chromedome

This was my first year on this particular plot. My bit is right up against the fence so there's slug habitat there and immediately outside, which I'll find ways to deal with by next year. I'm confirmed for the same plot (actually three contiguous plots) for next year, so I can do some prep this fall to improve the soil, minimize pests and weeds, etc. This year was brutal at what's normally my main garden out in the country, where my stepdaughter and her family live. It was a perfect storm, garden-wise...a heavy rainstorm that lasted a whole weekend and washed away/drowned most of my first planting, a late frost that killed most of the survivors, and then the coronavirus lockdown that prevented me from replanting at the optimal time. Add in a shortage of gas money through the summer that minimized my ability to weed and re-plant, a persistent drought that prevented them from watering the plot (their well went dry, and there's not as yet a rain-catchment system in place)...you get the picture. Not a good year out there. So pretty much everything I've harvested this year came from my community garden plot, which has better soil and a catchment system for watering. We'll see what next year brings.

I simply haven't had the time; I've been working long hours to keep the wheels on. My GF starts her new job on Tuesday (what would formerly have been a call center position, now it's work-from-home) which will ease things somewhat. I do manage to get up to my community plot most days for at least an hour, and do slug patrol whenever it has rained (not often, this summer) but when the plants are still just seedlings the slugs can demolish an entire row in one night.

Although my garden was late getting started this year, I have over 12 lbs of greens blanched and frozen for winter as of tonight's batch. That's fair-to-middling for a relatively small plot (we've been eating them too, of course), and I still have chard, kale, turnip tops and beet tops going flat-out. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to nearly double that before I put my garden to bed for the winter. Getting lots of pattypans now, and I might see a few ripe tomatoes over the next week or two. Getting some kind of clear cover over them to act as a bit of a cold frame will be a priority at some point in the next couple of weeks. Yellow beans are doing okay now that they're established, but they were also late getting in and slugs ate pretty much the entire first planting. My late planting of peas is shaping up nicely, and I should get 4-5 weeks' harvest from them before the cold kills 'em.

If at all possible, try to hear one in operation. I've lived in rentals where I flat-out wouldn't use the hood for anything short of dire necessity because of the resultant noise level.

Well, there has been a push to get more women into STEM...

I didn't mind it, as such, but I regarded summer as an opportunity to maximize my reading time and camp definitely interfered with that noble pursuit.

Yeah, really not my idea of a good time as desserts go.

I'm a tail-end Boomer, and to the best of my recollection I'd never seen nor heard of them until sometime this century.

Opera browser even includes one for free, which is very easy to use.

My parents grew both, as my dad was fond of them. I just used the last of theirs from my freezer (three years old, but well wrapped and still good) over the past winter.

Usually, if you struggle to separate the sheets, it's because of a "cold-chain" issue. Either they've gotten partially thawed and then re-frozen at some point, or you thawed them too quickly (on the counter, typically) and condensation has formed and stuck them together. Your best bet is to stick the box in your fridge the day before you want them, and let them thaw slowly at refrigerator temperature.

Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan: listeria in Brandt brand mini (spicy) cheese sausages. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2020-08-24/eng/1598291961021/1598291967015?utm_source=r_listserv

...but by the same token, if you buy/use zucchini or other summer squashes, you can use pattypans in the same ways. Just bear in mind that anything from the size of a tennis ball on up is the pattypan equivalent of a leg-sized zucchini. You *can* seed them, shred them and use them for baking or whatnot if you're seriously averse to waste, but they're better just composted.

Well, if you're harvesting them at the right size (no more than 2 inches' diameter, max) you don't need to worry about the seeds. Just treat them like any other summer squash, and prepare them accordingly. I often cut off the top, scoop a hollow, and then stuff them with either a meat, grain or cheese filling (roast or braise them once you're done). I've just harvested my very first (it was a mid-summer planting) and will be inundated shortly.

Peaches from Fresno, CA this time. Like the onions they were sold into the institutional and retail markets, so watch for followup recalls as they're traced through the supply chain. Suspected to be national in scope. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2020-08-22/eng/1598036173176/1598036178515?utm_source=r_listserv

It's the "arm" part of the chuck. "Cross rib" is what we call it here in Canada, but IIRC it's a Brit thing originally.

I first posted in January of 2004. I don't remember the circumstances, but I was in culinary school at the time so it was probably a "rabbit hole" scenario where I stumbled across the forum in a Google search and spent WAY more time than I could afford in reading through the threads.

At one of my cooking classes I did the now-cliched/then-uncommon salad of roasted beets, spinach and a sharp cheese (goat cheese, IIRC) with a vinaigrette based on pomegranate molasses. One of the ladies in the class tugged my sleeve and whispered theatrically "You can NEVER tell my mom I ate beets and liked them..."

For me lobster is, like toast or mashed potatoes, primarily a vehicle for butter.

Yeah, this. I have no particular veggie aversions any more, but coarse, overgrown veg are nobody's idea of a good time. And it's an occupational hazard that when the neighbours know you're a chef, they dump 'em on you with a cheery "I never know what to do with these, but I was sure you would..."

We haven't arrived at that stage here. Most stores offer broccoli crowns as well as the regular heads, but the full heads are far more common. I always choose mine for thick stems, as well. Once peeled I generally use them in stir-fry dishes or slaws, but there are plenty of other uses of course.

Yes, fumble-fingers on the keyboard. I used to enjoy the sense of humor Stiff Records demonstrated. One of my favorites was the message inscribed on the first album by the Damned ("this record is made to be played loud at low volume"). Another classic was "In '78, everyone born in '45 will be 33 1/3."

Thanks for that earworm...now I'll have to binge some Ian Drury when I've finished work for the day.

I eat a lot of dandelion greens, and discovered this spring that the chickpea-sized immature flower buds are seriously choice. No bitter flavor to them at all. I also found some sort of wild mustard greens growing along the beach a couple of days ago, and quite enjoyed them with my salmon that night. The blossoms, unfortunately, didn't have tender stems like my cultivated brassicas so those were a "miss."