Visit My Food/Farm Blog Advertise | BlogHer Privacy Policy More from BlogHer Lean, Green Braised Mexican Pork Tenderloin Fig and Blue Cheese Tart Family Work Day: My Favorite New Tradition Save Thanksgiving: Use The Slow Cooker More from iVillage Expert Entertaining Tips for Thanksgiving ABOUT ME FARMGIRL SUSAN MISSOURI, UNITED STATES Nearly everyone dreams of moving to the country at some point, but few people are crazy enough to actually do it. I'm one of those few. In 1994, when I was 26, I sold my little bakery cafe, packed up 200 boxes of books & antiques & waved goodbye to my native California. Armed with a very basic knowledge of gardening, an overenthusiastic sense of adventure, & lots of naivete, I ended up on a 280-acre, 140-year-old farm in the middle of nowhere. I became cook, gardener, shepherd, farmhand, vet, surrogate mom, wildlife expert, sheep midwife & animal undertaker. My prep school education & graphic design background were useless. I went from attending restaurant openings & gallery receptions to working the rural fire dept's BBQ booth at the crafts fair & munching fried pies at country auctions. Ten years ago, I moved to an even more remote 240-acre farm which I share with sheep, chickens, 3 dogs, 6 cats, 7 very entertaining donkeys & one really well fed farmguy. My life revolves around food. VIEW MY COMPLETE PROFILE MY GARDEN RECIPES A Perfect Spring Salad Arugula Pesto Blue Cheese Dressing Colors Of Summer Salad Fresh Tomato Pizza Sauce Green Garlic Fettuccine Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip Simplest Broccoli Soup Summer In A Bowl ARCHIVES March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 June 2007 July 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 August 2010 September 2010 October 2010 GARDEN BLOGS 2 Acre Farm A Way to Garden Calendula & Concrete Chiot's Run Cold Climate Gardening Daughter Of The Soil Dirt By Amy Stewart Grow Better Veggies Jim Long's Garden Petunia's Garden Playing In The Dirt Sheila's Garden Blog Directory The Inadvertent Gardener This Garden Is Illegal Urban Sprouts School Gardens Veggie Gardening Tips Year Round Veggie Gardener NEW! You Grow Girl GARDEN STUFF Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Baker Creek Forum For Gardeners Botanical Interests Seeds High Mowing Organic Seeds Pinetree Garden Seeds NOT JUST FOR GARDENERS! AmeriHerb A Place To Bark Rescue Earthbound Farm Organics Farming Friends FoodShed Planet I Heart Farms Kitchen Gardeners International Local Harvest Organic Consumers Association Organic.org Organic To Be Rurality Shelburne Farms Slow Food In Schools Slow Food USA Stone Barns Center For Food & Agriculture Wild Animal Sanctuary SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2010 10/31/10: Decorating the Kitchen Garden for Halloween Boo! Is your garden still giving you treats? Want to see more spooky stuff? 10/31/05: Happy Halloween! 10/31/05: All Hallow's Eve 11/8/05: Did the Goblins Get Them? 10/31/06: Boo! 10/30/07: Halloween Construction Zone 10/31/07: Scare Cat 10/31/09: Pumpkin Substitutes 10/31/09: Don't Let the Goblins—or this Little Brown Bat—Get You! 10/31/10: Happy Halloween! 8/21/05: All in a Night's Work 6/26/06: It's Been a While Since I Caught a Spiderweb 10/19/06: High Wire Act 1/6/07: Precious Farm Jewels 2/2/08: The Return of Chucky 4/27/08: A Sunday Feast & a Mysterious Owl (more owl photos here) 6/13/08: Cloudy Morning Sparkle 8/15/08: Trying to Blend by the Barn 8/5/10: Flying Squirrel, Anyone? © 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the frightening foodie farm blog where a couple of very blustery days ago, this piece of floating row cover actually flew up into that tree and the garden decorated itself. I thought it was perfect—until I realized I was probably going to tear the row cover into pieces while wrestling it back to the ground (it was really tangled up in the branches!). Fortunately my hunky farmguy rescued it while I wasn't looking—or maybe it was the goblins. Do you have goblins living in your garden? Labels: Halloween, the autumn garden POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 9:20 AM 2 COMMENTS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2010 Garden Journal 10-22-10: It's Time to Plant Garlic! Planting garlic with Marta and Lucky Buddy Bear on 2-10-09 Realization of the Day: I can't believe I might actually get my garlic planted on time this year. When is the best time to plant garlic? There's no one right answer to that question, but in many areas it's October. If you live somewhere that has a real winter (as opposed to places like California and Texas and Florida), this gives the cloves enough