Garden Vegetable Coconut Curry
Here’s a quick little lunch or dinner with veggies from the garden. Add a side salad and you’re all set. Garden Vegetable Coconut Curry 1 T. olive oil 1 medium leek, chopped ½ cup chopped onion 1 tsp. brown mustard seeds 1 ½ tsp. curry powder 1 cup veggie...
Sweet Potato Leaf Quinoa Soup
Since it's getting close to the end of the growing season for my sweet potatoes, I decided that harvesting some of the leaves that have sprawled into my other garden beds would probably not affect tuber production significantly. I've sautéed sweet potato leaves...
Too Late for Dinner in the Garden This Year
Anneliese took this picture of a young deer in the yard this afternoon. It was relatively fearless and Anneliese was able to get fairly close before it bolted. Fortunately for us, the deer have not been much of a nuisance this year and did no garden damage. I...
When Autumn Leaves Start to Fall
In the village that borders us a few blocks to the west and south, leaf burning is prohibited, but it is allowed and practiced as a seasonal rite in our township. I'm not advocating a ban on burning, but I really wish the neighbors understood what they are wasting. ...
Wild Rice and Bread Stuffed Winter Squash
It’s that time of year when the weather turns chilly and winter squash is on the menu. Obviously it’s right after the plentiful harvest but the body seems to need that filling substance to warm itself and feel satisfied after a hard day’s work. Since we don’t cook a...
Seed Stratification
Last spring I started some Agastache mexicana seeds indoors but got very spotty germination. I decided to investigate whether or not stratification would improve germination. I think that it will. Here's the why and how: Many seeds have built in germination...
Have Noel give a vegetable gardening talk!
Over the past couple of years Noel has been developing and refining his presentations on organic raised-bed gardening. It's about time. After thirty years of growing lots of good food, he has learned a thing or two. Below is the press release that we have put out...
Black Bean Quinoa Salad
I’ve made a couple of versions of this dish over the past few weeks and gotten a lot of compliments, so I figured that it was time to share. Quick and easy to make. Please keep in mind that the quantities listed are approximations as I don’t measure everything...
Garlic Growing Redux
I took advantage of a dry day between the rains to get my garlic planted. I've been using a method Geoff taught me years ago that works particularity well with raised beds. I've posted the method several times before, but it's worth repeating as it works so well. I...
Lentil Cabbage Soup
Yesterday, after gleaning more stuff from the garden before a few frosty nights this week I decided to make Lentil Cabbage Soup or ‘clean up the garden’ soup. Just about all of the veggies, other than the lentils, came from the garden. Along with the usual onion and...
What You Need to Know About Fractal Dimensions of Cauliflower
Judy harvested these two excellent heads of cauliflower this afternoon. The one on the right is one of the best heads we've ever grown. It was over eight inches across and perfect in every way. I searched "cauliflower" on Wikipedia just to see what might be of...
Greens Under Glass
We've been harvesting salad greens from the cold frame I built earlier this year. I talk about the building of the cold frame here. I seeded the frame about a month ago with a mix of mustard, spinach, arugula, several Asian greens and some lettuces. As the picture...
Saving Our Youth with Self-Watering Containers
A few months ago I came across Mike Lieberman’s website, the Urban Organic Gardener. He posted several how-to videos about making self-watering planters out of reclaimed five gallon pails. He does an excellent job explaining how to make them, so I’m not going to...
Urban Roots Matching Fundraiser a Success
We want to thank everyone who donated to Austin’s Urban Roots last month. Because of all of your contributions we raised over $850 to help keep this inspiring youth agriculture program running strong. We will be sending Urban Roots at least $850 worth of our tools...
Aerial Combat in Cambridge
Turkey vultures are extremely common in Wisconsin, but it's rare to see them flying directly overhead in my yard. Our wooded property is the main residence of an extended family of crows that controls the neighborhood skies. The crows never allow vultures, owls,...
Sweet Potato Harvest
With several nights of frost predicted for this coming week, it was time to harvest the sweet potatoes. They will not tolerate frost. Here's the bed of potatoes, thick with foliage. The plants are grown through a cover of black plastic which heats the bed up...
Garlic Roasted Tomatoes
Are you tired of tomatoes yet? Not here! It seems like the more I remove from the kitchen counters to cook down or preserve, the more that magically appear in their place. This year the first few batches of sauce were made in my usual way - boil the tomatoes for 30...
Tomatoes Everywhere!
This is the year of the tomato for us – our best harvest in three years. Two years ago the blight attacked our tomatoes and last year due to an extremely busy schedule we didn’t do a good job of trellising and keeping the tomatoes off ground. Our freezer was looking...
Early Frost
Yesterday, the Weather Service forecast a hard freeze for Cambridge. The weather people always try to err on the worst case side of things, but you never know, so Judy and I covered everything we could with plastic or ag fabric. We managed to cover the tomatoes, the...
Help People Grow Food, Win Good Garden Gear
We're giving away a CobraHead Weeder, a garden fork, and a kneeling pad, our Garden Essentials Package worth $89.95 to help Austin's Urban Roots program – see the details at the end of the post. We’re also matching donations in kind with up to $1,000 worth of our...