Posted on 03/23/2008 11:36:40 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Mexican Cheese Salad
Prep and Cook Time: 10 minutes - Serves 2
Ingredients:
* 1 head romaine lettuce
* 1 15-oz can black or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
* 1 medium avocado, cubed
* 1 medium tomato, diced
* 2 oz low-fat cheddar cheese, grated
* salsa
* lime wedges
Directions:
1. Chop lettuce and place on salad plate. Sprinkle beans, avocado and tomato over lettuce.
2. Top with cheddar cheese, your favorite salsa and the juice of lime wedges.
MILLET
Most Americans probably have only seen millet
in bird seed. While there are various millets, the one with which I am
familiar is in the form of little golden-yellow round balls (as in
birdseed.)
Millet is a very useful grain and very nutritious too. It’s the staple
grain of the Hunza people who live in northern Pakistan, in the foothills
of the Himalayas and are renowned for being healthy and active into extreme
old age (not all of which can be attributed to the millet, of course). When
I was a child or maybe young teen-ager, I read a National Geographic
article about Hunza - they ate millet and lots of dried apricots and
almonds, and were spry and very healthy at extreme old ages. It is a
beautiful area in northern Pakistan, surrounded by high mountains;
unpolluted air, gorgeous mountains, etc. The article made a big impression
on me. Back to millet...
Millet can be kept a reasonable amount of time in a jar in a kitchen
cabinet; maybe a year. It will eventually go rancid though - if you are
going to keep it longer than that, it’s best to freeze it (as with all
whole grains).
I put millet (whole, uncooked) into my wholewheat bread. I like the crunch
and the flavor it gives the bread. For a recipe that uses about eight cups
of wholewheat bread flour, I’ll put one cup of whole millet.
The other thing that millet is often used for - and I like it this way - is
a starch to accompany a meal, very much the way you would use mashed
potatoes or rice or polenta. It is very good this way.
>From ‘The Book of Whole Grains’ by Marlene Bumgarner:
1 cup whole millet
4 cups water
1 tsp salt
Bring water to a boil, stir in millet and salt, lower heat and simmer
covered, 30-40 minutes, or until grain is tender and water is absorbed.
Check at 30 minutes, but do it quickly and replace the lid immediately so
you don’t lose steam. If it seems to be sticking, or too dry, lower heat
and/or add 1/4 cup water.
For a nuttier flavor, saute millet briefly in 1 tablespoon oil in a
saucepan, then add salt and 4 cups boiling water. Cover and steam as
above.
This is just like cooking rice; no problem, not difficult.
I don’t saute it, usually, and I certainly don’t press it through a food
mill after cooking! But it comes out fine, IMHO.
Millet can also be ground into cracked millet or into flour; the flour has
no gluten so cannot be used (alone) to raise yeast bread.
It would greatly please me if everyone on this list cooked and ate millet,
brown rice, polenta, rolled oats, and other whole grains - as well as
eating bread. Whole grains are the basis of a cheap healthy diet and I
think it’s good nutrition to have *variety*: plus suppose you only eat
bread as the basis of your diet and you become allergic to wheat? Or need
to eat gluten-free? Suppose you only eat rice, and become allergic to it?
Or the crops fail some year? Or the prices zoom beyond what you can
afford? The more versatile and adaptable you are, the better.
Sources for millet - natural food stores should have it; also:
www.bobsredmill.com
www.bulkfoods.com
www.barryfarm.com and many other online suppliers.
Recipes using millet:
http://gfrecipes.com/millet.txt (Gluten Free recipes)
http://www.fatfree.com/cgi-bin/recipes.cgi?millet (Fat free or very low fat
and vegetarian recipes)
http://www.recipesource.com (Type ‘millet’ in the search box)
MAKING THE SWITCH TO WHOLE GRAINS
Making the switch to whole grains:
For some people, it’s easy. It was easy for me: as soon as I tasted a
decent wholegrain bread I thought: ‘Well, this is great, why have I been
wasting my time eating white bread?’ I felt the same about brown rice and
other whole grains.
But it isn’t easy for everyone, and some people may resist even unto
death... my mother’s death was caused by her poor eating habits and SHE
WOULD NOT CHANGE THEM.
My husband’s mother’s and father’s deaths were most likely for the same
reason - both died of complications of diabetes. My husband will not
change his eating habits very much either, and will probably die of
diabetes as both his parents did. (He did change some, but not enough in my
judgment - but you can’t have everything.)
But let’s assume that you have someone a little more flexible and younger
to deal with. Most people can and will change to a healthier diet if it is
done in easy steps. And, I think, without a lot of nagging. Nagging
doesn’t help, really. It just wastes two peoples’ time and causes a lot of
irritation.
So how do you change your family to whole grains?
In my experience, EVERYONE likes whole grain muffins and quick breads.
Everyone. No one has ever rejected them. Everyone has always eaten them
with great enthusiasm. That’s why I’ve tried to send a number of good
wholegrain quick bread/muffin recipes here (they are in the Files section).
And I’ll send more.
So I’d start with quick breads and muffins. Then I’d add wholegrain
pancakes and/or waffles, which people also seem to like.
Next, I’d start making bread at home - bread machine or otherwise. (If you
already make your bread at home, that’s fine, then proceed with the
directions in the next paragraph.)
I would start by putting one cup of whole grain flour in a bread recipe
that’s otherwise white flour. I’d keep it at that level for at least a
month.
The second month I’d put a cup and a half of whole grain flour....
The third month I’d put two cups of whole grain flour....
I’d go up only by 1/2 cup per month - NOT FASTER. Eventually, they would
be eating 100% whole grain bread.
Pasta: (If you live in the USA) - My suggestion for pasta is to try the
new Barilla Plus on your family - this is good pasta, I was very impressed
with it as compared to the usual wholewheat pasta. Even my husband will
eat it. It’s available here in [The Back of Beyond], so I think it must be
available in most of the USA. They have several pasta shapes now, and will
probably introduce more. See:
http://www.barillaus.com/Home/Pages/Barilla_Plus.aspx
The disadvantage of Barilla Plus: it’s expensive compared to regular
pasta. For us, I think the extra expense is worth it, but you will need to
decide this for yourself.
Rice: Some people adore brown rice, I’m one of them. My favorite, I
think, is brown basmati - yum. But I love several forms of brown rice.
However, if you are married to an Asian or Middle Easterner - anyone who
grew up with serious quantities of white rice in their diet - I don’t think
it is likely that you will be able to switch them to brown rice. Some
things you just need to accept and resign yourself to, sadly.
You can try, of course: fix brown rice now and then and ask them to taste
it. Tell them tastes change over time (which is true), so don’t totally
give up on it.
Otherwise, do what I do: fix brown rice for yourself, and white rice for
the stubborn hold-outs. There’s no reason that you cannot get the benefits
of the whole grain, even if they don’t.
Then there are a bunch of OTHER grains: millet, corn, spelt, kamut, wheat
(eaten as a whole or cracked grain rather than ground into flour), bulgur
(a form of wheat), oats, rye, triticale (a wheat/rye hybrid), barley,
buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, and teff, and others. Wow, lots of good grains!
Many are gluten-free, for those who need to eat this way. Others have some
gluten (all the various wheats, and I think oats and maybe rye).
List of grains:
amaranth
barley
buckwheat
corn
millet
oats
quinoa
rice
rye
sorghum
teff
triticale
wheat including bulgur, kamut, and spelt
Pat Meadows
healthycheapcooking@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Whole Grain - Amaranth
From: Pat
‘Amaranth (Amaranthus) has a colorful history, is highly nutritious, and
the plant itself is extremely attractive and useful. Amaranth was a staple
in the diets of pre-Columbian Aztecs, who believed it had supernatural
powers and incorporated it into their religious ceremonies. Before the
Spanish conquest in 1519, amaranth was associated with human sacrifice and
the Aztec women made a mixture of ground amaranth seed, honey or human
blood then shaped this mixture into idols that were eaten ceremoniously.
This practice appalled the conquistadors who reasoned that eliminating the
amaranth would also eliminate the sacrifices. The grain was forbidden by
the Spanish, and consequently fell into obscurity for hundreds of years. If
not for the fact that the cultivation of amaranth continued in a few remote
areas of the Andes and Mexico, it may have become extinct and completely
lost to us.’ (From http://www.chetday.com/amaranth.html - the rest of the
article is worth reading too.)
To sound a more cheerful note (from the above article): ‘Amaranth is used
in various cultures in some very interesting ways. In Mexico it is popped
and mixed with a sugar solution to make a confection called “alegria”
(happiness), and milled and roasted amaranth seed is used to create a
traditional Mexican drink called “atole.” ‘
From a gardening standpoint, amaranth is a multi-purpose plant: some
varieties are grown solely for their edible leaves, some varieties are more
suited to grain, some varieties are grown for both leaves and seeds (the
grain), and they are all very decorative. It’s a grain that can easily be
grown in the home garden setting.
Pictures:
http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.asp?item_no=PS15834&UID=
http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.asp?item_no=PS15481
http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.asp?item_no=S11023
Leaf amaranth: http://www.evergreenseeds.com/edamyintsach.html
(This is called ‘edible amaranth’ sometimes; but all amaranth is edible so
far as I know. I believe this is just a phrase meaning ‘the leaves are
eaten’.)
OK, the seeds (the grain) are very tiny. Very, very tiny. I’ve bought
them in the past, but I must confess that they were something I just didn’t
get around to trying to cook. (You know how that goes, presumably, unless
you are either much more organized than I am or much less experimental.)
I’ll try again in the future.
The seeds can be ground into flour. But they are so tiny, that I’m not
sure if home grain mills can handle them. Does anyone have experience with
this?
Good general info on amaranth: http://www.specialfoods.com/amaranth.html
An interesting article on amaranth: http://www.chetday.com/amaranth.html
Here are many recipes using amaranth flour:
http://www.nuworldamaranth.com/content/resources/recipes.asp
Here is a recipe for basic, cooked (unground) amaranth:
http://www.ivu.org/recipes/extras/amaranth-j.html
More articles and recipes:
http://www.dmoz.org/Home/Cooking/Grains/Amaranth/
And that’s all I know about amaranth. :)
Pat Meadows
[I have grown this and like the leaves, I have not eaten the seeds.
granny]
Today’s whole grain is barley - probably much more familiar to most of us
than amaranth.
Barley contains some gluten - so it is not suitable for a gluten-free diet.
*Barley flour and rolled barley flakes*, while in more limited supply, may
be found in the flour and hot cereal sections of some supermarkets. These
products may also be found in the bulk foods sections of some supermarkets.
Barley flour and rolled barley flakes may also be purchased from small
grain suppliers via mail-order catalogs or online stores.
*Whole grain barley products* (made from *hulled barley* or *hulless
barley*) are currently in more limited supply. These products may be found
in the bulk foods sections of some supermarkets or in health and natural
foods stores. Whole grain barley products may also be purchased from small
grain suppliers via mail-order catalogs or online stores.
http://www.barleyfoods.org/recipes.html#cookstips
So we’ve learned that the most readily available form of barley (pearl
barley) is not a whole-grain product, which is annoying, especially because
pearl barley is used in soup so often.
Cooking whole grain barley - ‘Hulled’ of course means that the hull has
been removed, whereas ‘hulless’ means a variety that never had a hull.
I don’t know why they’ve given different directions; the proportions of
barley to water don’t change. I guess it’s because the quantity or raw
barley required to finish with three cups of cooked barley does change.
Anyway: it’s 3 parts water to 1 part whole barley. That won’t change.
*Hulled barley* - In medium saucepan with lid, bring 3 cups water to a
boil. Add 1 cup hulled barley and return to boil. Reduce heat to low,
cover and cook about 50 to 55 minutes. Makes about 3 cups. NOTE: Hulled
barley is minimally processed to remove only the inedible outer hull.
Because hulled barley retains most of the outer bran layer, this product
tends to absorb less liquid during the cooking process. It may be
necessary to pour off any remaining liquid after 50 to 55 minutes of
cooking time. Compared to pearl barley, hulled barley tends to be chewier
in texture and produces a more robust flavor.
