A Drive In The Country

  This will be a post of very few words....

  I knew there were gorgeous fields of lupine (local wild flowers) out there, and yesterday was just so beautiful, we took a drive into the nearby hills.

  It's been years since we've been here to see this yearly show, so off we went. (stayed in the car for most of it, had masks, just in case!)

  Hope you enjoy it, too!

  Came across this sweet sight, as well-

Other varieties of wild flowers are blooming, too.

  The views of large swaths of lupine on the green hills were magic-

  Just being out there was nice. The sun felt so good, and there were  few cars on this country road. I really enjoyed this little 'getaway'....

  Soon these hills will turn golden as the rains dry up and summer comes on. It was joy to see, and I realize we are so  lucky to live  here on the Central Coast of California. 

  Thanks, Covid 19! We may not have had the time to enjoy a little mini-vacation like this, without you.

And Then There Is The Cooking

  While being at home 'sheltering in place', I've been spending almost all day every day in my garden. I'm loving it, for sure...but I've been cooking some, too, and the last couple of days have been pretty tasty.

  I made a delightfully decadent pappardelle last night.

  Leeks, peas, goat cheese, and cream? What could be better?

Add the pappardelle. This was store bought.

Mix that all together, until the goat cheese melts well...

...and yum!

  

I've been threatening to make focaccia for weeks, and today was the day. It wasn't nice out, grey and a bit chilly, so a perfect time. 

  I made the dough with bread flour, yeast, honey, salt and olive oil, then let it rise.

  After forming it to the well oiled sheet pan, I let it rise again. Don't be stingy with the oil.

  Next, I mixed equal parts olive oil and water into a slurry, and poured it on top. I read about this step, and it really made a difference in the finished product.

 After pressing gently with my fingers all over....

 ...I topped with chopped fresh rosemary and good flakey sea salt. Don't be stingy with the salt.

 Bake on lower rack at 425-450 degrees, and you'll be in heaven!

  Not a bad attempt at all! You can't skimp on the olive oil or salt if you want it to be like what you get in Italy, especially Liguria, where it's like a religion.

  It was a bit too thin, and got a little burnt on the edges, but it was really tasty, and almost perfect. I'll do this again, only I'll use a smaller sheet pan, so I don't spread it out too thin. I'll add more rosemary, too, I think. 

  I made Johnny really happy. He's a man who loves his focaccia...

  I wonder what the next kitchen adventure will be. Thanks, Covid 19!

  

It's Compost Time

  I was inspired to sift and turn my compost today. Why? Well, it was overcast, so it wasn't too warm, my pal Bob in Umbria mentioned he'd tackled his massive pile, and...there was no room left in my bins to add more kitchen scraps. 

  It's so nice to have so much time to do everything I want to do in my garden...a true blessing during this crazy time of the virus...

  My homemade bins are small, and I sift and turn my piles over every six months or so. I always enjoy this chore, and thought it would make a good blog post.

  

  I have side by side bins. The left side is where we put kitchen scraps, some smaller garden debris, and leaves. It 'cooks' there before I turn it over into the right side bin, where I leave it to cook even longer and get good and broken down. It's really quite magical.

  I do this when I run out of room to add anything into the first stage bin. 

  This is the second stage bin, which I've already started sifting:

This was filled to the top when I started.

  I use a regular old nursery flat as my sifter. The holes are just the right size to sift, and also allow the worms to fall through and not get too damaged or hurt...Also, it's a good size for me to handle, not too heavy.

This is a scoop of 'cooked' compost, ready to sift.
I sift right into  a ten gallon nursery can.

All sorts of stuff going on here.

I shake it back and forth, letting the compost sift into the can.

The stuff that doesn't sift through gets dumped into another can.
I'll put it back in the bin to keep 'cooking'.

  

  It works out that when it's time to sift, every six months or so, I have enough to fill one can full of 'leftovers' that need to keep composting, and one nice big can of wonderful compost.

Leftovers....

Amazing and magical compost!
How does that happen?

Here's the bin I just emptied, ready to be filled with the compost I'll turn over next.
I always leave a bit of goodies on the bottom, with worms and such.

  This is my set up...I set the can I'm sifting into on top of the stuff that's going to be turned. It makes it easier on my old back. Believe me, this is pretty hard work, and I've hurt myself in the past trying to sift too much at one time. I go slow and steady, and that works best.

Now I'll shovel the left side into the right side to sit for several months and 'cook' some more.
This frees up the left side for new additions of scraps, etc.
The can on the ground will be added to the right side to cook some more, too.

Time to turn the left bin stuff into the right bin.

I love finding all the earthworms doing their job!

Yes!

What can I say...I love my worms.

  I'm so happy to have a big bucket of black gold! I'll put this in my potting shed to dry out a little, then bag it up and use it for different projects over the spring.

It's a beautiful thing.

Next, I sweep and clean up around my bins.
Johnny made these for me so long ago...

I put the garden cans in front to deter raccoons and possums.
They love my worms, too.

Compost...Done!
See the can back there in the potting shed?
Safe and sound for now.

 

  If you have space, and can do it, you'll get a lot of pleasure from composting.

  Try it!

(I had to delete 6 short videos that were not playing properly...sorry!)