Saturday, July 21, 2007

They have arrived

So, in spite of my email telling them not to send the worms, Wormman.com sent them anyway!!! Yep, I'm naming names now. They suck!! My dh has been on vacation and we've been out and about all week. I told them not to send them, but they did it anyway.(over one month after my order was placed) So, the worms arrived on Wednesday, but we were gone the entire day. They were undiscovered until Thursday. By this point many had escaped from their poor packaging and were dried up on my porch!! I took pics to send to the company. Now, lest you think I am a negligent worm owner, I checked the company's order tracking every day just to make sure they hadn't shipped. There wasn't any update to the info so I had no way of knowing they were coming. As you may notice, I'm flippin' mad.
On another note.. we have enjoyed a few tomatoes from the garden. They are yummy. We have also put a fence around the garden. Riley pulled another broccoli plant and picked a tomato. The tomato was the last straw!! Dh did a nice job of putting it up so it's not too much of an eye sore.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

A lovely, lazy Saturday

Not much new this lovely Saturday. The weather here in OHIO is gorgeous. Warm, breezy, partly cloudy. IMHO~perfect. The garden is growing nicely. A few of the cherry tomatoes look as though they may ripen very soon. Yeah!! Everything else is moving along. Nothing exciting, but that's good.
I received another email that once again my worms were not shipped. They are now being shipped(supposedly) on Monday. DH is fed up and wants me to cancel the order. I'm going to send an email so they have it ASAP and do not send them. Not that there seems to be any risk of that!!
This is sort of off topic. Local, but not food related. Last night,dh, my sis,her husband and I went to the "Third Day" concert at the House of Blues. It was freakin' awesome!!!! I had never been there before. This was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. It was my 5th time seeing Third Day. We love them. In this particular venue, it was amazing. So, if you ever have the opportunity to see a concert there, go!! However, do not, I repeat... Do NOT order any food or beverages unless you love to overpay. Naively, we each got bottled water and split 2 orders of fries. Now, they were good, but our total bill was over $20. We nearly passed out!!! However, our tickets were given to us{front row balcony~great view), and they were awesome. My BIL drove and kindly paid for parking, so the experience was well worth it. For the record, I hear the food at HOB is really good. Just not what I want to pay for a snack. :)
My dd made zucchini bars the other day. I love these. I posted the recipe on recipezaar. Here's the link~http://www.recipezaar.com/240014.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Barberton Farmer's Market

Today's trip to the market was definitely a success.
From Benders Farm(Copley): Rock cantaloupe(super sweet!!), tomato(not local~Indiana), peaches(NJ)
Seville Berry Farm(Seville): raspberries(mmmmm)
Farms I don't remember the name of: bi-color sweet corn, zucchini, onion, and a really good homemade nut roll.
Things I want to get next time:
fresh roasted cashews, watermelon, green beans, turnips and goat milk fudge.

The kids and I walked to the market, so I was limited by what we could carry home.
I will be making bread and zucchini bars today. I'll include the bar recipe in a post later. It's really yummy. I haven't made them in years. My mom made them every year, a few times, to help use up the overwhelming amount of zucchini she grew. I don't grow zucchini, but it was only $0.50 for a good sized one at the market. I like small tender squash to eat plain, but for baking big is OK.
I've got a lot of baking to do. Later!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

This means war!!!

This morning when I went to check out the garden, I noticed a cabbage leaf on the ground outside the bed. Hhhmmmmm. Upon further examination I realized there is a hole where that plant used to be!!!!! The entire cabbage plant is gone. Well, except for the leaf that was left behind. I highly doubt that Riley would have eaten the whole plant, so I'm pretty sure I have an intruder.
I'm guessing it's a bunny. The other night when I had Cappuccino out back to play, a wild bunny was in the neighbor's yard having a snack. Cappuccino was very intrigued by this creature and sat watching it for several minutes. I don't think she understood why it was eating something as dull as grass when there are yummy things like shoes, computer cords and bananas to eat! I'm surprised at it's boldness considering Riley is a rather large dog that loves to chase bunnies. However, this clever thief must realize that Riley sleeps in the house, leaving a salad bar perfectly available for passers-by.
So, my first move in defense of my food will be to leave Riley out for the next few nights. She doesn't mind, it's actually cooler than in the house. Unfortunately, she will bark ferociously at the paper lady, but an early wake up is a small price to pay for broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts right from the garden. I may have to share some with my neighbors to make up for the annoyance though.
I had my first pepper yesterday!! Granted it was a little small and green, but it was so tasty in the enchiladas I made. I read that picking one or two early peppers will allow the remaining fruit to get larger and sweeter. I also got a habenero that had fallen off the plant. I wish I'd noticed it when I was making the enchiladas.
The radishes are just about done, so I need to find something to fill in that area. I think it's too early to do a second planting of spinach, but I'm going to look into that. I'll be reading the "bible" today.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Tomato thieves and other issues

