toastnjam's Profile
Martinborough producers -- which wines and producers? Also, any Nebbiolo in NZ/Aus?
+1 for Martinborough Vineyards, also Ata Rangi (absolute fav), Palliser Estate, Dry River
Where can I find fresh chiles in NZ?
Most supermarkets usually carry jalapenos at least. Although they're not in season at the moment, they may have some imports.
Favorite Healthy School Snacks to Pack for your kids??
i would love to include some of the suggestions here but they would all be returned (yuk factor) and keeping the food cold is difficult. We've tried many different insulated lunch boxes but none work satisfactorily esp. for things like yoghurt so recs wold be welcome. Pizza on a stick looks like it could be a winner though. I wonder how well it would freeze.
At the moment my 6 y.o. is begging me to buy lunchables because some of friends eat them. I would love it if he was begging me to give him hummus in his lunch box :)
A friend of mine uses a magnetic lunch chart from Martha Stewart where her kids choose their own lunches for the week from a list of things they like. It works well for her.
Favorite Healthy School Snacks to Pack for your kids??
Ugh, it's such a trial trying to keep lunch interesting.
I've been mixing up a small container of nuts (smoked almonds are the current fav), dried fruit, 1 little piece of dark chocolate and maybe some breadstick pieces or goldfish for my little guys recess snack. At the moment this is completely devoured. Lunch is mostly a honey sandwich, fresh fruit & cookie though. I can get him to eat a small salad (cherry toms, carrot sticks, tiny centre leaves of a cos lettuce) and ranch maybe once a week. I found using a variety of bento boxes, condiment containers & skewers (to make fruit kebabs) makes him more likely to eat his lunch. When the weather cools I'll try mac & cheese or noodles in a thermos. None of this is too time consuming. Yet.
I'd love some other ideas though.
http://shop.iloveobento.com/collections/boxes
Meyer Lemon Plant - London, Ontario
http://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/ordering/outside.html
This outfit supplies most of the nurseries here in California and sell online too.
Tomato Flowers Keep Falling Off
It could be blossom drop and which occurs because the temperatures are not quite right - too hot or too cold. What temps are you getting? Daytime and overnight? Be careful with the Miracle-Gro because excess nitrogen can also cause excess blossom drop.
Late blight, transmittable by seeds?
http://blogs.cornell.edu/hort/2009/06/26/late-blight-a-serious-disease-killing-tomatoes-and-potatoes-this-year/
This has a lot of great information in it about the late blight. It mentions that blight is not thought to live in the seeds, however if it were my garden I would probably trash everything and then start with fresh seeds from a seed supplier in an unaffected area. Just for some reassurance. Tomatoe Growers Supply & Sandhill Preservation are great seed suppliers.
saving garden from slugs....NEXT year
There's a great product out there called Sluggo. It's iron phosphate and like the Bayer product but was around first I believe. It is not harmful to pets and breaks down well in the garden without leaving any nasty residues behind and is organically certified. Plus it really works. I've been using it for a few years successfully. Some folks think it's expensive but a little goes a long way and a container generally lasts me about 9 months. Garden centre's and nuseries are the places to get it - not the hardware store.
http://www.montereylawngarden.com/
Tomatoes off season
"Tomatoes require full sun and grow best when day temperatures are between 65 and 85 degrees. Flowers will not set fruit if night temperatures drop below 55 degrees F. Tomatoes are a tropical plant that need a very long, warm season to ripen fruit."
It might be possible to grow a few tomatoes in the next few months if you planted some very advanced seedlings but with low expectations of how much fruit you'll get. You may be able to get plants from the nursery that have been transplanted into gallon+ pots. It is way too late to start seeds - they take 12 -16 weeks to get to healthy seedling stage - and a lot of folks start them off in February ready for planting out in May (unless you're in Florida or Texas!). Tomatoe plants create roots along the stems if they are buried in soil. You can plant a cleanly broken stem and it should take off. Bear in mind though that at this late stage it will put more energy into growing roots not fruit. I would never re-plant a stem from a diseased plant though.
