Nasturtium Pesto

Nasturtium Plant

Have got a bounty of nasturtium leaves and flowers in the greenhouse beds. Picked an entire bag of nasturtium leaves because I'd seen a blog somewhere that listed making nasturtium pesto. The leaves are too spicy for me in a salad, but I thought mixed with nuts, garlic, cheese and oil they might make a good condiment. I must say for a first foray into making pesto it tastes quite good. A bit on the spicy side, but with a flavor reminiscent of horseradish. Might make a great topping for pasta, vegetables in a pan or a sandwich.

 On the left, if you've never grown nasturtiums, this is what they can look like. This plant is trailing about 3 feet and I have one on each corner of the greenhouse beds. So I've definitely got a surplus of leaves. The flowers are edible as well and are much milder than the leaves and add a great color to salads. They are easy to grow garden flowers and can be started right from seed in the garden in early spring.

Nasturtium flowers

Pesto ingredients

Here is what I used in the pesto. You'll need a boatload of leaves. It seems like a lot, but when you put them in the food processor they break down to almost nothing. I used about 3 cups of leaves, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup walnuts 3 cloves of garlic plus salt and pepper to taste. While you are processing the pesto in the machine, you stream in about 1/3 cup of olive oil - use the good stuff as you'll be tasting it.

 Blend in the processor until smooth. I put the leaves , garlic and walnuts in first, then added the cheese and finally the oil. As you can see that big bunch of leaves barely made a half jar of pesto. So, if you need a lot of pesto - get lots of leaves, this applies to basil as well when you are making the typical stuff.

Top the pesto with a layer of olive oil to seal the top- so the blend won't take on an off color. Stor in the fridge for about a week or put in the freezer for long term storage.

How about that. Quick and easy - I made my first batch of pesto!


 Now linking to Tootsie Time - Fertilizer Fridays a post where a number of bloggers post their flowers and gardens on a Friday. Check out her posts!

Kitty and the cat grass

Jo-Jo and his newly eaten cat grass

The herbs in the greenhouse are just about ready. Thought I'd trial the cat grass on my buddy Jo-Jo. As soon as I got it home he decimated it - pruning every leaf down to a nubbin!

Will be setting up with herbs, houseplants, dried flowers and various other things at the Oakland County Farmers Market on Saturday, March 16, 2013, from 8-2. Also hope to bring a few bags of greens to be able to sell. Will certainly have nasturtium leaves and flowers. Picked a bag of nasturtium leaves tonight and I am going to try a "Nasturtium Pesto" - packed nasturtium leaves, olive oil, garlic, walnuts and parmesan. I don't know what I'll use it on, maybe some pasta, some veg or a sandwich. I'll try it and then post the recipe here.

Babies growing for market

Went to Vicki's greenhouse today and fertilized the babies with fish emulsion which has a bit of kelp in it. The bottle was filled with a thick goo instead of the liquid I thought would be in it. So I put it in the watering can and swirled it around as best I could to mix it with the water. Most of the flats have germinated well and are growing strong. A few haven't germinated at all - romaine lettuces and golden purslane - which likes it a bit warmer. The kelp is supposed to have a bit of gibberellins  which is a bit of a growth stimulant. (Don't know if I spelled that right). I fertilized a bit early - only seeing first true leaves on some of the plants, but I have made a pledge to myself to stay on top of fertilizing the crops this year. Last year some of my plants went very "hungry".

Sat in the greenhouse for a while and soaked up the heat - it was 85F in there. So I turned down the heater and vented the house a bit to bring the temperature down. These babies would prefer a temp of about 65-70F. Snow is predicted for late tomorrow.

Cold but spring is on its way

View of the backyard

Some of the horses have started shedding, a sure sign of spring. Skipper still has his full coat and is only wearing a new rain sheet so I don't expect him to lose his winter coat for a while yet. Have heard that light levels trigger the annual shed...not sure but I do know that temperatures play a part too.

The front yard

30-35F today, kind of cold and gray. February, I think, has to be the toughest month to get through. Good thing its the shortest month. The winter snows have been hanging on and we have what the forecasters call "shovelable snow" coming in a couple of days. The skis are at the ready at the front door, but so is my new aluminum cart for taking soil and pots to the back nursery area.

Feel a cold coming on so I am megadosing on Vitamin C and taking it easy. Pam and I had an easy day of work yesterday seeding and transplanting - counted the varieties I have seeded so far, not including vegetables, and it comes to a whopping 83 new varieties. Don't know if all the seeds will sprout, but that means a boatload of transplanting coming up.

Cold frames with remnants of box elder

We're out of space in the Oakland County Greenhouse and they have been so stingy with the leftover beds that they are still wanting a hefty price for them. Think I'll call again tomorrow and see if they've come down. Vicki's greenhouse was a comfy 58-60 yesterday but it is still going below freezing at night,. Perennials are hardy, but only when they've been in the garden, seedlings are tender. Have been cooling off the herb and perennial transplants in the bed by the door so they might be hardened off enough to go to Vicki's greenhouse.

New stock is coming in in 2 weeks - 17, 36 count flats of assorted plants from Raker's, a wonderful plug grower here in Michigan. I am always so impressed with their quality and their packing that I will always consider them as a supplier. The week after, more flats and 75 bare root plants are coming in from Walters Nursery - another excellent supplier and one of the largest growers of perennials They're here on the west side of Michigan and also will be one of my go-to suppliers.

