You guys probably know that the half-ass hugelkultur beds I built a few years ago rock my world. They have been super productive. In fact, I like this permaculture bed-building technique so much that in a recent re-build of some of my old traditional raised beds, I experimented with making a normal raised beds into…
The Marmalade Old Fashioned
Inspiration, Part One I picked up a bin of what I thought was “chicken scraps” from my local yuppie-hippie market a few weeks ago and found myself in possession of a lot of free organic citrus. Since my chickens don’t eat citrus, and since I hate food waste, I made marmalade. My dad used to…
Food Storage For People Who Don’t Hate Food
In the preparedness world, things like this list go around periodically: This is a guide to building your food storage on $5 a week. Ignoring for a minute that food prices have clearly gone up since this list was put together (5 pounds of honey for $5? I don’t think so), my reaction every time…
Relaxing Bed Time Bath Soak
Periodically, I have trouble sleeping. The reason for this is a certain three-year-old boy. I’ve vented about the challenges of having a hard sleeper before. My son’s sleep is better than it used to be, but on a typical day, he still wakes and gets out of bed two or three times between his bedtime…
What To Make When You Have Too Many Eggs
It happens to almost every chicken keeper eventually, I think. Your girls are putting out the eggy goods faster than your family can eat them. Our flock as it currently stands has gifted us up to a dozen eggs in a day, and 8-9 per day is pretty typical. When I find myself staring at…
The Apple of My Eye Cocktail
Do me a favor. Don’t call this an Apple-tini, ok? Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, Happy Valentine’s Day! Make this drink for the apple of your eye and prepare to impress. It has all the flavors of a luscious, juicy slice of apple pie without being cloying. The Apple of…
4 Sensational Winter Salads To Eat Now
Last Sunday I presented a garden-to-table cooking demo called Sensational Cool Season Salads at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. I showed how to make salads that highlight great winter produce. I’m always a huge bundle of nerves before any public speaking engagement, but I think it went pretty well. I crammed four salad demos…
The Naughty Belle Cocktail: How Ladies Who Lunch Drink Bourbon
Ah, The South. Where the women are elegant, the peaches are juicy and the booze is Bourbon. Let a Southern Belle loose in the pantry and she might very well develop this cocktail. It’s strong balanced with sweet, homegrown, and very easy to love. Just like a Southern woman. I’m going to assume that every…
Dirt-Busting Sugar Hand Scrub For Gardeners
I am the queen of perma-dirt. You know those lines of dirt on the edges of your index fingers and thumbs? With all the time I spend playing in the garden, that area on me looked like I’d gotten a dirt tattoo for about a decade. I once asked folks on my Facebook page how…
{Giveaway} Scratch and Peck Organic Chicken Feed
When I first got hens, I didn’t understand how critical they would become to the entire system of my productive home. I just had that fresh-egg fantasy. You know the one: pastel-hued eggs in a Pinterest-worthy little wire basket. They would be laid by happy, fluffy hens and I would have omelets that were as…
How Green Is Your Organic Soil Amendment?
This is a guest post from Rachel of Dog Island Farm. Rachel and her husband Tom intensively urban farm a quarter acre parcel in the San Francisco Bay area. They are pretty famous in the urban homesteader world for going a year without stepping foot in a grocery store and providing no-nonsense advice on urban…
To Do In The NW Edible Garden: February 2014
February always feels like the first real month in the garden to me. Sure there’s a few things to do in January, if you want. But my first real round of seed starting happens around mid-month. Count forward 6 weeks and it’s the beginning of April – the perfect time to put hardy brassica transplants…