What's Happening at Frog Hollow Farm

Well, FHFB and I are back from our 9 day road trip through Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland!  I don't know about you, but I am always anxious to get home, no matter how wonderful a trip has been.  We both missed our home, and really missed planning and cooking our own healthy, delicious meals.  Driving back to the farmhouse was so wonderful the other evening - the lilac bushes and dogwood trees in our field were all in full bloom, the bluebirds had nested again in our bluebird house, one of our Christmas cactuses had blossomed unexpectedly, the asparagus was up in the garden, the vegetable seedlings were doing well, and our two cats Olive and Finn were milling around the back porch waiting for someone to let them in.  Even while we were away, Frog Hollow Farm was busy getting ready for spring!

The Dead Nettle had bloomed in our Wine Garden.  Isn't that an awful name for such a pretty little pale pink flower?

The Yellow Corydalis volunteers had blossomed in cracks and crevices throughout the Wine Garden and along the fence.

The early spring bulbs were still showing their colors and mingling in with the other perennials. 

Frog Hollow Farm Boy's organic seeds had sprouted in our conservatory.  So far he's planted brocolli, parsley, sunflowers, hollyhocks, heirloom tomatoes, beets and arugula. 

Some of the seeds are in clay pots in the conservatory and some are in the vegetable garden. This is basil to the right...

Hollyhocks

          Heirloom Tomatoes - Brandywine

Our asparagus has popped through the ground and is growing in abundance.  We like to roast and grill it - and I like to blanche it for salads.  We inherited a very large established asparagus patch when we purchased Frog Hollow Farm - it still produces so much asparagus!

Here's a photo of that pretty pink/orangey Christmas cactus that's currently in bloom...it's from my mother's collection of plants so it means a lot to me that it is so happy that it blooms in April!

  And my favorite, favorite, favorite flower of all.....LILACS!  We have several old, large standard light colored lilac bushes that came with the property.  FHFB is so sweet and knows how much I love lilacs - he's planted several other colors of lilac bushes around the property for me and we received a beautiful white lilac bush from a very dear friend who is also a plant lover and foodie! 

So much is going on and as I said earlier I'm anxious to getting back to cooking and keeping Frog Hollow Farm comfortable and pretty.  When we were visiting Monticello we saw the bluestone floor of the conservatory.

Monticello Conservatory Floor

So, I've been inspired to put bluestone on our Frog Hollow Farm conservatory floor - I think it will be the perfect floor for that room, functional and attractive! 

Back to my favorite thing to do:  cook!  Tonight's aperitivo

(served around 6pm if you're in the area)...

Hummus with fresh vegetable crudites

Caprese salad with organic tomatoes and basil

Emeril's Chicken Patty Pockets

(Martha Stewart's Everyday Food - April 2010)

Roasted Asparagus

It's good to be back home! 

Ciao, bella!