I'd love to have a "real" greenhouse . . .

. . . but for now, I work with what I've got.

We still have a few more weeks of cool, overnight temperatures, here in the PNW. Too cool for plants like tomato to be out in the garden without a cover.

On the deck and in the garden, I use gallon milk jugs, with the bottoms cut out, over single tomato plants.

For my basil starts, I use plastic clamshells that lettuce came in this past winter.

And in the garden, I use these row covers over a long stretch of small plants.

I planted out my tomato seedlings on the deck, around the first of April, which is about a month earlier than is recommended for our area. They're doing well, under their covers. And I hope to be slicing into a fresh tomato in July this year, which would be about 6 weeks earlier than planting into the bare ground in the garden, around the 6th of May.

____________________________________________________________

Last week's lunch round-up: my grab-and-go lunch fixings

left: garbanzo, celery, barley salad    right: chunky tomato soup

I haven't done one of these lunch posts in several weeks. For one thing, I was struggling just to keep a few things made each week. Life flows in spurts. Some months, there seems to be a spring melt and runoff of activity. Other months, just a trickle of activity to add to daily living.

And then there's my quest to get this grocery spending back in line with the budget. I've had a lot of things to talk about.

Anyways, I did keep track of what I made for last week's lunches. Here is/was last week's lunch round-up. Between Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, I prepared these grab-and-go items for our lunches:

• leftover hummus and fry bread (I intentionally made a huge batch of hummus, some for lunches and some for a meal later next week)
• garbanzo bean, celery, barley salad -- all marinated in a dressing of oil, rosemary-thyme vinegar and garlic (when I use celery in a salad, I use the entire rib, leaves and all, hence the "leafy" look, plus I think the leaves have a brighter flavor)
• homemade chunky tomato soup (I had to make 2 batches of this soup, as it was devoured quickly)
• another batch of pickle juice muffins. I added a bit more cinnamon this time. I kept thinking I was eating apple-cinnamon muffins. Just trying to use up the pickle juice before the next pickle-making season begins!
• and then later in the week some pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins. I actually made these for a little boy that I babysit on Thursdays. He loves pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins. So, sometimes I bake a batch to bring one to him. And my lucky family gets to eat the leftovers!
• home-dried prunes
• carrot sticks (I prepared a large container of carrot sticks on Monday and they were gone by Thursday)
• oranges
• pbj sandwiches
• hard boiled eggs

We are going through more food than usual, with our packed lunches. So, I did make extra for grab-and-go this past week.


I know a few of you work at home, and some of you work in education and so have summers at home. What sort of items do those of you who eat at home, prepare for your lunches? I'm looking for new ideas for things to fix, using fairly basic ingredients.

_______________________________________________________