Geek.Farm.Life

Comment by JohnG

August 16, 2006 @ 9:59 am

This has been a banner year for peppers in our garden. They don’t like “wet feet” so make sure your drainage is good. I have them planted pretty close together. We have banana, Hungarian wax (our favorite), Serano, Ancho, Pimento, Bell (multi-color), Purple, Jalape?a, Thai, Ornamental, and the ones that Mario Batali uses (I forget the name). We still have a ton of Haba?eros from last year.

We’ve been canning tomatoes for about a month now, as well as eating and selling. We don’t mill our tomatoes. We just reduce them until the volume is about 1/2 for sauce, and don’t add any seasoning. Therefore, we can add whatever strikes our fancy when preparing something with them.

We grow about 4 egg plants each year. I have become disenamored with eggplant because there is NO nutrional value to them at all.

The show sounds good without the post editing. I’ll bet it saves a bunch of time. Perhaps you could talk about what you are doing now in your next Geek segment, as you explained what you WERE going to try, but haven’t analyzed it after a couple of episodes of experience.

Liked the talk with your visitors!

Keep it up!

Comment by Ana

August 16, 2006 @ 12:59 pm

Did you guys say you freeze your chard? How, like in freezer bags? Also, what kinds of recipes do you have for it? I have a garden for the first time this year and didn’t plant chard simply because all I could think of to do with it was soup… I guess stir frys would work too.

Comment by Ana

August 16, 2006 @ 1:07 pm

For the pears, my aunt and I used to cut them lengthwise and dry them. We’d just lay them out on a big screen in the back yard (unless it’s not a hot day, then you can put ‘em in the food dehydrator). Yummy, and less work than fruit leather.

Comment by misty

August 16, 2006 @ 1:08 pm

Hi Ana!

You can use chard the same way as spinach or Chinese cabbage. We like to do the following, just to give you an idea:

• ‘Cabbage’ rolls
• Wrapped around a dollop of manicotti filling
• Chopped into omelets
• Chopped into lasagna
• Saute
• A small amount raw in a salad, like spring greens

To freeze it, we cut out the stalk, blanch it for 30 seconds, chop it, and freeze. Use just like frozen spinach.

JohnG, I’m glad SOMEONE had good luck with peppers!

Comment by andrew

August 16, 2006 @ 3:29 pm

Woohoo! Comments! I can’t get over how quiet it was this week.

Hey JohnG, great idea for the geek section this week. I’m glad your peppers are doing ok.

I beg to differ about the nutriotion content of peppers:

“One Cup (240 ml)
Eggplant is a great addition to a dieter’s menu with only 28 calories and 3 grams of sodium for 1 cup (240 ml) of boiled drained cubes.”

And once you’ve finished adding the 1 cup of oil required to stir fry them they are a great source of unsaturated fats! ;)

—

Ana! Thank you for the suggestion with the pears, we may have to try that, if we can keep the wildlife from eating them. Heh. :)

Comment by andrew

August 17, 2006 @ 2:02 pm

Change in plans! We’re going to have Tom back Sep 2nd or so. That way you can get some questions to us, and have time for a normal show.

Please send in questions, or post comments with questions.

Comment by EL

August 22, 2006 @ 2:41 pm

Tee-hee. You look silly.