In The Garden: The Karina Pea

I’ve been testing out a few different varieties of pea plants this year for taste, ability to resist heat, and to see which plants produce the most in the smallest space, since that’s always the biggest key with our small patio garden. So far this year the Karina Bush Pea has done the best of the three varieties I’ve tried out in our potted patio garden. The other two are a Snow Peas and Dark Seeded Peas.

The Karina Peas have super long pods that can grow up to 5 and even 7 inches long and are filled with super plump sweet tasting peas. Just one gallon sized pot filled with three plants is putting off a few handfuls of pea pods a week; perfect for using in stir-fry’s, salads, and the peas are delicious accompanied with the fresh mint grown in our herb garden. These particular peas make for an excellent shelling variety and the pods actually sometimes pop open when I am picking them, so be careful that you don’t lose your peas while picking. You still have time to sow these great plants outdoors, they can go into the ground as late as June!

Art Photo: Swiss Chard

While most people plant Swiss Chard in their gardens to eat all spring. I plant it for its amazingly vibrant color. I love its bright burst of hot pink, orange, red, or yellow in the garden. And even though I don’t personally like the flavor of the leaves, they taste like a mix of spinach and celery, they really come in handy in flower arrangements and look amazing in planting beds. I especially like the leaves on their own in a simple glass vase, and the foliage is so beautiful with the crinkled deep green leaves threaded with neon color it always adds interesting variety into a more complex arrangement.

The Story of My Haggadah

When I first started looking through this Haggadah, I new that it was different. It wasn’t just the shiny silver case studded with blue stones, and embossed with Jewish emblems, it was the amazing images inside. It was like no Haggadah I had ever seen.

My Grandparents bought it on a trip to Israel in the late 60′s, or early 70′s. At first I thought that, maybe that, was all that these acid trip like drawing were, just a sign of the times they were made in, you know crazy paisley’s and all that, but something kept pulling me back. The images were just so evocative of war and pain. More in depth than any I had ever seen in any Haggadah.

The Tomatoes are Here

Yesterday I enjoyed the first tomatoes ripe off the vine from my garden. It’s been a long process to get them here, but they were definitely worth it. I started growing this variety of Tigerella tomatoes plant back in December, you can read about how I grew it inside under my LED light at the linked blog posts. I was really interested in the size and amazing coloration of this variety of tomato. The plants grown like crazy indoors, with just regular fertilizing, and as soon as it got warm enough I wrestled the pot outside and into a sunny spot in the yard. Overnight two of the tomatoes ripened, I let them stay on the vine another two days just to be sure, but when I couldn’t wait any longer, I just had to pick them.  The flavor was incredible, really rich, and slightly salty. I was worried they would lack flavor since they were mostly grown indoors, but this definitely did not taste like a hot house tomato.

The Tigerella tomato is a plum/cherry type tomato that is bi colored, red with yellow stripes. The plant which takes 59 days to mature is an indeterminate variety, with fruit that range in size from 2 to 4 ounces. It can grow to be 9 ft tall without pruning.

http://thepaintedrabbit.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/small-scale-indoor-gardening/
http://thepaintedrabbit.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/my-winter-garden/