Veggie Chompers

  Come join me for my first seed swap UNBOXING : Watch my YouTube video  to see all the beautiful varieties I got! SPECIAL THANKS to Jill from Whispering Willow Farm on Youtube and Instagram. This was my first seed swap.  If you are curious to see what seeds I sent for this seed swap, you can read my preparation post right here .   -Mel-

  Stroganoff is typically a beef dish with a mushroom and sour cream sauce served with egg noodles.  Except the mushrooms, nothing is really plant-based in the traditional recipe, right?!   Today, I'm sharing with you my own vegan version of a stroganoff, using fresh mushrooms, zesty Lightlife ground and a delicious homemade cashew cream sauce.  Perfect for a weekday, this recipe is quick, easy and REALLY tasty.   Start by bringing a pot of water to boil and cook your pasta according to the instructions on the package.  You can use any pasta you like.  We really like farfalles so this is what I'm using today. While the water is heating up, chop the onion and slice the mushrooms.  I'm using white mushrooms today, but you could use any type of mushroom.  Cremini mushrooms are a good choice for this recipe. Then, put all the ingredients a high speed blender and mix the cashew cream sauce for 1 minute.  The sauce might seems liquidy, but it will thicken up when heated in the pa

I know many of you are thinking about starting a garden this year.  That was me last year!  I learned a lot during my first year gardening, but there are some things that I wish I knew before I started my first garden.  Not that those things would have discouraged me from gardening, but I certainly would have been more prepared. Since the sun exposure isn't the best in our backyard, we opted to grow many vegetables in containers and built raised beds in my mother's backyard.  Of course, we had to fill those raised beds and containers with soil.  A LOT of soil!! I learned that black earth is not nutritious enough for your plants to thrive.  You want the soil in your garden to be rich and nutritious in mineral.  Therefore, you want to fill your garden beds with soil made for gardening.   Filling your garden beds with good quality soil can be expensive.  I suggest checking with your local nurseries to know the prices of soil per yard and then making a budget, at least 3 months bef

  I haven't received my seeds from Whispering Willow Farm seed swap yet, but I did receive my 2021 seed order.   My seed collection is growing and I actually can't believe how many different variety of seeds I have.  I can only dream about the different colorful vegetables that are going to grow in my garden this year.   Since I really value the act of sharing and I also want to meet new people in the gardening community, I was very happy to accept Nikky's invitation to her seed swap.  Nikky's YouTube channel is Our Simple Life, where she shares simple projects related to gardening and homesteading.  -This is an online swap (you send your seeds and you wait for your swaps to arrive by mail) -It was 10$ USD to participate -You have to send 25 packets, they can be same or different varieties -Each packet must contain between 5 and 10 seeds -All seeds must be heirloom varieties -It can be seeds you saved from your garden or seeds you bought -Make sure you label your packe