by Noel | Dec 7, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening
The garden is put to bed. I was diligent about dragging in leaves to cover most of the beds with a thick protective layer. Last year snows and cold weather came before I was ready and the leaf covering ritual was interrupted. That caused me much more work this season than I wanted to do, but I did learn a lot about weeding. Without the leaf cover, weeds emerged sooner and the ground in the beds was not as soft. The extra weeding re-affirmed my belief that we...
by Noel | Nov 3, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening
I try to plant garlic in late October. This year we were a day late and the garlic went into the ground on the first of November. I had previously prepared the bed so all I had to do was soften the soil a little and with a steel rake make three relatively equal ridges running the length of the beds. The garlic was shoved into the top of the ridges until it was just covered. I also scattered a lot of lettuce seeds, salads greens and cilantro along all the slopes...
by Judy | Oct 20, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening, Recipes
I made this pea shoot salad last night which included all garden pickings – pea shoots plus baby carrots, baby beets, cilantro, red onion and several varieties of cherry tomatoes. The first time I knowingly ate pea shoots was this past summer. We were on a road trip to the GWA (Garden Writers Association) conference and stopped for lunch in South Bend, IN. We found a great little Chinese restaurant (J.W. Chens) just off the freeway right next to Notre Dame...
by Judy | Oct 1, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening, Recipes
It’s raspberry heaven around here. Our ever bearing raspberries have stepped up to the plate, so to speak. They have been enjoying the fantastically wonderful fall weather almost as much as we have. Our warm days here in Wisconsin are quickly coming to a close but until the first frost there will be more raspberries to pick! We have been appreciating raspberry banana fruit smoothies with a taste of aronia berries and cocoa as our afternoon pick me up. We...
by Judy | Sep 22, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening, Recipes
This has been a good year for tomatillos (Physalis ixocarpa). Our three plants have produced way more than we need for our few batches of salsa. Tomatillos are also not that easy to give away because a lot of people don’t know what they are, much less what to do with them. They grow like a tomato but the fruit has a loose, papery husk called a calyx that forms first. The fruit swells inside the husk and is ready to harvest about the time it breaks through the...
by Noel | Aug 17, 2014 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening, Recipes
Judy made this season’s first salsa yesterday. It’s about as local as you can get. Everything in it is from the garden except the lime. Here’s the recipe: 2 cups chopped cherry tomatoes – red, yellow, orange – most any tomato will work, but the cherry tomatoes, especially the orange Sungolds, give it a particular zing. ¼ c. chopped red onion 3 cloves garlic – chopped finely 1 T. hot pepper (or to taste) – chopped finely ½ c. cilantro – chopped 1 lime –...
