FullCircle Florals Gardening

Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! (Repurpose!) Three words that speak volumes.   Around the farm, these concepts have been applied for decades. My husband, Eric, has an impressive local family history. According to the land deeds recovered while organizing paperwork from the other house on the property, his ancestors purchased this particular plot in the 1930’s.    The family was in the area for quite some time before that, however, and are rumored to have been numbered in the Stevens Party who came over via none other than the Stevens Trail. Frances Lenninger, a local Vina historian and author wrote in her book, Vina’s History in Photos and Stories, that Eric’s great-great-great-great grandmother, Matilda Foster, came over the trail from Iowa in 1848. This photo (Left) of Sam Henry Stephens, Eric’s great-great grandfather was taken in front of the Vina Hotel circa 1910. As locals during the time period prior to the great depression of the 1...

 Hello followers! Sorry I dropped off the face of the Earth there! The photography biz has really been booming! Just posted some more wedding favs so check them out if you like! http://www.facebook.com/E.HendersonPhotography  . Hopefully I am back on the wagon here! We are right in the heat of plant our winter garden. Yesterday we planted Spinach, carrots, beets, cilantro, and LOTS of lettuce! All from seed of course! Today was Brassica day; we planted Purple cauliflower, regular cauliflower, several different cabbage varieties, broccoli and two kinds of Pak Choy. Tomorrow we are hoping to get the beans and peas going so wish us luck! I will post pics in short order. For now, Since I have worked to get my pics organized (7 external hard drives full) I've posted some eye candy from the gardens of the past. Some plants are still here while some others have long since gone! Enjoy!

The season for fresh veggies is definitely upon us! So much so that I can’t even keep up in my garden! I have an entire counter full of Zucchini. This summer favorite is almost surely in abundance in home gardens as well as a popular favorite at farmers markets. Tasty, nutritious and versatile, this summer Grand Slam has got it all. I have been hard at work trying to preserve some of its summer savvy as well. I done everything from blanching and freeing for soups, to dehydrating as chips, shredding for bread and grilling and freezing for a quick steam in the cold of winter. It this part two of this series I hope you too will be inspired to preserve some of this seasons abundance as well as try some of these tasty recipes I have found and or created this year. Enjoy! For a little healthy sweet tooth action, try these! Zucchini and Blueberry Muffins ·       1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (about 1/2 of one large zucchini) ·       1/...

Blueberries! As 6AM rolled around I was excited to hop out of bed this morning! I jumped in my car and drove the 11 miles to the town of Corning, CA, my hometown, to do something totally new to me…pick Blueberries! A few days ago a sign appeared on the corner of Houghton and South Avenue that boldly announced, “u-pick Blueberries”.   I was elated to see such a novel proposition in Corning. When my sister called last night to invite me to go with her this AM I was thrilled! We arrived at the site not having any idea what was in store for us except for a few helpful hints from some relatives who had been going daily to pick there. One, go EARLY! Less people and the berries are firmer as is the case with most harvesting. Two, pick from underneath the plants where the berries are bigger, juicier and firmer. We grabbed ourselves a bucket, which we informed we should fill up for $5. They are easy to pick with no thorns unlike our other summer favorite, Blackberries! My sister and I ...

A friend of mine just submitted a post to her blog http://mealsandsteals.blogspot.com   that made me think. actually, it made me listen and think. So in response to her prose, I write this….LISTEN. It really does go a long way. My husband tells me I don’t listen sometimes and he is SO right. There are so many beautiful sounds in this world that get muffled with the high paced life we live. I many have, from time to time, given the impression that living it the country on this farm is all peaches and cream. Which would be wonderful, but, it is incorrect. However, if I listen to Lindsey, the above mentioned blog author, I could change some of that chaos in to calm if I practiced listening in the moment. In my garden I have found that there is a peace that exists. I get a sense of calm and relaxation from simply visiting it. I find a bed and observe what is happening there whether it be the tips of potato vines just peeking through the soil, or new baby plants and flowers emergin...

Part 3: The Aftermath The bee keeper was very careful to assure the bees were moved safely from their happy home to a new nice white box, their new happy home. He commented that they were the most docile he had ever encountered. This may not have been such a good thing, as during subsequent check ups they weren’t found up to much of anything productive. They had let their brood (baby bees) die, weren’t doing much comb building and he didn’t see sign of the queen at all! In attempts to rectify the situation he brought out another hive to do a combine. He attempted to combine them together so that the bees from the house would have a queen and get to stepping! Another week pasted as we watched and waited to see if the combine took. When he examined them he found that there was in a queen in the box from the house bees after all and separated them again.   They have been sucking down the sugar water that I have been filling up for them every few days and one hive seems to be muc...

Since I was unable to attend the extraction, I have posted this slide show to detail thr process. A picture is better than a thousand words, right?