Good Things List No.83: Early Spring Garden, The BEST Skillet, Berry Enclosure, Books & More

Good things to do, buy, read, and watch! This month’s list includes the early spring garden, a new skillet I’m in love with, a cover for the berry beds to keep out deer, eight book reviews and more.

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Happy April! In the pacific northwest April is a month of all kinds of weather, but it’s usually colder than we’d like to think it should be. I mean, it’s spring right? Why do we still have lows in the 30s and average highs in the low 50s?

It’s because all the fashion advertisements are showing flowy spring floral dresses and tops and we’re still here in our sweaters and rain boots!

But it’s the occasional full-blue-sky-day and teasing temperatures in the 60s (and sometimes – joy – low 70s) that get us through and help us to know that real spring with warmer temps is on the way.

My flowy dresses are waiting in the wings. In the meantime, how about a list of some good things? If nothing else in this list gets you, please make sure to check out the skillet – I really, really, want to sing it’s praises to everyone!

Good Things

Early Spring Garden

Above is one of the beds in our vegetable garden that holds fall-sown Walla-Walla onions and small spinach transplants I started indoors in February like this.

I’m trying Charles Dowding‘s method of planting new starts much smaller than I normally do – he recommends planting right after the first true leaves have emerged. I transplanted those in the photo about 2 weeks before and they haven’t grown much, just starting to put out another set of leaves.

While it’s been cold, obviously, spinach likes it colder and this bed has been covered with a frost row cover. We’ll see how they progress! I wanted to try getting them out sooner as spinach bolts so quickly here as soon as it warms up and I’d love to be able to harvest a bit longer.

The deer resistant herb and flower garden is starting it’s 5th year and to cut it back a few weeks ago required a hedge trimmer (the Lavender Provence is no joke…). Quite a difference from where we started, right?

I really wanted to get more spring bulbs planted in the fall, but it wasn’t easy to get between the plants! I’ve lost quite a few alliums and iris to gophers, but they seem to leave the daffodils alone, so maybe I just need more of those.

Side Note: After a full year, do you think I’ll actually fill and plant that lovely green Birdie’s Bed next to the house this year, lol?

Carbon Steel Skillet I’m Loving

I was using this pre-seasoned carbon steel skillet just this morning to fry eggs (I sautéed chopped onions first in butter and fried the eggs right in them for the first time and it was *chef’s kiss*) and was thinking that I MUST tell you about this pan!

After trying a number of non-stick skillets, including the newer ceramic types (they consistently do NOT stay non-stick for long) I’m here to say that this pan is the answer. It’s basically like cast iron but without the heavy weight!

The thing that kept me from carbon steel before now was the initial seasoning, as I read it was hard and time-consuming to get it to the non-stick point. Then I read this article from Wirecutter that declared the best steel carbon pan was this OXO version that came pre-seasoned and immediately non-stick. AND, it’s not $100 which is what I’d seen other pans priced at.

Sold. When it came I used it and seasoned it similar to what I do with my cast iron, and was sold again. Does the seasoning look discolored? Yes, you can see that it isn’t an even color in the photo above. My husband scrubbed it a little too good the first time because he didn’t know it wasn’t regular non-stick and I worried it would affect it. I seasoned it again (I use either bacon grease or avocado oil, but less than the cast iron) and hoped for the best, even though the color didn’t even out. Thankfully it still works like a charm! So it’s tough – I LOVE it. (Although according to this article, the pan should be discolored after use!)

The biggest tips I got from researching using carbon steel:

1. Do not heat it on high without anything in it – and in fact don’t use high heat if at all possible. This pan heats up so well that stir fry does great at medium-high, so I’ve found I don’t need it.
2. Heat the pan on medium for a minute or so and then add your butter or oil. Let that heat for 5-10 seconds and add your food. NO sticking.
3. Use enough fat when cooking! This will never be the dry-pan-non-stick kind of cooking, though you can use less the more seasoned the pan gets through repeated use.
4. Wash it out with warm water – it’s okay to use a tiny bit of soap if needed occasionally, but you shouldn’t need to – dry it and set on low heat while you grab your grease or oil. Turn off heat, add a small amount of oil (smaller than a dime) and rub it in well with a rag or paper towel. Rub it in really well – there should be no streaks of oil left. Let it cool on the warm stovetop before storing (warmth in seasoning is important – it opens the pores of the steel for the oil to penetrate).

This pan is supposed to last my lifetime and beyond – between my 10-inch cast iron and this 12-inch steel pan (oh, and both work on induction stoves) I don’t see myself needing to buy another skillet – ever! Well, unless the smaller cast iron becomes too heavy, but it will be carbon steel all the way then. (TIP: Look for a glass lid at thrift stores big enough to cover it if you don’t have one for steaming or melting cheese.)

• OXO 12″ pre-seasoned carbon steel skillet at Amazon.
• 10″ pan at Crate & Barrel.
• 12″ pan at OXO website.

Berry Bed Deer Protection

Last year we created a new area at the back of the farmhouse with raised beds for berry plants. The berries growing in the fenced vegetable garden don’t get enough sun and so don’t produce as much and I LOVE berries. They are expensive to buy and so I thought it would be worth it to use this grassy, full sun area for berries.

