Will the real Irish Gardeners please stand up?!

Today was potato day! With names like my family has, I was afraid to be downright embarrassed if I came up empty handed, so you can imagine my delight when we discovered there was indeed actual potatoes growing in my experimental potato-straw cages! (Although remember when my husband torched my potato cages? This was going to be my excuse if we came up empty handed today :))

Here is a photo taken before we started. I have 3 potato cages filled with straw. The vines died back a couple of weeks ago on the two cages on the left. The one on the right is still green so Sailor/Farmer/Husband will be home to experience the fun when that one is ready.

Everything else went pretty much as the way I had planned. In theory, I would simply lift the chicken wire off, and the straw would spill out revealing the potatoes. It actually worked! I wasn't even sure what to expect as far as yield since this is the first time I have grown potatoes, but I decided I would be happy if I got at least a couple of dinners worth.

Here are the kids sifting through the straw. Along with potatoes they found 1 slug, 2 toads, and a couple of worms. Nothing too scary was in there! (I have to admit I was a little freaked at what might be living in there due to the air pockets in the straw and close proximity to the compost piles!)

The yield: 4.03 lbs Rose Finn Fingerling Potatoes!

I know my husband will be reading this from afar and wondering if he won't get to taste them - don't worry...there is one more potato cage waiting just for you! I plan on steaming or boiling a few tonight with a little butter, salt & pepper and fresh parsley, yum!

Not so impressive: below are the raspberries I found after I ripped the squash vines off my berry patch!

I did get a little bit accomplished today besides the potatoes so it was a good day. Although the humidity was 80 some percent, the temps stayed in the 80's and the sun stayed behind the clouds, so I was able to rip out my strawberry bed before the thunderstorms chased me inside and now I have 2 empty raised beds! (My area is known for all types of berries, so I will leave future strawberries up to the pick-your-own farms, since they take up so much space all year for a small harvest window). Oh, the possibilities of empty beds....you gardeners know what I am talking about! I can't wait to sit down with my seeds and catalogs and plan for the next season. A planning session and fresh ideas are just what I need to lift my spirits during this oppressive heat wave.

Tomorrow morning starts with a date with friends to pick blueberries at the farm. Gotta love blueberries, they are so easy! Pick, eat, freeze whole. SIMPLE!

June Gardening

So now that hubby is gone, I can shake myself off and start again! Thanks to all your kind words and a "me night" last night, today was a better day. Last night I vegged out in front of the TV, painted my toenails, gave myself the "gardeners manicure" (short cut, dig out dirt, sugar scrub, cornhuskers lotion, lol!), had a glass of wine and enjoyed the quiet after the kids went to bed. Today I didn't do much outside since it was hot as hell and humid, but I got my kitchen organized, which I had been putting off since it has been nice out up until now. The past week and last weekend were very busy, however, and we got alot done although much of it was overdue chores and general cleanup. I ripped out the peas the other day and am so in love with the empty clean raised bed that I haven't put my edamame in there yet! This weekend I will do that.

One beautiful not-overgrown raised bed in the foreground...Enjoy while you can!

Shallots are like a toaster when they are done! I will pull them this evening...

Here's a pic of the purple grapes which due to the birds, I am sure that I will not get to see turn purple...

And, as promised...the torched Rose Finn Fingerling Potatoes... oh, yes - this was an "accident"! Sailor/Husband thought he would help me weed by using his flame thrower around the cages FILLED WITH STRAW!!!!! I may have to send him to some kind of basic training for gardeners, right after he finishes fire safety class...! I will let them be and have camera in hand when I try and harvest. Who knew you could grow BAKED Potatoes??? This is one of those things that definitely was not funny when it happened, but thinking about his face when I saw what he had done makes me chuckle now - he was a'scared of me that night.

Here's the gates hubby finally finished. Yay! There's another set just like it on the other side of the house. He built a big overhang so I can grow hops or some other vine up and over it. Kinda reminds me of "Southfork"! Ooops, there I go showing my age again...

And here is the border I finally finished along the fenceline. I planted some evergreen Clematis that should provide complete coverage/privacy by next year. This time I was smart and used landscape fabric instead of just cardboard. The BermudaGrass here is awful and will grow through almost anything.

So now I am going to get those kids in bed. I am going to go out to the garden armed with a glass of wine and bug spray and pull those shallots...

OCD Friday

Lettin' my obsessive/Type A freak-flag fly today!  It seems that whenever my husband is due home from the ship I always get in the mood to organize things just prior.  I am not quite sure why, since I will spend the first day pointing all my accomplishments out to him because he will not notice them otherwise, he is just happy to be in a bed that isn't directly under the catapult of the flight deck and have clean laundry.  Apparently he supports my OCD personality, because last year for Mother's Day I got...a labelmaker!  Yes, folks, not a day at the spa but at least a step up from a broom, lol!  Actually it turned out to be the perfect gift especially since I started canning last year.  Today I finally got around to making my "freezer inventory".  This has been on my mind ever since I started freezing our garden produce, but became an absolute necessity since we picked up our beef share last week.  I have a small deep freeze we purchased last year and it is now packed to the lid!  Now instead of unpacking all the contents every day to see what I can drum up for dinner, I just "shop" by looking at my list posted on my fridge.  I can update it when it becomes a mess and print out a new one!  I just cross off what I take and use it also to make my grocery list.  Pretty simple really, but one of those things I kept putting off.  

And another adventure I couldn't miss... the grand opening of the new "Trader Joe's" here in Virginia Beach.  We were here at opening time, mostly because I knew there would be alot of giveaways and it's right down the street from our house.  We got a couple of free reusable shopping bags and some cookies, then stocked up on "Two Buck Chuck" Shiraz and beat feet outta there.  Before today, the nearest one was about an hour away near one of our airports, so I would visit in conjunction with my mom or husband flying in or out!  So the freak flags were flying here too...check out the mob scene:

The first of the radishes were picked yesterday.  Now if I could just learn to like them...

Here are some miscellaneous things going on around "the Estate"...

Baby bunches of grapes, aren't they cute?

Finally!  The potatoes are doing something!

The new Colonnade apple trees are actually growing!

Clematis is enjoying our weather right now

Remember licking the beaters when you were a kid?  That's one good thing about getting old, we get the BOWL now!!!

That's probably it for weekend posts here.  Sailor/Farmer comes home very soon so I will be busy working and doing things that he won't notice, and will most likely spend Mother's Day mowing the lawn :)

Have a good weekend y'all, and Happy Mother's Day!

Almost forgot...anyone have any experience with "The Food Saver"?  Would love to hear your reviews/experiences before I purchase anything!