Happy new years everyone! I hope you all have your pork roast, sauerkraut, and black eyed peas! And NO chicken until after the 1st! Course, this coming from a guy who wont put hats on the bed or rock empty rocking chairs, your mileage may vary....

Lets keep Rocky Mountain the friendliest, most helpful, and all around best gardening group this side of the internet in the coming year, and years to come!

P.s. The best way I have found to avoid drinking and driving is to drink at the house. All the Coors I want and the only thing I have to worry about is the stairs to the bedroom, haha.

Wow - looks like you two made it to midnight? I celebrated while in my bed dreaming and snoring :^D

Yep, Zach - always have ham and blackeyed peas on NY day, in honor of my mother's tradition (she told us it was good luck to have this meal to bring in the new year). Never heard about no chicken, though!

Happy New Year, RMG!

Happy New Year to all of you!

Skybird, I'm at best a lurker these days and not much of one of that. So many on this forum sooooo much more knowledgeable then I, I bow down to their (your) expertise for answers. Absolutely agree that is is one of the best forums around!

With the cold days we've had of recent, I've got my eyes set on March when we typically get a few days that the weather will beckon me to the outdoors. I really pushed the propagating this fall, so I'm especially anxious to see what took and how well it did.

I typically have the pork, sauerkraut and black eyed peas for new years eve dinner, though, I think you've got it right, it's supposed to be a new years DAY thing. Eating chicken, or any other flying thing, would mean your good luck for the new year will, like the animal in question, "fly away."

And no, no midnight for me. I was in bed at around 10:30 and fell asleep around 11:00 lol. Course, I had been drinking for good 5-6 hours by then.

I didn't know about any broad traditions, altho I think Zach mentioned it in 2015. He may have forgotten, however. He's getting olde, ya know.

We dispensed with the omelet brunch, something going on for me about 20 years. DS was here for Christmas and we had eggs and custard and eggs and meringue ..! Besides, DD couldn't be here for brunch so we had beef and turkey meatloaf and candied yams and cake for dinner.

Turkeys can't fly! Superstitions? I wore a pair of pants without holes in 'em and my cleanest, dirty shirt. A Happy and Prosperous New Year to One and All !

Steve

Happy gardening New year to all.

Well we have not been eating chicken until tonight. Been eating lots of seafood and veges spiced up with Indian spices that were crushed up with mortar and pestle. Yummy stuff. Fresh ground herbs and spices are so much better than preground and sometimes irridiated supermarket offerings.

I AM getting "olde," Or at least I sure feel like it, getting ever closer to 30... now there's a scary thought. I probably did mention it last year, I don't have enough stories or knowledge in this noggin to prevent repetition.

Chickens really can't "fly" either, though, not for lack of trying. I had one jump off the roof once, the wings were really just there to keep if from plummeting to it's death. How it got up there remains a mystery to this day, however. And wild turkeys are fairly adept flyers, but you wouldn't know it looking at their fat, atrophied counterparts crammed into barns.

We eat sauerkraut, cooked in bacon grease, as our "greens," which I believe is common in Germany, but we came by the tradition through my grandfather and great-grandmother, who came here from Estonia. It must be a pretty common thing, since the store is always sold out, or nearly so, of sauerkraut come New Years.

Estonia? I imagine that there aren't many Americans who can trace ancestry to Estonians.

About those spices and that bacon ... I've got a new kitchen utensil on the way as a Christmas gift: a stovetop smoker. My intention is to use it with peppers. Then dry the peppers. I imagine I'll do some experimenting soon with store-bought, smoked paprika. (Forgive me Greg!)

For several years, I've been doing more marinating of meats. Smoked meats, like bacon and sausage, still play an important part in my stir-fries. Not always, but often ...

My plan (semi-resolution) is to get away from that by using smoked peppers and marinades. To an extent, we use pork because it can absorb the flavor of smoke but we don't have to have all the additional curing if we just remember to get the meat in a marinade, overnight. And, we can use other meats, besides pork - chicken, turkey, beef ... I marinate portobello mushrooms all the time.

Steve