Grids, Gardens and the Entourage

The raised beds, squash patch and
of course, wine glasses.

We have been busy little bees this week. The weekend was gloriously productive, even with the kids around! We got a load of dirt delivered and we filled our raised bed garden boxes on Saturday. It was a sweaty, dirty day that ended in a nice chilled glass of wine. We planted plants and seeds on Sunday, and watered everything down. 

This is our first year with a veggie garden, and we didn't want to get too overwhelmed with weeding and everything, so we decided to go with the raised bed, square-foot garden. We have read some great things about the yield of veg and the ease of the actual gardening. 

The spoons have sprouted nicely! :)

The premise is pretty straight forward. You build a box, fill it with dirt, and make a grid of square feet (hence the strings on ours), and then each square gets a plant allotment based on their requirements. For example, peppers and tomatoes get one plant per square, where lettuce plants get 4 and carrots get 16. I made some markers out of plastic spoons so we knew what was where and now we wait. If you look reeeeeeeally closely in this next picture, you can see that I've given my thumbs up to the teeny tiny lil' sprouts we're getting... yay! This picture was taken on Thursday, so they've had about  four days to grow. 

Anyways, keep your fingers crossed for us, we're nervous-excited about it, and really hopeful that we get a good crop. 

Sorry to bother you, Tysie.

May 26, 2016

This week we saw a new bottle in the LCBO, called Entourage by Jackson Triggs (the bottle we had was the 2011, this link is for the 2013). Please note: one of Shane's favourite shows of all time is Entourage, so we couldn't have skipped it even if we had wanted to. Luckily, it came highly recommended by our Champagne Guy. 

This one had a very aggressive cork pop. It was a good thing that Shane had a good hold of it, otherwise who knows where it would've ended up, perhaps upstairs.

On the nose, it has a slightly sweet, bready smell. The first few sips were very tart, very dry and a little acidic (in  a good way). It has a very creamy mouth feel. After a glass, the tart gave way to a sour candy taste, a little sweet and a little sour-tart mixed together. The dryness was pretty much gone. 

There wasn't much in the way of different flavours, but it was really good. It is a solid, straightforward bubbly. Now, this one was a bit more expensive than we tend to go for - about $5 more. We don't regret spending the extra money on it, because it was very good. That being said, we aren't sure that it's worth the extra $5 on a regular basis. But it's quite lovely, and we would probably get it again sometime, maybe for a medium-special occasion (not a very special occasion, like an anniversary, but a medium special occasion, like a birthday or promotion... you get it). 

~S

• Brand: Jackson Triggs
• Type of Grape: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
• Sweetness: 12g/L
• Price: $24.95
• Tasting Notes: Clean, dry bubbly, nicely tart and acidic notes. Would pair nicely with sushi, or an Asian noodle dish.