Category: Hallee’s Galley

The Garden: Week 4

This has been a very strange beginning for my garden. I was late getting any seeds planted, for one. The day that I planted my seeds, it was 90 degrees outside, so I went ahead and put corn, beans, winter and summer squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, radishes, carrots, and onions into the ground, worried I was too late. But the next weekend, the temperature drastically dropped. I don’t think it actually froze, but on my morning walk one morning, I saw several houses that had outside plants covered in protection, so if it didn’t frost, it came really close.

The end result? One single green bean plant grew, one single winter squash plant grew, and one single cucumber grew.

No melons or summer squash came up. Last week, I planted more, but put them in seed trays instead. Which, is probably a good thing, because last night it got down to 40.
The radishes, onions and carrots are doing great. I haven’t weeded around the carrots, because they’re still very young.
I had a friend give me a couple dozen tomato plants that are in the ground. They are still very small and hard to see:
I even have a little tomato growing already:
I have mixed batch of lettuce growing in a container:
I replanted the corn, and while I was taking pictures, found two of the four rows I planted growing (this picture was taken before I thinned them out.). No idea what happened to the other two rows. I have more planted, though, and will see what happens next. I will also plant green beans that grow on a vine instead of a bush at the base of these corn once I get in there and thin them out.
I have two blueberry bushes that had a nice amount of blooms on them this spring.
I also have a grape plant that has survived multiple hits with the lawn mower. I’d love to plant another one and build an arbor right where this one is and see if I can get some grapes out of them!
And, when cleaning out along my back fence, I found a massive blackberry bush!
And, as always, my horseradish plant is going to take over the world one day. This plant is four years old now. I’ve even cut off two major chunks of it to share with friends.
So, here in this Memorial Day Weekend…how does your garden grow?

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Sautéed Dandelion Greens

I live in dandelion central. As soon as the weather turned warm, every yard in my neighborhood was so covered in dandelions that at a glance up or down the street, yellow was the first color that caught your eye. It was beautiful. In my own yard and in the flower garden I haven’t been able to work in yet, dandelions are growing at an amazing rate. So, I decided to try out this eating weeds thing.

These are SO good for you. I had no idea until I ran the nutritional analysis. Look at the bottom of the post here and see all of the amazing nutrition that you can find in a handful of weeds you can pick out of your own yard.

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Dear Hallee: Whole Wheat vs. Unbleached Flour

Hello again, I know I always message you with cooking questions but I feel like you’re the only one who has the answer I am looking for. So here is my new question…What is unbleached flour? I understand the difference between wheat and white flour. With in the next year I am going to do my to try and make as much of every food my family will be eating. But I don’t quite know which flour I should be working with. Thank you so much…Melissa

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Passing the Mantle

I spent quite a bit of time developing a menu for them for the week. Kaylee is more than capable in the kitchen, but cooking one meal a week versus cooking for a week straight are two different things entirely – especially when you’re a 16-year-old. kaylee menuShe and I worked together to create a menu that wouldn’t overwhelm her…and I made a few concessions that I wouldn’t make for myself. For instance, I bought spaghetti noodles, where I would make my own pasta. And, I bought some organic boxed mac & cheese and some organic tater tots to go with hot dog night. But, for the most part, the menu is homemade, real food.

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A Gardening Confession

It’s April 1st.

It’s April 1st and I haven’t planted a single seed. Not in a starter planter, not in a container, not in the ground.

I also haven’t cleared out my yard, tilled the earth, or prepared any rows.

I also haven’t even LOOKED at my compost bin in a year.

*sigh*

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Grinding Your Own Beef

But, beyond making homemade sausage, we also use it to grind our own beef (or, really, we could use it to grind any meat.) We purchase roasts when they go on sale and grind them as soon as we get home. Why go through all that trouble when we can just purchase meat already ground? I’m glad you asked.

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A Sweet Sixteen

A follower on my Hallee the Homemaker Facebook page asked me, during my hectic week last week, if I would blog about Kaylee’s birthday party and what I did. The problem is, during party planning, I get immensely busy and don’t stop to take pictures. I have this weird hangup that if I can’t take a picture, then I can’t blog about it because it’s almost like the picture validates what I’ve done. Silly, I know, but nevertheless…

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Homemade Pasta – So Easy a Four-Year-Old Can Do It

When I fired up my stand mixer to make this dough into fettuccine noodles to go with the Turkey Sausage Spaghetti Sauce I’d made, my 4-year-old, Jeb, came running into the room. He wanted to help. He’s a pro at the pasta machine (as all my kids are), so I just let him go at it and filmed it. This is unscripted, and impromptu, so I apologize for the unsteady camera and the lighting.

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