Green Pie

It's the time of year when gardeners have plenty (that may be an understatement) of greens growing rampantly. Doesn't seem right that we can't consume more of them when come January we'd give our eye teeth to have a colander full of fresh greens.

Following is a recipe I've made for years that gets a huge bunch of greens into your family (and out of the garden) without them even realizing it. You can make it with young comfrey or kale, but our favorite is either spinach or Swiss chard. I think I like Swiss chard maybe the best, but that's just my personal preference.

Recently I took my big harvesting/canning colander and went to pick some spinach. (I used spinach because it really needed cutting and my Swiss chard is still at the baby leaf stage.) How much do you need for this recipe? I was afraid you were going to ask that. I truly don't have an accurate measurement but maybe this photo will help.

I nearly fill my big colander . . . you can see how big it is in comparison to a regular sized one. It might look like a lot for one pie (casserole, really) but remember how greens cook down.

Then chop up the greens (the pieces don't have to be small or even in size). All of the spinach leaves fit into this average sized stainless steel mixing bowl when they are chopped.

Get out your biggest skillet. Melt 1/4 cup butter in it and saute one large chopped onion for a few minutes. (Chopped garlic is also VERY good sauteed with the onions.)

Then add the chopped spinach and stir it up with the butter and onions. (This is where your big skillet comes in handy. Before the greens cook down a little, there is a huge pile of them and trying to stir and turn them at first causes pieces to fly all over the stove top, counter and floor.)

Do this until the spinach is wilted a bit. It will take only a couple of minutes. The greens do not have to be cooked through at all.

Put half of the wilted spinach and onion mixture in a pie plate.

Then add some grated cheese (a nice covering) on top of the spinach. What kind of cheese to use? What kind do you like? I made this Green Pie one half cheddar and one half mozzarella just because I was feeling adventuresome . I have some really good pepper jack cheese that I'm going to try later in the week. Use whatever you have and whatever you like. Give a good sprinkle of black pepper and garlic salt on top of the cheese.

Then add the last half of the spinach and onion mixture from the skillet.

Now beat two eggs in a small bowl, pour over ingredients in pie plate and smooth around with a fork to distribute kinda evenly.

Finish off with one more layer of grated cheese and one more sprinkle of pepper and garlic salt.

Put into pre-heated oven to bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Unless dinner time is way overdue and you're facing mass rebellion from your troops, let the pie sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting into it. If you can't wait, it might be a smidge bit watery, but no big deal.

I best like to serve Green Pie with Creamy Cucumbers but since there ain't no cucs comin' outta my garden yet, I served buttered corn as a good alternative. A little salsa on the side is nice, too. We like Green Pie cold (or room temp) for breakfast or lunch the next day, if there's any left over.

So get thee out to the garden and rassle up a passel of greens for a Green Pie for dinner soon. It's a dish you can only make with fresh greens so now's the time to enjoy it.

Pull On Your Boots

We're going for an early morning garden tour. It's still very, very wet out there but we have lots of sunshine. A little, teeny-tiny bit overcast, but I'm ignoring that and hoping we'll have enough sun to dry things up by noon so I can pick strawberries.

Yippee, my little stand of Swiss chard is big enough to harvest for a Green Pie. I think I personally prefer a Green Pie made with Swiss chard over one made with spinach. Hubby would vote for just the opposite, but we've already had several using spinach so it's time for the Swiss chard edition. Besides that I'm the cook, and I can do whatever I want. And any time anybody else wants to be the cooker, I'll gladly eat whatever he/she chooses to prepare. I never get enough of other people's good cooking and really do get tired of my own. Can any of you out there relate?

I'm so happy with my mizuna mustard greens. Love these little leaves in a tossed salad. Usually by this time of the season all my mizuna would have bolted and been done gone. Must be the rain and/or cool weather this year?

Despite lack of sunshine and warm weather, lo and behold, my zucchini plants are looking happy and healthy. Small but healthy.

The four cherry tomato plants are lush and green. I don't think the little blossoms have changed one iota in the last few weeks, but I still have hopes.

My second planting bed of lettuce is lookin' kinda purdy, don'tcha think? Growing up I never knew there was anything but iceberg lettuce. What a shame. No wonder tossed salads taste so good now when I know there is a plethora of colors, tastes, and textures of lettuce to use.

