My good friend Pam at PurrfectPlay has teamed up with three other green-friendly businesses to offer a school fund raising option called EcoSimpleFundraising. They offer environmentally-friendly sustainable products you will love integrating into your everyday life.

If you are looking for a unique fund raising option please visit EcoSimpleFundraising today!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

EcoSimpleFundraising Offers Green School Fund Raising

About a week ago I ran a red light downtown while picking up my brother. This wasn’t a case of it being a close call or anything like that – I sailed through a light that had probably been solid red for a minute! I had no idea it happened until my brother shrieked, “RED LIGHT!” at the top of his lungs as I sailed through the intersection without looking.

The story gets better. I had borrowed my mother’s brand-new Jeep for the trip downtown. The Jeep has something like 600 miles on it – literally brand-spanking-new and boy is she proud of it! That Jeep almost gets treated better than I did when I was a child!

Now, my poor driving is legendary in my family. It started with an accident and a couple speeding tickets when I was younger. To this day when we go somewhere as a family everyone volunteers to drive just so I won’t.

For the past several months I’ve been lobbying hard to convince them that I’m a better driver now. It is true – I don’t speed, don’t take risks and drive defensively like they teach you at driving school. There have been no tickets or incidents of any kind for the past decade or so.

So you can understand if I tried to forget the incident ever happened. My brother might have nightmares for years, but I’m fine with it. Nobody was hurt, the Jeep is good as new and life goes on.

Today I got a phone call from Mom, and she was laughing so hard she was crying.

“Hey Speed Racer, I just saw the funniest video I have ever seen in my life!” she exclaimed.

Speed Racer?!? What is that all about?

“What is in the video?” I asked even though I had a sneaking suspicion where the call was headed.

“I got this letter in the mail from the city that referred me to their website. I just watched my brand-new Jeep go flying through a red light downtown without even pausing. At the end it even zoomed in on my license plate. It was hysterical!”

My face turned red. No point in trying to hide it. “I guess I missed that light when I borrowed the Jeep last week,” I explained sheepishly. “So how much is this costing me?”

At this point I think Mom was watching the video again because she could barely talk through sobs of laughter. “The ticket was $95. No points or anything.”

Sigh. “I’ll be over this week to pick up the paperwork so I can pay it. I’m really sorry.”

More laughing. “I already paid it online,” she said, “We’ll settle up later Speed Racer – it was worth $95 to see your ‘excellent’ driving skills in action!”

Running a red light is no joke, but apparently being filmed doing so in a borrowed Jeep is!

I won’t live this down for years…

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

The Entertainment Value of Running a Red Light

Winner’s List:

AmandaSue from Mosinee, WI

Congrats AmandsSue!  Thank you for your interest in Meadowwood Garden and Wanchai Ferry.

Sometimes I crave Chinese food, but where I live there isn’t a place to get it nearby.  When the opportunity came along to try out these Wanchai Ferry frozen entrees I was like, “Sign me up!”  I’m glad I did too, because now I know how to satisfy that craving whenever it hits.

Each Wanchai Ferry frozen entrée has all the ingredients needed to prepare a great-tasting, complete Chinese meal for 2 in only 14 minutes! They come in five delicious flavors including Orange Chicken, Shrimp Lo Mein, Spicy Garlic Chicken, Sweet & Sour Chicken and Sweet & Spicy Shrimp. Additionally, all of the entrees have no added MSG!

I received the Orange Chicken flavor to try.  The instructions were easy to follow and in less than 15 minutes I was eating a rather tasty meal!  Keep in mind that I am the world’s worst cook, so if the meal turned out OK for me it certainly will for anyone else!

If you want to try Wanchai Ferry yourself there is a $1.50 off coupon available at www.wanchaiferry.com! For meal tips to enhance your Wanchai Ferry frozen entrée check out their website at: http://www.wanchaiferry.com/MealTips.aspx.

Contest Details:

The folks at Wanchai Ferry are giving one lucky Meadowwood Garden reader the opportunity to receive the “Stay at Home” prize pack pictured at the top of this post.  It includes two coupons and some great Asian inspired rice bowls, chopsticks and bamboo placemats.

Here is how to win your Wanchai Ferry Prize package:

1. Leave a comment below answering the question: What Wanchai Ferry flavor will you try if you win? (Flavors are listed above.)
2. Deadline for comments is midnight eastern time Monday, September 7.  US Residents 18 years or older only please.  One entry per person.  Void where prohibited.
3. On September 8 I will draw one random winner from all eligible comments.  Winner will be notified by email and will have 72 hours to reply with a shipping address and consent to post their first name, city and state.
4. Once the winner is verified and has provided the requested info I will post their name to the top of this post.

