What fun! I'm planning a tossed green salad with store bought cucumber. In addition to beet thinnings, I'll add the flowering tops of kale and turnip that I'm letting go to seed (last year's plants wintered over). Spinach has bolted but the leaves still taste ok and I have claytonia, too.

I let my rhubarb transplants get overgrown with weeds. But what I was told by an old gardener was I should put a shovel full of composted manure on the plant every spring.

This year, we weren't able to get our annual load of composted horse manure but I found a source close by. Usually I add an inch or two to my vegetable beds before I plant in the spring. The year I planted spinach before adding manure the plants still looked good but the same seed grown in a manured bed was outstanding (huge leaves). I have had good luck finding sources of manure of craigslist.

Missed Chowhound while I was away. Friends and I have been doing culinary tours on our annual Sept getaway. We did Portland in 2011. I thought the tour covered a good range of places but you will still be hungry. The last stop was the brewery so we walked over to Duckfat for fries and then to MDI ice cream on Exchange St for a fun sampler. What we did not like was no handout of places we visited and a week later I wouldn't be able to list them all. There was not as much historical content as we got on the Boston tours. But, yes, I would recommend but don't expect it to be as good as Boston's Chinatown tour that ends with a dim sum lunch.

We've only gone to one of them several years ago but maybe we went to the "wrong" one. In the meantime, we discovered Petey's. How does Petey's compare with Markey's?

Sounds good. I bet those greens were very fresh from your garden. My salad this week was a small nub of leftover storebought romaine with fresh from the garden: spinach (bolting but leaves still sweet and tasty), Red Russian kale leaves and flower buds, Gilfeather turnip buds (letting it go to seed so I can save my own), volunteer dillweed plus from the store: sliced onion with evo, balsamic vinegar and wine vinegar or maybe I used some tarragon vinegar made last year.

We currently like Petey's in Rye on Rt 1 so it might fall under touristy and better visited during the other months of the year. We used to like the Ice Box on Rt 1A between Portsmouth and Newcastle. Only open during the tourist season.

Both of you might try looking thru Cooking Light magazine to see which recipes appeal to you. He might consider pork tenderloin which my husband's nutritionist approved on a low cholesterol diet.
Consider giving him a larger serving of vegetables than you have for yourself. He might like grains instead of potato some of the time. Mark Bittman's Food Matters book and Food Matters Cookbook might be helpful. He recommends eating less meat and more veggies.
We eat a lot of chicken. Maybe you don't like chicken because it's too dry and flavorless. If you try cooking boneless breasts, pound them to the same thickness. My husband likes them marinated in Italian dressing. Or simply sprayed with EVO, grilled and basted with barbecue sauce. Or maybe try grilling kabobs and you can have beef and he can have chicken. We like Near East Pilaf. You can add frozen peas near the end of the cooking time.

Pick a vegetable he likes. Epicurious.com has a great searc function and I have had good luck on the 4 fork rated recipes.

I'm just going to make a guess that you are overcooking everything. I no longer put garlic and ginger into the hot oil by themselves because they burn. I throw them in when I saute vegetables.
I just looked at the General Tsos recipe. Your idea and theirs of what light brown is might be a lot different. You might try frying one piece to the palest shade of brown. Take it out, let it cool and check to see if the chicken has cooked. Things continue to cook a bit even after they are out of the pan. Note the time with a digital timer. I think recipes that state the length of cooking time instead of "until light brown" are more helpful. Sometimes I don't agree but I note the time that works for the next time.

The second recipe gives times. The broccoli cooking time seems a little long to me and might depend on how small you cut the pieces.

In the final mix everything together stage, this should only be long enough to coat everything with sauce. If you are overcooking things, I think that will add to making things taste bland.

Good luck on your next try.

I was married in 1970. My BH&G cookbook has a copyright date of 1968. Nothing like that recipe in the cookbook. I also checked another general cookbook of that era and didn't find anything. I agree, check the photos to see if there is anything that looks like what you remember.

Open until 2pm for a late lunch in Manchester suggestion - definitely not a chain. We just tried Chez Vachon on Kelly Street in Manchester yesterday. We went for the poutine which we thought was a bit salty. I'm pretty sure they had counter service. It's a very local, family type of place. Street parking only. They have breakfast and lunch all day. We also had crepes for dessert which were pretty good (one is enough). The pulled pork sandwich was decent. Onion rings were good. I did not try the pork pie which is one of their specialties. There's a good variety on the menu. Salmon pie must be popular because I think it was on their specials list 3 different days.

