We’re growing peanuts in our New York garden for the first time this year!  Read on as we plant Jumbo Virginia peanuts!

Or maybe the title should read “We’re trying to grow peanuts this year!” so I don’t jinx myself.  You might have read that we started our 2017 garden a few weeks ago, which is very exciting, but even more exciting is when we try to grow a new plant!  This year the new plants are celery and peanuts!  This post is all about peanuts though….!

I decided last year I wanted to try to grow peanuts, mostly because I was currently in a peanut butter eating craze.  I did some research and saw some people in the North had successfully grown peanuts so I decided to give it a shot.  Peanuts need a good 4 months of heat, with no frost,  to grow, so let’s hope for a full 120 days of sun for them in our garden!

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While we’re experiencing a few heated days, we made our way Upstate to start the 2017 garden year and get our veggies planted.  This year we decided to hold off planting a couple weeks due to us having a few scary nights of dropping temperatures last year, but I think we’re in the clear now… and the veggies were ready to move out of Brooklyn and into their new garden home!

A quick recap, here’s what we planted for our Spring garden and here are the dates that we started the seeds indoors and then moved them outside.
Onions |  March 18 | May 17
Kale   |   March 26 | May 17
Cabbage  | March 26 | May 17
Brussels Sprouts  | March 26 | May 17
Collards   | March 26 | May 17
Bok Choy | March 26 | May 17
Cauliflower   |  March 26 | May 17
Broccoli  |   March 26 | May 17
Celery    |  March 26 | May 17
Lettuce |  April 22 |  TBA
Carrots  | May 17 (directly in soil)
Sugar Snap Peas | May 17 (directly in soil)

As you can see from last year’s Spring veggies, not too much has changed.  We have our usual cast of characters, with one new addition.  This year we’re going to try to grow celery for the first time!   Honestly, the seeds were kind of jerks and really hard to germinate so we had to plant them twice.  Even then, the seedlings looked pretty pathetic and  weren’t up to par with their plant siblings.   At the very last minute I found this pack of 6 celery plants for $2 on our way Upstate so I got them.   We grow all of our veggies from seeds, but this year the celery just wasn’t happening so I had to give in and buy a pack.   Looks like I have to investigate more into these fussy, hard to germinate seeds for next year!

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Tasty Bite. All opinions are 100% mine.

I always get so excited when I learn that one of my favorite food companies is helping to promote gardening and growing your own.  As soon as I learned about Tasty Bite’s Good Seed program, I knew I had to share with you guys!

Tasty Bite partnered with AmpleHarvest.org to give away free lettuce seeds to people who pledge to share their vegetable harvest!    Tasty Bite has a great range of Thai, Indian and Asian products made with real food and real ingredients.    Their products would go perfect over some fresh garden lettuce! Their goal is to help eliminate waste by helping people grow their own food and share their extra crops by donating to food pantries.  Tasty Bite Good Seed Program is over for this year, but it’s an annual program, so make sure to sign up for their newsletter on tastybite.com for alerts on next year’s Good Seed program.

Our lettuce seeds will be planted in about a week for our Summer garden.  We love growing lettuce because it’s a simple plant that easily grows without much care.   I’m going to repeat what I always say… but how awesome is it go from lettuce seeds… to lettuce seedlings..

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I’m officially declaring it Spring because a few days ago I was able to wear a dress without tights under!  Since it’s Spring that means one thing – it’s time to plan our garden!  We always look forward to planting our seeds in Spring and the organization that comes with it.

 First we talk about what grew good last year, what we didn’t think do that well, what we grew too much of (bok choy!), what we need more of.  Then we discuss adding new vegetables to the garden – is there anything that we really want to grow that we aren’t already? From there we view catalogs, make a list, order any seeds that we might need and start planting.

The answer some of those questions…. the garden is staying pretty similar to last year with some little changes.  Cauliflower continues to be challenging for us to grow and leaves us not feeling that it’s always worth it.  Matthew wanted to get rid of cauliflower completely this year but I talked him into giving it one more chance, so we’re trying a new variety (Snow Crown).  Cauliflower, don’t let me down, you’re on notice.  

We grew almost 100 bok choy plants last year which was crazy, so this year we are growing less, and I will be picking it earlier in the season to enjoy it in it’s “baby” size.  We’re getting rid of radishes, they’re so easy to grow that it almost feels wrong to stop but I just haven’t been in a radish mood.    

