Starting A New Star Quilt. 6.20.22

 I've been wanting to start this quilt pattern for a year.  As with some other projects, I'm using fabric from mens's shirts bought at estate sale or thrift shop.  A lot is left over from other quilts.  There were some that I especially liked so I'm  using all of that I can.  

Each square is different, but with recurring themes of fabrics and shapes,  Here are the first two.

These have in common with the last quilt that the blocks are made from nine squares, but these squares are made by piecing together smaller squares and triangles.  

The pattern was published in Today's Quilting, a UK magazine, last year, by designer Lynne Goldsworthy.  My version will be more monochromatic, blues, greys, whites.

Here is a nine patch block before sewing together.  It's a challenge matching the corners and edges.    Also, I am using a crinkly fabric for the white areas, but it's too thin so I temporarily fused it to a white background fabric, which makes it like card stock.  The adhesive will wash out when I wash the final quilt, making it softer again.  

Planting a Container of Sempervivum and Sedum. 6.19.22

 Here is a container I planted with Sempervivum and Sedum a few years ago.  It thrives with almost no care, can dry out without problems, and doesn't mind winter or summer.

I decided to plant this strawberry pot with similar starts from around the yards.

The sedums are cuttings.  Just cut pieces from existing plants and poke them into the soil.  They root quickly with no other effort.  I do cut off the growing tips so they will branch and fill in.  Sempervivums are splits from my original plant.  They don't have many roots but will establish just fine.  There are a couple more pockets to plant, plus a second strawberry pot.

Envol Potatoes and Four O'Clocks. 6.19.22

 Here is my row of Envol, and my row of Four O'Clocks.

Both are pretty lush.  I think the potatoes should be ready to start digging soon,

Potato Flowers. 6.19.22

 The Red potatoes from Safeway are blooming.

So are the Envol, a white early potato.

Dwarf Tomatoes, Tying Them To Support Stakes. 6.19.22

The dwarf tomatoes are growing beautifully, with dark green, thick, lush, rugose leaves.   Some of the plants were leaning over so I put in stakes (willow poles) and tied them up.  The names are in the photos.  

Pawpaws, Grapes, Persimmon Buds. 6.19.22

 Some of the shorter grape vines are being eaten off by deer. The taller ones that I renovated are doing very well this year.  This is Buffalo - a dark purple grape with flavor like Concord, that ripens well here.

A few of the pawpaw flowers that I cross pollinated, "took".  Like certain fig varieties, Pawpaws like to fool you and make you think they will bear, then they all fall off.  Still, these are the first clusters in a few years. 

This one is the variety "Mango", which has never borne fruit for me before.

This was the variety "Sunflower", but it died to the roots.  Then the rootstock grew snd this year it bloomed.

This is the variety "NC-1".  I think two flowers each may have one fruit each, if they grow.

This is the NC-1 tree, which is really more of a bush (the others are also bushy). I don't think pawpaws usually do well here.  The tops of most of mine died in a few years, then new ones grew from the roots.  I think they might be better grown as large bushes, on their own roots and sending up new shoots to replace ones that die off.

The persimmons have lots of flower buds now.  That probably means a good crop this year.

Flowers. 6.19.22

 Sarracenias.

Itoh Peony.  This was one I moved last sinter into the meditation garden.

Annual Shirley Poppies.  These are self-sow from poppies I grew last year or two years ago.

Alstroemerias.  I planted these from divisions, last year.

Sisyrichium - kind of an odd plant.  

Elderberry

Fig Update. Yellow Jacket Traps. 6.19.22

 Some of the figs are starting to swell, especially Desert King, Lattarula, and Brunswick.  I installed three yellow jacket traps.  Yellow jackets tunnel through the figs at about the moment they ripen, so when you pick a fig, you get a ball of angry yellow jackets.  They are voracious and destroy the entire crop, leaving nothing.

So far I haven't seen any, but not taking any  chances.

These are on Desert King.

These are on Lattarula.

These are on Brunswick.

If those Brunswick figs stay on the tree and ripen, it would be one of the best crops of that variety tbat I have had.  They are really good, too, and the largest of my fig varieties.  

Mission Fig Walnut Oat Bars. 6.18.22

 It's been raining and I have also been having contractors over for home repairs that I can't do.  Today I stayed in and rested.  I missed baking bread and cookies, so made these fig bars.  Mission figs are one of my favorite flavors.

This recipe came from the Betty Crocker website, here.  I followed that recipe as exactly as I could.

These came out very good.  I think they need to sit overnight to mellow a bit.  They are more figgy than a Fig Newton, very rich.  A bit crumbly.  I think this could be made in a blind baked pie crust, which would be a little less sweet, but hold together better, and the flavor would be something of a hybrid of pecan pie, shoo-fly pie, and figs.

