I love to pick blackberries, they grow literally like weeds in my area and very easy to find a trail with more berries than I ever could pick. The fresh air is nice I am always looking for new ways to pick berries in less time. This tip from my brother-in-law will be sure to help step your berry picking up a notch. Simply take an old milk carton…
My four five year old has been patiently been waiting for the “color sunflower” she planted from seed at a friends house this spring to finally bloom. Every morning she will run to the kitchen window and check on its progress. It turns out the sunflower was waiting to share her blooms on my daughter’s birthday which was definitely one of her favorite presents that day. Here she is…
Big moment this week, I was able to make salsa entirely from ingredients. I normally don’t use cherry/grape tomatoes for salsa but my Early Girls are not that early this year and have not quite turned red. CVG Garden Salsa Recipe 2-3 tomatoes (or 12-15 cherry/grape tomatoes) 2 cloves garlic 1 small onion green onion 5 sprigs of cilantro tablespoon vinegar 1 jalapeno pepper (seeded) sugar Directions: Coarsely chop…
I am starting to get some cherry tomatoes turning red but not enough to make salsa so yet again so I decided to make some Mango Salsa. It is great to eat on tortilla chips the same you would for regular salsa or black bean corn salsa. One of my favorite things to do with is as a topping to blackened salmon (salmon grilled with dusting of Cajun seasoning)…
Your mission, should you decide to accept it is to infiltrate a local farmers market to gain intelligence to help aid your personal garden. Sure, the farmers market is a great place to find some fresh food you can’t or didn’t have time/space to grow in your garden. It is also a great place to get seeds/starts for your garden. It is also a great resource to figure out…
UPDATE: With weather climbing my grow box got up to 111.5 degrees today with the lights off. If I was using one of those fancy computers with temperature sensors it would have turned itself off by now. Turning off computer so I will have something working this winter… [July 25, 2009] I was planning on growing my jalapeno peppers in my grow box this summer, but given the higher…
My jalapeños peppers have been growing like crazy and I have had to start harvest to prevent the plants from stop producing. Given my tomatoes are still green I have been itching to do something with them, I decided to make some corn salsa. Given I couldn’t find a recipe that matched the ingredients I had on hand I decided to make my own. CVG Black Bean and Corn…
When your fruiting plants are flowering and bearing fruit this is a good time to give them a little extra boost. Though you don’t want to throw any old fertilizer at them at this point. You want them to get the nutrients they need to produce high yields of produce, though you don’t want to shock them with an abundance of nitrogen to stimulate new vegetative growth when you…
Most of the seeds I purchase, I am able to keep for at least a few seasons before running out. The one exception to this rule is peas, which I always have to buy each season. To save myself a couple dollars next year after I had my fill of peas from my garden I let quite a few mature which I will reuse for seeds this fall and…
Growing up in rural Washington state, the job market was a somewhat lacking for those under the age of 16. Given this at the age of 14-15 I was sucked into the attractive and lucrative career of spinach rouging, also known as “The Worst Summer Camp Ever” The basic premise of the job was to walk down endless “female rows” in the hot sun and destroying any male…
One of my goals in my garden is to make salsa entirely from ingredients from my own garden. In the past I have come close only requiring the purchase of a couple jalapeño peppers from the grocery store but this year with much effort and a strangely hot summer for the Pacific Northwest I have all the ingredients growing in my garden. Though unfortunately the ingredient cilantro could be…
A well proven way to save money on your food budget is to stock up on produce while they are in season. Not only do they taste better but they also can be significantly cheaper. Now these “purchases” can be from your local grocery store, U-Pick farm, fruit stand, farmers market, free roadside berries, or even from your own garden. Given the attractive prices of these fruits it may…