Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Nice meeting, good information, good recipes; so I go home to kitchen misery

And I swear I had no wine at lunch!!  

For our  supper I planned anazazi beans which I was sure I had in the freezer, just ready to thaw, heat and eat.  But nooo, not to be. It turned out to be blackeyed peas left from New Year's day. Nice, but not at all what we wanted with our cornbread tonight. I thought I would put in a little dab of refried beans from another container, but nooo, not to be. It turned out to be rice dressing I bring in a frozen state from Louisiana from time to time.  Now frozen rice dressing is actually a very flavorful liver and ground meat spiced recipe that has absolutely NO RICE in it. It is for dressing the rice. It can also be used in a cornbread dressing.  Tonight it is stewing with canned pinto beans.  It will probably be very good; or not. We will see and I will report back on it in the future.

Sometimes good recipes come from mistakes, just like dacron or nylon were mistakes in a lab.  Let's hope that happens tonight. And in the future I may just wear my glasses when looking at frozen mysteries in the freezer.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Information on Freeze Damage from Linda

Hey Herbies!

I'm wondering which of your favorite plants did and didn't survive. Remember lots of things will come back from the roots come springtime providing the roots didn't freeze. And if the trunk is still intact, they should come back. Just take off the mushy stuff and see what happens come spring.

Actually considering the freeze, my yard looks pretty good, but I have freeze damage on my hamalias, hibiscus, spider lilies, Cuban pea vine, butterfly milkweed asclepias tuberosa, Canna lilies, bananas and Porter weed. My herbs, roses, citrus and Sago all look really great considering we had 3 nights of freezing weather. My tree tea did just fine, but my henna tree looks really bad. I forgot to cover both of them. And I my plumerias and pony tail palms I just uncovered, and they all look just fine. However, even with heat in my greenhouse, I did lose about 10 orchids.

See everyone Wednesday at our Herb Meeting, Dill: Herb of the Year 2010!

Linda

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Gardening Videos from KLRU, Austin

Linda posted this video link on Facebook. Give it a look and then notice and watch all the other links on gardening listed there. Nice.
Thanks, Linda.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtWwtP0S4vI

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

It's been a cold and blustery start to the new year. Extreme cold is predicted for our area at the end of this week. I guess we will all have to start some new plants this spring. I lost most of my plants in an early overnight freeze here, so I'm definitely planning to start over.

Does anyone have suggestions for me?  I got a small rosemary for Christmas. I haven't decided whether to keep it in a pot or plant it in the ground somewhere. The latter will wait till freezes are over for sure. The one plant I have left is the oregano in the urn by the kitchen door.  It is a hardy little plant, I've had it now for several years. The vetiver grass was hit by the freeze but it needs cut back every year anyway. The lemon grass... well I just don't know about it, it will probably come back but I plan to move it to another location as it is overshadowed by the vetiver grass.

I hope to see you all at the next meeting. Till then....