by Noel | Mar 20, 2020 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
Starting seeds is critical to my vegetable garden. Buying live plants is cost-prohibitive and only by starting seeds can I grow exactly what I want. The flats above are bottom heated with a heat mat. A sheet of plywood between the mat and the flats mitigates and spreads the otherwise too intense heat of the mat. The mat is connected to a timer, 15 minutes heat on, 60 minutes off. The unit doesn’t have a thermostat so this works reasonably well. The lights...
by Anneliese | Mar 18, 2020 | CobraHead, Recipes
Several months ago I found myself housebound due to illness. I started feeling better after a while, but I still wasn’t really feeling up for leaving the house. I needed something to do with my time. Maybe baking? I’d heard about no-knead bread years ago, but I truly didn’t believe it was as easy as the recipe claimed it was. Since I now had extra time on my hands, I figured I’d give it a go. Spoiler: it was as easy as the recipe said, and...
by Judy | Mar 6, 2020 | CobraHead, Recipes
This recipe was adapted from the cook book ‘Vegetarian Planet’ by Didi Emmons. The spices and peanut butter work really well and give it a nice flavor. A lot of times my homemade soups lack depth and I add veggie broth to give them a little umami but this combination seems to carry itself. Enjoy! 1 T. olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger 1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin seeds 1 1/2 tsp ground...
by Noel | Dec 12, 2019 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
Every garden year is different. Because I grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, I can usually be assured that I’ll get some good harvests of most things, even if occasional failures occur. Thirty-three years of growing in the same area also contribute a lot of knowledge of how things work and increase the chance of success. Peppers, Sweet and Hot This year we had a better than average and most bountiful harvest of peppers, both sweet and hot....
by Judy | Dec 11, 2019 | CobraHead, Gardening, Recipes
Vegetable bean soup is one of our standby dishes in the fall and winter. I make it every couple of weeks in the Instant Pot. Using the Instant Pot is a very carefree way of making this soup but you can certainly cook it on the stove top. The basics of the soup are the same each time but you can vary it by the type of beans and veggies and herbs you use. I used a mix of fresh and frozen garden vegetables. Unlike our Capucijner pea soup, the...
by Noel | Nov 26, 2019 | CobraHead
With a lot of help from Andy, I got my garden beds completely covered with a thick layer of leaves. I do this every year. The effect on the soil is amazing. The leaves suppress weed growth over the winter and continue to be mulch in the paths well into the summer. We almost didn’t get the leaves off the lawn this year. I had raked a few piles, but an early snow followed by lots of rain left me wondering whether I would get leaves into the garden at all....
