On the Garden Path at 5~Acre Farm: lettuce

Thursday, March 1, 2012

It's 79 Degrees and Time to Plant! Yeah, Baby!

The collards, cabbage, and broccoli are coming along just fine. I've already been harvesting broccoli, and it won't be much longer before I harvest all of the collards and cabbage and process them. We've got to get the garden bed cleared and ready for the summer crops. Manure, and mulch need to be added in, and weeds need to be dealt with.

In the meantime, I've been anxious to get my hands in the dirt again! I should have been starting seeds last week, but of course Kathy was here visiting, and that time was all hers! Today I stopped by the Wal-Mart plant center and bought a load of transplants! Lots of romaine lettuce, leeks, onions, beans, and herbs. When I got them home, John didn't waste any time getting them out of the car and into the sunshine (it's 79* here today). He watered them, and by tomorrow afternoon I should be getting them into pots on my front deck.

I prefer to plant my lettuce in pots rather than in-ground. They seem to do better. There is less risk from bugs and disease. The onions will go in-ground though.

The onions are going to be the hard part! I can still remember planting onions last spring. I was in agony on my hands and knees, planting more than 300 onion sets. My knees are no good. Both got messed up in car accidents (that weren't my fault) when I was in my 20s. Then, a few years ago, I developed bursitis in my left knee. Bending, squatting, and kneeling are very difficult for me, and sometimes very painful. This problem is my biggest obstacle to gardening. But the garden won't grow unless we plant it, and when I think of the incredible harvest we will have, the pain is really a small price to pay! It ill probably take me more than one day to plant the onions, but I will plant them!

But the lettuce are first! I'm seeing the dentist in the morning, and when I get home I'm going to pull out my containers, clean them up, and get elbow deep in dirt! While I'm potting up the lettuce, beans, and herbs, I think I'll start a big dish of French Breakfast Radishes and some snow peas.

Wow! I'm really starting to get excited! I've got to pull out all the seeds I've got and go through them. I'm a little behind in that, but I'll catch up quickly. Next up, I'll be starting seeds for the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and melons.

What will you be planting this year?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato & Potato Sandwich

Remember a couple of weeks ago when my sister was coming to visit? I decided to serve Bacon, Lettuce, & Tomato Sandwiches because she and my dad love bacon so much. I didn't get the chance to post pictures, but we're having BLT's again today, and this time... I'VE GOT PICTURES!

The basic layout for this sandwich is, of course, bacon, lettuce, and tomato on white bread with mayonnaise. Toasting is optional.

To kick this sandwich up a notch (thank you for that concept, Emeril) you add a large, thin slice of onion at the bottom of the sandwich, underneath the bacon.

But here's something else to consider when building your BLT...

Add french fries!

Have you ever had a French Fry Sandwich? Just a pile of french fries on bread with mayonnaise, and the condiments of your choice. Yuuum!

Once or twice a year I crave a French Fry Sandwich. I think it's a Southern thing. If, by chance, I can't get my hands on french fries, I choose a corrupted version made with potato chips, but the crumbled chips are always falling out!

Well, about a week ago I was eating a French Fry Sandwich (We use curly fries, and I like mine just with mayonnaise.), and my husband asked me how it was. I said, "Great! But it would be better with bacon!" So I knew the next time we had BLTs I was going to add french fries!

So today I had a Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, & Potato Sandwich, and it was fantastic! But guess what. I was so excited about putting the bacon and potatoes together, I forgot to put onion on anybody's BLT, including mine!

Next time, if I remember the onion, I'll bet my Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, & Potato Sandwich will be over the Moon!

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, & Potato Sandwich

Ingredients:

4 strips bacon (cooked to desired crispiness)
1 thick slice of a large tomato
shredded lettuce
1-2 thin slices of onion
mayonnaise
2 slices of white bread (toasting is optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Spread plenty of mayonnaise on two slices of bread.
Put french fries (regular or curly fries, or fried potatoes) on bottom slice of bread.
Add the onion.
Add the bacon.
Add the tomato.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the lettuce.
Add second slice of bread.

