Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2018
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
PAGE 7A
Succession planting
for an extended harvest
Green beans are hands
down my favorite garden
vegetable. I could eat them
every day of the week and
never weary of them. Sau
teed, boiled, roast
ed or pickled, I am
ready.
Canning green
beans however, is
not my favorite.
Every year I can
and freeze produce
but have learned
through experience
that I just don't
enjoy canning green
beans, and harvest
always seems to fall
at a time that is just
not practical to spend hours
in the kitchen preserving.
So, instead of planting beds
of green beans and hav
ing an unmanageable over
abundance, I do succession
plantings so that I have
smaller harvests for a longer
period of time.
Succession planting sim
ply means you plant vegeta
bles continuously through
out the season. It can refer
to planting the same crop,
such as my green beans,
at intervals throughout
the planting season. This
ensures that as older plants
are maturing and ending
production, new ones are
just starting to produce.
This practice extends the
harvest window, ensuring
that there is produce at the
peak of production through
out the growing season.
Farmers regularly use this
practice, but it can be a use
ful tool for home gardeners
as well, especially if you
prioritize eating vegetables
fresh instead of preserving
them.
For spring and fall gar
dens. most greens and root
vegetables are good can
didates for suc
cession plant
ing. For sum
mer gardens,
green beans,
squash, zuc-
chinis. cucum
bers, and com
are appropriate.
This practice
can also work
for annual
flowers, such
as sunflowers,
for beautiful
blooms spring to fall. Two
weeks throughout the plant
ing season is a good plant
ing interval for most crops,
and for veggies like green
beans that can be planted
spring and fall, this is a dou
ble win and can add weeks
to your production times.
Another method to
achieve a staggered har
vest is by planting variet
ies with different maturing
times. There are numerous
varieties available for each
vegetable, and many have
early producing varieties in
addition to old standbys. By
planting several varieties
that mature over different
timespans. you can enjoy
the subde difference in fla
vor between varieties in
addition to a longer season.
Just check seed packets or
seed catalogs for average
days to maturity to help
select varieties that will
work for you.
Succession planting also
refers to planting a sequence
of different plants within the
growing season. For exam
ple, if you plant lettuce for
early spring, follow with
sweet potatoes in the same
space after the lettuce is fin
ished, and then plant spin
ach once the sweet potatoes
are harvested, you will have
planted three crops where
most gardeners will have
planted one. For small gar
dens especially, utilizing
available space is essential.
Taking time to plan out
your garden in advance will
help you take advantage of
available planting space, at
planting and throughout the
growing season, and will
ensure your garden stays
bountiful from spring, to
summer to fall. And who
doesn't get a thrill from
making three season col
or-coded vegetable planting
charts and maps?
As we enter into the
planting season, keep suc
cession planting in mind as
a technique to keep your
garden favorites coming. If
you have questions about
succession planting or vege
table gardening, call, e-mail
or stop by the Barrow
County Extension office.
Alicia Holloway is the
Barrow County Agricul
ture and Natural Resources
Extension Agent. She can be
reached by e-mail at ahollo-
way@uga.edu, by phone at
770-307-3029, or by stop
ping by the County Exten
sion Office at 90 Lanthier
St. in Winder. Follow Bar-
row County Extension on
Facebook @BarrowCoun-
tyExtension.
alicia
holloway
Daddy’s Rules
There were violations of certain rules
that were guaranteed to aggravate Ralph
Satterfield. Ralph was my daddy and I
aggravated him more than a few times.
He was, the people of our mountains
say. “set in his ways.” When they don't
use that phrase,
they say, “quare.” I
have often laughed
about those odd
mountain peo
ple thinking their
neighbors and
kinfolk were odd
as though they
weren't.
For instance, this
child of the moun
tains, who nearly
starved during the
Hoover Days of the Depression, always
bought two boxes of “sody crackers” at
a time, two loaves of bread — one fre
quently went into the freezer, not some
thing I would recommend to people
who enjoy fresh tasting bread — two
five-pound bags of flour or anything
Mama asked him to “stop by on his
way home and pick up.” Once a week,
he came in toting a gallon of sweet milk
and one of buttermilk.