*Hulless barley* – In medium saucepan with lid, bring 4-1/2 cups water to a
boil. Add 1-1/2 cups hulless barley and return to boil. Reduce heat to
low, cover and cook about 50 to 55 minutes. Makes about 3 cups. NOTE:
Hulless barley retains the outer bran layer and tends to absorb less liquid
during the cooking process. It may be necessary to pour off any remaining
liquid after 50 to 55 minutes of cooking time. Compared to pearl barley,
hulless barley tends to be chewier in texture and produces a more robust
flavor. (From the website given above.)
If you would like to try whole-grain barley, you can buy it online here:
www.barryfarm.com
www.bobsredmill.com
and no doubt other places too. I would imagine that local natural foods
stores also have it.
Barley is often used for pilafs as well, and can be used to make beer (of
course!) and Scotch whiskey, and the Tibetan barley wine or beer (I’m not
sure which it resembles more) called ‘chang’.
Barley flakes are handy to use as a hot cereal or to mix with other flakes
(rolled oats, wheat flakes, etc.) and seeds, maybe nuts too, to make your
own version of a mixed-grain hot cereal. BarryFarm also has barley flakes.
I use barley flakes in a mixed hot cereal - they’re nice, in my opinion.
Sometimes I eat them alone - just cook as you would rolled oats.
Barley flour is mixed with other flours for baking.
I have a very good whole-grain pie crust recipe that uses barley and oat
flours. I like this much better than pie crusts made from whole wheat.
By the way, you can make oat flour by putting rolled oats (oatmeal) in a
blender and whirling them into flour. I’ll send the recipe in a separate
message, so that it gets put into the Recipe Folder. (Thanks, Suzie!)
So - barley enthusiasts - do you have any recipes or uses for barley that
you can share with us?
Cheers,
Pat
KAMUT
Kamut is our next whole-grain, and I know very little about it. (So this
is apt to be a short article.)
Basically, kamut is a type of wheat; after that it gets very controversial
as to exactly what it is. It is said by some to be a very ancient Egyptian
grain, and by others to be a modern Egyptian wheat ‘landrace’ (basically, a
subspecies). And by yet others to be something else. :)
In any event, it’s a type of wheat *and* a ‘protected variety registered
with the Plant Variety Protection Office of the USDA’ - which means that
only one outfit sells it in the USA. (I do not think it means anything in
the rest of the world.) It would be fun to grow it but apparently you need
to be in a dry place to grow it (or at least so they say: true or not, I
don’t know.)
The company which sells kamut in the USA grows it organically, which is
nice. You can buy it in natural food stores; I bought a small quantity of
kamut recently, but have not cooked it yet. I will probably cook it in the
crockpot and eat it as a pilaf.
There is anecdotal evidence that some people who have wheat allergy, and
thus avoid wheat, are able to eat Kamut. However, as a wheat species, it is
definitely unsuitable for those with celiac disease.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamut#Use
This is the site of the one company which sells it in the USA:
http://www.kamut.com/english/index.htm
Recipes are here:
http://www.kamut.com/english/index.htm
(Because of a piece of stunningly poor web design, the menu for the recipes
is in very small print, way down on the bottom of the screen - anyway,
that’s how it is on my PC, using FireFox.)
(More poor web design...) If you click on ‘Breakfast’ and then on ‘Kamut
whole grain recipes’, you will get a pop-up which contains a recommendation
to cook kamut in a thermos; this is certainly an energy saving way to cook
it (very appropriate for our group). Have a look..... Note that other
grains can also be cooked this way - and it’s an ideal way to cook a hot
breakfast cereal.
I’ve looked a few of the recipes and have seen none that appeal to me yet.
They seem to mostly involve either jello or various canned cream soup....
Evidently, you can buy kamut as flour, or as pasta. You could also, of
course, grind it into flour yourself if you have a mill. It would be
really expensive flour, though, and unless you are allergic to wheat I
can’t see much point in using it for flour. If you are allergic to wheat,
you would need to experiment *very carefully* with kamut which is - when
all is said and done - a wheat. And of course it is unsuitable for those
needing gluten-free diets.
So; there we are. If I remember.... if if if.... I’ll try cooking kamut in
a thermos tonight and let you know how it goes.
If anyone has experience with kamut, recipes using it, etc. - we would like
to hear from you about it! Thanks!
Pat
I have been an "organic" gardener for over 40 years.. (older n dirt here) & love horticulture in general. I do English gardens for flowers & like to grow & use herbs.
Because I am ALSO into natural health, much of my eating & food prep is in this arena. I am a (boring) vegetarian - not for health reasons but for animal reasons - and so most recipes can be used but often must be modified.
I love to cook, although not much time is there and I love eating out & learning & experienenting with foods I have tried.
My favs are the Mexican, Thai, Italian,
Onions!
As you know, onions rot if you leave them in plastic bags, and
They tend to go bad when they touch other onions in a bag.
Here’s how to keep them longer. Take an old pair of panty hose
That you don’t wear any longer. Cut off one of the legs. Put
An onion in the bottom of the foot. Tie a knot in the hose.
Then, put in another onion and tie another knot. Keep
Repeating. When you’re done, you can tie the onions up and
Hang them on a nail inside of the pantry or somewhere else.
You only need to cut an onion off at a time when you need
Them. This works in both humid and dry climates.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Frugal-Folks-Life/
You will find lots of the mexican foods in the beginning of the thread, and vegetarian mixed in here and there, as are the additional mexican food recipes and Thai and any thing else that catches my eye.
I think it depends on how hungry I am.
The vegetarian recipes are important to know, as they work well with the stored bulk food supplies.
I had to be a vegetarian for a year, when I could not drive to town for supplies and existed on storage food from Walton Feed.com
I was raised on vegetables, and like them, as I do most foods.
Thai food, I have not cooked or eaten, but the recipes look good to me.
Mexican and Italian, are my main foods, next to Texas farm woman roots.
Thanks for passing the word on the thread and come to read when you can.
I never know where I will find the next post.
And do not doubt that I am re-posting recipes, there is no way I can remember them all.....
The thread does need more input/directions than I am offering.
Soon, we will be hearing what the gardens are producing.
I lived almost 30 years in San Diego County.
Smile, it is good for you.
http://listverse.com/miscellaneous/top-10-secret-recipes/
Top 10 Secret Recipes
Published on September 21, 2007 - 42 Comments
The weekend is upon us, and what better way is there to enjoy it than to cook or bake some of your favorite takeout treats? Think of how much money you will save by whipping up these lovely recipes instead of paying out all the big bucks to the fast-food chains. So, here it is: the top 10 secret recipes!
1. McDonald’s Big Mac
Bigmac
Sauce
1/4 cup Miracle Whip
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons french salad dressing
1/2 tablespoon sweet relish
2 teaspooons dill pickle relish
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried, minced onion
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon ketchup
1/8 teaspoon salt
The Rest
1 regular sized sesame seed bun
1 regular sized plain bun
2 beef patties (2 ounces each flattened to bun size)
2 tablespoons Big Mac sauce
2 teaspoons reconstituted onions
1 slice real American cheese
2 hamburger pickle slices
1/4 cup shredded lettuce
To make the sauce, mix together all the ingredients about one hour before using.
To assemble:
Discard the crown half of the regular bun, retaining the heel. Toast both sides of the heel and the “inner” sides of the sesame bun. Cook the two-all-beef-patties just like regular burgers. After the bun parts are toasted, put 1 tablespoon of sauce on each of the heels (toasted side). Then add 1/8 cup shredded lettuce to each. On the true bottom bun, place one thin slice of American cheese on top of the lettuce. On the extra “heel”, the middle bun, place two pickle slices on top of the lettuce. When the meat patties are done, place them one at a time on both prepared buns. Stack the middle bun on top of the bottom bun, and put the crown on top.
2. KFC Coleslaw
Slaw
8 cups finely diced cabbage (about 1 head)
1/4 cup diced carrots
2 tablespoons minced onions
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1. Cabbage and carrots must be finely diced.
2. Pour cabbage and carrot mixture into large bowl and stir in minced onions.
3. Using regular blade on food processor process remaining ingredients until smooth.
4. Pour over vegetable mixture and mix thoroughly.
5. Cover bowl and refrigerate several hours or overnight before serving.
3. KFC Chicken
88538869 317B5C9636 O
4 chicken leg quarters
3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
2 teaspoons MSG
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cut chicken into 8 pieces(4 legs and 4 thighs).
3. In a zip lock bag mix all dry ingredients.
4. Moisten chicken.
5. Put one or two pieces of chicken at a time into the bag and shake well.
6. Then put chicken pieces on an oiled pan. Use Canola or Peanut oil so your chicken will not stick.
7. Bake approximately 40-50 minutes until chicken is done. Half way through baking spoon oil from pan on chicken to brown properly.
So much for the secrets herbs and spices!
4. Coca-Cola
Coca Cola Sise
1. Mix 2,400 grams of sugar with just enough water to dissolve (high-fructose corn syrup may be substituted for half the sugar).
2. Add 37 grams of caramel, 3.1 grams of caffeine, and 11 grams of phosphoric acid.
3. Extract the cocaine from 1.1 grams of coca leaf (Truxillo growth of coca preferred) with toluol; dry the cocaine extract.
4. Soak the coca leaves and kola nuts (both finely powdered; 0.37 gram of kola nuts) in 22 grams of 20 percent alcohol.
5. California white wine fortified to 20 percent strength was used as the soaking solution circa 1909, but Coca-Cola may have switched to a simple water/alcohol mixture.
6. After soaking, discard the coca and kola and add the liquid to the syrup.
7. Add 30 grams of lime juice (a former ingredient, evidently, that Coca-Cola now denies) or a substitute such as a water solution of citric acid and sodium citrate at lime-juice strength.
8. Mix together 0.88 gram of lemon oil, 0.47 gram of orange oil, 0.20 gram of cassia (Chinese cinnamon) oil. 0.07 gram of nutmeg oil, and, if desired, traces of coriander, lavender, and neroli oils, and add to 4.9 grams of 95 percent alcohol.
9. Shake.
10. Add 2.7 grams of water to the alcohol/oil mixture and let stand for twenty-four hours at about 60 °F (15.5 °C). A cloudy layer will separate.
11. Take off the clear part of the liquid only and add the syrup.
12. Add 19 grams of glycerine (from vegetable source, not hog fat, so the drink can be sold to Jews and Muslims who observe their respective religion’s dietary restrictions) and 1.5 grams of vanilla extract.
13. Add water (treated with chlorine) to make 1 gallon of syrup.
This recipe is from Food Flavorings: Composition, Manufacture and Use (2nd Ed.) 1968 by Joseph Merory (AVI Publishing Company, Inc., Westport, CT). Makes one U.S. gallon (3.8 L) of syrup. Yield (used to flavor carbonated water at 1 fl oz per bottle): 128 bottles, 6.5 fl oz (192 ml).
P.S.: If anyone has a good source for Coca leaves, let me know - I think I have a good idea for a part-time business!
5. Heinz Ketchup
Heinz Ketchup
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste with garlic
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
2. Stir and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 min.
3. Stir often.
4. Remove from heat and cover til cool.
5. Keep in a covered container in fridge.
Just paying the bills...
6. Applebee’s Mudslide
\Content\Images\Bar\Mudslide
2 cups vanilla ice cream
2 ounces kahlua coffee liqueur
1 dash chocolate syrup
canned whipped cream
1. Measure 2 cups of ice cream into your blender. Add the Kahlua and blend until smooth.
2. Prepare a 16-ounce wine glass by swirling chocolate syrup around the inside of the glass. Hold the wine glass by the stem with one hand and twirl the wine glass as you squeeze the chocolate. Slowly move the chocolate up toward the rim of the glass so that the chocolate makes a continuous spiral around the inside of the glass.
3. Pour the drink from the blender into the glass. Add a pile of whipped cream to the top of the drink and drizzle additional chocolate syrup over the whipped cream. Add a straw and serve.
