I ran into one of my readers the other day while I was volunteering for the Master Gardener program at Thanksgiving Point.  After chatting for a minute she reminded me that I had promised this bread recipe way back at Christmas time and she was looking forward to trying it.  So here it is!!

Mrs. Stoney is the bread maker in the family and she found this recipe a year or so ago and it has quickly become one of our favorites.  It uses a mix of whole wheat and white flour so it rises well and has a great taste.  The recipe makes two good size loaves.  One loaf will usually feed the 6 of us for a meal and we stick the other in the freezer for later.

Finnish Bread

1 package active dry yeast

2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees)

1 cups whole wheat flour

¼ cup butter, melted, divided

1 tablespoons brown sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons salt

4 ½ to 5 cups unbleached white flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water.  Add the whole wheat flour, 2 TBS of the butter, brown sugar, salt and 2 cups of flour:  beat it until smooth.  Add remaining flour until you form a soft dough.

On a floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl and turn once to grease the top of the dough.  Cover and let rise in a warm spot until double, around an hour.

Punch the dough down.  Shape into two 6 inch rounds; place on greased baking sheet.  Cut slashes in top with a knife.  Cover and let rise until double, about 40 minuets.

Bake at 400 for 40 minutes or until golden brown, brush the top with remaining butter.  Makes 2 loafs with about 12 slices each.

This one is a family favorite; it’s perfect with about any meal or great as a treat with jam!!

As I’ve told you before we are not really big flower people here at Stoney Acres.  Most of our flowers come in the form of perennial bushes and vines.  This time of year we do have some real nice color in our yard from all the late spring blooming plants.  Here’s a look at what’s in bloom around the yard.

I couldn’t resist including this shot with a big old bumblebee hard at work.

This plant is a flowering vine called Perry-Winkle.  It has this great little purple flower in the spring and then has a beautiful foliage all summer and into late fall.  It dies back each winter but promptly returns each spring and fills back in by mid May.  It makes a great ground cover, requires almost no work all season, it thrives in terrible soil, doesn’t require a lot of water and even does well in the shade.  This is our all around favorite ground cover!!

The warm weather this spring has brought out the blossoms on our “snow in summer” a little early.  We usually don’t see these blooms until June.  In another week this will be a white blanket of flowers that last about a month.  The plant dies back a bit and looks bad for a few weeks after that but then fills back in and makes a nice ground cover for the balance of the summer and fall.

We love our “snow ball” bushes, they are covered in big blooms like this for about 3 weeks each year.  The bushes are getting pretty big too.  You can see this one is as tall as the 6 foot fence behind it.

This one was planted by the first owners of our home and they put it a little too close to a tree.  It still puts on a pretty good show despite being in the shade most of the day.

Okay to this isn’t really a flower, but I had to include a shot of these vates kale plants that I’m letting go to seed to replenish my seed supply.  They have a nice little yellow flower.

The former owners of our place really loved Iris.  We like them too when they bloom, but the plants are kind-of plain the rest of the year.  They are really putting on a show right now with 3 or 4 different colors all over the yard.

We have a lot of this beautiful dark purple Iris scattered all over the yard.  It’s a great dark purple with some lighter purple to contrast with a yellow center.

Mrs. Stoney loves this little plant.  It has been moved around the yard several times as other plants have encroached on it.  The problem is we have no idea what this plant is?  Can any one out there help us?

Now is also the time of year for the chives to be in bloom.  The pretty little purple flowers look great and can be used in cooking or to flavor oils or vinegar.

Mrs. Stoney caught another of our pollinating friends in action.  She is pretty proud of this photo, very good for a simple little digital camera!!

Well I hope you enjoyed this trip around the yard.  There’s a lot more to see check in later in the week and I will give you a tour of the edible plants in the yard.

Wow, sorry for the long absence from my blog.  Life has just been crazy and blogging has taken a back seat!

Never fear though we haven’t slacked off in the garden, lots has been happening and I will try to get you all updated as the week progresses.

I finally have something besides carrots to report on harvest Monday.  This week the lettuce we planted in early March was finally ready for harvest.  The lettuce has really taken it’s own sweet time this year.  The March planting was the earliest we ever got plants in the garden but they just seemed to stall and not progress in the funny spring weather we have been having.

But as you can see the heads look and taste fantastic!

