hi lovelies! just wanted to pop in to say hello!  did you have a happy 4th of july?  we had a picnic up on the roof and watched the fireworks from there.  the weather was perfect, the food was wonderful and our tiny town even had a pretty impressive fireworks show!  i always give my girls our leftover watermelon rind (it’s their most favorite treat).  this is odessa, caught in the act (below).

i also wanted to draw your attention to a new section of the blog, our eat local page! here you’ll find the seasonal veggie guides, all of our seasonal recipes and a resource page on why we should eat local in the first place.  you’ll be able to reference it anytime via the pull down menu in the header up top.   below is the latest summer veggie guide:

see you tomorrow! xo, bonnie

wrap up: {4th of july} {eat local} {guide} {seasonal} {veggies}

maybe we should just call this food friday? today’s post accomplishes many goals:  first, it deals with beautiful red and blue berries perfect for 4th of july. 2nd, it’s in line with out eat local and in season initiative. 3rd, it’s the first post in a new series i’m kicking off called simple living!

berries are one of my biggest indulgences, there’s just not much that makes me happier than a fresh berry bursting in my mouth! as we’ve been talking about the importance (and fun!) of eating local and in season foods, today i want to touch on the importance of preserving some of those foods for enjoyment all year.  berries of all kinds are in season right now, and by preserving them, we can enjoy them for the rest of the year!  eating berries in winter not only come with less taste, but always leaves me feeling terribly guilty.  flown in from thousands of miles away, eating berries during winter comes with a huge environmental cost, plus it just doesn’t feel right.  so today we’ll talk about how to take advantage of your in season berries by freezing them, and how you can still be snacking on them come january- guilt free.

first things first, wash your berries!  i find it easiest to just plug up one side of my sink and rinse them till the water runs clear.

next, lay them out on a towel to dry.  you can blot them to help, or just let the water drain, but in the end you want them relatively dry before the next step.

next, lay your berries flat on a baking sheet in a single layer.  by spreading them out in single layer, you’ll prevent them from freezing in (hard to break) big berry clumps.

you can lay them flat on the pan, or on wax paper, and can even build them up by placing wax paper in between layers of berries.

place the pans of layered berries in your freezer.  you’ll want to leave them overnight (or for about 8 hours) before you take them out to bag them.

next step is removing them from the freezer and bagging them up for long term storage!  since you froze them in a single layer, they’ll remain loose in the bags for easy use.  they’ll last a long time so you’ll still be snacking on local berries even when february rolls around.

frozen berries have tons of uses, they’re great for snacking, pies, dessert toppings and especially smoothies (recipe coming soon!). they won’t be in season long, so don’t miss them at your farmer’s market!

{photos: bonnie forkner}

wrap up: {berries} {eat local} {food} {freeze} {preserve} {recipe} {simple living}

happy friday lovelies!  today marks the first recipe in our summer series, yeah! summer recipes are always the easiest, just about everything grows in the beautiful warmth of summer!  today’s recipe is easy, beautiful and delicious. i like to call it ‘pepper hole eggs’.

ingredients:

- 1 large sweet pepper (i used local purple heirlooms peppers here, but any kind will work)

- 3 eggs, local eggs are always easy to find!

- 1 tbs of butter

- salt and pepper to taste

directions:

slice your pepper sideways to create hollow rings about 1/3″ thick.  let your butter melt in a skillet over medium heat.  once butter has melted, place your pepper rings in a single layer in the pan.  crack one egg in each pepper hole.  depending on whether you like your eggs over easy, medium or hard you can remove them from the pan or flip them accordingly.  for over hard, let cook until the yellows are slightly firm then flip with a spatula.  let them cook a few more minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

these are delicious by themselves, over salads or as an easy meat replacement for dinner.  you can even sprinkle a little parmesan cheese over them to bring out a new rich flavor, enjoy!

wrap up: {eggs} {local} {pepper} {recipe} {seasonal} {summer}

one of my favorite diy projects to date have been these easy to make fabric leaf bowls.  i found the tutorial on martha stewart’s website and quickly got inspired (as usual) to get busy gathering my materials.

aren’t they pretty?  perfect for layering or holding goodies.  i often place dry snacks in them for guests like nuts, crackers and candies.  the bowls are made from tweed and wool felt so can be spot cleaned as needed.

materials:

- wool felt

- tweed*

- sewing machine with coordinating thread

- scissors

- fusible webbing (found at any sewing shop)

- tracing pen

*i went thrift shopping and picked up some fun tweed jackets to cut up and use!

here’s the how to:

1. first things first you need to download and print out the oak-leaf bowl template from martha stewart.  you can resize them to create bowls of various shapes.  using your scissors, cut each template out following the template lines.

2. cut 1 rectangle from each of your materials (1 tweed, 1 wool felt and 1 fusible webbing) for each of your leaves, large enough to accommodate each leaf template.

3. stack the 3 fabrics with the webbing in the middle and press using your iron until the webbing has fused.

