Bananas

Grapes

White nectarines

Apricots

Peaches

Guavas

Plums

Pomegranates

Asian Pear

Persimmon

Basil waiting to be planted 

Parsley and Basil also wanting to be planted. The flatleaf parsley and basils were grown from the seed and replanted into various plastic pots. Reuse and the earth will be happier. 

A few kinds of basil from an heirloom seed pack. I love spring  

Something from the curcurbis family sprouted — either cucumber, melon or squash… I suspect melon

The gopher got one of my fava bean plants. 

This is war.

This is my dog Leo, short for leopard. He is a destroyer. He destroys my garden with his giant paws. I tell him to sit and he sits on top of my artichoke plants. He tries to help by digging holes in an attempt to catch a small gopher that has infiltrated my garden. Leo also had fun tearing down my sugar snap pea vines, in attempt to bring the peas to a height where he could reach them. I love Leo, but he is a beast. 9months and 75pounds of garden destroying beast.

I changed a few things because I didn’t want to use an entire cup (or two sticks) of butter in such a healthy looking recipe, and I didn’t want to go out and buy agave nectar. I added some ingredients I had on hand, just to mix it up a bit. 

High in protein, no butter and no sugar. 

I know black bean brownies sound gross, and, well I think they’re not perfect yet… but its moist and dense and next time I will add more chocolate, since the chocolate is the only real ingredient that counts as ‘unhealthy’. With my adaptations, I think this will make for an excellent breakfast.  

Black Bean Brownies

2 cups black beans drained packed (cooked) — if you’re using canned look for no sodium

1/2 cup yogurt (plain or vanilla)

1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted

150g  (5ounces) Chocolate chips, or bakers chocolate melted (in the microwave) (add more chocolate! I would go for 8oz or 225g or more… ) 

1 cup almond powder ( or 1cup +1/4cup whole walnuts — chop them up in food proccessor) 

1 Tbsp instant coffee granules

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/3 cup milk powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 whole egg + 3 egg yolks 

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional) 

1cup + 1/4 cup Sugar, sugar substitute (granulated splenda) or equivalent for Stevia, agave nectar or honey 

3 egg whites for meringue

Preheat oven to 325 degrees 

line a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchment

Combine all the ingredients except the 3 egg whites in a blender or food proccessor until smooth. You may have to do this in parts depending on the size of your equiptment. Whip 3 egg whites to stiff peaks like a meringue. Carefully fold in the egg whites into your batter until combined, being careful not to break all your bubbles. The batter is quite loose for a brownie batter.  Pour your batter into the parchment lined baking pan, bake at 325 for about 45 minutes, rotating half way through. You can do the toothpick test if you want to test for doneness. Let cool. cut. Enjoy your very healthy brownies.

My dad and I have been getting a lot of free compost from the Ojai Sanitary District… We’ve recieved about 10 cubic yards of biosolid compost, I would estimate. We’ve never used the stuff but we’ve seen things growing directly in it at the sanitary district so we assume it can’t harm our plants too badly. We’ve mixed the compost into a small plot of land in the back yard and its awaiting its new tenants. 

In the front yard I planted some Spearmint, Rosemary and Thyme; my favorite and most used herbs. I have some little basil and parsley sprouts in little pots too. 

Tomatomania came to Encino today so I sifted through hundreds of tomato plants and wound up with 20 plants, probably about 10 kinds of tomatoes in all. About half of them are hybrids– strong against pests and disease through scientific means– and half are heirlooms — proven strong against all odds by continuing to grow for decades or even centuries (seeds collected and re-planted yearly of course) 

another note: tomatoes come classified as determinate and indeterminate. Indeterminate means the plants grow and produce throught the season. Determinate means tomato plants grow to a certain height and produce tomatoes that ripen all at once, then there aren’t so many tomatoes. Determinate tomato plants are favored in comercial productions for obvious reasons but are also good for people who want to can their tomatoes, thus needing many at once. 

Tomatoes should be planted deep — as their stems will grow roots, and their roots can grow up to 10 feet — so you might as well give them a ‘lift’ … in the opposite direction

Tomatoes like things hot and dry — overwater and you will have huge plants, few tomatoes, and the tomatoes you get will be watery 

Once you do have tomatoes, try floating them in water. The tomatoes that sink are the tastiest  :D

Anyways I’ve planted 

Momotaro Tomato – a hybrid developed in Japan and my family’s personal favorite tomato (and like all of Japan) medium size, 70 days to produce fruit , indeterminate 

Black Cherry Tomato – heirloom variety of dark round cherry tomatoes — 65 days, indeterminate 

Black Japanese Trifele- pear shaped heirloom variety from Russia — I don’t know why its called Japanese!– 80 days, indeterminate 

Suncherry extra sweet- hybrid, extra sweet yellow orange cherry tomato — 55 days, indeterminate

Husky Gold- hybrid yellow variety — 70days, indeterminate (my dog that passed last year was named Husky… so I bought him a tomato plant…) 

Transparent – heirloom, weird freakin name for a tomato. Apparently this tomato doesn’t get any color. small fruit and I was curious so I bought it. 75days, indeterminate 

Better Boy – very popular red hybrid, strong against lots of bad things for tomatoes. 75 days, indeterminate

Champion – hybrid, also popular and red. 70 days, indeterminate

Celebrity- hybrid, red, 70 days, DETERMINATE — Oh gee… I bought 2 of these… I’m going to have a lot of tomatoes all at once

Ace – hybrid, red, 85 days, indeterminate

Hillbilly – heirloom yellow orange red streak, 1-2lb fruit, 85 days, indeterminate (who wouldn’t plant something named hillbilly) 

Legend- hybrid red tomato, 70 days DETERMINATE– I bought 3 of these plants. 

Today is Friday March 27.  70 days from now I have 5 determinate plants ripening. I tried hard to pick colorful heirlooms and tomatoes that ripen at different times in the season. I’m already excited ! 

Hopefully I will have a camera by the time the tomatoes ripen