Garden Pic Wednesday: Blueberry Blossoms!

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First up is today's Garden Pic is a pretty shot of my pot blueberry blossoms as buds preparing to open, then fully open.





Their tips are such a pretty pink! The leaves were pretty all winter like this.
Pot blueberries or patio blueberries are designed to be grown in containers. I'm still figuring out how to prune mine so they'll bear lots of berries. (It's all about the pruning!)  I have one bush that's just laden with blossoms and the other isn't, but it's got lots of fresh growth that will bear well next season! 
They only bear berries once a year in spring. 

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The New Stove
My 28 year old stove was in bad need of replacing and having the re-plumb seemed a good reason to go ahead and decide on one. Plus having to pull a kitchen cabinet out for the re-plumb anyway just made it all that much easier make sure the space size was properly sized!

So here it is:
This is a Frigidaire gas range in black. I selected this model because it had the most satisfied buyer reviews of any gas range. It has 4 sealed burners, so I don't have to wrap the burner-pans in foil anymore. It has a bottom drawer that can be used to store pans, since the broiler is on top nowadays and the light comes on when I open the door!  Lots to get used to!



It does have a self-cleaning feature, but the stove-guy who installed it explained that feature requires the oven to be on at 500 degrees for 5 hours and not only is that hot, but it actually will decrease the life of the metal over time.
He suggested I might prefer his wife's method, which uses steam to make the oven easy to clean:
 Turn the oven to 230 degrees. Fill an old cake pan with water and put it in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. (This boils it.) Then turn oven off, leaving the pan of water inside for another 30 minutes as the oven cools. Then remove the pan of water and just wipe the oven out. Done.
(His wife used to have a job cleaning rental condos.)
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That's it for today! Stop back for Mama Kat tomorrow!

Comments

Dee D said…
when I got my new double ovens in November, the installer warned me to use the lower self cleaning setting for the same reason. If you have a low temp option, that's not as damaging over time. But, I kinds like your idea. Less energy usage and less heat output.
Mar 17, 2016, 6:06:00 AM

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