New England ~ January 2014

I ordered the potato onions! I'm so happy. For some reason, it was very, very important to order those this spring.... guess it's just one of those things.

The seller (linked above) also has a very nice website/blog. He's a homesteader in northern California and has a variety of topics he posts on. If you are interested in potato onions, he not only has a wealth of information about them posted there, but you can order directly from him.

http://turkeysong.wordpress.com/?s=potato+onions

That Green mountain bulb he send to you, covet it as you would the greatest treasure. Cultivate and make daughters. I hear it is one of the best.

Oh no! I'm not worthy! I'll probably kill it.

camprn, have you thought about ordering too? Then you, too, could raise an onion daughter.

Just wanted to give an update on Fedco's potato onion offerings. I got another email from Fedco stating that they think they will have a small supply of potato onions this spring but they have to wait and see. So we'll see. If Fedco does end up having any, I will also order some from them and see how the two types fare side by side.

118 days until my last frost date. We're getting there!  

Cooked down all the frozen maters last week for base in the weekly soup pot:
Color me shocked...it was the best darn soup I've ever had!   

Then last night I cracked open a qt of canned maters, boiled it up, cooked some spiral pasta in it...and man o man, I kid you not...I ate the whole thing!  
  

And yet another surprise, without peeling anything, there were no tough skins in either dish.  

Anywhosey, now I'm like a junkie...two qts left and 6 mths to go before I can get a new supply.  
  

Huh? I'm looking at 8" of snow in NH per Tim Kelly. Did you gals get snow today???

CC

Did we get snow today? Is that a joke?  

I got probably 5-6". Enough for yet another plow, bleh. 4th of the season so far.

I still have frozen tomatoes in my freezer too! I've been plopping them in sauces here & there but I'm thinking - they take up a lot of room in the freezer and they don't fit well in there. Next summer I'm going to reduce the number of tomato plants (husband is allergic to them anyway, tho he eats them and then sneezes) and I think I might cook them as sauce and then freeze the stewed tomatoes to add to things.

Altho I have to say, in the bean soups I've been making it calls for a can of tomatoes, and I've been using canned tomatoes (having them in the cabinets for too long, have to clear them out) - and I bought 4 more cans of tomatoes at the grocery store today since they were on sale. I probably should be using my own tomatoes for that.

Oh, how eager I am for spring to arrive.  I know, I know I'm wishing my life away.  We got another 2 plus inches of snow last nite.

Here's my corgi Penny checking out the new snow.  Unlikle many dogs, she loves being outside in the cold and snow.  With her thick under-coat and her rough outer coat, she doesn't seem to mind the cold at all.  Snow just lays on top of her back and doesn't even penetrate.
As for frozen tomatoes, I agree that there isn't anything better tasting in the winter.  I roast mine cut in half in their skins before I freeze them. 

 I add them to soups, sauces, chili, and anything else that requires tomatoes.  They are soooooo good.  CapeC's right, the skins are hardly noticable in the recipes.
And I want to thank an SFG friend for the shallots I got from her last year.  I want you to know that I have enough for eating a few more times and also for planting in the bed this spring for more next fall.  They are fabulous.

This is all I have left of last fall's harvest.  This year I plan to put in a whole 4 x 4 bed of these.   Mmmmm good.

Oh, oh, its starting to snow again.  I'm going to get out my dozen new seed catalogs and browse once again.  Its so hard reducing my purchases to only a few more new varieties this year.  My list keeps changing.

I'm drinking more Ginger Ale and Fruit Punch so I can save the 2- and 3-liter bottles for my tomato and pepper transplants this year.  This time I'm cutting taller air-pruning bottles for longer root systems before transplanting.  It worked to get some tomatoes much earlier last spring.

QB, Thanks for posting the photos. Penny is darling. And, the tomatoes look delicious.

The only thing about shallots is they seem small. I'd probably need several for one dish. Hmm.

With snow predicted, I thought I'd get out for a few groceries.  Stopped by the garden area in both Dollar Tree and Walmart.  They have spring seeds already on the shelves.  I picked up 2 types of parsley, thyme, lavender, breakfast Radishes (they have such a great flavor) and zinnia seeds.   I just couldn't pass them by.
I hear south of us will get the brunt of it before it bounces off Maine out to sea.  We're only expecting a inch now inland beside Sebago Lake where I live.

  Snow storm after snow storm.  You guys in the NE are tough!

I'm not tough.    I'm a wuss.  I hate losing power when it's cold and I hate shoveling. 
The Cape is supposed to get the brunt of this one.  It's already snowing here but no winds to speak of yet.  I work in import/export and the NJ/NY ports closed at noon today and won't open again until Thursday supposedly.  Must be bad. 

CC

PS On a happy note, I got my potato onions today!!!!! 

hope you all stay safe and warm

hugs
rose

I got my potato onions today too!   

The plow guy was just here this morning to pick up his check from the storm 3 days ago. I told him skip the plow tonight, it's supposed to be light and fluffy and I'll just get thru it somehow........ We'll see.

Johnny's catalog came today, altho lately I've been ordering from Fedco.

I like FEDCO!   

I do too. It's kind of a neat structure, the customers are part owners or something like that.

I just ordered 5 fruit trees - 2 asian pear, 2 plum, 1 tart cherry. I would've ordered about 50 more types if I had the funds.    Fun!

What's the name of the asian pears and the plums you got, NHG?  Those are on my spring list, too.

CC

Pears: Hosui and Kosui, and plums: Green Gage and Stanley. Then for tart cherry I got Crimson Passion Dwarf cherry. I don't know anything about these except they sounded good in the catalog. They deliver in I believe April. 

I really want some hardy kiwi, a nanking cherry, pawpaw, hazelnut, linden trees (for bees), maybe a couple peach.... but this will do for now.

Before I can order any fruit trees, I need to find some funds to remove some spruce trees. UGH!

Storms almost over.  My li'l Prius just plowed out of my driveway this morning right through the snow, 2 ft drifts and all, coz it's like air.  Even the 3 ft snow plow pile at the end parted like the sea.  Never seen anything like it.     The only reason I tried it is coz my neighbor, who was out walking his dog, told me that's what would happen and since he's SO friggen smart I trusted him.

CC

Good for you, CC! We ended up getting zilch here.

Ditto.  Like NHGardener, we got nothing.  I'm so happy about that but not about the cold that's coming our way this week.  Single digits days and below zero at night with wind chills 10-30 below.  Ugh.  At least my gardens are still covered with snow so they won't get hammered with the cold and winds.  I shouldn't lose any of my perennials.

It's hard to believe that as soon as it thaws, the bugs will be back.

I'm thinking I may break down and use Neem this year since the cabbage worms get going no matter what.  ugh. 

Don't know what to do about the zucchini/SVB though.  I think I read somewhere on here that someone was injecting the stems with something but that seems like a lot of trouble.  Was it Neem?

Snow still blowing around like crazy out there...almost white out conditions.  But according to the radar it's not falling anymore. 

CC