Homestead Update

Its been a while since I walked the property and took pictures. Here a few images from around the yard and garden. These pics were taken with my cell phone so I apologize for the poor quality. I find if I take pics with the cell phone I do more posts because its easier. It's a trade off.

In the center are our beach roses "rosa rugosa". The purple / pink are the flowers and the red you see are the rose hips. These roses produce one of the largest rose hips of all roses, full of vitamin C.

Here is whats left of our corn. A squirrel came in the day after I planted and dug up close to half of the corn I planted. Squirrel season starts Sept 1st, my corn should be ready towards the middle of Sept..... squirrel corn stew?

I planted over a hundred pole beans yesterday. The left row is a green bean and the right row is scarlet runner bean. We plan on canning a bunch in Sept.

Here is the compost / raised bed / volunteer plant nursery. We got our first ripe tomatoes of the year from volunteers that came up in the compost pile. The raised bed in the foreground has spinach, various herbs and okra planted in it. 

Here are my cascade hops. I was very busy with school when these came up in the early spring. I did not string them up right away so they did not grow to their potential this season. 

Once you plant borage you never need to plant again. Half of this raised bed is full of beautiful blue flowering borage. The flowers are so good. I eat a handful everyday I am in the garden.

This is the horseradish. It is doing very well. I want to split and move half of it to another location in the garden soon. I dug some up earlier this year, the flavor is amazing!

We still have 6-7 heads of cabbage getting bigger and bigger. I just planted a variety that gets up to 10 pound heads.

Here are some peppers. The peppers I start from seed always start out slow but once they hit the heat of summer they go crazy. 

All the stakes along the fence have a tomato I started from seed staked up to it. The tall sunflower looking plants on the right are Jerusalem artichokes. I can't wait to harvest them in the fall.

Here is the asparagus patch. I have been very good and have only eaten one spear over the last two years. This coming spring will be year three and we will be enjoying fresh asparagus for a few weeks.

Here is a shot of the garden. I finally got all the straw down after a storm coming in and blowing my hard work all over the yard.

I have upgraded the arrow target. The round bale was to short and we lost a couple arrows over the top. 

Green Quiche

So, I just think this is the best thing I've ever made and I had to share. Since we've started Paleo we haven't been able to eat crust. I was driving home from work with an awful craving for quiche (odd, right?) and I was frustrated because it's just not the same without crust! I've made those little egg muffins but the egg is stiff on the edges... anyway, I was struck with this amazing idea. Plantain crust!!!

The best part about this recipe is that because the crust took so long I just put the rest of the ingredients in the blender and so it became GREEN QUICHE!! And here it is (hope it works out because I don't measure anything):

A few green plantains
Eggs (7?  also ours vary in size because we buy from a local farm)
Cream cheese (Organic Valley, I think I used half a thing)
Butter (lots)
Bacon (half a package)
Handful of spinach
Seasoning - salt mostly
Anything else you want in your quiche

Fry bacon and set aside. Save some of the bacon fat in the skillet and then add butter.
Slice plantains about an eighth inch thick and fry til golden brown and slightly crisp - let cool.
Put eggs, cream cheese, spinach and everything else in blender and blend until totally mixed.
Line pie plate with a couple layers of plantain chips.
Crumble bacon and anything you don't want pureed over top.
Pour filling in and bake at around 350° until middle is solid and top is lightly browned
Eat.