There was a certain convenience
store, one rarely busy, at which he
stopped to buy the weekly provision of
milk. He struck up a nodding friend
ship with the middle-aged woman who
worked evenings. They would exchange
words about life, aches and pains and
God's many blessings. When, a few
years into this weekly friendship, the
convenience store was robbed one night
and acid thrown into the woman’s face,
scarring her for life. Daddy grieved
deeply. He was a tough man on the out
side but tender as a new born lamb on
the inside. He visited her in the hospital
to pray with her and offer companion
ship. There in a room where she sat with
a bandaged face, they talked as usual of
God’s blessings. In the midst of her dark
times, she still saw the light through
gauze-covered eyes.
The other day, I was thinking of how
odd Ralph could be when I had to run
to the bank so I jumped in Tink’s farm
truck to drive the short distance. Tink’s
truck has only three luxuries — heat, air
and radio. Other than that, it has man
ual locks and windows that roll up by
hand. When he is working on location,
I drive that truck regularly but when he
comes home, I seldom touch it. When
I crawled up into the cab. the seat was
adjusted to fit his six-foot frame. I'm
5-foot-2, which surprises a lot of folks
who expect me to be tall.
I thought of Daddy and one of his
commandments so I put my seatbelt on
and scooted forward to touch the pedals.
I adjusted only the rearview mirror. At
the drive-through, I laughingly told the
tellers of Daddy's rules:
1. “Don’t move my seat.” There were
many times on Sunday morning that
we would get into the family sedan to
head to church, only to have Daddy
lose his religion momentarily because
the 16-year-old me had moved his seat.
I eventually learned better and always
put it back in place but I could never get
the mirrors right so he fussed about that.
2. “Don't use my razor to shave your
legs.” I violated that repeatedly because
Daddy kept such a sharp razor, one that
used the old-fashioned two-sided razor
blades that were dropped in. If I got
caught, I was reprimanded but, usually,
I remembered to dry it off and sneakily
put it back.
3. “Don’t lay anything on top of my
Bible.” Daddy kept his black. Scofield,
King James next to his chair where he
often reached for it nightly. Once he
came in and I had laid, again, a mag
azine on top of that Bible so his righ
teousness thunderously filled the air.
“You NEVER lay anything on top of the
almighty Word of God. I’m gonna learn
you, little girl.” Eventually, he did.
Set in his ways, for sure, but Ralph
was a truly good man who “learned”
me quite a lot. I'm grateful for his
“quareness.”
Ronda Rich is the best-selling author
of Mark My Words: A Memoir of Mama.
Go to www.rondarich.com to sign up for
her free weekly newsletter.
COOKING WITH JOYCE
Corn chowder, chicken and casseroles
Growing up in a small
town usually means you
know just about every
body there and they know
you and your family.
You make a lot of life
time friends in small
towns as opposed to big
cities.
Seems like
every time I go to
the Dollar Gener
al Market to pick
up some of their
great fresh pro
duce. I run into
old friends. It's
a great place to
have good con
versation.
I ran into Phyl
lis Wells and
Donna Baker this
past week. Phyl
lis’ mom, “Ms. Faye,” was
my babysitter for years so
they are like family to us.
Donna and I go back to
our school days and then
again when my son was at
Statham.
I ran into Mr. Watkins,
Cathy's dad, and he told
he reads my column every
week. He also told me he’d
love a good corn chowder
recipe, so my mission this
week was to find him a
good recipe. Mr. Watkins,
I hope you like the one I
picked just for you. These
are the people that make
this little town I grew up
in special.
While looking through
lots of cookbooks I found
several recipes for corn
chowder, all basically the
same with just some lit
tle differences. This one
caught my eye because it
was passed on to a grand
son’s wife from his grand
mother.
Grandma’s Corn
Chowder
Ingredients
1/2 cup diced bacon
4 medium potatoes,
peeled and chopped
1 medium onion,
chopped
2 cups water
3 cups cream style corn
2 tsps. salt
Ground black pepper to
taste
2 cups half and half
Directions:
Place the bacon in
a large pot over medi
um-high heat
and cook until
crisp. Drain
and crumble,
reserving about
2 Tbsps. drip
pings in the pot.
