The Moon

The moon has been eery lately. Cast in mists with a yellowy glow. The darker shadows of the treetops grasp at the bright orb.

Sprouting Bush Green Beans

The bush green beans are popping out of the ground after only being planted for a couple of days, 4 out of six rows have come up with the last two rows being planted with the oldest seeds. The heat must really be stimulating the germination of the beans. It is so much easier to directly sow bean seeds into the soil rather than starting them indoors since the plants grow so quickly.

I really need to get the corn seed into the ground but the rain over the last couple days keeps thwarting me. Once the corn starts growing then the pole beans can be planted around the corn stalks.

Planting Eggplant & Replanting Okra Seeds

The weather here has been hot hot. Up around 88˚ F (31˚ Celsius) and humid to boot. I've been out in the vegetable garden braving the heat to plant 28 eggplants and six rows of bush green bean seeds. The eggplants are from all sorts of fun varieties from the Middle East, Asia, and Italy that were all started indoors from seed. The bush green bean varieties that were planted include Derby, Contender, Masai, Blue Lake 156, and Romano. After laying down one and a half packages of Dragon Tongue beans I happened to look down at the package and realized I was planting a pole bean variety amongst the bush beans. Luckily, the seeds were all still laying on top of the soil as a way to keep track of spacing and were easy enough to pick up.

None of my zucchini, summer squash, and okra seeds have sprouted after being 3 weeks in the ground, so I dug around and found some empty squash seeds in the soil. Ugh! The birds probably pulled up and ate the little sprouted seedlings as soon as they popped out of the soil, since they were planted before the bird netting was set up. I went ahead and soaked some more okra seeds in water for a couple days before planting because their seed coats are so very hard, in just two days little white roots could be seen poking out of all the Phillipino Lady Finger okra seeds whereas the Stewart's Zeebest didn't even look like they had swelled at all. Either way, into the ground the okra seeds went today.

The tomato plants are still very short from the birds eating the leaves and growing tips but oddly enough they are still managing to flower even under such duress. How exciting.

Marauding Birds are Definitely Eating My Tomato Plants

It was definitely marauding birds dead set on their evil plans to destroy and consume all the vegetable seedlings in the garden. Those vile devils went back and ate even more of my tomato plants, there are twenty-five tomato seedlings left out of fifty-two tomato plants with eight of those just consisting of lower leaves since their growing tips were nipped by sharp little beaks. I'm leaving the ones with nipped growing tips in the ground partly from frustration and partly to see if they'll sprout new growing tips at the joint where the lower leaves meet the stem. More than half of my tomato plants were eaten. So now not only a fence is surrounding the garden but I have bird netting stretched over the fencing.

I was ready to give up on the garden this year but my husband insisted rather stridently that all that work and effort to till and get the garden going was not going to waste, no matter how much more money we had to spend on it, even if we had to go out and buy expensive store bought seedlings.

It was a really warm winter with only one snowfall that wasn't even hard enough to stick around on the ground, which is probably why there are so many birds. Usually after the winter we find a few dead birds around the woody area probably from starvation and exposure, but this year there are birds everywhere and their calls and voices are deafening. Also our neighbor who had four dogs has moved away and the dogs were probably keeping the birds at bay. Plus it has been a very dry year so the birds have probably turned to eating plants to get water. Bastards.

It's late in the season to be starting tomato plants but I went ahead and planted more tomato seeds. While at it, I started five different varieties of summer squash/zucchini, cucumbers, bitter melon, and luffa in peat pellets because the weather temperatures have been very volatile and things aren't sprouting in the garden yet or maybe the birds have already eaten them.

Vietnamese Coconut Milk & Curry Chicken Soup Recipe

Sweet and spicy chicken soup with thick chunks of potato and sweet potato. A luscious creamy soup served with slices of French bread.

Coconut Milk & Curry Chicken Soup Recipe

A warm soothing dish with complex spiced overtones. The coconut milk and sweet potatoes provide sweet creamy base notes, while the potatoes and chicken lend an earthy stick in your ribs type meal. Wonderful with warm soft French bread with a crisp crust.

Makes: 8 to 10 servings

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Total time: 60 minutes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 chicken breasts, cubed

1/2 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

4 tablespoons yellow curry

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons Vietnamese nuoc mam sauce, or salt to taste

4 cups water

2 large potatoes, chopped

2 large sweet potatoes, chopped

13 oz can coconut milk

1 cup milk

French bread or rice to serve.

Directions

1. Heat a large pot at medium add olive oil and chicken breasts turning occasionally till chicken is lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
2. Add chopped onion & garlic, sugar, spices, and fish sauce.
3. Once chicken is cooked through and spices are fragrant, about 5 minutes add water, chopped potato and sweet potato, add more water if needed to cover potatoes, cover the pot and bring to a boil at high heat.
4. Lower temperature and simmer at medium-low heat till potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes. (Please see note below.)
5. Turn off the heat and let cool a bit before adding coconut milk and milk. Adjust seasonings, I usually add more sugar or salt, and curry powder.
6. Serve with hot crusty French bread to dip in the soup, or serve over rice.

Note: Sweet potatoes cook faster than regular russet potatoes, so you can either cook the russets for five minutes before adding the sweet potatoes or you may wish to cut the sweet potatoes into bigger chunks than the russets.