Plumcot Crisp
A few years ago, I planted a plumcot tree in my front yard. A plumcot is a cross between a plum and an apricot. Two years ago I had a moderate harvest, and last year nothing. But this year, I have an abundance of fruit that I have been eating, preserving, cooking,...
Volunteer Spring Greens
An advantage of our open bed system of gardening and the relatively undisturbed soil system is the amount of volunteers we get. I encourage volunteer herbs and greens by letting a lot of plants go to seed. Here is a picking of lettuces and mustards augmented with some...
Garlic Roasted Potatoes with Parsnips and Sweet Potatoes
We had a nice picking of parsnips this spring so I’ve been doing some experimenting. This morning for brunch I mixed the old with the new, so to speak. Using last year’s potatoes, garlic, and sweet potatoes I added in new parsnips and topped the roasted veggies with...
Asparagus Parsnip Sauté
Last night’s repurposed meal was accompanied by an asparagus parsnip sauté. The main course was left over chili and leftover rice mixed together, topped with shredded cheese and rolled up in corn tortillas. The little burritos were heated in the microwave for a couple...
Asparagus – 25 Years Old and Going Strong
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...
Open Faced Gorditas
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...
Using Sweet Potato Sprouts for Starts
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...
Planting Onions in Austin
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...
Walnut Crusted Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Pie
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...
Easy Seed Inventory and Storage
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...
Heavy Mulching to Defeat Bermuda Grass
I've struggled to keep a corner of my garden free of Bermuda grass. The grass rhizomes keep sneaking under the drip irrigation tubes. They infiltrate the garden bed and reduce vegetable production. This year I decided to take that section of the garden bed out of...
Oven Roasted Caramelized Leeks
We had another abundant harvest of leeks. A full garden bed of 300 leeks is a bit much for just the two of us but it forces me to be more creative in my storage and cooking. They do store fresh for 3 to 4 weeks, washed and bagged in the refrigerator. I also slice...
Leek Harvest
It was 19 degrees today with a low of 2 predicted for tonight. I knew it was time to harvest the leeks before they froze into the ground. We've had a lot of below freezing temperatures, but I had the leeks well covered with a layer of agricultural fabric topped over...
Comfrey for Compost
Comfrey and Compost PilesI can't remember how comfrey (Symphytum officinale L.) got introduced into my garden, but it probably came from Geoff when he worked at Nokomis Gardens in East Troy, Wisconsin, about sixteen years ago. It's now firmly established just north...
Sweet Potato Peanut Stew With Herbed Dumplings
Noel harvested almost 80 pounds of sweet potatoes last month – another record crop for us from 18 starts. And guess what? We’re still eating sweet potatoes from last year’s harvest. I haven’t been cooking them often enough so we’re scrambling to find new ways to...
Giant Puffball Mushrooms
I found these puffballs in the grass along the edge of the woods two days ago. Giant puffballs, Calvatia gigantea, are edible but they have to be harvested and used while quite fresh. Once they start to dry and turn yellow and brown, they not only lose their...
Beet Green and Fruit Smoothie
I planted beets the last week of August for a late fall harvest. I had used old seed so I planted them thickly, but they still germinated heavily. So we're now thinning them and using the baby beets in salads, as a vegetable side, and in drinks. The greens are...
Fall Planting with Old Seeds and an Old Book
Last year I had a harvest of carrots and beets that continued into December. I used a low hoop tunnel to protect the crop from frosts and freezes and the results were great. (You can read about it here). I hope to do the same this year, but I took some big chances...
White Wine Vinegar Marinated Cucumbers
The cucumbers are prolific this year. Some of them hide themselves well under the nearby zucchini plant leaves so they tend to get bigger than the ideal size before they’re found. The larger cukes can get a little bitter so a pre-salting will draw that bitterness...
Pureed Zucchini Ginger Soup
As they say – a prolific zucchini plant is the mother of invention! We have just 2 zucchini plants. It’s hard to tell with the tangle of vines and leaves but you’d think there were a dozen plants in the garden. I’ve been sautéing them in various ways with different...