This does a pretty good job of explaining it. What Is Sorghum? And Why Is The South So Obsessed With It? | HuffPost Life
2 Likes
I was able to get some pictures of my garden as of yesterday.
Carrots to the bottom right, broccoli in the first bed to the left (will it ever head up?), lettuce behind them.
Napa cabbage. Hopefully they form full heads before they freeze. Arugula to the right.
This is my favorite. Braising greens and red Russian Kale. I hope to keep eating these into the winter and am going to try to overwinter them for next spring. I will use the floating row covers and a layer of plastic. Also to the left is spinach. There has been enough greens to make eggs with greens for breakfast for my wife and I, salads for lunch, and smoothies, and sometimes we even get a second salad for dinner.
6 Likes
All of your produce looks so healthy! Just like Mr. McGregor’s garden! Beautiful. Your family must love it. Are those heads of lettuce or cabbage?
Those are Napa cabbage. I had a terrible start to my brassicas this fall and lost about 50 broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and other cabbages. The Napa cabbage was the only cabbage to survive.
Thanks Mrs G.
1 Like
My garden is now a bare mudhole after the rain. Temps going down into the low 20s later this week, so I cut the growing cauliflower heads. Nice-looking. They would have been very good if they had time to mature, I can see.
2 Likes
Wow!
1 Like
Hi, Anne. Charlie Sharbel here in middle Tennessee. I noted your writing about curry leaves. I have a curry tree and would love to gift my wife with the usable harvest. Do you use olive oil to soak the leaves and use as an additive to curry dishes? What procedure do you use? I would appreciate your advice. Hope you’re have a great day.
From my notes (written out for my daughters-in-law)…
Processing curry leaf oil
Washing
Remove the branches from the bush or tree. Submerge these in a deep bowl with cold water and swirl to remove debris.Remove any floating debris first with a strainer. Then lift the curry leaves by hand to a strainer. If there is a lot of debris in the water, empty, fill with clean water and repeat the washing. Repeat until washing water is reasonably free of debris, then use a salad spinner to remove most of the water.
Partial drying
Spread newspapers out on the kitchen table and spread out the spun-dried curry leaf branches. Use the fan to continue to dry off the leaves.Oil extraction
When dried off (not dehydrated) strip the leaves from the branches and place in a suitably sized pot such that the leaves are not above the 2/3rds of the pot depth and press down as much as possible. Add enough olive oil to the pot to cover the leaves. Leave the pot uncovered.Turn the heat on low and bring the temperature up slowly to med low. Soon the leaves will begin to crackle and change from bright green to dull green. The leaves can be pressed down into the hot oil. Bruising the leaves is not necessary and adds debris to the oil. When the steaming and crackling has stopped (about 45 minutes to an hour) turn the heat off and allow to cool until safe to handle. With tongs, or wok skimmer, lift leaves to a strainer over a catch pot. Using a strainer on a funnel, bottle up the oil. Label. Keep extra bottles in frig.
2 Likes
I wonder if this process would not be best with avocado oil, which has a very high smoke point. It is mostly oleic acid, like olive oil, but lacks those impurities that make OO smoke at such low temps.
Perhaps. I use grapeseed oil for high temps like frying. But this is done medium to low and the stream that is coming up is not ‘smoke’ from the oil but rather from the moisture leaving the curry leaves - as steam. 
Whoops. Forgot to respond to this. I use the curry leaf oil in many things as a flavoring, much like one would use toasted sesame seed oil. I use it in my mayo and soup bases. My family loves that flavor in dips.
I’m still harvesting fall raspberries, mostly joan j and prelude. They are pretty good and I don’t have to worry about SWD with all the cold nights we’ve had.
7 Likes
That is so great. A few of my Caroline’s are still producing and my Kiwi Gold-is not only giving me ripe berries its producing new berries. They look really good!
1 Like
Yeah they do look good. I was able to gather a small bowl of raspberries over the weekend, but that looks like the end of them. Like you said, no SWD so they were firm and completely ripe.
1 Like
Mine are still flowering, and making new berries as well! I saw bumblebees buzzing about them on this warm day, but we’re going to have a hard frost this weekend that will end it by the looks of it.
1 Like
an Asbach Uralt slurpee 
2 Likes
Amazing isn’t it? We only had one little light frost this fall and thats it! Still in the fifties and forties here at night.
1 Like
I made our last batch of collards and kale tonight. My wife had picked them last weekend so they needed to get cooked and eaten. I think it would take several successive nights below zero with single digit day time highs to kill the things.
2 Likes
I got the last snap peas out of the fridge for a stir fry tonite. They were still surprisingly sound
2 Likes