Organic Granny

  And there are the windfalls that need to be sorted before the bunnies gather to dine. Apples, a popular fruit worldwide, are categorized in many ways from the sort of peel through whether they taste dry or wet, sweet or tart, their colors, their time of harvest, where they originated... and the list goes on. Some apples are wonderful for eating from the tree. Some apples are more memorable as perfect 'sauce apples' or 'cider apples,' meaning, quite frankly, that they are not tasty or crisp and crunchy or juicy enough to pass the high standards for an apple eaten out of hand. The apples that are currently falling on the ground in my yard are called Yellow Transparents. They are from Russia and have a very thin, almost transparent, peel. Local friends describe them as great juice and/or sauce apples. I bake with them, put them in smoothies, and have made soups and sauces with them. They taste and smell like apples to me, and that is the point... or, for me it is. If yo

  Such a surprise today to gently reach under the 6-inch layer of straw in our garden planter box and pull out a perfectly-shaped, flawless little potato! How did that happen? In the Spring when we were getting ready to plant our veggie garden, I brought out a plastic bag with 4 eye-laden spuds in it. Could we plant these? I asked my dear husband.   The punky potatoes in the bag were organic Yukon Golds that we would have eaten, had they not so quickly sprung eyes.  Besides being full of little white googlies, they were also a bit wizened up, not at all attractive as a possible dinner item. We thought about the idea for a couple of minutes and asked ourselves: What if the potatoes whack out and go really deep and have to be dug-- somehow-- out of the planter boxes? That could be an awkward and disabling experience for two old folks like us. So, back to the drawing board (in this case, the Internet), went I. I soon came across a youtube, about someone who had planted potatoes on the top