late plantings: the first harvest and some roughs

It seems like I'm spending this summer playing a little catch-up. I've been working on a few different sets of drawings, some for my personal work and some for the Etsy shops I've put on hiatus. I'm planning on splitting my Etsy work into two shops, one which I have yet to open: Pen and Paper will transition to DIY printable stationary and gifts in PDF form, and the new shop - Ink and Ginger - will feature my silhouette and drawing work.



Here are a couple pencil layouts for the "Coney Island" drawings, based on Depression-era sideshow attractions.

Meanwhile, my garden is finally delivering some goods despite a late planting!



It's a modest harvest, but enough to shine in tonight's dinner. That's red shiso on the left, and the first cherry belle radish (which I picked a little prematurely) on the right. I dressed both of them in a mixture of toasted sesame oil, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper and served it with some freshly cooked rice and lentils.

Sadly, the seedlings I photographed in the last post all died. I think some fungus gnats got in through the screen and wiped them out. Luckily I have enough seeds for another planting but it's a bummer all the same.

sprouts

After realizing that the cheerful songbirds whose company I previously enjoyed so much probably made off with most of my surface-planted seeds (you're welcome, assholes) I decided to start some plants indoors and transplant them later. Some of them are really taking off! I planted the seeds three days ago and these are the ones that are already showing:


Chamomile. Look at how charming and tiny they are!


Arugula sprouts. These guys are coming up so strong! Seeing them indoors convinced me that the birds and squirrels got most of the seeds I planted outside. There's only one lonely plant in the entire plot when there should be a gazillion.


Iwai daikon radishes. I bought these seeds from a company that specializes in Asian vegetables, herbs, and fruit. This particular daikon is very dainty, growing up to 1" in diameter in full maturity, and is a traditional vegetable used in Japanese New Year's dishes. I'm really looking forward to harvesting lots of these. The seeds are really easy to plant and they sprout really quickly, but the nature of their harvest means I'll need to keep sprouts, um, sprouting on constant rotation to make the most of them. I'm thinking of pickling some of them to make them last longer - maybe even saving them for New Year's!


Mizuna mustard. This is really good in salads or very briefly wilted in a hot pan with some sesame oil, ginger, and garlic.

Sorry for the lack of art posts, I have some really awesome stuff to show you once I get the green light!