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"