Author Archives: Patsy Bell

Caramel Apple Layer Cake

Posted on October 17, 2012 | Comments Off

with Apple Cider Frosting

I found this recipe on Pinterest. But first, I made the applesauce and then, I made the caramel sauce. Finally, I made Caramel Apple Layer Cake with Apple Cider Frosting from the web A Hint Of Honey.com

Caramel Apple Layer Cake with Apple Cider Frosting photo: PBH

No, funny girl, I did not grow the apples or press the apple cider. Missouri has a wide variety of apples. When Missouri apples appear each fall, we are in for weeks of fresh, crisp apples. Learn everything about Missouri Apples here. The Missouri Apple web site at the University of Missouri includes recipes, storage, locations of orchards, nutritions and cultivars.

You will learn that about 46% of the apples grown in Missouri are Jonathan, 32% Red Delicious, 10% are Golden Delicious, 5% are Gala apples, and the other 7% are other cultivars such as Rome, Empire, Fuji, Winesap, and Paula Red.

I’ll make this Caramel Apple Layer Cake with Apple Cider Frosting for Thanksgiving. It’s very moist and will keep well, in the rare event that there are leftovers.

I’m on Pinterest. The recipe sites for applesauce, caramel, and this fabulous apple layer cake are on Apple Everything.

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Posted in My kitchen, preserving the harvest

Tagged Apple Cake, Apple Cider, Caramel

Todays Harvest Basket October 12, 2012

Posted on October 12, 2012 | 1 comment

Riesentraube cherry tomatoes, weighing about a half an ounce or 3/4 an ounce. Earlier this season they were averaging 1 to 1 and 1/2 ounces. I pulled up this tomato vine today, ending the tomato season for the year.

The beautiful bicolor Copia tomato was producing half pound fruits in my garden. Other gardeners bragged about one pound fruits. I will grow these again because they are meaty and have few seeds.

Sweet and mild red cheese peppers. Use them like you do bell peppers. They make cute little stuffers.

Read my Hub Pages review of Copia tomatoes. Best tomatoes from seed: Copia heirloom

Copia, bicolor, full, juicy tomatoes. Thin skins, few seeds and generally yellow with red streaks.

Copia tomatoes do not grow or look the same. These slices all came from the same tomato vine, picked the same day.

1 Comment

Posted in Ozarks Travel Examiner

Tagged bicolor, cherry tomato, heirloom, red cheese pepper, Tomato

Teamwork: annuals and perinnials

Posted on October 12, 2012 | Comments Off

It would be hard to choose between annuals and perrenials. Either way would be more work and very limiting. Annuals and perennials make a great team.

Frankly Scarlet daylily. A favorite easy care perennial. 4″ bloom, 24″ tall, Early-Mid Season + rebloom, a 2003 All-American Selection.

Eating locally and eating seasonally help us understand. When I first moved into our new house, the first thing I planted was asparagus. True, we would not benefit from this food source for three years. Every year after that and probably for as long as we lived there, this spring delacy would be ours to enjoy for years to come.

Until those whispy little asparagus ferns get bigger, there is plenty of sunshine in that garden to plant a few strawberry plants. Both asparagus and strawberries are considered perennials in my southeast Missouri USA garden (zone six)

A surprise to many gardeners, tomatoes are really a perennial. Well, not in my back yard. Where they are native, tomatoes are perennials. Most folks here in the U. S. treat them as annuals. At the first hint or suggestion of a frost, tomato plants just cry and die.

See The Hub Pages Report: Which is best? Annuals or Perinnials

I am glad that there are both annuals and perinnials. in my front yard, vegetable patch, patio containers.

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Posted in Ozarks Travel Examiner

Tagged Annuals, Perennials

Quills and Thrills new pink purple echinacea

Posted on October 5, 2012 | Comments Off

Have you seen Quills and Thrills?

I like this perennial because it is a low maintenance rebloomer. These flower quills never roll out or unquill, they don’t fade and are blooming now, in October. It will continue to bloom until the first frost.

Blooms summer then again in fall. Photo: PBH

Before that frost, I’ll go out and cut a bouquet. These Quills and Thrills blooms, are on sturdy stems for a long lasting bouquet.

Hub Pages review on a New Echinacea Quills and Thrills

How cute is this? This coneflower is slightly fragrant. Photo: pbh

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Posted in Ozarks Travel Examiner

Tagged echincea, Pink purple flowers, Quills and Thrills, rebloomer, Terra Nove

Coleus is big color and little work

Posted on September 30, 2012 | Comments Off

In the afternoon shade, this beautiful coleus looks black.

Camilon-like color brings out the best in other plants. photo PBH

It looks good mixed with other leafy ornamentals like coleus and heuchera plants. I love coleus because it gives you color all season. Flowers are good for a week our two. But the coleus always has that color or texture or shape.

New coleus are being created very quickly these days. So, I like that they are a frost sensitive annual. To me it means I can try several new ones every year.

Read more about this annual plant the stays in beautiful shape, doesn’t get leggy, just needs water similar to any container plant. Look for this new Proven Winners selection in the Spring 2013. ↓

ColorBlaze® Marooned™ Coleus New 2013

Pinch Plants for Better Growth

More Hub pages Checkout my pepper and tomato reviews on HubPages.