Here is a row (unthinned by the by) of Osaka Purple Mustard coming along nicely. But what is that right in the center of the row? Obviously, somebody slipped a seed into the packet that didn't belong there. Who is this foreigner? Is it some kind of radish? Needless to say, I can't pull it out until my curiosity is satisfied.

This mish-mosh of a bed is my "wild flower" bed. As it was growing, I pulled out everything that I knew for sure was a weed even leaving some that were questionable.

You probably can't tell from this picture but it looks to me like the whole bed is stuffed with only one kind of flower. (At least I hope it's a flower.) The packet said the seeds were a mixture of Bachelor's Button, Shasta Daisy, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Calliopsis, Foxglove, Purple Coneflower, Blanket Flower, Catchfly, Dame's Rocket, Blazing Star, Toadflax, Evening Primrose, Phlox, Corn Poppy, and Black-eyed Susan. Now, I am NOT a flower expert but I know what some of those look like growing and I can't find anything but the one kind of plant.

The packet was supposed to sow 25 square feet. My bed is 32 square feet so the seed shouldn't have been too crowded for some of each seed to take hold. Oh, well. Time will tell. At least something germinated this time. I think this is the third or fourth time I've tried to establish a wild flower bed without much to show for it.

Okay, time to get off my duff and make some progress on my list for the day. Hope you all have a wonderful, sunny Saturday. (But not too, too hot!) Unless you need rain, of course. If I could, I'd share some of ours with you!

Thanks Again to My Friend Betty

Winter time is oven casserole time in our house. This casserole I made last night is a bit different, but one that I've made for many, many years and both hubby and I continue to gobble it up.

Once again, I have to thank Betty Crocker for this recipe. I can't help but wonder if it was originally pulled together to use up some leftovers . . . some hot dogs, a dish of green beans that didn't get finished and that extra slice or two of bread that's always hangin' around.

If I remember correctly, the original name was "Frankfurter Supper Dish." (Does anyone call hot dogs "frankfurters" anymore?) Over the years I've come to call it "Green Bean and Hot Dog Casserole." Not very classy, but that's the name that's stuck. And so . . .

GREEN BEAN AND HOT DOG CASSEROLE

4 hot dogs (I use "chicken" hot dogs)
2 cups green beans
1 cup medium cream sauce
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (important for the flavor)
2 slices of bread, cubed
Grated cheddar cheese

Drop hot dogs in boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes. Slice into 1/2"-1" pieces. If the green beans aren't already cooked leftovers languishing in the refrig, cook them about half the usual time.

Make the cream sauce by melting 2 tablespoons butter, stirring in 2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Slowly add one cup of milk, and then the Worcestershire sauce. Cook, stirring frequently, until sauce has thickened.

Stir the cooked, sliced hot dogs and beans into the cream sauce.

Pour mixture into a pie plate. (An 8" x 8" pan seems just a smidge too big so judge your size pie plate or casserole pan accordingly.)

Cover top of casserole with bread cubes and as much grated cheese as you want. (I probably use about 3/4 cup.)

Bake uncovered in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. Serves 3-4.

Last night I served this with pickled beets which I think are a nice compliment to the creamy consistency of the casserole.

If you're making it in the summer time, serving it with fresh, sliced tomatoes and Brownies with Ice Cream for dessert would be lovely. (Boy, would it ever!)

Winter Raspberry Crumble Pie

Fear thee not, dear people. I am really not turning this into a recipe blog. It's just that we're having company for dinner tonight, and I wanted to make something special for dessert so decided on Winter Raspberry Crumble Pie, a recipe that I came up with last winter. And thinking about raspberries led me off on a tangent thinking about homestead fruits and the experience we've had raising the different kinds.

First of all, of the fruits we've grown, raspberries are my favorite. Roy thinks strawberries come straight from heaven and can't get enough of them. Both of us could get a little crazy about Concord Grapes, but to date, have not had success growing them up here in the tundra. I've tried blackberries, too, but with limited success as I think our growing season may be a little cool and short for them. We're still struggling with getting a sustainable crop from our pear, apple, and plum trees. Our blueberry bushes took forever to start producing but have done well the last two years.

