Most of us do not live in a tropical paradise, so growing pineapples would be challenging and even a bit scary to most of us.  However, they are incredibly easy to grow yourself.  Here from You Grow Girl are some pineapple growing tips,

At home, slice the crown (that’s the leafy top part) off the fruit. Be sure to remove all the flesh. If you don’t remove this material it may rot in the soil. Carefully slice small, horizontal sections from the crown until you see root buds that appear as small dots or circles on the cut surface.  The root buds are where the roots will eventually emerge and exposing them will facilitate quicker root formation. My pineapple top already had small roots formed as well. Strip off about an inch of lower leaves from the base to provide a stem for planting in the soil. Then set the plant top aside for a minimum of seven days in a dry place, out of full sun. The cut end must be allowed to heal and dry before planting, otherwise the plant will rot in the soil.

I may have to give this a whirl!

Growing strawberries, that sweet luscious fruit everyone loves, can have its challenges.  Weeds love taking over strawberry fields, and birds and other animals pluck away at and dine on the fruit.  So how can growing strawberries be made easier?  Try growing them in a cinder block!

You will want to put the cinder blocks so that the plants will get six to eight hours of direct sunlight a day.  According to ehow home, the hours of sunlight do not need to be consecutive, but aim for at least six hours of total sun exposure.

Fill the holes in the concrete blocks 3/4 of the way full with the soil mixture. Plant one or two strawberry plants in each concrete block. Position the seedlings so the crown –the part of the plant where the roots meet the stem — rests just at soil level and all roots are covered with soil. Fill in around the roots with fresh soil and firm them down with your hands to secure the plants.

Early spring is when you start planting strawberries, so get ready!

By the way, did you know strawberries are the only fruit with the seeds on the outside?

Grocery prices just kill me, so this may be the year that we plant some of our own vegetables.  I can almost taste a garden-grown fresh tomato already!  However, it looks like it will be the lettuce that I try my green thumb on.  Easy, affordable.  From Hot Coupon World,

If your family loves salads, lettuce is so easy to grow. The growing season can be very long, so planting lettuce could save you hundreds over buying bagged salad every night.  Lettuce comes in a wide array of varieties, so plant lettuce that’s going to give you good nutritional value over the iceberg type that is commonly found in bagged lettuce mixes.  If you get your lettuce in the ground now, you’ll have a harvest before Memorial Day.  And, lettuce is a cool-weather crop, so if you take care with your plants, and plant new seedlings every few weeks, you can have lettuce well into the fall. The average cost of a bagged lettuce is $2 for 12 ounces.  Between May through October, the savings for a family of four eating salad four nights a week is $200..

My bad. I prefer the iceberg lettuce!

Now is the time to begin planning your vegetable garden to be planted in spring and early summer. But if you’re not sure that you should grow your own vegetables, here are three excellent reasons why from A Cultivated Nest,

1.  Safety – You know exactly what you’re getting. You know what soil was used and what was or wasn’t sprayed on it.
2. Freshness – You’ll be able to pick your veggies at their peak flavor vs commercial growers that have to pick and ship. The flavor of homegrown can’t be matched by a grocery store!
3. Self-sufficiency – gardening gives you the skills you need to feed yourself.  There’s something comforting in knowing that you aren’t solely dependent  on a grocery store.

All outstanding reasons. My own reasons would include saving money, getting some free Vitamin D while outside weeding(!), and money saved. Now get to it!

If you’ve ever had a fried green tomato, you know they can be an explosion of delicious in your mouth. But for some, fried foods are just not a good option. But when you still have an abundance of green tomatoes, you can’t just throw them away.  From Haphazard Homestead, here’s a lesson on ripening green tomatoes to red,

Any cool dark place, like a garage or cellar, will do.  I left off the see-thru plastic cover and put a layer of cardboard on the shelves to keep the really small tomatoes from falling though (paper would work, too).  I placed all the green tomatoes on the shelves and covered the entire rack with plastic.  In our case, we had some very large white plastic bags used to dispose of natural Christmas trees.  You could use large trash bags, tarps or whatever you have on hand.  Cloth sheets will work, but not as well as plastic.  The plastic covering not only blocks out direct sunlight, but also traps in gasses that help the tomatoes get ripe.

Check them every few days and when they turn medium red, bring them into the sun! Great tip!

There are tons of ways to make homemade plant food rather than buying products of the shelves of stores. Save yourself some money by picking items off your own shelf.  From Creative Homemaking,

• According to another reader, Knox unflavored gelatin is really good for houseplants. They agreed that mixing finely crushed rinsed eggshells into your potting soil would give your houseplants a good boost. The eggshells are a good substitute for bonemeal.
• If you have a fish tank, when you change the water in the tank, use the water you take out to water your plants. Your plants will love fish fertilizer!
• One reader once a month pours a can of room temperature beer into each of her plants. She has had one plant for over 15 years.

I really like the fish idea, especially since we have a Beta fish here at home. Adding this to my to-do list!

Have we all seen the easy way to de-silk corn? You microwave the corn for about 4 minutes, then cut off none-stem end.  Shake it a little and it should slide right out.  Like this video of Ken demonstrating.

I tried it and it didn’t work.  I think my knife was not sharp enough so it had cooled by the time I was ready to shake it loose.  I’ve gone back to the old way of just pulling the leaves down and picking the silks the best I can.

However, if you are a fan of corn and always looking for corn ideas, this looks like a great way to cook a LOT of corn in a short time.  It’s cooler corn!

Then my sister, a capable Maine cook with years of camping experience says “let’s do cooler corn!” Before I can ask “what the [bleep] is cooler corn?” a Coleman cooler appears from the garage, is wiped clean, then filled with the shucked ears. Next, two kettles-full of boiling water are poured over the corn and the top closed.

Then nothing.

When we sat down to dinner 30 minutes later and opened it, the corn was perfectly cooked. My mind was blown. And I’m told that the corn will remain at the perfect level of doneness for a couple of hours.

Though I had rhubarb pie but once and it has been decades, it may be time to try it once again since taste buds to mature and change.  Why in the world would I be inspired to do this?  From reading Caramelize Life’s article called The Barb Is On,

I’ve often heard folks describe rhubarb as a weed or make comments like, ‘what would I do with it?’ To which I respond, ‘I’d be happy to take that off your hands so it’s not in your way.’ I’ll never say no to free barb.

Rhubarb sauce over yogurt was a staple growing up as it is in our home now. We regularly harvest, beginning now, and make sauces for breakfast dishes, lunches and snacks. If the seed stalk is kept cut back, and you trim your barb as it ripens, you can keep a plant producing all summer long.

Break down and try it again, I might!

Photo from Simple Bites.