Help me find something please and garden update

[Guest guest]

After about twenty years of nagging, Carl is finally getting me the Excalibur

dehydrator I want. So now, rather than buying poorly dehydrated veggies for my

ramen soup, I can make my own from my veggie garden.

 

Yay. The down side is that plain ramen noodles cost more than the ones at the

grocery store with those ghastly little packets of MSG and stuff. I've been

trying to find a source online for naked ramen noodles in bulk but the computer

he borrowed for me while waiting for the Infernal Ones to send us our tax refund

is slower than one I ran Win 95 on (even on my dsl) and it can take over 5

minutes for one Google search to open. ACK! If it was winter, I could handle

this with patience but it is gardening time and time away from the veggie garden

is too painful to contemplate.

 

Soooooo does anyone know of a place to buy plain ramen noodles in bulk? I've

found Udon noodles but I really prefer the skinnier ramen. I also tried shirtake

(isn't mushroom, its made with a yam-ish veggie) but could not get past the

fishy smell, even after rinsing. Blech. The CATS wouldn't even eat them and

those of you who know my furballs know they eat everything from melon to beets

and being cats and refusing to touch something that smelled like rotten fish

guts left out in the sun (touch of exaggeration but not bloody much) is a little

odd.

 

Garden update: (why yes, I am a rabid gardener of heirloom veggies) My little

beets are the sweetest looking things! I absolutely adore the hair tin reddish

purpleish stems that came up first. This time I have refrained from eating the

entire flat of beet greens in a salad. (Not easy, really not easy)

 

My tomatoes are disappointing. The heirloom seeds haven't arrived yet so Carl

bought Better Boy hybrid seeds. YUK BLECH PTOOIE. After close to a month in

seedling mix, properly watered but not overly, play time in the sun and so on,

the leaves are about a quarter inch long. VERY disappointing, even for hybrids.

Its been a cold spring and I don't have bottom heat for them but these are about

the worst seedlings I have ever started in 50 ish years gardening.

 

My kitty litter bucket potatoes are doing beautifully. We generate 156 empty

kitty litter buckets a year and they are so useful around the house and garden.

Growing Yukon Golds. Love those potatoes.

 

Squash (summer) are doing well. I was delighted to find the old heirloom yellow

crookneck with warty skin seeds at Lowes, of all places. I'm ordering a lot of

various winter squash seeds from Baker Creek this weekend.

 

Growing Charentais melons (French cultivar, funky looking, tastes like what you

want canteloupe to taste like) and they are gorgeously leaved right now. Carl's

tilling the next garden block this weekend so they can stretch out. I want to

grow Ginger's Pride but Baker Creek has already sold out. You guys might really,

REALLY want to get them if you can find them. Sweet, HUGE 20 pound canteloupe.

Drats, I so wanted to grow them this year. (You can save seed from heirloom

cultivars and they reproduce true, so buy 1 package of seeds for a few bucks and

grow forever.)

 

Blue Lake green beans, Henderson bush limas and Fordhook are competing to see

who can grow the fastest. Blue Lake is winning. Have about 12 more cultivars of

beans and cowpeas coming - all Heirloom, op's, of course.

 

Purple hull pinkeye peas have surprised even me. Within 24 hours of putting them

into nicely moist soil they put out their little taprootish things. I can't wait

to eat them.

 

Haven't even got a quarter acre planted yet, but I usually end up putting in 2

acres worth. The older I get, the more I want a power tiller. My favorite spade

gained weight over the winter.

 

I've got some nice heirloom soy bean seeds coming for the garden. Mmmm, edamame.

 

For some strange reason I am craving some miso soup and lots of veggies. Must

resist the beets. Want beeeeets...no, no, leave the seedlings alone you

veggiecarnivore! I think I'd better go order some Lutz. They're great for greens

and I can give the deer the overgrown beets.

 

Hugs, Jeanne in GA

PS: go to www.rareseeds.com and order free catalog. Make you want to garden. All

heirloom, open pollinated seed, is Baker Creek Seed co.