A bumper tomato crop comes with early season planning. Getting tomatoes off to a strong start will almost guarantee a great yield next summer. Here are 10 easy steps to an outstanding tomato harvest: 1. Seed Sowing Time. Tomato seedlings are tender and easily fall prey to disease, pests, and unpredictable changes in weather. Starting
Orange marmalade is the most popular marmalade. Marmalade is a soft translucent jelly preserve quite simply made from fruit, water, and sugar. Marmalade looks like jam but it contains thin fruit slices or diced fruit suspended in the jelly. Many say the fine flavor of the Seville orange makes the best marmalade. But you can
To get a bumper crop from your pepper plants, you must dedicate yourself to helping the plants thrive. Pepper plants are more temperamental than tomatoes—they demand warm temperatures, even soil moisture, feeding, and support—literally. Here are 10 steps that will all but guarantee sweet and hot pepper growing success. (But don’t turn your back peppers
To make the best meatballs keep two things in mind: (1) choose the best meat you can find—for example, prepare beef meatballs with grass-fed beef that is naturally lean and full and rich in flavor, and (2) use a light hand; shape meatballs that are light and airy not kneaded or compacted. To make 4
Raised bed with top cap for sitting A wood-framed raised bed for your garden is simply a wooden box—usually a square or a rectangle—that is open to the ground below and the sun and sky above. You can make a wood-framed raised bed from pine, spruce, cedar, redwood, or composite wood. To make a wood-framed
Just picked garden corn makes a rich, sweet soup. Make this corn soup with sweet corn, water, and some onion. Serve hot or cold. Choose ears of corn with fresh, green husks. The top of the cob should be rounded rather than pointed. If the silk is brown and slightly dry, the corn is ripe. When
Classic pesto is made with fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, walnuts, olive oil, lemon, garlic, and salt. Pesto is the traditional pasta sauce. Pesto is also a flavorful addition to grilled vegetables, grilled chicken, salads, sliced tomatoes, pizza, bean and vegetable soup, and as a vegetable dip. Pesto—which is essentially a pureed herbal mixture—can also be
Floating row cover rolled out over seed bed. Floating row covers and plant blankets are an easy way to protect crops from chilly nights and light frosts. Row covers and plant blankets are commonly made of lightweight spun-fabric cloth such as Reemay which lets water and light reach plants but keeps the chill off plants
Cabbage with morning frost Hardiness or cold-hardiness is a term used to denote a plant’s ability to withstand cold temperatures. Cold-hardiness commonly specifies the minimum temperature to which a plant can be exposed and still be able to resume growing. At the end of the growing season, tender and very tender vegetables must be protected
Pumpkin with curry combines the sweetness of the winter squash with the savory-spiced flavor of curry. It is a warming match appropriate for the crisp days when pumpkins and other winter squashes come to harvest. Pumpkin and other yellow-fleshed winter squashes such a kabocha or butternut squash are best cooked until they are just tender
