My seed starting station. Celeriac sprouted their true leaves and were potted up accordingly. Celery has just germinated, I had to wait for my seeds so they're slightly behind their celeriac 'siblings' we'll call them. Petunias are almost ready to pot up and we're waiting on ground cherries and peppers to make an appearance. I have lots of leeks and red onions started, the rest of the onions will be direct seeded in the garden. I started a few cabbage, broccoli and kohlrabi plants indoors to see how they'll do planted out in the cold frame. That's about it for now. I won't be starting my tomatoes for a little bit yet and I'll be starting a few more things for early transplants. I also fully planted my second cold frame over the weekend with lots of spinach, a few pea plants, lots of radishes, bok choy, tatsoi, mizuna, mustard greens and various lettuces. I then covered the seeds with a row cover like the other cold frame which will help keep in heat and moisture, aiding in germination. 

I am super lucky to have some red onions left over from last year. Perfect timing for salad season. I kind of saved them since we don't eat a lot of raw foods during the cold winter months and I mostly use red onions raw. 

Potting up Chinese cabbage seedlings, desperate for homegrown greens! I'll be able to move these outdoors sooner than later as long as the weather co-operates. You can usually get away with planting Chinese cabbage closer together than traditional cabbage plants, they do not seem to mind any crowding. 

I planted my cold frame on Saturday and covered it with a layer of agribon, AKA row cover. I planted the same seeds around the overwintered crops of arugula, kale, kohlrabi, bok choy and mâché. I planted new lettuce and radishes, maybe even something else I'm forgetting. I need to plant my other cold frame today that will contain mostly spinach and other greens. I'll plant lots of spinach since I rarely plant any in the main garden in the spring. Spinach just doesn't love the heat. 

The cold frames aren't the only things enjoying the sun, Boris was catching some rays all morning. 

Parsley.

I can never grow enough parsley. I use it a lot in cooking, as a garnish and as a snack. I eat the green leaves whenever I'm tooling around the garden. I grow both curly and flat leaf varieties, loving them both for different reasons. Did you know parsley is much more than just a garnish? It's sometimes referred to as the healthiest herb due to it's nutritional content. Parsley is a very good source of fiber, vitamins A, C and K, folate, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, copper and manganese. Parsley is also a good source of vitamin e, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, niacin, pantothenic acid, phosphorus, zinc and protein. It's delicious too and hardly lives up to it's 'just a garnish' reputation. Try topping all your meals with fresh parsley. Grow a plant in your flower garden, a container on your deck or in your garden. It's a fairly compact plant if you harvest it often. 

Once my boyfriend has enough time to, he's going to build us a new kitchen table. We have the wood set aside, it's some of the hardwood we prepped ourselves. When we do I'm not going to allow myself to do this. The kitchen table is a great spot for projects, it's not so great when it takes forever to clear the table to eat. As a holistic nutrition consultant I tell all my clients to eat at the table with your loved ones. I need to make my kitchen table an easy spot to sit and eat and stop covering it in my projects. 

Hope Seeds.

I received some hope in the mail today, my order came in from Hope Seeds. Time to start some celery to join the celeriac and other early seedlings. It's a super sunny day for seed starting and daydreaming about spring. 

Fresh Baked Bread

Fresh baked sourdough bread. Going Wordless Wednesday on a Friday here. 

Baker's Dozen

Just a Quick Note....

In case anyone is waiting for the word GO from me here, I'll be planting some seeds in my cold frame as soon as I can get into it. We're expecting rain this weekend, that will likely be my first chance in some time to get into the cold frames. Both are impossible to get into right now due to all the snow. I can see into one quite well and there's actually a couple of lettuce seeds that have germinated, even though it's quite early for them, which was surprising. 

There has to be at least two feet of snow still on the garden here, I'm sure not complaining though. Why? Because I have cross country skis and our skiing days are winding down. Often we're able to ski into April, you never know though how long the snow will last and have to make the most of it while it lasts. 

These took about five minutes to dry. Cold and dry, dry, dry day here. My lips are chapped from two days of walking my dog in these temperatures. 

Strange Egg

Slightly hard to tell by the picture, the egg in the middle is almost twice the size of the others. We get odd eggs every once in awhile and I'm suspecting this one of being a double-yolker. 

How to Reduce Plastic Use in the Kitchen.

For environmental and health reasons, plastics aren't welcome in my home. We try our very best to keep plastics at an absolute minimum.  When you become aware of how many plastics are in your home, it becomes easier to eliminate them. I try not to buy anything made from plastic and could list off the things in my home that are made from plastic. 

When I talk to my client's about reducing their plastic use in the kitchen, most respond that this seems to be quite the difficult task when really it's just about changing your habits and how you think. Once you know some tricks for eliminating plastics it's quite easy. 

Use glass, stainless steel or ceramic plates and containers instead! When cutting a lime or lemon in half and you only need one half you HAVE to wrap the second half in plastic wrap to keep it from drying out right? Nope! Simply place the cut end of any fruit or vegetable down on a plate and place in the fridge. This method has an added bonus, when I used to wrap partially used fruit and veg in plastic wrap it would always get pushed to the back of the fridge and lost. That is until you find it when you clean out the fridge a week later and find it's gone to waste. With the piece of fruit or veg on a plate in the fridge, it's harder to get lost and more likely to be used. Leave the peel on the outside of the fruit and veg, a natural way to keep things fresh. 

Use dishes you already have to store food. 

Almost any mixing bowl fits a large plate as a lid. It's airtight too since most plates fits right into most bowls. 

It works with little bowls with little saucers too. 

As well as jars with little bowls or little mugs in the top. Canning jar lids contain BPA and that's why I keep their use to a minimal if I use them at all. 

Use glass containers with glass lids. You could even wrap two rubber bands over the top of this container and be able to take it on the road or in your lunch. 

For lunches you can also buy glass containers with BPA free plastic lids, although it's questionable how much safer the BPA free plastic lids are. Other portable options include cloth bags for dry food items like trail mix, stainless steel lunchboxes and containers (available readily online and in specialty stores, may be expensive initially to buy but in my experience stainless steel is for life) and glass storage containers. Glass storage containers are actually somewhat trendy lately too and easily and readily available. 

I love shopping from small seed companies. You get quality seeds at great prices from people who care. I loved this personal touch included on my bill. I can't wait to try my new squash seeds suggested to me by http://gardeningbren.blogspot.ca/

Ice Art

I shoveled off the face of the cold frame to catch some rays and at the end of the day I got to witness this cool pattern formed in ice on the glass. 

Kinda neat how it resembles a plant or tree growing, to me anyway.  

My humble home sweet home. 

The yard, sheds and cold frames.