If I were going to raise a fruit for a cash crop, it would be raspberries or strawberries. Blueberries, once established, are not too labor intensive but we have a lot of wild blueberries in our area, so I'm not sure there would be a wide market for the domestically grown ones. (The wild ones have a much superior flavor, to boot.)

I'm sure we could sell as many strawberries locally as we could raise. But strawberries are a lot of work. Let me repeat: Strawberries are a lot of work. Plants only bear well for 2 or three years (and that's sometimes stretching it) and then must be replaced either by new plants or you can use runners off the present plants. It's been my experience that plants started from runners are never as vigorous or prolific as new plants.

Weeds seem to love strawberries and even though I mulch with sawdust around the individual plants and with straw inbetween the rows, I'm constantly on my hands and knees fighting to keep the weeds from choking out the plants.

In our area, strawberry plants need to be covered with a thick, protective layer of straw or hay to prevent winter-kill. If you have a patch of any size, this requires a bit of mulch material. Then in the spring when they are uncovered, the old, dead, and sometimes moldy/slimy (yuck) leaves from the previous year need to be cleaned off . . . and the whole weed patrol process starts again.

Strawberries are short, squat plants so you will be either bending over at the waist or crawling along on your hands and knees when picking. Do that for a while and you'll know you've used some muscles you don't use every day. Having said all that, I don't think we'll ever be without a good sized strawberry patch in our garden. (Some people just like hassles.)

Raspberries, on the other hand, are so easy. Once planted, a raspberry bed will go on forever unless, of course, it's attacked by some kind of disastrous disease. When the snow goes in the spring and it's easy to work outside, the old canes that bore the previous year need to be cut out. That leaves the canes that grew the year before which will bear the current year. Some people don't stake their raspberries or provide any kind of trellis for them. But we seem to have healthy canes that grow 7-8' tall and they do require support so they don't blow over. I've got all kinds of plans in my files for spiffy raspberry trellises that will get constructed someday, but currently other jobs rank higher on the Must Do list. What we have found adequate is to pound in a metal stake at the end of each raspberry row. Then I tie baling twine (you need a strong twine) from one metal stake down the row to the other end metal stake. I start with two rows of twine; one about two feet off the ground and another about four feet off the ground. As the season progresses and the canes grow, I frequently add another row as high as the stakes will allow.

After pruning the raspberries first thing in the spring, I weed the whole bed, around each cane and the pathways inbetween. (I can and do use my small tiller inbetween the rows.) Then compost is applied around the canes and I mulch (usually with straw) on top of that and heavily inbetween rows. We save grass clippings all summer to replenish the mulch that seems to decompose into the soil while enriching it . . . which is a good thing. Yes, a few weeds will grow up in among the canes during the summer, but unlike the weeds in the strawberries which can quickly smother out a plant, the raspberries are not bothered. And picking raspberries is a snap, I think. I loop the bale of a bucket around a belt I wear specifically for picking. That frees both hands for picking and I'm in an upright position 95% of the time.

Because raspberries are an extremely poor shipping fruit, their price is always high. Despite this, they seem to be in demand and would be the cash fruit crop I would opt to grow.

But back to my pie for tonight which is now out of the oven. The summer of 2007 was a bumper year for our raspberries. I made some into jams, but most of them I spread out on cookie sheets and put in the freezer until they were individually frozen. Then into freezer bags they went and I had them to use all year. Lots went into our Fruit Smoothies over winter, but because we had so many in the freezer, I was consciously trying to think of ways to use them. And that leads back to the Winter Raspberry Crumble Pie I made up. I've never tried it using fresh raspberries so I can't guarantee it would come out the same as with the frozen berries. But I thought I would throw the recipe out here; you can do with it what you will.

WINTER RASPBERRY CRUMBLE PIE

1 unbaked pie shell

5 cups frozen raspberries

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour

3/4 (scant) cups sugar

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

* * * * * * *

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/4 cup butter

In bowl, sprinkle flour, sugar and lemon juice over frozen raspberries and mix. Place in unbaked pie shell.

In small bowl, mix 1/2 cup flour and the brown and white sugars. Cut in the 1/4 cup butter with a pastry blender until mixture is in uniform pieces. Sprinkle over raspberry mixture in pie shell.

Bake at 425° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and bake for another 45 minutes.

