March 21, 2021 The finals- Big changes

So many big change, all at the same time.

The garden is  ready for spring.

The path work has been completed. That was done in record time last Sunday.

Katie and crew cleaned the pond during the week. The extra waterlilies on are the back driveway sale table.

The plant sale for the food banks, Season II, has sort of begun. That says something about the entire operation. It has started but not officially started.

All frosts have disappeared from the 9 day forecast. My seedlings are outside for the immediate future. I wonder how deer like poppies?

Julia and I, this past week,  both passed the two week point from our second shot. We will still will wear a mask. But the immediate threat is mostly gone.

And of course Katie and family leave this morning to go back to Maine. The teachers in their day care in Maine have gotten their shots. Thank you, Joe Biden. So the over two month stay ends. Our life here in Iowa will seem very quiet for a while. This experience has been wonderful. I will plan on a picture reflection maybe this coming week.

And of course the flower contest is ready for the finals.

Last week, in week 3 of the play offs, the winner was the morning glory. 

It was not quite the blowout there was one week ago.  But it was a comfortable win. The full vote was

So here is your final group. 3 dramatic colors.

One more time around the ring.

 #1 The red peony

#2 The orange coneflower

#3 The blue morning glory

Right now

Pond cleaning has never been something you look forward to. This year Katie, with some support, got right in and pulled out the waterlilies.

I helped with the syphon and then helped clean up the plants. The plants actually grow out of the pots. You then cut those pieces off and they went on the sale table. Of course at that stage I have no clue what is the color.

I should add that after the syphoning we let things sit over night. We had to add more water to cover the new shoots. I had to do that because it actually froze that night.

Katie is stepping into water that still has a little ice on it.

Of course no pond cleaning was complete with getting fish. Christopher was even more excited than he is all the time.

Christopher came running up to me one day this week to announce that there was the first iris. Here it is. It was such a great experience the exploding spring garden through the eyes of a 4 year old.

The front yard aconite have lived up to my expectations. A thousand bulbs were planted last fall. Here most of them are yesterday.

Of course I am not thinking where I will put the next thousand.

Julia's recipe

This week with a guest recipe from Katie

Roasted cauliflower

Another guest post! This is Katie posting a califlower recipe we make at least once a week at home and shared with my parents last week. Truth is that I'm terrible at measuring anything, so I did my best this time and I recommend that you taste at a few points to make sure that it seems right to you! So to start, you'll need: 

2 heads cauliflower (this seems like a lot, but this recipe is very good at room temp as left overs the next few days!)

4 T. olive oil

1/3 c. tahini

2 T lemon juice (or more) + another 1 T lemon juice

1/2 to 2/3 c. yogurt

1 garlic clove

2 T - 1/2 c. chopped parsley depending how much you have and how tolerant you are of chopping (or eating) parsley

See assembled ingredients. If you had a fresh lemon, that would be great (and then you could certainly add a little zest) but bottled works great. 

First step is chopping the cauliflower into florets. How big or small depends on a) how much energy you have to chop cauliflower and b) how much time you have to roast it. We were running a little behind, so these are a little on the smaller side, but it really doesn't matter too much. Drizzle with 4 T olive oil on the pan and stir around a little bit so it's mostly all covered. Cover with tin foil and bake in a 425 oven for 30 min, then stir and remove the foil and return to the oven for about 15 minutes. You're going for cooked through and a tiny bit browned. 

While the cauliflower is baking, mince a clove of garlic (or smoosh it in a garlic press) and put it in a tiny bowl with 1 T lemon juice. This makes it a little less pungent. I've been known to skip this step, but sometimes eating companions object. Worth it I think! Leave it sitting there for 15 min or so. 

While that's sitting, make the dressing. Start with 1/3 c. tahini in the bottom of a biggish (2 c.?) measuring cup. Make sure it's pretty well stirred - tahini really tends to seperate and leave a brick at the bottom of the jar/can. Add 2 T lemon to the tahini. It'll actually get thicker with the lemon juice (that science seems magic to me!) but keep stirring. Then start to add the yogurt a little at a time - this is the key stirring moment to be sure it stays smooth and doesn't end up lumpy. You'll end up using 1/2-2/3 c. of yogurt. Add 1/2 t. of cumin and your tempered garlic/lemon mix. Then taste. I'm sure it'll need salt (maybe a 1 t?) but maybe a little more lemon too. 

While the cauliflower is finishing roasting, you'll want to chop your parsley. 

Here is suitably roasted cauliflower.

Then stir everything together - dressing + cauliflower + parsley. Serve hot or room temp. 

Here it is on the plate with the sausage/crouton/mushroom dish that my mom posted a few weeks ago. Easy and delicious, and as I said, this cauliflower is great so we tend to make a big batch early in the week and eat it for lunch the next few days. 

Odds and Ends

We did our best this week to cope with daylight savings. I did enjoy the extra daylight from 6-7 pm.

The children remarkably took only about 2-3 days to adjust to getting up in the dark again.

The garden picture contest ends this week. I will keep showing you pictures and I hope you will ride along. I garden to share this all with you. 

One thing has been odd. Throughout most of the contest the number of weekly hits on the webcite was between 300-400. All of a sudden in the last two weeks it has jumped to over 1000. I should tell you that most of that was a whole punch of European bots who have gotten interested. There were from Russian, Italy and most recently France. They do not vote.

I am again finding deer tracks in the garden. I sprayed the first few things this week. I had planted 20 Monsella tulips last fall. They are one of Julia's favorite. Tulips are one of the deer favorites.

Be safe. 
Enjoy the spring.

Safe traveling family.

Talk to you all again in a week.

Philip