Com-post

Well, I don't write anything for a month and here I am, the third time in a week!  I'm nothing if not inconsistent!  

Today was a beautiful spring day.  The temperature got up to around 60º, the warmest day so far this year.  It was a perfect day to work on the compost.  We're big composters here.  Paul built three compost bins about nineteen years ago from old cedar siding taken off this house.  We keep all three of them busy during the year.  
 
During the winter they are all cooking compost.  In the spring, we dig down to find the good compost and spread it out on the garden beds.  

 


Actually, first, we have to rake all the leaves off the beds so they can be added to the compost bins.  It's a process of moving and transferring compost materials a couple of times, but it is totally worth the trouble. 

In the spring and summer, one bin is dedicated to growing Palouse Pomodoro, a tomato Paul sort of developed.  It all started nearly fifteen years ago when Paul noticed tomato plants coming up in his compost bin.  He realized that the tomato seeds left over from saucing tomatoes the fall before sprouted in the compost.  So he let them grow.  Every year, he picks the tomatoes and makes sauce from them, saving the seeds for the next year.  

He planted this year's crop in that lowest bin.   

The other two bins still contain compost.  One is usually filled up (the tall one) and left to make more luscious compost.  The other is the one we add to until fall.  Then the shifting and moving happens again as the fall leaves get raked up and put into the bins and onto the garden beds.  It's a circular process, just like the seasons and the gardening.  Each in it's own just-right time.

When Life Gives You Lemons

I have written before about our Meyer lemon tree.  It is doing well in it's sunny spot even though it only produced two lemons this year.  However, those two lemons are huge!  Meyer lemons aren't usually too big but these are large. One is still green but the other turned a lovely ripe yellow and I picked it last night.  


Besides tasting wonderful, Meyer lemons smell delicious.  They have their own distinct smell...lemony but sweet at the same time.  The smell is different that a regular lemon somehow.  Zesting this lemon was a delicious olfactory experience.  Paul could smell it 10 feet away sitting at the table.

The lemon was zested, juiced, and used to make Meyer lemon scones, a new recipe to me.  They were quite tasty.  I added a little glaze for sweetness and that was a perfect addition.  We decided that lemon scones are now in the top 3 Meyer lemon experiences.  

The lemon tree is now covered with blossoms and I'm hopeful that we'll have more than two lemons next season.  There are just too many yummy lemon treats to make!

March Madness

I have felt so lazy lately.  I haven't written anything.  March has been a bit insane.  It started out like a lion with stormy, windy weather.  Somewhere in the middle, we got a few days of relatively warm sun.  I did get to mud in some sweet pea and snap pea seeds and do a little messing about in the garden.  Not enough, though, before the wild weather came back.  

We did have a wonderful St. Paddy's in Palouse on the 17th.  Paul started St. Paddy's in Palouse about 9 years ago because he couldn't find a good place to play Irish music on St. Patrick's Day.  The Palouse Arts Council gals made wonderful food...corned beef, colcannon, and Irish soda bread.  I, personally, made all ten loaves of soda bread for the event!  We served dinner to about 100 people.  Paul's Irish music band, Potatohead, played great music and we had Irish dancers as well.  It was a wonderful time in our small town and a highlight of this otherwise dreary month. 

Yesterday was the first day of spring and we awoke to snow!  Today it snowed ALL day...big, fat, wet flakes of the stuff came down and came down.  Luckily it was warm enough to not accumulate much although I think we had about 4" at one point today.  Sigh...now the snow has turned to rain.  I can hear it pelting the window next to me.  More snow is supposed to fall tomorrow.  I may cry. 


March came in like a lion and it seems to be going out like one, too.  I hope Spring kicks Old Man Winter out pretty soon.  He's overstayed his welcome!