time to sprout and get a good head start growing before the ground freezes and they go into hibernation mode. If you live where the winters are mild, you can get away with planting your garlic later. If you're minding the moonsigns (you can read more about how that works here), you'll want to plant your garlic on a fertile day in the third quarter, which promotes underground growth, because the waning moon is pulling things 'down.' This is also a good time to plant other root vegetables, like potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, and beets, though not onions. Read more » Labels: garlic, the autumn garden POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 4:36 PM 11 COMMENTS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2010 How To Ripen Green Tomatoes Indoors the Really Easy Way Green Tomatoes Harvested on 10-17-09 While you're waiting for your green tomatoes to ripen—or if you have a lot of immature ones, which probably won't ripen—you could turn some of them into my no sugar, so easy, salsa-like green tomato relish, which is one of my most popular recipes. Will green tomatoes get ripe and turn red after picking them (or yellow or orange, depending on the variety)? Yes. Is it difficult to get tomatoes to ripen off the vine? No. Do you have to pull up the whole tomato plant and bring it inside? No. Do you have to do anything special to get green tomatoes to ripen? No. Do they have to be kept at a specific and/or steady temperature? No. Will tomatoes ripened indoors taste as good as vine-ripened garden tomatoes? Probably not, but any homegrown tomatoes are going to taste better than no homegrown tomatoes—especially if you're enjoying them on Thanksgiving or Christmas. And they'll still probably taste better than storebought tomatoes, especially if you're buying them at Christmas. Read more » Labels: the autumn garden, tomatoes POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 1:32 PM 13 COMMENTS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 03, 2010 Is a Digital Kitchen Scale an Essential Garden Tool? I Think So I'm working on a post called Six Worthwhile Kitchen Investments for Gardeners, but since my favorite Oxo 11-pound digital kitchen scale is currently on sale for $37.44 at amazon.com with free super saver shipping (and their sales don't often last long) I decided to skip ahead and write about it first. It's worth every penny of the regular $49.99 price (which is what I paid three years ago), but this is a very nice deal. I've raved about this scale before, and no doubt will again. Basil from the kitchen garden on 9/4/10 Realization of the day: I literally cannot remember life before my kitchen scale. I often use it several times a day. If you read the title of this post and your immediate answer was no, I kindly suggest you do these two things and then come back: 1. Go to three different places and buy a bunch of Swiss chard or kale—or even parsley or cilantro—at each one. Are they anywhere near the same size? Didn't think so. 2. Ask three people to measure out two cups of basil leaves for you, then lay the piles side by side and compare them. Read more » POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 9:09 AM 17 COMMENTS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 Garden Journal 9/23/10: Busy, Busy and Another Raised Bed Seeded for Fall The bumblebees and I both love sedum autumn joy, which darkens in color as the season progresses. Realization of the Day: Okay, so it's probably going to take me months, rather than weeks, to get through that ambitious list I recently shared of upcoming blog post topics. But you knew that already, didn't you? Read more » Labels: sedum POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 7:55 AM 10 COMMENTS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2010 Garden Journal 9/14/10: How To Grow Asian (Oriental) Greens for Fall by Direct Seeding Asian greens ready to be thinned and eaten on 10-10-06 Realization of the Day: I don't think the little thrill over seeing tiny seeds sprout up out of the soil will ever go away. At least I hope it won't. Realization #2: I've grown a lot of fall vegetables over the years that I've completely forgotten about. Thank goodness I did remember to take pictures of them—or at least of some of them. Okay, so summer is finally winding down, and gardeners everywhere are busy packing away their garden tools (if only I treated mine as well as Martha Stewart treats hers—or did this kind of nice stuff to them), preparing their beds for winter, and already thinking about next spring. If it's been a good year in your garden, you're also hopefully still picking