All posts tagged gardening

NEST + NOURISH … with plans for a spring garden + garden journals

by Julie on February 4, 2013 in NEST, NOURISH with No comments

IMG_7116

DSC_0063

james-gardenjournal

As the snow covered the ground we busily started planning our spring garden.  In the past our kale, hearty lettuces and swiss chard have actually done well with a light covering of snow. They love the moisture and are very cold tolerant. Try planting some seeds now in a pot outside and see what happens. The boys started making their lists of the food they want to plant as they perused the Bakers Creek Heirloom Seed catalog. Here is a previous post listing a couple of our favorites.

DSC_0083

DSC_0103

They are planning to keep a garden journal this year so they can jot down notes on what grew well and what did not, plus what veggies were super tasty that they would like to grow again. I am hoping the journals will include some of their recipes too!  James concocted a sweet and salty cinnamon dressing for his greens that was quite tasty and he ate that salad every day for a week.

Children really love to experiment with what they grow.

Also, if you want a quick tasty green to grow with kids try growing these microgreens.  They are fantastic added to a healthy wrap or pasta dish for a healthy school lunch.

happy garden planning!

- julie

Pin It

NOURISH … with a couple of garden favorites + recipes

by Julie on August 29, 2012 in NOURISH with 1 Comment

Ahhh… the school routine begins, but the summer bounty is still being harvested.  It’s great to be back sharing with all of you!  A couple of family favorites we’ve enjoyed growing are the Chinese red noodle bean and the black zebra heirloom tomato.  Be sure to look for them at your farmers market if you aren’t growing them yourself.

chinese red noodle bean

black zebra heirloom tomato | also called christmas tomatoes in our house

  Both are delicious fresh off of the vine and the 15-18 ” noodle beans are so fun to watch grow.  We like to let ours vine up a teepee made of bamboo. The kids actually prefer to pick the beans and eat them immediately … so the beans have not made it into any recipes except for the following, which is so simple to make.

Chinese red noodle beans with sriracha sauce

6- 8 long noodle beans ( or as many as you have)

1 t. sesame or olive oil

1 T. sriracha sauce

warm oil in pan, chop beans into 3-4″ lengths, sate with siracha sauce for a few minutes.  it’s just that simple!

{these are great cold the next day mixed into a soba noodle salad with peanut sauce }

This bean can be found at Baker Creek Heirloom seeds.  Look for black zebra seedlings next spring or start them indoors from seed.

As mush as I adore Caprese salad, I was experimenting with a new way to prepare our heirloom zebras and this recipe is super simple and refreshing.

Black zebra feta salad with zested lemon + basil

2-3  black zebra tomatoes

2-3 T crumbled feta

1 t lemon zest

2 t chopped basil

olive oil

Slice tomatoes, top with crumbled feta cheese, sprinkle the lemon zest and basil on top of tomatoes and cheese, then drizzle with olive oil.

Enjoy … julie

NOURISH … with olive us … a lovely new project by design mom

by Julie on May 21, 2012 in NOURISH with No comments

Garden day is the 1st episode from Olive us, a new video project  by Ben and Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom, in collaboration with Tiger in a Jar.  This one kicks off the first of weekly short episodes featuring their five children focusing on collaboration, creativity, and problem solving between siblings and values that are important to them.  Absolutely love the work of Tiger in the Jar (like this pesto video I have posted before) and can’t wait for the next one!

 

happy monday!

- julie