Coffee Bean, Rose, and more Volunteers!

Look at what I saw while walking around the garden (in between weeding, of course).

Remember the Coffee Blooms ? Here's the first bean I've found. I guess I'll be able to make a baby doll teacup sized coffee.



Here is a pretty pink rose in bloom, with several more buds. This poor rose was once the queen of this bed, but now the Coneflower has taken over and the rose often gets lost and overlooked - not today though!



And look at this brave sunflower. It grew in a pot with a young maple that is waiting to be planted. And it did grow out horizontally like this.



And here is a Cleome a.k.a. Spider flower. We had one last year and it self-seeded, yeah! I found two in the bed where it was last year and one growing in another bed. Here it is early in the day, and then in the evening.



And my last volunteer for today is this Oregano plant. When we first moved into this house, six years ago, I brought an oregano plant in a container from my apartment. Prior to living in a container on the apartment balcony, it lived in the ground at my old house, where I grew it from seed. The second or third year we lived here, I planted the oregano in the back of the vegetable garden where it grows quite nicely. Before it found that home, however, it dropped it's seed, here in the crack of a stairwell and it comes back year after year. How it ever grew to begin with, and how it comes back year after year, amazes me. You see, there is no dirt. Right now there are some dead leaves/grasses covering the base and I have to make sure it's watered almost every day, but somehow it survives and thrives here, just growing out of a crack in the stair.

Coffee Blooms

Being that it is too wet to even walk in the swamp I call a vegetable garden, and the flower beds are pretty soaked as well, today I will write about one of our potted plants and our first coffee flowers. It's so very exciting. I didn't even think this plant would ever bloom, but would just be a nice foliage houseplant.

Let me introduce you to our coffee plant, formal name "Coffea arabica". We bought this plant at a local home store several years ago. At that time it was small enough that planted would fit very nicely into a styrofoam coffee cup. But how quickly it's grown. It doesn't like direct sunlight, especially outside. Some years we don't even bring it out in the summer, because even the slightest bit of direct sun causes the leaves to burn (as they are here) - and it's barely in the sun, just the tiniest bit of morning sun which can't be avoided as we don't have an awning over our deck.

The other morning John came to get me to show me something on the deck. Surprise! Flowers on the coffee plant. The flowers only last a couple of days and are lightly scented. I can't wait to see if we will get some beans, although I'm sure not enough for a cup of coffee.

Lemon Tree Oh So Pretty...

This is our biggest Lemon crop yet. Four lemons from our Ponderosa Lemon Tree ! Yes it is possible to grow citrus in Pittsburgh. You just need to bring them in during the winter and give them a sunny location, don't overwater, and once it starts to warm up outside they can go back out. We bring them in when nights are below 50 degrees F, especially if they have flowers or new fruit set on them. I used these lemons as a marinade for Coconut-Crusted Chicken. Here is the recipe. It was very tasty.

Coconut Cashew Crusted Chicken

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened is ok)

1/2 cup cashews (raw is better)

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 limes or 1 large lemon

2 tablespoons of your favorite marinade (i.e. tequila lime, ginger soy)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup flour

1. Slice chicken breast into thin flat strips - 3 or 4 per breast

2. Grate the zest from you citrus and set aside. Juice your citrus and add to your marinade mixture. Let the chicken marinate in the for at least 30 minutes.

3. Chop the cashews into small pieces. Combine with the coconut, cilantro and zest in a shallow bowl.

4. Put the flour in a shallow bowl. Mix the egg with 1 tablespoon of water and put this in another shallow bowl.

5. Coat the marinated chicken pieces in flour, then egg, then the coconut mixture.

6. Place in a baking pan. When all pieces are coated, bake at 375 degrees until chicken is cooked.

This is very good served with honey mustard and was also good cold.