Nevadans?

[NevadaRon]

It's a pretty solid consistency, not that great for baking. More of the waxy kind, like a red potato. This morning we had them sauteed up with onions. My favorite way to eat them is in something called crash hot potatoes... you take new potatoes and boil them whole until they're fork-tender. Then drizzle a baking sheet with olive oil. Set the potatoes on the sheet and "smash" them once or twice... not to smithereens, just enough to expose the inside to the air and leave the spud whole. Then drizzle with more olive oil, maybe some rosemary and salt. Bake at 450 degrees until crispy. The kids love them. And boiling the new potatoes whole before crashing them retains all of the color! So you can have them in white, red, yellow, and purple. The kids love them.

Ron, are you coming into Reno any time in the next few weeks? I can save some for you to try. We still have at least 6 plants of them to harvest.

Ron, this is what they look like fried up: The color morphs a bit to a blue, but it's still pretty striking.

Awesome, thank you! Those look very interesting. Yes, I will be coming up that way sometime soon. I was there weekend before last taking a studio monitor to Maytan Music on Center St. to be repaired. When they are finished with it I will need to go pick it up. That's right in your neck of the woods.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, snow peas are your best bets. They can all withstand a light frost, and will mature within 60 days. But you want to get on it as soon as possible, since the seedlings need a good head start before the plants have to worry about frost. You can always cover the plants at night, and that will help you extend the season.


It's a pretty solid consistency, not that great for baking. More of the waxy kind, like a red potato. This morning we had them sauteed up with onions. My favorite way to eat them is in something called crash hot potatoes... you take new potatoes and boil them whole until they're fork-tender. Then drizzle a baking sheet with olive oil. Set the potatoes on the sheet and "smash" them once or twice... not to smithereens, just enough to expose the inside to the air and leave the spud whole. Then drizzle with more olive oil, maybe some rosemary and salt. Bake at 450 degrees until crispy. The kids love them. And boiling the new potatoes whole before crashing them retains all of the color! So you can have them in white, red, yellow, and purple. The kids love them.

Ron, are you coming into Reno any time in the next few weeks? I can save some for you to try. We still have at least 6 plants of them to harvest.

Today was so nice to have no clients, nobody to run to school, and a few helping hands. I tired the kids out with work, but we got nearly caught up on the food storage! We did pear butter, pear jam, pear cranberry cinnamon jam, grape pepper compote... pears, tomatoes, and grapes in the dehydrator... pineapple-rum frozen yogurt (that took 48 hours, start to finish.) Got the spinach and radishes planted, and some tomatoes and eggplant in the freezer.

And of course today, after getting excited that I was almost caught up, I realized that the concord grapes are almost all ripe. I guess I'll pick the ripe ones tomorrow and cook them down into grape juice while the kids are in school.

Sheryl, will you be able to pick grapes on Wednesday?

Ok, say I wanted to plant all those things too... what do I need to do to my soil in order for it not to be a fruitless endeavor?

Something I've been wondering... have you always been a high energy person? I don't think I could accomplish 1/10 of what you do in a day! I've never had a lot of energy. Maybe if I was actually able to get a garden going and eat all that yummy produce, I would have more energy? I take vitamins to try and make up for the lack of regular food. I seem to have a very high need for the B vitamins. Anyway... just wondering .

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Ok, say I wanted to plant all those things too... what do I need to do to my soil in order for it not to be a fruitless endeavor?

Something I've been wondering... have you always been a high energy person? I don't think I could accomplish 1/10 of what you do in a day! I've never had a lot of energy. Maybe if I was actually able to get a garden going and eat all that yummy produce, I would have more energy? I take vitamins to try and make up for the lack of regular food. I seem to have a very high need for the B vitamins. Anyway... just wondering .

If you're going to plant as soon as possible, I'd say you need to buy some potting soil and mix it in, along with some old coffee grounds. Unless you're using horse manure that's so dry it's flaky, it won't have time to decompose.

HIgh energy? Lol, I'm living off of energy drinks lately. Some days, I'm moving at a crawl, berating myself that I have to get a specific thing done that day, and slamming more caffeine to get moving. But eating from the garden has a LOT to do with energy. I find that when I'm eating storebought food, even food processed to have a "healthy" label on it, I have much less energy to do things. And then there's the pressing need to provide for my children, which has even more to do with it. My massage clientele has plummeted with the economy, and my husband is underemployed. So we're returning to the way we both were raised, supplementing out of our yard and not wasting time on things like TV. Other people have ways of filling in the gaps, but this is what we know.

And btw, thanks for the compliment. At the end of a crazy day, it's nice to see admiration instead of someone shaking their head and calling it a waste of time. Which we get. A lot.

 

[Lacy Blues]

It's basically a microwave society. People that prefer to live that way probably would shake their heads. But I've never PREFERRED to live that way. I've tried to be basic all my life. I've had gardens before but never in a place like this desert.

I told my daughter about your daughter making up her own recipe for eggplant pizza sorry, lasagna, and choosing everything to go into it from your back yard. I told her that you had made the cheese. Did you also make the noodles? or no noodles? She's jealous! Are you guys also like another friend I used to have... she could taste a recipe at a restaurant and tell you exactly how to make it! People like that drive me crazy!

I am nowhere even close to being that talented!

 

[americanvalkyrie]

My kids are gluten free, so we used roasted eggplant as the noodles. I would really like to try making pasta, but when I expressed this desire to my husband he reminded me that the kids are gluten free, and I really should be. So there are skills that would be put to better use. So I've put that endeavor aside for others. I do my own bread, though, since I'm not comfortable with my husband eating storebought bread. He had a heart attack just a little over a year ago, at age 37. I don't feel right about him eating a bread product that can sit out for 3 weeks without going bad. Real food decomposes.

I don't know that I could recreate a recipe, but I think I could make it close enough to negate the need to go to that restaurant.

Actually, when we go out to eat, we usually go to something like Korean or Brazilian... things that I don't make at home. It's been YEARS since we've gone out and spent $25 per person at an Italian restaurant. That's SO easy and cheap to make at home.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

I just got the itch for another bird. We have a swap coming up right? If i dont scratch this it could spiral out of control.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

What kind do you want this time?

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Oh man I have no idea! But i never really do, hahaha. Something silly....

 

[SunnyDawn]

...Are you guys also like another friend I used to have... she could taste a recipe at a restaurant and tell you exactly how to make it! People like that drive me crazy!

I am nowhere even close to being that talented!

Some of my best recipes have come from restaurant dishes I loved. I can often taste the specific spices and recreate it at home but it may take me a couple of tries to get it right. There are some dishes I can't do this with and it drives me crazy!!! Like how does the The Outback make that broccoli soup of theirs?

Sorry you have to have tried it someplace besides Reno. For some reason the Reno/Sparks Outbacks choose not to serve this delectable soup!!! I looked it up on line and apparently chefs everywhere are dying to know how they spice their broccoli and the soup both. It is a closely guarded secret!

I just got the itch for another bird. We have a swap coming up right? If i dont scratch this it could spiral out of control.

Oh man I have no idea! But i never really do, hahaha. Something silly....

That's so Aubrey! What's sillier than a Polish?

 

[2seth2]

Ron all my birds get layena crumble

aubrey that itch is already spreading and you don't ever know it

Speaking of taglines could mine be the rich, smart talented, handsome one. hahahahahaha JOKING