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…
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…
Would You Rub Pork Fat On Your Face?
Would you put pork fat on your face? I’ve started using a moisturizer that most people would describe as…gross. After trying it, I say it’s gross and fabulous. I’ve always had very sensitive skin. On my face, my skin expresses it’s tender nature by being dry, scaly, patchy, and red in most places…and breaking out…
To Do In The Northwest Edible Garden: June 2012
Plan & Purchase: Shocking, isn’t it, that it’s time to plan the fall and overwintering garden? Gets me every year. If you are into the year-round harvest thing, now is when you get your gameplan together for things as far away as next May’s cauliflower. Territorial Seed has a dedicated fall/winter catalog that will come…
Never Buy A Rotten Avocado Again
Where I live, far from avocado country, it’s not unusual for organic avocados to be $2.50 or $3 each. “Oh, waaah, you big crybaby,” locavore purists might argue, “avocados are expensive because you live in Seattle, so stop buying non-local food!” To which I reply: “The zombies can have my guacamole when they pry it…
Buying An All American 30 Quart Pressure Canner: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
If you are part of the NW Edible community on Facebook, then you may already know about the pressure canner that brought me to tears. I had some birthday money, you see. Visions of pantry-ready, home-canned stock danced in my head. And so, after some research, I look the plunge into pressure canners. It was a…
The Spring Garden That Wasn't: A May Photo Tour
This is a very strange spring. I have foot high corn and foot-across squash but hardly any of the typical spring crops. There’s a few heads of lettuce, and peas of course, but for the most part when I should have been most focused on putting in more complete spring garden I was instead mucking…
Canning Swirly Fruit: An Easy Way To Prep Pears and Apples
Here’s a lovely way to save some time when you prepare apples or Asian pears for canning. Use an apple peeler-corer (see mine at work here) to make beautiful coils of automatically-cored firm fruit. The swirly fruit looks fantastic in the jar, and packs in well for a nice, well-filled raw pack. Don’t get too…
reCAP Mason Jar Cap Giveaway Winners
You all had so many great ideas for how to use reCAP Mason Jar Pour Caps. Thanks to everyone who entered. Our five winners were: Ryan Darla S Ellen Toni Wolfie Winners, you’ve been emailed so check your inbox for details on how to claim your reCAP prize. Thanks all for entering and for reading!…
Battling Mulch Mountain at the Chicken Coop Door
I suspect anyone who has a chicken coop with a human-sized door has encountered the problem of door-blockage. Chickens adore kicking and scratching in the straw and dirt and debris of the coop floor, and tend to make little mountains and valleys from their scratching efforts. Mulch Mountain The mountain chickens create is always immediately…
When She Got There, The Cupboards Were Bare: Assessing Your Larder
How’s your larder looking? Mine is pretty spartan. This is a great time of year to assess your larder and see what you’ve eaten tons of and what hasn’t been a hit. If you make some notes now about what your family really eats, before the furor of canning season comes upon us, there’s a good chance…