Muskmelon and Hybrid Melon Varieties: Best Bets

Full sun, temperatures at least 70°F, and about 90 days and more will give you rich-tasting melons. Muskmelons and cantaloupes are the same thing, they are known as summer melons. Casabas, Crenshaws, and honeydews are called winter melons because they come to harvest at the end of summer.

Here are flavorful best bet, easy-to-grow melons–both summer and winter melons (added days to maturity)–divided into four categories: orange-fleshed melons; green-fleshed melons; honeydew types; and others.

Keep reading to the bottom of this post and I will give you my tips for melon growing success. Also be sure to check out the Melons Archive for lots of articles on melon growing.

How to Make Comfrey Manure Tea

Comfrey manure-tea time arrives with the first flowering of tomatoes and peppers. Comfrey tea is made simply by soaking the leaves of the herb comfrey in water for about 20 days.

Comfrey tea is rich in nitrogen and potassium; it is a nutritious side-dressing for fruiting vegetables. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and berries use nitrogen to support leaf growth and potassium to promote flowers and fruit. The nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) ratio of dried comfrey leaves is 1.8-0.5-5.3; comfrey also contains calcium.

Readers’ Poll: How do you feed your vegetables? Click to vote.

Why Nonfat Salad Dressings Are Deceiving

Any good salad deserves a great dressing right? Well, if you ask someone who considers salads to be a part of a healthy lifestyle, they would probably say only if it’s nonfat. Unfortunately the non-fat version is no better than the full version. 

Interestingly, salad dressing has been around for hundreds of years. Its popularity has increased even more so since society’s recent health concerns. More and more fat-free versions are popping up all over the place. Even fast food and restaurants have gotten into the healthy dressing act.

Italian Cheese Pecorino Toscano

Pecorino Toscano is a sheep milk cheese that is produced throughout the Tuscany region and parts of the Umbria region in Italy. It is a DOC certified cheese and its production is strictly supervised by the Consortium de Pecorino Toscano.

This great cheese is made by using pasteurized sheep milk then pressing the rennet induced curds to remove the liquid whey, then it is cooked to remove even more moisture. The pressed curds are then soaked in brine then dried and allowed to begin aging. Depending on the dairy that produces it some of the aged cheeses are rubbed with tomato paste to give the rind a reddish coloration and others are rubbed with olive oil to seal the rind and prevent the growth of mold.

Macadamia Nut Oil How it is Used

Macadamia nut oil is used specifically a couple of different ways. One is for cooking and one is for the cosmetic industry. Therefore, lets discuss both aspects and explore exactly what each different application has to offer to the consumer.

Lets begin with the cooking aspect. This will include the health benefits that are included with the ingestion too. First off, this could be used for both cooking as well as oil in a salad. The cooking capabilities are quite good and it will not smoke until it becomes over four hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It stores well and will last for over a year. It is made primarily of monounsaturated fats and is not very volatile of catch fire quickly.

Vegetable Garden Fertilizers Poll

You want steady, healthy crop growth in your vegetable garden. Building the soil and fertilizers are two ways to get there. How do you add nutrients to your vegetable garden: regular doses of compost and organic fertilizer blends such as bonemeal, bloodmeal, and fish emulsion or chemical fertilizers that have been blended synthetically to achieve specific growing goals–or both?

Take this open poll and then check back occasionally to see how your practice compares to other vegetable gardeners.

Pepper Growing Problems: Troubleshooting

Peppers–sweet peppers and hot peppers–share nearly all of the cultural and growing requirements of tomatoes. If you can grow tomatoes, you can grow peppers. Choose a site with full sun where the soil is moisture retentive but well-draining. If you are planting sweet peppers and hot peppers in the garden, give them some distance they can cross pollinate.

Here is a troubleshooting list of possible pepper problems with control and cure suggestions: (For a full description of pests and diseases and prevention and controls click over to the Pest Problem Solver or the Disease Problem Solver. For pepper growing details How to Grow Sweet Peppers and How to Grow Hot Peppers. (More pepper growing success tips are at the bottom of this post.)

Take Advantage of the Weather Have a Barbecue!

At the moment, we’re experiencing a burst of great weather in the UK. The days are calm and warm, and things only look to get better with summer on the way.

The scene is set for taking advantage of your barbeque – and what better way than to head down to your local grocery store and purchase some prime cuts of meat and a choice of seafood, a selection of fruits and vegetables suitable for grilling, and the makings of a salad.