Hilling Potatoes in Open Raised Beds
Most years I grow 2 beds of potatoes. This year, as part of my way bigger than needed garden, I’m growing three beds. They’re planted more intensively than I’d like. That’s because I got carried away with my seed potato purchase from Wood Prairie Farm, an organic...
Snow Pea Mushroom Tofu Stir Fry
Pea pods or snow peas are in - just in time to take over the green aspect in the kitchen from the dwindling asparagus patch. The young and tender pods are great eaten right off the vine. They're good raw and also make a crunchy addition to a stir fry as long as you...
Improved Tomato Trellis
Last year I bought a bundle of 7’ bamboo stakes specifically to build a reliable tomato trellis. I built a beefy structure that performed well, but it had drawbacks. Here is last year’s trellis post. This year I’ve simplified the design. I eliminated the...
Radish and Pea Pod Sauté
With the abundance of radishes in the garden this year I'm trying something new. We've always eaten our radishes raw, right out of the garden, or sliced in our salads. I had heard of cooking radishes but never tried it myself. Noel keeps bringing in radish thinnings...
Sautéed Mustard Greens
Noel has mustard greens growing like weeds in the garden. He planted the mustard along with various lettuces at the edges of the pea patch and also interspersed them with the garlic plants. Some of what doesn't get eaten will go to flower to attract pollinators and...
Asparagus Mushroom Tofu Scramble
A couple of days ago Noel brought in shiitake mushrooms from our logs at the side of the woods. I had a handful of fresh picked asparagus, some tofu leftover from a stir fry and a few cremini mushrooms in the fridge. Here's what I came up with for a very satisfying...
Comfrey Mulch
Comfrey (Symphytum officinale L.) reminds me a lot of tobacco, which is grown as a cash crop by farmers here in Cambridge, Wisconsin. I’ve read that comfrey can be smoked as a tobacco, but I have no interest. I grow it as a compost crop and for that purpose, its value...
Low Hoop Tunnels for Easier Vegetable Starts
Inexpensive and easy to erect low hoop tunnels can save the home gardener a lot of work in getting seed starts into the garden. For the past several years I’ve nearly eliminated the tedious chores of carting flats of vegetables outdoors and back inside daily to harden...
Sweet Potatoes Planted With Black Plastic Mulch
It’s May 23rd here near Madison, Wisconsin. This morning, I planted 17 sweet potato slips into a raised bed covered with a sheet of black polyethylene. Memorial Day weekend has always been my target planting date for sweet potatoes, and this year I’m right on time. I...
Interplanting Trellised Peas in Open Raised Beds
Open raised beds lend themselves well to home vegetable growing. A trellised pea planting demonstrates their versatility. I try to cover my beds with leaves in the fall. The leaves protect the beds during the hard freeze, slow down weed production, and make it easier...
Vegetarian French Onion Soup
Spring is here and so are the sprouting onions. It's time to clean out the larder or keep a close eye on it. We had a fantastic onion harvest last year and still have lots of onions but they do tend to start growing again when spring hits. The yellow onions keep...
Starting Seeds Indoors – The Ladder to Success
I like to start my own seeds. I rarely buy started vegetables. Starting your own seed saves lots of money and it gives you access to far more variety than you can find by buying plants started by others. And if you have a larger garden, buying plants quickly becomes...
New CobraHead How-To Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97AQsXJEUEY Our daughter Anneliese has a good friend, Jason Weiss, who is a professional cinematographer. Jason and I spent a few days in the garden last summer shooting CobraHead tools in action. Jason then edited the videos and...
Starting Onions Indoors
Here are three flats of onions I planted on February 8th, 9 days ago. Most of the nearly 1,600 seeds are sprouting nicely in flats in the basement. The flats are on a heat mat and lit with various LED grow lights we have accumulated over the last few years. The onions...
Mashed Potato Salmon Pie
Last week I wanted a "stick to your ribs" meal for dinner. I had potatoes and salmon on the brain so I went searching on the internet for a recipe with those ingredients. I found a salmon and potato casserole recipe that looked interesting, so I gave it a try. While...
Mexico City Living Walls
Last week I was in Mexico City visiting family and saw an abundance of new living walls. Here are some photos of two of them.
CobraHead Garden Review 2014
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...
Potato Rösti Stuffed with Fontina Cheese, Onions and Mushrooms
Potato Rösti was on the dinner table last night. We had this dish for the first time almost 30 years ago right after we moved to Wisconsin. Noel’s Swiss boss took us to the New Glarus Hotel Restaurant in the village of New Glarus, WI – Wisconsin’s Little Switzerland....
Garlicky Rose Finn Potatoes
We love garlic. Noel plants over 100 cloves each year so we have lots of garlic to use all year. I don’t think a day goes by that we don’t eat some form of garlic and/or onions. I got the idea for this recipe from making a vinaigrette, which starts with a smashed...
Garlic Planting in Fall in Wisconsin
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...