May 2006 Archives

Tomato varieties that I have planted this year:

• Black Cherry
• Blondkopfchen
• Brandywine
• Caspian Pink
• Jaune Flammé
• Matt's Wild Cherry
• Orange Oxheart
• Persimmon
• Pineapple
• Pruden's Purple
• Striped German
• Yellow Brandywine

Yesterday, I planted the hot peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes. I have 46 tomato plants this year. I will be planting cucumbers and squash soon, maybe this evening.

Today, I planted green onions (seeds). I also put tomatillo plants and sweet pepper plants in the garden. I'll get more in later this weekend. The tomatillos are mainly purple, with one green tomatillo plant. The peppers include chocolate bell peppers, California Wonder bell peppers (red and gold), and Tequila Sunrise peppers, which are a smaller, slender pepper. I found a good picture at Seed Savers Exchange.

Place eggs in a single layer in the bottom of a pan. Add cold water to cover eggs by about an inch. Heat over high heat until boiling. Remove from heat and cover. Let sit for 18 minutes. Drain and cool eggs in cold water.

Adding salt to the water may help if an egg cracks while cooking. Very fresh eggs are hard to peel after cooking. Buy the eggs several days before you plan on cooking them if possible.

I didn't get any planting done yesterday because it was too windy. It may rain this afternoon, so I probably won't get anything done today, either. The forecast for the weekend looks good, so hopefully I'll be able to get everything planted.

I finished preparing the garden last weekend by adding fertilizer and tilling it in. Yesterday, I started planting the garden. So far, I have planted radishes, carrots, and beets. I also moved the rhubarb into the garden next to the strawberries.

I'll be planting green onions next, and I'll either do the pepper plants or cucumbers after that.

TulipGirl posted a recipe for Organic Cilantro-Lime Salsa. It sounds good, but I think I'll wait until I'm getting fresh tomatoes and peppers from my garden!

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1/3 cup tapioca starch
• 1/3 cup sweet sorghum flour
• 1/3 cup potato starch
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup gluten-free vanilla ricemilk (I use Pacific brand)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 10 oz. bag frozen cherries
• 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips

Combine flours and starches, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt, and sugar. Add canola oil, egg, ricemilk, and vanilla. Mix well. Batter may seem thin at first, but it will thicken after standing. Stir in cherries. Mix until cherries start to break up. Stir in chocolate chips.

Put batter in 12 greased muffin cups and bake at 400°F for 20 minutes.

We just tried a new veggie burger from Sunshine Burgers. Unlike most veggie burgers available in stores, these are soy-free and dairy-free. They also are gluten-free, and have no tree nuts or peanuts in the original and southwest flavors (the two that we tried). According to the website, they also have a barbecue burger which includes walnuts, but this was not available at the store.

The burgers are made using sunflower seeds, brown rice, carrots, herbs, and salt. The barbecue and southwest flavors have additional ingredients, including beans, but still have the same sunflower seed and brown rice base. All of the burgers are certified organic. Check the frozen food section of your local natural food store.

We all liked the flavor of these burgers, including our 3-year-old daughter! Although we do eat meat, we enjoy having something different for a change, and it is nice to find a vegan product such as this that does not use soy.