Author Archives: Patsy Bell

Homegrown Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs: A Bountiful, Healthful Garden for Lean Times

Posted on January 11, 2010 | 2 comments


Homegrown Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs: A Bountiful, Healthful Garden for Lean Times (Paperback)

Jim W. Wilson (Author), Walter Chandoha (Photographer).

Homegrown Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs: A Bountiful, Healthful Garden for Lean Times by Jim Wilson shows us practical ways to save time, energy and money in our own back yard.

Even before we get to the Table of Consents, Jim Wilson lays down some common since rules in Health and Safety First. If this is the only page you read it will keep you in the garden and out of the first aide kit.

In plane terms, the book is about the science of gardening combined with hands on experience. Plus, every gardeners delima of too many squash is at last resolved by the kid friendly pizza squash solution.

I had the pleasure of reading the book cover to cover. If you just came from a buying frenzy at a spring plant sale, it’s good to know you can read the book in the I-need-to-know-now order, each chapter being a complete lesson or topic.

Chapter 6 is a every thing you need to know about a particular vegetable. Chapter 7 focuses on fruit and chapter 8 is about growing herbs – often neglected in the home garden. Then there is a quick overview of organic gardening practices.

The 10th and final chapter is about helping ourselves and our neighbors. Homegrown Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs: A Bountiful, Healthful Garden for Lean Times encourages us to share what we know and share what we grow.

This book is a clear and simple guide for beginning gardeners. It is also a gentle remider to the more experienced gardener that there is alway something new to learn in our back yard.

Homegrown Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs: A Bountiful, Healthful Garden for Lean Times (Paperback)

Jim W. Wilson (Author), Walter Chandoha (Photographer).

Details: Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Creative Homeowner; First edition (December 7, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 1580114717 ISBN-13: 978-1580114714

Review by Patsy Bell Hobson

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First new "Must have" vegetable of 2010

Posted on December 27, 2009 | 1 comment

“a work of art, this Italian heirloom is almost too beautiful to eat — but it begs to be savored. Each gorgeous head is a sprightly, light green spiral of cone-shaped florets, with a delectably mild flavor and a texture more akin to cauliflower than broccoli.”


from: The Cook’s Garden



Not really new, since it is an heirloom vegetable. Usually, broccoli is not successful in my hot Missouri zone 6 garden. (It bolts at the first sign of summer.) But I will try it and tell you about my success (or lack there of.)


Broccoli Romanseco

after all, I was successful with Renee’s Garden Pak Choi, Baby, “Green Fortune.”

I try something new every year. Renee has challenged me to grow things that have never been successful in this hot, humid climate. Like nasturtiums, sweet peas and Pak Choi.


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Herb and Spice Combinations

Posted on November 26, 2009 | 2 comments

Thanksgiving Spices and Seasonings

11/25/2009 9:56:10 AM

by Patsy Bell Hobson

Tags: Recipes, Thanksgiving, Fall, Patsy Bell Hobson

Patsy Bell HobsonPatsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it’s a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner.

Premixed herb and spice combinations are a time saver and easy on the budget. If you make the blends yourself, you can adapt them to your own taste. Most pumpkin pie spice recipes call for ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and a smidgen of allspice. I’m a fan of nutmeg, so my pumpkin pie spice combination has a little more nutmeg than the typical recipe.

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Add a shake of nutmeg, cinnamon or pumpkin spice to your cappuccino.
Photo by Robyn Lee

Cinnamon is the key ingredient in any pumpkin pie spice mix. So, buy the best you can afford. A teaspoon or two of pumpkin pie spice added to any store bought cake or quick bread mix, will turn the recipe into your baking secret. Try pumpkin pie spice in bread pudding, on top of a cappuccino, in oatmeal cookies or pumpkin soup.

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Pumpkin shakes as simple as adding pumpkin puree and
pumpkin spices to your favorite shake recipe.
Photo by Hannah

Add extra flavor to any desert, by dusting the whipped cream topping with a bit of pumpkin pie spice mix. Or, sprinkle dessert plates with pumpkin pie spice before serving a slice of pie.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Mix ingredients together.

Before holiday baking and festive dishes appear on your menu, clean out the spice cabinet. If you can’t remember the last time you bought dried cinnamon or sage, throw it out. Give your yourself a gift and buy new herbs and spices. My favorite source for the freshest dried herbs is Penszy’s If there is not a store near you, buy Penzey’s on line. If buying fresh herbs at the grocery store, try to use up any extra in the next day or two. Or, use the extra fresh herbs as garnish. Make herb butter, or toss the left over fresh herbs in your turkey soup pot. Adding a sprinkle of fresh chopped herbs to the next days leftovers will brighten any recipe.

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Freeze leftover turkey in recipe sized portions to use later.
Photo by Bearsyr/Courtesy Flickr
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/bearsyr

Poultry Seasoning

• 3/4 teaspoon sage, crumbled
• 1/4 teaspoon leaf thyme, crumbled
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• Dash marjoram
• Dash cloves (optional)

1. Mix ingredients together.

If you seldom use the five individual herbs that make up Poultry Seasoning, save some money and only buy one jar of poultry seasoning. The blend is good in dressing, to season the turkey before roasting, or to make chicken or turkey soup, and turkey (chicken) pot pie.

