Garden Season is Near...

I ordered my second batch of seeds today, and just like that, there went another hundred dollars. I don’t feel like it was a waste of money though. Those hundred dollars’ worth of seeds will probably produce about two grand worth of produce. Maybe a little less, but if so, not by much. Today I ordered eight new varieties of tomatoes to complete what I started last month with the Cherokee Purple seeds.

I finally got all of my salad greens ordered today as well. I was cutting that one kind of close because those will probably get started in the ground in about a month, and up until today I hadn’t put any serious thought into what I was going to order.

I also ordered three varieties of different summer squash, and two more types of peppers. One, of which, I am very excited about. It is called a Large Bull Nosed Bell, and, basically, it is a bell pepper, but it is an heirloom variety that Thomas Jefferson grew in his own garden, and is still grown on the grounds of Monticello to this day. The pepper was imported from India in the 1700’s, so it is a plant with a rich history. I also ordered some heirloom pepperoncini peppers today. I absolutely love pickled pepperoncini’s on everything from sandwiches to pizza.

Speaking of pizza (which is quickly growing into an obsession), I started a new batch of dough today using spelt flour. Spelt is an ancient grain that is supposedly much healthier for humans than the current mass market wheat and other what-not on the market, so I have been trying to adapt it for as many recipes as possible. Spelt flour has a very strong earthy taste; a very organic, whole-wheaty-wheat flavor profile, so it requires some playing around with recipes in order to keep the spelt from becoming the dominate flavor. This recipe I am working on requires two-day of rising in the refrigerator, so I should be able to update on how this experiment turns out by Sunday.

Another quick update: In about another week the strawberry wine will be ready to transfer again, and then it will be on to the home stretch of bottling. 

And another quick update: Today is day eight without a cigarette!