Tag Archives: High Mowing Seeds

How To Grow Potatoes

Most of you know that I have had my ups and downs trying to grow potatoes.
The outcome was not very good.  I couldn’t get a straight answer on where or how to plant. Once the potato eyes were in the ground, Wireworms and Colorado Potato Beetles joined together to make for tiny tubers and a potato growing nightmare.

So,when I read High Mowing Seeds post on growing potatoes 101 I knew I had to share.

I also think that Margaret Roach of A Way To Garden fame has a good tutorial fro growing your own spuds, too.

If you dream of growing your own spuds or want to be able to walk into your back yard and dig a few potatoes for the dinner table, High Mowing Seeds and Margaret Roach can help you get it done.

Remember, potatoes love being planted when it’s cool out so early spring is a great time to give this American favorite a try.

If you are successful, try dicing a few into this fabulous fish chowder – buttery rich and tasty. I married an Italian but my maiden name was Duffy.  If I know anything, I know some great recipes for cooking potatoes!

Fish Chowder

INGREDIENTS:
2 boneless fish fillets
2 thick cut bacon slices
2 T butter
1 leek, minced
1 stalk celery, minced
½ tsp dry mustard
1 lb potatoes, peeled & cubed
4 sprigs thyme
¼ c heavy cream
1 T minced chives

DIRECTIONS:
Place fish fillets and bacon slices in large pot and cover with 4 cups cold water.

Bring to simmer over medium high heat then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes or until fish is cooked.

Transfer fish to plate and let it cool then remove skin and flake into large pieces.

Continue to simmer bacon in broth until stock is reduced by half (2 cups).

Strain, discard bacon, add 2 to 3 cups of water and reserve poaching liquid.

Melt butter in large pot, add leeks and celery and cook 15 minutes until translucent.

 

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How To Grow Onion From Seed

Growing onions is easy.

My onions enjoy raised bed living.

I love growing onions. I have only grown them from seed, once and I sowed them outdoors. That is another story!

This year, I am starting onions from seed, indoors, and I wanted to share two of the resources I am using to help me in this new adventure.

Barbara Pleasant’s Top Ten Tips for Growing Onions from Seed is a spectacular resource. Pleasant is a well-known author who contributes to publications like Mother Earth News and The Herb Companion.  

She is also the US-based contributor to a site and company called GrowVeg, which provides innovative garden planning apps for Mac, PC, iPad & iPhone.

This woman knows her beans…or her onions.  Anyway she is a top-notch gardener and her “how to” article on starting onions from seed is one of the best I have read. IMG_2464

Sprouting onions from seed

Onion seed sprouted quickly.

My second source should be familiar to a lot of you – it’s High Mowing Organic Seeds.

They are sharing their tips and tools for starting onions indoors. Part 1 covers location, light, temperature, soil and containers then shares the best way to get the seeds into the soil and get them started.

If you want to start onions from seed this year, I cannot recommend any better places to start than GrowVeg’s Barbara Pleasant and High Mowing Seeds Seed Hopper Blog!

Spring is coming! And the game is afoot!!

Complete Guide to Seed Starting from High Mowing Seeds

Used to be seed catalogs were one of the first signs of spring for me.

Now, it’s posts by some of my favorite organic gardeners like this one!

This is from High Mowing organic seeds, one of my favorite East coast operations.  It’s a complete guide to seed starting.  And, as a bonus, it includes a link to Margaret Roach’s garden planting calculator!

High Mowing shares information freely and sells some of the best organic, heirloom seeds and what they call “future heirlooms” like their latest – Abundant Bloomsdale spinach.

Enjoy their wonderful tips and tools, buy their seeds knowing you are getting organic seed free of GMOs and get excited! Gardening season is here!

The Unique Challenge of Colorado Potato Beetles | High Mowing Organic Seeds Blog

I just love it when one of my favorite sources of seed and gardening wisdom puts up a post like this one on my sworn enemy — the Colorado Potato Beetle.

This image was selected as a picture of the we...

The Colorado Potato Beetle looks pretty but is bad news in the garden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Apparently, I am not alone in my extreme dislike, okay hatred, for this little striped tank of a beetle.  Colorado Potato Beetles can strip plants almost overnight, each female lays hundreds of eggs….and all of those little larvae eat like a hungry Olympic wrestler (think 6000 calories a day).

Check out High Mowing Organic Seeds post on what these babies are, where they came from and how to handle them if they show up in your garden one sunny morning!

Oh, and Grow So Easy Organic: Organic Gardening for the Rest of Us –the book — is in final transfer to the MOBI (Kindle) format, a bit later than expected but coming to you soon!

via The Unique Challenge of Colorado Potato Beetles | High Mowing Organic Seeds Blog – The Seed Hopper.

Don’t Forget About Fall! Seed Now for Autumn Abundance

High Mowing Organic Seed’s post this week is just in time for those of us who live in zones with mid-October frost dates!

And I love how clearly this group describes the fall crops you can plant – carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, beets – and how to get a handle on when you should sew seeds to reap these beautiful crops in the fall.

The cover of my new book  published on Kindle in June.

The cover of my new book published on Kindle in June.

Enjoy their wonderful, well-written advice while I finish up with BookNook — the company formatting my Kindle book – Grow So Easy; Organic Gardening for the Rest of Us.  Should be online within a week!

Don’t Forget About Fall! Seeding Now for Autumn Abundance | High Mowing Organic Seeds’ Blog – The Seed Hopper.