June Garden Report

Dieting page 1 of 2

Dieting Page 2 of 2

The Nuts, They are a Falling!

It's not that I have anything against ACORNites, I'm sure they are a class act! No, It's these other nuts I'm worried about. You know, the ones I'm voting out of office next year!

Is it Too Soon for Peppers?

OK. It’s only mid March here in southwest Missouri. The outside temperatures are doing wild gyrations up and down that are indicative of the approach of spring. Just this morning a brief but strong squall line of storms made a quick passage west to east and I saw the outdoor thermometer go from 72F at 9AM to 67F in just fifteen minutes. Tonight, the weather service is predicting a cool down to 40F or so. Not your typical pepper growing weather, for sure. However, seeing as how I will be keep my plants indoors for at least a month. I figured why not! The little plant pictured here is one of five the germinated a week or so ago and came from a packet called Big Dipper. The seed company is Burpee and I’ve always had good germination results with them.

Very shortly, I will be making a trip to the lumber yard here in town to purchase a few 2x6 boards in preparation for the building of another raised bed. This will be my third one in the back yard and will increase my growing space by another 32 square feet. I also plan to use a more custom soil mix containing peat moss, compost and vermiculite that will be separated from the ground by a weed barrier. (I’m doing my best to try and keep the local crabgrass from getting all the nutrients out of the soil). Once established, I hope too plant a wide variety of vegetables including romaine, peppers, radish and beans. I will try and videotape this from start and on into the growing season. It will appear on my You Tube page at DanoManno. Anyway, wish me luck.

River Run Park Post Flood Report

I just finished a short You Tube piece (River Run Park Post Flood) on a local park that had been flooded for most of last year. It’s called River Run, I think and is run by the Core of Engineers here in southwest Missouri. The heavy rains we had last spring and summer contributed to the rise in what is a flood basin, so I shouldn’t be too surprised. I have lived in the Forsyth area since 1992 and have seen numerous times when the Bull Shoals River has risen out of its banks. This was the first time, however, that the flooding was so persistent. In years past the water generally receded after a month or so. That was not the case this time and I fear that the damage will be much more pronounced. For one thing, many of the trees that line the water way now have big red X’s on them. To me that means they must be removed. If true, there will not be many trees left come summertime when campers will be looking for some shade from the heat. As if that was not bad enough, the ground has an even quarter to half inch of much that was deposited evenly over every surface. This stuff has dried into a hard adobe like substance that looks to be impervious to growing blades of grass. River Run has always been a great place to camp and it is my hope it will be again.

Low Sodium Stuffed Bell Peppers

While waiting for spring gardening activities to begin, I came up with this recipe. I needed something that would be relatively low in calories, low in cholesterol and low in sodium. Instead of salt, I used so-called fake salt (potassium chloride) for the seasoning. I then only eat one half of each pepper at meal time. The result was much better than I expected.

Ingredients:

2 bell peppers, seeded & tops removed
1/3 lb ground beef, browned & drained
3 tbsp onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1/3 cup rice
1 slice of American cheese

Directions:

Make up the rice according to package directions. Blanch peppers in hot boiling water for about 5 minutes. Combine the hamburger and onion, brown in a pan over medium heat and drain off any excess fat. Add the rice and garlic. Mix a little then add about half the can of tomato sauce and mix well. Add this mixture to the bell peppers. Overfill the cavity slightly. Place these in the crock pot that has been set to low. Add the rest of the tomato sauce.

Cover and cook on low for about 3 hours. Cut the American cheese into four strips and make X’s over each bell pepper. Re-cover and cook for another 15 minutes or nuke briefly in the microwave.