Welcome 2020!

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted something on this blog.  I’ve been busy working on my kombucha brand and spreading the word about it.  I am really loving everything about it.

Another milestone that has happened sine my last post is turning 42.  So you might think why is this number so special?  My family loves playing dominos and the game of 42 is our favorite.   I even joked that my wife had to learn it before we could get married.   The night I was going to surprise her with a proposal, a coworker of hers invited us over to a 42party.  I knew then it was meant to be.
Jennifer surprised me with a whole day of fun for my birthday.

This is my “the dude” look

I feel like this year and new decade will bring many amazing opportunities for me. My resolution this year is to try new things and to have more faith in the unknown and uncomfortable situations.   I’m working on my woodworking skills too as it brings me peace and joy.  Plus it gives me the opportunity to be creative and get rid of a lot of wood laying around the house.  Here are some of my projects thus far.

Made from old fence pickets

Added base and feet to match our new furniture 

Repurposed 2x4s from my old shed

Repurposed 2x4s from old shed with freehand stenciling 

My goal this year is to make something or at least work on something at least 3/4 weekends.  If I’m lucky, I might make a little money if I sell anything.  

Late summer start on gardening

I wasn’t going to do any gardening this summer but decided today to do just a few buckets.  I had received a tomato plant from a neighbor about a month ago. I sold my raised beds as I didn’t want to deal with ordering a large amount of soil.  I still had a few buckets in the backyard and a few more kitty litter buckets in the garage. I bought 3 large bags of container soil and threw in a few seeds into each bucket.

Basil
Mint
Tomato
Cucumber
Radish
Dill
Bell pepper

I also finally split up my aloe Vera plant into other containers.

I had to say goodbye to the reclaimed fence picket shed as it became more a home for the local rats. I saved some pickets to use on a smaller “phone booth” size shed I plan on building later to store gardening tools.  This time I’ll use a pea gravel floor to prevent the rats from using it.

WOW! has it really been over a year since my last post!

It's been quite a while since I have posted anything here. I have not done much gardening lately, as I have been giving the soil some much needed rest.

The two large keyhole beds in the front yard have not been as successful as I hoped. After the first few rains, most of my soil found its way through the cracks between the sticks and logs. Two kale plants did grow and survived the dry hot summer though. Still today, I am able to cut off leaves to use in may dishes. The go to dish for the large tougher leaves is kale chips baked in the oven with a little salt and sriracha sauce. With the smaller leaves, I have made salads with them and tonight, I used them in a stir fry with some rice noodles, radishes, mushrooms, garlic with a soy sauce, fish sauce, lime, sriracha, sesame oil, and a dash of sugar dressing. I turned out quite delicious.

My neighbor had purchased a few tomato plants this past summer and didn't get much produce off of them. I took a few cuttings from his plants and planted them into some of my spare 5 gallon buckets. They grew to a nice size but only produced a couple of tomatoes.

As always, at the beginning of winter, I am blessed with a decent size crop of wild cilantro in the backyard. I have made some cilantro pesto with it, garnished several dishes every week. Lately, we have had a lot of rain and mild/cool temperatures, that it has grown faster than I can use it. So my coworkers are going to be blessed with some free bunches of cilantro tomorrow.

I will be attending a National Junior Gardener conference at the end of February in College Station. I am excited to be able to go and learn some things, not only for myself, but to bring back and hopefully use at my school. One of the portables was removed at the beginning of the year, leaving a nice leveled open patch of land that would be great for a school learning garden. The only drawback is that another portable does block the morning sun, but you do the best you can with what you have. I spent about an hour sketching out a blueprint of the layout that I would love to do. It's going to be a big undertaking, but hopefully after the conference, I will have more confidence to move forward and persuade others to help me out.

I have started thinking about getting my hands dirty again here at the house, but I am still figuring out what and where my new beds need to go.

I can say though that my time out of the garden has not gone to waste. I have been getting pretty good at my kombucha brewing. I have experimented with many different flavors and brewing combinations. I attempted to do a coffee/tea brew, but the outcome was not that great as I had used a coconut flavored coffee, which isn't that great made the normal way. I still make a batch that is my normal.. a ginger, lemon balm flavor and a raspberry, ginger, almond flavor. If I have anything left over, I will do a small batch with a new flavor. I tried using a can of peaches with the juice and some fresh ginger... it turned out just ok. I still like to mix an exotic fruit like mango or papaya with a spicy pepper. They always seem to turn out delicious.

My love for kombucha has become evident as I have been able to share my love and experiences of brewing it to others that I have convinced them to start brewing at home as well. I'm glad to know that I can do something useful with all my extra Scobys. The scoby candy and jerky have always been a failure. So now it’s one more thing that I can grow and share with others. That's the joy of gardening and kombucha brewing.

Until next time....


Get outside and get dirty!

Eggplant two ways, scoby jerky, and fall gardens

Fried two ways ( oven baked and wok fried).  Stir fry with onions, bell pepper, cashews, and a homemade sauce.  

Oven baked was tossed with cilantro, tomatoes, mayo, and Greek yogurt and dill.   Otherwise known as Mother-in-law's Tongue. ( in a deconstructed kind of way).  

Stir fry eggplant is similar to tofu,  which I always fail at making.  The MiL's Tongue tastes like a potato salad. 

In the garden news,   I got a few sweet peppers and some kale from the two keyhole front yard gardens.  No extra water, just compost added every other week.  It helped that we had lots of rain from the hurricanes in the gulf.   

Fall garden seeds planted about two weeks ago.  Three different squashes, Brussels sprouts, lettuce varieties, radishes, and some broccoli.  Squash seedlings have already appeared and a few other seedlings from the rest of the 

plant seeds I through out in the dirt.  

I also tried my hand at some kombucha scoby jerky.....  It's tough, but doesn't really break down.  I think I dehydrated it to high and to long.  Oh well, you got to fail a few times to learn something new.  

Signs and sushi

Summer is almost over and thus the projects are slowly coming to an end.  The past couple of weeks I've been working on finishing up some old projects inside the house.   Added the final trim to the kitchen backsplash, organized some closets, organized the garden shed, and spent some time figuring out costs to replace the old semi-existing fence.  

I did however make a couple of signs out of scrap wood.  Not sure of the placement of the letters yet.

Jennie has been watching old seasons of Top Chef, so of course I've watched a few with her.  It's help continue to motivate me and my love of cooking and creating in the kitchen.   I've been working on eating less meat after watching the documentary What the Health.   Made a tofu peanut butter pie (my baking skills are the worst) but it was still delicious.  Baking requires one to be precise with the ingredients and cooking, and that is quite difficult for me since I am a creative person who tends to think outside of the box. Other great vegetarian meals I've made were Tikal Gomen (Ethiopian), General Tso's cauliflower, Thai mango salad, zucchini Pad Thai, chickpea falafel, and mushroom and avocado/cucumber sushi.   

It's been years since I've hand rolled sushi, but I think they came out looking alright.