Deborah’s Blog – Page 19 – The Gourmet Farm Girl

When I was growing up on the farm I remember my mother having a strawberry patch. I was very young and what I remember the most about picking berries was her telling me to watch out for snakes! Not the fact that the berries were super sweet and delicious…just the fact that there could be a snake in the patch. I never did see one, and even if I had it would of only been a little garter snake.

I miss not having such luxuries as a strawberry patch, so this year I decided to start one. I purchased some plants and placed them in pots on the porch until I’m ready to transplant them to a bed. This morning I brought one inside and I picked my first crop of berries for my bowl of cereal. Truly one of life’s greatest pleasures….

ENJOY your day!

The Gourmet Farm Girl

Homegrown Berries… Read More »

With the nice weather for the past two weekends, I have been able to get the garden planted.

I have added another 4×8 bed and have plans for two more of the same size.

The Salad and Herb Garden is coming

along nicely…this was planted earlier in the Spring

Notice the seedlings of Basil coming on

next to the Sage.

This is going to be my new perennial garden, notice the Wisteria blooming on the right…

there will be an arbor for the Wisteria vines to grow on and picket fencing in each of the four corners, a circle garden in the center with pathways cutting throughout the entire garden.

Check back for updates, I will be posting photos as things progress.

God almighty first planted a garden. And, in deed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

Francis Bacon

Enjoy your day!

The Gourmet Farm Girl

Garden Time… Read More »

While in Palm Springs I had the chance to see some of the local farms outside of the city.

Corn growing next to desert palms

Orange Groves

Date Palms

Photos taken near Palm Springs California by The Goumet Farm Girl 2011

Let’s keep in mind the farmers arcoss this country who have yet to plant a crop this season…

The rain has these guys just waiting around…

God Bless the American Farmer!

Photos taken in Ohio by The Gourmet Farm Girl
Spring 2011

California’s Agriculture… Read More »

Photos taken May 2011 Palm Springs California, Joshua Tree National Forest, Mojave Dessert

By The Gourmet Farm Girl

Desert Beauties… Read More »

God sends the rain…

to bring life and beauty…

It can bring disappointment to the end of a sunny day…

Yet HIS promise still holds true…

As on the wings of the Angels…just believe…

Have a blessed Sunday evening!

The Gourmet Farm Girl

The Rain… Read More »

For those of you in central Ohio that would like something different to do this weekend…

May Herb Day

SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2011

9am-4pm

Location: Creekside Park & Plaza at 123 Mill Street and The Ohio Herb Education Center,

110 Mill Street, Gahanna Ohio

Admission is FREE!

The Herbal Kitchen

May Herb Day offers a variety of herbal activities and speakers relating to herbs with fantastic herbal vendors and lots of great foods to sample and purchase.

This annual celebration features:

 Daylong Herb Sales

 Herbal, garden-related, and artisan vendors

 Herb of the Year – Horseradish Info with Sampling

 Summer Kitchen Educational Display

 For Children: Plant and name an herb in the Herb Center’s kitchen garden!

Special Items of Interest

• Book Signing by Jennifer Bartley, Author of the Kitchen Gardener’s Handbook

• Meet The Gourmet Farm Girl

• Tea Sampling by Herbal Teas Plus

• Sample Gourmet Syrups at the Simple Gourmet Syrups Booth – from Millersburg, Ohio – Syrup Varieties: Lavender, Strawberry, Lemon Verbena, Rhubarb w/ Wild Ginger & More!

• NEW for 2011 to compliment your herb gardens!! – Heirloom vegetable plants for sale by Circa Plants of Logan, Ohio. (Next to the herbs.)

 Tomatoes : Brandywine, Kentucky Beefsteak, Red Beefsteak, Yellow Pear, Sweet Pea Currant, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Tiny Tim, Amish Paste, Hillbilly, German Grape, Oxheart

 Peppers :Sweet Banana, Anaheim Chile, Early Jalapeno, Hot Paper Lantern (a red habanero), Jefferson’s Bullnose Sweet, Hungarian Hot Wax, Mini Chocolate Bell, California Wonder Sweet Bell, Ancho Poblano, Long Cayenne, Alma Paprika

 Assortment of native Ohio, climbers, and historic ornamentals

Gahanna, the Herb Capital of Ohio since 1972, invites Central Ohioans to enjoy delicious food, daylong herb sales, herbal forums, music and more. For more information call: 614.342.4380

Herb Day is Coming… Read More »

The Salton Sea is a saline, rift located directly on the San Andreas Fault in California’s Imperial Valley. The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink in the Colorado Desert of Imperial and Riverside Counties in Southern California. Like Death Valley, it is below sea level. The deepest area of the sea is 5 ft higher than the lowest point of Death Valley. The sea is fed by the New, Whitewater, and Alamo rivers, as well as agricultural runoff drainage systems and creeks. The surrounding area is Califorina farm land with the production of dates, oranges and I even saw a corn field (not as big as Ohio corn)

It is estimated that for 3 million years, at least through all the years of the Pleistocene glacial age, the Colorado River worked to build its delta in the southern region of the Imperial Valley. Eventually, the delta had reached the western shore of the Gulf of California (the Sea of Cortez/Cortés) creating a massive dam which excluded the Salton Sea from the northern reaches of the Gulf.

As a result, the Salton Sink or Salton Basin has long been alternately a fresh water lake and a dry desert basin, depending on random river flows and the balance between inflow and evaporative loss. A lake would exist only when it was replenished by the river and rainfall, a cycle that repeated itself countless times over hundreds of thousands of years.

The creation of the Salton Sea of today started in 1905, when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell, overrunning a set of head gates for the Alamo Canal. The resulting flood poured down the canal and breached an Imperial Valley dike, eroding two watercourses, the New River in the west, and the Alamo River in the east, each about 60 miles. Over a period of approximately two years these two newly created rivers sporadically carried the entire volume of the Colorado River into the Salton Sink.

The lake covers about 376 sq miles, making it the largest in California. The lake’s salinity is greater than the waters of the Pacific Ocean but less than that of the Great Salt Lake; the concentration is increasing by about 1 percent annually. Many species of fish are no longer able to survive except the tilapia.

North Shore was a “swinging” place, “This was a very popular place. The Beach Boys would come out. And Jerry Lewis had a boat here, and so did the Marx Brothers. There were big boat races, and parties and dances. Clubs and organizations from all over the Coachella Valley came for meetings and parties

North Shore Beach and Yacht Club, opened in 1962, was the show piece of what was to be a two million dollar marine paradise – the largest marina in Southern California

(Old Post Card from internet)

Like most of the other locations around the Salton Sea, fluctuating water levels and flooding created problems. In 1981, North Shore suffered from a severe flood which wiped out the jetty at the yacht club, making it impossible for boats to dock there. The main clubhouse was closed and has yet to reopen. The views are still spectacular and it remains to be seen whether or not a solution to the high salinity problem will bring back this once glamorous resort.