garden blather

Yesterday the sun was bright and lovely. So Senor Onion and I went out in the garden. I let him dig about haphazardly in some of the fallow beds. He takes my trowel (I bought him a nice child-sized blue one last year but he likes my big scary metal one.) and throws dirt around. I tidied up the strawberry bed, moved some shoots about and saw what survived the winter. Last fall I got rid of some antiquated parent plants that had stopped producing the kind of fruit they used to. (according to my Mother it was time to send them home to Jesus and move in some of the babier plants. Hopefully this will work.) New shoots went out -some into the grass so I had to transplant those. Then we removed some leaves that had been mulching some other parts of the garden. The garlic is coming along so nicely. Senor Onion helped me plant some sunflower seeds in a few different spots. A few in the herb garden, some on the edge of the onion bed and some on one edge of what will be one of the tomato beds. The variety is Teddy Bear They don't grow terribly tall (like the classic Arikara ones) but I think they will get plenty of sun and be a nice look in the garden. Plus maybe the bees will be entertained by them.

I am growing about three different winter squash varieties. My Mother being an evil enabler keeps saying, "oh you should grow more." I worry that I won't exactly have the time/energy to properly attend to them once the baby arrives. Unless she plans on coming over a lot to help out with that. Well do you woman???
Right now I am planning to grow some table gold acorn, golden delicious and potimarron. They are small squash varieties so what the heck maybe one pumpkin?
Maybe this Musquee de Provence variety.

I am a keen fan of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds as they collect all kinds of interesting things from people. I recently ordered from Peaceful Valley as they concentrate on organic stock and some nice heirloom varieties. (their potato selection is rather nifty and their customer service I can testify is attentive) A new seed company (with a somewhat limited stock) that I have been looking at is Freedom Seeds. They are the same people with the Little Homestead in the City.
Hopefully things will turn out interesting this year.

ETA: Another seed company someone recently directed me to is Grow Italian. (obviously an emphasis on Italian varieties)

More trolls than a Grimms story

A post I saw from the neighborhood Mom's list I am a member of:

Does anyone have a good turtle soup recipe? and can you use any old kind of turtle? I wanted to make it for this pot luck I am attending this weekend and I have really boring pet turtle that no one pays attention to that looks really kid[sic] of tasty.

I am waiting for the response from people.

Nutella, bunnies, triangles and exquisite hair.

This... is something else. That is all I can say about that.