Last April 2nd I took these photos of my newly-constructed Half-Ass Hugelkultur Beds. Today, just shy of three months later they look like this. Can I get a woot-woot for hugels? Other than the massive attack of greenery, one of the biggest changes in this planting area are the twin concrete mesh trellises we installed…
Archives for June 2012
The $332 Fantasy Facial (Or: An Anthropological Expedition to the Mall)
“If you get nothing else, please, please just get the moisturizer,” the overly plumped and overly plucked sales-cultist implores me. “You know, these are the years that really count for your skin.” The moisturizer is $75 for a two-ounce jar. The jar, it must be said, is a very pretty sandblasted green. It’s worth at least…
The Garden In June: Photo Tour
In a garden, some years things go smooth(ish) and some years things are a little bumpier. The biggest bump I’ve run into this year is cabbage maggots which decimated a full bed of nearly-sized-up broccoli and did a number on a few other spring brassicas around the garden. The root maggots, combined with a few…
How Not To Buy Flowers For A Gardener
So, last week the content was a little sparse here on NW Edible. That’s because I got in a collision last Monday morning while driving the kids to the bus stop. Everyone is safe, no major injuries were sustained, the car is in the shop with substantial boo-boos, and we are all moving back towards…
Lunch In A Jar: How Mason Jars Can Make Your Brown Bagging Easier
Do you run short on reusable, environmentally-friendly containers when you are packing lunches? In the, “this may be too obvious to be a blog post but may also change your lunch hour for the better” category, I’d like to talk about using your stash of mason jars for things other than canning (or margaritas). Like brown…
The Urban Homesteader Food Pyramid
I’ve been thinking about self-sufficiency: what that means, and what is truly achievable in a small space, such as our 1/3-acre property. The key to eating more food from your own backyard, it strikes me, is to have a diet that focuses more on foods that can be grown in your backyard. Even though we…
Where The Men Aren't
Maybe you have websites like these your blog-reader. They are filled with instagram-tinted family photos and helpful recipes and they have cute tag-lines that always include the phrase: “journey to self-sufficiency.” These blogs focus on what one family is doing to become more healthy, self-reliant or economically and environmentally responsible. Sometimes the focus is on…
Giveaway: Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard plus The Three Rules Small Space Gardeners Must Follow
In the Seattle urban farming scene, there are a couple of guys – Colin and Brad – who seem to be everywhere. They run the aptly named Seattle Urban Farm Company, and under that moniker set-up and maintain edible gardens in backyards and on restaurant rooftops around the city and teach countless workshops for beginning…
Strawberry Jam Margaritas and the Mason Jar Trick That Will Blow Your Mind
I ate my first homegrown strawberry of the year yesterday. You know what that means? It’s time to use up all that damn strawberry jam still kicking around the pantry from 2011. While my love for PB&J only goes so far, my love of Mommy’s Liquid Refreshment knows no bounds. And so, after some arduous recipe development, the…
Be Not Discouraged (If Your Garden Doesn’t Look Like Erica’s)
Meet Ugly Garden: I’m not a long-time reader of Northwest Edible Life. I’m not a long time gardener either. Both these afflictions are rather new for me. I started my measly little Ugly Garden in earnest last year, with just two beds and some picket fencing repurposed from the neighbor’s dump pile. One of those…
Stop Fetishizing Small Producers (And Start Fetishizing Good Ones)
The following post contains extremely graphic images of animal slaughter. Even people already familiar with animal butchery may find the images and descriptions contained herein to be very disturbing. I know I do. This is probably the most difficult post I’ve ever written. Most people will probably not find it easy to read. Please consider your…
Giveaway: Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother's Secret Ingredient
Update: This Giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Jill! Jill, please check your email for information on how to claim your prize. Just a warning, friends: expect a lot of giveaways in the next several weeks. I spent last weekend at the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup and was more than happy to bring…