The new addition to the garden is celery! We’ll be trying to grow it for the first ever this year so stay tuned on how that goes!  Isn’t it amazing to see 100 future celery plants in my hand?  (We aren’t growing 100 though!)

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This post is sponsored by Hayneedle who helped us build a greenhouse so we can grow vegetables in the Winter! All opinions are my own. 

Make gardening season last year round with a greenhouse!  Go green and grow your own! 

I have been so excited to show you what we’ve been doing on the land!  Garden season ended a few months ago so that’s why there there hasn’t  been as many beautiful vegetables to show, but not to worry – we’re still growing! In February! In 10 degree temperature! In the snow!  Thanks to a greenhouse we’re all set up to grow our hearts out 365 days a year now!

When we had our rooftop garden going we had a small greenhouse that left us able to grow broccoli, bok choy and kale during the Winter months. Once we moved the garden Upstate I was already thinking about Winter growing during the first year.   Because we’re Upstate in the Catskill Mountains we had some things to seriously consider about the greenhouse.  1) It gets really cold.  2)  It gets really snowy.  3)  It gets really windy.    So I investigated greenhouses and figured the Palram HG56 Glory Greenhouse would be best for our situation.  We got it in the 12L x 8W ft size which is more than enough for what we need.     Due to the strong wind on our property, we installed the anchor kit to ensure the greenhouse wasn’t going anywhere. Inside the greenhouse we put down a ground cover and a few bags of drainage rocks on top.

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Easy step by step instructions on how to presprout and grow Sugar Snap Peas.  By doing this you’ll be sure that the seeds won’t rot before they sprout under the soil resulting in a successful plant and many pounds of sugar snap peas to pick!

Presprouting Sugar Snap Peas is a important step to growing big Sugar Snap Pea plants.  By doing this you’ll be sure that the seeds won’t rot before they sprout under the soil (due to temperature).  It also guarantees that you won’t be wasting your time planting some seeds that might not even sprout at all causing you to wait and fall back in the garden season schedule.

Germinating peas

This is our quick and easy method for presprouting peas. We’ve been doing this for the past many years with a successful sugar snap pea harvest twice a year.  

Directions:
Step 1:  Drop your peas in a bowl of water to get them wet.

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How we grew over 1,100 pounds of vegetables in one Summer! Learn how to grow your own food to last you all year long! Start your own vegetable garden now!

Well 2016 is almost over and it’s been a good year for gardening and growing vegetables. This year we started a new adventure that included building a garden in Upstate New York and then growing our hearts out.  

Every year we keep a weight chart to track how many pounds of vegetables we grow.    Every harvest weekend we visit the garden, lug pounds of vegetables home in the car and into the apartment and then weigh each vegetable.    It’s a fun way to keep track of what vegetable grew good, or not so great and is a easy way to compare year to year.  

Last year’s totals were: 458 pounds
This year’s totals were (drum roll please): 1147 lb 6 oz

OMG.  That’s over half a ton of vegetables!

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How to move your kale indoors if you’re having a extra cold, rough Winter.  This will make sure your kale will survive for a  few extra months!

My prediction is that we might have a bad Winter this year.  Already in the garden Upstate we have nights in the 20’s and a few days of snow.   Plus I saw a white wooly bear caterpillar in the woods and Google told me they were signs of a deep Winter approaching.  The garden is pretty much done for the year minus the collards, Brussels Sprouts and kale.   The collards and Brussels Sprouts will call it quits when they’re ready to but I really wanted to save the kale.  Even though kale is pretty hearty and can withstand cold frost temperatures,  it gets very cold in the mountains so I decided to bring it inside our greenhouse to live for the next few months to make sure it survives.

Like my post on bringing pepper plants indoors for the Winter, this has similar instructions.  We dig up the plants carefully and then transplant to new pots.  We’ll water the plants weekly.    Even though it takes a little work to get them dug up, it’s worth it to have fresh vegetables throughout the Winter if you are in a cold climate.

This is our bed of kale.  It’s still looking good but the drop of temperatures caused it’s lower leaves to start to die. Time to save the kale so I can make Kale Salad!

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Easy tips on how to turn green pumpkins orange quickly indoors.   This works for small and large pumpkins.

Pumpkins can turn from green to orange pretty quickly and easily indoors.    There’s a number of reasons why you might want to bring your green pumpkin inside, the main ones being change of weather (frost hits the plant) or animals eating your pumpkins.  A few weeks ago after a dramatic drop in the temperature I had to pick many of our big pumpkins that were still green.

Can you pick pumpins early?