Marooned is deep and dark maroon. It did well with morning sun and afternool shade. I don’t know why this new growth was green, but it eventually truned dark and stayed that way. Photo: PBH

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Posted in Ozarks Travel Examiner

Tagged coleus, Color Blaze, perennial, Proven Winner, Proven Winners, trial plant

Branson Loves Teachers

Posted on September 28, 2012 | Comments Off

Read about the great teacher discounts and special offers in Branson all October.

These fall maples are a brilliant golden color. photo: PBH

Branson MO Loves Teachers ← Click here to learn more.

Start your much deserved weekend with the show that started it all, the Baldknobbers Jamboree. Teachers receive the VIP rate of $16 (+tax). The Baldknobbers are still one of the best live music shows in Branson.

This entertaining Branson original has been packing them in for generations. If it’s been awhile since you’ve seen the Baldknobbers, make a reservation now. The show is packed with new songs, classic country music and the third generation of crazy comedians that will make you grateful you’re not related.

Baldknobbers Jamboree Music Show
2835 W Hwy 76 Box 1, Branson MO 65616
Toll-Free: 800-998-8908, Phone: 417-334-4528

from Branson MO Loves Teachers in the Examiner

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Posted in Ozarks Travel Examiner

Tagged Branson, Getaways for Garden and Nature Lovers, Ozarks, Teachers

Beautiful Black Hungarian Pepper

Posted on September 26, 2012 | Comments Off

It is a pleasant surprise to find only a hint of heat in this 4″ tall black peper. Catalogs said it was mildly hot. In a recipe, it would be hard to identify this as the hot pepper. I just mixed it in with the bell peppers in the gazpacho. Chop and add this to the bell peppers when freezing for future stews and chilies.

Stake pepper plants to keep them from snapping off suring thunder storms or heavy winds. photo: PBH

I will grow this pepper again to add another level of flavor in recipes calling for bell peppers. It is thin walled, smaller and not a juicy as most bells.

Who knows? You may think it is spicy. Could it be the soil or the temperature affecting the flavor?

Learn more about how this pepper did in my zone 6, Southeast Missouri Garden. Read my Hub Pages evaluations for tomatoes and peppers :

Black Hungarian Pepper tastes more like a bell pepper than a jalapeno.

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Posted in My Gardens, My kitchen, Oh Grow Up!, vegetable evaluation

Tagged black pepper, Hungarian peppers, low heat, mild

Todays Harvest Basket Sept 18, 2012

Posted on September 18, 2012 | Comments Off

Todays Harvest Basket Sept 18, 2012

End of the garden vegetables. A few green beans that haven’t been eaten up by the bugs. They will be steamed and served with lemon and chives. (RG)

Peppers are beautiful but smaller than usual this year.

The red peppers are Red Cheese, sweet and mild. So called because at one time the red pepper was used to color the wax used to coat cheese. (BC)

The black peppers are just barely hot Black Hungarian. Thinned walled (BC)

I picked a couple dozen TAM jalapeno. These peppers have the flavor of jalapeno but are with less heat. I’ll use some of these to make a bottle of pepper vinegar. (BC)

The yellow pepper is called Ozark Giant. It is big, thick walled, sweet and juicy. (BC)

A couple of beautiful Gold Medal tomatoes, also much smaller than usual. When sliced, these tomatoes are a beautiful gold yellow with red centers. Gold Medal is an heirloom with that rich tomato flavor. (BC)

Riesentraube Tomatoes are the 30 or 40 sweet red 1-oz fruit (BC) An excellent salad tomato and I have dried hundreds of these tomatoes this year. This winter they will go into soups, stew and chili. (BC)

There are some small eggplants that will be become a simple version of ratatouille to serve over pasta. There are three small eggplants in the upper right corner of the basket. The leaves of this plant are lacy with so many flea beetle holes. (RG)

Ozark Giant

Hungarian Black

Red Cheese

(RG) = Renee’s Garden

(BC) = Baker Creek Heirloom Seed

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Posted in Harvest Basket, My Gardens, Oh Grow Up!, preserving the harvest

Tagged Gold Medal, green beans, Hungarian peppers, red cheese peppers, Riesentraube, TAM jalapenos

Todays Harvest Basket

Posted on September 5, 2012 | Comments Off

September 4, 2012.

That big butternut squash weighs over 3 pounds.

Tomatoes, butternut, garlic, peppers, potatoes

I did not count the Riesentraube cherry tomatoes, but just one tomato plant produced all of these. They filled a 2.5 quart bucket. Riesentraube means “Giant Bunches of Grapes.” Plant them once – you will always have these little German heirloom cherry tomatoes in your garden.

Jere Gettle of Baker Creek Heirloom Seed is giving out free Riesentraube with some seed purchases. I suspect Gere is trying to cover the world with little pointy tomatoes. They are prolific.

Drying Cherry Tomatoes

Riesentraube is an early producer. When the big tomatoes start producing, I start drying these little cherries. Here is how I use these hundreds of cherry tomatoes: Tomato triage for too many tomatoes.

While I was cleaning out a raised bed, I found two pounds of these little potatoes. I did not plant potatoes this year. They came up from spuds I missed last fall!

TAM, a very tasty milder Jalapeno, just keeps producing.Kepp watering this pepper and it keeps producing as long as you keep picking peppers.

Quart sun pickles.

I left this jar of sun pickles out on the retaining wall for another day or two. When I made these, it clouded up and rained for three days. Which was good for the garden. But who knows about sun pickles?

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Posted in Harvest Basket, My Gardens

Tagged butternut, jalapenos, peppers, potatoes, Squash, tomatoes