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...
Sweet Treats Tomatoes
With Anneliese and Geoff off to California this week to represent CobraHead at the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, it seems a little odd to be posting about a hybrid tomato. However, I grow hybrids frequently. Hybridizing has been around a long,...
Roasted Green Beans and Cherry Tomato Pasta
Garden meals are the name of the game around here during harvest season. As much as you’d like various items to ripen at different times the inevitable happens. It’s like being a kid in the proverbial candy store…. what do we eat first, next and thereafter? Last...
Roasted Salsa with Papalo
This year I decided to finally grow papalo, Porophyllum ruderale, also known as quillquiña. This herb has a flavor somewhat similar to cilantro, but unlike that plant, it has thrived throughout a summer of triple digit days. Not having cooked with it before, it...
T-Post Tomato Trellis
I finally built a tomato trellis that I'm happy with. I knew this was a good approach years ago, but it was one of those projects I never took the time to complete. I usually grow about 30 tomato plants in three rows in one of my 20 feet long by five feet wide beds. ...
Lao Cucumber Salad
Last weekend I went to a wedding on the Lao side of our family. I took advantage of the trip to learn how to make spicy Lao style cucumber salad from my cousin Kristi’s husband, Sie. Ingredients 3 medium cucumbers 5-6 Asian hot peppers 1 garlic clove 1 ½ tsp sugar ½...
Potato Crusted Broccoli Rabe Quiche
Try this satisfying and tasty quiche. The potato crust takes less time than making a regular pie crust. You don't have to feel guilty about using using a little sour cream in the filling because you're not using a quarter of a pound of butter in the crust. Crust:...
Little John at Kickapoo
Judy and I did a one day show yesterday in La Farge, Wisconsin called the Kickapoo Country Fair. The show is sponsored by the Organic Valley Farmers Cooperative which is headquartered in La Farge. I've mentioned the show several times before. Even though it's a...