My 200th Post: Hello Spring!

What does this Oregonian do on her first warm, sunny Spring day off? Work in the yard, of course. The weeds are crazy out there. Our poor strawberries somehow managed to put out a bunch of blossoms even though the weeds were literally towering over them. I weeded the strawberry beds first. Well, first and last as I had allotted myself a couple hours in the yard and that is what it took just to weed the berries.

In our sloped yard, the berry beds just happen to be right above the apple trees. Our poor apple trees have really been suffering the past couple years. They were in desperate need of proper pruning and fertilizing. Last year we had no mature apples. We had lots of little green apples at one point in time, but then they all just fell to the ground when they were barely the size of my thumb. In the Fall, I called in a tree doctor (a.k.a. General Tree Service) and had them do a little diagnosis. The General Tree guy informed me that last year was bad as we had lots of rain and when the bees needed to pollinate, it was too wet. They also said our trees were desperately in need of pruning, fertilizing and disease/bug spray. Okay, thanks. So we set up a schedule for the Winter/Early Spring and now the beautiful blossoms are sitting there on this sunny day waiting to be pollinated. As I sat there looking at the blossoms (apple tree and crabapple blossoms make me very happy), I noticed BEES! Bees everywhere!!! I am hoping this is a sign that we will have apples this Fall, but I can be patient. If this is not the year, well then I will enjoy these blossoms, because they are beautiful.

Apple Tree Blossom Buds

Partially Open Apple Tree Blossoms

A Happy Bee (hopefully pollinating) on a Sunny Day

Proof That We Had Blue Sky in Portland

A Grape Leaf Just Beginning to Open

The First Lilacs in Our Yard (I'm pretty sure they are a little late)

Blueberry Buds

Crabapple Blossoms

Crabapple Blossoms

Old Dogwood Tree in the Backyard

Dogwood Blossom

I often think Hydrangea are my favorite flower, but then I remember all the wonderful Spring blossoms that are so special because they arrive just as you think you can't stand another day of winter. I love apple blossoms and lilacs and dogwood and magnolia and well, I pretty much love them all.

Happy Spring!!!

Worth waiting for... Asparagus!

There are some situations for which you just have to be patient. Especially in the garden. There is no instant gratification on most fruits, for example. And we knew when we decided to plant asparagus in the vegetable garden that we would have to wait until the third year to harvest.

Here are the little baby plants their very first season:

Well, we did it. We waited and now the asparagus are on their third year and it is asparagus harvesting season (at least in the Pacific Northwest). Today I picked (well cut) our very first asparagus and they are so beautiful.

I prefer to eat asparagus roasted in the oven with just a little olive oil, salt & pepper.

There are lots and lots of asparagus growing out in our little patch, so I'm pretty sure we may get sick of asparagus before we run out. Also, we received Sorrel in our farm share this week and I made the Sorrel Pesto (like last year).

I topped our Coho Salmon fillets with the pesto. It was a very green and very delicious dinner tonight.