On 11/27/04 9:23 AM, in article lK2qd.363134$nl.291275@pd7tw3no, "Dennis
Edward" wrote:

I'm a relative newbie at gardening, although enjoying it. I've bought (too)
many books, and had a couple of relatively successful years growing veggies
and such. However, though the books go into a lot of detail on how to grow
plants, their soil requirements, etc etc, they don't usually have a lot of
info on what to do with the produce (yeah, I know -- "eat it"). I'm thinking
of information on what parts of plants are edible (or poisonous), how you
process it, how you store it, etc.

Is there any online info that concentrates on this aspect of gardening? Or a
good book that someone can recommend?


My first question: What vegetables have you grown? I'm dying to know!
My second question: Do you have a freezer? If so, the manual that comes with
it will tell you how to freeze your extra vegetables.

My first suggestion: You may want to checkout a 'cooking'
newsgroup...alt.cooking-chat for example.

My first editorial: (off topic, sorry, but as you are relatively new, I feel
you may find this helpful for the long haul). Many books will encourage the
use of chemical fertilizers....chemical fertilizers don't nourish the soil
or feed worms...a chemical fertilizer feeds the plants and that is all. Feed
your worms (compost) and the soil becomes sustainable all on its own and
less waste goes to landfills.
Bill
PS: Isn't gardening fun! I love growing vegetables and I compost everything
in sight...well not quite, but I want to!

"bill" wrote in message
...
On 11/27/04 9:23 AM, in article lK2qd.363134$nl.291275@pd7tw3no, "Dennis
Edward" wrote:



My first question: What vegetables have you grown? I'm dying to know!
My second question: Do you have a freezer? If so, the manual that comes
with
it will tell you how to freeze your extra vegetables.

My first suggestion: You may want to checkout a 'cooking'
newsgroup...alt.cooking-chat for example.

My first editorial: (off topic, sorry, but as you are relatively new, I
feel
you may find this helpful for the long haul). Many books will encourage
the
use of chemical fertilizers....chemical fertilizers don't nourish the soil
or feed worms...a chemical fertilizer feeds the plants and that is all.
Feed

So far, what I've found is that I get far more compostable material than I
can keep up with, so I don't see a lot of need for chemical fertilizers.

Last year I grew tomatoes (does anyone not?), peppers, carrots, onions,
turnips, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and pumpkins. Some did very well,
some not so good. I didn't really have the time to plan and organize very
well, because I'm also renovating the house. Turnips were bitter, because I
grew them in hot weather. Cole crops

"Dennis Edward" wrote in message
news:Z4pqd.370174$nl.47354@pd7tw3no...
"bill" wrote in message
...
On 11/27/04 9:23 AM, in article lK2qd.363134$nl.291275@pd7tw3no, "Dennis
Edward" wrote:
turnips, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and pumpkins. Some did very well,
some not so good. I didn't really have the time to plan and organize very
well, because I'm also renovating the house. Turnips were bitter, because
I grew them in hot weather. Cole crops

My PC went "odd" while I was writing this. I thought it had dropped the
message. Apparently it sent it half-baked. Sorry. The next message is the
"complete" answer.

"Dennis Edward" wrote in message
news:Z4pqd.370174$nl.47354@pd7tw3no...
"bill" wrote in message
...
On 11/27/04 9:23 AM, in article lK2qd.363134$nl.291275@pd7tw3no, "Dennis
Edward" wrote:
turnips, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and pumpkins. Some did very well,
some not so good. I didn't really have the time to plan and organize very
well, because I'm also renovating the house. Turnips were bitter, because
I grew them in hot weather. Cole crops

My PC went "odd" while I was writing this. I thought it had dropped the
message. Apparently it sent it half-baked. Sorry. The next message is the
"complete" answer.

"bill" wrote in message
...
On 11/27/04 9:23 AM, in article lK2qd.363134$nl.291275@pd7tw3no, "Dennis
Edward" wrote:



My first question: What vegetables have you grown? I'm dying to know!
My second question: Do you have a freezer? If so, the manual that comes
with
it will tell you how to freeze your extra vegetables.

My first suggestion: You may want to checkout a 'cooking'
newsgroup...alt.cooking-chat for example.