7. Taco Bell Quesadillas
Xtreme-Chs-Beef-Ques
Sauce
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons minced jalapenos, slices
2 teaspoons jalapeno juice, from minced jalepenos
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 dash salt
Quesadillas
4 flour tortillas
4 chicken tenderloins
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
2 slices processed cheese
1. Combine sauce ingredients and stir until smooth.
2. Grill chicken in vegetable oil and cut into thin slices.
3. Preheat skillet over medium heat.
4. One at a time, lay tortilla into hot skillet and sprinkle with 1/4 cup of each shredded cheese and 1/2 cheese slice on one side of the tortilla.
5. Arrange about 1/4 cup chicken slices over tortilla on the same half covered with cheese.
6. On the empty side, spread about one tablespoon of sauce.
7. Fold over, and press gently with spatula.
8. Cook until cheese is melted and slice each into 4 pieces.
8. Neiman-Marcus $250 Cookies
Chocchipcookies
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal
24 ounces chocolate chips
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 (8 ounce) Hershey Bars (grated)
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
1. Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder.
2. Cream the butter and both sugars.
3. Add eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and soda.
5. Add chocolate chips, grated Hershey Bar and nuts.
6. Roll into balls and place 2-inches apart on a cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 10 minutes at 375° or until golden.
9. Reese’s Squares
Brazilnutbuttercups1
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 lb confectioners’ sugar (3 to 3 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup butter, melted
1 (12 ounce) bag milk chocolate chips
1. Combine graham crumbs, sugar and peanut butter and mix well.
2. Blend in melted butter until well combined.
3. Press mixture evenly into a 9 x 13 inch pan.
4. Melt chocolate chips in microwave or in double boiler.
5. Spread over peanut butter mixture.
6. Chill until just set and cut into bars (these are very hard to cut if the chocolate gets “rock hard”.
10. Starbucks Pumpkin Scones
Pumpkin Scones.Jpg
2 cups all-purpose flour
7 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
6 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons half-and-half
1 large egg
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch ground cloves
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball.
4. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake for 14–16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
To make the plain glaze:
1. Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth.
2. When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.
To make the spiced icing
1. Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.
Sources: Wikipedia, Recipezaar
http://listverse.com/entertainment/top-10-tips-for-great-home-cooking/
Top 10 Tips for Great Home-cooking
Published on February 15, 2008 - 108 Comments
Both my Grandmother and my mom were / are good cooks, so I come from good stock and picked up quite a few skills from the get-go. As a young woman I sold restaurant equipment and therefore knew many chefs and got lots of tips… then my younger sister went and married a traditionally trained french chef, it just got better and better. So, this is my top 10 tips to make your home-cooking really special.
10. Shop like Your Grandma
Pantry-775384
My Grandma’s cupboards were always full to overflowing, and they smelled good; of cinnamon and cloves and a myriad of other spices. Lots and lots of food, and you know what? No boil n’ bag, No Noodles n’ Sauce, No Canned Ravioli. My Grandma, and for that matter my Mom, bought stuff to make food preparation easier, not prepared food. Shop the prepared foods, just don’t buy them; use them for inspiration. I’ve modified the “Larder List” but not much, I buy low salt varieties when available and I avoid trans fats. I’m not going to bother listing staples; flour, sugar, oil etc. but here’s a good start:
Canned Tomatoes - diced or whole
Tomato Paste
Canned basic tomato sauce (not spaghetti sauce)
Cream Soups like Mushroom, Chicken, and of course Tomato
Lipton Dry Onion Soup Mix
Beef Stock
Chicken Stock
Worcestershire Sauce
Soya Sauce (dark)
Ketchup
Mustard (Grainy and regular)
Vinegar (I keep white and red wine and balsamic, but you can make do with white)
Wine – red preferably but white works, and buy the kind you can drink
Spices – All the normal ones plus 1 decent seasoning salt (I like Hy’s but don’t buy Lawry’s; it tastes as if it has sugar in it, and buy the NO msg kind – just in case), Dry Mustard, Mrs. Dash or other veggie based salt substitute, lemons and basil pesto in the fridge.
See recipe 1 and recipe 2 on the recipes page.
9. Brown The Meat or The Hotter the Better
1793807804 Ed01C56D23
Meat must be browned properly in order to have flavor, the natural sugars caramelize and make that nice brown crunchy tastiness. I love my steak rare, but it better be dark brown on the outside! The pan must be hot, like really hot, like bouncing water hot. Don’t worry; Hot pan – Cold Oil – Food Won’t Stick (thanks to Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet). All cuts of meat, even if you’re going to stew it, benefit from this treatment. Don’t crowd the pan or the meat will foam up and boil. Grey meat is yucky. Don’t stir or flip the meat until you lift a corner and see the dark brown goodness.
Whatever you do invest in a pan that can take the heat…or be prepared to replace the cheap one every year or two as the bottom will warp.
See recipe 3 on the recipes page.
8. Remember The Golden Ratio
397 3
No, not the one that makes Nautilus Shells, this one…2 tablespoons fat, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 cup milk. This is a basic white sauce recipe. Remember this and you can make oh so many wonderful things. This same technique is used for gravy, cream soups, and of course cheese sauce.
See recipe 4 and recipe 5 on the recipes page.
7. How To Season Properly or Gee Whiz Watch the Salt
Salt1
None of the first four recipes called for salt. Not because I’m a salt phobic but because the recipes use commercially prepared bases; either soup or stock. They are salty enough on their own (even the reduced salt varieties). Same thing with the cheese sauce, cheese is salty. Anything with soy sauce, and don’t forget margarine and butter, they both contain salt. If you go to the trouble (c’mon you won’t) to make your own soup stock you will need to add some.
Dried spices benefit from crushing and toasting. Crush ‘em a bit in the palm of your hand, and sauté ‘em for the last couple of minutes before you add the liquid to soups, stews, or casseroles. Take it easy on the spices. I saw a recipe that called for 1/4 cup of basil pesto for pasta that served 4 people. You may as well chug Aqua Velva, it’d have about the same level of aromatics. Go easy at first, you can always add more.
See recipe 6 on the recipes page.
6. Balance, Balance, Balance
Oomh Lemons Full
Jamie talked about the five flavors in his food list; sweet, sour, salty, bitter and earthy (he knows the correct word; I just call it dirt flavor, raw mushrooms and soy both have it). I’m only concerned with the sour. Acid is missed so frequently. Stew that’s too beefy tasting, desserts that are sickly sweet, soup that tastes flat; all are missing acid. Try making the stroganoff recipe without the tomato paste, it just doesn’t taste right. There’s little or no tomato flavor, but the acid counteracts the richness of the beef stock, browned steak, and mushrooms. The sour cream does this to a certain extent but because of the richness of it, it’s not enough.
See recipe 7 on the recipes page.
Just paying the bills...
5. Throw out The Cornstarch or How To Make Proper Gravy
Image-17
Gravy should not be see-through, nor should it plop and jiggle on top of your meat. It should be velvety, meaty, and not too thick. You’ve already learned the basics with the white sauce, so figure out how much gravy you want to end up with and you’re going to use roughly 1/4 to 1/2 the proportion of flour.
Cook the meat and don’t forget #2, good quality beef can be dry roasted on high heat so it browns itself, otherwise brown it first. Take the cooked meat out of the pan, put it on a plate and wrap it with saran wrap, don’t be stingy, lots of saran wrap and then a towel. It’ll stay hot and juicy. Put the roast pan on top of the burner or use 2 if your roast pan is big enough. Add or remove fat as required, but leave all the chunky bits in the pan. Generally the only time you will need to remove fat is with cheap pork (which tastes way better than loin), and poultry. Turn the burners on high or med-high if you have gas. Throw a handful of fine sliced onion into the fat, cook it for a minute or two and then throw in the flour. You want to really brown the flour, so you just keep moving it around with the spatula, its going to stick, don’t worry about it, just keep scraping it up till it gets really brown. Now it’s really hot and smoking, sticking to the spatula and the pan, and you are starting to panic, pour in a good slosh of red wine and a couple or three of cups of beef stock. Whisk it until it comes to the boil, turn it down to medium and let it cook down a bit….Voila perfect gravy. You can take the hand mixer to it, but I don’t usually bother. If you don’t have any wine you can skip it, but do add a little vinegar or lemon juice.
For poultry gravy I don’t usually use wine, just stock, but add a little bit of beef stock to your poultry gravy. It improves it immensely. You can substitute or add fine diced mushrooms with the onions for mushroom gravy. I make this without the drippings, just oil, flour, onions, red wine, and stock to have with pork chops. I kid you not, quicker than gravy in the package.
4. Make a Breading that doesn’t stick to the pan
Ei1A03 Veal Milanese E
Thanks to the brother-in-law for this one, I tried for years and failed. Good thing I pay attention.
There are a few secrets to good breading, I will divulge them all.
You need 2 pans and a bowl, square cake pans work best because they have steep sides. Pan 1 is plain flour. The bowl in space 2 is either beaten egg whites or whole eggs. Egg whites work marginally better, but unless I’m going to make custard, I use whole eggs. Pan 2 is the breading; dry bread crumbs, seasoning (try a packet of chicken Bovril and a teaspoon of lemon-pepper for fish, I like seasoning salt, salt, and lots of pepper for pork.), and the secret ingredient, a handful of Parmesan cheese. In this instance be liberal with the seasoning. The flavor is all on the outside, and you want the taste to last the entire chew. The parmesan adds little or no flavor, other than a bit of salt, but the texture is improved immeasurably. Dredge the meat/fish in the flour, pat off the excess. Dip the meat in the egg mixture; use the side of the bowl to scrape off any excess. Plop the meat into the crumbs, use a spoon and mound the crumbs over it. Pat firmly. Flip it over and do it again. Now for the real important part; put them uncovered, in a single layer, in the fridge for an hour or so. The egg evaporates and you have a crust before you even cook it. Either pan fry in a mix of a little oil and butter, or olive oil, or alternately spray with Pam© and bake. Baking works well with stuffed chicken, no cheese leaking out everywhere, but it tends to get a little gooey on the bottom. Just scrape it off; that’s the side that’s on the plate.
3. How to Make Salad Dressing / Marinade
Vinaigrette L
Good salad dressing requires the correct proportions; 1 part acid, 1 part water, 1 part oil. I make it in an old relish jar, but a bowl and a whisk works just as well. This is our family favorite; it works wonderfully on Greek Salad or as a marinade for chicken. Add a little extra salt and garlic for marinade. Mince 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon of onion, a good forkful of grainy mustard, a shake of Mrs. Dash, a grind or 2 of pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Squeeze a lemon over the seasoning. Lemons where I live are never fresh and juicy, they are extra tart, so I have to double the juice with water to get 1 part acid. Add the correct amount of water and good quality light-tasting (if you like the yucky green flavor of extra-virgin, go ahead) olive oil. Shake or whisk like mad, let it sit for an hour on the counter to blend flavors.
An excellent way to cook fish, skip the water, add a bunch of chopped tomato to the mix, pour over dense fish and bake…mmmmm
Balsamic dressing; sub the vinegar, omit the Mrs. Dash and the mustard and 1/2 the garlic.
An excellent dressing for layered cucumbers and tomatoes; Sub white vinegar, quadruple the onions, omit the Mrs. Dash, 1/2 the garlic, add a pinch of basil and a tablespoon of sugar.
2. How To Make Custard
070829 Colour Custard-742173
Not the kind that goes on trifle. Lord, I get a headache just taking out the double boiler. Buy Bird’s, I can’t make it any better than that. I’m talking about baked custard. Bread pudding is custard, Rice pudding is custard. The proteins in eggs stiffen up when heated. Even soufflé is custard, the whites and yolks are beaten separately to incorporate air, but the principle remains the same. I use a proportion of 1 part egg to 3 or 4 parts milk, with a few extra yolks added in for good measure. A dozen eggs, add 3 extra yolks.
See recipe 8 and recipe 9 on the recipes page.
