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Bought another aloe at Plantagen last weekend. Can’t have enough of these guys, I think.
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I will definitely have to invest in more fall bulbs if they all do so well here.
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Did I mention some tulips made a guest appearance? I suppose we do have the sort of weather they enjoy.
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View of my cleaned-up greenhouse interior. Still looks pretty tame.
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White dicentra, which will go where there pink one goes.
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Pink dicentra I got on sale last week. Don’t know where it’s going yet.
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Repotted peony. Still don’t know where it’s going yet.
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My 2 year old calamondin has once again been repotted and is enjoying its new greenhouse home.
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The clivia T’s granny gave us has been repotted and is now also in the greenhouse.
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The droopy lavender I seeded last spring is now looking much happier in the greenhouse.
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I put in 9 rows of “cold weather crops” the first weekend of May. We’ll see when they sprout.
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Parsley, purple carrots and cilantro.
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Leaf lettuce, spring onion and salad dandelion.
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Leaf lettuce, mixed carrots and spinach.
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I also plan to plant my cucumbers directly into these bags once the weather warms a bit more.
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My first (and probably temporary) raised garden bed. Made from… bed frames :-)
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There’s a few different types now, but I totally will continue adding varieties starting this fall.
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I love narcissi. Can’t get enough of them. Always wanted a giant bed of them in my garden and now I have some!
Having been a resident of LA’s Westside for a good portion of my life, you could say I was influenced by a healthy dose of Jewish culture. No, really, it was awesome because you could totally walk down the street and think “Hmmm, gefilte or sushi for lunch today?” And stop at places that did BOTH. So I was totally excited when cim invited us to her Hanukkah dinner my first year living in Finland. She was all, “You can make something!” and I was like, “Sweet! I’m gonna make matzo balls!” Because I had (still do, actually) a serious hankering for the giant bowls of matzo ball soup I used to get from the delis for finals week or bad flu days.
Then I realized we are in Finland. 80% Lutheran Finland. If I wanted any matzo, I was going to have to make it myself or have it sent via mail order. While I probably will try to make it one day, I was on a deadline at the time and baking up a batch of the stuff just to crush it into pieces again wasn’t going to fit in my agenda. So I went with the compromise route and used… cream crackers. They’re made with yeast and bit on the buttery side, but we weren’t trying to strictly observe anything anyway.
Continue reading Un-matzo Ball Soup
The evenings are still just a couple degrees above 0C, but daytime temps are now between 10-20C and very sunny, so it’s definitely spring. Everything is budding, flowers are starting to appear and butterflies are everywhere. I’ve started cleaning up the garden and grounds best as I can, though I’m sure it will take at least a few years before everything is under control. So far, I’ve cleaned up the dead matter from the perennial beds around the house, pruned two raspberry hedges and a grapevine. Definitely have the beginnings of a huge new compost heap in the corner of our lot as a result. Most of the seedlings I started (as well as a good portion of my houseplants) have been moved to the greenhouse and we broke ground today on a new raised bed.
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Small narcissi (pretty sure they’re Tête à têtes) alongside our driveway.
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Larger narcissi alongside our driveway. There are also white ones.
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Another view of the daffodil bank.
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Not sure what variety these big ones are other than some sort of trumpet. We’ll see next week.
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Siberian squill circling one of our fruit trees.
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Snowdrops ringing another small tree trunk.
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My greenhouse! It will need a bit of patching up and repainting in the next few years, but it is made of window glass, so it’s pretty sturdy.
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Rhubarb, starting to grow leaves. Last week, they looked like bright red dinosaur eggs.
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Two days later and you can see how much they’ve grown. Soon, they will be in a pie!
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The buds on the grapevine in the greenhouse are about ready to break any day now.
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Some of my cucurbit seedlings.
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More seedlings. I always plant double since they are prone to dying when transplanted.
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First leaf on my baby pumpkin :-)
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Pumpkins moved to the greenhouse.
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More baby squash in the greenhouse. They look so happy!
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Baby squash at my kitchen window prior to the move.
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Tommi’s grandmother gave me this clivia our first year here. Finally, it has a chance of flowering again.
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I seeded this lavender last spring and it hung on to dear life all winter. Now it’s starting to perk up.
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I bought a new pink peony but still haven’t decided where to plant it.
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There is a little pond with a bank of iris and daylily along the sides. Need to clean it up still.
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Currant and gooseberry bushes all in a row, starting to break bud.
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More currant bush buds. We’re going to have a LOT of fruit.
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Our covered strawberry patch, in need of a bit of TLC. Plants are starting to leaf out so need to fix soon.
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The left side of the raspberry thicket. Pruned down to the just the one year canes after a day’s work.
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Right side of the raspberry thicket. LOVE raspberries, so am happy there are so many.
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Raspberry buds.
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A horsetail shoot — these have been popping up amongst the right raspberries.
