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.

What's Blooming. 6.6.22

 Itoh Peony.  I moved these earlier this year, and didn't really expect for them to bloom.

Another Itoh peony.  I moved this one last summer.  It looked near dead, but here it is.

Sarracenia.

Raspberries.  With bees.

An English rose, "Happy Child"

Brugmansia. 6.5.22

 Many years ago I grew a Brugmansia for a few years.  Actually, looking back through older pists, I grew a few of them.  Somehow I let them go.  I was thinking about growing one again.  I couldn't find seeds or plants.  Last week I saw one at Tsugawa.

Here it is after I repotted it.  I wonder if it should be that pale.  I have also given it some fertilizer and now it is outside all day.

Here it is now.  Label states the variety is Charles Grimaldi, who was the first in the Grimaldi dynasty to rule the city-state of Monaco near the French Riviera.

Looking back through my notes, here were some earlier ones.  2007

Another one in 2013.

Some Annual Flowers, Update. 6.4.22

 The carnations are growing nicely.  These may be perennial in warmer or drier winters.  I don't know about here.  I think they would benefit from some warm, sunny weather.

Statice.  During chillier weather the leaves were all red.  The newer leaves are green.  They need some warm, sunny weather to get growing.

African Marigold,  I started these last week or so.  These will be big and tall.

French Marigolds.  These were from saved seeds.  I don't know why germination was so sparse.  I just now sowed a second tray with a different batch of saved seeds.

Salpiglossis.  I have never grown them before and don't know what to expect.  The seed packet flowers were very nice.

Thunbergia.  I wonder if I should have started them a month ago.  They are African plants, and I waited hoping for warmer conditions.  Germination was described in some websites as difficult.  I think about 1/3 of these germinated.  Also called "Black Eyed Susan Vine".

The sweet peas don't look like much yet.  I don't know if they will come out of it.

Yesterday and today I sowed cosmos, zinnias, various marigolds, cleome, outside.

Cosmos I sowed in containers.  Germination wasn't great, might be old seeds.  The ones I sowed outside are home saved from last year, a d sometimes they come up volunteer, so there might be more of those.

Ditto for cleome.  I don't want a lot, but re-sowed seeds in the cells with no growth so far.

Four O'Clocks, not pictured.  I'll have to do that later.  They are growing by leaps and bounds.

Growing Native Perennials From Seeds, Update. 6.4.22

 Here are some of the seedlings I started during the winter.

Rudbeckias.   I think this group is Gloriosa Daisy.  Behind them are a Coreopsis and a Ratibida.  They all look like weeds now.

Gallardias.  There is variation in vigor and leaf shape.  I don't know why.

Echinacea

Bloodflower Milkweed and some poppies.

 Oregano

More Rudbeckias and more poppies.

The poppies grew from saved seeds that I just scattered in lots of places.  Some didn't.  Poppies are annual but can self seed so thickly they crowd out some weeds.  The native milkweeds all died or were eaten.  The tropical, annual milkweeds (bloodflower) so far look pretty good.  I thought frost killed the oregano, but now it's growing great.  The echinaceas kind of lagged behind the others and vanished, but now are growing nicely.  The rudbeckias seem to be the most vigorous.  Most of the coreopsis is growing nicely too.

So far, so good.  I don't expect them all to bloom this year, but some might.  The annuals (poppies and bloodflower) should bloom mid to late summer or fall.

Planting Sweetcorn And Zinnias. Sweetcorn Update. 6.4.22

 Today I cleared two of the last three seed bed areas.    Not ideal weather, drizzle and rain.  But it's now or never.  I worked from the sides, turning over the soil, smoothed with garden rake, and planted seeds.

The first batch of sweetcorn is growing.  That was Orchard Baby.  Something is pulling up some of the corn plants, despite fencing.  My guess is birds.

Tomorrow I'll put a net over the seedlings.  I didn't think of that until now.

Edit:  The adage for planting grains and beans, is "Four seeds in a row, one for the rook, one for the crow, one will wither and one will grow."  A rook is a bird similar to a crow.  I've also seen "Four seeds in a row, one for the mouse, one for the crow, one will wither and one will grow. I decided to go out and put down a net after all.  Who knows, tomorrow the plants may all be gone, and whose fault would that be if I don't protect them?  Mine!

Flowers. 6.4.22

 Mock Orange.

Roses

Itoh Peony

Tomato Update. 6.4.22

 The dwarf tomatoes are looking pretty good.  I need to redo paper mulch, which is deteriorating due to the rains.  Maybe cardboard would be better.

Sauce tomatoes.  They are a bit behind the dwarf tomatoes, because I started them later.  The green on the right is cilantro.  The green on the left is carrots.

This is Dwarf Johnson Cherry in the grow-bag planter.  Planted later and different soil.  I gave it some Tomato fertilizer and I think it is starting to perk up.  The basil couldn't handle the chilly weather.