1. How To Make Soup
Pumpkin-Soup-1
We eat home-made soup once a week. Soup is filling, cheap, and good for you. We have it with crusty bread or brochetta.
Chicken Noodle… Skin and pick the fat from a bunch of cheap chicken legs with backs attached. Season it with a fine dusting of poultry seasoning, a generous shake of Mrs. Dash©, and a very light sprinkling of seasoning salt. (We are going to use prepared stock later). Bake on a rack at 350 until well done. Dried out even, you want most of the fat rendered from the meat. Pick the meat from the bones and reserve. Rough chop a large onion, a couple stalks of celery and a small carrot. Sauté in a bit of oil in the soup pot, add the bones, tendons, and other gross bits from the chicken. When the veggies are beginning to brown add a bunch of water. Boil for an hour or two, skim the scum and run it through a sieve. Throw out the bones, veggie bits etc. Return the reserved meat to the broth and bring back to the boil. Reduce by 1/3. Now taste the broth and add 2 or 3 or 4 cups of prepared stock, the seasoning on the chicken determines how much is required. Bring back to the boil, skim, and add a couple cups of cheap frozen mixed veg. Bring back to the boil, pop in the noodles, adjust seasoning (sometimes it needs a tsp of vinegar or a shake of Worcestershire), and serve when the pasta is done. Soups and stews are both better the next day, so make it on the week-end, just add the pasta at the last minute.
See recipe 10 and 2 bonus recipes on the recipes page.
Contributor: Mom424
Recipe page:
http://listverse.com/cooking_recipes/
This is a list of recipes that go with the list Top 10 Tips for Great Home-Cooking.
Recipe 1 - Yummy Cheap Chops
Trim most, not all of the outside fat from some cheap pork butt chops. Don’t worry about the rest of the fat, you need it. Place the pork chops on a rack in a pan, and sprinkle with Lipton dry onion soup mix. (only 1 side, and not too much, 1pkg = 6 or 8 chops). Slow roast around 275 to 300 degrees ‘till the fat disappears and the meat gets nicely browned; an hour or two depending on thickness. Serve with scalloped or mashed potatoes and veg.
Recipe 2 - Stuffed Peppers
Core and deseed a bunch of green peppers. Mix 2 parts raw lean ground beef, 1 part cooked long grain rice (or uncooked disgusting minute rice), some chopped onion, minced garlic, pinch of dry mustard, dash or two of worcestechire sauce. Stuff the meat mixture into peppers. Put stuffed peppers in a deep covered casserole dish. Pour a can or 2 of Campbell’s Tomato Soup(undiluted) over peppers, (about ½ to 2/3 up sides of peppers), cover and microwave on med-hi till done…20 to 40 minutes depending on quantity. Serve with salad and crusty bread.
Recipe 3 - Quick Beef Stroganoff
Cut sirloin or other decent hunk of beef into thin strips. Heat the pan ‘till just shy of smoking, and brown in small batches with a little oil. While the meat is browning slice a bunch of mushrooms (or buy sliced), a large onion, mince some garlic. As soon as the last batch of meat is done throw in a little oil, the mushrooms, the onions and garlic. As soon as the mushrooms lose their liquid, turn the pan down to medium, add a pinch of thyme, a couple tablespoons of flour, and stir for a few minutes, (all the chunky bits are comin’ off the pan now). Return the meat to the pan and add a couple cups of beef stock and 1 tbsp tomato paste. Bring to boil and simmer 10 minutes. Before serving remove from heat and stir in a ¼ cup or so of sour cream. Serve over noodles with salad.
Recipe 4 - Cheese Sauce (cheatin’ and real)
Melt butter or margarine in small pot, add ½ of the flour, stir, and cook on med for 4 or 5 minutes. (it will kind of foam). While this is cooking, grate old cheddar or Swiss or gruyere and toss it with balance of flour. Add milk to flour/fat mixture (roux). Whisk briskly ‘till it comes to a boil and thickens. Turn heat to low, stir in cheese, a grind or 2 of pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. Cheatin’ sauce- use all the flour with the butter, skip the nutmeg and use cheese whiz instead of real cheese. (This is tasty and doesn’t coat the teeth like that gross cheese that comes with nachos)
Recipe 5 - Scalloped Potatoes
Measure the capacity of the pan you’re going to use first. Butter the pan liberally. Alternate layers of thin sliced potatoes and onions, add old cheddar if you want au gratin. Season each layer with salt and pepper. Make enough white sauce to fill the pan and cover the taters. Bake at 325 to 350 for about 1 to 2 hours, depending on how deep the pan is. (You can speed up the process by blanching the potatoes.)
Recipe 6 - Good Pasta and Pesto
Cook up enough spaghettini to serve 4. When the pasta is done, heat up some olive oil and a bit of butter/margarine in a frying pan over medium heat, add ½ to 1 teaspoon of pesto, 1 clove of minced garlic and the drained noodles. Toss it around a bit and throw in a handful of parmesan cheese and a few grinds of pepper. I defy anyone to tell me that this is not better tasting, and better for you than any noodle ‘n sauce package.
Recipe 7 - Awesome Marinade
Mix equal parts dark soy, pineapple juice, brown sugar (ok to sub honey or white sugar but use less of the refined stuff), 4 to 6 cloves of minced garlic, and a tablespoon or 2 of vinegar. Soak cubes of tough beef (eye of round) overnight, tender cuts or pork about 4 hours in the fridge, 2 hours on the counter, cubed chicken takes a couple hours in the fridge. I either do cubes alternated with peppers, onion, pineapple or just meat strips threaded back and forth on smaller skewers for appetizers/snacks. B-B-Q is best, but the broiler works too.(don’t overcook, it’s half cooked from the marinade) Use the same marinade but reduce the sugar a bit, and the chicken for chicken fried rice is to die for.
Recipe 8 - Damn Fine Bread Pudding
Measure the capacity of the pan you are using first and grease it liberally with butter. Butter up a bunch of old hamburger/hot dog buns, bread heels, whatever you have just this side of moldy. Tear or cut into cubes, sprinkle with cinnamon. Throw in a handful of chopped dried apricots (acid) that you have dusted with flour (stops them sinking and sticking together) and a handful of raisins. Toss it all in the baking dish. Now make enough custard to fill the pan and sweeten with a ton of sugar. Take a chance, taste the egg mixture, it should be about as sweet as a McDonald’s© milkshake. Add a teaspoon of vanilla. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes/fruit and let it sit in the fridge a couple of hours or so to soak up all the liquid. Bake at 325 or so for about an hour, check it, it puffs up over the edges of the pan and browns so nicely.
This recipe is excellent made with day old donuts; don’t butter, but add a bit of salt to the custard and omit most of the sugar and the raisins.
Recipe 9 - Main Course Bread Pudding
Toss buttered bread cubes with a cup or 2 of sharp flavored cheese, a bunch of left-over ham, some chopped onion, and a cup or 2 of cooked broccoli/asparagus. Season the custard with pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. A dash of hot sauce is good too! Serve warm or cold. We have it with salad for a summer supper but it works well on a brunch buffet as well.
Recipe 10 - Beef n’ Barley Soup
Brown beef seasoned with a bit of thyme in soup pot. Add onions, celery, carrot, and sauté till veggies are soft. (These will not be removed so nice chop.) Add water, reduce by a third, skim. Add a few shakes of Worcestershire or a tablespoon of tomato paste and the beef stock. Return to the boil, add ½ cup or so of barley and medium boil for an hour or until the barley is done. Skim again; add the veggies and one fine cubed potato. Cook ‘till potato is done and adjust seasoning.
Bonus Recipe 1: Mom’s Spaghetti Sauce
Brown 1 or 2 lbs of ground beef in large sauce pot. Drain most of the fat, reduce heat to medium and throw in 1 or 2 diced green peppers, 1 large onion, 2 stalks of celery, 5 or 6 cloves of minced garlic and one small grated carrot. Crush a heaping tablespoon or so of Italian seasoning (buy prepared or make your own, but go easy on the rosemary) in the palm of your hand and add to the pot along with a few grinds of pepper and a bay leaf. If you want spicy sauce add one or 2 chopped Jalapenos. Sauté a bit more and add 3 cans of canned diced or whole tomatoes, 1 can prepared plain tomato sauce, and 1 can (the little one) of tomato paste, and a ½ tsp of salt.
Simmer down for an hour or three. Feel free to add mushrooms, I do, but pan fry them first on high heat to remove the liquid and improve the flavor/texture. Adjust the seasoning; you will need to add salt if the tomatoes are of the low salt variety.
To make chili, omit the Italian seasoning, double the green peppers, add kidney beans, a pinch of cumin, and 2 or 3 canned chipotle peppers in adobe sauce. I prefer the flavor of the adobe peppers, far superior to chili powder. We serve it with grated cheddar and a dollop of sour cream.
Bonus Recipe 2: Shobha’s West Indian Curried Chicken
Shobha is a girl from Trinidad with whom I worked with years ago, she gave me this recipe and a few more. They add geezly hot little red peppers, but I find the curry hot enough on its’ own. Even folks who don’t generally like curry, like this. I warn you, your house will stink for 2 or 3 days, so I usually make it in the spring or fall when you can still open the windows.
Skin and pick the fat from a bunch of thighs and legs. This is stewed so don’t use white meat, it is too dry. Soak the chicken in cold water mixed with a quarter to a half a cup of white vinegar in the fridge for an hour or so. Drain the water/vinegar mix along with the gross floating fat globules. DO NOT RINSE. Sprinkle the chicken liberally with poultry seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Let it sit for at least half an hour.
Heat up the stew pot to almost smoking and saute a chopped onion and a bunch of garlic in a little oil. Stir a minute and add a tablespoon or two of good curry powder. (Chetty’s is recommended). Toast for a second, the curry will foam up and smell amazing, and add the chicken. Brown the chicken very well in the curry; it will almost form a crust. If you want it really hot, add one of those deadly little red peppers at this point. Add water to double the height of the meat. Cook on medium until the sauce reduces by at least half. It will thicken on it own due to the collagen in the chicken bones. Serve over rice with a tomato and onion salad.
Recipes Contributed by Mom424
[Ramps are wild leeks, they may grow in your area, be sure you know what you are eating, do not take chances...granny]
I’ve always used them fresh (and simply fried, not blanched) but that
would
be interesting to try. If you seperated the white and green parts and
chopped them before drying you might end up with products similar to
garlic
granules and dried chives (but with a stronger flavour).
MMMMM-—— Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Ramp Champ (Mashed Potatoes with Ramps)
Categories: Side dish, Vegetables
Yield: 8 servings
2 1/2 lb potatoes
1/2 c Trimmed and minced ramps
1/4 lb butter; softened
1 1/4 c Milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tb Minced green ramp tops;
to garnish
Make standard mashed potatoes: In a large heavy saucepan, cover
the potatoes with two inches cold water and bring the water to a
boil. Add salt to taste and simmer the potatoes, partially
covered, for 25 minutes or until they are tender. Drain the
potatoes, return them to the pan, and steam them dry, covered and
shaking the pan, for 3 minutes. Let the potatoes cool until they
can be handled, then peel them.
While potatoes are boiling, in a small saucepan cook the ramps in 2
tb. of butter over low heat, stirring, for 5 minutes or until they
are softened. Add the milk, scald the mixture over moderate heat, and
keep it warm.
Rice the potatoes or force them through a food mill into the large
saucepan. Beat in 6 tb. of the remaining butter, cut into pieces.
Add the milk mixture in a stream, beating. Season with salt and
pepper and, if necessary, heat the mixture over low heat, stirring,
until it is heated through.
Transfer to a heated serving dish, garnish with ramp tops, and top
with remaining 2 tb. butter.
Mom & Ramps Forever! by Barbara Beury McCallum. Charleston, WV
Mountain State Press, 1983. From “Gourmet” magazine, April 1983
MMMMM
MMMMM-—— Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Ramps and Eggs
Categories: Wild, Eggs, Bacon
Yield: 3 Servings
6 Eggs
1/2 ts Salt
24 ramps
1/4 c Bacon drippings
Clean and cut up ramps, using 1/2 of the stems. Place bacon
drippings in iron skillet; heat to sizzling. Put in ramps and
salt; fry until tender. Next, scramble eggs; pour over ramps and
stir until eggs are done. Serve with crisp bacon and cornbread.