delicious, vine-ripened bounty. But what you should also be doing is starting a few fall crops. And this isn't as daunting—or exhausting—as it sounds. Read more » Labels: Asian greens, growing from seed, the autumn garden POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 6:15 PM 9 COMMENTS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2010 Garden Journal 9/9/10: Dealing with a Doodlebug, I'm on Twitter (sort of), and What's Coming Up My favorite kind of garden pest: cute, cuddly, and prefers meat over vegetables. Realization of the Day: I started tweeting but forgot to tell you. Since I'm always behind replying to e-mail and comments (thanks for your patience!), not to mention garden blogging in general, tweeting isn't such a good idea for me. But for the last several months I've been announcing each new blog post on Twitter—mostly on time, though sometimes I still forget to do it. You'll find In My Kitchen Garden on Twitter here, and Farmgirl Fare here. This summer has seen record number of In My Kitchen Garden visitors (welcome, new readers!), and I couldn't be happier. It seems gardens—and gardeners—are sprouting up everywhere, and about 20,000 inquisitive growers are finding their way here each month. Between that and our recent slight drop in temperatures (at last) I'm so inspired, both in the garden and on this garden blog. My new goal is to write shorter posts, and post a lot more often. Summer may be winding down, but there's still all sorts of stuff going on in the garden, and always so much to share. Before we know it, the seed catalogs will be arriving! These are some of the things I'm planning to write about in the coming weeks: Read more » Labels: greenhouse, Molly Doodlebug POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 9:44 PM 11 COMMENTS SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2010 Garden Journal 8/18/10: Tomato Season Has Arrived and the First Harvest is In! Yep, that's it. Pretty though, isn't it? Realization of the Day: One of the nicest things about gardening is that the littlest surprises can often mean so very much. A month or so ago, I changed my blog header to a photo that more accurately reflects the season: tomatoes! But ever since then I've felt like a guilty impostor. Oh, those are my tomatoes up there alright—I just picked them back in 2008 (at the end of October!). And while pretty much everyone equates the summer vegetable garden with ripe tomatoes, I don't actually have any growing in my garden this year. Or so I thought. Read more » Labels: the summer garden, tomatoes POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 4:04 PM 17 COMMENTS SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 2010 Garden Journal 8/15/10: How To and, More Importantly, Hot Not To Store Fresh Basil Realization of the Day: It's a lot easier to write off a garden disaster as a learning experience when it doesn't involve your entire crop. The photo above illustrates one of the best ways to store fresh basil: in a fragrant little kitchen tabletop bouquet. Sweet looking, nice smelling, and obviously some very happy fresh cut herbs. That's how I did things last year, when I had so much green and purple basil growing in the garden it kept bursting into bloom faster than I could use it up. This year I had a learning experience—with my one measly plant, which is why this post isn't called something chirpy like Hip Hip Hooray! It's Pesto Time Again! as was originally intended before the harvest. Read more » Labels: basil, herbs, how to, the summer garden POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 7:22 PM 11 COMMENTS TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2010 Garden Journal 7/27/10: Harvesting Really Late Planted Garlic Growing Garlic: Not Bad, Not Bad Realization of the Day: I'm a lot more excited about growing garlic after digging up this year's crop. I'm doing a little back dating here, so that the garden journal date above accurately reflects the day I actually harvested my garlic, as opposed to the day—two weeks later—I'm finally getting around to writing about it. It would only be cheating if it were the other way around, right? Last year I promised myself I would never again plant my garlic in February, which is about four or five months later than it should go into the ground here in southern Missouri. And this year I kept that promise—I planted my garlic in March instead. Read more » Labels: garlic POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 7:58 PM 12 COMMENTS FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2010 Garden Journal 7/23/10: Why I Haven't Set Foot in My Garden in Over Two Weeks Harmless little