The weather is starting to blaze up in my zone – zone 9b. And when this happens, my watermelon, eggplant, tomatoes, and cucumbers always pick up and go into a true growth spurt. They love the warm weather. So do my peppers. This is the first …
Avocados come from evergreen fruit trees that like full sun and well drained soil. The fruit is creamy and is used more as a vegetable than as a sweet fruit. Growing Avocado Trees Avocados may be grown from the seeds, but the fruit may not come for …
Update on the avocados we planted last year: they are very happy where they are in the garden. Here is a sneak peek at what they are doing so far. As you can see from the photos below, there are several different types of avocado trees here. I will update later with all the variety information. For now, pictures to share.
Garden Update: Grapes One of our grape vines is in full production mode. Pretty happy about this, although it is right about that time the birds or squirrels get to them before we do. So far, they haven’t found our ‘secret grape stash’ among the …
Chill hours are the total number of hours below 45 degrees F that a plant is exposed to during their dormant period to produce properly developed fruit. Some deciduous fruit trees (fruit trees that loose their leaves seasonally) must go through a certain minimum number of chill hours to release their dormancy, go into bloom, and …
Deep frying some vegetables from the garden today and don’t know where to start? Amanda Cohen gives a great deep fat cooked veggie primer via Vice and Munchies. She deep fries in three different ways: her vodka batter, a panko or crumb crust using the standard breading procedure, and simple cornstarch toss.
Her vodka batter recipe from the video is below. If you want the full recipe for her Korean Fried Broccoli, mosey on over to Munchies where she shares her sauce, too.
Amanda Cohen says by using vodka in the batter it makes for a much more flaky outside coating – the vodka prevents the gluten from forming. She says buy the cheap vodka for this recipe, and don’t worry about the flavor of it – it doesn’t come through after its fried.
Adapted from Amanda Cohen, "How to Make Fried Vegetables with Amanda Cohen."
While national marketing campaigns would certainly get the word out about organic foods, the idea of ‘organic checkoff’ programs doesn’t set well with organic farmers. What are checkoff programs? Think of the national campaigns for milk (Got Milk?), eggs (The Incredible Edible Egg), and beef …
The Golden Treasure pepper is an heirloom variety that is great for grilling, eating fresh, and for slicing in salads. Growing Golden Treasure Peppers If starting by seed, start them 8 weeks before your last frost. Like all peppers, they like warmth. Fill each starter …
The patch of cucumbers is growing fast. They are always the fastest growers in our garden, and typically the first to sprout. This year’s no exception. Here’s the progress so far:
As the title of this blog post states, once you plant asparagus – don’t expect a harvest in a few weeks like your other seeds or transplants. Try a couple of years. But in our family, we all love asparagus – it is one of …