MMMMM
MMMMM-—— Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Potato and Wild Leek (Ramps) Soup
Categories: Wild, Chicken
Yield: 4 Servings
6 sl Bacon
4 c Chopped ramps (including
Green)
5 c Diced red potatoes
3 tb Flour
4 c Chicken broth
1 c Heavy cream
Salt and pepper, to taste
In a large skillet, fry bacon until crispy; set bacon aside. Add
ramps and potatoes to the skillet; fry on medium-low heat until
ramps are tender. Sprinkle with flour; stir until flour is
absorbed. Stir in chicken broth; simmer until potatoes are tender.
Stir in the cream and heat thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to
taste.
Southernfood.About.com
MMMMM
MMMMM-—— Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Roasted Chicken, Ramps, and Potatoes
Categories: Native, Chicken
Yield: 4 Servings
3/4 lb Ramps
3 lb Chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 lb Small red potatoes, halved
2 1/2 tb Olive oil
1 1/2 c Chicken broth
Preheat oven to 500 F.
Trim roots from ramps and slip off outer skin on bulbs if loose.
Cut off and reserve leaves, leaving white bulbs attached to
slender pink stems. Put leaves and bulbs in separate bowls.
Pat chicken dry. Put in a flameproof large shallow roasting pan,
without crowding, and surround with potatoes. Drizzle with 2
tablespoons oil and rub all over to coat evenly. Arrange chicken
skin sides up and season with salt and pepper. Roast it in the
oven 20 minutes.
Toss bulbs with remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil and season with salt.
Scatter bulbs around chicken and roast mixture until breast pieces
are just cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer breast pieces
to a platter and keep warm. Roast remaining chicken and vegetables
5 minutes more, or until cooked through. Transfer to platter and
keep warm, loosely covered with foil. (If crisper skin is desired,
broil chicken only, skin sides up, about 2 minutes.)
Pour off fat from roasting pan and straddle pan across 2 burners.
Add 1/4 cup broth and deglaze pan by cooking over high heat,
scraping up brown bits.
Add the rest of the broth. When broth boils, add ramp leaves and
stir until wilted and tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove with tongs
and add to chicken. Boil pan juices until reduced to about 1/2 cup
and pour around chicken.
Gourmet April 2000
MMMMM
MMMMM-—— Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Ramps Piquante
Categories: Condiments, Garlic, Sauces, Cheese
Yield: 6 Servings
1 c Grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 c Ramp bulbs
1/2 c Broth drained from ramps
1 tb Worcestershire sauce
3 tb Wine vinegar
3 tb Butter
Salt and pepper to taste
6 sl Crisp toast
Boil ramps until tender in salted water & drained (reserve
broth). Over low heat, melt cheese in ramp broth. Add
Worcestershire, vinegar, and butter. Stir ramps into the sauce and
reheat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot over crisp toast.
Cathy
MMMMM
Cheers
Jim in Yellowknife
Cream of Leek soup is good and made like any other cream soup recipe.
David
_Mushroom-Collecting.com_ (http://mushroom-collecting.com/)
I love my dried leeks. I sliced the bulbs in halves or quarters, and
dehydrate them. They can be fibrous and tough when rehydrated, so I
crush them into bits or sometimes powder when I add them to potatoes,
noodles, soups, hotdishes, burgers, etc.
A little goes a long way too.
B.B.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ForageAhead/
[She looks like a bunch of my related kids and many others..granny]
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/missing/reachelle.asp
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/missing/reachelle.asp
IF YOUR CHILD WAS MISSING WOULDN’T YOU PRAY THAT EVERYONE PASSED THIS
EMAIL
ON!!!!! DO THE RIGHT THING AND LOOK AND FORWARD!? Missing Girl from
North
Dakota !!!!!!!!!!
http://www.10news.com/health/16321170/detail.html
E. coli Concerns Lead To Beef Recall
Ground Beef Products Distributed In 11 States
POSTED: 10:38 am PDT May 18, 2008
CHICAGO — Federal officials say a Chicago-based company is recalling beef products distributed in 11 states because of possible E. coli contamination.
continues.
T O D A Y ‘ S Q U O T E
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What a pity flowers can utter no sound!
A singing rose, a whispering violet, a
murmuring honeysuckle,-oh, what a
rare and exquisite miracle would these
be! ~Henry Ward Beecher
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
T O D A Y ‘ S T I P S
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
GARDEN TIDBITS: GROWING TIDBITS
I hope your gardens are doing well. We all have challenges
on our property, whether it’s shade, clay, sand, weeds or
soggy conditions. There is an answer for all of them if you
just look. Check your state university extension website for
starters. I also have a lot of tips on our garden index.
GROWING IN SANDY SOIL
Sandy soil can be amended pretty easily, and everything
I came across said once this was done you can grow
just about anything. So what can you add to sandy soil?
The best things are well-rotted compost or manure (not
fresh), pine park humus, composted leaf mold or peat
moss. If you think your soil is too acidic add some lime
with those things too. I once read an article about a couple
who moved into a dry, desert area, and by bringing in top
soil, adding compost and using raised beds they were able
to grow just about anything they wanted to! Oh, and you
should also mulch well when the soil is sandy because the
soil dries out faster.
CALADIUMS FOR SHADE
Caladiums are a nice shade plant with interesting colors
and texture. They don’t do as well in full shade, and need
protection from full sun if you opt for that. A light to medium
shaded location works well. The plants also need a warm,
moist soil. I’ve planted them in porch boxes, but really had
to watch so they didn’t dry out. I water on a regular basis.
Caladiums also need a fairly loose soil to grow properly. If
you are starting with a tuber instead of a plant it should be
placed about 2 inches deep. They do well with a 2 inch or
thicker layer of mulch. When preparing the soil for planting
make sure it’s worked up well, add some potash if you have
it, and water well. One other key to growing caladiums is
NOT allowing them to bloom! Check frequently and snip
off any flowers that begin to form. They aren’t attractive,
and it’s important to remove them so the plant will direct
it’s energy to the foliage and the tuber.
MORE TIPS: Dogs and cats bothering your garden?
http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/cats.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
T O D A Y ‘ S O F L R E S O U R C E
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Award-winning roses, exclusively from Jackson &
Perkins, plus visit during their Red Tag Sale for
extra savings on quality roses while they last-—
http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/jackson.html
[I left the ad on, there is no better rose bush than the Jackson & Perkins rose bush.......in my experience....granny]
[From a good container growing group’s info...granny]
You don’t need a lot of space for these, you can see that I grow them in
dishpans (with holes for drainage). They are quick to grow, very quick
indeed.
One that I grow (and really love) is kai laan, often called ‘Chinese
broccoli’ or ‘Chinese kale’. It has a whole bunch of Asian names too. It’s
this one: http://www.evergreenseeds.com/chinkalgail.html
This is an awful lot faster to grow than regular broccoli, and ‘faster’ in
this case is important; it means that I don’t need to worry about covering
up my plants to protect them from the cabbage moths and butterflies. I can
get them in and harvested in spring, before the butterflies show up. And
then I can get them planted again in fall, and they will grow after the
butterflies have died off for the year (or left or whatever they do in
fall).
Other ways to protect your brassicas (cabbage family plants) from the evil
butterflies are given here in this file: http://tinyurl.com/ypz7lx - this
is in the folder entitled ‘Pat’s Files - Useful Info’. The file name is
brassicaarticle.html.
For the rest, how to grow them and so on, I’m going to re-send a message I
sent here in December. We have a lot of new people since then and ‘old’
people might like to be reminded too.
The small Asian greens are, to may way of thinking, *superlative* container
veggies, for a whole bunch of reasons. I hope I can talk some list members
into trying them... they can be confusing for us, because they seem to have
so many names both in English and in Chinese or Japanese. But once you can
sort out the names, they’re really easy to grow, and to cook with.
1. They grow fast, *fast*, FAST, *FAST*! Almost instant gratification.
The seeds sprout quickly, the seedlings grow quickly, and when you get them
transplanted into their containers, they grow quickly there too. Some can
be eaten 30 days after starting the seeds (yes, thirty days). At that
rate, even I (in a short-season area) can have 4 or 5 crops per season from
one container...
2. They are delicious. What to do with them? Well, the classic and
probably best use is in stir-fries (with or without meat). Indeed, they
are really terrific for that purpose. However, I also just steam them and
eat them plain, as a side vegetable, and I very much enjoy them that way
too. They can also be used with pasta and in other recipes, such as in
soups.
3. The seeds last a long time, about 5 years at least. So they won’t be
expensive to grow. Buy the seeds now, use them each year for at least five
years....
4. They add variety to what you can grow, and to your meals.
5. They are cool-weather plants and can best be grown in spring and fall -
you can grow something else in the same container in summer. I can get
FOUR harvests out of the same container each season (in northern
Pennsylvania). Grow a small Asian green in spring, grow green beans in
summer, grow lettuce in early fall, grow another Asian green in later fall
- there are many other combinations that will work too.
6. They take very little room to grow.
They do need to be protected against cabbage butterflies - one way to
protect them is to grow them in early spring and late fall. Other ways to
protect them are described here:
What plants am I talking about?
1. Green baby bok choy - http://www.evergreenseeds.com/smalloosgree.html
There are several varieties of the small green bok choy. I often grow
Hybrid Green Baby (pictured on the page referenced above). I can get six
heads of this into a dishpan (!) and grow a couple of scallions in between,
by just popping an onion set into the soil when I transplant the bok choys
(you can do this with any of the Asian greens). I harvest this when it’s
about 6” to 8” tall. If it gets ahead of you and flowers, you can eat the
flowers too.
Photo:
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/ediblecontainergardens/photos/view/fae0?b=8
2. Small Chinese cabbages -
http://www.evergreenseeds.com/smalloosleaf.html - I like the looseleaf
Chinese cabbages. They can be used in stir-fries or in salads, or shredded
and put on tacos (instead of lettuce). There is a white baby bok choy on
this page too.
3. Choy sum - http://www.evergreenseeds.com/choysum.html - This vegetable
is grown for leaves, stems, and the pale yellow flower buds and flowers:
all are edible. The Extra Dwarf Choy Sum is ready to eat in about 30 days
from seed planting. Photo:
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/ediblecontainergardens/photos/view/fae0?b=9
4. Chinese kale (Chinese broccoli).
http://www.evergreenseeds.com/chinkalgail.html - This vegetable has many
names: kai laan, guy lan, guy lohn, etc. It takes a bit longer to grow
than the bok choys and choy sums, but, oh is it ever worth it! This is a
really delicious vegetable and again, all parts are edible: stem, leaves,
flower buds and flowers. I probably won’t bother growing broccoli any
more; this is just so much faster to grow, and it tastes every bit as good
to me. I like the Blue Star variety.
Please consider trying some or all of these this spring. They are really
worth it. Again: they are cool weather plants, grow in spring, and then
again in fall. If you live in the South, you can probably grow all these
all through the winter.
These plants (and most, but not all, other Asian greens) are Brassicas,
members of the cabbage family. As such, they are subject to the
depredations of the Evil Cabbage Butterfly. For directions on how to cope
with the Evil Butterfly, see this file: http://tinyurl.com/ypz7lx - this
is in the folder entitled ‘Pat’s Files - Useful Info’. The file name is
brassicaarticle.html.
In the case of these Asian greens, they grow so quickly that I can get at
least one (sometimes two) crops grown and eaten in spring before the
butterflies arrive, and then I can plant another crop in late summer,
transplanting them outdoors after the butterflies have left. This is the
easiest way to cope with the butterflies, so it’s what I do. But you can
grow them longer if you are willing to protect them (see article above).
I have read that they will bolt if exposed to cold weather early in their
lives; this hasn’t happened in my experience, and they’ve certainly been
exposed to cold weather! I do start the seeds indoors, and maybe that
makes a difference.
