Leigh Tate

I've actually had a hard time finding a relatively authentic recipe (which I'd really like to do because it's about cultural cuisine.) So many recipe sites have too many popups and block the content. So, to Nancy and Anne's point, puff paste may not be how a traditional Normandy apple tart is made. But the recipes that call for it did get me thinking about learning how to make it!

Kate, your method sounds pretty easy. Easy cooking is me!

I'm doing a genealogy study about the cultures of my ancestors. Of course that includes food and cooking! Normandy apple tart is one of the recipes I'd like to try, but they all call for puff paste. I've read that puff paste is difficult to get right, so I'm a little intimidated about the prospect. Is it really all that hard? Can anyone give a novice puff paste maker some tips for success?

Jay Angler wrote:However, your point about the roof shape is very valid. Could you make 2 bamboo panels that rested on each side of the house roof? Maybe tied to some sort of hooks, so they can't blow off? Then sloped down until the hit the front of the greenhouse? You might need a vertical support at the front edge to match the height of the roof. Having an air gap between the "shade" and the "glass" might actually be an asset, but I'd have to check that with my engineer.

And I'd have to check with mine, lol. It's something to consider, for sure. I always knew summer shading would be a challenge and the shade cloth was our first try. I only wish I could have gotten at least a couple of summers out of it. I agree about the plastic, though.

Bamboo (the tall kind) is plentiful around here. Possibly some of my neighbors would be happy to share. Getting something over the greenhouse roof would be a big project, however. So far, Dan hasn't been very enthusiastic about trying anything like that.

I installed this gate and the fence in spring 2022

The gate is really clever. As is the waddle looking fence panel using rebar to support the bamboo.

Maybe some kind of thatch panels on my greenhouse roof would work.

Nancy Reading wrote:...You just need the shading in the summer right? Could you plant some deciduous vines  - like grapes or kiwi (I don't know what might suit you climate) that would give you shade in summer but let the light in over winter? These could grow on a pergola outside the greenhouse, although you might need to sweep the roof when the leaves fall I suppose. If you grow them inside, the leaves would be handy for mulching your pots.

I tried this with my hoop house, which was my first attempt at a greenhouse.

Hoop house shaded with vining plants.

Every summer it's covered with hopniss and Chinese yamberry vines, cherry tomatoes, and morning glories. The difficulty is that vines want to grow straight up instead of following a curve. They want to grow toward the sun. Considering the roof angle of my greenhouse . . .

greenhouse front end

I think I'd have a heck of a time trying to get the roof covered, which is where most of the heat comes in.

Jay Angler wrote:I do know of someone who grows vining tomatoes over their greenhouse in the summer, but they'd be a pain to pick and leave a splatted mess if they weren't picked! His greenhouse was a different design.

Which is another good point because it would be impossible to get up on the glass roof to pick anything or clear away dead vines.

For that front end of the greenhouse, though, it would be a great idea! It gets the hot late afternoon summer sun.

Jay Angler wrote:It would need some sort of framework, and if it were me, I'd try a fast growing pole bean. . . If you have access to free or cheap bamboo, it is light and easy to work with, but plenty strong enough for beans.

I think this is very doable for me!

Jen Fulkerson wrote:It looks great.
I didn't use my new greenhouse last summer either.  I was going to put up shade cloth up and get a solar fan, but it never happened. Maybe this year.

Jen, thanks! That's the way life is, isn't it? Always more to do than time to do it in.

I'll add that while the shade cloth worked great, the one I got deteriorated more quickly than I'd hoped. I didn't even get a full summer's use out of it. I'll try again next summer, but likely splurge to buy better quality.

I did enjoy putting around in it when it was cold and miserable last year. I hope you can do the same.
Enjoy

It's wonderful, isn't it? On sunny days I can open the door to the house and take advantage of the greenhouse warmth. Win win!

We didn't do anything with the greenhouse over the summer because it's too hot in our southern climate. But I did spend a lot of time thinking about how I wanted the interior finished. I confess it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted. When we first got serious about plans for the greenhouse, I collected all sorts of ideas for greenhouse interiors. Some greenhouses have lots of shelves for pots, others plant directly into beds dug into the ground. I spent a lot of time trying to envision our greenhouse and what my goals were.

I was initially assumed I just needed shelves, until I started thinking about how I actually want to use it. For one thing, I want cold weather veggies for fresh eating in winter. I also want a place for spring seed starts, and someplace to store pots, potting soil, and compost. For spring starter trays, shelves make sense, but I knew I didn't want to plant lettuce and broccoli for the winter in small pots. It made more sense to use larger pots to give the roots some room. For those pots, Dan built me a raised bed.

Raised greenhouse bed filled with pots for growing veggies

The lumber is repurposed from an old mill and was given to us by a neighbor. The bed holds 14 one- and two-gallon pots plus 3 half-barrels from 55 gallon drums. There's enough room on the end for more pots if I want. To help insulate between the pots, I stuffed bedding straw from the goat barn between them.

pots in the greenhouse insulated with straw and mulched with leaves.

All of the pots were planted outside, late last summer. When to start them and when to move them into the greenhouse are things I'm still experimenting with.

Besides the kale, I have pots of lettuce and chickweed growing

and a broccoli plant.

It's not a lot, but it's a start.

On the other side, I got my potting/growing/storage bench.

greenhouse bench

The shelves are made from the old tongue-and-groove boards Dan tore out of the front bedroom for a future remodel project.

The last thing Dan wants to do is put gravel down on the floor.

Next month, I'll start some seeds.

Thank you Judith! You made my day!

What I'm really thinking about is permaculture weaving. To start, I've mentally divided it into three categories: fiber content, color, and patterns. Fiber content seems to speak for itself, i.e. natural fibers. This thread is the start of my color study, which encompasses more than the fiber arts, of course. I'm also working out a pattern study, but it's a little slower forming in my mind.

I don't know if I can figure it all out well enough to pull it together into a book, but I'm really enjoying the learning process.

This one is a palette of natural colors of cotton fibers. They are samples I received at a charkha spinning class.

Dian Green wrote:If you skip the egg, you could do an uncooked version of the cheese layer. I think it would work with a drained ricotta or cottage cheese and they could go over or under a jam layer. Other extracts like almond would work too for flavouring.

This is pretty much what I did for my first experiment.



I thought I had some of my chevre or ricotta in the freezer, but didn't so I bought cream cheese. The crust was a basic sugar cookie recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook. I softened the cream cheese and blended in a little powdered sugar. The topping is actually cranberry relish, canned earlier this year when cranberries went on sale.

It was good, but I'm still going to experiment. I think I'd like a thinner cookie crust and I like your idea, Dian, of adding an egg to the cream cheese for a baked "pizza." Maybe that will be experiment #2!