The limiting factors to a good crop are going to be 1) days to harvest - the number of days it takes for the plant to flower then produce the toms and 2) cooling night time temps - cooler weather slows growth of the tomatoe plants and the flowers may not pollinate. There are some specific early varieties that are more cold-tolerant (Stupice, Oregon Spring, Legend) and may do better for you than others.
So, providing you can find a decent sized plant then your biggest issues will be light and night time heat. Once the days get shorter your 100 watt bulb won't provide enough light and you will need a way to heat the greenhouse overnight. A heat sink could work there.
Here's a link to a thread that might be useful:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/strucs/msg0623513714765.html?10
Hope this helped and good luck!
where to get Irish breakfast items (rashers, sausages and blood sausages) --uncooked
Mollie Stones on the Peninsula (specifically San Bruno location) sell Irish sausages & bacon. Darn good they are too. And I've seen black puddings at Draegars too.
HTH
Quick Strawberry Jam Help Needed for First-time Jam Maker, Please ....
I agree, the Ball Books are great for teaching you about the fundamentals of home preserving - sterilizing jars, head space, gel stage etc and I have both, but for some reason I've never used many of recipes in them. I have, however, just picked up a copy of Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber from the library and there are a number of recipes I want to try in it, like Blackberry & Peach Jam and Strawberry with Pinot Noir & Spices.
I covet those jars too but they are hard to find in my neck of the woods.
Quick Strawberry Jam Help Needed for First-time Jam Maker, Please ....
This is probably too late but....
Foam is OK, it gets skimmed off at the end. In the recipe you provided it says to boil slowly, but all the methods I've used say to boil quickly. There is a point where jam will become taffy if it is cooked too long. With my past less than successful attempts I've stored them in the fridge and used them anyway.
Good luck!!!
Here is a link to the National Center for Home Preservation - a good general resource for jam & jelly making.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_07/prep_jam_jelly.html
ISO: Good Store bought Flaky (Rough Puff) Pastry
Any recs? I'm making savoury pies this weekend. I've tried the Dufour Puff but it's too buttery for what I have in mind. I'd make it myself but it never turns out well.
TIA
To mulch or not to mulch?
A few years ago I took a gardening class with Pam at the SF City College which was great. Totally taught me how gardening here in the Bay Area is different from most other places in the world plus so much more. I generally re-read her book once a year.
boneless chicken breasts...how best to cook??
Try brining them for an hour and them grilling them. I did this last week for the first time ever and they were perfection - even the kids commented on how moist they were. I used this recipe:
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/brined-grilled-chicken-breasts-red-chile-oil.aspx?nterms=50242
To mulch or not to mulch?
Despite you being a crazy person that loves to weed (:p) mulching is a good idea to keep the moisture in and to control the weeds. Weeds will compete with your plants for nutrients and use water, although on the scale you have it won't be huge. Grass clippings work in a thinnish layer but beware of introducing weeds that live in the lawn, and as callipoethreee mentions they can heat up, especially if piled on too thick. Try drying them for a day or so first. I don't bother mulching container plants but always mulch the veggie beds with a good 2" layer of compost. The rest of the gardens gets leaf litter or fine bark.
Far away fanksgiving.
As a Kiwi living in the US, I would definitely not advise you to use kumara (purple/reddish skin) to make the sweet potatoe & marshmallow dish. NZ kumara is totally different from sweet potato. I know most supermarkets sell sweet potatoes over there now - try looking for the one with the orange skin. Yams are also different - they look more like a little knobby finger than a sweet potatoe. Totally delish though when roasted.
ISO (vegetarian) pasta or rice salad recipe
I just made Pearl Couscous with Olives and Roasted Tomatoes last night and it was the most delicious thing I've eaten in a very long time. It's served at room temp it would be perfect for a BBQ.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pearl-Couscous-with-Olives-and-Roasted-Tomatoes-107025
Success! Homemade “Fage” Yogurt! Easy! Cheap!