And here's the pie . . . you can have a piece if you finish all your green beans first.

Out of the Root Cellar, Into the Freezer

More notes on last season's garden harvests . . .  in the freezer.

Broccoli - I have trouble growing broccoli.  Or I should say, I have trouble growing broccoli without worms.  This past year I protected all the broccoli plants from the dreaded white cabbage moths (who have the audacity to lay their eggs from which the worms hatch in my broccoli) by covering them with our newly constructed screen cages.

How'd that work?  Well, upon soaking the freshly harvested broccoli heads in warm, salt water (to kill any worms), I'm sad to say I found the broccoli was not worm-free.  But only a few worms were sent to their demise as they floated out compared to many, many of them in years past.  So the screen cages did help.  Somewhat.  I think.

We ate a lot of fresh broccoli right from the garden, but only enough for 12 meals made it to the freezer for winter consumption.  No matter what I try, frozen broccoli lacks that crisp crunchiness I get when cooking fresh, non-frozen broccoli.  But the frozen broccoli makes excellent Cream of Broccoli soup so that's most likely where the remaining packages will go.

Brussels Sprouts - These were grown under screen cages also.  Nary one worm was found.  (Hurray!)  We ate many (we both love Brussels sprouts) as they matured during the late summer/early fall.  Five servings (a serving being enough for the two of us for one meal) made it to the freezer.  They are long gone.  I had 16 plants in the garden.  Is this an inefficient vegetable for me to raise, or am I doing something wrong?

Peas - I put up 42 servings of shell peas.  We love 'em and eat several servings a week.  They are the first preserved vegetable we run out of.  There are still some in the freezer, but I'm not going to check to see how many because then I'll be sad there are so few left.

Beans - Oh, my.  I really overdid it on the beans this year.  I usually plant one 16' row of green beans and one 16' row of yellow beans.  That gives us an ample supply for the year.  This year my first plantings did not germinate well at all.  So I panicked, went crazy and planted beans in every spare piece of garden soil I could find.  I ended up with waaay too many beans.  Even after giving a lot away.  Naturally, I couldn't waste any so I put them up.  I mix the green and yellow beans together (for pretty on the plate) and ended up with 75 servings.  We will have enough beans until the 2014 crop comes in.  I'm sure.

Green Peppers - I made 34 servings of Stuffed Green Peppers.  We have them about once a week and I've served them a couple of times as a company meal.  We have plenty left.  I also put about 2 quarts of chopped green peppers in the freezer to use in cooking over this winter.

Chives - I prepped and froze 11 one-cup size containers of chives.  I love them and use them all winter long.  With luck, I shouldn't run out before the chives pop up this spring.

Blueberries - Will we ever have enough blueberries?  We are already down to the last three gallon bags of them.  (Plus, adequate jars of jam on the pantry shelves.)

Raspberries - Can you have too many raspberries?  In our case, the answer is yes.  Today I counted 7 gallon bags of them still languishing in the freezer.  That is probably more than we can use before the next crop comes in.  I made jam and concentrate, but still ended up with too many in the freezer.  If this coming season is good, I may sell some of the fresh berries to our local co-op.

Strawberries - I still have 8 quarts of frozen smooshed strawberries.  These were intended to be used in smoothies.  However, this winter has been so cold we find ourselves not wanting (cold) smoothies as a breakfast.  Or a lunch.  Or anytime of the day.  I've been experimenting using the strawberries up in baked goods, and made a really good strawberry cobbler earlier this week.  This cobbler may make more appearances on our table this winter yet.  And, yes, there is plenty of strawberry jam put by.

Rhubarb - Only one rhubarb pie filling left (started with 5, but I'll make more this coming season) and 2 pint containers of rhubarb sauce.

That's it for this post.  Only the food put by for the poultry to cover yet.  That will be next . . . and much shorter!

This Post Is Brought To You By Procrastination

I'll readily admit it.  I'm here at my computer writing this blog post in an effort to put off cleaning the bathroom.  However, I have just finished vacuuming and dusting so I deserve a short break, right?

We had our first touch of frost a couple of nights ago.  'Twasn't a true, hard, killing frost to put a stop to all green and growing things out there, but it did do a number on the pumpkin vines.