My first editorial: (off topic, sorry, but as you are relatively new, I
feel
you may find this helpful for the long haul). Many books will encourage
the
use of chemical fertilizers....chemical fertilizers don't nourish the soil
or feed worms...a chemical fertilizer feeds the plants and that is all.
Feed

So far, what I've found is that I get far more compostable material than I
can keep up with, so I don't see a lot of need for chemical fertilizers.

Last year I grew tomatoes (does anyone not?), peppers, carrots, onions,
turnips, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and pumpkins. Some did very well,
some not so good. I didn't really have the time to plan and organize very
well, because I'm also renovating the house. Turnips were bitter, because I
grew them in hot weather. Cole crops

"bill" wrote in message
...
On 11/27/04 9:23 AM, in article lK2qd.363134$nl.291275@pd7tw3no, "Dennis
Edward" wrote:


My first question: What vegetables have you grown? I'm dying to know!
My second question: Do you have a freezer? If so, the manual that comes
with
it will tell you how to freeze your extra vegetables.

My first suggestion: You may want to checkout a 'cooking'
newsgroup...alt.cooking-chat for example.

My first editorial: (off topic, sorry, but as you are relatively new, I
feel
you may find this helpful for the long haul). Many books will encourage
the
use of chemical fertilizers....chemical fertilizers don't nourish the soil

I don't see any need for chemicals -- I've got far more compostable material
than I need. I grew the "usual" stuff: tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, carrots,
radishes, turnips, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cucumbers, etc. Unfortunately
I didn't have time to really organize myself for successive plantings and
such (I'm also renovating our house), so some of the stuff was grown in
inappropriate weather. In particular the turnips were too bitter to eat.

Regarding the advice given, thanks to everyone. However, I'm still uncertain
about some more "basic" questions. For instance, last year we grew a lot of
potatoes (oh, yeah - forgot to mention that). I lost a whole batch because I
left them out in the light and they turned green. Fortunately I knew not to
eat green potatoes, but I'm sure there are a lot of tidbits about how to
store or not store stuff that I don't know about. Also, what parts of plants
can or can't be eaten? You wouldn't necessarily know that you can eat beet
greens, but *not* rhubarb greens, for instance. What about stuff like turnip
greens?

Then there's the question of pantries. As I mentioned, I'm renovating.
Perfect time to build a pantry or vegetable cellar or some such. I assume it
should be dark inside. Air holes? Or air-tight?. Plastic lined? Build
against theconcrete foundation for coolness seems reasonable, but should I
line the concrete with plastic (or wood panel) or just leave it exposed?

Are things like carrots best kept in the fridge or in a pantry-type thing?
For how long? Ditto stuff like onions, potatoes, etc etc etc.

Maybe I didn't make it clear how clueless I am. Unfortunately, in the good
ol' days, we learned this stuff from our family. In our modern urban
Safeway-oriented society, most of this lore seems to be undocumented or at
least not obviously available. Thus my whining.

"Dennis Edward" wrote:

Are things like carrots best kept in the fridge or in a pantry-type thing?
For how long? Ditto stuff like onions, potatoes, etc etc etc.

I have read/heard that carrots keep longer in the fridge if you cut
off the top half inch or so of the carrots because that part is
alive and it will take nutrients from the rest of the carrot.

Potatoes will get sweet if you put them in the fridge.

I once tried to store garlic by putting the peeled cloves in
undiluted white vinegar in the fridge. Every one of them promptly
sprouted.

I found this file somewhe

Refrigerator

Apples, Apricots, Artichokes, Asparagus, Beans (Lima, Snap, Green,
Beets, Blackberries, Broccoli (remove from plastic bag), Brussel
Sprouts (remove from plastic bag), Cabbage, Cantaloupe, Carambola,
Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Cherries, Coconut, Corn, Cranberries,
Cucumbers, Dates, Eggplant, Endive, Escarole, Grapes, Greens
(Collard, Kale), Herbs (most types), Leeks, Lettuce, Melons (fresh
cut), Mushrooms (most varieties), Nectarines (ripe), Nuts, Okra,
Onions (Green, remove from plastic bag), Peaches (ripe), Peas
(green, snow), Peppers (bell, chili), Pineapple, Potatoes
(red,white), Radishes, Raspberries, Romaine Lettuce, Rutabagas,
Salad Mixes, Spinach