There are many more Asian veggies that are well worth growing. I like
Vitamin Green, tat soi, shungiku, mizuna, and komatsuna for example. I’ll
write about them some other time. For now, this is enough.
For a terrific book about Asian veggies, see ‘Oriental Vegetables: The
Complete Guide for the Gardening Cook,’ by Joy Larkcom. Please note,
however, that the author is British and doesn’t understand the USA’s
weather *at all*; so her recommendations of what to plan when are not
accurate for most of the USA.
Good sources for seeds of Asian veggies:
http://www.containerseeds.com/ (which I started, but no longer have any
affiliation with)
Please grow these! You’ll be glad you did!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ediblecontainergardens/
Fairy Tale Hybrid Eggplant
There is one absolutely superb variety for containers. It is Fairy Tale
Hybrid. These are *small plants* but are very productive. The eggplants
grow in clusters, they are long and lavender striped with white, and
delicious, very sweet. This is a pretty plant too, suitable for a front
yard container garden.
I’ll try to find some photos for you, ok, this is a pretty good one:
I prefer open-pollinated seeds but Fairy Tale Hybrid is so *super special*
for containers that I grow it even though it is a hybrid.
It’s a stunning variety, every bit as good as the seed companies claim.
Park says that the plant is 18” to 24” high and that’s about right,
although the ones I grew in SWCs were somewhat larger.
Apple Green Eggplant
Apple Green is another excellent variety for containers. It’s
open-pollinated. I’ve had very good results with it.
http://www.seedsavers.org/prodinfo.asp?number=619
Long, black Asian eggplants
For very LARGE containers - very large - any of the long, black Asian
eggplants are very productive, very. And they make fruit early. These are
mostly VERY large plants. There are several Asian eggplant varieties here:
http://www.evergreenseeds.com/oreg.html
Mohican Hybrid
Mohican Hybrid is another good container variety; small-ish plants, small
white round eggplants.
http://www.tmseeds.com/product/876.html
Rosa Bianca
And last, but not least, is Rosa Bianca. Rosa Bianca is open-pollinated,
it’s a beautiful, gorgeous eggplant and very delicious too. In my
comparatively cool-summer area, it is definitely not productive. I got two
eggplants one year! Definitely not worth the time.
But I see that you are in Zone 8-9 - you could probably do much better with
it. Nevertheless, it’s never going to win a prize for productivity. But,
they are beautiful eggplants. The plant itself is fairly compact.
http://www.seedsavers.org/prodinfo.asp?number=1304
I grew India Paint eggplants last year—I bought them as plants from
Cook’s Garden. They were very nice container plants, and the
eggplants are small (good for one person!!) but they made a LOT of
them. 3 plants kept me in fresh eggplant, plus there is a bunch in my
freezer, and I souped some. I will be growing these again next
summer. They are also quite pretty fruits. The flowers are not as
showy as more usual sorts of eggplants, but the fruits are pretty.
This is the Cook’s Garden Website photo of this eggplant:
http://www.cooksgarden.com/searchprods.asp
They only get about a foot or so high. I grew mine in 12 inch across
pots and they were pretty happy. I think they would be happier in a
self watering box, so I may build one for them over the winter.
It is easy to find bush or short vined summer squash - most are - not so
easy to find winter squash. I have written down the winter squash varieties
that need less space and are more suited for the smaller garden or for large
containers. Some of the short winter squashes are open pollinated, which
means that seed can be saved. This list is not complete and there will be
other varieties and other sources of seeds too. Please add more
information.
Buttercup types
Bush Buttercup OP:
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Squash-Winter/Bush-Buttercup
Seed source:
http://www.psrseed.com/squashseed.html
http://www.faulknersgardening.com/Seeds.html
http://skyfiregardenseeds.com/
I couldn’t find any pictures of fruit that specified they were Emerald
bush, but descriptions say they look pretty much like regular
buttercups. I did find a picture of plants, they were all growing really
close together.
Most of the seed sources said 2007 still. :(
It does look like this would be an excellent plant if space is an issue
for you. It would probably even grow in a container.
Autumncup F1 semi bush
http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/store/vegetables/squashwinter/buttercupsquash/au
tumncupsquash
Gold Nugget OP: a small, short vined orange squash, similar to buttercup or
kabocha.
http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/catalog/squash.html
http://www.gardencityseeds.net/product_info.php?cPath=33_140_167&products_id
=471
Butternut types:
Early butternut F1, vines grow 50 in long
http://henryfields.com/product.asp?pn=12430
http://www.territorial-seed.com/stores/1/Early_Butternut_P2445C604.cfm
http://www.gardencityseeds.net/product_info.php?cPath=33_140_167&products_id
=469
Butternut Atlas F1 described as semi bush
hhttp://www.osborneseed.com/catalog_view.cfm?submitted=yes&selectcat=37&sele
cttype=Winter%20Squashttp://www.neseed.com/Squash_Winter_i_Atlas_F1_Hybrid_i
_p/32803.htm
Acorn squash:
Early Acorn hybrid:
http://www.burpee.com/product/vegetables/squash-acorn/winter+squash+early+ac
orn+hybrid+-+1+pkt.+%2825+seeds%29.do
Bush Table Queen OP - 3ft across plants:
http://www.burpee.com/product/vegetables/squash-acorn/winter+squash+bush+tab
le+queen++-+1+pack+%2825+seeds%29.do
Cornells Bush Delicata OP
http://www.burpee.com/product/vegetables/squash-specialty+/winter+squash+cor
nells+bush+delicata+-+1+pkt+%2825+seeds%29.do
Banana squash:
There exists a bush banana cultivar. Seeds were sold by Burpee but they no
longer stock them. Is there another source?
Zapallito Squash:
Zapallito de Tronco OP - dual use summer or winter squash
http://www.gardencityseeds.net/product_info.php?cPath=33_140_166&products_id
=462
http://www.seedswestgardenseeds.com/Summersquashindex.html
Southwest garden seeds call this variety Calavacita in their catalogue
Hubbard squashes:
There is a bush hybrid Hubbard, called Hubba Hubba, but I cannot find seed
in garden sized packets. Commercial seed quantities:
http://www.siegers.com/shop/kind.asp?kind_id=VV2
Baby Blue Hubbard OP. This is classed as semi-vining
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Squash-Winter/Baby-Blue-Hubbard
Spaghetti squash: Hasta la Pasta is said to be a reasonably compact spaghetti squash. Burpee sells it, Thompson and Morgan do also.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ediblecontainergardens/
[When I buy seeds, I start with Sandhill Preservation’s catalog and then go to Pinehill and Nichols, cheaper, better seeds and have shopped there for many years.
granny]
http://www.journeytoforever.org/seeds.html
[part of page below]
Seed resources
The Threatened Gene: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity, Cary Fowler and Pat Mooney, 1991. Vanishing seeds: “Loss of genetic diversity in agriculture — silent, rapid, inexorable — is leading us to a rendezvous with extinction — to the doorstep of hunger on a scale we refuse to imagine.” 270-page book provides an excellent introduction to the history and geopolitics of genetic diversity. Pat Mooney is executive director of the ETC Group, previously Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI). Download PDF (14 MB):
http://www.etcgroup.org/upload/publication/pdf_file/572
“More than 90 per cent of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields.” — UK Agricultural Biodiversity Coalition
http://www.ukabc.org/
This site has good resources on seed issues and food security.
“One of the world’s most pervasive threats to world food and livelihood security is the loss of biological diversity.” — Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN)
http://www.grain.org/
GRAIN is an international NGO, part of a global movement of popular action against genetic erosion. Publishes the excellent “Seedling” newsletter, books and other materials, briefings and ad hoc publications, global trade and biodiversity in conflict, an email mailing list. Site search. Website also in French and Spanish versions.
“In order to have access to a wide diversity of useful plants to meet our essential needs beyond 2000, we must gather, annotate, and caretake these resources now, before they are further eroded.” — Seed Savers’ Network
http://www.seedsavers.net/
A trainee of the Community Seed Bank Training Program in the Solomon Islands collects long red beans from a subsistence garden (Seed Savers’ Network)
This Australian seedsaving group is involved in projects in Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Tonga, Cuba and the Solomon Islands.
The Heritage Seed Library run by the HDRA in Britain (”Garden Organic”) aims to conserve as much biodiversity as it can and make as many varieties of vegetables available as possible. About 700 varieties in the collection, mostly vegetables. Seeds are supplied to volunteer Seed Guardians who cultivate threatened varieties of vegetables in their gardens. A Seed Swap section encourages informal exchange of rare seeds. The Library also publishes the quarterly newsletter Seed News covering plant genetic resources.
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/index.php
SeedSaving Resources — This comprehensive site is a “one-stop-shop” of Web resources on plant genetic resources, seedsaving and seed swapping, and worldwide sources of organic, heirloom, open-pollinated and non-GE seed and plants.
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~merlyn/seedsaving.html
The Seed Exchange email list has nearly 700 members from around the world, including university agriculture departments and research stations. Moderated list, no advertising, members’ email information kept totally private. To subscribe send a blank email to: seeds@nowonline.net with the word SUBSCRIBE as the subject of the message.
Native Seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) of Tucson, Arizona, is a nonprofit organization that works to conserve the traditional crops, seeds, and farming methods that have sustained native peoples throughout the southwestern US and northern Mexico. “We promote the use of these ancient crops and their wild relatives by gathering, safeguarding, and distributing their seeds, while sharing benefits with traditional communities. We also work to preserve knowledge about their uses. Through research, training, and community education, NS/S works to protect biodiversity and to celebrate cultural diversity. Both are essential in our efforts to restore the earth.”
http://nativeseeds.org/
“Growing Diversity: Genetic Resources and Local Food Security”, by David Cooper, Renée Vellvé, Henk Hobbelink (editors), 1992, IT Publications, ISBN 1-85339-119-0
Edited by GRAIN (Genetic Resources Action International), this book presents the experiences of NGOs in managing genetic resources at the local level in the Third World. Fifteen authors document the work of local farmers in developing crop varieties suited to their needs and demonstrate how these approaches can be built upon to promote conservation and development. From Stylus Publishing:
http://www.styluspub.com/Books/
BookDetail.aspx?productID=45220
Saving the Seed: Genetic diversity and European agriculture, by Renée Vellvé, GRAIN, 1992, Earthscan, ISBN 1-85383-150-6
“Pandas are cute, tropical rainforests are breath-taking, but how do you mobilize people to save a carrot?” Traces the decline of crop varieties in European farming, and describes what is being done to safeguard genetic resources for the future. The crucial work is being done by individuals and grassroots organizations, who largely go unrecognized and under-resourced. Policies to promote the diversification of European agriculture and an integrated strategy for safeguarding the genetic base of the food system are urgently needed. From Powell’s Books:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9781853831508-0
Saving the Seed: Europe’s Challenge, by Alvaro Toledo, Seedling April 2002, GRAIN — 2,800-word article examines how the state of play has changed since the publication of GRAIN’s “Saving the Seed: Genetic Diversity and European Agriculture” (Renée Vellvé, GRAIN, 1992, Earthscan, ISBN 1-85383-150-6). “The 1990s have not been a good decade for agricultural biodiversity in Europe...”
http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=191
“Lost Crops of Africa: Volume I: Grains” by Noel Vietmeyer, 1996, National Academy Press, ISBN 0309049903
Africa has more native cereals than any other continent. It has its own species of rice, as well as finger millet, fonio, pearl millet, sorghum, tef, guinea millet, and several dozen wild cereals whose grains are eaten from time to time. This is a food heritage that has fed people for generation after generation stretching back to the origins of mankind. It is also a local upon which a sound food future might be built. But this legacy of genetic wealth has largely been bypassed in modern times. The “lost crops” can help provide food security in their native areas, which include many parts of Africa threatened with hunger. At the same time maintaining the diversity of these ancient crops will protect options for the rest of the world to use. Full text online at the National Academy Press:
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309049903
From Powell’s Books:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-9780309049900-1
Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II: Vegetables, 2006
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11763
Lost Crops of Africa: Volume III: Fruits, 2008
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11879
Ethiopia’s Living Laboratory of Biodiversity — In Ethiopia, home of one of the most publicized famines in the mid-1980s, farmers play a pivotal role in preserving and enhancing some of the world’s most unique seed genetic material. Amid Ethiopia’s diverse topography, climate and soil conditions, local farmers have developed a tremendous base of food-producing seeds. In an effort to ensure Ethiopia’s seed genetic diversity, scientists are discovering that farmers are not merely an adjunct to conserving and enhancing this diversity but are key actors.
http://archive.idrc.ca/books/reports/12ethiop.html
“Lost Crops of the Incas: Little-Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation” Board on Science and Technology for International Development, National Research Council, 1989, ISBN 0-309-04264-X.
