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The Cultivator
A Good Year for the Garden
The CobraHead Newsletter
December 2015
Hello, Friends of CobraHead,
 
We hope your 2015 was a good year and we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
 
In this issue, we have a photo recap of our home garden, which was bountiful and interesting.   Judy shares a recipe for oven roasted Brussels sprouts, which we are still harvesting here in unseasonably warm Wisconsin.
 
In addition, we're offering our newsletter subscribers 10% off everything at our website store between now and December 31.  Free shipping in the U.S.  Use the coupon code holiday15 to get your discount.  See all of our gardening products here.   
   
We are happy to hear from anyone out there. Drop us a line at info@CobraHead.com.
 
Happy gardening and happy holidays,
Noel and Judy

Big Boston Marrow Squash

We had an excellent garden this year.  Noel shows off his bountiful harvest and talks about what worked and what didn't.
Brussels Sprouts with Portobello Mushroom, Potatoes and Squash

We are still harvesting Brussels Sprouts.  Judy has been roasting them and the result is truly tasty.


 
CobraHead Weeder

Here's a holiday offer to our newsletter readers from CobraHead: 10% off everything in our web store. Use this code at checkout: holiday15

Holiday Shipping Schedule:
We will ship through December 24th.  But after December 18th orders may not arrive before Christmas.

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I f you like our newsletter and our products or if you have some suggestions, we'd love to hear from you.

If you have gardening friends or if you know potential gardeners who might be interested in CobraHead and what we have to say about gardening and eating, please to them. 

 
It is the mission of CobraHead to help people grow their own food and to provide exceptional products and services to all gardeners.  We try hard to "walk the walk" when it comes to issues of sustainability and in deciding what is best for ourselves and the environment as we grow our little company.  We've chosen to make our tools locally, here in Wisconsin, and we think that bigger is not necessarily better.  Gardening might just be earth's great hope, and in any case it's a great hobby.

Here's a holiday offer to our newsletter readers from CobraHead: 10% off everything in our web store. Use this code at checkout: holiday15  
Thank you,
Noel, Judy, Geoff and Anneliese
The CobraHead Team
In This Issue
2015 Garden Review
Brussels Sprouts
Save 10% at CobraHead.com
Christmas Cactus
The Christmas cactus blooming right on time this year is a true heirloom. Judy got the cutting from her sister, who got it from their  mother, who took a piece many years before from her mother. I'm not sure if the lineage goes back any further in her family, but there are a lot of years represented here. The popularity of this plant rests not so much on its blooms, which are awesome, or the leaf structure, which is not too exciting, but because it is a very difficult houseplant to kill. It requires minimal care, tolerates neglect, and is very easy to propagate from the flimsiest cuttings.  It is a plant that can be passed down for generations.
 
I've never gotten into worrying too much about ornamental plants, whether for houseplants or outdoors. While I'm now really beginning to appreciate the beauty of flowers and other plants grown for their looks, most of my gardening has been aimed at trying to grow food. I used to say, "if you can't eat it, why bother growing it," but I'm mellowing out in my old age and I'm starting to appreciate the aesthetics of plants for their own sake.
 
I've even begun decorating the garden with marigolds, lilies and other flowers, and I'm starting to help Judy maintain the perennial bulbs, the landscape plants, picking out flowering baskets, and in other ways trying my hand at more than just food. Nevertheless, growing food on a small scale is in my opinion what can save the world, so that's still where most of my garden energy is directed.
 
This year's garden was certainly one of our best ever and I can see where a single person can easily grow food for several families, assuming they have the time, of course. Were we to redirect our time to growing food, we could solve not only hunger issues, but lots of small gardens would have an impact on climate issues. So gardens should be celebrated and encouraged. They could be our salvation.
 
This December may set a record in Wisconsin as the warmest ever. Right now it's in second place on the list of hot years, but it's supposed to end on a warm note. From our home garden perspective, that's not all bad, as we are still harvesting things like leeks, Brussels sprouts, parsley, mustard greens and other stuff that in years past would already be covered in snow.
And we've had no lack of moisture, so the warm weather is not proving catastrophic for us, yet. If I had a choice, however, I would opt for a nice winter long blanket of snow. It really helps the garden.
 
We'd like to remind all our readers that we love to grow our own food and to help others do the same. We post articles about food growing and cooking with home grown food on our website blog, and we almost always have a discussion or several going on about food and growing on our Facebook page. You can help us spread the word by forwarding this newsletter to a friend and if you have any gardening questions, drop us a note. If we can't help you we'll find someone who can.
 
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a great 2016. We're offering 10% off all CobraHead shopping on our website. Just use the code holiday15 at checkout to get your discount.
 
Thanks for reading our newsletter.
 
Noel and the CobraHead Team
 

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