Of course we also had some carrots to report, these will be the last carrots we have for a while.  This is the last of the over wintered carrots that I pulled out before replanting the bed with bush beans.  You can see they are looking a little worse for wear but we’ll cut them up and cook them in something this week!

This weeks totals:

Lettuce – 1.5 pounds

Carrots – 1.75 pounds

Eggs – About 30 (we forgot to count this week)

Total Produce – 3.25 pounds

This brings our annual total to 35.25 Pounds.  Be sure to stop by Daphne’s Dandelions for more Monday harvest reports from around the globe!

Mrs. Stoney is not a big fan of Mothers Day.  I think she doesn’t like being the center of attention.  But she did have a special request for breakfast!  Oatmeal pancakes!

These pancakes would be super healthy if it weren’t for the secret ingredient.  Butterscotch chips!  I’m sure the butterscotch negates all the healthy effects of the Oatmeal, but oh man do they taste good!

Add some maple syrup and a poached egg and you have the perfect Mothers Day breakfast!

Our littlest one is really into making signs.  We woke up this morning to a house covered in signs just like this one!

The kids asked Mrs. Stoney what she wanted for mother day she said candy!  They out did themselves this year!

The average last frost date around Stoney Acres is roughly May 15^th.  But some years we can have frost as late as June 1^st.  So an important part of season extension for us is the use of “wall-o-waters”.  We always like to get a few tomato plants in early every year.  Conditions in the summer are really pretty good for tomatoes but we usually don’t get our first ripe tomato until around August 1^st when the tomatoes are planted on the last frost date.  So planting a couple of plants early with the protection of wall of waters gets us a few tomatoes in July (or even June) for fresh eating.

For those of you unfamiliar with wall-o-waters, they are simply a heavy piece of plastic sectioned off into cells that you fill with water.  They create a green house like environment that gives the plants plenty of heat in the cool spring and they also protect against very heavy freezes.  The protection they offer your tomatoes is far superior to any other method I know of.  In fact I know people who use wall-o-waters in the garden as early as February and they keep the tomatoes warm and happy.

Wall of waters can be a bit of a pain to fill, but I have found an easy solution.  Simply put them around a 5 gallon bucket.  The bucket helps hold them up and then you can fill them easily with a hose.

Our goal is just to have some tomatoes before August so we also choose some early ripening varieties to plant.  This year we are trying two new cultivars.  First Early Girl which is a hybrid that will have its first medium sized fruit ready only 60 days after transplant.  Second is Sunsugar, which is also a hybrid cherry type tomato, whose orange fruit will be ready in about 62 days.  We planted these on April 21^st, so our target date will be right around the end of June.  This is my first time with both these tomatoes so we’ll see if they actually get some fruit by that time!!

We always plant our tomatoes deep.  I strip off any of the lower leaves and plant the tomatoes in a deep hole.  Roots will then form all along the buried portion of the stem.  The science is still out on whether this helps the tomatoes produce more fruit, but I have found that it helps the plants during our dry hot summers.  It also makes the plants more stable to help deal with the strong winds we have in our area.

Once they are planted I water them good with a liquid fertilizer.  We use fish emulsion to keep things organic but if you aren’t worried about organic you can just use any complete liquid fertilizer.

Then we put the wall-o-waters over the top and we are off to the races for the earliest tomato of the year.

I usually keep the tops open like this unless we are expecting really cold weather.  When the weather is really cold we will close those tops up and maybe even clamp them shut.

The wall –o-waters usually stay on until roughly the 1^st of June when all chance of frost is gone.  Usually by then the tomato plants have grown out the tops anyway.  You don’t have to remove the wall-o-water.  I know of some gardeners that just leave them on all year, but I think they are a little unsightly in the garden so I like to put them away in June.

We finally got some more rain this week.  It has helped the lawn green up and kept me from watering the garden.  We have also had some very warm weather this week with highs close to 85.  That a solid 20 degrees above normal for this time of year.

Not a lot to report on the harvests this week.  Of course we had some carrots.  This will be close to the end for the over wintered carrots.  I expect one more picking this size and then we are done with carrots for a while.  I will get some more in later in the week but we won’t see carrots for a while.

The hens slowed a bit this week.  We only had 30 eggs which is a down week for our hens.

