Chive vinegar and pickled radishes

Work took me out of town last week so I turned the garden over to Jessica. Everything survived and I arrived home to flowers.

We stopped in at the farmer's market last weekend to pick up some asparagus to blanch and freeze for winter pizzas. As much as frozen asparagus is terrible when compared to fresh, in the dark days of winter, it gives pizza a very summery taste.

I left the radishes about five days too long (overlap with travel) but harvested them and planted a second crop.

They were quite big (see below) so I decided to pickle them in case any were a bit woody.

The colours were beautiful. Put in a jar with the last of the chive vinegar and the resulting colour was amazing.

Jess and I also made some more chive vinegar (blossoms plus white vinegar).

After a day of sitting, the colours of both were crazy bright. We'll strain the chive vinegar this weekend and bottle it. The radishes will need awhile to pickle in the fridge.

In the yard I am doing battle with the elm seeds. I do love the boulevard trees. But the thousands of seeds each year are a complete pain to weed. Below is a picture of a bean plant with lots of tiny elm trees all around it. Even with a hoe, it is a lot of work to knock these proto-trees down before the get a tap root in and you need pliers to remove them.

While we're about reaching the peak of the perennial blossoms (with the peonies just starting), we still have the irises to look forward to. They just started this morning and the front yard border is once again amazing.

I will need to get out wit the camera to catch the blooms. This week also means doing some thinning in the carrots and beets and maybe a last sowing of beans.