An Avid Gardener

Let me introduce myself:  I am an avid gardener.  The Free Dictionary refers to avid as "Having or marked by keen interest and enthusiasm" and according to the Oxford Dictionaries a "gardener is a person who tends and cultivates a garden as pastime or for a living."  Now you know all about me.

It is not my mission to teach or instruct anyone how to garden but I do want to share and tell you about my gardening.  I have two plots, each about 12X14 ft, located on the Back Forty of my yard.  I garden year around with my husband and we almost always have different ideas about how to tend our lots.

Although I love being out in the garden, growing and cultivating the vegetables, the rows of potatoes, beans, and kale do not grow in straight rows.  I wouldn't say that I have a beautiful garden but I have a good garden.

Guess what my theme for the April Blog Challenge is going to be?

Welcome to my Garden!

Support the April 2018 Blog Challenge.

Thank you for visiting and please leave a comment below.

Purple Potatoes

I don't remember where or when I heard about Purple Potatoes but I was interested and I was also going to get some.  There are a few farms in northern Florida  (e.g. Hasting) that grow purple potatoes but I don't believe that they are open to the public.

I asked at the local market and they had indeed heard about purple potatoes and shortly afterwards these small potatoes were available in bags.  OK, that will do for starters.

I cooked the purple potatoes as I would regular white one.  They did not lose their color and remained firm.


I understand that you may grow the purple potatoes as you would regular white or red potatoes.

After these potatoes were cooked, I served them as I would other potatoes

 My new found potatoes were a little bit "mealy."  They are different.  I can't say that I fell in love with them but I will give them another try. What about you?

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Look for the upcoming April A to Z log Challenge.

A Red Tossed Salad

I'm changing it up a little, going from green to red.  Not that green is boring but red is vibrant and full of spice and zest.  Let's make a red salad.

The red lettuce are growing nicely in the cool spring weather, the red kale is also coming along, and the red mustard need to be picked before it bolts and blooms.  If I cut these three vegetables in strips, I will have a red tossed salad in a short time.

I set out red onions in the garden a little while ago, but only the green tops are showing.  Of course, they could be cut and used, but I bought a large red onion at the grocery store.  I will thinly slice it into moon shaped bits and add it to my red salad.

I almost forgot, I harvested the red cabbage and stored the various sized heads in the crisper in the fridge.  I will finely slice some of the cabbage into fine bite size pieces and add it to the salad along with some colorful small grape tomatoes.

We now have red lettuce, kale, mustard, onion and cabbage.  Let's mix it up and check this salad for taste and texture with red wine vinegar and oil.  Serve with crisp/toasted sourdough bread and cheese.

Don't forget to join the April 2018 Blogging challenge and/or support the participants.

Thank you for visiting my blog and leave your calling card.