It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:
Hi Mavis, I live in Oregon in the Willamette Valley. I am not a farmer but I am surrounded by farms growing very delicious foods. Being inspired by your blog, I decided to freeze some of this wonderful produce (I’m not brave enough yet to try my hand at canning). This summer, I shredded lots of zucchini, put it in ziplocked quart bags (I double bagged each one) and laid them flat in the freezer. This week I took the first bag out to make zucchini pancakes. I put the bag in the refrigerator overnight to defrost. The next day when I went to use the zucchini, the bag was about 1/4 full of water and the zucchini was all wet and drippy. Is this normal? Or did I do something wrong.
~ Jeannine
It’s completely normal! Frozen zucchini has to be drained before you can use it (you also should have drained it before freezing, so if you didn’t you’ll have even more water.
Check out my post on How to Freeze Zucchini). I set mine in a strainer and leave it there for about 5 minutes. Then I take paper towels and press the zucchini into the strainer to remove more of the access water. It might look different and have a different texture, but it will taste the same!
Mavis, I love your blog! It’s in my top 5. However, is there anyway you can make your recipes printer friendly? That would be so awesome!
~Mandy
I made a Top 5 list. I’m honored!! As far as the printer friendly recipes, there is a green PRINT tab at the bottom of each post. You can chose to print as a PDF, or remove the images in the recipe to make it more printer friendly.
Or you go old school and copy and paste it into a Word doc. Not simple and I know it’s an extra step, but it will cut down on wasted ink.
Hey Mavis! I am wondering if you’ve done an article comparing the various garden methods you’ve used. I’m just west of Atlanta and I currently have a ‘by the book’ square foot garden but it’s not working out for me. The drainage is great for when we have two straight weeks of downpour, but it just requires so much watering when we have two weeks of all sun and no rain. I’m considering lasagna gardening. What do you think?
~Amy
I’ve never done a comparison because the various garden types all work fairly well in my climate, I just prefer some more than others {note to self: do post comparing gardening methods}. Based on what you’ve said, I think a lasagna garden will work great. It produces some seriously awesome soil!! If you’re looking for tips, you can read my post on How to Make a Lasagna Garden. Let us know if you do decide to do it, how it works for you.
Hi Mavis, I just wanted to say thank you for your great website. I have been reading/following it for sometime now. Recently it really has been a great help to me. We are doing extensive renovations on our 1840 New England home and had to move out into a small temporary housing situation. Its been a little stressful but my daily reprieve is when I get to sit down with a coffee and read your posts! Thanks for the great job you do!
~Sincerely, Jenn
Thanks so much for the praise. I’m glad I can distract you for a few minutes a day. I know how stressful and crazy renovations can be. We’ve certainly had our fair share of them lately. As a side note, I realize it’s probably nowhere near accurate, but this is what I picture your 1840s New England home to look like. So I’m visualizing you sitting there when all the renos are over, sipping your tea!
Mavis, I’m a newlywed just getting into cooking. I’ve never cooked so much as eggs before but I really want to learn. I have a friend who is always raving about your recipes so I figured you obviously have great taste in recipes. Do you have any favorite cookbooks? I’ve just been using the internet to find some, but I think if I had a physical book it might help me on this journey.
Thanks!
Carly
Carly, you’re in luck. I DO have some favorite cookbooks. I love love love cookbooks. Something about having the actual book to thumb through and the pictures to look at really helps. I think it will jump start your cooking passion. It sure did mine. I did an entire post on My 10 Favorite Cookbooks and why I love them. Hope that helps you and good luck. Cooking is rad. ps. Congrats on getting hitched. That’s pretty rad, too!
Have a question for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.
~Mavis
Erin says
I think I can help Amy with her SFG vs lasagna gardening problem. I live even further south and have done a by the book SFG and can relate to the water issues. I had an awesome SFG experience in winter and early spring but then I was watering heavily twice a day to keep up with rising temperatures. To compensate I have learned over the last couple years to increase the compost in the recipe to two or three times what is recommended to improve water retention and to make the beds 12″-18″ deep instead of 6″. Placing the garden where it can get some shade at some point during the day is also helpful. And mulch mulch mulch. I like grass clippings cuz I have them in abundance and they form a nice thick mat that the sun doesn’t penetrate easily to dry out the soil.
Lasagna gardening is great and would also work because the layers recommended create a deeper bed and have a higher organic matter content. But it isn’t necessary to chuck all that expensive soil you’ve created for your SFG. I’d personally just add at least 6″-12″ to your gardens height then fill it the rest of the way with compost and mix it in.
Hope that helps!
Erin from zone 9b