Detailed information on more than 30 different Incan crops that promise to follow the potato’s lead and become important contributors to the world’s food supply. Some of these overlooked foods offer special advantages for developing nations, such as high nutritional quality and excellent yields. Color photographs of many of the crops plus the authors’ experiences in growing, tasting, and preparing them in different ways. Full text online at the National Academic Press:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/1398.html
“Seed Savers’ Handbook” by Michel & Jude Fanton, 1993
Without dedicated seed savers, our staple foods would not exist. Such seed resources are only safe in the hands of people who save and grow them and eat their bounty; they are lost in “collections” or storage, or in hybrids wholly owned by multinationals. The Fantons, founders of Australia’s SeedSaver’s Network, show how gardeners can protect our global food heritage — and eat it too. They describe the seed collecting, growth cycles, propagation, cultivation and traditional kitchen and medicinal uses of over one hundred vegetables, culinary herbs and edible flowers. From ECHO’s Global Bookstore:
http://www.echobooks.org/
“New Seed-Starters Handbook” by Nancy Bubel, 1988, Rodale Press, ISBN 0-87857-752-1
Turn to this book for the most complete, up-to-date information on starting plants from seed. Written by a gardener with 30 years of experience, this easy-to-use reference explains everything you need to know to start seeds and raise healthy seedlings successfully. From ECHO’s Global Bookstore:
http://www.echobooks.org/
“Farmers’ Seed Production: New approaches and practices” edited by Conny Almekinders, Niels Louwaars, 1999, Practical Action, ISBN 1853394661
This handbook covers a whole range of issues relating to local seed supply systems, including participatory plant breeding, and both technical and practical information on seed production and variety maintenance. It suggests new approaches and methods to support on-farm seed production by small-scale farmers in developing countries. From the Development Bookshop:
http://developmentbookshop.com/product_info.
php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=456
“Heirloom Vegetable Gardening — A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History” by William Woys Weaver, 1997, Henry Holt & Company, ISBN 0805040250
Lists 280 varieties of vegetables, all organically grown by Weaver. He has researched the traditional kitchen garden over the course of 30 years. Old fashioned recipes, research on the introduction of these vegetables, color photographs and line drawings. Weaver maintains his own collection of over 2,000 varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers. From Powell’s Books
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=6-0805040250-3
The Seed Search, by Karen Platt, 5th edition, November 2002, Black Tulip Publishing, 368 pages — Sources for 40,000 flowering seeds including all types of flowering plants and over 9,500 vegetables. Includes open-pollinated, untreated, heirloom and organic seed, many rare species. Almost 500 suppliers from all over the world, including many small, unusual seed companies. An alphabetical listing of seed showing which supplier supplies what. Full suppliers details.
http://www.karenplatt.co.uk/books/seedsearch/
Genetically Engineered crops
Genetically modified crops (GMOs, Genetically Modified Organisms) have kept exactly none of the many golden promises made for it, and fulfilled most of the fears and cautions raised by the technology’s detractors — they’re a disaster, nobody benefits except Monsanto et al.
“Biotech has bamboozled us all — Studies suggest that traditional farming methods are still the best” Guardian, August 24, 2000: “If anyone tells you that GM is going to feed the world,” Steve Smith, a director of the world’s biggest biotechnology company, Novartis, insisted, “tell them that it is not... To feed the world takes political and financial will — it’s not about production and distribution.” Mr Smith was voicing a truth which most biotechnology companies have gone to great lengths to deny.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4054683,00.html
“Ten reasons why biotechnology will not ensure food security, protect the environment and reduce poverty in the developing world” — by Miguel A. Altieri, University of California, Berkeley and Peter Rosset, Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
http://www.foodfirst.org/progs/global/biotech/altieri-11-99.html
“Will Biotechnology Feed the World’s Poor?” — “One of the biggest myths perpetuated by the biotechnology industry is that genetically engineered crops are likely to provide a solution to world hunger” — Tom Campbell, Development Studies Centre, Kimmage Manor, Dublin, Ireland
http://www.pmac.net/campbell.htm
“Genetic Engineering and World Hunger: Food? Health? Hope?” — “Ensuring food security worldwide requires an approach that is the opposite of that promoted by Biotechnology companies”. 16,000-word article from Britain’s The CornerHouse, debunks the GE companies’ claims that genetic engineering is the key to feeding the world’s increasing numbers of people, that it will help to restore a healthy environment and prevent further degradation, and that it will provide farmers and consumers worldwide with more choices and opportunities.
http://www.ukabc.org/ge_wfs.html
The ETC Group, formerly Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), is at the forefront of the battle against GMO crops and biopiracy
http://www.etcgroup.org/en/
“GMOs are without a doubt the least democratic and most unpopular new technology since nuclear energy, and their potential to catalyze global ecological and social disaster is terrifying.” — Friends of the Earth International
http://www.foei.org/
“Say no to genetic engineering” — Greenpeace
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering
GMWatch.org — Full coverage, daily news by email, the usual suspects of the “Biotech Brigade”, and more.
http://www.gmwatch.org/
The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods — Campaigns, Action Alerts, information, resources, online bookstore and more:
http://www.thecampaign.org/
Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN)
http://www.grain.org/
Biotechnology and Biosafety — a large collection of reports, articles, publications from the Third World Network
http://www.twnside.org.sg/bio.htm
UK Agricultural Biodiversity Coalition
http://www.ukabc.org/
Open Letter from World Scientists to All Governments: “We, the undersigned scientists, call for the immediate suspension of all environmental releases of Genetically Modified crops and products; for patents on life-forms and living processes to be revoked and banned; and for a comprehensive public enquiry into the future of agriculture and food security for all.”
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/list.php
“Genetically Engineered food — Safety Problems” — Physicians and Scientists Against Genetically Engineered Food is demanding a moratorium on GE food.
http://www.psrast.org/intro1.htm
Resources on biotechnology at the Institute of Science in Society website, with reports by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Angela Ryan, Prof. Joe Cummins, and others. Newsletters, mailing list, full site search.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/
Dr Vandana Shiva
The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology was founded in India in 1982 by Dr. Vandana Shiva, scientist, author and a leading opponent of GE crops and biopiracy.
http://www.navdanya.org/
Against the Grain: Why poor nations would lose in a biotech war on hunger — The promise [of biotechnology] of more abundant and more nutritious food appears to hold out the hope that hunger and disease can be alleviated. With potential like this, who wouldn’t be in favor of genetically engineered crops? For starters, many of the people they are supposed to help. — Sierra Club
http://www.sierraclub.org/sier
[No, I did not read all the links, as I already know that i am never going to favor the new types of seeds, I want the old, I can save it type..
granny]
http://www.journeytoforever.org/compost_worm.html
Vermicomposting
Vermicomposting uses earthworms to turn organic wastes into very high quality compost. This is probably the best way of composting kitchen wastes. Adding small amounts of wet kitchen scraps to a large compost pile in the garden day by day can disrupt the decomposition process so that the compost is never really done. But it works just fine with vermicomposting.
Many gardeners use vermicomposting systems for all their garden and kitchen wastes, many more use both types of composting, and thousands of households without gardens use neat and unobtrusive worm boxes indoors to compost their kitchen scraps (as well as newspapers and cardboard boxes), reducing their garbage by up to a third and providing their own organic soil for pot plants and container gardens on balconies and roofs to grow their own healthy food.
See “Friend Earthworm: Practical Application of a Lifetime Study of Habits of the Most Important Animal in the World” by George Sheffield Oliver, 1941 — one of the all-time classics on the earthworm. Dr Oliver was one of the first to harness the earthworm to the needs of the farmer and gardener, making highly fertile topsoil for optimum crop growth, and producing a constant supply of cheap, high-grade, live protein to feed poultry. He devised simple yet elegant and effective systems to bring costs and labour down and productivity up to help struggling farmers make ends meet. Oliver had an observant and critical eye and understood Nature’s round. His ideas on the nature of modern food and health (or the lack of it) are only now being confirmed, half a century later. A delightful book. Full text online at the Journey to Forever Small Farms Library. Plus “My Grandfather’s Earthworm Farm”, “Eve Balfour on Earthworms”, “Albert Howard on Earthworms”, “The Housefly” by Roy Hartenstein.
Vermicompost and plants
Worm casts — the best soil there is
Vermicompost consists mostly of worm casts (poop) plus some decayed organic matter. In ideal conditions worms can eat at least their own weight of organic matter in a day. In fact it seems they don’t actually eat it — they consume it, sure enough, but what they derive their nourishment from is all the micro-organisms that are really eating it. And yet — mystery! — their casts contain eight times as many micro-organisms as their feed! And these are the micro-organisms that best favour healthy plant growth. And the casts don’t contain any disease pathogens — pathogenic bacteria are reliably killed in the worms’ gut. This is one of the great benefits of vermicomposting.
Chinese spinach seedlings grown with (from left) chemical fertilizer, powdered horse manure, vermicompost, and nothing.
Worm casts also contain five times more nitrogen, seven times more phosphorus, and 11 times more potassium than ordinary soil, the main minerals needed for plant growth, but the large numbers of beneficial soil micro-organisms in worm casts have at least as much to do with it. The casts are also rich in humic acids, which condition the soil, have a perfect pH balance, and contain plant growth factors similar to those found in seaweed. There’s nothing better to put in your garden!
— “Worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it, and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain or grass.” — The Rev. Gilbert White of Selborne, 1777
— “All the fertile areas of this planet have at least once passed through the bodies of earthworms.” — Charles Darwin, “The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms with Observations on their Habits”, John Murray, London, 1881
The worms
These are not the usual big burrowing earthworms that live in garden soil. Called red worms, tiger worms, brandlings, angle worms, manure worms, or red wrigglers, they occupy a different ecological niche, living near the surface where there are high concentrations of organic matter, such as on pastures or in leaf mould, or under compost piles.
Two breeds are used in vermicomposting: Eisenia foetida or Lumbricus rubellas. Many garden centres now supply them, and in most countries they can be bought by mail order from worm farms. Some sellers advertise special high-performance breeds or specially developed hybrids, but don’t believe them — they’ll be one of these two breeds. There’s no such thing as a hybrid worm.
You’ll need 1,000 worms (1 lb) to start a worm box, maybe twice that if you want to process your garden wastes too — they breed very fast in the right conditions, but starting with more will give the system a good start.
Breeding
Worm populations double each month. In ideal conditions they can reproduce much faster than that: 1 lb of worms can increase to 1,000 lbs (one million worms) in a year, but in working conditions 1 lb will produce a surplus of 35 lbs in a year, because hatchlings and capsules (cocoons or eggs) are usually lost when the vermicompost is harvested.
Mature redworms make two or three capsules a week, each producing two or three hatchlings after about three weeks. The hatchlings are tiny white threads about half an inch long, but they grow fast, reaching sexual maturity in four to six weeks and making their own capsules. Three months later they’re grandparents!
This rapid breeding rate means the worm population easily adjusts to conditions in the worm box according to the feed supply and the proportion of worm casts to feed and bedding — their casts are slightly toxic to them, and as the box gets “full” they’ll either leave, if there’s anywhere for them to go, or they’ll die off.
This is an important consideration — if you only want the vermicompost for the garden it doesn’t much matter if the worms die off, as long as you’ve kept some aside to set a new box going. It also makes it easier to harvest the castings, and you’ll have a higher proportion of pure castings.