I planted some shallots yesterday. This is really my first time growing them. Hope for a bounty since they are so expensive in the store and what I see are usually scrawny little things. Saw some on Friday at an Italian grocery that were quite large. Almost the size of lemons.

I have fingerling potatoes to grow for my first time but the ground still seems too cold for planting here in NH. My sugar snap peas FINALLY germinated after 3 weeks.

jpr - why did you choose costmary? I used to grow it but ended up tearing it out of the garden (it was spreading). Like your choises of scented geraniums. I usually try to find Rober's Lemon Rose. I was able to overwinter lemon verbena for a few years indoors in our semi-heated garage. Don't know your planting zone but it goes dormant in the winter and sheds all its leaves. I would consider it a lucky year if pineapple sage bloomed which it usually didn't in my NH garden.

You've got a long drive between Portland and Bar Harbor, would you mind stopping for lunch at Just Barb's in Stockton Springs (before Ellsworth) to see if it's as good as we remember? I see on their facebook page they opened for the season on April 18. If you are driving Rt 1, you're going to go right by it. No view, it's more of a local place.

Thanks for your report! It makes me want to plan a trip to Portland. Your comments are great testimony from someone who lives in Boston.

Perhaps the easiest way to start is dressing up what you already like. Find a recipe for tomato soup that includes some veggies and maybe some different seasonings. Instead of white rice, try the mixed brown rice from Lundberg. You might like orzo pasta with some cooked veggies - google orzo pilaf.

I like epicurious.com. You can search out some recipes and save to your own personal on-line recipe box. For example, it looks like there are over 500 tomato soup recipes on the website.

I agree about iceberg lettuce. Personally, I like Romaine best or the spring mixes. I also like baby spinach.

Good luck!

The Brattleboro VT farmers market on Saturdays has some ethnic food vendors. It's a very festive market. The food truck that parks in the downtown Harmony parking lot has great Bahn Mi sandwiches and an interesting cold drink.

Saigon Asian market in Manchester and Nashua get a fresh food delivery around noon time on Sat and Sun. I have no idea what some of the desserts are but they taste good plus some unsual side dishes, pork rolls, fresh bread, bahn mi sandwiches, roast pork, etc.

The Concord NH Food Coop was recently remodeled. They have a hot food bar and Celery Stick "cafe". A lot of the fresh produce is locally grown. If you like their facebook page you get a daily post of what they have for lunch. Across the street, Bread and Chocolate is a wonderful European style bakery. A new start-up bakery on Main St is the Crust and Crumb. I think the young owner is using as much local ingredients as she can. You can like her fb page, too. I see one of her winter sandwiches was roasted vegetable pizzettes using local cheddar cheese.

My daughter-in-law has a recipe for a sweet fruit salad that treats it like it was tapioca.

I have a recipe more like a risotto. Broccoli is added and at the last minute, some grape tomatoes. It is flavored with balsamic vinegar but served warm. The recipe was in one of those booklets they sell near the grocery checkout.

Five Islands Lobster (picnic tables)
Dolphin Marina, Harpswell (near Brunswick) and Estes both have inside seating
Cundy Harbor lobster place (picnic tables)
Waterman's in South Thomaston has tables on a porch now as well as picnic tables on the water's edge
Here's a link to a list:
http://www.travelandleisure.com/slide...
We didn't care for Chauncey's Creek but it's very popular. There's another seafood restaurant pretty much on the water on Kittery Point where the menu is more extensive and you can eat inside but we haven't been in years. Perhaps someone else has more recent experience.
There are several places in Boothbay.

I've ended up combining ideas with Lasagna gardening - a no till method. And now I'm trying some soil amendments like granite meal and alfafa meal. Have my fingers crossed that our usual source of well composted horse manure is still available. I can get free steer manure but it hasn't been composted and I don't like the way it cakes up. We finally moved the compost bins to a better location so I should start mixing the steer manure with kitchen scraps and leaves.

