Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

I had to take a somewhat unappetizing picture so you all don't show up on my doorstep begging to help me eat it. :)

As I said in my last post, we had quite the crop of strawberries when we got back from our trip. And we still have a lot sitting in our fridge, and there are more that need to be picked. Our strawberry patch is about 20 feet long and three feet wide, so it isn't very big, but it has been producing like crazy, which is great, because we only got one strawberry last year. So we've been eating them, putting them in smoothies, and eating them some more. And every time Miss A and Mr. B are in the backyard they are eating more, right off the plants. But even with all the eating there are a ton that need to be used. Like in the next day or so. And I've had whipping cream and half and half sitting in my fridge since November (well, the sell by date was November somethenth). So, I did the sniff test (in case you were wondering, you just sniff to see if it smells sour, if it does, make tacos (kidding), if it doesn't smell sour, it's still good), determined both cartons were safe to use, and then decided to make strawberry ice cream. I have a KitchenAid ice cream maker, which I love, and since it's stored in the deep freezer in the garage, it's always ready to use.

And the recipe I used was pretty simple:
2 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream (or whipping cream, or half and half)
1 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups mashed fresh strawberries.

In a large bowl combine it all and mix. When mixed, pour into your ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

Simple, I know! What I like about this recipe is that it can be used as a base for any other ice cream flavor simply by omitting the strawberries. We've made peppermint ice cream, root beer ice cream, M&M ice cream, and peach ice cream. And they were all pretty good, though I do recommend using fresh fruit, not frozen. Frozen peaches do not mix well at all. :)

So, I know you're wondering how it tastes. I can answer that. D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. However, I am going to share it tomorrow at a playground committee BBQ. And if there's any leftover, I'm going to hide in a dark corner somewhere all by myself and eat it all gone.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Like I said before, one of my loves is gardening. There's just something about being outside, picking your own food, and getting a wicked sunburn. I love it! Last week the weather here in Eastern Idaho was GORGEOUS! A lot of my free time on Wednesday and Thursday was spent outside, working in the yard. By the time Friday rolled around My arms were getting pretty red, but it was My Dear's Friday off, so I skipped out on helping at school (I try to volunteer in Miss A's classroom every other Friday), so we could get more yard work done. That darn Dear of mine though! He beat me to the lawn mower and he was the lucky one that got to mow the back yard. And that is not sarcasm, I actually enjoy mowing. I've gotten some high quality weeding time in, and I'm itching to start planting our garden here at the house. Alas, it is not to be. Yet. The tomato and pepper seedlings are still under lights in the basement, and I'm wishing, and hoping, and thinking, and praying, and planning, and dreaming (does anybody else want to go watch My Best Friend's Wedding now?) that those little seedlings will grow. I put some mild fertilizer on them when I watered them on Sunday, so hopefully they will grow some more leaves.

Our pole beans got to tall, and they had to be brought upstairs. My kitchen now is the home of 16 pole bean plants. Hopefully by this weekend they will be residing in our garden at Taylorview Farms. See, my church, it has this huge farm due south of our house, a few miles, and each year they set aside some of the land for people to have their own garden plots. Some of these people don't have any space where they reside to grow a garden, and some (like us) just want more space to grow more. So, all of our more hardy things (well, the pumpkins and cucumbers aren't so hardy) will be planted out at Taylorview. The tomatoes and peppers will stay here at the house, because they aren't ever quite ready when the frosts start in the fall.

Yesterday evening (Monday) we went out to Taylorview and started planting. We planted rows and rows and rows of carrots, a few rows of onions, three pumpkins (we have four seedlings under the lights too), lots of sunflowers (hopefully they grow fast and make a good wind break), quite a few rows of cucumbers (we want to make pickles this year), and a few rows of brussel sprouts. Sometime today I'm hoping to get back down there and plant pole beans and peas. We'll see if I make it. It'll probably be after picking up Miss A from school (mental note: bring a snack to keep the kiddos happy). And when I remember I will bring a camera down there and take some pictures. Right now it just looks like a lot of dirt, because not even the farm fields behind our garden are planted.

Oh, and as a side note: I have 29 followers!!! The give-away is still open though, since I changed the date to May 22nd, so go comment on the give-away post to enter the contest, and I will post the winner on the morning of May 23rd, and, as long as I have the winner's e-mail address, I will also e-mail the winner. Remember, you need a separate comment for each entry! And, if you look through my blog posts, there might be a bonus entry opportunity! ;)

And tell me, do you garden? Have you gardened in the past? What sorts of things have you grown, or would like to grow? And if you don't garden, what sorts of home grown foods do you like to eat?

Seedlings, at last!

I'm so excited! I went down to water the seedlings this morning, and we have gobs of green growth! I've known for a few days about the green beans, but today I saw what I believe to be the tomatoes starting to grow, and what I hope are cucumbers and a pumpkin. And this is why you should always mark your flats when you plant the seeds. But the guessing game is kind of fun, I think. Each flat has 8 pots in it, the flats in the top left corner aren't really doing anything, so I'm guessing they are the peppers, which typically need warmer soil temperatures than some of the other stuff.Mostly tomatoes, except for the arch shaped large one in the foreground, which I think might be a pumpkin.
In the foreground are what I'm hoping are cucumbers, then green beans, a flat of something (maybe peppers or another variety of tomato), then more green beans in the back. What's happening in your neck of the woods right now?

Seed Starting

Well, the Dear (Mr. S) and I finally started our seeds this past weekend. For those of you in warmer climates, you might think we are a little slow on getting going. However, our average last frost is May 25, so we might be a week or two late, but better late than never, right? We are a Zone 4 here (though some say we are a 5, however, all we need is one cold winter to bump us back to a solid 4, so we claim zone 4) and our average growing season (from the average last frost in May until the average first frost) is around 120 days, with the average first frost on August 23. Yes folks, that's right, AUGUST 23. I love short season gardening.

