Babcock Family Forum

We enlarged our garden this weekend in preparation for tomato planting, which should be soon. The winter garden was good, with a bit of spinach and lettuce left, lots of Schwartzeneggerian chard and beets between baseball and softball size. All this stuff needes to be harvested before the tomato plants go in. The 36 ft of garlic and 30 ft of onions will get pulled in late June. We've been getting plenty of fiber in our diet- how about you all?

I have been starting seeds in the basement, and starting some of the hardier varieties outside. aparently I lost a few heads of garlic last summer, but ist pretty easy to find them now. I planted green onions spinach, beets, radishes, lettuce, garlic, and broccoli outside, and inside I have peppers galore, cucumber, herbs, celery, and tomatillo. have also pruned all the fruit trees, hoping to whip them into shape. I wonder how the cold weather we had recently will affect the polination. I dont see any bugs out there.

We planted the tomatoes last weekend: romas, lemon boys, tangerine, celebrity, parks whoppers, green zebra, sungold and some other varieties I can't recall. We dosed the whole garden this weekend with 5 million predatory nematodes. :badgrin: Take that you root-knotting invertebrate filth! The onions are starting to bulb, but the garlic (at left) has a ways to go yet. We will be planting peppers at school, to finish out the salsa garden.

:ffxi1: :ffxi3:
We've been working in the garden a bit. Started out by burying the compost from last year. That was a pretty horrible job being that we recycled everything. Lots of composted eggs and meats to bury. :pukeleft: :pukeright:

We planted some big tomato plants in hope that they might produce before August. We also planted cucumbers, beans, peas, zucchini, and yellow squash from seed. The rest of the garden is going to be made up of volunteers from last years garden. We have a bunch of random tomato and squash plants coming up. It will be cool to see what kind of hybrids they produce. Gourd-chinnis! We also have a variety of hot peppers growing in the front sunroom.

we're also growing tent caterpillars this year

our bird feeder is attracting possums. or is it opposums?

Bird's Nest Soup
Authentic bird's nest soup is made using the nests of the swiftlet, a tiny bird found throughout southeast Asia. The swiftlet lives in dark caves, using a method of echolocation similar to the bat to get around. Instead of twigs and straw, the swiftlet makes its nest from strands of its own gummy saliva, which hardens when exposed to air. Humans who harvest the swiftlet nests often come from families that have made their living this way for generations. Prying the nests from the cave walls is extremely dangerous, and many harvesters die each year.

BIRD'S NEST SOUP

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Chinese Soups/stews

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3 1/2 oz (approx) dried bird's nest
6 c Rich chicken stock for soup
1 lg Chicken breast
2 tb Cornstarch
2 tb Rich chicken stock for paste
1 tb Dry sherry
1/4 c Rich chicken stock
2 Egg whites
1 t Salt
2 Green onions, minced
1 tb Minced Smithfield ham

Preparation: Soak bird's nest in cold water
overnight. Drain and rinse. Spread softened nest
pieces on plate; pick out prominent pieces of
"foreign" matter (e.g. feathers, twigs) with tweezers.
Debone chicken breast, remove membrane and muscle
fiber, pound meat with cleaver handle to break down
tissue, mince chicken until it is pulp. Make medium
thick paste with cornstarch and chicken stock.

Cooking: Bring rich chicken stock for soup to boil.
Immediately add bird's nest; simmer 30 minutes. Mix
dry sherry and remaining stock; dribble slowly into
minced chicken. Lightly beat egg whites with a fork;
fold gently into chicken so they are not completely
blended. Add salt to soup. Bring soup back to boil and
add chicken mixture slowly so soup does not cool. When
soup returns to boil, it is ready to serve. You can
hold it at this point on low heat. Pour into serving
bowl, garnish with green onions and ham.

I think oppossum substitutes pretty well for chicken. Often they are to be found pre-pulverized along public roadways :evil5:

The weather has been perfect for tomato growth, and the onions have been knocked over so that all the aboveground sugars are coaxed into retranslocating to the bulbs. Almost all the tomato varieties have proto-fruit and we expect first tastes in about two weeks.

Our tomatoes are really coming along. We don't have fruit yet but there are lots of flowers. It looks like the majority of our volunteer squash hybrids are going to be pumpkin-like plants as they are starting to send vines out.

The sunflower seeds from the bird feeder have not been irradiated so the lawn is starting to rise up with sunflower sprouts.

The decorative apple tree is full of apples this year so we will have a good season of apple baseball. Steve and I went through a bag of old potatoes last night.

The peppers growing in our front room have aphids. I really have trouble getting rid of aphids, any ideas? Last year we released 10,000 ladybugs in the entry way. It didn't seem to work that well.