February: Three Things to do in Your Home and Garden

If you live here in Southern California, it’s time to pick some lemons, sharpen your shears, and start some Spring seeds! Here are three projects to make use of seasonal produce and get ready for spring, which is around the corner.

Make Lemon Bars

I don’t think we ever made lemon bars growing up in my house, but I still remember them as a childhood favorite from school bake sales. Now, as a mother with two meyer lemon trees in my yard, I’ve re-connected with my long lost love for lemon bars.

This recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman’s lemon square recipe in his book How To Cook Everything. It is simple, delicious, made of whole foods, and perhaps a bit healthier with substitutions of coconut sugar for cane sugar and ground oats for wheat flour. The tangy sweetness of these lemon bars delivers sunshine to kitchen table for a post-puddle-jumping snack with a cup of hot tea.

Lemon Bars

Makes 1- 2 dozen squares

Time: About 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter softened plus a bit to grease the pan

1 cup coconut sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons ground oats into flour (you can use a coffee grinder or vitamix blender)

2 eggs

½ teaspoon baking soda

grated or minced zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8” square baking pan
Cream butter with ¼ cup of the coconut sugar.
Stir in 1 cup of the flour.
This mixture should be very dry. Press into the greased pan and bake for no longer than 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool slightly but not all the way.
Beat together the eggs, lemon juice, baking soda, remaining sugar and flour, and lemon zest.
Pour over the crust and bake about 20 minutes or until firm around the edges but soft in the middle.
Cool, cut into squares, and serve.
Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

2. Prune Your Fruit Trees

As soon as the rains are finished, it’s time to prune your backyard fruit trees while they’re still dormant because they won’t be for much longer. You’re probably already seeing buds on branches. Pruning your trees keeps them healthy for the following reasons:

Removes dead wood
Keeps light and air circulating around the branches, helping fruit production
Keeps the tree strong and balanced to bear fruit

There are lots of pruning resources online. You can try a Youtube video from Dave Wilson Nursery or read from your local Agricultural extension program. Here’s a resource from UC ANR about the basics of pruning in your backyard orchard.

3. Start Spring Seeds

Right now is the perfect time to pull out your seeds from storage, swap or buy new spring crops. You can start early spring vegetables and cool season herbs such as:

beets, celery, carrots, chard, dill, endive, fennel, kale, leeks, lettuce, parsley, peas, radishes, and spinach. If you’re really excited for summer, you can also start warm season summer veggies like eggplant and tomatoes indoors.

Here are a few seed starting tips:

Use good organic potting soil. Your soil is your plant’s food.
Some seeds - like root veggies- like to be directly sown in your garden bed, while others - like leafy greens- are happy to be started in trays and transplanted. Check your seed packs to see if they specify which is which.

Finally, if you’re lucky enough to have a seed company local to you, give them a go. We have The Plant Good Seed Company based in Ojai near us, and pretty much everything we try from them grows well since the seeds were bred in the same climate.