Campbell's Skillet Sauces and BzzAgent

 

I really, really like Campbell's Skillet Sauces. I was able to try the Toasted Sesame and the Marsala. My family loved them both. I made ours with chicken breasts and then put it over a bed of rice. The Toasted Sesame was my wife's favorite but I really like the Marsala. These meals were very easy to make and they taste great. I highly recommend these if you want a quick and easy meal that makes your taste buds sing! We have already picked up several more varieties to try out.

*Please note that I am a BzzAgent and occasionally do get free products to try out and review, however the above opinions are my own. Ask me how to become a BzzAgent!

Gold Toe and BzzAgent

I was sent six pairs of Gold Toe G^® Collection socks and three pair of underwear to try out and give my opinion on.

I ordinarily do not buy expensive socks. So I wasn't sure what to expect with the G Collection socks. I have to say that these are the most comfortable socks I have ever worn. I sometimes work on my feet for 16+ hours and these socks feel as comfortable at the end of my shift as when I put them on. The only thing that bothered me was the tightness around my calf. I am a bigger guy and the socks tended to dig into my calf muscle pretty bad. Other than that, I highly recommend these socks to anyone who wants to be comfortable all day.

As far as the underwear goes, I did not like them as much. I am more of a boxer-brief type of guy and these were briefs. The underwear were pretty tight even though they were the correct size. The fabric was very comfortable though.

They also sell t-shirts which I would love to try in the future. All in all I am very impressed with  Gold Toe G^® Collection and I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to style in comfort!

I am wearing the most comfortable pair of socks ever made

*Please note that I am a BzzAgent and occasionally do get free products to try out and review, however the above opinions are my own. Ask me how to become a BzzAgent!

New Videos of Our Grow Room

 

We took some quick video tours of our grow room. We will be posting some new ones soon with a description of each plant. We are hoping to expand with more herbs as well as some exotics soon. Let us know what you think.

 

 

 

 

Seeds of the Month Club

 

To all of our gardening friends, we want to invite you to try the Seeds of the Month Club from Mike the Gardener! Click on the photo above to sign up.

 

You get 8 seed packages your first month and 4 every month afterwards.

 

These seeds are all non-GMO.

 

We joined this year and have enjoyed all of the seeds we have received so far. We can't wait to start planting in the spring.

 

Organic Fruit Seed Saving and Growing Part 2

This is the next part in our experiment with saving seeds from grocery store organic fruit. Here is the first part if you missed it: http://rjwolfe3.blogspot.com/2012/11/organic-fruit-seed-saving-and-growing.html

We are a little disappointed in the quality of the fruit that we bought. One of the apples, the lime, and the pear were all too immature to have much in the way of seed. The pomegranate was molded on the inside. This may be because of the time of year or because they are organic fruit. But this is an experiment and unexpected results may happen so not too worried about it.

 
This is what the pomegranate looked like when we cut it up. We are pretty sure it is not supposed to look like this but this is our first one we have ever bought. We did save the seeds that looked the best, the ones that are bright red.

We didn't save a lot of the pomegranate seeds but only because we are limited on growing space. We did find out, while researching on how to save these seeds, that doing it underwater is a big help in avoiding the staining of your hands and other stuff. Also we made sure all of the pulp is washed off of the seeds. These will dry for a few days before we plant them.

 
These are the seeds from the pear. We think the fruit was immature hence only one or two good seeds. But we are going to dry these and plant them all and see what happens.

 
These are the seeds from the lime. There aren't any, to be honest. We looked and looked in the lime pulp and could not find a single seed. We think it was picked too early and had not developed seeds yet.

 
These are the lemon seeds. There were four but we accidently cut two of them while dividing up the lemon. We are going to let these seeds dry for a few days and then plant them.

This has been an interesting experiment so far but the fun stuff is coming up. We are looking forward to planting these seeds and can't wait to see what will come up. Look for an update in a few days when we plant these seeds and then in few more weeks when the apple seeds are ready.