snake in the greenhouse, September 2007 Realization of the Day: It's time for a new game plan. Actually more like an extended half-time period but without all the outrageous festivities. Back in early spring, I was doing an energy work session over the phone with a friend of mine, and as I started listing all the things I was so behind with—including my totally neglected garden—she said, "What would happen if you didn't have a garden this year?" The thought was so inconceivable I literally had no response. But now I know. Life goes on—just with fewer vegetables. Read more » Labels: wild critters and creatures POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 5:26 PM 32 COMMENTS SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2010 Garden Journal 6/20/10: How To Transplant Sweet Pepper Seedlings, the Extended Version Off to Browner Pastures! Realization of the Day: The most important thing you need to do in the garden is get your seeds and plants in the ground. Otherwise nothing else matters. As obvious as it sounds, it's amazing how often I forget this simple fact, missing out on growing so many things each year because I'm focusing too much on all the prep work I need/want to do and not enough on the actual planting. Lettuce season in southern Missouri has come and gone, yet despite always telling people how easy it is to grow lettuce from seed, I don't have a single leaf to show for it this spring—and you know how much I love lettuce. Your seedlings don't care if the soil isn't perfectly amended, or the pathways around your raised beds are full of weeds, or it's not the absolute ideal day for transplanting according to the lunar calendar. They just want to be put in the ground. And yesterday morning—after worming 30 lambs and before it got quite all the way up to the 103 degree heat index predicted for the day—some of the poor suffering seedlings I bought over a month ago finally were. Read more » Labels: peppers, planting POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 6:48 PM 18 COMMENTS THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2010 Garden Journal 6/17/10: How To Easily Attract Pollinators to Your Kitchen Garden Just plant some echinacea! Realization of the Day: There's a winged frenzy going on out in my flowerbed. Read more » Labels: butterflies and moths, echinacea, perennials, pollinators POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 5:58 PM 10 COMMENTS FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2010 Kitchen Garden How To: The Best Way to Store Fresh Parsley (and Other Herbs like Basil) In a Kitchen Counter Bouquet! Realization of the Day: I often take parsley for granted, but if there isn't any growing in the garden I really miss it. It's just so versatile—and tasty. I love it in this Confetti Egg Salad Recipe I recently wrote about on Farmgirl Fare. Like so many things, the very best place to store your parsley is out in the garden, still attached to the plant. But it won't stay out there indefinitely, maintaining its ready-to-pick state until you're actually ready to pick it. (Why do I always forget this basic rule of growing things?) Read more » Labels: herbs, how to, parsley POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 6:12 PM 12 COMMENTS THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2010 Do It Yourself Kitchen Garden Inspiration: Build an Amish Cold Frame Attention Feedblitz e-mail subscribers: Hi! Sorry about the scrunched up spacing on posts lately. It's driving me nuts, and I'm hoping to have it fixed soon. In the meantime, clicking on the article title will take you to an easier to read version on the In My Kitchen Garden site. Thanks for your patience and understanding. Realization of the Day: In all my years of gardening, I've never used a cold frame—and I love cold frames. Several Amish families moved to this area two years ago, and in my opinion we're all the luckier for it. The Amish neighbors I've met so far have all been very friendly, and they've already brought much to our rural community. There are three basket makers and a furniture maker. The rough cut siding on our new sheep barn came from the Amish sawmill down the road. (Step-by-step construction photos of our beautiful sheep barn will be up on Farmgirl Fare one of these days, but in the meantime, you can see part of the interior—including some of that wood siding—here.) Read more » Labels: Amish neighbors, cold frames, garden structures, how to POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 7:29 PM 18 COMMENTS TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010 My Favorite Heirloom Carrots (so far) to Grow from Seed: Parisienne

