Our seedlings are indeed seedlings!

As usual I'm a bit overdue to write about what is happening with our little seedlings - but what can you do? I did take some photos of them on March 18th which was about a month after they'd been planted. As you may notice, the zucchini were sprouting like weeds and most of the tomato seeds had popped up as well.



I took some new photos this morning because we already needed to start replanting some of the seeds, separating out some of the weaklings and putting the seedlings into bigger pots.

Sorry the photos are so dark but we had a bit too much sun coming in the window and I'll never complain about that! It's absolutely springlike here right now and we're savoring every moment of it!

These are mostly tomato plants and the shelves are certainly going to need to be split apart soon - or the plants moved to the greenhouse already which would also be wonderful.


The 4 big pots on left are the Fordhook zucchini from Burpee (which are growing massively quick!) Then in the smaller pots are two Defender zucchini plants which we grew last year and liked quite a bit and Small Sugar pumpkins from Burpee.


What we've learned so far is if we are going to use newspaper pots again (which is likely) we probably shouldn't put more than one or maybe 2 seeds of each plant into the pots. It defeats the whole purpose of being able to just put the whole pot in the ground. And, if you will use these pots, start making them far in advance of when you will plant so you have plenty of them and don't need to make 100 or so in one day - it's really not that fun, especially when doing it by yourself!

Hope your gardens are also off to a wonderful start!

Do you tweet??

So I've jumped on the microblogging platform and have been using twitter for a couple months now. I must admit I find a lot more to say when I'm "tweeting" as Ayla than I do for myself...but I also have no friends to interact with which just makes it BORING. So I'm seeking some garden tweeters, self-sufficiency tweeters and all others who enjoy reading my blog(s) and just want to see what sort of random things come through my head from time to time

You can see my most recent tweets on the right side of this blog - or you can visit my twitter profile: http://twitter.com/txblond

What we got from Burpee

So I've mentioned that we got seeds from Burpee a few times now...and you may be wondering what we ordered...so here goes - it's a LONG list, I know. But the seeds there cost a fraction of the price here, especially for chili seeds so even with shipping them over here, it's totally worth it. Plus you can't find okra seeds here....

We mostly stuck to heirloom varieties. It's a farm garden, after all, and after we had a bunch of hybrids last year, we realized that the taste of them really wasn't all that great. So we expect that our results this year will be massively better - and at least better tasting.

Now we just need a bit of good weather over one of the next few weekends so we can get our beds in order finally! We did have a short 2 hour session weeding, emptying the plants from our greenhouse and churning up one of the big beds....but the others are in bad shape and we've never leveled the ground so we have some work to do before we can plant all this yummy stuff in the ground!

• Hot Pepper Jalapeño Gigante
• Bush Bean White Half Runner
• Brussels Sprouts Tasty Nuggets Hybrid
• Pak Choi Joi Choi
• Cucumber Picklebush (Bush, Pickling)
• Cucumber Straight Eight (Slicing)
• Cucumber Lemon (Heirloom)
• Eggplant Black Beauty Heirloom
• Lettuce Looseleaf Heatwave
• Mesclun Salad Fresh Cutting Mix
• Cantaloupe Hale's Best (Heirloom)
• Okra Clemson Spineless
• Sweet Pepper Chinese Giant
• Sweet Pepper Carnival Hybrid Mix
• Hot Pepper Hot Lemon (Heirloom)
• Hot Pepper Jalapeno
• Hot Pepper Habaner
• Pumpkin Small Sugar (Heirloom)
• Pumpkin Rouge Vif d'Etampes
• Zucchini Burpee's Fordhook
• Winter Squash Vegetable Spaghetti
• Gourd Small Fancy Mix
• Gourd Big Mix
• Gourd Luffa
• Tomato Black Krim (Heirloom)
• Tomato Druzba (Heirloom)
• Tomato Brandywine
• Spinach Baby's Leaf Hybrid
• Celery Tall Utah 52-70 Improved
• Dianthus Ipswich Pinks
• Tomato Big Rainbow (Heirloom)
• Tomato Fresh Salsa
• Tomato Gardener's Delight (Cherry)
• Tomato Burpee's Long-Keeper
• Tomato Roma VF
• Watermelon Sugar Baby

And we got a free pack of Sunflower Cutting Mix seeds....with all we ordered I kinda felt like I deserved more...but we also got a $5 coupon for our next order so that's cool too.

In addition to all the seeds, I did get tempted to buy one gadget - a sunlight calculator. You can set it anywhere outdoors for at least 12 hours during the day and it will tell you how much sun it gets during the day so you know what can/should be planted there. This is quite practical for our garden since it sits behind the barn and I honestly don't have time to go back there once an hour to see what's happening...nor will I remember to do that. So I'm interested to finally get some sunny days so we can see just how much sun we're getting around the yard there!

Starting seeds in newspaper pots

Because this is a blog about becoming more self-sufficient and "green" in general, I had a brain storm...well it actually resulted when I was feasting on the Burpee seed catalog and noticed a little gadget they have to assist in the making of newspaper pots. We get 4 free newspapers delivered to our house each week - whether we want them or not. That is a a LOT of newspaper going directly into our recycle bin each week so when I realized I could actually be doing something useful with the stuff I was pretty excited.

Because my order with Burpee was already huge, I thought I would do some googling to see if someone had a way to make newspaper pots without some expensive little gadget. I found quite a few people talking about using various sizes of tin cans to wrap with paper and then taping or stapling the bottom...but I didn't want a piece of tape or a staple to get out of the pot when it becomes time to put them in the ground. And obviously with them being made of newspaper, I don't anticipate that it will be too easy to get the plant out of the pot when the time comes.