Yes!  If weather doesn’t permit your pumpkins to continue growing outside, then it’s time to pick them and bring them indoors.  

 If you spend a few months growing a pumpkin then you know the heartbreak if you don’t get to see it turn orange.  Right now with the temperatures changing it’s the perfect time to bring your pumpkins indoors to turn orange.  After they turn orange you can continue to let them decorate your home,  or eventually cut them open and bake them for pumpkin puree. November and December are great times to decorate and bake with pumpkin!

I turn pumpkins to their bright orange color the same way I turn  my tomatoes red.

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This is the story of what happens when you accidentally track a pumpkin seed into the garden.  We plant pumpkins in the garden but they have specific beds to grow in.   Somehow a pumpkin seed from our compost bin got stuck to someone’s shoe and it got planted right in the middle of the garden, right in the onion bed.  It changed everything.

We noticed the pumpkin plant a few months ago.  We didn’t cut it down because we thought it would just stop growing.

In a few weeks it grew.  Much bigger.

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I hope everyone enjoyed Tomato Week on BFG! I posted recipes for Marinated Overnight Italian Diced Tomatoes, Creamy Roma Tomato Soup and 5 Minute Mexican Burrito Bowl.  Now it’s time to introduce you guys to the stars of the garden, the tomatoes!

We’re been transitioning to the new zone that we’re growing in this year to try to get a full load of tomatoes picked.   Usually it doesn’t frost until November in NYC but this weekend in Upstate New York it’s going to be in the low 30’s at night (thankfully it goes back up!).   The growing period for tomatoes is shorter now, but with a whole bed of tomato plants, we’re still picking pounds and pounds.  We have our usual cast of tomatoes: cherry, Roma and beef.  

The cherry tomatoes are in full force (held together by big tomato cages!) and we’ve been picking them by the bucket.  The beef tomatoes showed up next and we’ve seen them in massive size (see pics below).  The Romas have started to arrive but there’s still quite a number of green ones.  It might be a battle of temperature vs tomato once October comes around to see how long we can hang on to the tomatoes.

Let’s just get straight to the beef tomatoes because they are huge!  I mentioned their size a few times but I wanted to show you guys just how massive they are this Summer.    Can you believe it?  Some of these tomatoes are close to 2 pounds!

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Check out the video tour of our vegetable garden! Want to see what’s growing in Upstate New York?

Hey guys! I made you a video tour of the garden. It’s like MTV Cribs but with vegetables instead of cars.  What’s growing in September in our garden? Watch the video to find out!

This was our harvest last weekend!   Munchkin pumpkins, 20 pounds of cherry tomatoes, corn, almost the end to cucumbers and green beans, Brussels Sprouts, cabbage, jalapeños, tomatillos, Roma tomatoes, beef tomatoes and some big pumpkins!

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Hope you all had a great weekend everyone! We spent the weekend up on the land, camping over night. On Friday we ventured to the local County Fair where I ate my yearly funnel cake and kissed all the goats I could find. On Saturday we woke up on the land to cows moo’ing at a nearby field and sunshine.   With the garden all built now (did you see my reveal last week?) we’re in full harvest mode, picking pounds and pounds of vegetables each week to travel back with to NYC.

So what’s growing?  Lots of everything.  We still have some of our spring veggies (kale, collards, cauliflower, etc).  Our sugar snap peas are finally winding down, but still picking a pound every week.  Then we have the beginning of the Summer veggies.  We picked our first tomatoes and peppers this week, with hope that the corn will be ready next week.  The weather Upstate is very different than growing in NYC due it’s colder temperatures so it feels weird to just only beginning to pick tomatoes.  With that said, the weather is great because it can grow “colder” veggies in the Summer. For example, we picked Brussels Sprouts this weekend – in August! Awesome!  Bonus awesome because this is the first time successfully growing Brussels Sprouts. Garden high 5s.  I’m so excited to eat them. 

We picked: Kale, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Cucumbers, Carrots, Green Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Green Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, Tomatillos, Tomatoes, Onions, Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts. Whew.  

So let’s dive in….!

This Summer has been all about potatoes! We dug up our first plant a few weeks ago, digging up a additional plant every weekend.  When it’s time to dig up the potatoes it’s like Christmas morning – pure excitement!  Matthew and I gather around the potato plant, digging it up with a shovel and our hands calling out each potato we spot.  It’s one of my favorite garden activities!  We planted  Gold and Red potatoes. The Red potatoes came from “potatoes gone bad” in our cabinet in the Spring.  The Red potatoes were a bit of a happy experiment!