Post Title → Visit My Food/Farm Blog Advertise | BlogHer Privacy Policy More from BlogHer Lean, Green Braised Mexican Pork Tenderloin Fig and Blue Cheese Tart Family Work Day: My Favorite New Tradition Save Thanksgiving: Use The Slow Cooker More from iVillage Expert Entertaining Tips for Thanksgiving ABOUT ME FARMGIRL SUSAN MISSOURI, UNITED STATES Nearly everyone dreams of moving to the country at some point, but few people are crazy enough to actually do it. I'm one of those few. In 1994, when I was 26, I sold my little bakery cafe, packed up 200 boxes of books & antiques & waved goodbye to my native California. Armed with a very basic knowledge of gardening, an overenthusiastic sense of adventure, & lots of naivete, I ended up on a 280-acre, 140-year-old farm in the middle of nowhere. I became cook, gardener, shepherd, farmhand, vet, surrogate mom, wildlife expert, sheep midwife & animal undertaker. My prep school education & graphic design background were useless. I went from attending restaurant openings & gallery receptions to working the rural fire dept's BBQ booth at the crafts fair & munching fried pies at country auctions. Ten years ago, I moved to an even more remote 240-acre farm which I share with sheep, chickens, 3 dogs, 6 cats, 7 very entertaining donkeys & one really well fed farmguy. My life revolves around food. VIEW MY COMPLETE PROFILE MY GARDEN RECIPES A Perfect Spring Salad Arugula Pesto Blue Cheese Dressing Colors Of Summer Salad Fresh Tomato Pizza Sauce Green Garlic Fettuccine Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip Simplest Broccoli Soup Summer In A Bowl ARCHIVES March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 June 2007 July 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 August 2010 September 2010 October 2010 GARDEN BLOGS 2 Acre Farm A Way to Garden Calendula & Concrete Chiot's Run Cold Climate Gardening Daughter Of The Soil Dirt By Amy Stewart Grow Better Veggies Jim Long's Garden Petunia's Garden Playing In The Dirt Sheila's Garden Blog Directory The Inadvertent Gardener This Garden Is Illegal Urban Sprouts School Gardens Veggie Gardening Tips Year Round Veggie Gardener NEW! You Grow Girl GARDEN STUFF Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Baker Creek Forum For Gardeners Botanical Interests Seeds High Mowing Organic Seeds Pinetree Garden Seeds NOT JUST FOR GARDENERS! AmeriHerb A Place To Bark Rescue Earthbound Farm Organics Farming Friends FoodShed Planet I Heart Farms Kitchen Gardeners International Local Harvest Organic Consumers Association Organic.org Organic To Be Rurality Shelburne Farms Slow Food In Schools Slow Food USA Stone Barns Center For Food & Agriculture Wild Animal Sanctuary SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2010 10/31/10: Decorating the Kitchen Garden for Halloween Boo! Is your garden still giving you treats? Want to see more spooky stuff? 10/31/05: Happy Halloween! 10/31/05: All Hallow's Eve 11/8/05: Did the Goblins Get Them? 10/31/06: Boo! 10/30/07: Halloween Construction Zone 10/31/07: Scare Cat 10/31/09: Pumpkin Substitutes 10/31/09: Don't Let the Goblins—or this Little Brown Bat—Get You! 10/31/10: Happy Halloween! 8/21/05: All in a Night's Work 6/26/06: It's Been a While Since I Caught a Spiderweb 10/19/06: High Wire Act 1/6/07: Precious Farm Jewels 2/2/08: The Return of Chucky 4/27/08: A Sunday Feast & a Mysterious Owl (more owl photos here) 6/13/08: Cloudy Morning Sparkle 8/15/08: Trying to Blend by the Barn 8/5/10: Flying Squirrel, Anyone? © 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the frightening foodie farm blog where a couple of very blustery days ago, this piece of floating row cover actually flew up into that tree and the garden decorated itself. I thought it was perfect—until I realized I was probably going to tear the row cover into pieces while wrestling it back to the ground (it was really tangled up in the branches!). Fortunately my hunky farmguy rescued it while I wasn't looking—or maybe it was the goblins. Do you have goblins living in your garden? Labels: Halloween, the autumn garden POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 9:20 AM 2 COMMENTS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2010 Garden Journal 10-22-10: It's Time to Plant Garlic! Planting garlic with Marta and Lucky Buddy Bear on 2-10-09 Realization of the Day: I can't believe I might actually get my garlic planted on time this year. When is the best time to plant garlic? There's no one right answer to that question, but in many areas it's October. If you live somewhere that has a real winter (as opposed to places like California and Texas and Florida), this