4.  trace your template onto one side of your fused rectangle with a disappearing ink pen (found at any craft/sewing shop).

5. cut out the leaf.

6. using your sewing machine, sew up each of the 5 v shaped darts, using either a zigzag or satin stitch.  working from the inside out, simply pull the fabric together as you stitch (don’t overlap it).  i found using tweezers or straight pins helped push the fabric together towards the ends.

sewing up the darts creates a bowl shape and each leaf will be reversible (so make sure your bobbin thread looks good, too!)  feel free to go back with your iron to touch the tips of your leaf, giving them curl in your desired direction.

what do you think? don’t forget to visit martha’s site for the original article and even a tutorial video to refer to!

wrap up: {craft} {diy} {fabric leaf bowls} {martha stewart} {project} {sewing}

All the lovely Hydrangea are coming into bloom!

The green shiny monsters have landed and they are eating my kale!  Oh my toes curled and I clenched my fists when I went out into the veggie garden last week and saw all the beetle damage that seemed to have crept up overnight.  Darn Japanese Beetles – they can make a gorgeous garden look scraggy and sad in almost no time at all. I rarely kill animals in my garden – preferring to relocate them or simply tolerate their damage – but Japanese Beetles are the exception to that rule.

Japanese Beetles come from grubs in the ground. I’m sure you have heard of grubs.  If not from your local lawn lover then on the radio or at the garden center where you see large bags of product making a big deal of killing grubs.  And their death deserves to be made a big deal of.  They are lousy for the garden and for the lawn. Many of my clients spend a great deal of time and money trying to eradicate grubs, and their control can make the most organically minded person consider (in a brief, mad moment of frustration) just nuking them with pesticides and doing a mini victory dance to celebrate their death.  BUT we all know that the nuking approach won’t just kill the grubs – that it will kill all our beneficials as well…and we love earthworms!

So what is an organically minded, earthworm loving girl to do? First thing is to understand where the Japanese Beetles come from and how to eradicate them during all the different stages of their lives.

Right now you are probably seeing these guys in the beetle stage.  They are very pretty iridescent green backed beetles that fly in, group up on plants and begin to feed, leaving the plant veins.  Control at this stage is pretty simple – knock the beetles into bowl of soapy water. It is best to go out and do this early in the morning when the beetles are still wet with morning dew and not able to quickly fly away.  If you want to you can also use a Neem based spray – I recommend the Safer Brand BioNEEM Insecticide.  This needs to be applied frequently  – be sure to follow the directions.

By the way, I do not recommend using the Japanese Beetle traps  – they are usually yellow bags with a hormone soaked piece of fabric/cotton. These do trap lots of the beetles, but research has shown that the traps actually attract more beetles to the garden…and more end up in your plants than would have been there without the traps.  If you do choose to use the traps place them far away from your ornamental/vegetable plants, be sure to empty the bag on a regular basis and replace the hormone strip as directed.

So the Japanese Beetles are killer on your flowers…their grubs are killer on your lawns. The grubs eat the roots of many types of plants, but their favorite seem to be grass roots. Grub damage shows up as irregularly shaped patches of dead or dying grass.  You can also get a pretty good idea of a grub infestation when you are digging up your garden – if you see lots of grubs act quickly!  I squish them or throw them to the ducks to eat.

Here is a handy chart showing the life cycle of the Japanese beetle and one showing what they look like during these phases:

Those grubs gross me out!  But it is important to know what they are.

And now we come to the tough news about treating grubs organically…..there is no magic bullet cure. The best known approach is to infect the grubs and beetles with Milky Spore (Bacillus popilliae), a disease that targets the Japanese Beetle grub and kills it. According to the USDA, milky spore disease can suppress the development of large beetle populations. It is not harmful to beneficial insects, birds, bees, pets or humans and will not  affect wells, ponds or streams. Each time an infected grub dies it decomposes and releases millions of the spores into the environment, creating an accumulative effect over time.  And it does take time – 2 to 4 years. But the treatment lasts for 10 years and is pretty easy to apply.

Some say one application is all that is needed, but I have always followed the classic directions of laying down Milky Spore once in the Spring and again in the Fall for two years. It is a treatment that is expensive in the beginning but pays off over time.

So that is the quick and simple guide to Japanese beetles in your garden….and even quicker guide is to basically say:

Knock the buggers into soapy water, apply Neem to help keep them off your plants, squish the grubs when you see them, introduce milky spore into your yard and encourage your neighbors to do the same.

Sometimes the organic way is a hands on way…and you know what, I kinda prefer that.  As much as I loathe the Japanese beetles, I do find myself out in the garden quite a bit more during their active season…and it really makes me appreciate my plants. And eat my kale!

Next week is more garden pest talk…slugs anyone! Powdery Mildew???!!! We have much to cover.  Until then have a wonderful week and know that your interest in gardening organically is supported and appreciated by this Ladybug!

wrap up: {garden} {gardening} {organic gardening}