Good morning everyone. I hope everyone is doing ok today. My name is
Alex Sanders and I am an AmeriCorps VISTA at Project Worth Outreach
in Menifee County, Kentucky. I have asked our participants to write a
short statement that I could post on this blog. Below you will find the
first of many, I hope. Also after the statement you will find this week's
recipe.
Hi. My name is Mary Wallace, my husband and I have gardened most of
our lives butthis is the first time to try container gardening or organic
gardening. I must say I havenot had to battle weeds this year like I usually
do and my plants are thriving. Of course Ido not have long seemingly
unending rows of vegetables to tend either. I do still canquite a bit of my
garden and also freeze lots of things. However in the last couple of years
I have become interested in dehydrating. At first I just did herbs. Then after
a winter we we had several electrical outages I began research on
dehydrating vegetables. I have been enjoying doing some experimenting.
I now have corn, peas, mixed vegetables, green beans, carrots, squash,
potatoes, tomatoes, celery, cabbage, peppers and mint for tea. Last year
my nephew and 2 other men went to Haiti on theirannual trip to provide
help to one of the churches. They had mentioned how much they missed
having familiar foods while they were there. I offered to send them a bag
of dehydrated vegetables and seasonings for vegetable soup. I told them
when you gettired of local food fix a pot of soup. When they returned I
asked them how the soupturned out and he said great they ate on it for two
days. I then asked when did you fix it? He replied the first day we were
there, the guys were so curious about the driedsoup they could not wait!!!
So I guess my experiment was a success. I like the idea of having
something that will not ruin if the electric goes out and will last a long time.
Of course there are ways to prepare food before dehydrating and if you are
interested intrying that I may talk about that next time or you can find lots
of sites on the internet. I hope everyone is enjoying this years gardening
with Grow Appalachia as much as I am.
Skillet Cabbage
Brown 1/2 half lb of country sausage {like you do hamburger for spaghetti}
When browned add 1 medium green pepper {chopped}
1 medium onion {chopped}
1/2 cup chopped celery
Cook for about 5 minutes {slowly}
Add one medium head of sliced cabbage
Cook on medium heat until cabbage is soft or crunchy as you like it
Add one chopped tomato and cook for 5 more minutes
Salt and pepper to taste
This is good with mexican cornbread.
Makes a large skillet full.
My family loves this. It is a meal in it's self.
Mary Wallace
Note: I submit these recipes as they are given to me. Please feel free to
substitute healthy ingredients whenever possible.
On a personal note my family made our first harvest from our Grow
Appalachia garden this weekend. We harvested a few red potatoes,
green onions and leaf lettuce. Man, were they tasty. My wife did the
harvesting and afterward she told me that this was the first time she
had ever harvested anything from a garden, hers or anyone else's.
We have been married for almost 35 years and I never knew this about her.
Just goes to show you that when you spend time together you can always
learn new things. Thank you Grow Appalachia. Have a great week
and pray for some much needed rain. I know we sure could use it at
Project Worth Outreach.