gives the cloves enough time to sprout and get a good head start growing before the ground freezes and they go into hibernation mode. If you live where the winters are mild, you can get away with planting your garlic later. If you're minding the moonsigns (you can read more about how that works here), you'll want to plant your garlic on a fertile day in the third quarter, which promotes underground growth, because the waning moon is pulling things 'down.' This is also a good time to plant other root vegetables, like potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, and beets, though not onions. Read more » Labels: garlic, the autumn garden POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 4:36 PM 11 COMMENTS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2010 How To Ripen Green Tomatoes Indoors the Really Easy Way Green Tomatoes Harvested on 10-17-09 While you're waiting for your green tomatoes to ripen—or if you have a lot of immature ones, which probably won't ripen—you could turn some of them into my no sugar, so easy, salsa-like green tomato relish, which is one of my most popular recipes. Will green tomatoes get ripe and turn red after picking them (or yellow or orange, depending on the variety)? Yes. Is it difficult to get tomatoes to ripen off the vine? No. Do you have to pull up the whole tomato plant and bring it inside? No. Do you have to do anything special to get green tomatoes to ripen? No. Do they have to be kept at a specific and/or steady temperature? No. Will tomatoes ripened indoors taste as good as vine-ripened garden tomatoes? Probably not, but any homegrown tomatoes are going to taste better than no homegrown tomatoes—especially if you're enjoying them on Thanksgiving or Christmas. And they'll still probably taste better than storebought tomatoes, especially if you're buying them at Christmas. Read more » Labels: the autumn garden, tomatoes POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 1:32 PM 13 COMMENTS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 03, 2010 Is a Digital Kitchen Scale an Essential Garden Tool? I Think So I'm working on a post called Six Worthwhile Kitchen Investments for Gardeners, but since my favorite Oxo 11-pound digital kitchen scale is currently on sale for $37.44 at amazon.com with free super saver shipping (and their sales don't often last long) I decided to skip ahead and write about it first. It's worth every penny of the regular $49.99 price (which is what I paid three years ago), but this is a very nice deal. I've raved about this scale before, and no doubt will again. Basil from the kitchen garden on 9/4/10 Realization of the day: I literally cannot remember life before my kitchen scale. I often use it several times a day. If you read the title of this post and your immediate answer was no, I kindly suggest you do these two things and then come back: 1. Go to three different places and buy a bunch of Swiss chard or kale—or even parsley or cilantro—at each one. Are they anywhere near the same size? Didn't think so. 2. Ask three people to measure out two cups of basil leaves for you, then lay the piles side by side and compare them. Read more » POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 9:09 AM 17 COMMENTS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 Garden Journal 9/23/10: Busy, Busy and Another Raised Bed Seeded for Fall The bumblebees and I both love sedum autumn joy, which darkens in color as the season progresses. Realization of the Day: Okay, so it's probably going to take me months, rather than weeks, to get through that ambitious list I recently shared of upcoming blog post topics. But you knew that already, didn't you? Read more » Labels: sedum POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 7:55 AM 10 COMMENTS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2010 Garden Journal 9/14/10: How To Grow Asian (Oriental) Greens for Fall by Direct Seeding Asian greens ready to be thinned and eaten on 10-10-06 Realization of the Day: I don't think the little thrill over seeing tiny seeds sprout up out of the soil will ever go away. At least I hope it won't. Realization #2: I've grown a lot of fall vegetables over the years that I've completely forgotten about. Thank goodness I did remember to take pictures of them—or at least of some of them. Okay, so summer is finally winding down, and gardeners everywhere are busy packing away their garden tools (if only I treated mine as well as Martha Stewart treats hers—or did this kind of nice stuff to them), preparing their beds for winter, and already thinking about next spring. If it's been a good year in your garden, you're also hopefully