This weeks Total:

Carrots – 1.75 Lbs

Greens/Lettuce – Some but didn’t weigh

Eggs – 30

Total – 1.75

Annual Total – 32 Lbs

There’s lots of other stuff happening all around the garden, lots of planting going on along with a lot of other work in preparation for the summer gardening season.  So check back later in the week for more updates!!  Be sure to stop by Daphne’s Dandelions for more Monday Harvest Reports!!

So I bet you have been wondering where the heck I’ve been for the last week or so???  Many of you will remember that I am part of the Utah State University Master Gardeners program.  Well one of the requirements of that program is that we give 40 hours of volunteer service.  I’ve spent most evenings for the last week as a volunteer at Thanksgiving Point Gardens in Lehi Utah.  They have been having a Tulip Festival for the last few weeks and master gardeners like myself volunteer to help out.

Thanksgiving point is a real jeam in the Salt Lake City area.  The gardens were build Alan and Karen Ashton who were the founders of Wordperfect.  When they sold the company they decided they wanted to give back to the community by building this beautiful garden.

The gardens are now about 15 years old and are really starting to mature.  There is 55 acres in the gardens.  They have 15 different garden “rooms”, which represent different styles of gardens.  If you are ever in the Salt Lake area this is something you shouldn’t miss.  I’ll leave you today with photos of these fantastic gardens!!

This is the view I had most days. It was my job to help keep the golf cart fleet running smooth!!

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” –Greek proverb

We have a lot of trees around Stoney Acres.  A quick count tells me we have over 20 deciduous and evergreen trees.

Most of our trees are meant for shade.  We have a big variety of types and shapes.

Enjoy your Arbor Day!!  I’m going to go sit in the shade!

We love Pizza!  And we are crazy about homemade pizza.  We have 4 kids, 2 are teenagers so we go through a lot of pizza around here.  We do buy pizza from resturants but we really like to make our own.  I don’t know if you can really call homemade pizza healthy, but at least we can control what goes into it.  This weeks recipe is a fun one!

We discovered this recipe last summer and have made it several times since.  Instead of traditional pizza sauce this recipe uses a mix of ketchup and mustard for the sauce.  It really tastes like a cheeseburger.  The final bit of cooking is done on a grill and that helps add even more of that cheeseburger flavor.  If you don’t have a grill you can still cook it in the oven.

You can use any pizza dough for this one.  Just be sure you pre-cook the crust before you put the toppings on and throw it on the grill.  You can click here to get Mrs. Stoney’s homemade pizza dough recipe.

Cheeseburger Pizza

3/4 pound ground beef

1 cup ketchup

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

1 tomato, thinly sliced

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup dill pickles slices

2 cups shredded cheese (you choose the type)

1 cup shredded lettuce

Brown the beef until cooked very well. (or even better make it into patties and cook them on you grill, then break up into pieces.)  Be sure your beef is cooked through, the final bake on this recipe will not be long enough to cook the meat so it needs to be done before you put it on the pizza.

Combine ketchup and mustard, spread over the crust.

Top with tomato, onion, hamburger,  pickles and cheese, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place pizza on a 16 inch square piece of heavy-duty foil.  Prep your grill for indirect heat.  Grill the pizza covered with dome of foil that doesn’t touch the cheese.  We grill it for around 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and everything is warm.  Watch the crust closely, it’s really easy to burn your crust on a grill.

Sprinkle with lettuce (fresh from the garden this week).  Let it stand for 5 minutes, slice and enjoy!!  This one doesn’t last long around our place the kids love it!!!

Another busy week at Stoney Acres.   Lots of planting going on and a little harvesting.  Let start with something new!!

We had our first lettuce harvest for the year.  Just a little bit but very tasty.  This handful of leaves went on a pizza we made.  Wait, what did I just say, lettuce on pizza????  Check out our recipe post on Thursday to see how we used it!

We also harvested a first small harvest of chives.  The plants are growing well and are starting to form flower heads.  This harvest went straight into our Sunday eggs.

We had a lot of eggs again this week.  The hens are really doing well right now!

Last but not least we harvested more of our world famous carrots.  We are getting down to the end of the over wintered carrots.  In fact with the forecast-ed heat that is coming this week, I’m afraid they may start bolting so we may get the rest of them out later in the week.

Here’s are weekly total:

Carrots – 1.5 pounds

Lettuce & other greens –  .25 lbs

Eggs – 33

Total – 1.75 lbs

That brings our annual total to 30.25 pounds.  Be sure to hop on over to Daphne’s Dandelions to to check out other Harvest Reports.