Temecula Farmers Market

Yesterday morning we finally went to the Temecula Farmer Market. I do not know why we never went before this; I think it is  because we thought we would do so when we eventually move to Temecula. Anyway, I am glad we did but sorry I did not have my Nikon SLR camera with me. I took some photos with my iphone.

We were  pleasantly surprise at how large the market is. Much bigger and nicer than the Santa Monica. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Mushroom vendor with all kinds of delicious fresh mushrooms. In the background you can see a vendor selling succulents potted up in hanging baskets and various other containers.

My California Pepper Tree is not what I think it is!

Pink Pepper berries

This property is blessed by 3 California Pepper  Schinus Molle trees. It provides shade and beauty on the west side of our house. They appealed to me because of their weeping willow like shape. The leaves will sway in the wind gracefully. In the fall and winter beautiful strings of red berries (peppercorn) drape down from the trees. It remain green 12 months of the year.

Following our principle of edible landscaping, we had to examine if this plant will contribute to our gardening scheme. It already had a lot going for it, as it was providing filtered shade for a growing area- the planter boxes. This will provide a micro climate in the hot Temecula garden.

Lemons from tree to jars

Even before I could reach my Meyer Lemon tree, I could hear the noisy buzzing of bees hard at work and  smell the absolutely divine fragrance of lemon blossoms. My Meyer Lemon tree in Temecula is small, about waist high in height and maybe 4 feet in diameter. Even so it was so heavy with an abundant crop of beautiful, delicious sunshine yellow lemons. I decided to harvest as many of the lemons as I could, to lessen the strain on the tree as the new crop of lemons were developing on the tree. From all appearances, even more fruits will form as the little tree was still pumping out fragrant  blossoms.

So many lemons! Feels like a commercial harvest.

Although I was the only one harvesting the lemons, I was still shocked when I saw the filled crate of lemons. I had to stop harvesting as there was no way I could use all the lemons in a short time. This is posting is about what I have made with them so far.... not very much.

Lemon, Lemon, Lemon

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. But when life gives you LEMONS unlimited, you better think of what else to do!! The Meyer Lemon tree in both my houses are pumping out lemons like crazy. I use the lemons for lemonade, for marinade, for Greek Lemon rice soup Avegolemono and lemon infused desserts. There is still so many lemons left on the kitchen counter and still on the tree.

If only I was not so busy right now, I could be in my kitchen tinkering with delicious creations. But let me tell you something- just looking at the fruit laden lemon trees just puts a smile on me :)

Meyer Lemons galore! They are extremely juicy, flavorful and fragrant. As you can see lots of fruits of various sizes on the tree.

Metal Planting Boxes

We knew we wanted to build planting boxes for our vegetable garden. Our zone 24 garden we builded the boxes out of recycled lumber. This time round for our Temecula zone 18 garden, we were inspired by Sunset Garden article How to build raised beds with  scrap metal. Two pictures of inspirational garden below.

It was amazing how difficult it was to find salvage metal sheet at a reasonable price. What ended happening was we had planter made out of new steel plates at a cheaper price! The boxes had to have braces on the inside  to keep its shape. Our planter boxes were of various sizes. We kept the width of the boxes to 4 ft wide so that we that we can reach the plants from both sides.

Earthworks and ground cover

We took out all the plants that surrond the pool, with the exception of the citrus trees at the edges of pad.  Remember, we are sticking to the motto if you cannot eat it, you cannot grow it! Out went the Phoenix Roebelenni or Pygmy Date  Palms, some Bird of Paradise, a couple of Queen palms.....it was tough to stay focus and get rid of those plants :( The landscapers took away the plants that were removed to be used in other homes, if that helps....

We struggled with what ground cover to install around the pool which seems to beg for cool, green grass lawn. With water being so expensive, we knew it was not the right thing to install. We considered artificial turf but it was extremely expensive and we were not sure how it would stand up to Temecula's scorching summers. Finally we decided to go with small pebbles which we could remove and use in other parts of the property if we did not like how it turned out.

We leveled the whole pad, laid down weed block over the whole area. Experience taught us that weed block laid down at this stage, will dramatically cut down weeding down the road. It allows water to permeate while at the same time prevent the weeds from sprouting.

Creating a path.......

We finally broke into the piles of slate slabs and used them to create a walking path within the wall courtyard, at the door and along the courtyard wall. We broke the slates into large pieces which we then laid like a puzzle pieces to form the path. We filled the crevices with small stones to create a stable path.