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Fujifilm Wonder Photo Shop. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do you forget what vegetables you have in the refrigerator?  With this simple photo project you’ll never let your produce go bad again!

One of the worst things is seeing food go to waste.    Do you sometimes buy beautiful greens at the grocery store, use them for 2 days, and then somehow they get stuffed into the crisper drawer in the fridge to be forgotten about until you notice a funky smell?  It happens.  And it’s terrible.

Even worse is when you grow those vegetables and they go bad.  All that hard work that went into planting the seeds, transplanting the plants, watering them for months, sprinkling powder in mid Summer under the hot spot because those damn caterpillars really need to get away from your broccoli plants.  All for nothing.  Because you forgot you had that beautiful head of broccoli and now it’s bad.    That is a case of garden guilt that you will never forget.  Truthful note, I have wasted a few vegetables and have then sat down on my kitchen floor and cried about it.  It gets rough.

This tip is easy.  You can go the simple route and keep a piece of paper on the fridge with all the vegetables that you need to eat written on it.  Or you can make it a little more pretty then that –  that’s where I introduce you to this photo project.

Supplies:
Vegetables
FUJIFILM instax® camera and film

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Hold on to your sunhats because this is going to be a long, picture heavy post.   It takes lots of visuals to show what’s growing in the garden!

First, the break down.  What’s currently growing?
Corn, Tomatoes , Tomatillos, Peppers, Beans, Peas, Onions, Carrots, Radishes, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Collards, Kale, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Watermelon, Cucumbers, Berries, Grapes, Herbs

What has finished?
Bok Choy and Lettuce

Yup, only 2 plants are done so far, the rest are just starting which means we’re in for quite a haul of veggies for the next few months! 

Welcome to the garden everyone!

As you some of you know, this garden was a work of love this year.  I’m talking about the entire process.  Remember in the Winter when it was 20 degrees and we were Upstate trying to dig through the frozen ground? That’s love.    There was a point in the early Spring where we spoke to each other about the possibility of this completely failing.  What if we can only grow on rooftops?  I’m happy to report that we can grow in the ground!  It wasn’t a failure.   I had a moment of pure bliss while standing in the garden on Saturday morning,  looking around and seeing all green.  We built this, we grew this, we created this garden together. It’s all for the love of vegetables.

Remember just a few months ago this was what the garden looked like?

There’s been some ups and downs.  First there was building this massive garden.  It was hard work.  We don’t live Upstate, we live in NYC, so our time spent on the land consists of working, working and working.   To be honest, we still haven’t had much time to enjoy the land as when we drive up there every weekend, we’re on a mission to get our week’s worth of gardening in one day.  Yup, you read that right.  This garden gets taken care of one day a week.  That’s why the fence is so crazy, we knew we couldn’t prevent animals from attacking while we aren’t there so we decided to make it tough for them to get in. So far it’s working.    Because we only visit once a week,  we rely on good soil filled with nutrients to make sure the plants stay healthy and strong when we’re not there.   We got a pH test done in the Winter and the soil was lacking nutrients.  The soil was super acidic and had low mineral and organic values.     To give you a idea, Phosphorus was “very low”, Potassium was “low”, Calcium was “low” and Magnesium was on the low side of “Optimum”.  The soil pH value was 5.6.  Yuck. We pray to the weather gods that it rains once or twice a week to keep the plants watered, but if it doesn’t, then we water our hearts out when we visit once a week.   Thankfully because of the soil and nutrients that we added in,  the soil stays pretty wet, which means it can take care of itself when Mom and Dad aren’t there.

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Use paper towels to keep your lettuce leaves and sugar snap peas fresh for weeks. The paper towels help remove moisture that can make your vegetables go bad.  

Right now we are picking pounds of lettuce and sugar snap peas.  Just this weekend we picked 10 pounds (!!) of lettuce and 5 pounds (!!) of sugar snap peas.  We usually don’t pick this much lettuce at once, but the heat hit and we know it’s going to turn bitter if we keep it in the garden so we’d rather pick it now.   Over the past few years I’ve spent lots of time experimenting trying to keep our vegetables fresh for as long as possible as there’s nothing sadder to a gardener then seeing their plants go to waste.  You might have remembered last summer’s tip on how to keep your lettuce fresh for a month with aluminum foil? Yup, works great!    And now I’m back with more fresh tips, this time for lettuce leaves and sugar snap peas.  All you need is your vegetables, paper towels and a produce bag.  

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