Jump to the Recipe I picked up some pork from a new-to-me pork guy last month. This was a bulk-buy type situation a friend coordinated, and I asked for a variety of cuts to assess if I wanted to go…uh…whole-hog in the fall. Oliver was with me when I loaded bags of pork into the trunk…
5 Things Friday 1/26/18
Five Things Friday is where I assemble assorted favorites, oddities, announcements, discoveries, random thoughts, life tidbits and whatever else wasn’t quite long enough for a real post. This week: resist buying stupid seed starting gear! Plus, why I love magnesium to help manage stress, The Resilient Farm and Homestead, perennial herbs and more.
How To Grow Onions: The 4 Things You Need To Know For Success
Onions can be weird. Here are four things you need to know to grow them successfully. First, they are oddly finicky about daylight length. Second, they can be grown as a fresh eating vegetable or a storage vegetable. Third, there are enough onion varieties to bog down even the most decisive garden planner. Last – but certainly not least in the confusion department – you can grow them from seed, set, or from plant starts.
If Infomercials Targeted Gardeners
Do you have trouble getting your cabbage to head? Are you concerned about your cruciferous credibility? Have brassicas got you beat? Then you, my friend, need kale! Yes, kale! And not just any kale – you need Portuguese Kale. Now I know what you’re thinking, “how could I ever grow kale? Isn’t it a superfood? Aren’t superfoods only for super-gardeners?”
5 Things Friday 1/19/18
This week’s Five Things Friday randomness: planning for succession planting, my favorite essential oil, a rainy week in the garden and more.
Vietnamese Stir-fried Kohlrabi and Prawns
The Vietnamese dipping sauce nuoc cham gives this simple stir-fry of kohlrabi and prawns lots of flavor. A light, delicious meal for your mid-winter produce.
5 Things Friday 1/12/18
This week for Five Things Friday: why you need to think about what you eat before you commit to a garden plan, my secret to easy flavorful meals is pretty much just Thai curry paste, sunchokes are taking over my world, Marcus Aurelius proves stoicism and meditation are natural partners and more.
What Warts Taught Me About Meditation
A couple months ago my son sprouted a wart on the ball of his left foot. I’m going somewhere with this, I promise. At first the wart was so small, we opted to just keep an eye on it. But later it started to spread into a chrysanthemum of tiny baby warts blooming up from…
Urbanite (Broken Concrete) Retaining Wall As A Garden Feature
For New Year’s Eve, Homebrew Husband and I had dinner and hung out with good friends (sans children) at a local, casual, historic hotel. It’s a bit hard to describe this place. Local Pacific Northwest folks, it was one of the McMenamins properties called The Anderson School. The hotel is a converted High School with kitchy rooms…
5 Things Friday 1/5/18: Seed Inventory, Salt Lamps, Portuguese Kale
Five Things Friday: where I assemble assorted favorites, oddities, announcements, discoveries, random thoughts, life tidbits and whatever else wasn’t quite long enough for a real post. This week: why you should inventory your seeds now, the nicest glow in the room comes from my salt lamp, seeds are total destruction if you don’t understand growth and more.
2018 Word List Brainstorming Session
So, 2017 was kinda a weird year, huh? I realized just at the end of December that I’ve been carrying some anger in me. Like, unexpected, wow I-really-didn’t-know-I-was-that-on-edge anger. Some of you made 2017 the year of embracing your anger. Without judgement, as soon as I could name this feeling of being vaguely on edge…
January Gardening Chores For The Pacific Northwest
January means one thing when you are a gardener: a mailbox stuffed to bursting with seed catalogs. With a stack of seed catalogs and well-thumbed gardening books by our side, and ground that’s still too cold and wet to work, the name of the January game is mostly planning, not planting.