Sewing, stitching, baking, cooking, gardening, shopping and general homemaking.

Saturday 8 May 2010

Lettuce Leaves & Bean Sprouts

I'm really pleased with the mixed lettuce seedling pot I bought at the garden centre.  It cost £1.25 and I've already had my money's worth from it.  Some is in the portable grow bag outside my backdoor and some is in the ground in my veg plot.  It's growing amazingly fast even though the weather is still cold and wet.
It's a lovely feeling that I'm already getting produce from my garden.
Another thing I'm doing that I haven't done since the 1970s is sprout some beans in a jar
A couple more days and these will be ready to use.  Doing this was very popular in the 1970s but I got out of the habit of doing it myself.  I've used Mung beans here, it amazes me that the dried beans from the supermarket are still viable.  I think it was Peggy or it might have been Nic who said one of their fellow allotment holders recommended using dried peas instead of the relatively expensive packets from the garden centre (not for sprouting, for growing).  I'm also growing Mooli radish that will be good for stir frying too but they won't be ready for a while yet.
I have been doing some sewing.  The pincushion swap with Tiny Treasures Exchange Too blog is ready to go, I just need to buy a postcard to send with it, I always forget this bit.  And I'm part way through making yet another project bag and accessories, it's always good to have a few of these made, I just never know when I'll need one!!!  Wish I'd kept count of how many I've made altogether.  The doll house miniature hutch/dresser challenge I'm supposed to be in isn't coming on so well, I can see me dropping out of this, I just can't get going with it.  Never mind, it's not often I drop out of anything.  I've got another challenge coming up soon with the Yahoo handstitching group I'm in, it's to make a decorated sewing box.
I'm feeling a bit fed up with the weather, the continual news about the election and the fact that my dog isn't very well.  He fell down stairs a couple of weeks ago and broke two of his claws off, it was really bad and since then he's just not been right, now he has a chest infection, poor old man, he's 14 and starting to feel his age.  By this time of year I've usually been to our caravan in Norfolk but with one thing and another we still haven't been.

3 comments:

Peggy said...

Hi Ann, I am back online again!Things just got hectic for a week or so and sitting at the computer was not high on my list of priorities.You have been keeping busy too by the photos!Sprouting beans seems to come in and out of fashion, it is not something I have tried but I know there are stalls at the farmer's markets laden down with them.I spent Sunday afternoon down the caravan, fell asleep on the deck chair and got sunburned on my face!I did not think the sun was that warm as there was a cold breeze blowing.Some of the mobile homes further up on the site suffered a lot of water damage when the water was turned on after the winter, some of the pipes had cracked during the frost.We were OK TG.

nic @ nipitinthebud said...

yes I remember hearing that Ann but haven't tried it yet as I work my way through my seed stash.
I've never had much luck with sprouting - they usually start fermenting before they're ready, especially chick peas. The smell is rather off putting!

nic @ nipitinthebud said...

ps. ouch, your doggy's tumble sounds painful. I bet he's being very brave. Sending him lots of love and soothing strokes x x x