geekgirlgardens

[geekgirlgardens]

[geekgirlgardens]

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A post shared by Crusoe the Dachshund (@crusoe_dachshund)

[geekgirlgardens]

Help Save The Bees by making your garden more Bee Friendly 🐝🐝🐝

[geekgirlgardens]

[geekgirlgardens]

It's not raining today so I decided to go out and do some wedding and some harvesting. I kind of forgot the underground bee nest between the second and third bed. The bees decided I was done and literally chased me back into the house. I'm laughing at myself so hard right now.

[geekgirlgardens]

Foodie Friday

I mentioned harvesting some Chinese Cabbage for a recipe.  Well here it is, Chicken Yakisoba.  The recipe is from my favorite recipe site, Budget Bytes, and it calls for regular cabbage, but I thought what the hey.  Let me tell you, it was so good.  And the leftovers were even better the next day.  We will be making this again soon. 

Recipe

½ head green cabbage

1 medium yellow onion

2 medium carrots

1 small crown broccoli

2 inches fresh ginger

1 large chicken breast

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 (3 oz.) packages ramen noodles

seasoning packets discarded

1 tsp sesame oil (optional)

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp ketchup

(up to) 1 Tbsp sriracha hot sauce

1 Tbsp sugar

Diections

Before you begin, prepare the meat and vegetables for stir frying. Peel the ginger with either a vegetable peeler or the side of a spoon and then grate it with a cheese grater. Peel and grate the carrots with a large holed cheese grater. Remove the core from the cabbage and cut into thin strips. Slice the onion into thin strips. Cut the broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Slice the chicken into thin strips.

Begin boiling a medium pot full of water for the noodles. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the grated ginger, saute for about 30 seconds to one minute (its okay if it sticks to the pan but don’t let it burn). Add the chicken strips and cook until they are no longer pink (about five minutes).

Once the chicken is cooked through, add all of the vegetables. Stir and cook until wilted (about 5-10 minutes). Meanwhile, once the water boils, add the noodles and cook just until tender (2-3 minutes). Drain, return to the pot (with the heat turned off) and toss with the sesame oil to keep from sticking.

In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, ketchup, sriracha, and sugar. Use only ½ tsp of sriracha if you don’t want it spicy, use up to 1 Tbsp if you like it hot. Stir until the ketchup and sugar are dissolved. Pour the sauce into the skillet with the chicken and vegetables with the heat still on medium high. Add the noodles, stir to coat everything in the sauce, and heat through (just a few minutes).

[geekgirlgardens]

I feel you.  I've been having similar problems.  It seems they want to strangle all nearby plants instead.

Well, at least one of the cucumber plants seems to understand what the trellis is for. 

[geekgirlgardens]

Tip Thursday

Trim off the suckers on your tomato plant to focus your plants energy.  See the tiny "branches" at the junctions with the main stalk?  Those are the suckers, just pinch them off.  It won't hurt the plant and you'll have more focused growth. 

Photo credit EraPhernalia Vintage.

[geekgirlgardens]

My favorite, Mr Stripey tomatoes. I am looking forward to tomato sandwiches made from these.

[geekgirlgardens]

Gardener's Delight cherry tomatoes.

[geekgirlgardens]

Currant tomatoes, the largest one is about the size of my fingertip.

[geekgirlgardens]

Speckled Roman tomatoes AKA future pasta sauce.

[geekgirlgardens]

Red Zebra tomatoes from seed I saved last year.

[geekgirlgardens]

I am not sure if this is a Gold Medal, Nature's Riddle, or Italian Heirloom. My record keeping got a little, ok a lot, behind. Guess we will find out eventually.

[geekgirlgardens]

The rain let up so time for tomato spam!

[geekgirlgardens]

If you give a girl some chickens...

She’s going to want:

a beehive

a goat or two

some rabbits

a jersey cow

[geekgirlgardens]

Gardening with Kids

Another recommended plant to grow with your kids is Sugar Snap Peas.  The grow really fast, have a pretty interesting looking plant, and require little to no prep to snack on.  You can also include snow peas.  We grew snow peas in a classroom garden and when it was time to harvest every child tried a bite and all but one child liked it.