Mix potatoes
and onions into
the pot with the
crumbled bacon
and reserved
drippings. Cook
and stir for 5
minutes. Pour in
the water and stir in corn.
Season with salt and pep
per. Bring to a boil, reduce
heat to low and cover pot.
Simmer 20 minutes, stir
ring frequently, until pota
toes are tender. Warm the
half and half in a small
sauce pan until it bubbles.
Remove from heat and
mix into the chowder just
before serving.
When cooking with
brown sugar you don’t
add a lot of sweetness
but flavor I have found.
It’s so different than the
white granulated sugar.
It’s much better for you.
Found a great way of
using it to flavor chicken
in the crock pot.
Brown Sugar
Crock Pot Chicken
Ingredients
2 packages - 7 or 8 piec
es skinless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. Lawry's season
ing salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 cup brown sugar,
packed
6 ounces pineapple juice
1 tsp. Worcestershire
sauce
2 Tbsps. cornstarch dis
solved in 2 Tbsps. cold
water
Directions
Place chicken in a
crock pot. In a small
dish, stir together salt,
pepper, Lawry’s salt and
garlic powder. Sprinkle
half the mixed seasoning
over chicken thighs then
flip the chicken over and
sprinkle the other side
with the remaining sea
soning.
In another small bowl
whisk together brown
sugar, pineapple juice
and Worcestershire sauce.
Pour sauce evenly over
chicken. Cover and cook
on low 4-6 hours or until
tender depending on the
size and thickness of the
chicken thighs. Remove
the chicken thighs to a
plate and cover. Transfer
the sauce to a saucepan
and stir in the cornstarch
mixture. Bring to a boil
and cook until mixture is
nice and thick. Pour sauce
over chicken and serve.
I was asked to share my
recipe for creamed spin
ach casserole that I made
recently. It’s really simple
to make but is a great way
to serve spinach.
Creamed Spinach
Casserole
Ingredients
2 (10 oz. pkgs.) frozen,
chopped spinach, thawed
and drained
8 oz. cream cheese,
softened
1/4 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup seasoned crou
tons. crushed
Directions:
Mix together all ingre
dients except croutons.
Spoon mixture into an
ungreased one-quart cas
serole dish. Sprinkle
with croutons. Bake at
350 degrees for 25 to 30
minutes or until heated
through.
Another one of my
favorite vegetables is
asparagus. I have several
good casserole recipes for
it. None of them you can
go wrong with. This is one
of my favorites to make.
Fast and Fresh
Asparagus Casserole
Ingredients
1 lb. carrots peeled,
sliced and cooked
15 oz. can asparagus
spears, drained
15 14 oz. can peas,
drained
8 oz. can sliced water
chestnuts, drained
3 eggs, hard boiled,
peeled and sliced
1/3 cup butter
19 3/4 oz. can cream of
mushroom soup
lcup shredded Cheddar
cheese, divided
1 cup cracker crumbs
1/2 tsp. pepper
Directions
Layer carrots, aspara
gus and peas in a lightly
greased 13x9-inch baking
pan. Place water chest
nuts and sliced eggs over
vegetables. Dot with but
ter. Mix soup and 3/4 cup
cheese: spread over vege
table layers. Bake at 350
degrees for 30 minutes
or until bubbly. Sprinkle
with crumbs, pepper and
remaining cheese, bake an
additional 5 minutes or
until cheese melts.
Joyce Jacks is a native
of Barrow County and a
graduate of Winder-Bar
row High School, Athens
Technical College, and the
University of Georgia. She
can be reached at georgi-
agirl2424@yahoo.com.
April 4, 2018
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INNOVATION AMPHITHEATER
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The Charlie Daniels Band August 31
The Kingsmen, Inspirations
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Black Jacket Symphony
"The Music of Pink Floyd" September 21
Here Come The Mummies
A Halloween Special October 19
Winder Beer Festival October 20
Visit lnnovationAmphitheater.com for Tickets
Located in Winder, GA
I BARROW COUNTY GOLDEN
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joyce
jacks