72. Bread, Beets and Broody Hens
Happy Memorial Day Weekend friends! It looks like it’s going to be a wet and cool weekend for us which is putting a damper on my plans to be outdoors. I’m sure I can find things to do inside my house though. This week has been a little slower for me as far as garden work but of course, there’s still always something to do. Let’s get into it.
Speaking of cool weather, this week (and really this whole month) have been cooler than years past. Normally by this point in the season, we are hitting at least 80 degrees everyday if not 85. This year there has been more 75 degree weather days and while that may not seem like a lot of difference, it definitely feels different to me. We also have not had a ton of humidity yet either which to me is a gift. I have really been enjoying this nice weather and I hope it continues for a while longer.
Snapdragons opening as my ranunculus begin to die off
I have really gotten into a rhythm with my bread making lately. I have also started branching out and making other sourdough recipes. It has taken me about 2 years to really feel comfortable with sourdough but I am so glad I stuck with it. If you want my sourdough bread recipe, you can find it here. Some honorable mentions of other recipes I have tried and loved are this roll recipe and this pizza dough recipe.
One thing I did do this week was harvest some of my beets. There were some that were more than ready but some were still on the small side. The smaller ones stayed in the ground to hopefully get bigger in the next couple weeks. I roasted and pickled the ones that I did harvest. I love pickled beets and I am excited to try out this recipe. I will probably save these for the winter simply because that’s when I crave them more so than in the summer time when there’s so many other fresh garden veggies to choose from.
I was able to spend some time this week tying up all my tomato plants. The way I grow my tomatoes is up a cattle panel trellis which requires tying the stems and branches to the trellis. I also cut off the bottom leaves of all the plants so I don’t get any splash back from the soil when it rains since this can cause a lot of issues and diseases for your plant. I also went to my church’s community garden and did the same thing. When you have around 40 tomato plants yourself plus close to 20 at the community garden , it can be time consuming to get all this done. It is one of the chores I don’t mind though if I’m being honest.
We have a chicken that has gone broody, meaning she has gone into ‘mama mode’ as I like to call it. She is currently sitting on 8 eggs that will hopefully be hatching soon. I’m excited to see how she reacts as a mama. As far as broody hens go, she has definitely been on the calm side and allowed me to mess with her if needed during this time period.
I am hopeful that the rain from this weekend makes the garden boom with growth and I have lots of updates for you next week. Until then, Happy Gardening!