Posted on 02/29/2020 7:27:28 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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I don’t know what it is. Not a pig, maybe a large breed puppy who’s been overfed. Husky or something.
They were everywhere!
$2.99 Chuck?
Time for chili!
The dogs are just like the cows - always where you DON’T want them at any given time!
What a sale - usual price is $5.99 at this store. Normally, I buy chuck at Aldi’s for $4.27/lb & it’s Angus .... plain old chuck is about $1.00/lb higher at Walmart.
Anyway, I now have 8 chuck roasts in my freezer .... about $160 worth of roasts for $80. You cannot imagine how happy I am right now .... I’m about 98% carnivore, so this is a huge load off of my grocery budget :-)
70 in New Orleans today.
80 tomorrow...
We have had a very easy winter along the coast south of Boston and I' m looking forward to the signs of Spring. - Tom
Only 19 days till SPRING!
HUZZAH!
I’m with you!
Chuck is the key to good chili, cubed, and ground.
I slip some good chorizo in there too.
Chuck is King for stew as well.
Nice garden!
Too hot, too soon! :)
You’re making me hungry ..... :-)
I’ve gone through my seeds and separated out the ones I want to plant this year. That list will change some, because Baker Creek is still deciding what my growing assignment should be. I’ve already had to swap out the cucumber I’d intended to grow.
I’m testing out a bunch of new things this year. (Well, some of them I tried to plant last year but they got chocked out by weeds. I’m working harder at getting those under control.)
Among the things I’m trying out:
Jyunpaku Okinawan Pure White Bitter Melon - According to Baker Creek, this is the least bitter of the bitter melons, and if allowed to ripen fully it loses its bitterness entirely and tastes like cherry candy.
Kirkman Melon - This is one that Baker Creek discontinued, although I don’t know why. It’s very similar to a cantaloupe, but the flavor continues to develop off the vine, and it has a remarkably long shelf life if stored like squash. The longer it’s stored, the better it tastes, which should make for a nice treat in winter.
Kaho Watermelon - Another variety from Baker Creek. This watermelon is small, loaf-shaped, and orange on the inside. While the size is appealing, what caught my attention is the flavor. When I tasted one, it didn’t actually taste like watermelon. It tasted like straight-up sugar water. Which, if you’re looking for old-fashioned watermelon flavor, this isn’t it. But I hope to experiment to see if this could be a viable homestead sugar substitute.
Thai Extra-Long Luffa Gourd - This one is much like the name describes. It’s a luffa, same as the regular kind. But this one is only a couple inches in diameter, and 3-4 feet long. If cut crosswise, this would produce a lot of dish scrubbies per gourd. If kept long, you could scrub your own back without having to reach.
Rose Red Soba Buckwheat - The catalog says this is a perennial buckwheat, that produces a good amount of grain. Perennial grains are an interesting concept, and are in high demand in permaculture circles, but there aren’t many out there. I’m testing this one before I decide if I’ll recommend it.
Bigger Better Butternut - One of Carol Deppe’s creations, this one isn’t currently being carried by anyone. I bought the seeds off someone who had gotten them from Ms. Deppe in person. If it lives up to the hype, I’ll be offering it to Baker creek. If they decide not to carry it, I’ll sell it myself through Seedwise.
Calabaza de las Aguas - This is a C. mixta squash. Most C. mixtas aren’t all that sweet, and I prefer sweet squash. The description says this one is very sweet. We’ll see.
Shark Fin Squash - Most squash you find on the market are from one of 4 squash species. This is from a 5th species, C. ficifolia. I have no idea what it tastes like, but the description says it forms noodles like spaghetti squash, and it will keep in the shell for years! Again, if it meets my standards, I’ll be offering the seeds for sale.
Sweet Rocket - A perennial perfume plant. Because sometimes you just want to stop and smell the flowers.
(This list is in addition to my regular crops, like beans and tomatoes. I’m going to have a busy summer!)
Woot. What a great find! Lucky you.
That is the nicest picture. “I’m being good Mommy, honest”
What a sweet little face!
I thought that I’d pass this tid-bit along.
A couple months ago in my quest for eating healthy, I bought a Micro-Green germinating tray and a pound of seeds. The tray has a bottom that holds water and then a perforated tray that fits over the bottom and then a clear cover to hold the moisture in.
Well, germinating the Micro-Greens worked great but pulling them out and trimming them for a salad was way too much work. But, I thought that if the tray can germinate Micro-Greens, it should be just fine for flower seeds.
Yup, started with a variety of Sunflowers, Zinnias and Marigolds. All germinated in a few days to a week. I had put a layer of kitchen paper towel down on the bottom of the perforated tray to keep the tiny seeds from falling through to the bottom, but found that some types of seeds, pretty much as soon as they germinate, try to dig their root down into the soft paper towel which makes them difficult to transplant to dirt-cups for the next stage of their life.
So I started using normal white copy paper. The roots just grow/expand along the surface so that you can pick up the new plant with plastic tweezers for transplanting. The advantage of germinating the seeds in the tray is that you can see the germinating growth rate, monitor the moisture level and get a much better percentage of germinated seeds compared to just putting them in dirt. I transplant them to small plastic “Solo” cups with soft potting soil (the cups have a hole drilled in the bottom, and then after they have grown for a couple weeks and the roots are established, transplant to normal size Solo cups (with holes) Then a couple weeks later, to the ground.
This would work very well for most any vegetable too. I removed the seeds from an elderly Russian Black tomato a few weeks ago, (I put the tomato seeds in a screen colander, wash them with dish soap to remove the goo and then put them out in the sun to dry), put the dried seeds in the germinating tray and I now have 100 Russian Black tomato seedlings growing in Solo cups. No idea what I am going to do with them all but it was fun doing the process.
I’m in mid-Gulf Florida so I’m trying to get all the outside “farming” work out of the way (1/4 acre canal house) before it gets too hot/humid here. Lots of new flowers growing in the four flower gardens that were formerly grassed yard when I moved here last April. The soil here has lots of silica in it so you really have to blast the water hose into the soil to get it down and mixed. Dish detergent helps to break the surface tension at the beginning of the growing season.
By using the germinating tray, you can have a constant fresh supply of seedlings/flowers as the old one’s die off. Perfect for Sunflowers…Bob
Sounds like you’ve got some great projects ahead of you.
The 5th squash species sounds interesting. We grow mostly moschata and mixta here, too many vine borers.
Good morning!
Loving the sunshine today.
cheers
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