herby. Expect another post later today about the new curtains I made. Stay tuned for more news from casa Jenson....

Happy Spring Break to me! I am excited to get to dig around in the dirt and in the house. Here are some projects I want to take on:
1. Planting our little herb garden (done)
2. Making curtains for our windows currently covered by EXTREMELY gross vinyl blinds.
3. Planting our early veggies (radishes, spinach/greens, and peas all love the cool weather). And some perennials in our flower beds, if I get a chance.
4. Possibly painting the pantry (currently a dirty yellow color)
5. Some school work (of course)
6. Lots of sitting around, watching TV, and sleeping in.

Herb Garden:
Our little Aerogarden looks a little sad now, all herb-less:

But I think the herbs look happy in their new home!


Our raspberry bush, complete with one leaf (give it time...)


Our tomato plant is practically dripping with tomatoes. We easily have gotten a pint of cherry tomatoes so far, and it's still march!


Signs of spring all over the place!!

What signs of spring are getting you the most jazzed up?

WAHOO!
Allison

Here comes Peter Cottontail...

We have had several people ask us how we keep bunnies out of our garden. You might get a few bunnies now and again, but there are a few things that we have found really effective in bunny avoidance:
1. Get a cat. Walt is an indoor cat, but we put his cat hair into the garden when we brush them. For bunnies, cat = death = avoid that garden.
2. If you don't have a cat but live in an urban area, plant a little catnip near your garden. Catnip spreads like crazy, so you might want to use a container to plant it. Catnip = stray cats = cat smell = bunnies avoid the garden.
Walt is all business.

3. If you don't like cats, you might try some kind of barricade. Bunnies don't really jump over stuff, in spite of their jumpy nature. Get like those little bunny fences: 4 - 6 minimum should do it.

4. Bone meal or blood meal in the soil will keep bunnies away. It will also keep me away, so we don't use it. Gross, but effective!

5. If the bunnies are going after specific plants, try dissolving a little cayenne pepper into some water and spraying it on the plants. Good for squirrels too! I wouldn't recommend this if you have children or dogs that might also be eating your plants....

Ok, well, I hope you can keep your garden bunny free! We are enjoying a weekend visit from a friend, and then it will be on to dig in the dirt!!