Gardening Cures Everything So himself and I decided to go out to eat late this morning. Now in our Community, we're not big enough to be a Village, there is 1 Pizzeria, 1 Fast Food place, and 1 Burger Joint. We don't eat Fast Food, and as a Vegetarian I'm not thrilled to be in a Burger Joint, but we weren't sure if we wanted Breakfast or Lunch, and the Pizzeria doesn't serve breakfast. We had been to the Burger Place 3 times, and each time they got my order wrong. Just minor things, like the Hot Tea that was barely lukewarm. They did have a Veggie Burger, the only place for miles that did. An ..read more

To new gardeners especially, but also to seasoned ones, this advice can be daunting. Yet it’s thrown around like confetti at a parade. Don’t sweat it. Gnomes Know Here’s the reality: 1. This advice is really meant for farmers, not backyard gardeners. If you have an 8’ by 4’ bed, moving your crops a few feet isn’t going to make a difference. Plant where you want. 2. Some crops like to be in the same place every year. I’ve learned from many a garlic grower that, unless there is disease, which is rare, keep the garlic in the same spot. The benefit to this is that every year the bulbs will beco ..read more

Photo Courtesy of All America Select If there is one thing that All America Select has done for me, it is to get me more involved with non-edible plants. That’s saying a lot. 2017 brought this. And I’ve been hooked ever since. It did wonderful in our new raised flower beds that year. In 2018  seeds for this arrived. Ditto on the being hooked thing. I grew this in a planter that summer, as the ‘filler’ part, And now this. Baby Viking I started 3 seeds and got 3 plants. My youngest daughter has one, and there are 2 in this pot. I love it. It’s so shiny and has survived my neglect. I ca ..read more

Gardeners know the winter months are made more bearable by planning for the upcoming gardening seasons. We like to use visuals to get a feel for what we will plant. It also is a great way to remember for the following year, in case some crop rotation is needed. Usually we start out with a spreadsheet. Years ago we used to draw the gardens by hand, but since we often make changes even at planting time, we found planning on the computer easier. This is an Excel spreadsheet, but any one would do. You could also use a word document. To set up your spreadsheet: 1. Draw the basic garden design usi ..read more

Cauralina F1 Greenhouse tomato Understanding these technical terms can go far to help you harvest more, with no additional effort beyond choosing seeds. They are: Parthenocarpic and Gynoecious. Also commonly referred to as 'Greenhouse' plants, these are terms market growers are very familiar with. If you want to get more bang for your buck, it helps to learn what they mean. Let's start with gynoecious. Many veggies, let's use cucumbers for example, produce both male and female flowers. When the pollen is moved sufficiently from the male to the female, you get fruit. The Birds and the Bees kin ..read more

It was 1976 and I was working as a waitress. A customer ordered a Roast Turkey Dinner, which came with stuffing, a potato, vegetable, and cranberry sauce. The restaurant wasn't all that busy yet, so I watched as my then-boyfriend Mandolin prepared the order. He removed a soup cup from the freezer and put it into the microwave. The cup had been lined with slices of roast turkey, and finished off with a lump of stuffing in the middle. When it was hot enough, he placed it on a plate upside down, then removed the cup. Add gravy, potatoes, veggies and cranberry sauce (all on hand) and voila! How d ..read more

We were talking last month about saving time and money in the kitchen- about eliminating fast and convenience foods, but still being able to meet the demands of everyday life. When asked if anyone wanted more on this subject- well, suffice it to say there weren't any "No" responses. So for the next few Fridays the posts here will center on more ways to do this; from things I learned raising kids on very little money, and from 'secrets' of the restaurant business. homemade bread on hand First off, if you are buying Pancake, Bread, Cookie, or Cake Mixes you are wasting your money. If you don ..read more

This was one of our most popular desserts when we operated our restaurant. Although it was one of many recipes published in our cookbook, some of our customers told us they would have bought the book even if this had been the ONLY recipe in it! Be forewarned, though. Once you make this they will ask for it again and again. The Cake: 1 ¼ cup oil 2 cup sugar 2 cup flour 2 ¼ tsp. cinnamon 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 4 eggs 4 ½ cup grated carrots 1 tsp. salt Mix dry ingredients, set aside. Blend oil and sugar. Add eggs. Add dry ingredients. Fold in carrots. Bake in well greased and fl ..read more

NOTE: This is not medical advice, but our experience with this variant, and based on that as well as what MD's have suggested, what we think it would be good to have on hand. We're also including a list of supplements some Dr.'s have recommended at the end of the article. Always consult your physician. -->Have you or family members had this variant? Please leave your experiences in the Comment Section below, we would love to hear from you! To cut to the chase here, I woke up at 2:30 am on New Year's Day not being able to swallow without extreme pain, and enough phlegm to drown in. A few da ..read more

Dehydrated or roasted tomatoes can be easily ground in a coffee grinder to have on hand for instant tomato soup, sauce or to add to other recipes. Dried and ground, they take up less space that canned. This is what tomato powder looks like:  If you remember Spatini Spaghetti Sauce from back in the 70’s, it is pretty much the same thing. To the large soup mug shown above we added: Pinch basil 3/4 tsp. vegetable soup base paste 3 Tbl. tomato powder Add some boiling water and stir. The flavor is by far better than anything on the market. Because dehydrating and roasting keeps more of the vi ..read more