So I kept looking around and came across a great tutorial describing how to make origami newspaper pots...talk about perfect. If you do decided to visit this page and use this tutorial, remember to keep looking at the photos when you are making the pots. You will probably end up lost like I was on my first couple attempts to make these. The instructions are great but the author doesn't always describe clearly enough when he flips the paper here and there...so you just need to read and look and read and look again...his photos really bring it all together.

With that being said, origami in general doesn't seem to be the easiest thing in the world...but I made 50 of these pots in an hour or so and after two successful pots I tossed the instructions aside and just went into machine mode. I did attempt to get my husband in on the game since there were SO many to make...but after two rather slow successes, he gave up on it saying that he's never been very good at origami in the first place. But I did appreciate his effort!

So just what does it look like when you have 50 of these little suckers sitting around on a shelf??



Something like this. We brought this shelf in from the barn and placed it in the kitchen by our big doors to the courtyard. This gets a decent amount of sun during the day and is mostly out of the way...except when the dog comes in with her big, crazy tail. She already destroyed one pot that we had cayenne seeds in...we haven't determined whether it was an accident or an act of malice - but that's a pretty decent track record so far.

We did a major planting with our new seeds on March 9th (last Sunday) and are waiting for the first seeds to pop up. Nothing showing just yet but it shouldn't be too much longer now!

Meatball Subs - you know you love them!

A good meatball sub can be hard to find...and one key part of making them yourself is being certain that your meatballs are not too big and not too small. And of course you want to use a tasty tomato sauce as well or the sandwich just won't taste good in general. Somehow, I managed to fulfill those requirements when I made these the other day and they turned out awesome (although I think with homemade tomato sauce they will be SO much better!)

I took a few suggestions from the comments about the recipe and made a few simple modifications (like using mozzarella instead of provolone because I just can't seem to find it here in Germany) - but this is an excellent easy recipe for some incredibly tasty meatball sandwiches. Next time, instead of eating them two days in a row, I may just freeze the extra meatballs and sauce for another night.


Meatball Sandwich
Source: AllRecipes.com
Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound ground beef
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 French baguette
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  
• 1 pinch salt, or to taste
• 1 pinch of pepper, or to taste
  
• 1 (14 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 4 slices provolone cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, gently mix by hand the ground beef, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and egg. Shape into 12 meatballs, and place in a baking dish.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cooked through. Meanwhile, cut the baguette in half lengthwise, and remove some of the bread from the inside to make a well for the meatballs. Brush with olive oil, and season with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Slip the baguette into the oven during the last 5 minutes of the meatball's time, or until lightly toasted.
4. While the bread toasts, warm the spaghetti sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. When the meatballs are done, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the sauce. Spoon onto the baguette and top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Return to the oven for 2 to 3 minutes to melt the cheese. Cool slightly, cut into servings, and enjoy!

Bringing Miami to Germany

My husband and I lived in Miami for about 4 years and there were many fantastic foods there, influenced by the large Cuban population in the area. One of our favorites was always Cuban Sandwiches - or "Media Noche" (Spanish for midnight).

Since we've lived here we've had cravings for them from time to time...but finding somewhere that makes them was not just as easy as walking across the street to the neighborhood bodega. So I finally decided to see if I could find a recipe for them...and I was extremely happy with the results! I found a great recipe on AllRecipes.com (where else, right?) which is simply called Cuban Midnight Sandwich. We liked the sandwiches so much that we had them both Saturday night and Sunday for lunch if that tells you anything.

Are they just like they used to be in Miami? Stefan says yes but I personally can't remember the exact flavor. Will we be making them again? Definitely! They are quick and simple which is a major plus for us during busy work weeks.

Here's the recipe in case it doesn't work on the other site with the modifications we made (which were very few this time around):


Cuban Midnight Sandwiches
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 5 tablespoons Italian dressing
• 2 baguettes, ends cut off and split lengthwise
• 4 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 1/2 pound thinly sliced deli turkey meat
• 1/2 pound thinly sliced cooked ham
• 1/2 pound thinly sliced Swiss cheese
• 1 cup dill pickle slices

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, mix together mayonnaise and Italian dressing. Spread baguettes with mayo mixture and mustard. On each roll, arrange layers of turkey, ham, and cheese. Top each with dill pickle slices. Close sandwiches.
2. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Place sandwiches in skillet. Cook sandwiches for 2 minutes, pressing down with a plate covered with aluminum foil. Flip, and cook for 2 more minutes, or until cheese is melted. Remove from heat, place on plates, and cut in half diagonally.

Burpee seeds are on their way...

I FINALLY placed our order today for a huge collection of Burpee seeds. Athough this will be our first experience with them, I've heard fantastic things and found so many things in their catalog that I wanted to try out. It's mostly tomato and chili plants but also okra and a few other heirloom varieties. We're trying to avoid the hybrids this year because most of the ones we tried last year just ended up having no flavor...and since this is an old farm and we're attempting to go more organic, we thought it would just be appropriate. Unfortunately they don't seem to allow shipping to Germany (or anywhere outside the US) on their website so I will have to ship them twice...but all I care at this point is that they get her quickly so I can start planting. We're very close to the deadline of starting seedlings so it's time to step up.

Another reason we're ordering seeds from the US is because seeds here in Germany are massively more expensive...and "special" plants like okra and chilies can't be found or cost two euros or more for 6 seeds (as was the case for our Jalepeno seeds!)

When the seeds do finally arrive, I'm thinking of going with a more labor intensive (but probably cheaper) approach for sprouting them and will make my own newspaper pots. There are little gizmos available to simplify this and a few guides online to making them with tape, staples and so on...but I would prefer to just have them with nothing so I can drop them into the ground or in containers later and let them grow on!

By chance I found a nice origami-style tutorial on making these pots with great step-by-step instructions and photos.