2013 Spotsylvania Farmers Market- Visit 2

I love going to the Farmers Market.  Getting fresh fruits and veggies and knowing where it comes from is always a good thing.

My mom met me at the Farmers Market because she wanted to check it out and see what they had today.

First, we walked around to see what each farmer had so we could see what fruits and veggies we wanted to get.  There was lots of squash, beets, cabbage and onions.

The beets looked awesome.  I'm not a beet person so I didn't get any.  The colors were so vibrant.  (hard to see in the picture)  They were reddish orange and the purplish color.

Here's some zukes and squash.

Yummy strawberries.  The farmer said strawberry season was just about over and this was all she had left.  She said she knew she would sell all of them as well.  I hope she did.  You could smell them as you approached the booth.  MMMMM....fresh berries.  :)

Peas in a pod  :)

Freshly dug up potatoes.  I hope my potato plants produce great looking potatoes like these.

More squash from another farmer.  The squash towards the top of the picture were a mustard yellow.  I'd never seen squash that color before.

Some more pictures of produce....

Fresh carrots.....

Red and white onions

Multicolored Cauliflower

So, I spent $16.40 in total for my Farmers Market goodies

The awesome goods.....

Fresh blueberries....that I will probably use for a cake I made before.

Carrot bunch.....I'm thinking of using on Sunday for my, Creamy White Bean and Bacon Soup.

Freshly dug potatoes......

Fresh Asparagus.....

Delicious ripened strawberries.....

I plan on cutting up for a strawberry short cake for dessert tonight

A big and bright red tomato.  I already used for BLT's tonight.  :)

My mom got some lettuce, and 2 containers of strawberries.

Garden Update: Day 103

After watering my garden this morning....I took some pictures because I saw some things I wanted to take pictures of.

Here's my beautiful garden outside.....

I noticed a cute little lady bug crawling around my potato leaves.  :)

I looked closely at the plants because my little sister told me once the potato plant gets flowers then potatoes will be ready to dig up.  There are tiny little buds but no blooms yet so I think it's getting closer.  It will be exciting to see if there are potatoes in there.

I made a target trip earlier, and I overheard a young lady talking to a young target worker and was telling him about growing your own potatoes from a potato.  I stopped and had to say something.  LOL  I told them that I've done it and so far it's working.  We talked about it and I also told the young lady how you could grow celery from a celery base as well.  I told her to go onto Pinterest and she'll find everything on there.  She laughed and they both thought it was cool that my potato plants are growing.  I told them even if I only get 1 potato it will still be cool because I grew it and they agreed.  :)

Anyways, back to the garden......

My zukes have a huge yellow blossom.  YEY!  Some of the other blossoms that haven't popped yet fell off.  They seem to be very delicate.

Here's a freshly watered zuke leafy with water droplets.

Inside after being watered I took a picture of my inside garden.

I noticed my grape tomatoes now have two yellow blooms.  :)

I also checked on my bluebird box and there are 3 baby bluebirds hatched.  They are so brand new and the other 3 eggs haven't hatched yet.  Mother Nature is awesome!

My Dads Garden and the 2013 Cicadas

I was off work today and I spent some time at my parents.  My dad was excited to show me his garden and I took a bunch of pictures for him so he could e-mail them out to my Grandparents and his siblings.

The other day my dad saw a strawberry plant growing.  He hadn't planted it but he was excited that it was growing.

The little pinkish reddish blossoms are the berries.  :)

Here's a full view of my dads garden.  He got flowers, carrots, squash, zukes and tomatoes growing.  I gave him some of the seeds I had left that I didn't plant.

Here's a small pink rose bush my mother had my dad plant for her.

More pictures of the veggies....

Tomatoes

Carrots

My dad also mentioned his bluebird eggs have hatched.  If you look real close you can see the mother bird poking her head out of the bluebird box.  :) 

If you live on the East Coast then you know it's the year of the 17 year Cicadas.  I love these bugs!  They are awesome to listen to and the flutter around all funny.  I think they are cool.

These cicadas are mating.  These particular cicades come up every 17 years to mate, lay eggs and then die and it starts over again in 17 years.

I took a video of the sound.  So, if you'd like to hear what Cicadas sound like here you go.  The more trees around you (like at my parents) the louder it is.  I like when one that's close by does its mating calls.  It makes me smile every time because it's just funny sounding.

Garden Update: Day 100

Today, is my Garden update: 100!

Here's my Garden outside. 

I have potatoes, big boy tomatoes, zukes, squash, marigolds and a little rose plant.

My recycled milk jugs that I did last year for watering needed to be replaced.  The handle cracked and all the water was pouring out.  I just took a empty jug after the milk was gone and washed it out real good then put the old cap on the new jug.  All fixed.  :)  I re-potted some of the big boy tomatoes b/c they needed more room.  I also staked them with my skewers and cable ties to keep them straight.

