February chill

Warm bread on a cold February day



Our January thraw lasted about 2 days.  Now, we are back to cold days and colder nights.  The only noticeable difference from week to week is the sun rising earlier (noted by our dog getting up a few minutes earlier each day to go outside) and later sunsets.

Despite the continuation of winter, I am enjoying watching my tomatoes growing and planting some other items (broccoli, pansies and peas).  Yes, I am trying to get a head start on peas, picking up a 128 cell pack for $3.50 and planting pea seeds.  Bob Thompson wrote about doing this in his book, so I thought I would give it a try.

The broccoli seeds have taken and are up (8 out of 12) so I did another packet yesterday.  I did not have good luck with broccoli last year, but will try again, as I usually do quite well with it.  I am going to either use some netting or may spring for a poly cloth that keeps out the bugs.

I transplanted my lettuce seeds and they are doing quite well in their single cells.  One of my grow lights went on the fritz, probably due to age, so I replaced it with a regular fluorescent light.

Meanwhile Nancy is discovering more birds native to our area.  Yesterday she saw a nuthatch on our birdfeeder and later in the day she discovered a tufted titmouse in our lilac tree in the backyard.  It seems we are also the home of a single male cardinal, a bit unusual for our location, according to the Cornell bird watching encyclopedia.

I am also getting better at making no knead bread, making my best one yet on Sunday.  Only putting in a 1/2 cup of rye did the trick so that the bread had a better rise than earlier attempts.  Today I am trying to do 2 loaves in the same day.

View of garden on February 4, 2010

Tomato seedlings
















Lettuce seedlings


Comments

Anonymous said…
It is so much fun to read this. Keeps my spirits up during the cold winter......
Yahzmin said…
Beautiful bread, Pete. We've watched the video and read the recipe. Maybe this snow-bound weekend will be a good time to try it. Hope it looks (and tastes) as good as yours! Don't have any rye, though, so may save that adventure for another day.

Good luck with the garden. Seems to be coming along nicely!

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