Inge Leonora-den Ouden

John C Daley wrote:From Wikipedia
'The Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann.
Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish.'

It seems the Mennonites were followers of a man named Menno Simons, who really was from the Netherlands (from Frysland, which is a province of the Netherlands).

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:BEL #720

.... I'm thinking some kind of clinging, vine-rich plant out to be brought in. I don't want it to overtake anything else we'd like to plant (and eat). There's still time to consider seeds, and I'd prefer a perennial though I'm thinking some kind of squash may win out, regardless. Any suggestions?...

You could try to plant Apios americana (American Groundnut, or Hopniss). It is a strong growing vine during the warm season, but totally disappears above ground in Winter. If you don't harvest all 'nuts' out of the ground, next year new vines will grow out of the roots again.

Yes, I do have Art. I have paitnings/drawings I made myself, but also Art made by other (not well-known) Artists. The plan is to have an Art Wall ... but it is not yet there and all Art is now standing on the floor. If I don't forget I'll make a photo and share it here when it's ready.

Here is a photo of a watercolour I made

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:...
Another one I'm planning on isn't exactly a perennial, rather a biennial, like carrots. It is witloof chicory, AKA Belgian endives.
You grow the root the first season [it has dandelion leaves]. In the fall, you harvest the taproot and put it standing in a bucket of sand. When you feel like it, you bring it out of the cold cellar and 'force it'. [Or,,, if you want some seeds, plant it in the garden]
A particularity of this plant is that even though it looks in the first season like a dandelion, when you force it [in the dark!!!] it makes a beautiful ogive or bullet shaped head of "lettuce". I have it with pickled beets. Yummy! and healthy too
I say "in the dark" because if you put it on the windowsill, it will turn green and be quite bitter.

I love 'witlof'! But I don't plan to grow it myself. I can buy it easily (here in the Netherlands, like in Belgium, it's a common vegetable).

S Tonin wrote:...
I just realized I was mashing up two different types of candy into one.  Irish Potato candy is the one with coconut and rolled in cocoa powder; it doesn't have mashed potato in it.  PA Dutch Potato candy is mashed potatoes and sugar, mixed into a dough and rolled out, then covered with peanut butter, rolled into a log, and cut into bite sized pieces.

Hell of a Dutchman I am, if I couldn't even remember that.  (To be fair, I grew up eating both and I haven't had it in 25+ years)

Probably the Dutch who migrated to America took recipes with them that did not stay here in the Netherlands*. I never heard of candies made with mashed potatoes.
*but often 'Dutch' means 'Deutsch', that is German.

Molly Kay wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:This is a hyper-local one but Melba sauce.

Melba sauce is a fruity raspberry sauce that is exclusively found around here as a condiment to dip mozzarella sticks into. It's great, just trust me.

Raspberry, huh? I would have thought peach.

Raspberry is right. This is the definition of Peach Melba:
"Peach Melba (French: pêche Melba, pronounced [pɛʃ mɛlba]) is a dessert of peaches and raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream. It was invented in 1892 or 1893 by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London, to honour the Australian soprano Nellie Melba."

Yes, that's what I mean. In Dutch they were called 'de Freggels', I thought then in English it would be 'Freggles', but indeed it's 'Fraggles'. Because the series was for children, it was all spoken in Dutch. The Muppets were more for adults, so they remained in English (with subtitling).
We had our own Dutch puppet shows too: 'Fabeltjeskrant' and 'Paulus de Boskabouter' (and maybe more).

My advice for beginning gardeners:
do not try to do everything all alone and based on information from books, internet, a.a. Get in contact with others who are more experienced (permaculture) gardeners, so they can help you. If you start volunteering in a permaculture project getting help and giving help go hand in hand.

No, I didn't know the Wombles. I think they are typically British.
I do remember the children watched another series with this sort of puppets, the Freggles. And the Muppets were on TV here in the Netherlands too. But no Wombles, as far as I know. It's a pity!

Nancy Reading wrote:Is gardening difficult? Do you need to know it all before you start? One gardening myth is that "gardening is difficult and you need to know a lot".
...

Even if you (think you) know all about gardening, when you start gardening 'in real life' you start to really learn about it. You will never really 'know gardening' if you don't do it.

I thought I knew 'gardening', because I had a garden, and because I was educated by my parentsabout plants in nature . But when I started growing vegetables I found out I did not really know 'how to'! Now it's a few years (about 10) and I am still learning by doing.