Re: RE: now yucky veggies!

I love vegetables, too. Probably because I grew up eating only ones grown in the garden. In winter we had what my mother had frozen or canned at the end of the growing season. Marge, you should try fried okra -- it's the best. There is no vegetable I don't really enjoy. I made Brussels sprouts for a dinner party last night. The ingredients included shallots, marjoram, pine nuts and heavy cream. It was delicious.
zem
zone 7
West TN
----- Original Message ----- From: "Marge Talt" <mtalt@clubhouse-designs.com>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 3:51 AM
Subject: Re: RE: [CHAT] now yucky veggies!


Well, I can't survive without my veggies.  The only one I've never
been really fond of is okra; it's the texture more than the taste.
Love Brussels sprouts.  Try steaming them for about 15 or 20 minutes,
Pam, and serve with melted butter, salt and pepper...you want them
just tender, not mushy.  Cut an x in the bottom after you remove the
outer leaves; helps them cook in the center faster.  Overcooking
gives them a really strong flavor and boiling turns them into icky
mush....I steam most all cooked veg...if you haven't tried that, give
it a whirl.

Hard to imagine life with no fresh veggies.  I use canned and frozen
as well since they are handy for quick meals for the disorganized
like me, but much prefer fresh.  Years ago, before bambi and too much
shade, I had a huge veggie garden for nearly 15 years - grew all
kinds of veg. from more tomatoes than I could deal with (always had
visions of canning and never enough time) peppers, eggplant, squash -
both summer and winter types, cukes, beans, lettuce, radishes,
onions, melons (never had much luck with them) B. sprouts, cabbage (a
few times - they take up so much room!), potatoes - nothing like
fresh new potatoes right out of the garden; sugar snap peas (hardly
ever got to the kitchen; used to munch them right off the vine),
Jerusalem artichokes; had a nice little asparagus patch, spinach and
I'm sure other stuff I can't remember now.  Once had some pumpkins,
but they about ate the entire plot - talk about a rampant vine when
they get going.

Oh, always had sweet corn, too until the raccoons discovered it.
Little brats would go in and knock the stalks down and strip the ears
just before they were ripe enough to pick..take 2 bites out of them
and leave them...made me SO mad!

Then came bambi and I'd go out to find rows of stems.  They even ate
the tomatoes and basil!  Well, after fighting that for a few  years,
I just gave up and about that time the veggie plot got too shady to
produce well......it is now a holding bed for plants and slowly bits
are being turned into ornamental gardens.

Did have a squash volunteer this year near the compost heap and
produce one huge fruit which is gonna feature at the Xmas feast as
it's too big for just the two of us.  Free food:-)

Lots of work, veggies, but fresh out of the garden is SO much better
than even organic from the store.

I grew my veg. organic and  try to buy organic when I can, esp.
lettuce, but when I can't, I still get veg. :-)  Tho' I don't miss
all the work in the hot sun that it took to grow them, I do miss
being able to take a basket down to the garden and come back with it
full of goodies...

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@hort.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
Shadyside Garden Designs
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----------
From: gardenqueen@academicplanet.com

I love most veggies (except Brussels sprouts & okra - blah!!) and
I'm
going to TRY (again) to quit smoking sometime after the first of
the
year. Depends on when they get this new SAP system in at work and
how
much Elaine rags on me. 

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