still picking delicious, vine-ripened bounty. But what you should also be doing is starting a few fall crops. And this isn't as daunting—or exhausting—as it sounds. Read more » Labels: Asian greens, growing from seed, the autumn garden POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 6:15 PM 9 COMMENTS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2010 Garden Journal 9/9/10: Dealing with a Doodlebug, I'm on Twitter (sort of), and What's Coming Up My favorite kind of garden pest: cute, cuddly, and prefers meat over vegetables. Realization of the Day: I started tweeting but forgot to tell you. Since I'm always behind replying to e-mail and comments (thanks for your patience!), not to mention garden blogging in general, tweeting isn't such a good idea for me. But for the last several months I've been announcing each new blog post on Twitter—mostly on time, though sometimes I still forget to do it. You'll find In My Kitchen Garden on Twitter here, and Farmgirl Fare here. This summer has seen record number of In My Kitchen Garden visitors (welcome, new readers!), and I couldn't be happier. It seems gardens—and gardeners—are sprouting up everywhere, and about 20,000 inquisitive growers are finding their way here each month. Between that and our recent slight drop in temperatures (at last) I'm so inspired, both in the garden and on this garden blog. My new goal is to write shorter posts, and post a lot more often. Summer may be winding down, but there's still all sorts of stuff going on in the garden, and always so much to share. Before we know it, the seed catalogs will be arriving! These are some of the things I'm planning to write about in the coming weeks: Read more » Labels: greenhouse, Molly Doodlebug POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 9:44 PM 11 COMMENTS SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2010 Garden Journal 8/18/10: Tomato Season Has Arrived and the First Harvest is In! Yep, that's it. Pretty though, isn't it? Realization of the Day: One of the nicest things about gardening is that the littlest surprises can often mean so very much. A month or so ago, I changed my blog header to a photo that more accurately reflects the season: tomatoes! But ever since then I've felt like a guilty impostor. Oh, those are my tomatoes up there alright—I just picked them back in 2008 (at the end of October!). And while pretty much everyone equates the summer vegetable garden with ripe tomatoes, I don't actually have any growing in my garden this year. Or so I thought. Read more » Labels: the summer garden, tomatoes POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 4:04 PM 17 COMMENTS SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 2010 Garden Journal 8/15/10: How To and, More Importantly, Hot Not To Store Fresh Basil Realization of the Day: It's a lot easier to write off a garden disaster as a learning experience when it doesn't involve your entire crop. The photo above illustrates one of the best ways to store fresh basil: in a fragrant little kitchen tabletop bouquet. Sweet looking, nice smelling, and obviously some very happy fresh cut herbs. That's how I did things last year, when I had so much green and purple basil growing in the garden it kept bursting into bloom faster than I could use it up. This year I had a learning experience—with my one measly plant, which is why this post isn't called something chirpy like Hip Hip Hooray! It's Pesto Time Again! as was originally intended before the harvest. Read more » Labels: basil, herbs, how to, the summer garden POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 7:22 PM 11 COMMENTS TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2010 Garden Journal 7/27/10: Harvesting Really Late Planted Garlic Growing Garlic: Not Bad, Not Bad Realization of the Day: I'm a lot more excited about growing garlic after digging up this year's crop. I'm doing a little back dating here, so that the garden journal date above accurately reflects the day I actually harvested my garlic, as opposed to the day—two weeks later—I'm finally getting around to writing about it. It would only be cheating if it were the other way around, right? Last year I promised myself I would never again plant my garlic in February, which is about four or five months later than it should go into the ground here in southern Missouri. And this year I kept that promise—I planted my garlic in March instead. Read more » Labels: garlic POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 7:58 PM 12 COMMENTS FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2010 Garden Journal 7/23/10: Why I Haven't Set Foot in My Garden in Over