Sadness and woe, it looks as though I'll have two-tone pumpkins this year.  The south-facing sides of the big, ol' gourds have turned a bright orange, but the north and/or undersides are still very green.

I have been so craving some good apples this fall to make into applesauce, apple pie, apple cake, apple slices, caramel apples . . . well you get the idea.  I think I've been especially eager to obtain a supply of apples because we aren't going to get any from our trees this year.  I know apples must be plentiful somewhere, but I haven't heard of trees being bountiful anywhere in our huge county.

We've even been trying to line up some from an apple growing area in the next state over but nothing has been firmed up yet.  So imagine my delight when I found a friend had left half a box of lovely apples on our back porch a couple of afternoons ago.  Her sister had come for a visit from "down south" in our state and brought apples which she so kindly shared with us.

I made an apple pie as soon as I could and knew it was going to fulfill my immediate apple yearnings because I sampled a slice when preparing the pie and found the apples were firm and crisp, but juicy with a really, really good flavor.  I told hubby I am going to keep using them every day until the box is empty.  I shan't waste a one of them!

Our experiment drying/curing our onion crop in the cold frames over raised beds in the garden was a bust.  We left them there for a couple/few days but found they weren't drying one bit.  Of course, those days were overcast and cool . . . which didn't help matters.

So we trucked them into the garage where we set up the ping pong table, covered it with a couple layers of newspapers and laid the onions out there.  We've left the door open from the heated workshop to the main part of the garage where the onions are so there is some heat to help the curing process.  Also, we've put a rotating fan blowing over the onions to help with good air circulation.  It looks as though they are going to cure just fine.  (Makes for real challenges when playing ping pong right now though.)

Okay, now I'm feeling a tad bit guilty about fluffing off and not getting the bathroom spiffed up.  I need to get up and do what needs to be done.

Procrastination, get thee behind me . . . and push.

 

The Seedlings Are Popping Out All Oh-Oh-ver!

The first broccoli seeds I planted on the 4th of the month started popping up two days later.  Then the cauliflower joined in.  This morning I saw the first little sprout of a cherry tomato seed (also planted on the 4th) pushing through the soilless mix.  No peppers yet, but I'm hoping they start soon.

A veritable forest sprouting forth.  Moreless.

Puny in size yet, granted, but where there's life, 

there's hope for greater things to come.

* * * * * * * *

Lots of sun  was shining down upon on us Sunday afternoon when Papa Pea and I decided to go on a hike to get some exercise and fresh air.  There's a nice creek that runs on the far west side of the property that abuts ours on one side.  It comes out of the woods and runs into a big culvert under the road in front of our property.  We knew the creek was still frozen so thought it would be easy to hike up it a ways.

Yep, the creek was certainly frozen solid, but we mistakenly thought there would be a good snow covering on it which would make it easy to walk on.  Wrong.

The whole creek was one totally shiny, slick, smooth ribbon of ice.  It looked just like a manicured skating rink, perfectly flat sloping slightly downhill.  We thought we might be able to walk up it by staying on the side in the snow, off the ice, but the banks were way too steep so that proved impossible.  We hiked through the woods alongside the creek hoping to find better footing on the creek as we went up the hill toward the ridge in back of our place. 

No such luck, and the going through the woods was so thick with evergreen trees and underbrush that it was difficult walking.  

In the woods, the snow was not so deep that we couldn't make it, but we would have been better off with our snowshoes, although again, the thick brush would have made snowshoes less than ideal.  

Eventually, we kind of gave up, found a place where we had to literally slide down the bank, very carefully shuffle across the creek like a couple of old crogglers, climb up the opposite bank (no easy task) and head home through the woods.  All in all, we still got a lot of exercise and fresh air so it was a good outing. 

* * * * * * * *

Chicken Mama and Gilligan will be here for lunch today so I made a rhubarb pie first thing this morning.  (No, not from fresh rhubarb but from a bag of rhubarb pie mix I had in the freezer from last summer.)  That for dessert along with a main meal of chicken squares, chicken gravy, cranberry sauce and green beans (boy, do I still have a lot of green beans from last year's garden in the freezer) and all involved should be happy.

Papa Pea and I hope to put in some work on next season's wood supply today.  Our back wood working area is usually too wet and muddy this early in the season, but because of no great amount of snow for us this winter, it's already dried out nicely.

