What'd she say?

There are several things that you won't hear a conventional farmer say.

Ooo, potatoes come out of the ground. . . 




If I don't stop digging for potatoes soon, I'm never gonna make it to the gym; 



I'm sorry I don't think I'll make your son's birthday party, because I'm still digging for potatoes;






You say you'd like me to go to the beach with you? Sorry, I'm digging potatoes out of the ground;



What! Take a break!  How can I take a break when all these potatoes need to be preserved;




I'll never get to the shoe repair shop in time if I don't finish cooking these potatoes;












I'm gonna have one helluva blog after all this digging ad preserving of potatoes. . 

You won't hear the conventional farmer say these things, because. . well you know. . . this is hip. . 

Make your own Pesto?

Melissa Jeter aka HUF

Don't mind if I do!

Here's my heuristic:



Go out into your garden and pick basil until you can't stand to pick anymore.


Get some parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil, and almonds. 

I use almonds, because it's cheaper than pine nuts.






Put as much of the basil as you can in your food processor, along with some garlic, olive oil and parmesan cheese.















Now, go ahead and turn that baby on! I mean get the food processor working.


And then you have pesto. . . 

 

Now you wonder, what the heck do I do with all this pesto.

Why freeze it, of course!

Before I freeze it I go ahead and portion out the pesto. I use a scoop that I measured to be 3 tablespoons.

I press pesto into the scoop and tap it out on to a baking sheet. I take that baking sheet and put it into the freezer until the scoops of pesto are frozen.

Viola! Measured out frozen pesto!

From here I suggest putting the frozen pesto in some kind of container or bag. It's always great to label that container or bag with the date and contents. Just in case you forget what it is and how long it's been there.

I could never forget that it's pesto, but I might forget the day it was made.

If this ain't hip, tell me what is!

They are called All Blue Potatoes, but they look purple to me.

2010 Beginning harvest

Mar 6, 2011

Who needs Hip Advice?: Weed Your Own Garden!

Reposted from August 26, 2011 http://hipurbanfarmer.myblogsite.com/entry28.html#body

Melissa Jeter aka HUF


As great as the words on this paper look, they are not my garden. C-o-r-n are just characters that symbolize the actual corn in my garden.  Having said that, I was reminded the other day about weeding my garden.

My potatoes haven’t come up at all I lamented to my fellow community gardener.
Well, it helps if you weed, my friend replied.

Well,  I could have taken that comment as a slap in the face, but no.  She was merely stating the facts.  I later thanked her for being a great friend, because the truth is sometimes, most times, you’ve got to stop complaining about the potatoes and and pull the weeds that are taking up the space where those potatoes could be growing.

GUILTY as charged!

We are sentenced to a life of pulling weeds out of the garden in order to get the potatoes to grow. Truth be told, I’ve overextended myself in gardening this year.

And how many times have you overextended yourself then complain about the potatoes not growing? What are your p-o-t-a-t-o-e-s?

There’s no Mystery to this! Pulling weeds takes time and it is work! The point of it all is to reap what you sow.  If you you are careless about sowing your seeds, you may get some potatoes, you may not. Certainly, you will get weeds, though.

And there is no point in getting angry about it, because unwanted plants will grow when you haven’t mulched or made some kind of plan to deal with the unwanted plants that will choke the life out of your potatoes. If you have enough self-regard you will be able to accept the truth of the matter.  You could weed a little more often. . .a lot more often.

If you, like I have overextended yourself in the g-a-r-d-e-n, then it is time to start pulling weeds. Clear a path, make some space.  You can’t get any potatoes without weeding.  This is what my friend pointed out to me.

She’s right!  I could weed a lot more!!!  Hip advice from a fellow community gardener.


one comment
(raises hand)...and I could mulch and fertilize more, and have DECENT garlic, instead of pitiful garlic.
Linda (email) - 20 08 11 - 13:40

Finally, the first tomatoes

Reposted from August 12, 2011 http://hipurbanfarmer.myblogsite.com/entry26.html#body

Today, I picked my first tomatoes off the vine. Woo hoo!  I am grateful.
Right around this time of year, I am anxious about there being enough time to get those tomatoes off the plants. I really need to go back and look at how it started. I mean I start from seed. Most of what I grow I start from seed. The fact that it takes root and eventually produces fruit is a miracle on and of itself. Yet, there they were three beautiful roma tomatoes. Not enough to can, but definitely enough for me to make a pot of sauce for one.
Now that's gratitude that's hip!

Here comes . . .

Reposted from August 5, 2011 http://hipurbanfarmer.myblogsite.com/entry25.html#body


HUF aka Melissa Jeter
Today, I picked my first tomatoes off the vine. Woo hoo!  I am grateful.

Right around this time of year, I am anxious about there being enough time to get those tomatoes off the plants. I really need to go back and look at how it started. I mean I start from seed. Most of what I grow I start from seed. The fact that it takes root and eventually produces fruit is a miracle on and of itself. Yet, there they were three beautiful roma tomatoes. Not enough to can, but definitely enough for me to make a pot of sauce for one.

Now that's gratitude that's hip!


two comments
Doesn’t the whole process make you feel like a magician? It was a seed and water and dirt and now it’s spaghetti sauce?
Linda (email) - 14 08 11 - 11:09
Yep, it does make me feel like a magician!
HUF (email) - 17 08 11 - 10:41