My first harvest and more signs of summer

I'm so excited, I had to share. I've harvested my first homegrown artichokes. They weren't very big, but they were yummy and a great taste of home. There are several chokes still growing along the main stem that I hope will be ready by the time we return from Wales at the end of the month. We have a wonderful neighbor who will come up every few days to make sure all my pots are watered, so there's hope!
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Our neighrbor is terrific. Our house sits in the center of a field, essentially, and we've gone through two lawn mowers trying to keep the grass under control. He comes up with a 1964 David Brown tractor with grass blades on it and in 15 minutes the grass has been subdued!
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Anyway, summer seems to have arrived in Ireland at last. There were reports during the week of temperatures reaching as much as 35C in the midlands. 35C is 95F to us Westerners! Pretty dang hot for Ireland. Down at our place, temps reached 76-78F on Wednesday. Just right for me!!
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Last Sunday we had an interesting experience. It was a scorcher of a day and were at home...doing the last minute tidy before mom's arrival next week! One of the dogs started barking, which drew our attention to the front of the property. In the front of our gate at the street was a man who looked like he was on safari...dressed in khaki, wellies and a pith helmet, and carrying binoculars, which were trained on our trees! My DH went out to see what the story was, and it turns out that Mr Safari was a member of a conservation group of birdwatchers, and he was going around the area making notes of which birds were around, including the migratory birds. He was watching our trees because he'd just spotted a bird that's rarely seen in this area!
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My DH invited Mr Safari to come off the road and take a walk onto our back property. It's located well off the road and is really wild. Mr Safari jumped at the chance. He finished his walking route to he river at the end of our road, then came back. He was only up there about ten minutes then came back to ask if he could come back with a friend and take some pictures. He said he wasn't back there five minutes and spotted TWO species of birds that have never been recorded in this area. He didn't say what they were, but he's coming back in July with a friend to spend a few hours on the back property to see whatelse they can find. This will be a really important find for local history, as it turns out. Our local bypass road was halted because of rare slugs in a woods they wanted to take down. If other rare and unusual species of wildlife are discovered, the whole bypass could be either completely rerouted or halted entirely.
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With the change in the seasons, we're still seeing a change in the flora. Our back yard has seen spreads of plantego change to spreads of shamrock to spreads of dandelions. Now we have spreads of meadow buttercups and germander speedwell. Speedwell is a very tiny blue flower so you don't normally see it unless you're on top of it, so yard was looking very yellow again. But the speedwell is really coming on this year and there are patches of blue everywhere.



Another plant that's common to damp areas, such as around our stream, is something called cow parsley. It's also known as Queen Anne's Lace and is a member of the carrot family. They're fairly prolific. Every summer we have to go into the stream and pull them out by hand. Some of them have stems on them as big as a mans wrist! But they're beautiful when they bloom.





We've also been seeing a large number of buff tailed bumblebees. I have a potted thyme that's kind of taken over the pot now and has really beautiful little blue flowers on it. The bumblebees seem to love it. By the looks of this one, the buttercups are a popular flower to feast on, too!

The Sweater Saga and a Choke Update

A couple years ago I participated in a Secret Santa gift giving program through the Irish Knitters Group on Ravelry. It was my first time doing something like this and really enjoyed it.

