My parents live in Arizona and have a lemon tree that produces so many lemons that my mom mailed me some! Anyway, I love your ideas for meal planning. I need to just do a big cook-up once a week and plan ahead. Thank you for the inspiration! Wonderful video, as always. Cheers!
You can find dwarf fruit bushes and trees and grow them in pots. Maybe you can find random little corners of space on the plot or whatever to place them? When I lived in NYC, I had a Meyer lemon tree I grew in a 20 gallon pot! :) Blueberries work well in pots. So do Strawberries and even raspberries. I grow all my salad greens in pots too and just shove the pots in any place I can fit a 10 inch pot.
Aw, Vivi...how sweet you are to be so kind and thoughtful you are to your dear great auntie. She must be someone really special and of course you are really wonderful to be someone who takes such good care of your dear relative. I hope that your plot will be fine during the time you need to be away and surprise you with happy growth when you are able to return. I hope that you have a great time watching tennis and love the time away from the plot and family . Lovely to hear that you are continuing to do your normal menu-planning. Very sensible!
What a great video Vivi. You put so much thought, time and effort into everything you do. All your vegetables look GREAT. I'd have those spuds smothered in Hellmann's which I can't get enough of. It's my guilty pleasure. *cringe* I love your kitchen videos and your recipes are great. Nothing worse than than thinking something appeals in a book then looking at the list of ingredients. 😒
bless Auntie Teapot!! give her a hug for me. all of your meal plans sound delicious btw! it's been pretty hot here in Northern California too. it's a dry heat,but in the 90's (Fahrenheit) so still no fun. take care, Gabby :-)
Hope Auntie Teapot does well after her hospital stay. You're a good niece to be so helpful. I was there for my mom when she was ill with dementia, and it was a difficult couple of years, but I'm glad I got to spend that time with her. The veg looks great! I've also been vegetarian for a long time and am cutting back on cheese now. BTW, you look fabulous! So relaxed and tanned. :)
Vivi me watching when I haven't had breakfast Is not good. All of the talks of cooking and soups has me starving. Finally got some tomatoes canned yesterday. This time of year it's sooooo hot here I start my inside projects like canning etc. Sounds like you have your cup full this week. Your Aunt is fortunate to have you to care for her. I bet she loves you to pieces.Well wishes to her. Hope you both have fun this week. Nothing like family time.✌🏼️❤️& Happy Harvesting 🌽🍅🍠🌶🌸☀️
Enjoyable video with some great ideas. Best of luck to both you and your Aunt Teapot. She sounds lovely. Bless your heart for doing so much to help her be able to stay in her own home. You're a good grand niece! 😇
Good afternoon Vivi, pewwwwww it's so hot hear in Torbay and we haven't had any rain in week,well not to speak of so it's evening watering for us . Anyway another wonderful refreshing video and lm soooooo glad that you educate us on preserving and drying our veg,thank you very much extremely helpful.I grow Borlotti beans every year couldn't live without them and so versatile l tend to plant out at least 150/200 plants they are incredibly easy to grow and keep us going all winter,l MIGHT give a few away but always keep seed back for the following year.Have you ever tried making Gazpacho soup with your squashes tweaked a little with your cucumbers and tommys oh my word do give it ago and l pretty sure your darling auntie Tea Pot would love it,if you do let me know how you get on.Thank you once again Vivi and have some nice chilled out time with auntie 💕💟💕💟👍
What Vivi did next Our gardens are so different lol. I have limited space and dedicate nearly all of it to fruit trees in pots (tropical mostly). Looking forward to having space for vege one day soon. I love watching Ur videos and dreaming. :)
It's always lovley to listen to you. You have a very pleasant voice. I also think the hairdo your'e sporting today is really cute on you. Have a nice week! :)
Hi Viv,Sending positive thoughts your way and hope your Aunt gets to where she needs to be to be able to look after herself .She has a wonderful Niece looking after her :) .To Spice things up Viv i do themes from around the world and try to turn veg i have into taste of morocco,Greece & Turkey(easy as my hubby is Turkish) spain or even france .My love at the moment is my slow cooker so i can come home to a warm slow cooked soup :) .Hope u have a lovely week ahead Viv :) Deb x
Thanks Vivi. Your videos are inspirational to me, and as a vegan, have helped me visualise how I could be growing a very large portion of my food. Hope your Aunt improves. X
So, this is where our summer is!!! My dear Vivi, you are having Montreal summer weather (on the mild side) and we are having England's weather! Enjoy it!
