Fried Chicken

I hope the chickens are adjusting to our rapidly increasing temperatures. I've been seeing lots of open mouth breathing and floppy wings lately (signs of being hot). Luckily they have shady spots all day long to rest in as well as the garage coop to take refuge. They have also taken to digging up the ground to reach cooler soil (I wonder how much longer there will be grass in their enclosure).

First Farmer's Market Results

I meant to mention something sooner about my first farmer's market of the season last Saturday, but I've been quite busy (my comprehensive exams start in 13 days). The market was very hot and muggy. I'm not sure if that was the cause of the lack of customers, but market traffic seemed very sparse. 

Here are some photos to recap the day:

Multi-directional onion...not sure what's going on here. I took four bunches of green onions and came home with four bunches of green onions. At least my parents were happy when they received a giant bag of green onions the next day.

Salad mix with lettuce, arugula and mizuna. I sold all three bags I took. 

I was surprised that I was the only vendor selling salad mix so far. I guess I must have gotten my lettuce planted earlier than everyone else.

Bouquet of cilantro. I sold most of the bunches of cilantro too.

Here are all the crates of perennials and vegetable seedlings waiting to be loaded into the car. I was disappointed by how few of them I sold, yet I still made slightly more than my average market day last year. I'm planning on donating everything that's left after this coming Saturday's market to a local community garden 

Found Object Garden Art

I found a disassembled baby crib on the side of the road a few years back.

I turned the crib (which I lovingly refer to as a baby cage) into a decorative fence at my parent's house. I quick hose down removed all the mystery stickiness and new coat of paint made it really pop out of the garden!

Scarlet Runner Beans growing on the baby crib fence.

The purple columbines (which I have since transferred to my house) looked great with the purple backdrop.

I even used the springs from the crib for growing snow peas.

On Tap for the Farmer's Market

Here's the complete list of what I'll be selling at the farmer's market this Saturday. Hopefully the weather will hold out and the customers will come in swarms!

Fresh Produce:

cilantro

chives

green onions

(I wish there were more options in this category, but spring is so far behind this year)

Perennial Flowers:

daylily

golden marguerites

yarrow

sedum

lamium

salvia

chrysanthemum

wild ginger

lamb's ears

bearded iris

Houseplants:

spider plant

cat grass

Vegetable Transplants:

heirloom tomato

cucumber

zucchini

pattypan

melon

Herb Transplants:

cilantro

basil

chives

rosemary 

Farmer's Market Finds

I attended our local Wednesday farmer's market (there are actually quite a few farmer's markets in my area) and came home with a wonderful loaf of rosemary potato bread, a pound of raw honey (which I drizzled on the bread), and the two heirloom tomato seedlings I mentioned yesterday (Creme Brulee, and Chocolate Stripes).

I'm happy that farmer's market season is started up now. Not only will I get to try new things at other markets, but I'll make a little money at my own market stand.

I Can't Believe I Did It Again

I can't believe I bought two more tomato seedlings at the farmer's market yesterday. But how can you resist names like 'Creme Brulee' and 'Chocolate Stripes'? I'm big into black tomatoes, so these will surely add to my collection.

In addition, I received an Orange Sungold from a friend. This will be the one and only hybrid in my garden this year, but I hear it is delicious.

Now my total tomato count is up to at least 115 plants (including 22 varieties). Many of these are for my parents, my brother and his girlfriend, or for the farmer's market (which starts Saturday, by the way). However, that still leaves 56 plants (including 21 varieties) for my personal garden. Good thing I expanded my garden so much this year.

A small portion of last year's haul.

It's gonna be a good summer...

Bearded Iris

I'm not really sure where this white iris came from. I was shocked when I discovered it in my front border. It must be a sport from my dark purple iris. Can this happen?

The flowers on this white iris are huge and pure white.

Here are the dark purple iris that I think must have given rise to the white iris. These purple iris came from my parent's house (which came to them from a neighbor). I love how plants migrate through people.

I've had dark purple columbine revert to white a couple years ago, so maybe this can happen. I don't like the white ones, but I can't bring myself to pull them out.

This light purple iris came with the house. I have a ton of it and it's gorgeous every year!

This peachy colored iris also came with the house. It used to be on the side of the house in the shade. It wasn't flowering well, so I moved it to the front border. I was surprised that it flowered this spring considering I just transplanted it a couple months ago.