Good luck everyone!

Note: This is a sponsored post.  Wanchai Ferry provided the information, samples and prize package.  Thank you Wanchai Ferry!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Win a Wanchai Ferry Prize Package!

Winner’s List:

Molly from Citrus Heights, CA

Braden from Phoenix, AZ

Congrats to the winners!  Thank you for your interest in Meadowwood Garden and Yoplait.

Looking for a frozen treat idea that won’t slow you down?  Surprisingly, the delicious taste of Yoplait Whips! can also be enjoyed as a frozen treat! Simply place your favorite Whips! yogurt cup in the freezer overnight and you will have a chilled yogurt indulgence that you don’t have to get from the ice-cream truck or at the parlor So this summer, before you hit the beach, park or your own backyard, don’t forget to stock your freezer with Yoplait Whips! (We suggest removing the Yoplait Whips! from the freezer for 5-10 minutes before enjoying).

Yoplait Whips! are currently available in a variety of delectable flavors Strawberry Mist, Chocolate, Key Lime Pie, Orange Crème, Chocolate Raspberry, Lemon Burst, Peaches ‘N Cream and Raspberry Mousse. Also, try Yoplait Whips! newest flavor Vanilla Creme which just hit store shelves!

Ever since I stopped eating ice cream I’ve been looking for a substitute.  I tried out frozen Yoplait Whips! and immediately had one of those, “Why didn’t I think of this before?” moments!  I like the simplicity of it and the controlled portion size.  In fact, there is a frozen Raspberry Mousse Yoplait Whips! in the freezer that will be my reward for finishing up this post!

Want to try Yoplait Whips! yourself?  Here is a coupon to save $0.60 when you purchase three cups of any Yoplait Whips! Flavor: Click here to download.

Contest Details:

The fine folks at Yoplait have generously offered to send the gift bag pictured at the top of this post to two lucky readers of Meadowwood Garden!  Here is how to win your own Yoplait Whips! gift bag:

1. Leave a comment below answering the question: What is your favorite Yoplait Whips! flavor? (Hint: flavors are listed above.)
2. Deadline for comments is Sunday, August 30.  US Residents only please.  One Entry per person.
3. On August 31 I will draw two random winners from all eligible comments.  Winners will be notified by email and will have 72 hours to reply with a shipping address and consent to post their first name, city and state.
4. Once both winners are verified and have provided the requested info I will post the winner’s names to the top of this post.

Good luck everyone!

Note: This is a sponsored post.  Yoplait provided the information, samples and gift bags.  The review is mine – and yes, there really is a Yoplait Whips! in my freezer!  Thank you Yoplait!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Win a Yoplait Whips! Gift Bag!

Just a quick heads-up: over time you should notice a slight shift in the topics I write about here at Meadowwood Garden.  I’ll still be writing about gardening, both how-to and how-not-to!  I will continue to share recipes and stories about Zoe and the rest of my crazy life in the country.  That part isn’t changing.

I’ve decided to broaden the topic list a bit to further show my (and I hope your) interests.  I may post about saving money on groceries, or some incredible coupon deals I come across.  Product reviews, both sponsored and not, are in the works.  This whole green movement interests me, so I’d like to explore ways we can “go green” easily.  Nutrition and healthy living is a topic that ties in well with gardening, so expect to see those areas explored.

The best way to describe the change is that I want to focus more on the “Meadowwood” and keep the “Garden” part roughly the same.  Hopefully these changes will make Meadowwood Garden an even more valuable information source on a variety of topics!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

A Brief Editorial Note

I’m thrilled beyond words to present this guest post by Nancy J. Ondra.  Nan is a freelance garden writer with many books to her credit (see box at upper-right).  She gardens on several acres at home and works as a horticulturist and propagator at Linden Hill Gardens in Ottsville, Pennsylvania.  In her spare time Nan writes her own blog at Hayefield and is a contributor to Gardening Gone Wild.

When Brian asked me to write a guest post months ago, I was at a bit of a loss to pick a topic. I mostly grow ornamentals, after all, with an assortment of basic fruits, veggies, and herbs. But I do try to grow a few odd edibles each year, and when one of my co-bloggers at Gardening Gone Wild wrote about Luther Burbank’s garden, it reminded me that I hadn’t yet written about one of this year’s experiments: sunberry or wonderberry.

