Spelt anyone?

In an effort to learn more about grains and use more healthy grains since I live in a house of breadhounds, I bought a couple of new flours at an area health food store. They fresh grind all of their flours or you can buy it in bulk yourself and grind your own. That is what my end goal is - to grind my own. But I want to try different grains to determine if that will work for the family. So I bought some spelt, hard red ground ultrafine, and soft white ground ultrafine. We would probably be buying the hard red wheat or soft white wheat in bulk so I wanted to be sure I tried those.

So Friday morning for breakfast after looking at these flours I bought, I went for it! I made my regular 3 cups of flour recipe for buttermilk pancakes but substituted 1/2 c spelt and 1/2 c red whole wheat for 1 c of unbleached white. I knew I had to go gradual for fear of a pancake revolt. So my recipe turned out to be 1/2 c spelt, 1/2 c red whole wheat, 2 c unbleached white flour along with the other ingredients. They tasted great and no texture difference. The kids didn't even notice! Cool! Next time I will go for a higher amount of wheat and spelt. Or I may try kamut or amaranth wheat.

That evening I also modified my pizza dough recipe that is the family favorite which is already 1 1/2 c whole wheat flour and 1 1/2 c white flour. But I put in 1/2 c spelt and 1 c of the hard red wheat in place of the normal King Arthur whole wheat I use. In theory the King Arthur whole wheat should be the same and come from hard red also, but this that I bought at the village market was fresh ground there, so maybe a little better and not so processed? Could be a toss up but being a grain newb I don't know what's what. The pizza came out great and no one again was the wiser. I may be imagining this but the dough was more elastic and chewier which is good....but I could be imagining that. Anyway, nothing went to waste! :-)

So I feel a little more comfortable and more adventurous ready to try some more grains and recipes. Then my next endeavor or question will be if these home mills will produce as nice flour as I can buy from the village market. I have a friend with a similar mill to what we are looking at so she may shed some light for me.

New Seeds!

5/15/2010 - I had ordered Yellow Scalloped Patty Pan Squash (two kinds) and Courgette F1 Bambino Zucchini (baby zucchini) since I couldn't find those things around here or in the standard seed catalogs. I received all my seeds and am ready to plant this morning. I made three mounds for my squash and two big mounds for the baby zucchini and planted those. I am so excited about these and hope they come out well! I will need to get some more compost for these squash since I ran out and squash needs lots.

The wildest thing happened I had never seen - when I got to the garden and checked everything out before starting to work, the sunflowers had grown a little since I had been down there a few days before. But by the time I left a few hours later and the sun had hit them, they looked taller and spread out more - REALLY! I thought I may have been dreaming but seriously that is what happened. Maybe I did imagine it? My mother-in-law and another friend said it was probably true - sunflowers are like that. So cool!

The clouds look really heavy and we are expecting some good rain. We so need it!

I have also planted some herbs at home that I have forgotten to write about. On 5/7/2010 I planted Rosemary, Sage, Basil, Lavender, Flat Parsley and Cilantro plants and some Oregano seeds. Unfortunately my mint died so I will need to get another of those. I am not sure that my lavender is going to make it either. I also planted a Patio Tomato that looks pretty good.

Pictures will be coming soon when I get them downloaded!
***UPDATE: Here are some pictures from 5/15/2010***

Here are the Patty Pan Squash and Baby Zucchini picts - freshly planted:

And here is a bounty of lettuce - YUM!

Catching up with the weeds...

5/7/2010 - My daughter and I went to the garden and planted flower seeds for her. She planted Aztec sunflowers, Autumn Mix sunflowers, Jade sunflowers, Vanilla Ice and Strawberry Blonde sunflowers, Cosmos, Zinnias, Shasta and Painted Daisies. She wants to grow flowers for herself, but also for the fair and to sell. These will be nice flowers for making bouquets and selling.

5/13/2010 - This evening was supposed to be a regular work night at the community garden. So I went with intention of doing some of my own work and helping with whatever other tasks needed. There was only a couple of people that showed up but more just to water their own plots and leave. So I spent the time weeding my plots and composting more around my plants.

My daughter's sunflowers are peeping up out of the soil. But I haven't seen sign of cosmos, zinnias or daisies. Wondering if we will need to replant? I will give some more time to see if they will come in another week and after the rains we are expecting.

 I took pictures but I will have to wait until I can download them before posting. My plants are coming right along. Although I still worry that my two new plots may be weak and not as fertile and rich as I would like. I am such a newbie gardener!




***UPDATE***


Finally here are some photos from 5/13/2010:


 From bottom to top: Crookneck Summer Squash (3), Beefsteak Tomato (l), Brandwine Tomato from seed (r), Slicing Cucumber, Beefsteak Tomato (l), Cherry Tomato (r), Pickling Cucumber, Rutgers Tomato (l) and Roma Tomato (r).

Bottom to Top: Romaine Lettuce, Poblano Pepper, Bibb Lettuce, Poblano Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Sweet Red and Green Peppers, Okra, Pickling Cucumber, Cherry Tomato, and Rutgers Tomato.

Left to Right: Same as above but from the side.

Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Okra, Peppers, and Lettuces

Sunflower sprouts

Happy Birthday to a special 7-year old!

Today is a very special day - Seven years ago I gave birth to special little guy. He is our first boy and quite a handsome dude. (At least I think so!) He is so intense, smart, incredibly curious, and has a smile that lights up a room. He is quick-witted and sensitive towards his siblings. I am thankful we were blessed with such a special boy! Happy Birthday!

Here he is with his Spectacular Spider-Man cake and his older sister and two younger brothers. They are a special crew!!

Little more planting before the hopeful rain

4/30/2010 - My daughter and I went down to the garden after her art class to get a little more planted, pull some pesky weeds, and help with some community garden tasks. There is supposed to be big rain coming this weekend so a fellow gardener cautioned against planting seeds because they would get washed away. I had hoped to have these seeds in and they would be germinating before next weekend. I guess I should wait.

My daughter watered the plants while I did a little weeding. Then I also planted a slicing cucumber, two cherry tomatoes, and three crookneck squash hills.

The garden is looking so nice too. Spring is here and growing season has really begun!