But if you want to produce excess worms as well, to extend your worm system, for sale as fishing bait, or to feed to poultry or fish (they really thrive on wormfeed), you’ll need to separate them from the vermicompost before the proportion of castings gets too high. See below, Harvesting.
Worm boxes
This section mainly applies to using worms to compost kitchen wastes. For garden wastes, the same basic principles apply, with a few cautions: see below, Garden wastes.
Reln’s three-tray Can-O-Worms
There’s a good range of specialized worm composting units that you can buy: Can-O-Worms, Worm Factory, Worm-a-way, Eliminator, Worm-A-Roo, Tiger Wormery and others — you’ll find details at Vermicomposting resources.
Or you can easily build one yourself. In fact many people advise it, saying that wood is better than plastic — the commercial models are usually made of plastic, which doesn’t “breathe”, while wood is porous and allows for better ventilation.
Dimensions
The size of the unit should be geared to your household’s production of kitchen scraps.
One or two people usually produce about 4 lb of food waste a week: use a 2ft x 2ft box 8” deep. For three people make it 12” deep, for more, 2ft x 3ft x 12” deep — or two 2-person boxes might be better, because bigger boxes can be too heavy to move when they’re full.
Use exterior-grade 1/2” plywood. Don’t use chemically-treated wood. Treat the wood with a non-toxic wood preservative, or paint it with vegetable oil, or linseed oil. Use galvanized nails. Drill at least a dozen 1/2” holes in the bottom for aeration, and arrange it so that two opposite sides are half-an-inch deeper so that the bottom stands off the ground. Stand the box in a tray, because it will probably leak a bit.
Once filled, cover the surface with black plastic sheeting (a garbage bag) slightly smaller than the surface area: this will keep the moisture in, and the worms will work right up to the surface. If this makes it too wet, use a couple of newspapers instead. Make a lid for the box. Keep it anywhere convenient.
Bedding
Fill the box with moist bedding for the worms to burrow in and to bury the food scraps in. You need about 6 lb (dry weight) for a 2ft x 2ft x 8” box. Worms will eat the bedding as well as the food scraps, so you’ll need to top it up in a few months.
Adding new bedding (Greater Vancouver Regional District)
Any inert, non-toxic, fluffy material that holds moisture and allows air to circulate will do. Don’t use anything that will decompose too rapidly when you moisten it and get hot, like manure that’s not aged enough or hay, especially alfalfa hay. Mixed bedding is better, but no need to be too complicated: 2/3 corrugated cardboard and 1/3 sphagnum peat moss or coco peat moss is a good mixture, or sphagnum peat moss, shredded leaves and sawdust; or just cardboard and/or newspaper.
* Cardboard cartons (corrugated): cut them up into strips an inch wide and a few inches long. Don’t use the shredded cardboard sold for insulation because it’s treated with toxic chemicals.
* Newspaper: tear it into 1” strips — it’s easy to tear with the grain. Black ink is non-toxic, avoid glossy paper.
* Shredded computer paper.
* Autumn leaves: spread them thickly in the driveway and drive over them with the car a few times to break them up, or shred them with a lawnmower. Or moisten them, sprinkle some lime, ground limestone or wood ash over them and bundle them up in a garbage bag, tie the top closed, and in a few months they’ll have broken down enough to be excellent worm bedding. Or just use them as is, though it’ll take a bit longer for the worms to break them down.
* Aged manure, or composted manure: cow, horse, rabbit.
* Sphagnum peat moss: use Canadian peat moss, soak it in water for 24 hours, squeeze it out and sprinkle some lime on it.
* Coco peat moss or coir (coconut fibre): comes in compressed bricks, soak in water and they swell up — no need to add lime.
* Chopped-up straw or other dead plant material, spoiled hay, yard clippings, dried grass clippings: any plant material “aged” beyond the green stage.
* Sawdust, wood shavings: from non-aromatic wood, avoid treated wood, about a quarter to a third of the bedding mixture.
Add a couple of handsful of soil or sand — it helps the worms grind up the food in their gizzards. Sprinkle a bit of lime, ground limestone or wood ash over the bedding (not too much!). Ground limestone is best.
Worm bedding and feed can be wetter than compost material: 75%, compared with 65% maximum for compost. Dry bedding usually needs a bit less than three times its weight in water (a pint of water weighs a pound, a litre weighs a kilogram).
Once it’s all suitably shredded, mixed and moist, put it in the box and add the worms (about 1lb — 1,000 worms). Leave it for two or three days to let the worms settle in before adding wastes.
Feeding
No metal, foil, or plastic. Use vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds (including paper filters), tea bags (remove the staple), eggshells (best dried and crushed first, then sprinkled over the surface), stale bread, houseplant trimmings. Chop up big chunks. Some people advise against citrus, and also onion and garlic, others use them: try small quantities first. Not too much vegetable oil, be cautious at first with dairy products, meat and fish — small amounts chopped fine, well-dispersed and well-covered with bedding should be okay. Broken chicken bones are okay, bigger bones won’t break down but shouldn’t cause problems either — they’ll be picked clean.
It’s best to collect food scraps in a small bucket with a lid and add them to the worm box every couple of days (or more often in hot weather — don’t let it go rotten). Bury them in the bedding in a corner of the box. Next time, bury the new scraps near the first scraps. You can have about nine burial sites in a 2x2ft box: by the time you’ve used the ninth one, you can go back to the first site again, the worms will have cleared it.
You’ll be surprised how much feed you can put in that box — the worms and micro-organisms reduce it more than you’d think possible.
The box will need emptying every 3-6 months.
Best tool for burying feed: a three-pronged hand-cultivator (hand-fork).
Harvesting
If it’s mainly the worm casts you want to use as garden compost, any of the following methods will do. If you value production of worms as well as casts, use the light separation method or a wire mesh screen.
Some hassle — light separation
Dump the finished material from the box onto a big piece of plastic (eg, an opened-out garbage bag) on the floor or on a table under a 100W light, or outside in the sun.
Keith harvests a worm box
Form it into eight or nine mounds. Worms are sensitive to light and immediately burrow beneath the surface. Wait a few minutes, and meanwhile put fresh bedding in the box.
A handbrush and dustpan are useful for this. Lightly brush the top off each mound until the worms are revealed, then wait for them to burrow deeper and do it again. Eventually you’re left with a squirming mass of worms all trying to get under each other to avoid the light. Quickly put them in the new bedding in the box with a fresh supply of feed.
Worm spaghetti!
This leaves you with a rich harvest of worm castings and a lot of capsules, which you lose (the hatchlings won’t survive in garden soil), but the worms in the bin will soon replace them. Store the castings for a week or two before using them in the garden.
Kids love this — if you have any tame children around you can usually talk them into doing it for you.
Less hassle — sideways separation
Shift all the material in the box to one side and fill the other side with fresh bedding; put your kitchen scraps and feed only in the fresh bedding side. In the next week or two the worms will migrate from the finished vermicompost into the fresh bedding. In the meantime the capsules will hatch and most of the hatchlings will also move across, so you won’t lose them, which is an advantage over the dump-and-sort method.
Even less hassle — vertical separation
Get a piece of nylon or mesh window screening a bit bigger than the surface of the box and lay it flat on the surface of the vermicompost. It should be big enough to flatten against the sides and leave some overlap at the top. Fill the box up with fresh bedding on top of the screen and continue feeding it with kitchen scraps. The worms will migrate up through the screen into the new bedding as the food runs out below.
When the top part is ready for harvesting, use the overlap to lift the screen from the box, vermicompost, worms and all. Set it aside and empty the box — it will have a very high concentration of worm castings and few if any worms, hatchlings or capsules.
Dump the wormy material that was on top of the screen into the bottom of the box and put the screen back on top of it, with fresh bedding on top of the screen.
Check the condition of the screen each time you empty the box, and replace it before it gets rotten enough to rip just as you’re removing it, spilling everything back into the box.
No hassle
This method will give you lots of trouble-free castings, but no extra worms. Go on feeding kitchen scraps to the box for up to four months, and then start a second box — prime it with fresh bedding and a supply of worms from the first box. Just leave the first box until the second box is full, by which time the first box will contain a very high proportion of fine castings, and very few worms.
To make sure there are enough worms for both boxes, you can prepare the second box about a month earlier, adding some worms to it every time you add feed to the first box.
Screening
The vermicompost might need screening, especially if you’ve used rough stuff (sticks etc.) in the bedding that takes time to break down. A circular gardener’s sieve with a 3/16” mesh will work best. Try to get one with stainless steel mesh, it’ll do the job much quicker, the worm castings won’t stick to the mesh, and it won’t rust.
This is also a good way of separating the worms from finished vermicompost, though capsules and hatchlings are lost.
Problems
Flies and smells — there shouldn’t be any, but sometimes it happens. Worm casts have a pleasant, earthy smell, like forest soil. If the worm bin starts to smell, there’s too much feed in it, more than the worms can process — you’ve overloaded the system. Stop feeding the worms, add more dry bedding, a little sprinkled lime, and stir the bin with the hand cultivator (hand-fork). Repeat until the smell vanishes.
Fruit flies (actually vinegar flies) can get into the box, but they do no harm. Lots of them mean too much feed — cut down the feeding rate and cover the surface with a damp newspaper.
The bin can also have an influx of soldier fly maggots, up to an inch long (they’re a favourite with fishermen). Vinegar fly larvae are much smaller. Actually the maggots benefit the composting process, but if you don’t like them, add more bedding and lime and stir as above, or put a chunk of bread soaked in milk on the surface. In a couple of days it will be infested with larvae; take it out and get rid of it (give it to a fisherman or a chicken).
Garden wastes
Outdoor boxes can be bigger. The simplest way of all is a 12-inch-deep trench in the soil about 2ft wide or more with 8” of bedding and/or compost to put the worms in. Red worms can’t survive long in ordinary garden soil so they won’t crawl away. Add garden wastes as they come, putting it in a different part of the trench each time, and cover with a sprinkling of soil and lime. Bury kitchen wastes at the bottom, under the garden wastes.
Fresh garden wastes might get hot, but the worms will have a place to escape to until it gets cool enough for them to handle.
To keep moles away, line the trench with 1/2” chicken wire or wire mesh.
Or make a four-sided wooden box with four 18” by 36” boards (or nail narrower planks together), treat it with vegetable oil or linseed oil, and stand it on a layer of bricks on top of the soil. Put 6” or so of bedding in the bottom and put the worms in it. Add wastes to the corners in succession. Shake the soil off clumped roots. Chop up big bits with the edge of a spade. Add more bedding as necessary. Bury kitchen scraps.
See “Friend Earthworm: Practical Application of a Lifetime Study of Habits of the Most Important Animal in the World” by George Sheffield Oliver for more information — online at the Journey to Forever Small Farms Library.
Using vermicompost
Use like compost — dig it lightly into the topsoil around your plants. In composting growing beds or preparing new beds, vermicompost generally goes about twice as far as ordinary (aerobic) compost, so use half as much. But each garden is different (and so is each gardener!) — some people have good results simply dumping large amounts of the stuff on top of their beds (6” a year in one case), others with very little.
Vermicompost gives seedlings a really good start in life.
In pots and containers, don’t use pure vermicompost. About 25% of the growing mixture seems to be about ideal, but experiment — it might vary according to what you mix it with.
You can also use vermicompost to make “compost tea” liquid fertilizer. Mix two tablespoons of vermicompost with a litre of water and let it stand for a day, shaking it occasionally, then sprinkle under the plants. One-litre drinking water bottles make good sprinklers: drill a few small-diameter holes in the lid, point and squeeze.
For transplants, especially bare-root transplants, spray them with an even more dilute solution of “tea”, or stand them in it for awhile — it’ll help to prevent transplant shock. (Liquid seaweed solution is excellent for this.)
Don’t let the vermicompost dry out before using it — it loses a lot of its value and resists wetting. If you store it, don’t use an airtight container. It will keep for a year or more.
See Vermicomposting resources for more information.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.