Juice and taxes
Mar. 12th, 2012 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spacealien_vampGarden report: My persimmon is showing green buds. This makes me really happy, because I was concerned about it. I bought it back in the fall, and the first thing it did when I brought it home was drop all its leaves. When I planted it in the ground, the roots didn't look very healthy. It seems to be waking up quite well now, so I guess it got the recovery time it needed.
My peas are rolling in steadily. It's hard to wait long enough to carry them to the kitchen before eating them. Not bad at all for eight square feet of garden space.
Many of the flowers in the front yard are showing buds, and some (like the columbine) have flowers opening. A couple of the dahlias are beginning to peek out of the ground. I was worried that they might not have gotten enough photosynthesis time last fall to store up the energy they would need to last through the winter, but hopefully this means they'll be okay.
Some of the tomato and basil seeds that I planted a couple weeks ago are starting to sprout. It's always fun to see their little baby leaves unfurling.
Yesterday I started the morning by heading out to the mall for some shopping. In my excitement at envisioning my future fruit and vegetable crops, I bought a high-end juicer. I'm planning to try it out this week with some of the fruit from my CSA box. I tend to drink fruit juice rather than carbonated beverages, so it should be pretty useful.
After returning home, I spent most of the afternoon weeding. I also planted 18 parsnips, though I didn't have the energy to make a cage for them the way I did for the carrots. They're right next to the peas, which provides them a bit of shelter. In the evening, I spent a couple hours denuding dandelion blossoms that I had collected during the week. I now have enough to try making a gallon batch of wine, so I ordered a starter set of winemaking supplies.
Today I spent most of the morning doing my taxes. I should be getting a nice refund--thanks mostly to deductions for my mortgage interest and property tax--enough to pretty much cover my refinancing fees, so I won't have to dig into my savings. In the afternoon, I grabbed a garden fork and shovel and other implements of destruction and set about removing the two ugly stumps from the foundation bed next to my porch railing. It took a lot of elbow grease, and I wound up with several skinned knuckles, but I finally got those monsters out of there. I transplanted my rosemary into the spot left by one of them. It had gotten rather rootbound in its pot, so being in the ground will probably perk it up. I finished off with yet more weeding.
I had reserved next weekend on my calendar for planting potatoes, but the weather forecast is rainy and cold starting tonight and running for at least the next ten days. Bah.
My peas are rolling in steadily. It's hard to wait long enough to carry them to the kitchen before eating them. Not bad at all for eight square feet of garden space.
Many of the flowers in the front yard are showing buds, and some (like the columbine) have flowers opening. A couple of the dahlias are beginning to peek out of the ground. I was worried that they might not have gotten enough photosynthesis time last fall to store up the energy they would need to last through the winter, but hopefully this means they'll be okay.
Some of the tomato and basil seeds that I planted a couple weeks ago are starting to sprout. It's always fun to see their little baby leaves unfurling.
Yesterday I started the morning by heading out to the mall for some shopping. In my excitement at envisioning my future fruit and vegetable crops, I bought a high-end juicer. I'm planning to try it out this week with some of the fruit from my CSA box. I tend to drink fruit juice rather than carbonated beverages, so it should be pretty useful.
After returning home, I spent most of the afternoon weeding. I also planted 18 parsnips, though I didn't have the energy to make a cage for them the way I did for the carrots. They're right next to the peas, which provides them a bit of shelter. In the evening, I spent a couple hours denuding dandelion blossoms that I had collected during the week. I now have enough to try making a gallon batch of wine, so I ordered a starter set of winemaking supplies.
Today I spent most of the morning doing my taxes. I should be getting a nice refund--thanks mostly to deductions for my mortgage interest and property tax--enough to pretty much cover my refinancing fees, so I won't have to dig into my savings. In the afternoon, I grabbed a garden fork and shovel and other implements of destruction and set about removing the two ugly stumps from the foundation bed next to my porch railing. It took a lot of elbow grease, and I wound up with several skinned knuckles, but I finally got those monsters out of there. I transplanted my rosemary into the spot left by one of them. It had gotten rather rootbound in its pot, so being in the ground will probably perk it up. I finished off with yet more weeding.
I had reserved next weekend on my calendar for planting potatoes, but the weather forecast is rainy and cold starting tonight and running for at least the next ten days. Bah.
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-13 08:31 am (UTC)Is this mostly going to produce pressed juices, or will you be blending smoothie-type drinks that take advantage of all the fiber? (Also, I'm super-interested in vegetable blends that mask all the healthy veggies with tasty fruit. I need undercover food.)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-13 11:06 am (UTC)This one just makes juice, though the fruit/vegetable remains can be used in other things, like baking (e.g. carrot cake). I'm not really much of a smoothie person. It's too much work to wash out the blender all the time.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-13 12:19 pm (UTC)The juicer doesn't require washing?
no subject
Date: 2012-03-13 01:10 pm (UTC)The juicer can be washed by pouring water through it and brushing out the filter (or so it claims). The blender has a big, heavy, glass pitcher that needs to be washed, which is a lot more trouble. I love my blender, but it is gosh darned awkward in the sink.