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Pepe, the neighbor’s cat. He hasn’t quite grasped that his family moved next door.
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…so he still keeps coming to our door instead and following us around.
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He’s a sweet little guy, though, and will hopefully be taking care of any rodents for us.
I’m going to start confining my gardening picturespam to once a week, since I know it can easily get out of hand otherwise. I am keeping more detailed almost-daily notes on Folia, for those who are interested.
As you’ll see below, all my seeds have sprouted with unprecedented speed, so I guess they are as eager for spring to begin as I am! Some of the cucurbits are quickly outgrowing their little yogurt cup starter homes, so I’ve started transplanting them into their own seedling pots. The first batch to get potted up were the Kaempe Melon pumpkins. If they are still looking perky tomorrow morning, I’ll repeat the process for the rest of the bigger seedlings. And yes, I am indeed enough of a geek to have slapped QR codes on the sides of all my seedling pots. They link back to the individual plant history pages I’ve set up for them on Folia. I’ll thank myself once these babies are all mixed up in the greenhouse and garden, and I’m pretty sure the people I swap with will be just as amused.
I did the last batch today, so now all my cucurbits/melons/squashes and tomatoes/eggplants/etc. are cozy in their little plastic incubators. I already can see a few germinated pumpkin seeds from the ones I planted Monday! I’ll wait until they actually sprout before proclaiming it a milestone, though :-) But still, pumpkins in Finland! I’m so excited.
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I love cherry tomatoes. I don’t think you can ever have too many of them, in a huge range of colors. These were a pretty orange variety with the same compact growth that I loved in the ones I had last year, so I’m going to give them a try.
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Had these last year and they were so easy that they had to come back. Container-friendly plants will be especially useful since I will probably be keeping all my nightshades in the greenhouse this year. The Finnish summer just seems a bit too cool for their liking and I’m determined to get a huge crop out of these guys.
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I’m actually not sure why I got these, since they look the same as the Tumbling Toms. Well, guess we’ll find out!
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These just looked so cute! On a practical note, paprikas can be horribly expensive and not so fresh out here. So it’d be nice to have a supply on hand!
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I actually don’t like eggplant that much, but these looked so cute that I had to try them out. Who knows, maybe they’ll be better when they’re fresh off the plant. These will probably go into the greenhouse as well.
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Another one of those “just wanted to try it” plants. I’ve seen these in the catalogues for a while and just now decided to give it a try. It’ll probably also live in the greenhouse.
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These just looked so freakish I had to give them a try.
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Watermelons! They’re horribly expensive and we love them. These could be individual serving sized!
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I’ve never grown spaghetti squash myself, though I’ve brought one home from a school garden before. I think it’s time to get reacquainted with these silly things.
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Another butternut! Wow, I’m going to have a lot of squash.
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A smaller pumpkin, in case the big ones don’t mature fast enough this summer. No eggs in one basket here.
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The full spread on top of the freezer.
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My miniature phalaenopsis is having babies! Here, it sprouted both a baby and another flower from the same node.
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Another shot of the bonus flower. I’ve never had this happen with my orchids before, so hopefully it means I’m doing something right!
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Another baby growing on the other flower stalk. This one has much bigger leaves, probably because it doesn’t have a flower as well.
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And the beginnings of a third one :-) I’ll let them all grow until they have about 2 inches of root before separating them.
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My rapidly growing seed germination tray.
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I had a wildly successful run with these last year, so am planting them again. I’m faithful to those who treat me well :-) These produced bountiful, tasty cukes and were very happy doing it within the confines of the bag of potting soil allotted to them. 4 planted.
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I admit to being attracted to weird cultivars. Plus, it would look so cool to have slices of various colored cucumbers on a salad, don’t you think? We’ll see what happens with these. 5 planted.
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I hear melons can be tricky. Both the boy and I adore them, though, so I’m going to give it a try this year. They can get expensive at the store and we could probably eat one apiece if it weren’t so spendy. These might actually end up going in the greenhouse, since I’m not entirely sure they’ll crop fast enough otherwise. 4 planted.
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I know I already planted the golden version of these, but you know how I get about have rainbow colors. And cucurbits really are some of my favorite plants. They make you feel really accomplished, with such large fruits. Anyway. 9 planted.
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Classic summer veggie that I know I should be eating more of. I do like these roasted, so no hurt in planting some. This type in particular looks like it doesn’t even need to live in the greenhouse, which is a plus. 5 planted.
At least, the calendar says it is. The snow is also mostly gone and the ice is nearly melted off all the bodies of water. The leaves aren’t out on the trees yet, but we’re seeing all kinds of stuff starting to emerge. Like these pretty little snowdrops sprouting right next to our building.
 
It’s still damp outside and I’ve been warned that the ground might still be frozen a couple of inches down, so I haven’t actually put a shovel to the large garden plot at the new house yet. However, the gorgeous sunny days make me want to start planting things. I’d have everything in the ground by now back in Cali, after all. So I figured I’d start some seeds inside that might need a bit more time to develop.