Serve with additional fries and/or several slices of bread and butter pickles.

John and Michelle, and 5 Acre Farm

How We Came To Be

John was born and raised in Georgia by parents who lived incredible lives of their own, and passed on to John a rich family history from both sides. He was a die hard Boy Scout, and later, spent 17 years as a Troop Leader. He earned a dual Agriculture/Agricultural Engineering degree at ABAC in Tipton, where he also started the college's radio station. After college, John served on nuclear submarines in the Navy, where he once saved the lives of his shipmates, and, rumor has it, did many incredible things in the service of our country. He married and had a family, and after the Navy, worked briefly with the EPA before opening his own HVAC-Refrigeration company. John was inventive as a child, and that carried over into everything in his life. He is a fixer of severe mechanical problems, and an inventor of all kinds of things that improve on or simplify existing machinery, equipment, and ideas. His inventions are unique, and some of them may some day aide humanity, save lives, and save our planet if we can get the right people to listen.

My dad was career Army. I was born in France, and introduced, at a very young age, to the Virginia countryside, where we raised rabbits and chickens. After dad retired, we moved to North Carolina, his home state, where we spent many years on the coast, near Wilmington. Here, we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, and fished commercially. Our freezer was always full of fresh Spot and shrimp, and oyster roasts were a weekly event! As a young adult I lived with my family in the mountains south of Asheville. Here too we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, as well as geese and peacocks. I worked for many years with an arts council, Christian organizations, and other non-profits. I helped train missionaries, researched/wrote grants, produced professional documents, edited newsletters, and wrote a lot of publicity materials. I already had two Associate degrees, but in my late 30s I finally completed an undergraduate degree in English/Art History. For 20 years I was active in community theater, sang solos with a community choir, and danced with a show choir. Treasured memories! I moved to Georgia in late 1998, and married my first husband in 2002. I was 45. Eighteen months later, I was widowed.

John and I first met in 2000. After I was widowed, and John was divorced, we found each other again. Of like minds, spirits, and goals, our hearts came together quickly, and we married in 2005. Each of us has undergone Elijah House training, and we were both ordained into ministry in 2006. I have been a Christian counselor and prayer warrior for probably 30 years. John and I live to put God first in our lives, and in our dreams for this small piece of earth of which we are the caretakers.

We call our place "5 Acre Farm." John's father took this barren, overworked field from a larger parcel of farmland in the mid-70s. He fenced off about three-quarters of an acre for the house, and added plants, flowers, and trees. Elsewhere, he transformed the property through years of hard work, adding an apple orchard, peach trees, pears, two fig orchards, grape vines, and a greenhouse. John and I have been trying to continue his father's work on this land, adding to it with our own hopes and dreams, and our late-in-life efforts. Not a day goes by that I don't feel great respect for John's father, for the man he was, for the work he did here, and gratitude for the bounty we reap because of his hard work.

John and I are in our 50s, just starting life together, but with age and health trying to work against us. We aren't ready to sit down and take it easy. We have a goal to become self-sufficient by growing our own food (meat and vegetables), and getting off the grid. The challenges we face in doing this are age, health, and finances. John's inventiveness is being strongly applied, as is my gift for budget stretching and frugality. Our strength? The love we have for each other, and the trust that we are working inside the will of God.

One of the things we ask ourselves now and then is this: "Is it worth it?" I never had children. John's son has set his own path with family and career. There does not seem to be anyone we can leave this property to who will continue the work and the dream; one of John's grandchildren, perhaps, but they are very young right now, and do not yet notice or care.

So, is it worth it (all the work and expense) if there is every chance this land will end up in the hands of developers after we're gone? Well, our answer to that question so far is always "Yes, it's worth it." It's worth it to us, because of what we are accomplishing here in our lifetime. It's worth it because what we grow here we share with family, with friends, and with our community. And not just what we grow, but our faith and philosophy, our hopes and dreams, and our very desire to leave at least our little part of the world better than it was when we found it. We are living - consciously, and deliberately - a lifestyle that expresses who we are and what we believe. Does anybody care? Why don't read our blog, leave a comment, and let us know.