We felt a real heat wave this morning upon arising when we noticed the thermometer read 24 degrees.  A bit of a change from the single digit numbers we've been having.  

The sun is shining again to it's gonna be a good day.  Hope yours is, too!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Come again another day.  It rained sporadically yesterday morning.  Rained all last night.  Rained this morning until about 11 o'clock.  You can turn off the faucet anytime now, Mother Nature.

Thankfully the temperature has dropped a few degrees so it doesn't feel so oppressively hot and humid.  Just humid right now.

When Papa Pea came in from doing some necessary tasks outside mid-morning, he said even the ducks looked wet.  It's not a problem though because all the poultry have the choice of spending these wet days inside dry pens if they wish.  The geese and ducks would just as soon be out in the elements.  The chickens . . . not so much.

It's nearly noon now and I've got some B-B-Q'd duck meat I've pulled out of the freezer heating up for lunch sandwiches.  Still have oodles of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes so I'll made a cuke/tomato salad as a side dish.

A pan of Apple Slices is cooling on a rack on the counter, but they'll be too hot to slice before dessert for dinner tonight.  Or they may be cut into for "someone's" afternoon coffee break if "someone" has anything to say about it.  I don't drink coffee after my morning latte and find if I eat anything at afternoon coffee break, I'm not hungry come dinner time.  And when the cook isn't hungry, the cook doesn't want to cook.  At least that's the case for this cook.

Made a pot of Cheddar-Cauliflower Soup this morning with some of our cauliflower from this year's garden harvest.  This particular soup is always better the second day so that will be for sometime tomorrow.

The Swiss chard in the garden is abundant enough to make another Green Pie.  As soon as it dries out a bit (maybe by next June) I'll go harvest some.  After putting on hip waders. 

Seems I've been ignoring desk-type tasks lately so I'm bound and determined to work on them this afternoon.  (Somebody hold me to it, please.)

My List (which I keep on an 8-1/2" x 11" tablet) has one side devoted to "Inside" and the other to "Outside" items.  You can tell we've shifted (primarily) out-of-summer-into-fall mode because the "Inside" half of the paper is now longer than the "Outside" half.  Guess that means I won't have any trouble keeping myself busy until the weather changes in such a way that being outside is a smidge bit more desirable.

My Tummy Can Hardly Wait

No, I didn't bake our Thanksgiving Day pumpkin pie two weeks early.  It's just that I'm needin' some comfort food today and pumpkin pie with whipped cream does it for me.

To ensure we have a balanced meal before I dive into the pumpkin pie at dinner time, I have chicken (we have a lot of chicken to work our way through this winter) baking in the oven for the main course along with mashed taters and gravy.  It'll be Brussels sprouts for the green veggie.

My clock says it's only 3:17 now and my stomach is starting to growl already. 

Finally Sunshine!

As usual this time of year, I'm going a little overboard baking with rhubarb now that it's available in the garden.  (I do love rhubarb!)

Made my favorite rhubarb cake day before yesterday and Papa Pea ate the last piece with some milk after a hearty breakfast this morning. 

We had a visit today with the four-year old twins my daughter has every Saturday.  The little guy loves stalks of rhubarb dipped in sugar, but Chicken Mama gave him a small dish of honey to dip into today, and he thought that was pretty good.  The little gal suggested I should bake a strawberry pie when I told her I was going to bake our (calorie-laden) Rhubarb Cream Pie.  (She's not a rhubarb fan.)  She's gonna have to wait another month or so for any strawberries from this garden.

And I did get that pie baked but not until late this afternoon.  Now it's cooling in the refridge and won't be sampled until tomorrow.  Can hardly wait.

We had more gray, drippiness until mid-afternoon when the sun broke through the clouds and our temperature soared into the high 60s.  Our warmest temp so far this spring, I think.

Tomorrow and Monday are supposed to be sunny so with the help of my Under Gardener (that's Papa Pea), I'll be getting the recently received fifty new strawberry plants in the ground.  And lots of emerging weeds out of the ground.

Still waiting for the planted onions, radishes and Sweet Peas to show their little green sprouts.  They've had plenty of moisture now so with a bit of warm weather, they may make an appearance.

Hope you're all having a great Memorial Day Weekend!