Long Weekend Result - excess turnips and lettuce!

That's not bad at all!

As you can see, we have lots of turnips and lettuce at this point.

Organic, small production, seasonal and local!

If you live nearby and want some, make us an offer, and I am sure together we can figure out how to get it to you.

You can write us here: littlehausontheprairie@gmail.com

There will also be more of the following soon: zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes etc. ... we'll keep you updated!

Also...if you need thyme or chive, we have lots of those, as well!

First Potato harvest!

Yesterday we harvested our first potatoes.

After the harvest of our balcony potatoes in Berlin had been rather "modest" (100g total...), we actually picked more potatoes yesterday than we were able to eat. And that was only our first pick!
They were absolutely delicious!

Wil made rosemary garlic potatoes, and the best part was, that except for the sour cream, olive oil, salt and pepper, all the ingredients were from our garden.

Originally we had planted four different kinds: Yukon Gold, Warba, Pink Fir Apple and Russet Burbank.

the lighter ones with the sometimes pinkish skin are Warba, the other ones are Yukon Gold, with maybe one or two Russet Burbank hiding....

We mainly had Yukon Gold and Warba yesterday, since the Pink Fir Apple and Russet Burbank weren't ready yet.

Yukon Gold which seems to be a very popular potato among Canadians, was a great firm potato with a nice classic potato flavor and golden yellow flesh -  a very good allround potato.

The Warba really surprised me. Softer, but not mealy, with pretty white flesh, at times reddish-pink skin tone it was much more flavorful than the Yukon Gold, almost spicy.

Homemade ice tea and rosemary garlic potatoes with sour cream and lots of other herbs.

For now the Warba wins the contest of best tasting potato in our garden. Let's see how the others compete, once they are out of the ground. I only heard good things about the Pink Fir Apple...

June Harvest No 2: Radishes!

We planted our radishes and carrots together.

Radishes grow faster than carrots and loosen up the soil, which helps the carrots to grow better.
While the radishes are ready to be harvested our carrots are still tiny, and look more like regular roots, rather than actual carrots.

Unfortunately worms ate quite a few of our radishes. Therefore we weren't able to use them all.
But I guess, that's what happens when you try to become a gardener. Live and learn.

We will know better next time!

June Harvest No 1: Rhubarb!

I know Calgary probably has one of the shortest growing season, and I am sure a lot of you harvested their first vegetables and herbs in April/May already.
We are still waiting for most things to be ready for harvest. Mostly what we planted and what is ready now is greens, such as fennel greens, dill, kale or spinach.

Therefore it just fills me with pride and joy to walk into our garden and pick something more substantial that I can actually cook with rather than just using it for salad, such as rhubarb.

Don't get me wrong, salad is great.
But rhubarb? That's about child hood memories of grandma's rhubarb crumble or rhubarb compote with vanilla ice cream.

Wil is already thinking about making rhubarb wine (as well as saskatoon berry wine, dandelion wine, elderflower wine etc.).

We'll see how that works out.

I'll go for the compote and cake for now!

Meanwhile In Our Garden...

This morning we had a visitor in our garden. It's not the first time him or his other friends popped by. 

But today I was actually able to capture him with my camera.

Him and his buddies are after the last crabapples hanging in our tree. 

For the winter we decided to tolerate the visits. 

But in spring we'll need to figure out how to keep them from eating our veggies...

If he only knew how much we like deer...for dinner...

Our first rasberries! wohoo!

We bought a rasberry and a blackberry plant last year in spring but were not very lucky.
No fruits in 2010.
Even worse: the blackberry didn't make it through the Russian climate influenced winter of Berlin.
The rasberry plant however survived (maybe it fed off the blackberry by sucking out it's life energy...).
It grew strong and is now covered with berries that are now turning red.
We were already able to harvest some and, what can I say, they were delicious!
At this point I feel obliged to say thank you to Wil's enthusiasm when it comes to gardening.
He is taking care of all the plants.
A real plant-dad...
Good to have a gardener in the family.
If I had taken care of them they would probably be dead already.

Anyway, here are some pics:

Tomatoes soon, as well!