And So it Begins

Our gardening obsession kicked off this weekend. We stopped in Tractor Supply this week, and found they have their garden seeds on display. The little girl who was working the register gave us a "really, it's January" look, but she rang us up anyway.
On a Tractor Supply related note, one of the neighbor chirruns got hired on with the outfit, we ran in to him while we were there. We have insider information now for all things chicken, when the chicks are due in, which are the healthiest and whatnot. And we will exploit this connection to the fullest. Promise.
Now, on to the pictures.

Seed prep

36 tomato plants. Not counting the ones we will buy from greenhouses. 

 Every year, Big Man has started the tomato seeds on the day of the Daytona 500. He has raised tomatoes since he lived in the People's Republic of Maryland, so it's been at least twenty years. This year we decided to start them mid January, so the plants will be a bit bigger, hopefully heartier, when time comes to put them out.
The row where we plan on putting our tomatoes this coming year has been getting a steady dose of organics. Each time we clean the poop out of the hen house, it goes in the future row. Plus all veggie scraps, banana peels, coffee grounds and whatnot also end up in that row.
Cupcake also saved several dozen bulbs of our marigolds, and we did an entire rack of marigold seeds. We plan on having them all around the house and garden, because they are pretty, and they deter pests. 
Our lemon trees are still doing well, and we have a few new apple trees starting in one of our pots. We will be moving them to their own pots in about a month. The last picture is our lemon balm that sprouted recently.

Lemon trees

Apple trees

Lemon balm

Big Man had free time on his hands this past week. A perk of being a shack bitch. So he made Cupcake three more pints of orange marmalade. Cupcake loves marmalade.
This batch was all hand squeeze juice, and it made a difference in the flavor. Big Man found oranges on sale at Wade's this week, so there will be another batch made in the coming week.

Boil the skins, remove the white "pith"

Filet the pith, chop the skin

Cook it up till it gels, in cast iron, of course

And we had two bananas get brown on us, leftovers from banana/walnut pancakes. So rather than waste them, Big Man made a batch of banana nut bread.

Cast Iron makes banana bread better

Fresh made butter won't hurt the taste either

Warm banana nut bread, with fresh made butter and a cup of Deathwish Coffee, now that's dessert for any night of the week right there.
We had a sleet event one day this week, Cupcake worked from home and the chirruns were out of school, so we celebrated togetherness by making a home made pizza.

We sure don't mind being snowed in these days.
Chicken wing Sunday, then we move on to next week.
K&K