I use my oven to incubate yoghurt. I pre-heat it to about 90F then just leave the yogurt in it for 8-12 hours with the light on. It works very well.
growing garlic
I've just harvested a good crop of garlic that I planted in November last year. The lower leaves had yellowed yet the bulbs hadn't flowered which I was sure was supposed to happen. I'm in the SF Bay Area, z9 and I was expecting to harvest it later in August or September. The garlic is huge, perfectly formed, wonderfully fragrant and totally delicious.
garam masala potatoes
I use either loin chops or cutlets (which are the chops from a rack of lamb), then use a mix of tandoori paste and yoghurt with a splash of lemon juice to marinate them in for a few hours. Remove the chops from the marinade and let them drain for 30 minutes or so on a cookie cooling rack before cooking them on a smoking hot BBQ/grill, a few minutes each side. I normally have a jar of tandoori paste in the pantry - there are plenty of good ones at the supermarket - but on occasion have been known to make my own from scratch. I serve it up with a crisp green salad.
PTA pizza/hot dog program- does your school do this?
Is this elementary school you're describing?
My own school district introduced a pre-pay system for the school lunch program. The first year it ended up in the red with quite a few kids (parents) owing $$$ because of IOU's but the second year is running more smoothly as everyone gets used to it I believe. It is an electronic system and works this way:
1. Parents deposit $$$ (normally around $25) into the childs account via an online system.
2. Kid swipe their Student ID's at the lunch register & the cost of lunch is debited against their account.
3. Kids get lunch
4. Monthly reminders are posted in the school bulletins for parents to check the balance of the accounts and top up as required.
5. No funds = no lunch. This sounds harsh but the kids quickly caught on.
This is for a middle school, but the elementary's use the same system. The only difference is the person on the lunch register at the elementary school knows all the kids names and can quickly look them up on a master list and key their ID code into the same system. The school office has a *picnic* box for kids with empty accounts or forgot their lunch.
The laminated card system could work with some thought. Have the teachers take the class order and tally the numbers for you. The students that have ordered could have their names written on the laminated cards with a sharpie and held by the teacher until Wednesday, then handed out right before lunch. The kids would hand their card over to the person serving. Someone could then clean them off ready to use the next week.
As for the IOU's, letters home is the only way to go.
(Sorry this is longer than I intended.)
Is this yellow bug harmful?
The lower leaves of a tomatoe plant will turn yellow, wilt and drop off as the plant ages. Entirely normal and nothing to be worried about. You can cut them off about an inch out from the main stem. If you are concerned that it is a disease (fungus/virus) then check out this site to see whether anything matches. It is a great site (with pictures!!!) for diagnosing tomatoe problems.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/leaf/
Tomato plant?
Could also be that you're overwatering. Unless your soil is very sandy or you're growing in a shallow container, daily watering is not normally recommended. Where abouts are you in the world? And specifically, what birds and bugs are bothering you?
Yes, I know it is Mother's Day.... But Please DON'T take me to Brunch/Dinner!
Because I am the chief cook and bottle-washer at home I prefer my family to cook for me on MD. This year my birthday is on Mothers Day and my lads were planning on making breakfast for me. I, however, have been reading all the CH posts about donuts and suggested that we might all head into town for coffee and pastries. Of course, the boys jumped all over that because we never normally eat them. Needless to say, we had a great time, the kids think I'm the greatest Mum in the world for feeding them chocolate and sugar for breakfast and even my SO commented (many times) on what fun it was. We've decided this our new birthday breakfast tradition and are actively planning the next one in early June :-)
(thank god there are only 4 birthdays to celebrate because my hips & heart can't take calories like that too often!!)
Refrigerator - Bottom Freezer: Drawer or Door?
I have a Fisher & Paykel Bottom mount freezer model. It has a door but inside are 2 drawers & a tray for ice. I've had door models that had shelves in the past and they were a p.i.t.a. With this model there is no mess, no clutter, no losing stuff to the back the of the freezer.
Bug-Killing Potato Plants?
Agree with Harrie. I'd never knowingly grow something Monsanto "created".
We've been growing spuds for the last few months and apart from a few holes in the leaves the bugs have left them alone. Garbage cans make great barrels for growing potatoes. Drill a few holes in the bottom and up the sides and away you go.
stainless steel prep bowls
I picked some up from County Restaurant Supplies in San Carlos. Flat bottomed, good range of sizes.
http://www.crscatalog.com/