Two Weeks Harmless little snake in the greenhouse, September 2007 Realization of the Day: It's time for a new game plan. Actually more like an extended half-time period but without all the outrageous festivities. Back in early spring, I was doing an energy work session over the phone with a friend of mine, and as I started listing all the things I was so behind with—including my totally neglected garden—she said, "What would happen if you didn't have a garden this year?" The thought was so inconceivable I literally had no response. But now I know. Life goes on—just with fewer vegetables. Read more » Labels: wild critters and creatures POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 5:26 PM 32 COMMENTS SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2010 Garden Journal 6/20/10: How To Transplant Sweet Pepper Seedlings, the Extended Version Off to Browner Pastures! Realization of the Day: The most important thing you need to do in the garden is get your seeds and plants in the ground. Otherwise nothing else matters. As obvious as it sounds, it's amazing how often I forget this simple fact, missing out on growing so many things each year because I'm focusing too much on all the prep work I need/want to do and not enough on the actual planting. Lettuce season in southern Missouri has come and gone, yet despite always telling people how easy it is to grow lettuce from seed, I don't have a single leaf to show for it this spring—and you know how much I love lettuce. Your seedlings don't care if the soil isn't perfectly amended, or the pathways around your raised beds are full of weeds, or it's not the absolute ideal day for transplanting according to the lunar calendar. They just want to be put in the ground. And yesterday morning—after worming 30 lambs and before it got quite all the way up to the 103 degree heat index predicted for the day—some of the poor suffering seedlings I bought over a month ago finally were. Read more » Labels: peppers, planting POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 6:48 PM 18 COMMENTS THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2010 Garden Journal 6/17/10: How To Easily Attract Pollinators to Your Kitchen Garden Just plant some echinacea! Realization of the Day: There's a winged frenzy going on out in my flowerbed. Read more » Labels: butterflies and moths, echinacea, perennials, pollinators POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 5:58 PM 10 COMMENTS FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2010 Kitchen Garden How To: The Best Way to Store Fresh Parsley (and Other Herbs like Basil) In a Kitchen Counter Bouquet! Realization of the Day: I often take parsley for granted, but if there isn't any growing in the garden I really miss it. It's just so versatile—and tasty. I love it in this Confetti Egg Salad Recipe I recently wrote about on Farmgirl Fare. Like so many things, the very best place to store your parsley is out in the garden, still attached to the plant. But it won't stay out there indefinitely, maintaining its ready-to-pick state until you're actually ready to pick it. (Why do I always forget this basic rule of growing things?) Read more » Labels: herbs, how to, parsley POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 6:12 PM 12 COMMENTS THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2010 Do It Yourself Kitchen Garden Inspiration: Build an Amish Cold Frame Attention Feedblitz e-mail subscribers: Hi! Sorry about the scrunched up spacing on posts lately. It's driving me nuts, and I'm hoping to have it fixed soon. In the meantime, clicking on the article title will take you to an easier to read version on the In My Kitchen Garden site. Thanks for your patience and understanding. Realization of the Day: In all my years of gardening, I've never used a cold frame—and I love cold frames. Several Amish families moved to this area two years ago, and in my opinion we're all the luckier for it. The Amish neighbors I've met so far have all been very friendly, and they've already brought much to our rural community. There are three basket makers and a furniture maker. The rough cut siding on our new sheep barn came from the Amish sawmill down the road. (Step-by-step construction photos of our beautiful sheep barn will be up on Farmgirl Fare one of these days, but in the meantime, you can see part of the interior—including some of that wood siding—here.) Read more » Labels: Amish neighbors, cold frames, garden structures, how to POSTED BY FARMGIRL SUSAN AT 7:29 PM 18 COMMENTS TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010 My Favorite Heirloom Carrots (so far) to Grow from Seed: Parisienne