Yep, my first tomato of the year was almost ripe when it was snatched right off the vine. To say I was angry is an understatement. I have no idea who, or what, stole it. To be fair, most likely it was my dog,Riley. Still I will be keeping an eye out for intruders now.
Also attacking my tomatoes is a blight. According to my research, this is a fungus that attacks the leaves, usually turning them yellow then brown as they die. I think ours came from the last plant we purchased, on sale, from a less than reputable dealer. I came to this brilliant conclusion because the blight started the day after I planted that one. I have treated all the plants with Neem Oil again. I also removed as much of the effected foliage as possible. The other plants seem to be making a recovery. The "carrier" is barely making it. The only reason I haven't pulled it entirely is that it has one tomato on it. I don't want to sacrifice the tomato. I will do so in a few days. Then it'll probably be able to ripen off the plant.
This weekend I went to the North Union Farmers Market again. New this week were beets(I got 3 varieties that will be dinner tonight)green and purple beans, and squash. I got some black raspberries from Rittman's that were really good. I also purchased some cheese from the Middlefield Amish Cheese co-op. I put smoked cheddar on my burgers and was in heaven. Seriously, it's amazing!! I'll probably make them for the third time since buying this cheese. It doesn't need any condiments it's so good!!
There is a Barberton Farmers Market starting this week at Wink's. I will be checking this one out too. I need more tomatoes!! Soon the Akron Market will start at Stan Hywet Hall. There is also the Akron Beacon Journal market. So, I'm set for the rest of the season.
I will be making bread later this week when the temperature goes down a bit. My DH got me a big bowl to make it in. It's large enough to mix and knead in, so it makes less mess.
Still no worms. They were supposed to have been shipped out on July 2 and arrive a few days later. That was a week ago. I put in a call to the "worm guy"(names are withheld to protect the guilty). It has not been answered yet. If I don't hear from them today I'm declaring war!! No, actually I can file a dispute with Paypal and get my money back. Still, I'm disappointed. Admittedly, my enthusiasm over the whole vermicomposting thing has really waned over the last month.
My DH is on vacation this coming week, so I'm hoping to drag him blueberry picking. My usual place doesn't seem to be open yet, so I'm going to have to find a new place. I was hoping to go to Rittman's again. Unfortunately, the nice young man at the market informed me that they don't have U-pick blues this year. I also want to check out the "hydroponic strawberries" that I found nearby.
Completely off topic~ If you are the owner of a "house bunny" as I am... Please do not purchase the "Four Paws lead with harness"!!! I purchased this for Cappuccino last week so I could let her run around outside without having to worry so much about her getting out of the yard. I chose this particular one because it had a locking harness so it wouldn't choke her. Well, apparently her fur got caught in the lock and prevented it from working. Within a few minutes of putting it on, her eyes were bulging and she was gasping for air!! Unfortunately, the lock worked well enough that I couldn't get it off of her. Luckily, DH was able to save the day and Cappuccino. However, it was a very scary few minutes for all involved. Needless to say, she will never be leashed again. Instead we are working to train Riley to not chase her in the back yard, which is fenced in.
Update: I got another email regarding the worms. Now they say they're being shipped out at the end of the week. The company is blaming the "extreme heat" on the late shipment.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

What the heck??

OK, I'm not sure what happened to my last post. It was fine when I published it, but now it's all weird. Any help would be greatly appreciated because I have no idea what I'm doing or how to fix it. Short of deleting it and starting over. Granted, there was nothing so deep and earth shattering. I'm pretty sure the problem lies in the links. I must have done something wrong.
Not that this has anything to do with food, but I got my son 2 hamsters this week. Yep, I'm crazy. These were free, so I figured "why not". He lost his last hamster a few months ago and was completely crushed. I'm thinking that with 2 he'll have a "back up". These are much younger than the others we've gotten. And they are local, so I guess it does fit in with this topic, sort of. We have them in separate cages to avoid the mistake of the lady I got them from. She ended up with 20 babies!!! These are really sweet and my son is thrilled. Cappuccino is unimpressed by her "cousins". In fact, she's been acting up a bit since we got them. Our cat couldn't care less about these new creatures he's not allowed to eat.
Tomorrow I'm making grilled pizza and baked beans for our family BBQ. Both recipes are really yummy, and I make them very rarely. In fact, only my one sister has ever had my pizza.
Worm update~ still none. I checked the status on the site I ordered them from. It says they shipped yesterday, but doesn't have a tracking number. My dad thinks I'm the victim of an internet worm scam. :) How sad would that be?
Update~DH fixed the problem and he showed me how to post pics that are all turned the right way. Isn't he amazing? :)