Sally, I rarely boil them, I was just in a hurry. I did only boil them about 4 mins. I prefer fresh ones steamed and frozen ones nuked briefly. I personally like them coated in EVOO and roasted with a little salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning, but Holly loves them steamed with only butter, salt, and pepper.
I think cilantro taste soapy (which is apparently common) and usually sub parsley or maybe a spicy basil. A good Thai basil is much tastier to me in salsa and such.
I think I may just make ham, green beans, and taters for supper, of course biscuits are a must dripping butter and King syrup.

Ric you have the gene!

Ric, doesn't a good frost bring out the sweetness in B sprouts? Or is that something else I am thinking of? I like mine roasted, too.

Catmint I have the cilantro=soap gene as well, effects me like the smell of stink bugs! Avoid Avoid Avoid

MariposaMaid, That is what I've heard. My BS were planted late and didn't get real large, I think for that reason the are more tender and they def. are frosted.

There are a lot of fruits and veggies that we like better after frost, sickle pears, persimmons, to name a couple.

Oh yes, persimmons are great after a frost!

I finally disinfected, sanded, and oiled some of my hand tools today.

Behnke's is offering tool sharpening again, but it's no longer free. They're charging a $5 fee for 2 tools, but all proceeds go to a local church food bank. I might take a couple of the really hard-to-clean tools there, but I was able to do a decent job with the regular hand pruners.

I wonder if anyone closer to me does tool sharpening. It seems like a good service to offer.


I got out in the sun a bit and fixed my bricks. Don't they look vastly different. Not. Haha. It's more a meditative and sensory thing for me like grooming moss.
Give it a year and I will fool with it again. That Burford holly on the right edge. I think I will limb it up and show the trunks. Also going to trim some bottom branches of the dogwood. Couple months and the Greek windflowers will be blooming under the dogwood.

SallyG, try Davids Market, Homestead Gardens and Anne Arundel Co. Farmers Market (1/17, 1/31 every other week thru March) Same guy makes the rounds, mostly does knives, not sure of cost. Flyer at Davids Market. Didn't you used to be in AA Co?

Darn, I forgot to protect my bonsai last night! I forgot that it was expected to get down to he low teens.

I really hope the cold didn't kill them. Some of them have been in training for 4 years, which is nothing for experienced bonsai artists, but I'm just starting out.

Hope they are OK Teri.

Hope they're okay, Terri!

The bonsai are fine for now but I'm going to put them in a protected spot so the branches don't break under heavy snow.

I always need to put away anything that could possibly blow away in the wind. They're expecting sustained winds at 30 mph and gusts at 50 mph.

I have an arborvitae that doesn't handle heavy snow very well. I don't think I can do anything to protect it, though. Snow falls from the roof and lands right on top of it.

I've seen people put up little plywood roofs on stakes to fix that.

wow it's cold on bare hands.. I got some seeds unofficially 'wintersowed", some in pots vacated by plants, others on the ground. Columbine, Soldago caesia, Monarda punctuata, Echinacea pallida, Chelone Hot Lips, Cleome, Papaver somniferum...Baptisia. Dreaming of spring!
https://days.to/spring/2016

Hm, I don't think I care about this arborvitae that much.

Woohoo! 58 days to spring!

woo hoo- I got my photos onto Google Drive and now I have pictures to attach. Now the get the ones from my old phone. It should be easy but isn't working the way I thought, yet.

Sweet toad Sally!

We have a place for Addy to swim, about one mile walk in the woods to get to the water, all spring and most of summer you'll have these baby toads crossing the path any time you go.

If you're thinking of starting seeds indoors, check out this recommendation from a British horticulturalist. He recommends soaking your seeds in a solution of aspirin and cinnamon

http://www.theguardian.com/lif...

"Simply take a teaspoon of cinnamon from your spice rack and pop it into a litre of lukewarm water. Drop in half a 300mg soluble aspirin tablet, give the mixture a good stir, let it cool to room temperature and you are done. When it comes to planting time, soak your seeds and cuttings in this solution for an hour or two beforehand. This will potentially give you higher germination rates, lower risks of infections and improve the plants’ overall vigour. In fact, just watering newly sown seeds or cuttings with this bit of kitchen chemistry may be enough to trigger these benefits."

Very cool!

Interesting.
I can never imagine 'soaking' any seeds unless they are bean like or at least pea size. Wouldn't tiny seeds just stick to the container and be impossible to get off? But I can see using this to water them in and wet the potting mix.

I'm game to try that! I've heard of sprinkling cinnamon on the top of soil when sowing seeds in pots, but this sounds even better. Thanks, ssg.