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hey i totally made this all by myself

So I don't have any particular talents. I can do a lot of things, but I'm not really great at any one thing. Because of that I get way too proud of myself whenever I successfully do something and it's not messed up. I cannot believe it every time and it's like a miracle. (The reason for this is the many many messed up projects that will not ever appear on this blog.)

So recently I have done a couple of things ALL BY MYSELF and they turned out good. I am so pleased with myself, I am showcasing it all here on this blog.

Okay first, I am totally a farmer! I've been wanting a yard forever, but it's pretty clear that it's going to be a long time before I ever have one. So this year when a cool nursery opened up down the street, me and J. started a container garden. Besides the decorative plants, I decided to try to grow some vegetables. Guys, it worked! They grew! And for the most part, are still growing. It's amazing. You just put water on them every day, fertilizer once a month and murder any bad bugs that show up. Voila, foods.


This is my cute mini bell pepper plant. You can see a flower, which is waiting for a bee to visit and two baby peppers.


When the peppers are ready, they turn orange. They are like little teeny tiny bell peppers.


They are nice in a salad and I bet they would make really cute appetizers with a stuffing.


This is my big pepper plant. These are Italian roasting peppers. They are ready once they get big enough (about 60 days). If you leave them on the plant long enough they will turn red, but I have only been patient enough for that one time.


Here are the first peppers that I picked. These three peppers are the first vegetables I ever grew myself, so I am very proud of them all even if some of them are handsomer than others.


I roasted the peppers and put them on a chicken sandwich. Delicious but they were pretty spicy, so really a sandwich should have less peppers than this.


This is my poor kale. The kale grew like gangbusters, it was nuts. In this picture it is twice as big as when I got it and it ended up getting twice as tall as that. But I could not keep the aphids away from it - they kept coming back even after I would mass murder them all. I could never actually eat it because of so many bugs, so I ended up having to let it go. :( I will probably replace it with another pepper plant because I am telling you, those are so easy.

I also want to give a plug to my nursery because it is the greatest. It has all kinds of amazing things - not just plants but gifts and stuff for your house too. The people are really nice and know all about plants and you can bring your dog there and they will give it treats.

Rolling Greens Nursery




Okay, the other thing I made is cheese! That is mozzarella cheese that I made all myself. It is really easy, as long as you have the stuff and a recipe. For my birthday, J. got me a deluxe cheesemaking kit from Urban Cheesecraft. These people are really great. Not only did the kit and recipes make it really easy to use, but at first they accidentally forgot to put some of the recipes in my kit and when I e-mailed them, they sent them right a way, plus gave me an adorable heart shaped cheese mold as a gift.

The mozzarella is made with milk, rennet, citric acid and cheese salt. You just cook the milk until it separates into curds and whey, take out the curds and then knead them until turn into cheese, basically. Mine is a little rustic - you have to stretch and knead it for a looooong time to get it so smooth like store cheese. Patience isn't really my strong point. But when you eat it, it is really like mozzarella! I have been enjoying it with apples and figs.

Comments

I am totally impressed with the cheese but I know that you have been a terrific farmer before. I will have to send you a picture of you growing a fantastic pumpkin. You've always been a very talented girl. Keep it up.

A totally unbiased comment from your mom :-)
Anyanka said…
I was looking for updates but instead I got hungry...
SinoSoul said…
man, the APHIDS! killed my tomato plant! And the grasshopper ate the ISHT! out of my basil plant! suck!

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