Tag: freezer slaw

Most Visited Posts of 2018 on StephiGardens.com

Happy New Year!

Its always fun the end of the years to see what was the most interesting posts to my readers. Sometime it’s posts from previous years, sometimes this year. Here’s the top 10 most viewed posts in 2018:

 

Xylaria polymorpha Dead man's fingers
10. Dead Man’s Fingers  I have found these fungi off and on in my garden and still find them an odd curiosity. Xylaria polymorphs, or Dead Man’s Fingers, are very hard black knobs with a very tough white spore mass center. They tend to grow on hardwood stumps, decaying logs and even hardwood mulch. A common find in my garden, how about yours?

 

9. Interesting Plants Of Kauai  For a special anniversary a couple of years ago, we traveled to Kauai for a beautiful week on this exotic island. So much beauty in such a relaxing locale (Except for the chickens)

 

Christmas Tree
8.  2018 Stephi Gardens Holiday Gift Ideas This was my first foray into making holiday gift suggestions and it was a hit. I hope your holidays were wonderful and everyone got what they were hoping for! Look for another list next holiday season.

 

7.  Potatoes Part 1: Preparation and Planting The last few years I’ve been growing potatoes and chronicling my efforts. I’ve definitely had some years that are better than others, but it is an easy, fun and tasty backyard garden project.

 

6.  Creeping Thyme Update Based on the number of views I get on my creeping thyme posts every year, a lot of people must have problems with this ground cover. It is a great ground cover, but not maintenance free so does need a bit of attention every so often to stay healthy and lush.

 

5.  Fall Seed Gathering Means Beautiful Summer Zinnias  Ever since my friend Susan told me how she gets a gorgeous hedgerow of zinnias year after year, I’ve been excited to get my own zinnia and marigold beds laid down. It’s been so easy and such a huge payoff for minimal effort. What could be better!

 

4.  Pelicans in Illinois This post from September 2013 seems to always get a lot of traffic. I still read articles in the local papers about this mystery each fall. We’re used to pelicans in the south, but up north? Where are they going? Why has their migration route, back and forth from fresh water lakes in Canada and the North Central US to the southern US, Mexico and Central America, shifted east to the Illinois River? Not sure, but they’ve become a common site in the local rivers and lakes. 

 

Freezer Slaw
3. Freezer Slaw  My friend Kathy told me a few years ago about this fabulous recipe that her family has made for generations with the extra garden cabbage heads left in the fall. I’ve been making it ever since when the cabbage, green peppers and carrots all come into season. We too get to enjoy it now all winter!

 

Callicarpa
2.  Beautyberry Bush: Did It Survive The Winter My Beautyberry bushes haven’t had a lot of success, but they are still alive. I don’t think my yard is quite the right environment compared to their locations at the Morton Arboretum. It still puzzles me, and others based on the number of visits to this page from October 2013, how they pop up late each spring when I think they are dead. I’ve come to not pay attention to them, and each year they’ve come back  Patience is the word with Beautyberries in the northern climates.

 

Burning Bush
1. Curled Leaves on the Bushes  This post from August 2014 continues to be one the most visited posts I’ve written about. I still don’t know exactly what happened to my bushes, but it sure seems to be a common issue. Thankfully mine all survived, but I sure was worried.

 

Harvesting the Cabbage

This was my first attempt at growing cabbage.  I never had the space before, so with the new vegetables beds I thought I would give them a try.  I first tried to grow them from seeds, but with the weird spring we had, like a lot of of my in-ground seeds I planted originally they didn’t sprout.  Luckily, I happened upon some organic seedlings at the nursery and planted them.  That worked much better.

The head is forming!

cabbage
You can see that the leaves had a number of holes in them. I never saw any cabbage worms, or other specific cabbage pests, and instead decided this was probably slug damage.  I put down some organic Sluggo slug and snail bait and that stopped any further damage.

This one is a little small, but ready.  You can’t visually tell when it’s ready.  A cabbage head is ready when when you give it a squeeze, it feels firm like a baseball.

cabbage

I was able to break the head off the stem, but if it’s got a really thick stem, use a knife to cut it off.

cabbage

Like everything I had read, cabbage take a fair amount of space.  I think mine were a little too close together, or maybe a little too shady.  I got 4 heads of cabbage, but they are really different in size.  The largest is about the size of a softball, the smallest, a little bigger than a golf ball.

cabbage

They should have all been the same, but that’s the fun of growing your own.  It’s rarely perfect.

cabbage

I used my first ever cabbage harvest to make my friend Kathy’s Freezer Slaw.   I used my own homegrown green peppers, but I had to buy carrots.  Bad year for carrots, great year for peppers.

freezer slaw

Did you grow anything new this year?  How did it turn out?

 

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