The Witch Sisters

 Click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Esmerelda has been very busy working in her garden.

 She put a birdbath out for her birds.  It sits right under their birdhouse.  She also set out her special gold cauldron for a bit of spell work later in the day.

 Her cat, Pyawacket, likes to wander the gardens.  Esmerelda keeps her bike parked by the fence so it is handy for her to run errands.

 Esmerelda likes the occasional swing on her leaf swing. She finds it very relaxing.

 Essy reads lots of natural gardening books.  She studies hard before she chooses something to plant in her yard. She knows to place a banana peel and Epsom salts in the bottom of the hole she dug for her roses.  Then she covers them with 2 inches of soil.  The rose is planted and as the banana peel breaks down, it releases potassium which is very good for the rose.  The Epsom salts release magnesium which is also good for roses.  Her roses covered her trellis overnight.

 Esmerelda likes to keep a tidy cottage.

 Broomhilde doesn't plant much in her garden.  She thinks it is a waste of time.

 The only holes she digs are ones where she buries her money.  She likes to act like she is poor in the hopes that people will feel sorry for her and give her free stuff.  This worked when she was younger, but as she aged, people caught on to her.

 Rats like to chew on the boxes and they have built nests under them.

 Broomhilde places empty pots on top of where the boxes are buried.

 Her cat Jinx tries to keep the rats out of the cottage.

 Her toad, Thomas, does not like the rats. He wishes she would be more honest and just keep her money in the bank like everyone else.

Broomhilde always has her shovel nearby in case she needs to dig her money up in a hurry. She is very paranoid that someone is going to steal it and she spends lots of her day digging up the boxes to make sure they are still there.  It's really quite sad.

Papa's Perfect Honey Butter Toast

 When I was a little girl my grandfather, Papa, lived with us.  He was very big on breakfast and he loved honey and butter toast.  To this day I still make it the same way he did and it always reminds me of him. Back in those days most people used margarine but not Papa, he only used butter.

 I made a couple Pullman loaves of bread which are perfect for toast.

 Papa used an old toaster and the bread needed to be removed and turned around to toast both sides.  This is the toaster I use.

 You can watch your bread toasting.

 I toast my bread to medium.

 Then spread on good Italian Parma butter.

 Then I spread it with a good local honey.  You know, it is good to use different local honeys to combat allergies!

 Toasting.....

 You can see it browning.

Done.  So simple but so very good.

More Shelter Cooking

I am cooking for the shelter about 3 times each week.  It takes a lot of planning and shopping but I really enjoy it.  I managed to make The Blog Tech and his father a butter cake.  They were grateful that I squeezed them into my schedule.

This is such a good cake and so easy to make.  You can see the recipe here: http://octoberfarm.blogspot.com/search?q=old+fashioned+butter+cake

Remember the Texas Hots from the other day?

I made 100 of them for the shelter.

I made 20 quarts of my sun-dried tomato pasta.

http://octoberfarm.blogspot.com/search?q=sun+dried+tomato+pasta

Then I made a classic 5 bean salad. 

1 can each of dark red kidney beans, green beans and yellow wax beans (I usually add another can of beans or two, like black beans and or garbanzo as there is plenty of dressing in this recipe) 

1/2 C chopped celery

1/2 C sugar (I use less)

1/2 C olive oil

1/2 C balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup green onion (optional)

Combine all ingredients and marinate overnight. 

I used more than 5 beans and I also added fresh tarragon.

And I made them this for dessert.  Prepare a box of brownie mix.  Pour 1/3 of it in a greased 9X11 pan.  Top with 2 layers of pretzels. 

Cover with the remaining brownie mix.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30  minutes.

Remove from the oven.

Top with 1 jar of caramel sauce.  Sprinkle with sea salt.

Grumpy Puppy

A damp day in the garden.  I just bought this cute bee skip cloche. I am not sure where I will use it yet.

Teddy is never happy when it is damp outside.

She searches the yard trying to find a dry spot.  Her umbrella was cranked closed because of high winds so her normal dry spot went missing.

When she does slow down, she only sits.  She does not want a wet belly.

Still searching, she wanders the entire yard.

The rain helped the planters.  I can't wait for this one to cascade.

I am still adding to the potted garden.

Since the winds died down, I put the umbrella back up.

However, Teddy seems pissed that her dry spot is slightly damp.

And the search continues.  Grumpy puppy.

Through The Gates and Into The Secret Garden

It rained all night and I could not wait to go down to the lower gardens early this morning to see how everything fared.   Open the garden gates and come inside.

 The dogwoods were weighted down with wet blossoms.

 The upper pond was bubbling and flowing.

 I put 2 feeder fish in the upper pond and they were nowhere to be seen.  Did they take a ride on the water slide to the lower pond?

 The Weeping Beech covers the walk and you get quite a shower walking under it when it is wet. The puppy turned into a pussy and would not go with me this morning.  She preferred to stay dry.

 Heading down the steps to the middle pond.

 No feeder fish here either.

 The hostas and ferns by the lower pond have almost opened entirely.  Someone left a hose out.

 These irises crack me up.  I originally planted them by the upper pond.  After the first year they replanted themselves by the lower pond.  Now I never know where they will pop up or what color they will be.  They started out being purple and it looks like this year they will be yellow.

 The zucchini enjoyed the rain.

 A happy garden...nothing like a good rain.

 Tomatillas

 A row of eggplant.

 My one lone artichoke plant.

 Bats dripping with rain.

 The peppers are ready to bloom.

 The little area on the lower right is still empty.  It does not get as much sun as the rest of the raised bed and I am not sure what might grow there.  Any suggestions?

 Click to see my one lone spear of asparagus. 

 I could find only 2 feeder fish.  I added 8 of them down here last night.

 I wonder if the big fish had a sushi snack last night?

 I just planted a bunch of phlox amongst these rocks.  Hopefully it will be pretty and bloom next spring.

 Back up and under the huge Beech for the second shower of the morning.