My secret pal, Aileen, sent me a lovely package that included fabulous pair of huge Fair Trade buttons. They're white ceramic that have been hand-painted with cobalt blue. Where the layers overlap it looks vaguly purply-teal. Really pretty, as you can see. But two buttons didn't seem like enough, so I bought a few more. Love em! I also bought some heart shaped ones in the same color and style, but that's another topic!
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Since receiving the package I've been looking for just the right yarn to make a cardigan where I could use the buttons. At the time, I had just been turned onto a yarn called Noro Silk Garden so I knew I'd use that, but what colorway? I found the "blue" (colorway 264B) looked the best with these buttons. I love Silk Garden, but it's a striping yarn. I didn't want to be covered in blue strips, so I decided I wanted to do a new stitch I'd learned called entrelac. Entrelac is a French term meaning interlacing or woven. The effect makes the resulting fabric look woven. It's done in short rows that come out looking like diamonds, and with this type of yarn, the diamonds look like they meld between color changes. And while I love the effect, I didn't want to be covered in what's essentially basket weave! So I decided that the entrelac would be along the hem and cuffs, which meant I needed a color for the body work.
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I'd originally chosen a wool, Debbie Bliss Luxury Donegal Tweed in a blue denim sort of color. I wasn't thrilled, but it was the best of my choices at the time. It worked up quickly and I had the back and both front panels done and started on one sleeve. Then I stopped. I didn't like how it was coming out. The wool was too stiff and I didn't like the texture. Silk Garden is 40% silk, 40% mohair and 20% lambs wool. It's relatively soft when worked up, and the 100% pure wool of the tweed just wasn't working for me.
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What else I didn't like about it was that I'd started with the entrelac hem and joined the tweed when I was ready to work the rest of the panels. but in doing so, it left big holes between the yarns where the joined. I thought I could live with it, but with the holes and the stiff wool, and the ugly side seams on the entrelac, I decided it wasn't working for me.
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So I ripped the whole thing out.
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Since then I've been looking for just the right yarn for the body and sleeves. The search went on for about 9 months. But as soon as I saw the yarn I wanted, I knew it was "the one" and couldn't not get it.
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The yarn is Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend in what I call Peacock Blue, but the company calls Orinoco Blue (colorway 2444). You can see here how well the colors go together. You can probably also see how they compliment each other in the first picture.
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I'm designing this cardigan myself so it's not just a labor of love, it's also a learning experience. I've written out the base of the pattern and am tweaking as I'm knitting. I'm using one of my favorite sweaters as a guideline for measurements, which helps.
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So now, after a month of mainly knitting at night over episodes of CSI, Fringe, and the rest, I've finally managed to get to a stopping point on the back panel. I'm knitting the cardigan from the top down this time, as the entrelac will join with the plain knitting better. And I've now started the first of the two front panels. When the time comes, I'll join the side seams and do the entrelac in one piece along the bottom.
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My current problem is making button holes big enough for these massive buttons!
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So...on which side do buttons go on a woman's cardigan!! ;-)
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~*~

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A little catch-up on the artichoke saga...




Choke 1 is the first one and is now about the size of a man's fist. The side leaves are starting to produce secondary blooms. I'm not sure when the top globe should be harvested, but I'm sure once it has been that the smaller ones will come on quickly.
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Choke 2 is about half the size of #1 and the leaves are starting to produce secondary blooms too.
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It's choke 3 that I'm worried about. Looks a bit like it's been watered with run off from Monty Burns's nuclear factory! At least it's blooming something.
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Now I just need to learn how to make my own mayo so that I can say I grew my own chokes and will eat them with my own mayo. But...does that mean I have to raise my own chickens so I can say I used my own eggs? I. Don't. Think. So! Gotta draw the line somewhere.
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Next project, hopefully this weekend, will be to plant the seed potatoes that are sprouted in the bag we carried them home in! I've got some purples in there. Should be interesting!

Result!

In my last post I said we were hoping for three out of three with our three artichoke plants. We've been really happy to see two of them sending up chokes. It's official now though. The third plant is sending up a choke, too! And the bonus, the first plant now also has two chokes coming up from the sides.

The first photo is the first chokes that came up. The first set of leaves below the globe have secondary chokes coming in now. Whoo hoo!!

The second picture is the second choke to procude.

And the third picture is, obviously, the third plant sending up a choke.

Result! Now we're back to suffering the anticipation until they're ready to harvest and EAT!

While I was out taking pictures I was also looking at the crabapple blossom. The buds are starting to open, but I'll hold off posting a photo until the tree is really impressive.

However, while I was looking at the flowers, I happened to notice some fluttering in the trees. There were about a dozen young goldfinches hoping from branch to branch.