Completed Water Feature. 6.11.22

 Here is the completed water feature.  I re-sealed the planter using white rubber sealer, sat it on an old bird bath stand, added water and a self-contained solar fountain.

It's nice hearing the water tinkle as I putter around the kitchen garden.

Orange Sugar Cookies. 6.8.22

 In keeping with the baking substitutions and space cadet theme, I also made some orange sugar cookies.  These were the same as the lemon sugar cookies that were so tasty previously, except I used an orange for zest and juice, instead of a lemon.   I don't have any butter on hand so I substituted shortening in equal amount for butter, and again used some butter extract for flavor.

Well.  

The cookie dough was less moist than before and wouldn't roll into balls.  Just kind of flaked apart. I formed them as  best I could and baked a batch.

Well.

They didn't spread out like before.  The cookies did rise and expand.   Plus, they were no where near done in the expected twelve minutes, and I wound up baking five more minutes.   They were halfway between a drop cookie and those Christmas cookies that are rolled in powdered sugar.  So, I decided to make rolled cookies out of the second half of the dough.  I rolled them out and used a cookie cutter to make the second batch.  I've never made cookie-cutter cookies before, so I can now congratulate myself on another milestone LOL.

The last one got pressed with a pie dough press just for fun.

They won't get thrown out in the trash.  Not as good as those previous lemon cookies.  The orange flavor is subtle.  I drank the left over juice, and really, the juice wasn't that strong orange flavor either, and the zest wasn't as zesty as with the lemons.  Texture wise, these were light, had a nice moist, tender "crumb", especially the drop ones.  The rolled out cookie cutter cookies would have benefited from a frosting.   They weren't bad either but didn't make me jump up and down and dance with joy.

Afterward, I realized I had the oven at 350 F instead of 375 F.  Oops.

Maybe I'll go back to the drawing board and try again, except with butter as the cookie recipe originator intended.  Bake at the correct temperature.  The orange flavor is there,  but subtle.  More zest?  Or orange extract?

Whole Wheat Molasses Date Yeast Bread. 6.8.22

 Today I celebrated the filing-of-the-propane-tank (at DOUBLE the cost two years ago OMG not LOL) by baking bread and cookies.  I used the recipe for white sandwich bread, and made the following substitutions:

The white sandwich bread called for 3 cups of bread flour.  That is too much so I have reduced by 1/4 cup.  This time, I substituted 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of white bread flour.  So this one had 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 3/4 cups unbleached white bread flour.

I also substituted 2 tbsp dark molasses for the 2 tbsp sugar.

I used canola instead of butter, avoiding some animal fats.   Added 1/2 tsp butter extract for flavor,

I also did a space cadet thing and used 1/2 cup each milk and water, but the water should have been 3/4 cup.  I don't think it mattered much, because I try to knead for consistency and not just measure.  Plus, the molasses added some moisture.

Then I added about 1/3 cup chunks of Medjul dates.  I added those after the mixer kneading step, flattened out the dough, spread half of the dates, rolled it up, spread out the other half, then rolled it up and kneaded a couple more times.

Other than those changes, it's almost the same as the King Alfred White Sandwich Loaf recipe LOL.

I think the second rise was a little too much - it fell a little while baking.  It was an hour rise, but maybe 50 min would be better (or I judged height of risen loaf based on expectation with a little more dough due to the liquids issue).  Even so, this was quite a tasty loaf, moist, great texture.  Really nice, and with a little tweaking will probably be even better. 

Dwarf Tomato Updates. 6.6.22

 With so much rain, the paper mulch under the dwarf tomatoes was deteriorating.  I think it's needed because they don't have modern hybrid fungal resistance built in.  Much tomato fungal disease  comes from splashing spores from soil to leaves during rain and watering.  The paper mulch prevents that.

So, I made a cardboard mulch from Amazon boxes.  The cardboard mulch should last the summer.  If the rains stop and I need to turn on the drip irrigation, that's no problem.  The drip emitters are under the mulch.

After growing season is over, the cardboard can be composted.  Easy.  

I also used the opportunity to give the tomatoes a dose of tomato fertilizer.  They actually look nice and deep green, so I think most are doing well.  There are a couple of stragglers, notably Brandyfred.  That is different from last year.

  Extreme Dwarf.

New Big Dwarf.

Dwarf CC McGee.

Dwarf Champion Improved.

Golden Dwarf Champion

Livingston Dwarf Stone.

Reisentraube.  I don't know that this is a dwarf variety, but it's not putting on much height so far.

One nice thing about the cardboard mulch is I can use a sharpie to label the plants.  I don't know if the ink will last the summer - it's fading on some plants I mulched with kraft paper.