The Harvest Principle Universal Church
I have always used banana peels with my roses but never thought of using them for tomatoes! What she says about the egg shells, I have always done this. There have been times when it looks like it snowed around my tomato plants because of all the egg shells I’ve crushed up and worked into the soil.
So, do you have canned carrots (or you could use older fresh carrots) that turned to mush and you don’t know what to do with them? How about make a carrot cake! I’m also thinking this may be good with canned pumpkin and/or canned sweet potato.
Update: I just made this (muffins instead of cake … baked for 15 to 20 minutes) and they are amazing! They aren’t spike-your-blood-sugar sweet and so flavorful! This recipe is a keeper. I made some changes that I will note here:
Note: I had one quart of thickly cut home canned carrots and ended up with about 1 1/2 cups of mashed carrots. I adjusted the recipe accordingly.
I may or may not make the frosting but if I do, it will be with mostly Splenda with a bit of powdered sugar (I have come to the conclusion that Splenda tends to get bitter if using a lot … mostly because I kept trying to slip some in hubby’s coffee and he immediately noticed).
http://www.daringgourmet.com/2014/02/18/old-fashioned-carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/
For Cake:
½ cup walnuts
1 cup pureed carrots (boil just under a pound of carrots until soft; drain and cool, then puree in a food processor.)
1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1½ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest (be careful to avoid the white pith of the orange, it’s bitter)
½ cup raisins
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
This will save us tons of water while watering deep enough to keep the plants in the raised beds we’re going to build happy throughout our hot summers.
And this video lays out how to do this for raised beds!
This guy did this setup but for his containers:
A friend mentioned that she has a tiny little area to grow any food, so I suggested she grow vertically. I don’t really do this now but may have to since I will be using raised beds this year. I’ve seen so many neat ideas over the past few months that I’m trying to find all the links to share with you (and her). Well, I was going to find a single picture to post here but when I did my Google search (“vertical gardening”) and clicked images I was in awe! There are so many creative ideas out there that I just can’t list them all (so check out the photos yourself here).
This is pretty much what I did when I was growing in containers (I posted pictures of my truck garden in 2011).
This one demonstrates how to build a growing “wall” (I love links with pictures or video) AND it’s Popular Mechanics!
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/how-to-start-a-vertical-garden#slide-1
Here are two ways to reuse soda bottles:
Here is one made with shoe hangers:
VERTICAL VEGETABLES: “Grow up” in a small garden and confound the cats!
And one with pallets:
diy project: recycled pallet vertical garden
This one has a lot of different ideas (and if you look at the bottom of the second link, she has a few more articles about vertical gardening:
How to Design Creative Vertical Gardens Part 1
How to Design Creative Vertical Gardens Part 2
There are several projects on the DIY Network’s website but this one I particularly like, since you can change it around easier:
Now, how sweet would it be to never run out of tomatoes? I know my favorite snack has always been tomatoes warmed from the sun, right off the vine. Check out this article to learn how to extend your tomato season!
We’ve decided this is what we are doing this year. The dirt is awful here and there is so much debris that has been buried by previous tenants that it will just be easier to level that area out and build raised beds.
http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/ultimate-raised-bed-how-to-00400000011938/
I found two articles amongst the files on my website. They were originally attributed to http://www.survivalistsseeds.com but I found the websites they originally came from. This shows how important proper credit is regarding information obtained from the Internet. Just because it is on one site DOES NOT mean they did not cut and paste it from another.
The first is Seed Savers Exchange’s Basic Seed Saving (How to Save Seeds). There is so much information there!
Then there’s this article that covers everything from planning your garden to saving seeds: Seed Savers Learn Page.
I read about this but today decided to try it.
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbsidedishes/r/caulirice.htm
See, one of my favorite ways to eat cooked rice is to saute in butter, add salt and pepper, then put on a bowl. Fry two eggs, place on top of rice, and scarf.
Well, I decided to try this cauliflower rice in place of white rice. Well, it was just o.k.
If you like cauliflower, this is great stuff! It makes cooking cauliflower much faster, and the sautéed cauliflower was just yummy!
From the Phoenix Sun newspaper when I was living there in 1991:
Navajo Corn and Cheese Pudding
In a large bowl, mix corn and milk. Add cornmeal and lard; stir. Add eggs and baking powder and stir. Add eggs and baking powder and stir. Add sugar and salt. Mix in chilies and cheese. Pour into ungreased baking pan and bake in 400-degree oven for 45 minutes. Serve hot.