Here is a very tasty sunflower brittle recipe that Julia, a San Francisco garden designer, recently cooked up using a recipe adapted from The Joy of Cooking. This brittle is light and sunflower nutty and a perfect snack for an afternoon in the garden. Julia advises that you might want to have ready a pair
A cloche is a small, portable plant covering designed to be easily moved around the garden. A cloche traps the sun’s warmth raising the temperature of both the air and soil inside. A cloche can cover a single plant or a small group of plants. You can use a cloche to protect a plant from
Colorado potato beetle The Colorado potato beetle attacks potatoes, eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes skeletonizing leaves and defoliating plants. Horticultural cloth draped over plants will exclude beetles from reaching plants to lay eggs and feed, diatomaceous earth will destroy larvae, and the botanical poisons pyrethrum and rotenone can kill heavy infestations of adult beetles. However, where
Valencia oranges Common oranges are sweet oranges that are not navel oranges or blood oranges. Common oranges are juicier than navel oranges, but they also have more seeds and are more difficult to peel. Because the juice of common oranges is sweet and does not have a bitter aftertaste or turn bitter when stored—like some
Sour orange Oranges can be divided into two broad categories: sweet oranges and bitter oranges. Sweet oranges have a sweet and juicy flesh and are found in both savory and sweet dishes. They are eaten out of hand, as a breakfast fruit, snack, or dessert. They can be sectioned and served in fruit salads or
Compost pile in wire cage and compost bin Compost is the decomposed remains of organic materials-including leaves, kitchen scraps, and plant remains. Compost contains essentially all the major and minor nutrients plants need to thrive and improves soil structure—the home where plants live. You cannot add too much compost to your vegetable garden—all of the
Consider a raised bed if you live in an area where the soil is rocky or mostly sand or mostly clay. Adding organic matter to your soil is always a good idea and will always help make poor soil better. But sometimes a raised bed is the best solution. You can choose the soil in
Lemons are used to flavor both sweet and savory dishes. They are too tart to be eaten alone. Lemons are rarely eaten raw because they are too tart for out of hand eating. Use lemons to flavor everything from salads to fruit desserts. Lemon is used to enhance the flavor of fish, shellfish, and meat
Sweet oranges are great for eating out of hand, but oranges can also be cooked. Here’s a guide to cooking oranges: Bake. Remove the orange peel and all white membrane then cut the orange in half crosswise. Glaze and bake until hot (15 to 25 minutes depending on size of fruit). Grill. Cut the orange
Potatoes can be round, oval, and smooth. They can have rough skins or smooth skins, white skins, brown skins, red skins or blue skins. There are more than 3,000 varieties of potatoes. But when it comes to cooking, there are only three kinds of potatoes: high starch, medium starch, and low starch. When you are