Trying to untangle the origin of this plant is a real challenge. Similar plants are available under a variety of botanical names, including Solanum x burbankii, S. burbankii, S. retroflexum, and S. melanocerasum, as well as several common names, including garden huckleberry as well as sunberry and wonderberry, Many gardeners who have grown the plant report being disappointed with the lack of flavor, especially if they grew it from seeds sold as S. melanocerasum. I acquired the seeds I grew this spring from Seed Savers Exchange (SSE Sunberry Page) under the names sunberry and S. burbankii. So I guess it would be safest to say that my observations apply only to plants from SSE seeds; who knows what you’ll get if you order it elsewhere!

I sowed the seeds indoors in late March, under lights and on a heat mat. They germinated and grew quickly, and they began flowering when they were just a few inches tall, while still in pots. I planted them outside in late May. At this point (almost mid-August), they’re about 18 inches tall.

Wonderberry Plant

Despite leaf damage from flea beetles, they’ve been flowering freely for almost three months now. The white flowers are small and not especially showy.

Wonderberry Flowers

They certainly do fruit abundantly, though. The fruits stay green for quite a while, then quickly turn a dull, near-black color. The calyx of the fully ripe berries is yellow to brown.

Ripening Wonderberry Fruits

Sunberries are very easy to pick: you just tickle the clusters with your fingers, and the ripe berries drop right off into your hand.

Picking Ripe Wonderberry Fruits

I’d read that some people liken the flavor of the pea-sized fruits to that of blueberries. I find them to be mild and pleasant, if a bit seedy, and I enjoy snacking on a handful every few days, but I wouldn’t say that there’s any flavor similarity to blueberries. A few weeks ago, I tried some on a co-worker and asked her what she thought they tasted like; she immediately said kiwi fruit, and I think that’s a good description. I’ve seen reports that the fruits freeze well, and that they are good for preserves and pies combined with lots of sugar. I’m not much of a cook, so I haven’t tried any of those uses. But I do think they’re tasty used fresh in fruit salads.

Would I grow them again? I’m not sure I’d buy and start the seeds, but I’m guessing that the plants are going to self-sow freely, and I’ll be happy to have them next year. Honestly, I’d much rather eat the raspberries and blackberries that are also ripening now, but once I share those sweeter fruits with the yellow jackets and the birds and my alpacas, there usually aren’t many left for me. With my sunberries, I never have to wonder if I’m going to get a snack for myself!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

A Wonder of a Berry

I think we can all agree that fresh tomatoes are incredible, so much so that growing tomatoes is probably the best argument I know for starting a home garden.  The problem is, fresh tomatoes only last a couple months and then what do you do for decent tomato taste?

For year-round tomato goodness I think sun-dried tomatoes are hard to beat.  They add intense flavor to dishes and store for a long time.  They are expensive in the store, but are cheap to make yourself.  Plus, you won’t believe how easy they are to make – check it out!

To make homemade sun-dried tomatoes (actually oven-dried, just don’t tell the tomato police) you need a cookie sheet, an oven and some paste tomatoes.  Any tomatoes will work, but paste tomatoes like Roma are best because they have more “meat” and less seeds.  It helps a lot if all of the tomatoes are the same size so they dry at the same rate.

Part of the first Roma harvest. Try to use tomatoes of the same size so they are dry at the same time.

Remove the stems and cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise.  You can scoop out the seeds if you want, but I don’t and they turn out fine.  Place the tomatoes on the cookie sheet with the cut side up.  That is it!  You can add some salt or a little olive oil if you like, but neither is necessary.

Sliced up and ready to dry. I sprinkled a little salt on them even though it isn't strictly necessary.

The rule-of-thumb for drying tomatoes is “low and slow.”  Place the tomatoes in the oven and set it to 200 degrees, less is good if your oven can go lower (I dry mine at 190).

Now you wait.  And wait.  And wait some more.  The drying process can take 8-12 hours and possibly more depending on your oven and temperature setting.  Don’t try to speed things up by setting the temperature higher – the trick is to evaporate the moisture to concentrate the flavor in the tomatoes without really cooking them.  If time is a concern dry them overnight as you sleep.

The tomatoes are done when they have a pliable leathery texture like a dried apricot or a raisin.  There is a bit of a delicate balance here — too dry and they crumble (as noted below), not dry enough and they are more apt to spoil in storage.  Store your homemade sun-dried tomatoes in the refrigerator in glass jars or plastic bags, or freeze them for longer storage.

All dried out and ready to store. Note the darker ones in the upper-right are so dry they crumbled. Read the post for a nifty trick to save them!