Nursery beds covered in greens

So we're juggling space and hoping for some warmer nights so these new babies won't suffer. Wandered around the yard taking a few pictures today. A couple of posts ago, I asked whether you wanted to see gorgeous photos or the real thing. Well, an outdoor perennial nursery is not a glamorous place in late February. But, you can see the bones of the place and know that when spring hits the place will be up and growing,

Big cold frame swaddled in greens

Birdfeeders and boxwood

Greenhouse with birdfeeders

My Greenhouse 2-20-13

Asparagus babies

This last Wednesday I went out to the greenhouse to take a few pictures of the seedlings. Trying to document them for time of sowing and time it takes them to grow to transplant size. Since this is all new to me this year I am soon realizing that you cannot go by the days to harvest on the seed packets! It truly depends so much on soil temperature - I don't think I would have gotten so many of the asparagus babies to sprout unless I had put them on the heating mat. I got this heat mat on e-bay - it is really supposed to be for a chicken incubator but as a seedling mat it works just fine. It has a dial on the cord so you can go from lots of heat to a little. The one I got is 11" by 8' - and was a reasonable 59 bucks. I've seen much smaller heating mats go for a lot more in the catalogs. The asparagus babies are about ready to go to the ground floor where they'll cool off and grow on, so I can free up the space for more of my babies.

Cyclamen in greenhouse

This last night - Thursday - the power went off when I was in the greenhouse. I thought I blew another fuse, and called an electrician when it seemed I couldn't get the whole house back on line. But, thankfully, he called back and said there had been a lot of power outages reported in my area. So I sat and waited with candles, flashlights and a battery-operated radio. Finally went to bed around nine under lots of blankets as the house was around 60 degrees. Got up at  midnight to see what the power situation was and called Edison again. They said it would be on at midnight and Voila! it returned a few minutes after. Rushed out to the greenhouse to monitor the temperature and turn the heater back on. All was well, the greenhouse didn't freeze even though the outdoor temps were around 21F.

Don't know if I'll have any blooms to speak of for Easter. I'm trying to bloom the Gerbera and Cyclamen by at least then but it is only 4 weeks away. The plants are growing slowly, since I can't get the temperatures warm enough at night to make them happy. The greenhouse is staying around 45-50 at night on most nights.

Most of the babies are up on the seedling mats. They are slow. So tough with many perennials, as they germinate over a long period of time. Most of these flats look like they're empty, but if you look carefully, you'll see some small green sprouts.

Seedlings on Mat - 2-20-13

Beautiful or Realistic - What do you Prefer?

I was reading a blog the other day about how to increase readership to your own blog. It was filled with good tips of how not to be a droning writer, but the comments about photos used on your site really stuck with me. It said to post beautiful, mouth-watering photographs. Well, nothing I love better than a gorgeous pic and I post those unreal, glamorous images all the time on Pinterest...but when it comes to a realistic, backyard garden, I think I like the rough around the edges, a tad weedy, photos of somone's real backyard.

A clump of lovely daffs in my backyard

Which is not to say that I don't think we shouldn't strive for excellence or beautiful vignettes in our own yards. But my meager attempt at bulb gardens will never rival the flowing rivers of color at Keukenhoff in Holland. I did once plant a large group of blue, glory-of-the-snow under a clear yellow forsythia a long time ago and it made a satisfying spring picture for a while, but I can't afford the money or the space to plant a huge bed of glorious, riotous color. Those gardens are for show and usually come with a staff of gardeners, plucking every weed in sight in order to make the picture perfect. This garden only has one gardener, sometimes two, and it is a working place, growing fruits and vegetables for the table. The ornamental side of it is because I see a need for a beautiful space to work in.

I'd love some feedback on this...would you rather see the scruffy side of a real garden or should I rely on Photoshop to retouch all the images. My backyard is mouth-watering in a real way with all it's edibles and sometimes foods to eat aren't the most beautiful. I am not making apologies, here, but I am saying maybe we should give ourselves some slack in our own yards and enjoy the beauty of one single flower.

More to transplant

Seed sowing stuff

Carnation seedlings two months old

Went back to the big Oakland County greenhouse today to do some more seed sowing. I use a small hand held seeder to help me with the smaller seeds. The top comes off and you can dial it around to get a small to larger size diameter hole for the seeds to come out. I was able to get one little Viola seed in each cell. Not as much luck with the Heucheras as the seed is just barely bigger than dust. I use 4" plant labels I got on e-bay and a sharpie to mark all the flats. Sowed about 8 or so flats today plus the 11 yesterday. I now need to concentrate on sowing the vegetables after I get all the perennials in their pots.

Hollyhock seedlings

The seedlings I sowed back in December are ready for transplanting. Pam did the Lupines and a couple of herbs yesterday. The Dianthus are quick to grow in the cooler temps and the carnations are ready to go.

Italian flat-leaf parsley seedlings

The hollyhocks and parsley are big enough. Sowed two new varieties of hollyhock yesterday as they were a good seller last year. People get nostalgic about hollyhocks thinking of grandma's garden, I think. I hope I can grow what people want as no one has placed an order yet - am going on instinct - growing what people asked for last year and growing plants that I love and I think I can sell easily.

I hope you are enjoying a greenhouse or windowsill or even armchair thinking about and growing seedlings. As I've said before, a seed is a miracle waiting to happen.