Re: PNW: March 2014

boffer 3/28/2014, 4:55 pm

I've had various greens cooked 'Southern style' where they're cooked for hours in bacon grease. They were wonderful! drool

But I can't imagine that there were any nutrients left in the greens.

Marc Iverson 3/28/2014, 5:17 pm

I've had cabbage boiled for hours, and that was yucky. I think a lot of people have; even an old James Beard cookbook had his raves for a traditional "boiled dinner" in it, and that's the way Northern Europeans used to do dinner. Boil the heck out of it, almost as if it were some kind of act of vengeance. Don't let up until it's mush. That's probably why most people I know don't care for cooked cabbage, or cabbage in general.

I didn't know it was also a southern tradition to cook your food to death.

yolos 3/28/2014, 6:59 pm

boffer wrote:I've had various greens cooked 'Southern style' where they're cooked for hours in bacon grease. They were wonderful!

But I can't imagine that there were any nutrients left in the greens.

Cooked for hours with ham hocks and new potatoes put in the pot at the end or cooked in a pressure cooker. My husband would only eat green beans this way. I prefer to cook mine as little as possible.

boffer 3/28/2014, 7:08 pm

Thanks, yolos, I'm glad a southerner showed up to talk about southern cooking! Maybe you can confirm the little I know about it.

It's my understanding that a lot of southern greens were considered weeds, but they were all that a lot of poor people could get. They were very tough, and needed to be cooked forever to make them palatable.

The same with meat. The poor folks got the cheap cuts that were fatty and tough. They learned to cook those cuts using a method that has come to be known as 'low and slow'. Doing so 'melted' the fat within the meat, making it tender and flavorful.

Am I close? Very Happy

yolos 3/28/2014, 7:39 pm

Sorry but you need to ask that question to a true southerner like B Noles. I am a navy brat and was raised all over the east and west coast. My heart is always in Florida which we "southerners" don't consider part of the south. Too many transplanted northerners live there.

My husband was a true southerner; red eye gravy and country ham; saw mill gravy and sausage; etc.

boffer 3/29/2014, 12:40 am

The first spring harvest always feels special. Bok choy, chard, kale, and radishes.

Just a simple salad, but oh so comforting to be eating garden fresh veggies again.

**AtlantaMarie** 3/29/2014, 10:35 am

Boffer & Marc - Yes, that is the background on greens & bbq/smoking meat.

Marc - I'm not a cabbage person either. My DH loves it. In 15 years, I think I cooked it twice! But I finally found a good recipe that even I like. If you want a copy, let me know. It's got a white sauce, cheese, and.... BACON!

Marc Iverson 3/29/2014, 11:55 am

Thanks, AtlantaMarie, but that sounds very rich and I'm trying to manage my calories. It's steamed veggies for me lately, occasionally roasted or sauteed. I'm a huge fan of cheese, but if I let myself, I'd become huge, all right. That or the heart attack fairies would come pay me a visit.

**AtlantaMarie** 3/29/2014, 12:43 pm

Yeah, we're cheese-heads too...

**sanderson** 3/29/2014, 3:19 pm

AtlantaMarie wrote:Boffer & Marc - Yes, that is the background on greens & bbq/smoking meat.

Marc - I'm not a cabbage person either. My DH loves it. In 15 years, I think I cooked it twice! But I finally found a good recipe that even I like. If you want a copy, let me know. It's got a white sauce, cheese, and.... BACON!

Marie, Check out the home page. You can share the recipe under the Forum "Food and Recipes." Yummy recipes always welcomed! Very Happy

CapeCoddess 3/29/2014, 3:47 pm

boffer wrote:The first spring harvest always feels special. Bok choy, chard, kale, and radishes.

Just a simple salad, but oh so comforting to be eating garden fresh veggies again.

OMG!!!

How did you do that already? I thought the PNW weather was similar to mine here on Cape Cod. Do you have a green house?

oH, that just makes me drooling

...

boffer 3/29/2014, 3:55 pm

No heat in the greenhouse, but I swear by these:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t6953-heated-hoop-houses

Marc Iverson 3/29/2014, 5:00 pm

Wow, I read that thread and was surprised to see you said it took only a dime to heat your H3 house per day. I had thought that would be one of those deals where the solution remains more expensive than the problem, so it's only "solved" by deciding to settle for doing something that will never pay for itself.

boffer 3/29/2014, 10:29 pm

Just like radiant floor heat in a house is very efficient, so too is heating the soil rather than the air.

It's been a cool spring, and my cool crops aren't liking it. I transplanted these a little early, but look at the difference having warm feet makes.

In a hoop house:

In a hoop house with warm MM.

The contrast is just as stark for my broccoli.

Pretty heavy rain here today. I wonder if we beat the wettest March record. (We were really close.)

Marc Iverson 3/29/2014, 11:21 pm

Definitely a tribute to the idea that soil temperature makes all the difference.

boffer 3/29/2014, 11:38 pm

I've read anecdotally that soil temp is what causes a lot of plants to bolt, rather than air temp. That coincides with my experience with broccoli and cauliflower.

The past few years, I've been experimenting with how early in the season I can start broccoli and cauliflower. This year, I'm going the other direction to see if I can grow them all summer long. It's easy enough to keep MM on the cool side around here!

Goosegirl 3/30/2014, 6:28 am

boffer wrote:I've read anecdotally that soil temp is what causes a lot of plants to bolt, rather than air temp. That coincides with my experience with broccoli and cauliflower.

The past few years, I've been experimenting with how early in the season I can start broccoli and cauliflower. This year, I'm going the other direction to see if I can grow them all summer long. It's easy enough to keep MM on the cool side around here!

Interesting thought. I may just try mulching heavily to see if I can prevent the 'summer stall'.

GG

Marc Iverson 3/30/2014, 6:41 pm

I used about an inch of wood chip mulch around my lettuce to try to keep it from going bitter last summer, but it didn't work. But the temps were really high, 90's and 100-ish. Plus ... that was in pots, not beds. I suppose I might try again this year; nothing to lose really.

More chainsawing today. I'm sick to death of it and by the time I'm done hauling the logs and branch debris, I'm in no mood for gardening. I really want this chainsawing to end.

**Kelejan** 3/30/2014, 6:43 pm

Marc Iverson wrote:I used about an inch of wood chip mulch around my lettuce to try to keep it from going bitter last summer, but it didn't work. But the temps were really high, 90's and 100-ish. Plus ... that was in pots, not beds. I suppose I might try again this year; nothing to lose really.

Keep trying, Marc, and you will hit on the right solution for your garden. As you say, nothing to lose.

Marc Iverson 3/30/2014, 6:53 pm

Yeah. Really I figure I shouldn't be trying to grow lettuce in the summer anyway. The only reason I tried was because a friend was very sure it would be a great idea, as he was growing his lettuce very successfully. Turns out most of his garden is in the shade, and he wishes his wife would let him cut down all the trees surrounding it so he would be more successful growing summer crops. He's got a nice cool canopy for sitting under, though. And lettuce, he's got.

My home garden area is pretty shaded too ... sometimes it gets only four hours of sun ... but the sun can get very intense for those few hours.

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