They're SO cute. And the tiniest birds I've ever seen in the garden. When these birds are mature, their breast will be totally gold. At the moment, they just have a little gold patch, as you can see. And the red over the beak will eventually turn bright tomato read and completely encircle the beak.

The weather is not looking good for the next week. A storm is brewing in the North Atlantic and it's supposed to hit the hardest on Wednesday this next week. But we'll see how the weather really is. It's not like the weather service hasn't been wrong before.

Anticipation Pt 2, aka No Place Like Home

Yesterday I talked about the wildflowers coming up around our property, but I love gardening too. We're still sorting out our landscaping so nothing is in the ground yet, so there are pots all around the house. Mostly roses, lavender, a couple fig trees, a few saplings (sycamore, beech, oak, maple), hibiscus, and the ones I'm most proud of...artichokes.

I come from a part of Northern California where 99% of America's globe artichokes are grown in a small rural town called Castroville. I was raised about 15 minutes south of Castroville, but the artichoke fields spread for miles and miles. Castroville is home to the famous Artichoke Festival. And a little known fact outside of the community is that Marilyn Monroe was crowned the festivals first Artichoke Queen in 1948, back when she was known as Norma Jeane Mortenson!

Castroville is also famed for having the world's largest artichoke. OK, so it's made from concrete, rebar and a little paint, but it's damn big! And it marks where the door is into the Giant Artichoke Restaurant where they sell the world's best deep fried artichoke hearts...and just about everything else made with artichokes. When I was living back home, it was not uncommon for me to drive to Castroville on my lunch hour to get some artichoke hearts then drive back to work. 15 minutes there, 15 minutes back and still have 30 minutes to spare!

I love artichokes. It's not uncommon for me to steam up as many will fit into a giant pot and live off them for a few days. I love, love, love 'em!

Needless to say, moving to Ireland was a huge shock to my culinary system. Artichokes, while a common find in French supermarkets, are virtually unheard of in Ireland. They're a rare find. I've found them occasionally at farmer's markets where the vendor imports their organic vegetables from France, but in the supermarkets? Not a hope. And again, needless to say, I buy as many as I can afford! At an average of €5 each, it's hard to justify paying €20 for four chokes. They're a treat though, and people pay up to €10 for a dessert in an average restaurant here. So... (mangia, mangia...as the Italians say...eat, eat!) You only live once, right? And it's only money!

Last year when my father and his lady friend of 20+ years visited us again, we took them to a great farmer's market in Bantry, Co Cork. It's the biggest farmer's market in Ireland that I've been to. They have stalls for just about everything. One day I'll blog about it, but on this particular visit, one of the stall owners had starter plants for globe artichokes! I bought three and immediately brought them home and babied the hell out of them until I could get them into some big pots. I was really worried that the winter was going to kill them off. It's much colder and icy and occasionally snowy here than in Castroville. But they survived! And now they want to spread out in the worst way. I know they need to go into the ground so I need to get my act together and get the ground prepared.

But lo and behold. One of the three little beauties sent up a bud. Really, artichokes are just prickly flowers, but it's hard to call them a flower when we eat them before they have a change to blossom. I don't care though. They're wonderful to eat. Steamed. With a little Gilroy garlic. And masses of home made mayo!

This one here has grown to the size of a small peach, but it's still very young.

And then...then...a second plant is sending up a bud! I'm so excited. And this newfound anticipation is about to kill me.

From what I understand, these first chokes, which grow up right from the top center, are the globes. These are the biggest on the plant. Once these are harvested, the plant continues to grow and sends out several smaller chokes from around the edges. I never realized before, but artichokes have two harvests...the globe and then the rest.

So now, as we watch and baby these two little wonders, we're keeping our eyes on the third plant and hoping for three out of three.

And they'll be all mine when they're harvested, as my husband doesn't care for them! ;-)

There may be no place like home, but it's quite possible to get a taste of home occasionally.

PS...Last weekend at a local garden center I found French artichoke starter plants and picked up three of those too. This variety sends up purple chokes. Not as big, but hey, they're PURPLE!