My dear girl, I would if I could! We're soooo sick and tired of it! I don't remember having such a rainy summer! Everything rothed to death in the garden this spring. I was so sad, I did not have the heart to start over. A friend gave me her spare tomato and pepper plants so if I'm lucky I'll have a few fresh veggies to savour in about a month's time. The good news is my raspberries have gone bonkers!!!
You couldn't have described my gardening efforts any better. I am currently surrounded by seed packets and big dreams. It will have to be a fab season - we're owed it! : o)
Thanks Viv for a very interesting and entertaining channel. I must share this with you all, I cannot stop laughing. I just found a copy of Gardening for Beginners by E.T. Cook in my bookshelf. The first edition was published in 1901. Under the heading Useful Hints the author shares the advice below. The author only lived to be 48. I wonder why: “Destroying Wasps’ nests. - The simplest and most certain material with which to destroy wasps’ nests is cyanide pf potassium. A very small quantity of this may be dropped a little way in the hole of the nest, the entrance being at once closed with a piece of turf. Cartridges of gun cotton, dynamite, or other similar explosive, with lighted fuse attached, then placed in the hole, will generally blow the nests to atoms. One may use with almost equal effect ordinary squibs of gunpowder, brimstone, or saltpeter, as the smoke being enclosed the wasps are quickly destroyed. These measures should be taken at night when the wasps are in the nest. Rag soaked in tar and put on the end of the stick which must be lighted, thrust into the hole, and a thick piece of turf to stop the entrance, will kill the marauders.”
Always a happy addition to any day, a bit of Vivi! :) Hope your Auntie Teapot settles in well, so good to know that she is being cared for and loved. Your hair looks great in bunchies! Oh my gosh, on fruit, it would kill me not to have it, but then we don't have much in the garden during the summer rainy season here (10cm in the last day) which is counted as very light haha! I am about at your April point with pumpkins, but with mangoes! When the season starts mmm yum fresh mango, then juice, then salsa, then with sticky rice, and now, "Does anyone want lots and lots of mangoes?" Still, in season and fresh is the best way to go!
Well, our winter gardens are amazing, and i will be building a new one starting november, you are very very welcome to visit, (and work) but we will house and feed you for free haha :)
Auntie Teapot!!! That's adorable. I pray that she "adjusts" quickly and that the two of you also have a wonderful time together. I found your "recipes" really interesting and sound very delicious too. I have to admit that even though I do eat meat, I have been eating vegetables more and more over the past several months, and seem to be finding meat less and less desirable. It's like I've discovered the real flavor of vegetables again, since I only eat farm fresh or home grown now. I also found that every time I try to eat vegetables from the store, that it actually makes me sick. I grew up on homegrown vegetables, and now that I am back to them, I can't even smell the ones from the store, let alone eat them! So now I'm going to have to can, dehydrate, and freeze a ton of vegetables for this winter. Can you suggest which ones I should freeze? vs. can or dehydrate? It would help me so much. I don't know what is happening, but I just can't put the store vegetables anywhere near my nose or mouth, it's really that bad. I can actually smell the chemicals!!! This is a big shock because I thought I could just change to fresh a little at a time, but it's not working out that way. ANY HELP would be wonderful, because I can't seem to find anyone on RU-vid that gives that kind of information. The ones I'm most interested in are green beans, beets, carrots, celery, cabbage and many more, but I would be thrilled if you can help me with those. Only when you have time of course, and I will keep searching too. Turns out that going vegan isn't as easy as I thought it would be. I guess this old body is mad at me for going store bought!! But oh how heavenly a "fresh from the garden" can be to one who loves them. Blessings to you and Auntie Teapot, Sheila
The best place for that advice is the 'Ball' canning book.......it's chock full of recipes/ideas/techniques for storing. Most veg are low in acid which makes them difficult to store without the addition of, say, vinegar - I'm not a huge fan of vinegar so tend to dry or freeze most of my veggies. I'll be doing videos on storage as the crops come in - I hope they'll help. :-)
Wonderful, and there are several that I can, can that are great that way, but videos on your storage methods when they come in is perfect! Now I can zero in on the ones that I already like that are caned, and learn as you store yours. I was getting worried when I couldn't eat the store veggies anymore. Thank you so much. I have a few canning books, so I will check them out right away for other techniques too. Bless, Sheila
Here in the USA they sell glass bulbs with a long neck on them that you put room temperature water in and tip them upside down in your plant's pot area so as the plant takes in the water around it, it soon pulls the water from the long necks bulb. They are not cheap, I'm guessing, but you can make them from small water bottles by filling them with after you poke a hole in the lid and tighten it on and as the plant needs water it will always get what it needs. So cheap, cheap, cheap way of watering your plants. Black maker the clear plastic so the sun doesn't overheat the water. I hope this helps you, hugs!