Years ago I didn't pay attention to soil fertility and surely I could skip one year of composed manure. So one year I planted spinach early (it has to go in the ground as soon as possible in spring) before the manure came. Then I planted a second bed after adding the manure. Wow, what a difference in the size of the plants. Good looking plants vs incredible looking. So don't stop working on your soil.

Also way back I had limited space. One available patch was only 3x3 but in went some bush bean seeds. That little patch provided several meals.

When we moved here I built 2 lasagna beds. We have plenty of space but very thick sod. It was easier to use the lasagna method and not buy a tiller. I had plenty of time so the beds were at least 24" taller than the surrounding ground but it didn't take more than 2 years for them to deflate. All those leaves etc broke down and there's lots of worms.

I agree that there's a tendency to plant a whole packet of seeds or plant an entire row when maybe 3' of space is all you need for something (turnip is not popular at my house). I try to time things so I don't have too many bush beans since I don't want to can/freeze them, just eat fresh. I also work with short rows (only 2 of us) maybe 10-12' long.

Best wishes!

I don't have any experience with celery but I'm trying cutting celery from seed this year.
Get your peas in ASAP. They don't like hot weather. You should be able to follow them with a crop of lettuce. I used to plant carrots next to my peas so the quick growing peas would mark the carrot row. Carrots like moisture so I wouldn't forget to water them but they really do better in their own row. Here in NH we let a row of carrots planted late over-winter under straw (bale of straw was $8 at farm and feed store). We just dug them last week. They were planted where garlic had been grown since it is harvested in late July/early August.
Sorry, no experience growing fennel and I haven't done well with leeks which are on my list this year to do a better job at growing.
Chervil is an annual. I don't like to plant annuals and perennial herbs together although I will plant some hot peppers in my herb bed. Know the difference between a hardy perennial (i.e. sage and thymes) and a tender perennial (lemon verbena, rosemary).
See if you can pickup some garden fabric called Remay or Agribon (Johnny's Selected Seeds). Sometimes in stores as a garden blanket. If I can protect a row during an early mid-sept frost, it will go another couple of weeks. This is how I get a late planting of haricot verts.
Dill has self-seeded in my garden. If you can get your spinach in the ground now, try it. Otherwise, wait until the planting date for a fall crop in your area. Kale and spinach can take quite a bit of frost. In fact, I just uncovered a row of spinach (the other half of that bale of straw) that I planted maybe last August. I'm pretty sure I picked into Oct and Nov. This is the second winter that spinach has come thru the winter for me. No sign of the kale but it did fine until we got some real low temperatures.
Get a good hand weeding tool (cobra head).
Use fish emulsion or seaweed fertilizer (liquids) whenever you transplant and until plant is established.
Check lettuce varieties. You might do better with one variety in summer and a different in the cooler months.
Don't pick beans when the leaves are wet - you can spread disease (rust?). Keep beans picked. If a plant isn't kept picked, it figures its job is done and peters out.
Get a used copy of Square Foot Gardening and follow spacing guides. Put wet newspaper down on the paths and cover with grass clippings to keep down weeds. Pull weeds before they get big.
THIN the carrots to proper spacing!

I think you can assume you probably have average soil, a bit on the acid side. The only vegetable I have found that seems to prefer a higher ph is beets so I always add lime to that bed.

very jealous. I planted my sugarsnaps yesterday. We can dig parsnips. The last of over-wintered carrots were dug up. The herb garden is coming back to life. Chives up about 5 inches. Some sorrel leaves. Garlic has just poked thru the ground.

I found yard long beans easy to grow. One variety is red noodle beans. But, I expected them to taste like green beans and they don't. I think I let them get to big before picking. I may grow them again but jus enough for recipe testing.

We use secions of concrete reinforcing mesh left over from a construction job, as a trellis. It is held up by steel posts so with luck, it stays in place several seasons. Sugar snaps are grown first and then I followed one section with the yard long beans. We're a two person family so a 4' section was plenty. Maybe if I found the right recipe I would need to plant more.

What zone are you in? Starting plants in January is too soon for us but I'm in NH zone 5. Yesterday, I did a terrible job of transplanting tomato seedlings started on 3/2 to small pots. They look awful. I must have damaged the roots too much.

