Garden Diary Powered by Conifers

Today's Agenda

Who's ready to see a video featuring every conifer in the above photos. Well that's what's coming today.

The list of trees, minus about 20 more on that coming soon, has arrived and these are the first photos from this breaking news story.

The Leaves, The Leaves are on Fire

Several green leafed Japanese maples in the beginning of their spring display.

A Snake in the Herbs

Would you like some snake with your chives?

This is not only the time of year when plants wake up but also snakes. Where there are lizards and mice, typically in gardens, there will be snakes. It's that whole food chain thing in action.

The Truck Has Left the Building

For the last two months I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a large freight shipment of conifers and Japanese maples. Now, the time has come for them to arrive. The delivery is scheduled for Sunday.

The above video is the last update that will give some of the back story on this ongoing project.

The list of trees now on the move.

You Can Do It

A pep talk for all new gardeners.

Tri-Color Tortellini with Roasted Peppers and Ricotta

I've talked about Lazzaroli's Pasta before but do your self a favor and find out if there is a local fresh pasta shop in your city.

Spring Report

Another Japanese maple is about to burst out with beautiful spring color. This tree is a bit of a mystery tree but I believe it to be an Acer shirasawanum.

Time to Grab the Fertilizer

With spring here it's time to help our plants with a little fertilizer.

Arakawa By a Leaf

Yesterday my Korean maple was the maple in the lead to be the first to leaf out but what a difference a day makes. Now, Acer palmatum 'Arakawa' has rushed ahead. Considered a rough bark Japanese maple 'Arakawa' is already showing some awesome pink and green colors.

Garden Diary

New garden diary featuring a new garden helper, new maples, and old conifers.

New Tractor

More on this new tractor this evening, but a sneak-peak at my latest garden helper.

B-Day Dinner

A big thank you for all the happy birthday wishes yesterday. The above was my birthday dinner and to answer the big question......yes, I cooked the meal.

Save the Lemon

Forget the lemon on the side of the ice tea glass. See the lemons true power with this video recipe for preserved lemons.

Lemon Love

The lemon is truly a powerful food. Sitting on the lip of a glass of ice tea or it's zest used in a cake it's uses are many.

But what about the more complex uses for this culinary dynamo? Next week I'll be featuring some video recipes on the lemon including preserved lemons and fried lemons.

And in an unrelated note, a wintry mix does not make for good weather. Winter mix almost sounds like a cocktail, a better name might be horrible ice and sleet pellets mixed with penetrating freezing rain.

Bring on the Bees

The peach blossoms are starting to open wide and now they're just waiting to be pollinated.

Fruit trees are susceptible to many pest, they like the fruit as much as we do, and I'll be putting together a video on how to deal with some of these pest and problems through out the year.

Not a 30-Minute Meal

Welcome to a brand new segment, "Not a 30-minute meal". In this first edition we make a fantastic Tandoori chicken and get some help from flowers in the kitchen.

Garden Diary

Spring and garlic make for great gardening and cooking in this weeks garden diary.

Sauce-y

Have you ever bought a book that no matter how many times you thumb through it you seem to find something new?

For me this book is Sauces by James Peterson. When ever I'm looking to come up with a new idea or tweak a recipe I find a gem of inspiration in it's pages.

Winter is a tough time for me from a culinary perspective because I draw so much of my creative inspiration from growing plants in the vegetable garden and during the lean winter months having another source of inspiration is very welcomed.

Spring is Here

Well, at least spring garlic is here. I pulled up some of the first nice shoots of young garlic.

Last year I left some garlic bulbs in the ground and allowed them to flower. Those flowers then turned to seeds and now I have these new young garlic as a result.

They are delicious after a quick blanch and shock in ice water and then a quick saute in olive oil and finished with lemon zest and salt.

Chorizo Tomato Sauce

For those unfamiliar with chorizo it is a fantastic sausage that originates from Spain and has migrated throughout Latin America. It can be found fresh or cured, and paprika is one of the main spices used when mixing the ground pork to be made in to chorizo. Paprika has not been elevated to the same level of culinary greatness in this country as it has in Spain, but I can promise you the difference in quality between a good sweet or smoked paprika from Spain and the one that is found in the spice section of the mega-mart is huge.

I was in the mood for a pasta dish and with some fresh chorizo in the fridge the idea of adding it to my standard long cook tomato sauce seemed like a good idea. I can now report to you after 143 spoon tastings, it was in fact a very good idea.

In this Pot

Today in the kitchen I'm giving the video gear a break and working with my sidekick on home-made cheese. Yes, that's right you can make all kinds of cheese at home.

Deep in the above pot is a pool of curds just waiting to be turned into delicious fresh cheese. In the coming weeks I've decided to do a few video recipes about making cheese at home.

Avocado Cream

The deliciousness that is avocado cream on your monitor.