Room Temperature

Avocadoes (cold intolerent), Bananas (to ripen and store), Dried
Fruits, Garlic, Grapefruit, Honeydew, Kiwi (unripe), Lemons, Limes,
Mandarins, Mangoes, Melons (whole), Onions, Oranges, Papayas,
Peaches (unripe), Pears (unripe), Peppers (chili dried), Pineapple
(whole), Plums (unripe), Prunes (unripe), Potatoes, Pumpkins,
Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Watermelon

--
I am TERRIBLY cruel to my cat. I tease him with a vine tendril
until he either jumps up in the air to bat at it or zooms around
in a circle until he gets too dizzy to stand up. What is cruel about
it is that I don't do it nearly as much as he wants me to.

"Dennis Edward" wrote:

Are things like carrots best kept in the fridge or in a pantry-type thing?
For how long? Ditto stuff like onions, potatoes, etc etc etc.

I have read/heard that carrots keep longer in the fridge if you cut
off the top half inch or so of the carrots because that part is
alive and it will take nutrients from the rest of the carrot.

Potatoes will get sweet if you put them in the fridge.

I once tried to store garlic by putting the peeled cloves in
undiluted white vinegar in the fridge. Every one of them promptly
sprouted.

I found this file somewhe

Refrigerator

Apples, Apricots, Artichokes, Asparagus, Beans (Lima, Snap, Green,
Beets, Blackberries, Broccoli (remove from plastic bag), Brussel
Sprouts (remove from plastic bag), Cabbage, Cantaloupe, Carambola,
Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Cherries, Coconut, Corn, Cranberries,
Cucumbers, Dates, Eggplant, Endive, Escarole, Grapes, Greens
(Collard, Kale), Herbs (most types), Leeks, Lettuce, Melons (fresh
cut), Mushrooms (most varieties), Nectarines (ripe), Nuts, Okra,
Onions (Green, remove from plastic bag), Peaches (ripe), Peas
(green, snow), Peppers (bell, chili), Pineapple, Potatoes
(red,white), Radishes, Raspberries, Romaine Lettuce, Rutabagas,
Salad Mixes, Spinach

Room Temperature

Avocadoes (cold intolerent), Bananas (to ripen and store), Dried
Fruits, Garlic, Grapefruit, Honeydew, Kiwi (unripe), Lemons, Limes,
Mandarins, Mangoes, Melons (whole), Onions, Oranges, Papayas,
Peaches (unripe), Pears (unripe), Peppers (chili dried), Pineapple
(whole), Plums (unripe), Prunes (unripe), Potatoes, Pumpkins,
Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Watermelon

--
I am TERRIBLY cruel to my cat. I tease him with a vine tendril
until he either jumps up in the air to bat at it or zooms around
in a circle until he gets too dizzy to stand up. What is cruel about
it is that I don't do it nearly as much as he wants me to.

"bill" wrote in message
...
On 11/27/04 9:23 AM, in article lK2qd.363134$nl.291275@pd7tw3no, "Dennis
Edward" wrote:



My first question: What vegetables have you grown? I'm dying to know!
My second question: Do you have a freezer? If so, the manual that comes
with
it will tell you how to freeze your extra vegetables.

My first suggestion: You may want to checkout a 'cooking'
newsgroup...alt.cooking-chat for example.

My first editorial: (off topic, sorry, but as you are relatively new, I
feel
you may find this helpful for the long haul). Many books will encourage
the
use of chemical fertilizers....chemical fertilizers don't nourish the soil
or feed worms...a chemical fertilizer feeds the plants and that is all.
Feed

So far, what I've found is that I get far more compostable material than I
can keep up with, so I don't see a lot of need for chemical fertilizers.

Last year I grew tomatoes (does anyone not?), peppers, carrots, onions,
turnips, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and pumpkins. Some did very well,
some not so good. I didn't really have the time to plan and organize very
well, because I'm also renovating the house. Turnips were bitter, because I
grew them in hot weather. Cole crops