Want even more tomato-tasting goodness?  Pack a glass jar with your homemade sun-dried tomatoes, fill it with olive oil and refrigerate for a couple weeks.  You get the double-whammy of tomato-flavored olive oil to cook with AND you still get to use the tomatoes!  Definitely a win-win.

The only “trick” to this process is to make sure you catch the tomatoes before they dry too much.  I know this from experience – the dark red dried tomatoes in the upper right of the last photo are so dry they crumbled in my hand!  Yeah, I tried to sneak in a couple small ones to finish out the sheet and you see what happened!

IF this happens to you all is not lost.  I threw all of the really dry ones in the bag with the rest.  After about 3 or 4 days they had picked up moisture from the other tomatoes and had softened up enough to use!

One of my biggest gardening goals this year was to learn how to make homemade sun-dried tomatoes – I actually planted Roma tomatoes just for this.  I’m on my third batch already and the tomatoes keep coming and I keep cutting and drying.  I don’t mind at all – come winter I’ll be savoring homemade sun-dried tomato goodness as I dream about next year’s garden and projects.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Easy Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes

This recipe comes from my wonderful Mother — it is so darn good I stole it from her!  Every summer we all look forward to the first time she makes this.  All credit goes to her for this recipe, not me.

If you have an abundance of zucchini or any other summer squash and are looking for ideas to use it all up here is my suggestion:  Zucchini Casserole a la Meadowwood Garden!  It is easy to make, delicious, flexible and inexpensive.  This is absolutely my favorite zucchini dish – I like it so much I am eating it several times a week at the moment!

Ingredients:

• Zucchini (Yellow Squash works too!)
• Stewed Tomato – 1 can
• Butter or Substitute
• Cheese – 1 cup shredded

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Slice the zucchini 1/4 inch thick.  Layer the zucchini slices in the bottom of a casserole dish until they fill it about halfway.  Add contents of stewed tomato can – juice and all!  Throw some butter or substitute on top – maybe 3-4 pats.  Season to taste – I like Italian Seasoning and a little salt and pepper.  Spread about a cup of your favorite shredded cheese on top.  Cover and bake for 45 minutes or until done.

As with many of my recipes, exact measures, ingredients and times aren’t necessary.  The possibilities are just about endless – you can add just about any fresh vegetable from the garden and substitute anything you like.  Diced fresh tomatoes work well, just make sure you add a little liquid to steam the zucchini.  I add sun-dried tomatoes to boost the tomato flavor and it tastes great!

Try to keep the slices uniform and about 1/4 inch thick.

I use Italian Seasoning mix and some salt and pepper and don't hold back!

Everything is in and we are ready for the cheese! Note the sun-dried tomatoes on top of the butter pats.

All done and ready to cover and bake. This time I used Mozzarella cheese because it was already opened. Any cheese will do!

Ready to eat!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

World’s Best Zucchini Casserole

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Carnival of Homesteading No Theme Edition – August 3, 2009

Yesterday I came across a post by Susan Harris at Garden Rant titled You don’t have to hike into the wilderness to experience nature. Just garden. She writes about a column in yesterday’s New York Times titled How to Lick a Slug.  In it the columnist laments about how nature is not as much a part of our lives as it used to be, and he urges us to change that.  Please follow the link and read it yourself — it is a good read.

I agree in general with the premise of the NYT column.  My exception to it is that the columnist makes it seem like the only way to experience nature is to go to a national park or out in the woods on a trail somewhere.  Yes, that is certainly one way to get out and experience nature, but the reality is that nature is a lot closer to all of us than we realize.

I like Susan’s point about gardening to experience nature.  So true.  I’ve always felt more people should garden, but doing that requires an investment of time and effort that a lot of people aren’t willing to make.

After giving it some thought I decided to leave a comment about the column on the columnist’s blog.  This sums up my feelings on the subject pretty well:

You write as if nature is something you need to gear up for and seek out. In reality, nature is everywhere around you already!

For many people nature is as close as outside their own back door! The average suburban yard is FULL of natural things to be discovered and appreciated. Don’t have a yard? The park down the street will suffice.

Planting a garden, or even a handful of flowers will bring nature to you. A container of flowers on my deck attracts bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and all sorts of other interesting things. Have you ever had a hummingbird hover inches from your head while you were mere feet from your back door? I have, and THAT is an amazing experience one doesn’t easily forget!

So while I applaud your overall message, I hope people realize that getting out into nature doesn’t require planning and a trip in the family car. Nature really is all around you, just slow down and look close and you will find it.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Nature is Everywhere