by Geoff | Jun 25, 2012 | Gardening, Recipes
I grew bolita beans a couple of years ago as a dried bean and had yet to cook them. Last week I made this bolita bean soup with amaranth leaves, amaranth grain (hence double amaranth) and purslane. 1 cup dry bolita beans, soaked overnight 3/4 cup amaranth grain 1 medium onion, chopped 2-3 garlic cloves cumin chopped hot peppers to taste veggie broth amaranth leaves purslane leaves and upper stems Sauté the onions, garlic and hot peppers in olive oil. Add veggie...
by Geoff | Jun 18, 2012 | Gardening
Even in hot Austin, our winters get too cold to leave lime trees outdoors when temperatures dip, so I’m growing both Mexican lime, Citrus aurantifolia, and Kaffir lime, Citrus x hystrix, in containers. Then I can move them indoors when necessary. Mexican limes are also known as key limes. Kaffir limes, or makrut, are grown primarily for their leaves, which are used to flavor Lao and other Southeast Asian dishes. I picked up both of these plants earlier...
by Geoff | May 31, 2012 | CobraHead, Gardening
Earlier this month I attended the Texas State Master Gardener Conference in San Antonio. The master gardeners had a new cold hardy satsuma, “Orange Frost”, available. This satsuma variety will not be commercially available until 2014. What makes Orange Frost cold hardy in places like Austin is that unlike most satsumas, it is not grafted. So if a hard freeze in Austin kills the top growth down to the ground, the re-growth in the spring will be true...
by Geoff | May 24, 2012 | Events, Gardening
Back from the Garden Blogger’s Fling in Asheville, North Carolina; great gardens in a beautiful setting. I saw way too much to try and put into one overview, so I’m going to highlight ideas that I got from several of the places that inspired me in a short series of posts. Wamboldtopia is the creation of Damaris and Ricki Pierce. Besides being gardeners, Damaris is an artist, artoflife.com and Ricki a stone mason, RockPirate.com. Their entire garden impressed...
by Geoff | Apr 24, 2012 | Gardening, Recipes
Driving around Austin during the past couple of weeks I have seen hundreds of loquat trees, Eriobotrya japonica, loaded with ripe fruit. Here the trees are mostly planted as an ornamental, in part due to their tropical looking foliage. The fruit, however, is delicious. Loquats are originally from China and are distantly related to apples. My friend Bianca says that growing up in San Antonio, they referred to loquats as ‘Chinese plums’. I find the...
