thrawn21

joined 1 year ago
MODERATOR OF
[–] thrawn21@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

It's definitely a learning curve to start your plants from seed, but seeds can be gotten cheap and are easy to transport. I find beans/peas to be pretty easy to grow from seed, and their vertical growth means they don't take up too much space.

[–] thrawn21@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How lovely! I've gotten pretty good at growing vegetables, but flowers, not so much.

 

What's your go-to when feeling especially gluttonous?

[–] thrawn21@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

Poland has a variety of hardiness zones, which will determine how much longer you have in your growing season. I would suggest things like brassicas (which include kale and broccoli), as they can handle temperatures a bit below freezing. But keep in mind the size of your balcony, as they can get pretty big.

If you can buy seedlings of annual herbs like parsley, dill, basil, there's still time for a good harvest even in the colder areas of Poland. Do you have space where you can bring some pots inside?

[–] thrawn21@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

[Vegan] and [Vegetarian] are quick ones that come to mind. Maybe also like the region of the cuisine? i.e. [Chinese], [Peruvian], or maybe the type of meal [Breakfast], [Appetizer].

[–] thrawn21@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Ooooh them's fighting words. Have you tried a burger with a homegrown tomato? Pretty night and day, might just change your mind.

[Image description: a plate with a burger and sides. The burger is open and ready to be assembled, one bun has sauce and a slice of an heirloom tomato, the other has the patty, cheese, pickles and bacon.]

 

For me I say that a truck with a cab longer than its bed is not a truck, but an SUV with an overgrown bumper.

[–] thrawn21@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Desperately try to foist them on friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, passing dog walkers, the mailman... anybody who'd take some 😆

Beyond that, we'd eat tomato based meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and we canned dozens of pints of salsa and sauce (that we're still eating!).

 

Located in inland southern California, zone 9b.

[Image description: split image, the top photo is four tomatoes on a cutting board, the bottom photo is hundreds of multicolor heirloom tomatoes covering a kitchen counter.]

 

[Image description: a blue bowl with fettuccini pasta with meatballs in an orange sauce, topped with grated parmesan and diced sage.]

Rough recipe:

-Start your pasta (I used fettuccine) and broil your meatballs. I was lazy and used pre-cooked meatballs from Costco that just need a little browning.

-Saute thinly sliced shallots in oil until they started to brown, added in diced garlic, pepper, and some dried Italian seasoning blend.

-Once those cooked to golden, I pushed them to the edge of my pan. I'm using a pan that's really too big for the burner, but by moving where the heat is at, it allows me to keep the onion/garlic mixture warm without cooking further. A normal recipe would say remove from pan, but I'm lazy and don't want to clean the extra dish.

-On the hot side of the pan, add a bunch of oil and a small can of tomato paste. Fry the paste in the oil until the excess water is driven out. You'll know it's ready when you start seeing little brown caramelization patches as you stir the paste.

-Start adding splashes of vodka to the paste, stirring and adding until the mixture has cooled enough that the alcohol isn't immediately boiling off.

-Turn the heat down and add chopped fresh sage, oregano, thyme, and a little bit of rosemary, and mix back in the onion/garlic.

-Add a splash of heavy cream until it reaches the right shade of orange.

-Once your pasta is al dente, add it to the pan and mix into the sauce. Add ladles of the pasta water to loosen the sauce as needed.

-Add the meatballs and serve, topped with grated parmesan and diced sage.

 

I did some searching, and apparently he's a Five-spotted Hawkmoth, aka my garden nemesis, the tomato hornworm! Never knew those hornworms grew into these adorable giant moths.

[Image description: Large moth sitting on back of hand, covering about 1/3. Moth is fuzzy, with grey striping and prominent yellow spots running down its back.]

 

From left to right:

Uzbek Golden

Purple Dragon

Kyoto Red

Gniff

[Image description: Four brightly colored sliced carrots on a cutting board; being gold, purple with orange and green interior, red with interior rings of red and white, purple with purple and white radiating from center.]

 

Hi all, new here but loving things so far.

One thing that I'd love to see implemented (if possible), would be tags or flairs with which posts could be sorted. For example, the Nature and Gardening community could use ones like #photography, #plantid, #vegetablegarden, ect.

In @alyaza's recent post about new communities, @PascalPistachios made a comment to the effect that Beehaw is like a general home server, and other instances can get into more niche interests. I agree with the idea of Beehaw's curated communities (keeping from devolving into the 2k+ numbers I've seen on other instances), but I think a few sortable categories would help greatly as our communities grow.