My marigolds are doing great.  I think I might get a bigger mairgold plant next weekend b/c this plant doesn't look like it's going to get much bigger.  Marigolds are great companions for tomatoes.

Here's a close up of my zukes that are coming in.

Now inside.......

These are the grape tomatoes that I grew from the seeds of grape tomatoes.

As I was watering the plant I noticed something......................

A yellow tomato flower.  :)  Yey!!  It's the first one and it's a good sign that I will soon have tomatoes.

I re-potted my red pepper plant.  It's getting really big. :)  I hope I get peppers.

My carrots keep growing.  Lots of beautiful green leaves.

I decided that the strawberries weren't going to grow.  :(  I dumped them into the compost pile. 

Front flower bed:

Here's my daisies that come back every year.

My first daisy popped today.  YEY!!!  :)

Here's my star gazer lillies getting ready to bloom.  :)

Amish Friendship Muffins

A few weeks ago, I made Amish Friendship Bread from a starter bag I got from my friend, Crystal.  I saved a starter bag and I let the bag do it's thing for 10 days so I could have another mix to make again.

Today, I decided to make muffins instead of a bread loaf.  I made 12 regular muffins.  Then with the leftover over batter in the bowl, I mixed in some chocolate chips and some of my homemade vanilla extract.  

The muffins came out perfectly and taste so good.  Nate and I really like the added flavor from the chocolate chips and homemade vanilla extract.  :)

Here's a picture of the two different muffins.  The one on the left is the plain friendship muffin and the one on the right is the mini muffin with the chocolate chips.

For this one I didn't save any starters.  I can't keep making this every 10 days.  It def could take over your kitchen.  LOL

38th Annual Richmond Greek Festival 2013

Yesterday, after work I drove down to RVA to my sisters place so we could check out the 38th Annual Greek Festival.  I've never been and it sounded fun.

It was a hot and humid summer like day where the skies were blue and the fluffy clouds were all about.

See a picture to prove it....  :)

Ella waken up....she had to be fed before we left.  Love her!  She's so cute.  Yes, Kristen she's wearing one of the outfits you bought her.  :)

We got a close spot near the front of the church.  Which was nice b/c I didn't want to walk a ton of blocks in flip flops in the heat.  LOL

Welcome to the Greek Festival.....

First up....We went to the Ala Carte Tent and got food.

We then picked up drinks (lemonade) and found a place to sit and eat.

I got the Souvlaki (chicken kabob) with rice pilaf and baklava.  

Ashley got Spanakopita.  (Spinach and cheese)  

My kabob was good and I loved the rice.  Ashley let me try her food and the spinach filled spanakopita was really good.  I loved it. :)

The baklava....I like the flaky part but not the middle part.  I officially do not like baklava.

There was live music and dancing.  Here's some kids dressed up dancing.  As we were walking past the stage to go look inside I told Ashley the kids dressed up reminded me of the Full House Greek episode and we both started laughing.  :)

Ella was asleep the whole time....I grabbed a sticker for my rainman book at the front table as we walked in. 

There was lots of baked goods, jewelry, t-shirts and paintings inside the church.

Here's a pretty painting of a peacock.

I love the Greek scene.  I picked up a bottle of Olive Oil from the Dimitri Olive Farms booth.  I tried some and it was awesome so I decided to buy a bottle.  I wonder how hard it is to make yourself??  hmmmmmmm  :)

I peeked inside the sanctuary before we left.  It was very beautiful.  

We went to a tent to get some Loukoumades (Greek donuts) to take home.  Ashley said these were really good and she was right.  They were delicious.

Here's some being made....

Here's some other pictures....

Here's my jar of olive oil.  :)

I can't wait to use it.  :)  

After the Greek Festival, we went to Target for a few things then cooled off back at Ashley's.  Then I treated Ashley to dinner at Mimi's Cafe.  Good times!  :)

June is....

June is APS Awareness Month.  APS stands for Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome.  June 9th is APS Day!  I have APS.  You can learn more or make a donation at APSFA.ORG.   

APS is associated with recurrent clotting events (thrombosis) including premature stroke, repeated miscarriages, phlebitis, venous thrombosis (clot in the vein) and pulmonary thromboembolism (blockage of an artery found in the lung due to a clot that has traveled from a vein). It is also associated with low platelet or blood elements that prevent bleeding. Recently, however, even more disease states have been linked with APL including premature heart attack, migraine headaches, various cardiac valvular abnormalities, skin lesions, abnormal movement/chorea, diseases that mimic multiple sclerosis, vascular diseases of the eye that can lead to visual loss and blindness.