Nice to see you maximising your crops and not wasting a scrap 👍🏻. Have you considered taking a plot on another site and maybe using that just for fruit? 😄
I've seen Dwarf lemon trees seeds on EBAY. They seem to grow lemons faster and in a pot. So you could just put it in a pot on a table for the sun. I've also seen other fruit trees of the dwarf type.
There is a dwarf 🍋 that can be grown indoors in winter and put outside in summer. I have friends that have a potted regular lemon 🍋 & lime they just prune them regularly. Do you have the ability to forage in the woods. We have many areas that homes & farms were just left during the depression. They usually have apple trees, figs & lemons that have spread & gone wild. Sometimes we find persimmons, tomatoes as well.
Sounds like a busy schedule, but you're used to that! You can do it! As for a sport for you since you can't play tennis anymore, check out Pickleball. It's a newish sport that our residents play at the community center where I work but it's played all over the USA. It's part tennis, part ping pong and part volleyball. It's really good for anyone with minor physical limitations yet still gives the rush. Our head pickleballer is a retired female pro tennis player and she's so happy she can get our there again without all the bodily damage of regular tennis. 🎾 Good fun!
While I am an omnivore, as a matter of fact I raise livestock, I respect the fact that you chose not to be. I am interested to see that you don't try to make your protein sources into what they are not, ie: meat. I like the fact that you choose to celebrate the flavours and textures of your veg and pulses as just that. When I have a vegetarian meal it is usually an Indian (ish) meal for that reason. You can have excellent food and not miss the meat as long as it is planned to be a vegetarian meal.
You might try a Crockpot, you could throw things in it the night before or that morning and come home to a fully cooked meal. Here's what I make in my crockpot: (I'll leave out all meats and if you buy a crockpot buy it during a holiday like Christmas.) Enchiladas, lasagna, lentils soup, pinto beans, drop cakes, drop biscuits, cornbread - some with corn, some with green chili, some with bell peppers, whatever you want, cornbread and chili beans, potato soup, veggie soups, zucchini made into noodles for spaghetti, zucchini made into lasagna, oatmeal, cherry crumble, apple crumble and apple dumplings, cheese and eggs, cheese and egg cheese, hash browns, pot pie which can have meat or just yummy veggies, the list goes on and on. I love my crockpots. I have 2 large ones and 1 double pot one. I bought them all around Christmas.
every yr lidl have baby lemon trees think it was about 6.99 ish but just save a seed/s from some lemons u get out of your lemons with fruit have u got a local market there usually local fruit
Lovely ideas for simple meals :-) I will have Helda in my meal to night, thank you for recommending her - its a very nice and versatile bean. I was thinking about saturated fats watching your video. I know medias kind of hate them, but they are important for the health. I do not eat diary products and I have cut down on meat. When I check my diet it is always a bit low on saturated fats. Do you have some thoughts on fats in the diet?
I do have olive oil, linseed oil, nuts and eggs, but apart from eggs that is mainly unsaturated fats - so still low on the saturated. I do eat some coconut oil to get some more saturated, but in Denmark that is very far from a local product :-)
Thanks for taking your time to answer. You kind of are my nutritionist :-D I think I will not worry so much about the saturated fats - it seems not to worry vegetarians and vegans. I guess it is not an issue.
Hi Vivi, after just watching your video, I am now thinking what to have for my evening meal, I live on my own here in France so I only have myself to please, Do you eat bread when you have your meals?
Hey Vivi-- when you talk about putting the berries in the freezer-- do you have a bigger chest freezer? Ia freezing a big part of your storage for gluts etc.? Also is your fridge a big one or smaller and is it big enough for you? ;)
Hahahaha - space is ALWAYS an issue........I store some things in the shed, some in cupboards, some in the hallway outside my flat (where it's a bit cooler). The fridge and freezer are both under-the-counter types - I try not to have gluts of things that require freezing.......and try to grow veggies that are happy to stay in the ground.......so I guess you could say I store in the ground also. :-)
Beautiful spread ! Isn't it just amazing we can grow all that lovely food from a seed ! Never gets old. I've learned a lot from you. Much appreciation. Good luck with your Aunt. Thats a big responsibility and so much work. By the way, I have no clue how you English take so much heat with no Air Conditioning ! Must be in the genes I guess. TTFN.
I never tire of seeing seeds turn into lovely veg for me to nosh! There are times that the heat is too much........but that's what tennis is for........an afternoon of watching someone else race around a court while I flake out! ;-)
Thanx, Vivi - you are truly an inspiration and, I must admit, I'm a bit of a tennis freak myself - but Wimbledon is the highlight of the year, for us! Xx
