Sweet Potato Latkes
It's recipe time for the CobraHead Newsletter. For the last two months I had instructions not to use sweet potatoes or any potato in my recipe. But this time I snuck my proposal in before anyone could say anything. I don't think they really minded though – these...
Spring Parsnips
After enjoying a wonderful dinner of roasted parsnips, mixed with other root vegetables, we've decided that it is now our mission, at least for this month's newsletter, to promote this wonderful vegetable. Roasted Parsnips with Other Root Crops Michael Schael, potter,...
Peach Trees and Permaculture Ideas
Two years ago I picked up a copy of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway. The author packs the book with intriguing ideas. I am trying to adapt many of them to my yard in Austin, Texas. One idea is that of fruit tree centered "guilds"....
Haiti Relief
Recently, CobraHead teamed up with Singing Rooster Coffee and Just Coffee to support rural development in Haiti. Singing Rooster has already been working with small farmers in rural Haiti. They bring Haitian grown coffee to the U.S. and work to get Haitian coffee...
Homemade Potting Mix
Yesterday I decided that it was time to empty the bottom tray of my worm bin and mix up some potting soil. When I managed the greenhouse at the Tsyuhehkwa Center on the Oneida reservation I would make a potting mix that consisted primarily of one part worm castings to...
Souper Tortilla Soup
Souper Sunday has passed but it's still soup weather here. Actually soup weather lasts a long, long time in Wisconsin! Following is a recipe that I think came from 'Sundays at Moosewood' cookbook. I don't have a copy of the book so I can't be sure and as a well-worn...
What’s the Plan?
It helps to have a plan. For business, for life in general, and certainly for growing plants to eat, planning gives you some control of the future. January is planning month for lots of northern gardeners. My planning includes going though several favorite seed...
GBBD January 2010
Not a heck of a lot blooming in Wisconsin in January, but this lipstick vine in our sun room has been putting out a fair bit of color lately. This isn't the only blooming plant in the house right now, but it was the only one worth photographing. Now head on over to...
A new house, a new compost pile
This morning the lid on the compost bucket in the kitchen would no longer close, so it was time to make the first compost pile at my new home. Unlike my dad, Noel, I prefer to build my compost in layers first with materials high in carbon, then a nitrogen layer,...
Phil’s New Digs
About a year ago I set up a worm composting system using the Worm Factory. I was pretty excited about it at the time, and I decided to name it Phil (each individual worm is also named Phil). Because I've read that vermicomposting can take a while to really get going,...
New Year’s Capucijner Purple Podded Peas
No black eyed peas for us New Year's Day. This larder has capucijners. Capucijner (pronounced cap-you-sigh-ner according to the Fedco catalogue) peas are one of the richest and most complex soup peas we have cooked with. We've been saving seeds that we think we...
Dump Heaps and the Origins of Agriculture
Last month as I spotted some plants growing out of my compost piles, I was reminded of a fun course that I took at the University of Texas with Dr. William Doolittle called Environment, Development and Food Production. Professor Doolittle introduced us to Edgar...
What? The Fork!
Border Digging Spading Manure Fork Fork Fork Fork I'm surprised at how few people in the general population of gardeners truly know how useful a good fork can be. Doing all your digging using a spade or...
Scalloped Potatoes with a Sweet Potato Twist
Since we're still in the resurgence year of Julia Child I thought I'd wind up the year with one of my many versions of her recipe for Gratin Dauphinois or Scalloped Potatoes with Milk, Cheese, and a Pinch of Garlic. I say many because I hadn't opened the book in years...
Color Your Table Green
Brighten your holiday table with the 'other' green vegetable – greens of all colors. The greens I've enjoyed the most recently are the seared collard greens at the Eldorado Grill in Madison, Wisconsin. Admittedly I haven't eaten collards too many times, they just...
I Got Them Crying Over My Horseradish Blues
Two years ago I threw the remains of a horseradish thinning into the compost pile. It rooted, as horseradish likes to do, and I let most of it grow. I've always grown horseradish in my regular garden beds, keeping it at one end of the herbs. After this weekend's...
Fall Gardening in Austin
After a record hot summer with virtually no rain, this has been a most perfect fall for gardening. Right now I am enjoying sugar snap peas, cilantro, Japanese mustard greens, pole beans and radishes. Broccoli, broccoli raab and tatsoi will be in full production soon....
Savory Sweet Potato Quesadillas
I love it when the larder is full of sweet potatoes! We harvested 76 pounds this year. Not bad for 20 home started plants in a Wisconsin garden. There is nothing like a plain baked or roasted sweet potato slathered in butter. The other night I roasted small chunks of...
Satsuma Delights
In late October I harvested my first crop of Satsumas. I planted a "Dwarf Owari" Satsuma in the early spring of 2008 in the front yard of my east Austin home. That year it produced a few jasmine scented flowers, but no fruit. This year it flowered in late March and...
Fast Fruit Auflauf Breakfast
In the last year or so, ever since Anneliese came across an article in "grist.org" by Kurt Michael Friese called 'Simple cooking can produce delicious results - like old-fashioned Austrian pancakes' - see recipe here: Auflauf (like a crepe) has become a breakfast...