New Tools For The Grow Room

We picked up a few new tools to use for the grow room. One of the problems we had last year was over-watering of our plants. We bought a moisture meter to make sure we do not have that same problem this year. Also bought a room humidity/temperature monitor and a pair of pruners. We are going to try to keep track of our plants to insure they stay healthy over the winter.

Organic Fruit Seed Saving and Growing

We decided to try to save some seeds from some of the organic fruit that is available for sale from our local Kroger. We know that there is a slim chance that the seeds will grow the same fruit as the parent but we decided to try anyway. We will probably grow these indoors for the first few years and see what will grow.

We are going to try four different types of apples (Gala, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, and Honeycrisp), a lemon, a lime, a pear, and a pomegranate. Here are some photos of the fruit and how we saved the apple seeds. We have not saved the seeds from the others yet because we have not eaten the fruit yet. But we post an update when we do.

 Here is how we saved the apple seeds. First we cut the apples with an apple corer.

All of us enjoyed the fruit and then we popped out the seeds from the core. We put the seeds in a damp paper towel and then put them in a baggie. After labeling the bags with the names and date we put the bags in the frig. The seeds should germinate in 5-6 weeks. Apples have about a 30% germination rate so hopefully we will get a few plants out of these. We don't think the Granny Smith was ripe, hence only having two seeds.

 Once we have saved the seeds from the other fruit, we will post an update.

Our Grow Room - 2012

We moved all of our plants in for the year and are growing them in our upstairs study. Here are some photos of what it looks like. Ignore the clutter, our study is also our storage room.

This is looking back towards the door on the right side. We are using 5 100w CFL bulbs as grow lights.

This is the right side. We still need to add lights to that side.

This are a couple of small flowering trees? that Rob's sister gave him. We are still trying to identify them.

These are our Canna Lilies. We brought them in, in a pot to see if we can get them to flower inside.

Tray 7

In the back is a Cherry Tomato and a Tomatillo. We are hoping the Tomatillo comes back. In front of them is a snake plant, Basil, and Aloe Vera.

Tray 6

Another struggling Tomatillo in the back. Basil, Aloe Vera, and Garlic Chive in front.

Tray 5

Yucca in back and Mini Pepper in front.

Tray 4

Another struggling Tomatillo in back. Basil and Snake Plants in front.

Tray 3

Last of the struggling Tomatillo's in back. Basil, Snake Plant, and Hens and Chicks.

Tray 2

Hoya - Rubra in back on left and Snake Plant in back on right. Front left is our pineapple and Hens and Chicks and front right is Purslane.

Tray 1

Purple Heart Plant in back. Hens and Chicks in front.

Trays 8 & 9

Our two herb trays. Basil, Chives, and Spearmint.

Tray 10

Aloe Vera in back, almost dead Begonias that Rob's sister gave him. Another Aloe Vera in the middle and a Christmas Cactus in front. Mystery plant in front. Started as Wrigley Spearmint but that died and this grew up. It may be a Sunflower of some type.

Tray 11

Two more Snake Plants and another Hens and Chicks.

Our Spider Plant is in our bedroom partly because we ran out of room and partly because we are going to start growing it's babies. We will be sticking each one in it's own pot to take root before removing them from the mother.

Look for more updates in the future. We have plans to add more things depending on room. We plan to grow some fruit trees and some more herbs soon.

We will be making a video soon as well giving you all a tour of the grow room.

Green Mountain and BzzAgent

I was sent 8 K-cups of Green Mountain Fair Trade coffee to try. This coffee is so good! The flavors they sent are: Wild Mountain Blueberry, Colombian Fair Trade Select, Vermont Country Blend, and Sumatran Reserve.

I enjoyed the Wild Mountain Blueberry and my wife really likes the Colombian Fair Trade Select. We both thought the Sumatran Reserve was a little strong.

I really like that this is "fair trade" coffee. Fair trade means that farmers will get a fair price for their products. It also helps improve their farms, is better for the environment, and helps the local communities.

If you are looking for a good cup of coffee that is good for you and good for the world, then try Green Mountain Fair Trade coffee.


*Please note that I am a BzzAgent and occasionally do get free products to try out and review, however the above opinions are my own. Ask me how to become a BzzAgent!