by Geoff | Jun 25, 2012 | Gardening, Recipes
I grew bolita beans a couple of years ago as a dried bean and had yet to cook them. Last week I made this bolita bean soup with amaranth leaves, amaranth grain (hence double amaranth) and purslane. 1 cup dry bolita beans, soaked overnight 3/4 cup amaranth grain 1 medium onion, chopped 2-3 garlic cloves cumin chopped hot peppers to taste veggie broth amaranth leaves purslane leaves and upper stems Sauté the onions, garlic and hot peppers in olive oil. Add veggie...
by Geoff | Jun 20, 2012 | CobraHead, Gardening
We received a lot of great entries for our photo contest. Thanks to everyone who participated. Here are all of the entries. Click on the smaller images to see the full sized picture and caption. [portfolio_slideshow]
by Geoff | Jun 18, 2012 | Gardening
Even in hot Austin, our winters get too cold to leave lime trees outdoors when temperatures dip, so I’m growing both Mexican lime, Citrus aurantifolia, and Kaffir lime, Citrus x hystrix, in containers. Then I can move them indoors when necessary. Mexican limes are also known as key limes. Kaffir limes, or makrut, are grown primarily for their leaves, which are used to flavor Lao and other Southeast Asian dishes. I picked up both of these plants earlier...
by Noel | Jun 4, 2012 | CobraHead, Events, Gardening
This weekend Judy and I were vendors at the Klehm Arboretum Garden Fair. This was our seventh year at the event now in it’s 19th year. Rockford is just under 70 miles from home. If you don’t know Rockford, it’s the second biggest population area in Illinois outside the Chicago metro area. Rockford used to be an industrial dynamo, but like a lot of Midwestern towns, heavy manufacturing went bust, and for a while Rockford suffered some very...
by Geoff | May 31, 2012 | CobraHead, Gardening
Earlier this month I attended the Texas State Master Gardener Conference in San Antonio. The master gardeners had a new cold hardy satsuma, “Orange Frost”, available. This satsuma variety will not be commercially available until 2014. What makes Orange Frost cold hardy in places like Austin is that unlike most satsumas, it is not grafted. So if a hard freeze in Austin kills the top growth down to the ground, the re-growth in the spring will be true...
by Geoff | May 24, 2012 | Events, Gardening
Back from the Garden Blogger’s Fling in Asheville, North Carolina; great gardens in a beautiful setting. I saw way too much to try and put into one overview, so I’m going to highlight ideas that I got from several of the places that inspired me in a short series of posts. Wamboldtopia is the creation of Damaris and Ricki Pierce. Besides being gardeners, Damaris is an artist, artoflife.com and Ricki a stone mason, RockPirate.com. Their entire garden impressed...
