May Garden - 2nd Half - 2021

I'm not feeling inspired, so here are the pics.  When the mood strikes, I'll rearrange them and add commentary.  

 

Oven French Fries

For a small family, homemade french fries don't make a lot of sense.  They use lots of oil, and frying makes a mess.  This recipe is a good compromise.

Peel 2-4 smallish russet-type potatoes.  

(One of the mealy types rather than the waxy types.)

Cut into fries - whatever size or shape suits your fancy.

Make a brine of 2 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons sugar or corn syrup, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.    Soak the cut potatoes an hour or up to 24 hours.

This releases some of the starch from the surface and gives a bit of flavor.

Preheat the oven to 450º.  Bring the cut potato pieces to a boil and boil for 5 minutes.

I drain them on a tea towel to absorb much of the surface moisture.

Put a tablespoon of oil in a heavy pan, add the drained, cooled potatoes, and coat them with the oil.  I like the flavor of peanut oil.  You would want an oil with a high smoke point.

This is my favorite 13 inch cast-iron pan.

Bake at 450º for 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes.

After a half-hour, I put the potatoes to the side and add a hamburger.

This is an 8-ounce burger to share.

There are several advantages to this method.  
There are no fat droplets floating in the air making a greasy mess.
There's no worry about storing leftover oil.

There's not much mess to clean up.

And they are delicious!

May Garden - 1st Half - 2021 - A Riot of Color

 The colors of May are in your face.  The daffodils and tulips compete for your attention.

By May, the interesting daffodils have begun blooming - the multiples, the scented ones, the doubles.  They make for some delightful bouquets.

It is so nice to bring the sunshine into the house after a gloomy winter.

At the beginning of May, it is mostly daffodils.

Then the tulips begin and the forsythia blooms in the background.

The spiky dark thing in the middle of the ground is a peony.

In May the tulips provide a riot of color and the forsythia begins to fade.

Last year this frame was designed to provide support for the dahlias.

Tibetan prayer flags add whimsy.

Turns out, dahlias did not need support, so this year the frame will support sweet peas.

This is a new little square garden for strawberries and garlic.  Rabbits were eating the strawberry leaves, even with the garlic right there!!!  The dastards.  D has added fencing to discourage them.

Tomatoes will go in the rectangular garden near the hedge.

These forget-me-nots just appeared.  They are tiny.

The view from the bench in the side yard.

The foreground of the next picture shows the new "Cutting Garden".  At this point, there are dahlias planted that D grew from seed.

It will have all kinds of flowers to be brought into the house.

Plans now are for glads, lisianthus, snapdragons, zinnias, marigolds, statice.

Beside the driveway is a bed of strawberries.  This was the original bed.  

There are now three more - one with the garlic, one against the south side of the house, and a few plants at the northeast corner of the house.

We have high hopes!  Last year the first strawberry was June 8.

Pulmonaria (Lungwort) has pink and blue flowers at the same time.

Horseradish is thriving.

At the end of April, the white rhododendron began to bloom.  I think it had only a couple of flowers last year, so we are delighted.

The white bleeding heart is taking off!  Check back next post to see it really thriving.

Gonna miss those daffodils.