Foraging

Ok that title may be a little deceptive. Over my busy weekend in Richmond, I spent some quality time with my mom and part of that involved walking my parents' property. 

It started because I was looking through my dad's collection of veggie seeds and I found a couple of old big bags of flower seed mixes. My mom and I decided to spread them outside in hopes of some pretty blooms over the summer. 

We ventured through the path in the woods down to the garden, spreading the wildflower seed bag along the path. I found a four-leaf clover (it got cut off the bottom of the picture) while my mom got a little harvest of asparagus. My dad hasn't had a chance to start the garden up for the year so that asparagus was just some that popped up from last year! I love a garden that produces year round!

So we walked through the garden for a bit, looking for asparagus and trying to identify any other odd plants. I pulled off some stems of an asparagus plant that had gone to seed (far left) and I'm going to let it dry out and collect the seeds.

The middle plant is a bunch of wild green onions. I don't know much about them but that I've always considered them a weed. I've never heard that they're harmful to eat so we picked a bunch and my mom said they'd try them in salads. But hey, if they taste good, weed shmeed! It's free food!

The purple flowers are what we call money plant but they're also called honesty or the silver dollar plant. You can't see any of the seed pods in the picture but they are round and flat, hence the name. They spread pretty quickly but are really pretty. If nothing else, I think they're a really cool plant to gift to someone. 

The far right is some ivy that was growing near the woods so I dug it up too. I love ivy! 

Picking all this just got me excited for when I'll be able to harvest my little patio garden! Can't wait!

Have you ever picked and eaten wild onion? Do you consider it a weed or a veggie?

Till next time,

Catherine

Adding Ground Flax to Bulk Your Bread!

About 6 months ago I attempted making healthy whole wheat bread by hand. My first try didn't go so well but after that I must have gotten the hang of it because ever since I feel like each new loaf is an improvement on the last! You can find my original recipe and bread endeavors HERE.  

One of the things that I find essential is adding honey. It gives the bread a little sweetness that goes perfectly with a sandwich or toast or anything! Lately I've also been adding a bunch of ground flax seeds.

The dough is brown because I always use whole wheat flour. If you look close you can see some of the ground flax. 

Here's a better view. I didn't add all that much the first time because I was afraid it would be too noticeable but it's not at all! 

My first loaves with added ground flax were so perfect and delicious! 

Baked to perfection! Golden brown in all the right places! These loaves don't look all that big but I think the flax actually makes them larger too!

Now I dump a lot of flax into the dough. Probably 1/2 a cup? Not sure. I just pour. 

If you make your own bread, I would recommend adding ground flax because it's so healthy for you but your family probably won't even notice it's there! Flax seeds are rich in fiber and omega-3 fatty acids and they're low in carbs! You can't go wrong adding them! You can find ground flax just about anywhere these days. I actually got mine from Big Lots believe it or not! It was Bob's Red Mill ground flax and it was about half of what it normally costs. What a score! Plus it was a huge bag that is lasting me forever! 

I have whole flax seeds as well but I feel like ground flax is easier to add into foods without people being like, "Eww what's this???" I like to be sneaky when I add in healthy foods. Hehe. What they don't know, helps them! I think next time I'll use ground flax and then a small handful of whole flax seeds as well. Ooh maybe I'll buy some oats and make my own honey oat nut bread! Mmm!

How do you use flax seeds? Do you prefer whole or ground? Also, did you catch my two accidental rhymes? I should be a poet! Not. 

Till next time,

Catherine

DIY: Pallet Garden for less than $20 (including seeds!)

Anyone wondering why in the world I've got old pallets on my patio?? To make a pallet garden!! 

(source)

That's not mine! That's the original image that I found on Pinterest ages ago. Since then I've seen it all over Facebook too. I'm sure you've seen it or a variation of it. Without even seeing tutorials, I figured it couldn't be much more difficult than stapling landscaping paper onto the bottom and sides. Sure enough I was right! Click HERE for another tutorial that I loosely followed. 