And the deer thought so, too. They loved the small struggling berry plants so much all last summer, eating the new growth and tips before I even knew it! So we started trying to deter them by:

• We put up a “fence” of t-posts and string and shiny things – they walked right through it.
• I sprayed the plants with smelly deer spray – that worked for less than a week.
• We bought a motion-activated sprinkler since it works for lots of people in my family – I watched the deer munch away as the sprinkler went off over and over, spraying them with water.
• Finally to keep them from eating them down to the roots, I covered them with netting – the deer ate everything that stuck out even an inch from the netting.

Ugh. Do NOT talk to me about how cute deer are.

As I searched for fencing that might work, I came across these metal-and-wire covered cages that are marketed as chicken runs/coops. They are lightweight and come in various sizes, including one that matched our measurements almost exactly. We also have water pipes and electrical coming from the house that we were worried about digging into for posts, so this removed the need for any digging at all.

I chose a black version (our exact one is sold out now, but a smaller one is available) to disappear more into the landscape, but you can get silver metal versions, too. It wasn’t hard to put together, but did take an afternoon. I like how it looked, except for the fact that the zip ties included are white which stick out, even when they’re cut back (though we do need to finish cutting them all!).

Was it expensive? Probably more than I should’ve paid for this type of thing, but at this point it’s all about thwarting the deer – I’m so discouraged by them that this is a little victory for me. The bonus is that I won’t have to share these berries with the birds like I do in the veggie garden.

Look for more on this area, including how we built it, the watering system we set up and what I’ve already learned!

March Books Read

Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Grow Old, Brook Shields. Some of this book was interesting and her intent was good – to empower women of a certain age to speak out for their own health. But it got bogged down for me with too much of her own issues and harping on specific themes again and again. I skimmed through the last part.

You Are Here, David Nichols. I saw this book on many people’s lists so I grabbed it on a 2-for-1 sale on Audible. I will say it’s very British, especially the idea of a walking “holiday” in the rain and over rugged terrain. That’s just something that we Americans call hiking or backpacking and it would be for pretty hardy people, not just anyone with a week’s vacation, lol. I did enjoy the storyline of this – two of the people on the walk start to hit it off in a very realistic way and you root for them to get together. I was all in until the end – of course. After months apart we don’t get to experience their finishing the walk or what they are like together without all the angst – not even a little bit. Sigh.

Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy. I enjoyed this sweet story after getting through the first half that told about the day-to-day sad life of 82-year-old Helen who’s lost both her husband and son and sees no reason to keep living. Then she discovers a friendly mouse of all things (here’s where I had trouble – a mouse? friendly?), that gives her something to think and care about. We discover she wasn’t always alone and unknown and through trying to take care of the mouse she meets neighbors who care about her and add joy to her life again.

Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis. This book of the revolutionary generation won a Pulitzer Prize and has been on my Audible TBR list for ages. Brian and I listened to it together and while it was so interesting in places (for example, we learned that Thomas Jefferson was a habitual liar who went behind other’s backs to tell a different story!), we both agreed that the editor failed this author. It was so much longer than it needed to be with many passages that repeated themselves, either verbatim (we thought we had repeated a chapter!) or in theme. This made it way more of a slog than it should’ve been with the truly interesting and enlightening history of how our country was founded.

Chasing Vines, Beth Moore. I’ve enjoyed a number of Beth Moore’s books, but this one didn’t really hit the mark for me. Or actually it did in the first few chapters (I especially resonated with the idea of the hard pruning needed for grape vines to flourish and how that could be a metaphor for our lives), but then it just went on and on about vines and soil and manure and water and…I get it. I think this idea could’ve been condensed into a much shorter book.

To Love and To Loathe, Martha Waters. This is book 2 in the series called The Regency Vows and follows a widow and a Marquess who’ve known each other since childhood, sparring and fighting along the way. We of course know that was just a cover for their real feelings, lol. While this was written in a fun way with banter and such, too many of the storylines felt icky to me – especially the main one – and also how they talk to one another. The book is more open door in the spicy level.

The Keeper of Lost Things, Ruth Hogan. A reader suggested this book and it was a really sweet, refreshing read, even though there are quite a few sad and tragic things that happen. The characters growth and development and the connections of people through their lost things was the highlight, as was the happy ending for me.

The Ride of Her Life, Elizabeth Letts. This was another reader suggestion and I really enjoyed this historical retelling of the cross-country journey in 1954 of Annie Wilkins and her dog and horses from Maine to California over the course of a year. It’s not only her story, though, but a peek into the rural life of people in the 1950s and how much was changing and would change (cars, highways, TV). The juxtaposition of how Annie was living on a Maine farm and how others were living was amazing, really, and illustrated best how fast the changes were happening to American society (and have continued in the decades since, actually).

Watching

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013 Ben Stiller version), Amazon. We watched this with our daughter and her new husband at their suggestion and it was surprisingly good! Not as slapstick as I had thought it would be with Ben Stiller and actually quite emotionally mature and thoughtful.

Severance Season 2, AppleTV. We bought a month of AppleTV just to watch the second season of this show – it’s probably one of Brian’s favorite shows ever. It was good – the visuals and world building are excellent and the story quirky and mysterious.

That’s it for another addition of the Good Things List!

If you’d like to see more of what I’m enjoying, you can check out all the Good Things Lists here. I’d love to know what you think – if you’ve tried any of these or what you’d recommend. Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

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