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Give thanks to the friend who will bring you homemade
turkey (or chicken) soup when you are sick.
Photo by www.africankelli.com

Before holiday baking and festive dishes appear on your menu, clean out the spice cabinet. If you can’t remember the last time you bought dried cinnamon or sage, throw it out. Give your yourself a gift and buy new herbs and spices. My favorite source for the freshest dried herbs is Penszey’s If there is not a store near you, buy Penzey’s on line.

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Capture the flavor of

Posted on October 20, 2009 | 1 comment

Tarragon
link to the Herb Companion post about Tarragon

more about French Tarragon


Thomas Jefferson tried to locate and grow Artemisia dracunculus sativa for years after his return from France. His appreciation of French cooking is reflected in this recipe:

Jefferson’s vinaigre d’estragon, one quart of partially dried tarragon leaves added to three pints of vinegar for one week. Then, the tarragon flavored vinegar was strained, bottled, and corked.

French Tarragon is prized as the best culinary variety, though you can not grow it from seed. Use cuttings or divisions or, buy a plant from a reputable source. When paired with chopped sprigs of fresh parsley, chives, and chervil, it is the traditional French culinary staple,fines herbs. This aromatic blend enhances the flavors of egg, chicken and fish dishes, and is also used as a basis for salad dressings. French tarragon can not thrive in Texas summers.

My Garden blogging friend Nancy in Texas grows Mexican tarragon (Tagetes lucida.) The plant grows in spring and summer, and produces many small yellow flowers that look like single marigold flowers. The plant is grown for it’s leaves, not the end-of-summer flowers. Mexican tarragon is a hot climate substitute for French tarragon’s anise flavor.
photo: Luigi

Mexican tarragon is also called Texas tarragon, false tarragon, winter tarragon or, Mexican mint marigold. If a seed company is offering tarragon seeds, it’s probably Russian tarragon which is not a good substitute in recipes.

I’ve received strong, healthy plants from these two companies:

  • Nichols Garden Nursery, 1190 North Pacific Hwy, Albany, OR 97321, (541) 928-9280.
  • Richters Herbs, 357 Highway 47, Goodwood, ON L0C 1A0 Canada, Tel. +1.905.640.6677 Fax. +1.905.640.6641
fines herbes

Make your own fines herbes. Use equal amounts of tarragon, chervil, chives, parsley. Finely chopped and added to a recipe near the end of cooking time.

Herbes Fines are tarragon, chevril, parley and, chives.




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How to Preserve Basil

Posted on October 9, 2009 | Comments Off on How to Preserve Basil

It is my honor and pleasure to blog for Herb Companion.Click here to see How to Preserve Basil .

Basil and heirloom tomato

The volatile oils in basil quickly loose flavor in the heat of cooking. Add basil at the last moment when cooking.

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Fall foliage Tips in Missouri

Posted on September 21, 2009 | Comments Off on Fall foliage Tips in Missouri

Fall foliage Tips in Missouri

Driving tours in the Missouri Ozarks are filled with the color variations of 140 different species of trees. The fall color season stretches out for weeks because of that timber variety. Begin leaf peeping season with these three steps to get the most out of Missouri’s most colorful season.

1. Be flexible, fall color lasts most of October. Missouri’s wide variety of trees means that trees change color at different times. Don’t worry that it might rain on your tour. You may get some of your best photos in dizzily days. Overcast days tend to increase fall color intensity.

2. Take the scenic route. Practically any drive across the state, east to west to west to east will guarantee you a colorful fall drive in October. You may be able to combine a fall foliage tour with other travels. Schedule a little more travel time for all trips and enjoy the ride.

3. Reserve early. If you are planning a weekend leaf peeping tour, make hotel reservations as soon as possible. Fall is the busiest time in the Ozarks. When you complete your trip, consider making reservations for next year while still at the hotel.

For up-to-date peak foliage reports check out these sites. Weekly Eastern Region Fall Color Report The Forest Service Fall Foliage Hotline telephone number is 1-800-354-4595. (Eastern Region includes Missouri.)

Missouri Department of Conservation follow the MDC weekly foliage report.

Leaf peepers guide to fall color:
 Red leaves: Red oak, white oak, pin oak, shingle oak dogwoods.
Yellow leaves: Ash, elm, hickory, poplar, redbud, serviceberry, hickory and silver maple.

These three photos were taken by C. Huff of Bucks and Spurs Ranch bear Ava, MO

Battle of Athens State Historic Site harvest gathering

Halloween spirits in Missouri state parks

More State Parks in the Halloween spirit

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Cabela’s KingKat Fishing Tournament Sept. 25, 26

Posted on September 17, 2009 | 1 comment

Cabela’s KingKat Fishing Tournament Sept. 25, 26

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Bloom Day September 2009

Posted on September 15, 2009 | 4 comments

Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day in Cape Girardeau, MO USA
This is the last of the hardy standby rudbeckia blooming.

