First Planting of the Season + Lemonade on the Balcony...

check out those blue and white stripes!

I couldn't resist - I can't wait any longer ..... for SPRING! :)


Today was actually a sunny day and although it's 46°F, it's not terribly windy and actually fairly pleasant for being outside - which means I got started on preparing my balcony for the new season by giving it a spring cleaning!

1. Make lemonade (see above) for this thirsty gardener: juice lemon, add lemon & juice plus 2 Tbs sugar to a shaker. Add some ice cubes, fill to 3/4 full with cold water, and shake!
2. Cut off dead parts of any plants that survived the winter (aka some herbs)
3. Remove dead plants from pots (left them out over winter for the birds and the like to forage in)
4. Remove leaves and such from balcony, still need to wash the floor so my cat can go out there and not bring the dirt inside!
5. Removed some old soil from the pots.
6. Transferred last year's bean soil (see last post) to other pots.
7. Re-potted some flowers I bought: they are both Primula Vulgaris, a type of primrose. The blue one really caught my eye - it's called "zebra blue". Love it paired up with the orange!



my happy lemon balm :)

8. Gave my lemon balm a new home - doesn't it look happy?

More cleaning up to come, and tons of planting of course! Keep checking back! 

Rosemary Parsley Pesto

As you can see, Winter is back and my outdoor balcony herbs are not looking great! Winter was already here for a while before Christmas, and then subsided for about week, during which we got above freezing temperatures and my parsley tried to grow back, only to get covered in snow once again!

Since it and my rosemary were still looking pretty good around Christmas, I decided to harvest them and make something so they didn't freeze, die, and in essence, go to waste....but how could I store them? 

Wasn't really interested in drying them, since I like the fresh taste so much better, so after googling for a while, I came upon this recipe at food.com, which uses both the rosemary and the parsley - and it is so yummy!

Rosemary Pesto

Ingredients:

1/3 cup fresh rosemary
1 1/2 cups fresh parsley, rough chopped
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1/2 cup walnuts (or favorite nut variety)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Thoroughly wash fresh herbs and pat dry. Strip rosemary from stalk and chop.
2) Combine rosemary, parsley, garlic, cheese, nuts and oil into food processor and blend well.
3) Season to taste. Yield: 1.5 cups.

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/rosemary-pesto-307438?oc=linkback

I used walnuts like they suggested, and the mild nutty flavor was wonderful! I also used kitchen sheers to cut the herbs, and used a hand blender to mix the ingredients since I don't have a food processor, which still worked pretty well. Don't forget to store in the refrigerator. You can see my result next to the recipe above!

Not bad for my first pesto! Great on meat or fish due to the stronger flavor (of the rosemary) compared to a normal basil pesto.

And now my herbs have also been put to good and found a way to survive (at least part of the) winter!

I'd recommend making pesto using a number of different herbs...what's your favorite way to preserve your home-grown herbs?