Noel Thurner

Noel talks about the upcoming seed swap

Hello Gardeners, I am sure you all enjoyed the short string of sunshine we were gifted as of late. I bet you noticed as well the day length was longer, at dawn and dusk.  Time to think gardening!  Since humans have been growing food, the challenges have been numerous. With this endeavor came the saving of seeds from the tastiest and most adaptable plants. People today still are making crosses, trying to achieve variety and hardiness.  There are many facets to gardening and seed saving is one of the many. It is a challenge and every plant has its own protocol for ensuring next year’s seeds will be viable and delicious.  But we have the luxury of thousands of varieties of seeds offered to us through garden centers and seed catalogues. Many of you most likely have packets from last year or even earlier. Check out the seed viability charts and learn what seeds are still useful. It is these you can plant this season AND share! https://www.highmowingseeds.co [...]

By |2021-03-01T08:47:01-05:00March 1st, 2021|Categories: Food, Growing food, Help a Neighbor, Noel Thurner|
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It is time for our annual seed swap! We are doing this one remotely.

Our last gathering before the lock down of the pandemic was our annual seed swap. I enjoyed growing some of those seeds last year. I always enjoy shared seeds and plants. They have a story and I smile when I tend to the plants and remember the soul who shared them. We have beautiful Cardinal flowers and Green and Golds given to us by friends and they warm my heart every time I see them. It is like they are in our garden, beautifying it. Noel of our Eating Consciously team, sent me some seeds out of the blue last year and we have been enjoying the Arugula and Collards since. It was so nice to receive a surprise in the mail with a handwritten loving note. Noel and I were recently discussing seed swapping and we both were thinking of how to do it during a pandemic and she suggested using the US Mail. I loved it! I think hand-written letters sent in the mail are a [...]

By |2021-02-15T09:10:19-05:00February 15th, 2021|Categories: Eating Consciously, Food, Food preservation, Growing food, Help a Neighbor, Noel Thurner|
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Eating Consciously, Eating Seasonally, Eating Locally

Another favorite of the nightshade family is the pepper: there are hundreds of kinds, ranging from super sweet to hellishly hot. I’ll focus on the sweet. Many do not like green bell peppers and for good reason: they are green, are not ripe and can be bitter. One can find in the grocery stores ripe bell peppers that are red, yellow and orange but chances are these took an international trip before getting to the store. Like tomatoes, peppers of all kinds are planted in the late spring once the soil and ambient temperature are warm. It takes about 2 months for a pepper to become green and ‘ripe’ enough to eat. To get to the full ripe state of red, orange or yellow takes another month. The fruit are heavy and require some effort to support so farmers are often ready to pick green and sell. So what does one do if one wants a pepper with color and sweetness? Plant Lunchbox Peppers! Not only are the [...]

By |2020-08-24T10:57:06-04:00August 24th, 2020|Categories: Eating Consciously, Food, Growing food, Noel Thurner, Recipe|
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Eating Consciously, Eating Seasonally, Eating Locally

The nightshade family: sounds scary! And it is, as there are massive numbers of plants in this Solanaceae family that are very toxic. But we love to eat many of the non-toxic ones and most of us cannot wait for that first sun-ripened fresh tomato of the season. The other vegetable from the nightshade to be discussed in this article is the often vilified white potato. But before we begin chatting vegetables, let us talk salt. Our bodies need salt. Research has shown that without the correct balance of water and salt, our systems shut down and we die. So why the health concerns of not eating salt? If you eat any foods that are factory processed then you are eating way too much salt and bad salt at that. Big Food has our palates held hostage with refined salt, a variety of sugars and unhealthy fats. You got it: please, no processed food! The ‘regional’ salt I use the Redmond’s Real Salt. Mined in Utah, it is [...]

By |2020-08-09T14:55:07-04:00August 9th, 2020|Categories: Eating Consciously, Noel Thurner|
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Eating Consciously, Eating Seasonally, Eating Locally

Barbara Kingsolver wrote in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Most of the fruits and vegetables needed a passport to get to your plate. Yikes… we can do better than that! It is my intent with this series of articles to not only guide you for eating seasonally but to try your best to get local or regionally grown plant foods. And do this recipe free! I have nothing against recipes but one does need to learn how to be innovative and serendipitous when cooking out of the garden or what is staring at you from the fridge or purchased at the farmers market. This is a great time of year to begin exploring your options at local farmers’ markets, farm stands and businesses which support this philosophy. We shall begin with a family called cucurbits. In that vast group we at this time of year in our climate are enjoying all sorts of summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers along with cantaloupe and watermelon. Once frost arrives in the [...]

By |2020-08-12T12:09:44-04:00July 27th, 2020|Categories: Eating Consciously, Growing food, Noel Thurner|
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