This is a gifted rose from the storybook series. It’s a prolific bloomer, no fragrance, but the color stands out from a distance. I never saw these on the market, too bad because I would buy more. They are faithful bloomers, even gracing the Thanksgiving table last year.

I still have a lot of food crops blooming. “They won’t have time to make”, as grandma used to say.

This tasty English cucumber is still producing long skinny, thin-skinned. cucumbers.
Pinky WinkyHardy Hydrangea or Hydrangea paniculata is growing in a couple of places in my yard, The one that gets more sun does the best. Hiding behind thee hardy hydrangea, is Buttered Popcorn day lily, Hemerocallis Buttered Popcorn. It’s a repeat bloomer and the brilliant yellow blooms always get noticed.

About now, I should tell you that I’m using the camera/phone, and I have no excuse for the photo quality, except I can’t keep it steady enough for good photos.
Crown Princess Margareta, a David Austin Rose. Once it is cut, the heavy blooms tend to droop, so is it not a good choice for bouquets. Still it is so fragrant and lovely, it’s hard not to bring a few cut flowers indoors.

These creamy poppies were a garden surprise, I forgot that I had planted the seed. California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is native to grassy areas, in CA. Here in MO. it must be treated as an annual. But it is beautiful and easy to grow. It is California’s official flower and has it’s own day. April 6 is California Poppy Day.

Gaillardia Amber Wheels is hardy and some times self sows on my patio. I saved seed last year and planted the seed again this year. It’s a hardy flower, still blooming it’s little head off. Next year I will grow more of these because the color is brilliant and they have a very long blooming period.

Petunia, Old Fashioned vining, (Petunia multiflora) a fragrant single petunia. Fragrant blossoms from June until after frost. This soft color would go with anything. I hope to collect seed and grow several of these next year. A hundred years ago, it was common in gardens, this is now considered a rare heirloom.

 

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The Southeast Missouri district fair is ready to go.

Posted on September 9, 2009 | Comments Off on The Southeast Missouri district fair is ready to go.

The Southeast Missouri district fair is ready to go.

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Granny’s Got the Blight and She’s Got to Go

Posted on September 7, 2009 | Comments Off on Granny’s Got the Blight and She’s Got to Go


Granny Cantrell is on her way out.

The story of these rare Granny Cantrell tomatoes is that a soldier brought home the seed when he returned from Germany after WWII. Lettie Cantrell grew those tomatoes from seed every year since the 1940s. It was the only kind of tomato Lettie Cantrell of West Liberty Kentucky, grew.

She grew those “very large and tasty” tomatoes until her death in 2005 at the age of 96. And I’d say that’s proof enough that gardening – especially growing tomatoes, will help you live to a ripe old age.

The sad news is my tomatoes got early blight late this year. The plants will not live a long life, because I’ll be pulling them up very soon. It’s a shame too because this is the first time I’ve grown this variety of heirloom tomato. Today I shared a couple of tomatoes each with two of my neighbors and had one more sliced at dinner. That’s five red tomatoes, thin skinned, with very little core and bright red, solid fruits weighing 13 to 14 ounces each. All of my Granny Cantrell tomatoes weighed in under a pound this year, though I was not trying to grow the really big ones.

If you want to know my secret to growing big tomatoes, I’d have to say neglect is the key. Once a tomato plant shows signs of blight – late blight or early blight, any blight, it will quickly spread to all the tomato plants. I ripped out the first tomato to show signs of early blight, then carefully cleared out any sign of the doomed tomato plant, but the rest of the tomatoes still ended up with the disease. Sure, you could try to blast the plants with chemical treatments, but there really is no practical way to get rid of this soil borne disease.

This year I grew only rare heirloom tomatoes. A lot of those plants are susceptible to early blight. Heirlooms like “Brandywine,” and “Old German” have been around a long time, but the older varieties don’t have a lot of disease resistance.

Plants with early blight slowly lose their leaves. Right now, the infection is not severe, so I am harvesting mature tomatoes. The immature tomatoes are stating to show signs of the disease. Soon, I’ll pull up all the tomatoes and put in a cover crop for the cool season. Next year I will rotate the tomato crop to a different location, probably growing different varieties.

The German Red Strawberry tomatoes are growing in the straw bale garden next to the Granny Cantrell. Both tomatoes are struggling with blight. But for this week, I’ll have more big tomatoes to share and to eat fresh.

The grounds keeper has requested Gazpacho from these last few weeks of big tomato harvests. It’s a great way to use a lot of fresh tomatoes and a summertime favorite.

Baker Creek and Southern Exposure sell the seed. Abundant Acres sells the plants. These red beefsteak type tomatoes won “Best In Taste” at the Baker Creek Fall Festival 2006. A rare variety, that can reach 2 ½ pounds.

This is the German Red Strawberry tomato. It needs another day or two f warm sunny weather.
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