Why I Oughta...

After toiling along with our Ostrich Ferns in our back/side yard for the past two seasons, I took the plunge and picked up a Japanese Painted Fern - Athyrium niponicum 'Pictum' and planted it in our shade garden right next to some hostas.  My mother-in-law tells me that she's had limited luck with getting ferns to come back every year, but I'll be babying this one and hoping I can get it to bounce back next Spring.

While we're not filling bushels of Strawberries, our little plant is throwing off enough fruit to have the Babe eat fresh off the plant berries for breakfast three mornings this week.  When I asked her if she knew where food comes from, she responded how any two year old who pals around with her mother every day would:  "Trader Joe's". Well...that's *kinda* right, but with each picking of these berries in the mornings, she's hopefully starting to understand that with some care (and no pesticides!), food can come from the earth - right in your backyard.

I picked up a Humulus lupulas 'Aureus' Golden Hops vine and planted it on the north side of our house along the fence.  These are the same hops that one would use in the beer making process.  Everything I've read tells me that this season's harvest will be very limited, but by next fall, we'll have a bumper crop of hops that I hope I'll be able to turn over to my brother-in-laws to process into their latest batch of home brew.

He sure looks cute, doesn't he?  That's the front page of the Elmhurst Press.  Who - in the same issue - trumpeted the fact that they're one of the best newspapers in the state.  

Last week as we were walking around Downtown Elmhurst, we spotted a 'opening soon' sign on a new boutique located at 132 N. Addison called " Rouse ".  They're opening up in the space that was at one time a wedding gown boutique.  It is a really neat building (which you can see more of in the photo below) with a big parking lot right south of the store.  That's good news for these new boutique owners.  Not to mention the proposed development right across the street from them that, if built, will bring even more retail, office and parking to the City Center. Based on the signs, me thinks they're going to focus on women and compete with the likes of Enzee.  The one twist appears to be the fact that they're going to offer 'workshops' of some sort.  I'm rooting for them to open soon and to - more importantly for Elmhurst - succeed in a big way!

Down what I consider an alley, but the city of Elmhurst calls "Shiller Street" is a postered-up restaurant space that is listed as "Nu Crepes".  The signs on the window say 'Coming Spring 2012', but thus far they're not opened yet.  There's this listing in Chicago Magazine which bills the place as: "A fast-casual, 40-seat spot with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert crêpes, including egg-ba con-cheese, barbecue chicken, and banger toastie, a flavor paying homage to a Dublin favorite." Based on some of the posts elsewhere on the web , it appears that they secured the construction permits in late Februrary.  The place also has some fans already from when they were selling crepes at the Elmhurst Farmers Market.   This will be the first of what I think are 3 spots in the Shiller Court development.  I hope these guys get this place up off the ground and that they spot develops into a huge success story.  The Addison Street development -

Along with the Sugar Pumpkins I put in the ground, I recently put down some seeds for these Boston Marrow 'pumpkins' (I use the term pumpkins here because that is technically what the package says, but....look at 'em.  They're totally gourds!) and these Green Hubbard Winter Squash.  The Boston Marrows came from Menards, but the Green Hubbards were part of a seed packet gift my mother-in-law gave to me called the Beekman 1802 Heirloom Garden .    They both have 100+ days until full maturity, and these babies are for eatin', so they'll be ripe right around the end of October/beginning of November.  Just in time for pies - and for (potentially) The Bird getting ready to eat some solid meals of puree'd squash.