A Blueberry Garden Begins

Blueberry 1

After resting the bed for a year, I added peat moss and 24lbs of soil acidifier to get around a ph of 5.

Blueberry 2

I had everything laid out and the paper mulch pinned down when a freak windstorm blew it all away.

Blueberry 3

Everything is in and weighted down. The paper mulch looks weird, but I know I’ll be thankful for it all summer long. I bought the plants from Stark Bro’s. I planted two Misty, two Sunshine Blue, and two Sweetheart. I chose these varieties because they had the biggest zone range around my zone: 7. My concern is, well, the climate around here is changing and some varieties need quite a bit of cold weather and some not at all; sometimes we have mild winters and sometimes we freeze. I’ll probably test the soil again around June. If all goes well, in a few years I’ll have a lot of berries. Of course then I’ll have to figure out how to keep the birds away. I’m hoping that writing about the garden will bring it luck. Silly.

It’s Snowtime!

Snow Globe

I originally wanted to call this ‘The Son of a B!t*h is Done @ I F&%king Hate Crafts,’ but thankfully a more civilized mood has returned. This was a simple project to create a beautiful snow globe well before the holiday season and which, at mid-January, is now as finished as it will ever be. My plan was to create a snow globe with a snowflake inside. The snowflake was to have interior cut-outs through which the snow could pass to and fro. For this I purchased Sculpey, a product which has served me well through all my children’s insane projects. First, I tried to cut out the snowflake using an Exacto knife, however, the result looked as if I had used a machete on the thing— Sculpey can be surprisingly difficult to manipulate. Then I had brilliant idea: I would purchase small snowflake cookie cutters. Everything went well, except for some unforeseen physics problems. The first was a gross misunderstanding of the magnifying power of water resulting in Godzilla’s snowflake. There were other difficulties as well: ‘snow’ that gathered at the top— casting an ominous shadow on the overgrown snowflake, errant air bubbles, general kitchen destruction, I could go on. If it wasn’t for the possibility of the glass cutting me, I would have crushed the thing with my bare hands. Okay. Fine. I made a little pillow with the Sculpey— you can sort of see it in the photo— and planted a lilliputian glass ornament in the center. I sealed this up using glitter, as I had gone through the entire package of snow during the ‘testing’ phase, and skipped the glycerin because I suspected it played a role in the earlier gravity-defiant snow. Amazingly, I did not get a bubble this time— although one may yet still develop. Practically perfect in every way. Except that the glitter settles so quickly, I almost gave myself a seizure trying to photograph it. And so, wishing everyone a lovely, if belated, holiday. Cheers.

Copyright © 2015 MRStrauss • All rights reserved

Cucumber

Cucumbers

Cucumber

When a small packet of heirloom cucumber seeds turns into this, you need more cucumber ideas. I have quite a few Asian and Greek inspired recipes so I needed something to go with other foods.

This is best made a few hours before serving. Start with this basic recipe and then see how it tastes. I usually end up adding a little more vinegar or sugar. You can also add chopped fresh dill or red pepper flakes for a different take. Or more garlic.

4 cucumbers, skins removed and seeds scooped out, thinly sliced

6 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons good tasting olive oil

2 teaspoons sugar

1 garlic clove, crushed or put through a garlic press

salt to taste

 Copyright © 2014 MRStrauss • All rights reserved