Lovage / Lavas

When we moved to Schellebelle (nearly 6 years ago) a friend gifted us a Lovage plant. A what? Yep, I had never heard of it either. Definitely not a widely used herb in America. But it grew and grew and was very happy with us ... as a great plant that provided fantastic shade for our patio .. plus it smelled nice.

Kind of like a cross between celery and anise. I found some very useful and interesting articles here, here and here.

Well, the time came to move to Kalken and I read that Lovage does not like to be transplanted. We moved in the winter so I was a bit worried but went for it anyways. Dug the biggest rootball I could and prayed when I put it in it's spot in our new garden.

Well, it seems very, very happy there .. although I'm about to move it again :( because we've decided to put in a patio here.

But I'll be honest. I have only used it twice. Once to make a Mother's Day bouquet for Axel's mom. And another time to make chicken stock (because I was out of celery) ... Axel later declared this chicken stock the best I'd ever made!

So this weekend I made a vow. To use my lovage on a regular basis. I'm so glad I did. Check out this fantastic super easy tasty chicken I made on Saturday.

A popular recipe here is Lovage Soup .. but then they also make Lettuce Soup. I think I'll pass. 
Maybe my fellow Sweet Harvesters have a couple of recipe suggestions for us ... ?

I am also looking forward to making this with our own Sweet Harvest broad beans (tuinbonen).

When you plant yours keep in mind that it grows to about 6 feet tall.

Jovita

Spring Cleaning and Sowing

I am very behind with my garden. 

March has flown by and somehow we've jumped from February to April. 

In the midst of my missing month, though, I have been hard at work ... weeding! My border was strangled with weeds and grass so a deep spring cleaning was in order.

But I MUST get some seeds in the ground.

I am anxious to see things grow. To enjoy the fresh green of new sprouts.

Today I pulled out all my seed packets and had a good chuckle when I found THREE packets of coriander seeds ... Axel doesn't even like coriander.

After that I kind of just stared ... like I've never done this before.

Time to get my game plan on!

A New Venture

A New Year brings wonderful possibilities, this time in the form of a new venture with new friends. Between the holidays we met up with friends Eva and Patricia to get the ball rolling on a organic gardening cooperative. Between tea, cookies and lively chatter we have our plan for the growing season 2012. Who will grow what and where has been decided! We'll chat more about how often to meet up and how to go about harvesting at each others houses but I definitely think we're on to something here ...

This year, with the anticipation of being very pregnant during the prep season and the arrival of our twins in early summer I was "not allowed" to take on too much. Thankfully I have raised beds so that will help. My main crops will be salads and spinach, white celery and pickling cukes. I'm also looking forward to introducing them to spaghetti squash - it's not known here and is one of my favorite summer squashes so I can't wait to share some fantastic recipes. I'm also hoping to squeeze in some indian corn and black beans as "trial" crops but I think that will all depend on how ambitious I am feeling when the planting season comes around.

I feel like Eva and Patricia are doing so much more than I am so I jumped at the chance of being in charge of our pumpkin and squash starts - our bathroom window will be perfect for it and there's nothing better than getting to watch their sweet little leaves popping out of the soil.

Patricia will grow primarily beans and peas along with tomatoes in her green house. But I think Eva got the worse end of the stick this year .. she's got all the root (carrots, turnips, beets) and brassicas (cabbages and sprouts).

I'm chopping at the bit ... and started a Pinterest board just for vegetable growing. Stay tuned .. there will be much to show and share and don't be afraid to throw a question or two at us .. we'll do our best to answer.

A side note on languages ... for the time-being I will be posting in English while Eva and Patricia post in Nederlands (Dutch). Bear with us ... and make use of the translation tool in the right column. Yeh, I know .. Google isn't great but it's better than nothing.