As local as it gets, really
It's been unusually cold in Phoenix over the last few days. I know that's kind of an eye-rolling statement for anyone experiencing a real winter, but it's a bit of an adjustment for us, especially after last year's mild winter.
The temperature dipped down to well below freezing the last couple of nights. All of the stores were sold out of frost cloth, so I bought discount sheets from the local big box store. Our garden now looks like our linen closet exploded - all of the veggies are covered with every old sheet and towel I could rustle up. The sunflowers, eggplants, zucchini, and pepper are goners, but I expected that. We'll plant more in spring. The jury's still out on whether the peas and the tomatoes will make it.
I pulled the rest of the remaining fruit off of the eggplant bushes - after giving about half of them away, I still have about ten eggplants. Anyone have any good recipes for eggplant? I'm feeling uninspired.
We spent Saturday and today tilling up about another 500 square feet of garden space and digging holes for the trees that we'll get this weekend. We ordered a plum tree and almond tree along with a couple of grapes and a kiwi vine. Our next step will be to borrow a truck, load it with composted manure from a local dairy farm, and then till it into the new garden space. We've already tilled in a fair amount of gypsum and wood mulch as well to boost the soil drainage.
In other food news, one of our next-door neighbors gave us a shopping bag full of lemons. (I offered him eggplant in return, but he declined.) Brandon made lemon bars. Yum. We also have a dozen eggs from our farmer neighbor to the north and half a dozen oranges from the tree on the vacant property on the corner. Our kitchen counters are overflowing with stuff right now. It's a good problem to have, I guess.
The temperature dipped down to well below freezing the last couple of nights. All of the stores were sold out of frost cloth, so I bought discount sheets from the local big box store. Our garden now looks like our linen closet exploded - all of the veggies are covered with every old sheet and towel I could rustle up. The sunflowers, eggplants, zucchini, and pepper are goners, but I expected that. We'll plant more in spring. The jury's still out on whether the peas and the tomatoes will make it.
I pulled the rest of the remaining fruit off of the eggplant bushes - after giving about half of them away, I still have about ten eggplants. Anyone have any good recipes for eggplant? I'm feeling uninspired.
We spent Saturday and today tilling up about another 500 square feet of garden space and digging holes for the trees that we'll get this weekend. We ordered a plum tree and almond tree along with a couple of grapes and a kiwi vine. Our next step will be to borrow a truck, load it with composted manure from a local dairy farm, and then till it into the new garden space. We've already tilled in a fair amount of gypsum and wood mulch as well to boost the soil drainage.
In other food news, one of our next-door neighbors gave us a shopping bag full of lemons. (I offered him eggplant in return, but he declined.) Brandon made lemon bars. Yum. We also have a dozen eggs from our farmer neighbor to the north and half a dozen oranges from the tree on the vacant property on the corner. Our kitchen counters are overflowing with stuff right now. It's a good problem to have, I guess.