Some of you may know from previous posts that Brian and I live in a lovely little townhouse. We really do love it and it's a wonderful place to live but it's limiting when it comes to wanting to doing more permanent things like fencing a yard for the dogs or planting a garden. 

But, I've decided while I may be limited, I'm still going to grow as much as I can on our little patio! I've got the pallet garden and multiple plants and veggies growing in pots. I want to prove that even in small spaces it's possible to grow your own food! It's double challenging because my dad is the one with the green thumb in the family, not me! Although I'm passionate about growing things so hopefully that will make up for my lack of skills! We'll see!

Ok I know it doesn't look like much, but I did all seeds for the pallet garden, no transplants. I'll write update posts as the seeds sprout and grow!

What you'll need:

• Potting soil 
• Landscaping paper
• Staple gun and lots of staples
• Pallet(s)
• Seeds

I got all of this at Ollie's Bargain Outlet for $15! The potting soil was only $2 a bag and the landscaping fabric (4ft x 50ft) was only $7. They had multiple lengths and sizes to choose from. The width was perfect for these pallets and I was glad to find only 50ft rather than having to spend bookoo bucks on hundreds of feet we wouldn't be needing! 

My pallets I got for FREE at Lowe's! I had been wondering for months where to get pallets for cheap or free. They seem to be everywhere but not easily accessible. So I thought, anyways. I called up my nearby Lowe's store and asked if they sell or give away old pallets. At first the customer service agent said they sold them but when he asked someone else about the price, he found out they give them away for free! Now I don't know for sure if every Lowe's does this but I'd say just call and ask around. 

I also read online that you should look for serial numbers stamped on them with "HT" on it which stands for "heat treated' rather than chemical treated. We couldn't find stamps anywhere on any of the pallets we got so hopefully they're the former rather than the latter. 

When we drove around back to pick them up we found multiple sizes which turned out to be perfect! I thought the full sized pallets would be too big for our patio but we found two that were about half the size of a regular pallet and even one mini pallet! Jackpot! 

Directions:

Flip your pallet so that whichever side you want to be the BOTTOM is facing up. I wanted neat little rows so I used the more open side as the bottom. Roll out your landscaping paper so that it meets every edge.

Now staple, staple, staple! No one's going to see the bottom so just staple away. It doesn't need to look cute. 

Staples everywhere. 

To make sure every side is covered, roll the landscaping paper the opposite direction of the first layer then staple away. 

Fold up the corners and staple them until they're nice and secure. Brian and I actually did a total of 3 landscaping paper layers. I think as long as you do 2 you're ok. I was just worried because it seems so thin and I didn't want anything ripping. 

Now it's all done and ready for soil and seeds!

Remember, it doesn't have to be pretty, just functional. 

Add your soil and spread it evenly under the slats. 

Get your seeds or plants ready! I chose spinach, broccoli and a mixture of 5 lettuces. 

Fancy lettuce blend seeds.

Plant the seeds and water according to the directions on the seed packet. Since the soil was loose I simply dragged my trowel and made a trench about an inch deep and dropped the seeds in. The pups were out enjoying the evening too. No worries, they're attached to a yard stake so they're not going anywhere. 

Oh and don't forget your super sophisticated vegetable marking system. Sigh. I'll make something nicer eventually!

The two left sections are spinach, the middle is broccoli and the two on the right are the lettuce mix. 

And there you have it! A pallet garden for less than $20! It could even be free if you have your own compost and seeds saved from years past! I'm so excited to grow our own food! I can hardly wait to post pictures when they start sprouting! 

We've also got a strawberry plant and 4 roma tomato plants in pots. I bought green beans as well but still need to plant those. I'm really considering getting blueberry bushes too. Can I just have one of everything??

(source)                                        (source)

Yep these memes are pretty accurate about now. 

Oh and I know the potting soil I got probably wasn't my best choice but it was $2...I don't know how I can refuse that. Plus, I've got another project going that will help highly fertilize my plants from now on! Can't wait to share that with you as well!

What's your favorite veggie or fruit to grow? Do you think I should get blueberry plants? Ooh or raspberry? How about both? 

Till next time,

Catherine