With that being said, in these parts you need to get a head start on the growing season indoors. You California and Florida people are baffled, I'm sure, but it's true. We actually start growing our tomatoes, peppers, green beans, cucumbers, and pumpkins indoors. Shocking, I know. :) So that's what you'll see in the following pictures. Our 100 (yep, one hundred) little pots that are each harboring a seed from one of the previously listed plants. We want them to get the best start possible. We love our little seeds. :)

So, without further ado, our photos, with explanations before the picture. Up first, what our little growing area/makeshift greenhouse looks like from the outside (well, from the bottom of our basement steps, it's set up in part of our future downstairs bathroom):

Next up is what it looks like when you pull up the painters' plastic, and yes, that is a space heater keeping things warm under there. The upstairs of our house is a balmy 65F in the winter, so the basement is around 60-65F, not warm enough for most of our seeds to germinate.

And another view of underneath, a 10x10 grid of 5"x5"x5" pots in the solid bottomed black plastic planting trays (available for $.97 each at Home Depot). We add some water to the bottom of the trays, mostly to add some humidity to the air, but also for the plants to get a little drink if they need it. In past we have only put water into the trays, and let the plants soak up the water from the trays, to ensure all of the soil was watered. This year though we are watering from the top using one of those hand held pump sprayers that people usually for killing weeds, don't worry, we bought a brand new one for our little plants-to-be. We are now the proud owners of three such sprayers. :) P.S. You can see part of the sprayer on the left hand side of the first picture. And, in case you were wondering, it's a two gallon sprayer.

And finally, a view of the heat bubble (or if you want, the top of our little makeshift greenhouse). I've tried to weigh this thing down, but it's not really working. I might start calling it E.T.'s earthly home, because it reminds me of that part in E.T. when everything is covered in plastic and stuff. You know what part I'm talking about, right? Right?!?
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I used to be a Master Gardener (I'm not taking the classes this year, due to other commitments on my time and energy). And tell me, what are you planting this year? Do you usually start seeds indoors, or are you blessed to live in a warm(er) climate?

Getting Going on Gardening

In my neck of the woods (SE Idaho) there are days when it is spring, and days when it is winter. Yesterday was Spring, the day before was Winter, today is dreary and the forecast calls for more dreary for the next five days. The stores have their gardening supplies out, and have since Valentine's Day, so the gardening bug is digging in deep. However, there is one HUGE problem...Our average last frost falls around May 25th. Yeah, that's a long ways away. And just to be safe, we don't plant our garden until the first week in June, because the weather Memorial Day weekend (which would be a great time to plant) is ALWAYS crudy. Cold, wet, rainy, gross. So we wait. However, it's almost time to start seedlings indoors. And that's exciting!

What Mr. S and I have done the past two years is make newspaper pots to start seeds in. These actually break down in the soil (as opposed to those biodegradable peat pots) over the course of the season (heck, some of them start breaking down, and roots start escaping before we even get them into the ground) over the course of the growing season. I've enjoyed using these, and that means less newspaper to haul to the recycling place, and the newspaper also helps improve the soil (an in case you were worried about the ink, newspapers used soy based inks in their normal printing. Use caution with glossy ads though, which might contain some metallic inks). Win-win. Last year Mr. S and I did an informal scientific comparison. We planted his seeds in plastic cups and I did the newspaper pots. With the newspaper pots, I plant the entire thing in the soil, and maybe break down the sides and bottoms a little bit if they haven't started breaking down on their own. Mr. S takes his plants out of the cups and transplants the plants only in the soil. I hypothesized that my newspaper plants would do better. He hypothesized that his would. As I said, this was pretty informal, and I accidently broke one of his peppers (it really was an accident), but I think overall his plants did better. So this year I think we are going to save ourselves the trouble of folding all those newspaper pots and just use plastic cups with holes punched in the bottom and sides.

Another thing we do with our plant starts is that we buy those black planting trays and only use the solid ones (as opposed to the ones with holes in the bottom for drainage) and we put all our pots in those. Then when it's time to water, we pour the water in the bottom of the tray and the water goes up into the cups through some scientific term (I'm thinking osmosis or diffusion, but I think there is something else, that involves the water moving upwards against gravity...checking google...hmmm, maybe transpiration or capillary action) and the water goes all the way to the soil surface. This way we know that the plant has been thoroughly watered and we minimize the risk of plant problems the occur with watering from the top down.

And for light, we have some of those wire shelves and we bought some lights (with just a regular florescent bulb) that we put on chains so we can adjust the height of the lights as the plants get taller. We keep the rack covered in plastic (just painter's plastic) and put the lights on a timer. The plastic helps hold in the heat from the lights, so we don't have to use too much supplementary heat to keep the plants warm, even in our basement.

It's been so fun to do this the past four years or so, and it gets exciting when the plants start poking through the surface. Then it's always great to watch them grow bigger and bigger and bigger, until it's time to harden them off and plant them in the garden!

This year we are doing a salsa garden, and lots of cucumbers (to try our hand at making pickles). We'll also do some pumpkins. We have a decent sized garden here at our house that we'll do a lot of tomatoes in, and maybe some carrots and green beans too. We are also planning to get a plot of land out at a farm our church owns where we will do the cukes and pumpkins and some more tomatoes and peppers and the onions. I saw some huge onions growing out there last year, so hopefully the soil is just made for onions. We are looking forward to it. And that's pretty much our garden plans for this year. What about you, do you have any plans for a garden? If so, what are they?