Monthly Archives: February 2008

Bill Finch on Pruning Persimmons

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 29, 2008
In today’s ??Press-Register??, Finch writes about “pruning persimmons for better yields”:http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/living/1204280147205250.xml&coll=3, and to keep the fruit within reach. Slow Food USA entry on the “American Persimmon”:http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/american_persimmon.html Check the “National Center for Home Food Preservation”:http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/search.html for advice on freezing and drying persimmons. Do you grow or eat persimmons? How do you like to use them?
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Kitchen Gardens

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 25, 2008
From the Slow Food Blog, a brief “article on kitchen gardens”:http://www.slowfoodblog.org/?p=183, and a link to “Kitchen Gardeners International”:http://www.kitchengardeners.org/, which I’ll add to the External Links. bq. According to USDA statistics, today we buy more than 99 percent of the food we eat, and the percentage of home-grown food continues to decline. And yet backyard gardens [...]
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Bill Finch on Pruning Peaches and Plums

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 22, 2008
In today’s ??Press-Register??, Finch writes about “pruning peaches and plums for better yields”:http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/living/120367532677290.xml&coll=3. He also writes bq. The University of Massachusetts Fruit Program offers a good video primer on pruning peaches. Check it out at “www.umass.edu/fruitadvisor/video/peachpruning/index.html”:http://www.umass.edu/fruitadvisor/video/peachpruning/index.html
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Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 21, 2008
Michael Pollan’s latest book, ??In Defense of Food??, and it’s accompanying mantra “Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants” is all over the media these days, thanks to the success of his previous book ??The Omnivore’s Dilemma??. NPR has a “succinct overview of the book’s principles”:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17725932, along with an excerpt from the book and an [...]
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How This Blog Works

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 15, 2008
PUBLICIZE IT! “Download a flier to display or distribute”:http://gulfcoastlocalfood.org/promotional_flier.pdf. CONTENT The subject of this blog is local food in the Gulf Coast region centering around Mobile Alabama, stretching from Mississippi on the west to the Florida panhandle on the east. To get a sense of the topics covered, check the Categories list on the right [...]
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The Heady Scent of Lemon Blossoms

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 14, 2008
Our containerized Meyer Lemon, inside for the winter, is in bloom, and the sweet fragrance of citrus blossoms fills our bedroom. Last year we had two lemons from the tree, though it had probably about 50 flowers. Our young daughter wouldn’t leave the tree alone and kept plucking off the blooms, and later, the young [...]
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Think Globally; Become a Locavore

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 13, 2008
I was pleased to see a story on the “locavore movement in today’s Press-Register”:http://www.al.com/living/press-register/index.ssf?/base/living/120289779256970.xml&coll=3&thispage=1. As I found at the “Deep South Fruit & Vegetable Growers conference”:http://gulfcoastlocalfood.org/2007/12/deep-south-fruit-and-vegetable.html, there is interest in locally-produced food, but not enough producers to meet the demand. In the article, Jim Todd of the local extension office says that farmers with small [...]
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Locavore Nation

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 12, 2008
I added “Locavore Nation”:http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/locavore_nation/ to the External Links. It’s the Splendid Table’s blog that came out of their “Sustainability Survey”:http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/about/sustainability_results.shtml, and follows the efforts of 15 people around the country to eat locally for a year. The closest participant is in Ashland, MS, about 300 miles from Mobile. “The Splendid Table”:http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/, a wonderful public radio [...]
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Spring in Swing

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 11, 2008
Though I’m hedging my bets on the last frost, the warm weather we’ve enjoyed lately has gotten the trees blooming and the perennials sending up shoots. My potatoes will be in the ground this week, as will my other usual spring vegetables: peas, lettuce, chard, and for the first time, arugula. My broccoli, lettuce, and [...]
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Bill Finch on soil improvements

By Ang Jordan | Published: February 1, 2008
In today’s Garden section of the Press-Register, Bill Finch gives the scoop on his favorite all-purpose soil amendment: “leaves”:http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/living/1201860993300450.xml&coll=3. My only addition is that if you have, as we do, plentiful oak leaves which are slow to break down, it helps to mulch them with the mower. MORE: “Is Betty Cracker Soil Mix Really Complete?”:http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/living/1201860969300450.xml&coll=3 [...]
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