by Noel | Apr 6, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening
This is my asparagus, which I planted in 1989. The picture was taken just before I cut down the stalks from last season’s growth. A lot of gardeners cut their stalks back in the fall, but I’ve read several sources which say it makes more sense to let the stalks keep growing and feeding the roots as long as possible. I normally cut the stalks back in March, but this March was too cold to want to do anything in the garden, so it didn’t happen until the first warm...
by Judy | Mar 30, 2014 | CobraHead, Recipes
This is my version of a stuffed gordita (masa cake) recipe that I tried with a filling of pinto beans and cheese. The traditional gordita is stuffed like a pita pocket. Though they were very tasty the first time I made them I thought they were much too heavy with more masa than filling. So the next time I tried them as an open-faced version. Here’s the recipe: Gorditas: 2 cups masa harina (not cornmeal) 3/4 tsp. salt 1/2 cup olive oil 1 cup water Pinto or Black...
by Noel | Jan 29, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening
Sweet potatoes store well, but they don’t keep forever. Above are the last of our 2012 harvest. These were dug up 15 months ago. They will still be edible, but we need to use them up as soon as possible. They’ve begun to sprout and that’s a good thing. For the last two years I’ve grown my sweet potatoes using sprouts like this, rather than starting new sprouts on a whole potato. This method is much easier. Vine cuttings would work nearly as well. The sprouts...
by Geoff | Jan 22, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening
Last weekend, my dad, Noel, visited me in Austin, so I put him to work helping me in the garden. It was mid-January; that meant onion planting time. To start your own onion seedlings indoors, you should do so 8-10 weeks prior to planting. In Austin, that would have meant sowing them in October. Since I hadn’t done that we first went to the Natural Gardener, where I picked up Southern Belle red, Bermuda white, and Texas 1015 yellow seedlings. All three...
by Judy | Jan 20, 2014 | CobraHead, Recipes
As soon as I saw this sweet potato cream cheese pie recipe in the local newspaper a few months back I knew I needed to try it. But I didn’t want to use a traditional flour pie crust. I knew that a nutty pie crust would balance the sweetness of the filling, so I held off on trying the recipe until I found a crust that was all nuts and no flour. A few other changes were made too. Maple syrup was substituted for sugar in the filling and the spices were increased...
by Noel | Jan 18, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening
This seed storage system is easy and inexpensive. It uses readily available off-the shelf CD storage boxes and zip-lock sandwich bags. It can be expanded as needed. Instructions follow. Prior to starting this system last year, I had my seeds mostly in a file folder box in zip lock bags, but the box was unwieldy, not large enough for all my seeds, and the file folders did not lend themselves to storage of really fat seed packets like corn, or home saved squash...