My husband decided it was cheaper for him to build a wooden frame with a peaked roof. He tried to do a roof-line recommended by a Maine gardener but the arch was too difficult. We didn't have any trouble this winter. Usually the snow has slid off on its own and although there is a pile of snow on the north side, it's not putting pressure against the plastic. I think it melts on warm days due to how warm it gets inside. I've had to open it during the day lately since it got up to 100 deg when I wasn't paying attention. We may have to start rolling the sides up soon.

This photo was taken before winter. You can see where the plastic has gapped open in the corner. Corner boards were tacked into place for the winter to prevent this. On the ground in that corner you can see an L-shaped piece of aluminum tube. This is the handle to roll up the sides. The ropes along the sides follow the recommended method of keeping the sides/roll-up working. One person can easily roll up each side. We use the stretchy cord with hooks to hold the roll up (bungee cord?). Once or twice we decided the roof needed to be brushed off but usually it just slides off.

The hose reel is set up to make it easier for me to water the outside garden. The water line is in a trench below frost level and connects with a yard hydrant inside the high tunnel. I have not had to water this winter but right now the soil feels pretty dry. Outside the ground is still partially frozen and it's very waterlogged.

I thought the gutters might cause the snow to back up on the roof but they haven't. They are supposed to fill the rain barrels which are connected to some drip hose but that doesn't seem to be working well yet. This was our first winter. The high tunnel is large enough for three beds/ 2 walkways. Note that the door is wide enough to allow the tractor bucket to get inside the building. Rubber flaps at the bottom help keep warm air in. Note the bent rebar to lock doors closed. There are two pipes in the ground that the rebar drops into to hold the doors closed. Once they froze in place because of ice but I was able to get them loose.

It's really hard to believe that the ground inside doesn't freeze because at night it gets as cold as outside. We have a thermometer connected so I can see the temperature without leaving my kitchen.

Plenty of spinach to pick. A lot of die back on beet greens when it was very cold but some are starting to grow again. Inside planted beds are covered with one layer of Agribon. Since I bought fresh lettuce at the farmers market last week, I know that if I had planted hardier varieties of lettuce, I might be picking it now, too. Outside, I was able to dig/pry some parsnips for the first time. They are starting to sprout leaves. I haven't looked to see if the spinach under hay has survived. It did for a long time last winter but it might be too wet now and drowingin. Ditto for carrots under hay. Next winter I'll have some plantd inside the tunnel.

My husband has been in residential construction his whole life and also learned how to do things with scrounged materials so designing this was easy for him. Size is based on the size of the greenhouse plastic width.

I believe you are not supposed to use horse manure after they have been wormed. I have been using composted horse manure since 2008. We get it in the spring from a horse owner who mixes kitchen scraps and bedding in the pile all winter. He charges $15 for his tractor time to load our utility trailer with as much as it can hold. You can google for reasons why some people do not want to use horse manure.

Great advice, Bacardi. I like to go out in the early morning to check for bad bugs/eggs and pull a weed or two. Since we do most of our outside work on weekends and put in several hours each day, I look forward to my husband declaring it is time for a tea break. We sit in the shade of a maple and enjoy the view.

I have a 3 bin system, too. The how-to design was in Crockett's Victory Garden book. Probably easily found on the internet. Nothing hard about it, just chicken wire and lumber.

Sometimes I also dig something right into the garden, like it's easy to bury kitchen scraps near a tomato plant.

The manure addition last fall was a great idea.

crawfish, it's not sub zero in April even if we might have a blizzard. Here in the woods, April can be a great month - no black flies!

Antilope, thanks for converting the recipe. Looks good!

You can get clams all year round but they might not be freshly shucked. It looks like you can go clamming year round in Maine. A town license might be required and you need to check to make sure there's no red tide/clam flats are closed. Around here, demand is year round but probably gets higher when tourists are around. Are you looking for fresh steamers or fried clams? I've never seen them not on a menu. There are restaurants in New England that specialize in seafood. We had lobster for New Year's Eve but didn't get steamers.
I just think it's funny that you don't think anyone would be digging clams in April. It's probably cooler and less buggy. Perfect weather!

This has been an education for me. The recipe I tried yesterday was quite heavy and apparently a British recipe (pastry cross, not frosting). The taste is pretty good but the dough was very stiff. The US recipes that I have found tend to use only cinnamon and I expect, a much lighter, fluffier bun. More of a sweet treat.

I volunteered to make a couple of dozen buns for next weekend's Easter breakfast after sunrise service.