Sweet Potato Slips week # 7

The slips have been left in a sunny spot in the kitchen bay window...

The potatoes have formed strong roots and many slip starts.

Most slips were above the water line and haven't formed roots. The slips pop off easily and are placed in jars of water to form roots of their own.

Some of the slips have already formed roots.

We will place the slips in jars of water, and put them back in the sunny window. It will take a few more weeks until planting time.

Tilled

Freshly tilled and ready to plant...

Chomping on Chives

The chives in the greenhouse have been up for about a month... I always look forward to this tasty spring treat! Along the base of the chives...volunteer Heirloom Forellenschluss lettuce has come up.

The garden chives are about 3 weeks behind the greenhouse chives....We will soon be harvesting these too!

And on a Happy Note... Garlic has decided to spring up too!

Early Spring Harvest

The mache' was planted last Fall and overwintered in the cold frames. Mache' is extremely cold tolerant  and survived numerous sub zero winter days.

There is something about tromping out in the snow...cracking open a cold frames and seeing something green and beautiful growing in the depths of Winter...Fast forward to early Spring and Mache' is worth the wait.

We love it tossed in an everyday green salad.

First day of Spring

I've waited all Winter for this day!

Little Sprouts

Running out of room inside the house with the seed trays placed precariously everywhere...We decided to rig up a makeshift hothouse inside the greenhouse with plastic to help keep the starts protected from the cold and any surprise frosts that may occur. 

The heater is placed below the shelving and left on through the night, on the lowest setting. This has kept the starts snug as little bugs.

Tomato and pepper sprouts were outgrowing the seed starting trays and have been transplanted into small pots,

 and placed back inside the hothouse.

Also started are trays of Thunbergia, Petunia, Broccoli, Cauliflower,

Cabbage, Spinach, Onion, Leek and Marigolds.

Kitchen Renovation Finished

It  has taken us a couple of years to complete this kitchen project...

When I look back at this kitchen, I have such good memories of raising my family here and making do with what we had at the time. We upgraded our plastic utility sink to this retro metal cabinet sink that we had found on a local radio show called Jobline Swap and Shop...

It was a show where people called in, advertising their junk for sale....way back before Craigslist was ever thought of! 

The old Cabinet and sink needed some lovin' but we seen the potential. Troy went to work sanding it down and painting it red. It was a step up from that plastic utility sink and it served us well, as we continued to raise our family.

As time went on, we found that we really needed counter space and wanted to start  kitchen renovations. We found this Stainless Steel,  triple basin sink and counter combo on Craig's List. Rescued from an old Bakery.

I know what your thinking...A little cold and Industrial, but yet again we saw potential. The sink fit perfect and seemed to be made just for us.

Troy went to work turning the sink into a built in.

We repurposed old doors and turned them into cabinet doors for the bottom half of the kitchen. Having this counter space has been amazing. The "HUGE" triple basin sinks are out of this world when it comes to harvest time, canning, treating laundry and doing the dishes!

Recently we set out to replace the old temporary shelving, that turned out to be... not so temporary! While originally the shelves were for temporary use until we could afford to buy real cabinetry, we found that we really loved the open shelving concept. The longer the shelves were up the more we were convinced that we would like to keep them that way.

So out with the yucky, old, chippy, melamine boards.

 In with the new real wood shelves and wainscotting.

And finally after 16 years of various stages of progress...My kitchen is complete!

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home....and that rings true for my little country kitchen and vintage treasures!

 I am in LOVE... and full of Gratitude to finally have this project complete!