Portola Redwoods

This weekend Matt and I teamed up with Ian and Erin to hike in Portola Redwoods State Park.  This park is one of our favorites, and we made a 5 mile loop by connecting several trails.  We started on the Sequoia Nature Trail, then turned onto Iverson Trail to see Tiptoe Falls, then connected to Summit trail, then to Slate Creek Trail, and finally to Old Tree Trail.  Of course, there were lots of gorgeous redwood groves and plenty of banana slugs.

Tiptoe Falls, Portola Redwoods SP

sprouting

I've been experimenting with sprouting things in our kitchen lately.  It's remarkably easy.  This week, I've sprouted chickpeas and green lentils: just soak overnight, drain the following morning, and rinse 2-3 times a day for the next few days.  It helps if you have a sprouting jar, and I keep mine inverted over a towel during the day.  We've been enjoying our sprouts as a quick snack or in salads:

sprouting chickpeas

I planted a few chickpea sprouts as an experiment

sprouted lentil and chickpea salad

Sprouted lentil and chickpea salad

(This is a variation on one of our favorite chickpea salads.)

16 oz chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1-2 cups freshly sprouted green lentils

1 large garlic clove, minced

1/2 red onion, finely diced

1 celery heart with leaves, diced

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

3-4 tablespoons champagne vinegar

red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

Directions: combine all ingredients, adding more champagne vinegar, oil, and red pepper flakes as you like.  Enjoy!

Tales of backyard gardening

Matt and I have been contemplating how to deal with our squirrel problem in the backyard for several weeks now. The discussion was heightened with the sighting of a baby bunny eyeing our newly-planted veggies on Easter Sunday. So while we were at OSH yesterday, we hatched an idea for how to keep our plants safe and un-eaten: a massive anti-critter cage to protect our vegetable planters. The project took most of the weekend and no less than 7 total trips to the hardware store. It was worth it!

First, we went to the nursery and bought some delectable baby lettuces and a few new succulents to add to our collection. We also bought a couple new planters since the zucchinis are growing fast and need more space. Here's Matt modifying the planters with drainage holes:

Once the planters were ready, we transplanted the zucchinis, planted the lettuce, potted the succulents, moved the garlics, moved the dill, started a flat of bell pepper seedlings, and planted more flat-leaf parsley. There was another trip to OSH in there for more pots, as well. We made sure to take a break for bubble tea in the midst of the gardening blitz:

Next, we measured and drew up a couple of plans for how to build the anti-critter cage. We settled on PVC piping and plastic netting as the easiest and least-expensive option. So on Sunday, we made the first of many trips to OSH to gather materials. The assembly was actually quite easy. Matt measured and cut everything to size, thanks to a super handy new pipe-cutting tool we picked up:

Next we assembled everything:

And checked the fit to make sure it would be the right size for our planters:

Finally, we painted it and attached the netting:

And finally, the finished product:

We are quite pleased with the results!  Next, we may have to build a separate cage for the tomatoes.

All in all, our garden is shaping up for the summer quite nicely. So far we have:

6 red leaf lettuces
6 green leaf lettuces
2 very large zucchini plants
6 soybean vines
2 pickling cucumbers
4 pepper varieties (yellow bell, miniature red, chocolate bell, red bell)
2 tomatoes (one cherry, one heirloom)
6 flat-leaf parsleys
1 fern-leaf dill
1 lavender
1 fennel
3 strawberries (freebies from last year)
6 flat-leaf parsley
1 very frisky regular parsley (which has recently sent up a huge stalk and is about to flower)
1 rosemary
7 basils
1 mint
1 passion fruit vine
1 navel orange tree
1 avocado tree
and many, many sprouting garlics

With any luck, we will thwart the local squirrel and rabbit populations and actually get to enjoy some garden-fresh produce this year!

(new baby lettuce)

(the passion fruit vine flowering)

(sprouting garlics)

Cataract Trail

This weekend Matt and I met up with Hope and her dog, Dewey, to hike Cataract trail up in Marin.  The hike was punctuated by a very angry rattlesnake who tried to bite Hope's dog, but luckily we all escaped unharmed.   This out-and-back hike follows Cataract creek, which winds through a beautiful mossy forest and eventually plummets roughly 1,100 ft in about a mile to reach Alpine Lake.  The return trip can be pretty steep in sections, but it's good training for our upcoming trip to climb Mt Washington!

Butano State Park

Today we explored Butano State Park near Pescadero, CA.  Matt predicted in the car that we could see 13 banana slugs, a fairly high number compared to the other hikes we've been on recently.  After 10 minutes of hiking and counting, we quickly spotted lucky number 13, so Matt revised his estimate to 50.  When we spotted our 50th not long after that, he revised the estimate to 100, as a joke.  Then he had to re-revise to 200, as a joke.  And then to 400 slugs, also as a joke.  On our 3 hour hike, the final count came in at a whopping 436 banana slugs!!  At certain spots, there were so many banana slugs that we were calling them off by the second.  We also spotted 11 rough-skinned California newts (less impressive than 436, but still a lot of newts). The hike itself was absolutely beautiful -- lots of mossy redwoods and picturesque views along Butano Creek.  The park was almost all ours today, making the hike that much more enjoyable.  We plan on going back as soon as possible for more hiking and camping.

Roasted Peeps

I finally decided that my plan to build a fire pit out of discarded (or possibly still being used by someone??) bricks at the elementary school behind our house was a bad idea, so I broke down and bought one. And thanks to an Easter care package from my parents, we happened to have some peeps in the house. What to do? Clearly skewer and roast them. The granulated sugar on the outside caramelizes into a nice hard shell around the gooey center. Yum!!

Happy Easter!!!

Mango salad!

The sun is out, Matt is firing up the grill, and it's time for mango salad!

Ingredients:

1-2 champagne mangos, diced
2 pickling cucumbers, skinned and diced
1 avocado, cubed
1/2 red onion, diced
3-4 tablespoons (or one big handful) of cilantro, chopped
zest and juice from 2 limes
2-3 tbsp crushed peanuts
a few shakes of red pepper flakes

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients, top with crushed peanuts and a few leaves of cilantro.  Goes well with a frosty margarita and a sun-drenched afternoon.