Yes, those are plastic yogurt containers. They come with their own clear lids and make perfect little greenhouses. They’re sitting on top of the freezer currently because there’s a nice warm draft generated by the machine from behind.
Big ol’ pumpkins that will hopefully keep us in puree for a year. Taking a bit of a risk, since it’s questionable whether they’ll bear fruit over the course of our short (but endlessly sunny) summers. The seeds were cheap, though, so we’ll give it a try. Pumpkins aren’t big sellers up here so it’s hard to find enough to satisfy my baking needs. Planted 8 of these.
Butternuts are awesome. Much like pumpkins, I’ll use them for tons of baking and cooking needs. Plus, we have plenty of room in our new cellar for storage! Planted 8 of these too.
Sunny little ball-shaped squashes! They look adorable and will probably be a very nice one-serving size for dinner parties. Only planted 6 of these because that was all that came in the packet! Cheap seed company :-P
As I’ve done for the past few years, I will be keeping a gardening database on Folia to track the progress of my plantings. With an area this big, it’ll be immensely useful to have notes on where everything is and how they’re developing. How is everybody else doing with their gardening this year?
All the wallpapering and painting happening in our new house has put me in the mood to spruce up other areas of my life as well. Including my blog network, which I’d been getting more dissatisfied with by the week, but never got around to doing anything about. That is, until a few page-crashing bugs made it necessary for me to muck with the databases and code anyway. So I gave this baby a facelift while I was at it! Haven’t really altered the format much since I uploaded it 3 years ago, so it feels all new and shiny! Now, if only I could muster up the energy to do the rest of the blogs…
This is mämmi. It’s traditionally served in Finland and Sweden during the Easter holiday, hence why I’m posting about it now. We had some this past weekend along with dessert – a big dollop served with cream and sugar. It isn’t the most attractive-looking holiday dish on its own, no. Taste-wise, it’s balanced between bittersweet and nutty — pretty much what you’d expect of a paste made from rye flour and malt.
Mämmi also happens to be one of those regional dishes that locals like to make you try in the hopes that you’ll make a funny face. Which doesn’t usually work with me because, well, my particular family history has already exposed me to most of the weirder/extreme things that fall under human gastronomy. In fact, I was just remarking to the husband that it reminded me a lot of the smooth sweet bean paste (azuki variety, especially) that’s used in a lot of Asian pastries. It’s partially the texture and partially the sweetened starchy flavor. And really, if you heaped both of them into matching bowls, it’d be really hard to tell the difference by sight or smell alone. I used to eat that stuff straight out of the can with a spoon if my mother let me.
Mmmm, paste.
I was told that the homemade stuff is a lot yummier than the mass-produced stuff you see in boxes at the supermarket. This might be something I’ll have to try making next year, just to see. Part of me is also seeing the potential of mixing it into some buttercream frosting to give my Easter cupcakes extra personality next year. Sadly, it will probably seem more palatable to Finnish tastes than my peanut butter frosting from this year. Which is an entirely different tale of food-related cultural disconnect that will come in another post…
I’ve been thinking a lot about instructions and tutorials lately at work, and that must have made its way into my subconscious because I’m starting to feel guilty about not updating this blog very much. It’s not for lack of material, since I’ve got a whole folder of photos and notes saved from various projects over the past year — it just seems like there’s always something else more pressing. Given, that’s probably because there was — planning an international wedding, making a pile of holiday presents, then starting a new job will get to ya like that — but still. So with this spring comes my promise to tend this blog more regularly, especially since I’ve got some big plans for both the kitchen and garden. We’re moving into a new house next month, after all.
Let’s talk pumpkins. Back home, you could get pumpkins starting the first day of autumn. Heck, year-round if you count the canned stuff. Convenient, since many of my favorite desserts and dishes use pumpkin puree. Here in Finland, pumpkins are available from mid-October to the first week of November. And that’s about it. This is partly due to the fact that not many pumpkins make it to maturity during our very short summers but also because not many people cook with them here. I got some odd looks when I explained that I was buying the things for consumption rather than decoration. Add that to the fact that I was going around to every supermarket and farmer’s stall in town buying out their stock and you might as well has put a big, neon “Crazy American” sign on my forehead.
Whatever, pumpkins are awesome. They smell great when they’re baking and instantly make any dish feel warm, orange, and autumnal. After my pumpkin-lean Thanksgiving of 2010, I decided to stockpile the things every season and make my own supply of puree for the year. It worked out well last year (I only got 2, but they were really substantial ones) and I plan to actually grow my own patch of them in the new garden this year. We will never lack pie again.
Want to make your own pumpkin puree? Check it out…
Continue reading DIY: Pumpkin Puree -or- Squashing a Squash.
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