Seedlings!
Exactly one week after planting seeds there are sweet pepper seedlings! The tomato seeds are taking their sweet time. But, I have faith in them. There are 36 sweet pepper seedlings and of course I don’t need 36 sweet pepper plants. They’ll find their way into gardens of other family members. I planted 2 seeds in each pod because I worried that maybe one of them wouldn’t sprout.
The seeds from Burpee proved me wrong! No worries because we love sweet peppers, we have a chest freezer and I’m going to preserve a buttload of them this year. It kills me to pay $2 for one tiny pepper at our local market. This is my first year creating a vegetable garden. Living in a county that’s mostly farmland, it’s a blessing to be surrounded by farm markets. That doesn’t help during non-growing seasons.
Our home sits on a 1/3 acre lot and we’re blessed to have most of that as our backyard where the pool takes up a good chunk. But I’m determined to fill up as much space as I can with raised beds. Knowing how I always jump into new things in a big way, I purposely restrained myself this time. I only bought seeds for tomatoes, sweet peppers, zucchini and pickling cucumbers. An abundance of tomato plants won’t go to waste because I prefer to make my tomato sauce, salsa and spaghetti sauce from scratch. This is where I’m thankful for being raised by older parents.
My folks grew up during the depression, married during WWII. Canning food and preserves was second nature to my mom. In turn I watched and learned from her through the years. I’m a child of the 60s and 70s, coming into adulthood at the start of the 1980s. The decade of “Let’s do everything BIGGER!!: Homes got bigger. Hair got bigger and my sister is still rocking her 1980 hairstyle in 2023. I let a lot of the homegrown, homemade traditions fall by the wayside.
Now, I’m going back to the basics in earnest. With the cost of everything going up it’s time to get back to baking my own bread, not simply because it’s trendy but because it’s cost effective. This year I’m tackling baking hamburger and hotdog rolls to keep in the freezer as well as hoagie rolls, pretzels and dinner rolls. Bread freezes beautifully so I can make batches and toss them into the chest freezer.
This summer should be interesting and filled with more than just lounging in the pool with my Kindle and a cocktail or an ice cold bottle of Samuel Adams Porch Rocker. Love me some lemon radler. Here’s to all the wonky buns I’ll bake on my baking journey and to a bumper crop for my little vegetable plants.
