A while back I realized that the cheap scrubbing-mitts I kept in the shower might do for root veggies what they do for my post-garden-work-Hobbit feet: get the dirt off. I bought a pair for kitchen use and put them to work. Here’s how they fared against purple potatoes and sunchokes fresh out of the…
Recent Posts
A Very Homestead Holiday
I hate to be the bearer of exhausting news but the holiday season is right around the corner. Personally, I think it’s obscene to see Christmas wrapping paper and Halloween candy on display at the same time, but there it is. This is the world we live in. Image from Premier Packaging, shared via Creative…
Beet Greens with Bruschetta
I remember back when I bought a lot more produce at the store. A women picked out a few bunches of top-on beets and took them to a produce employee. “Can you cut the tops off these for me?” she asked, “I don’t want them.” I hovered near the Asian veg section, eavesdropping and mildly horrified….
Monsanto Announces New SoyBee'n Self-Pollinating Soy Bean!
Last month, noted seed and biotech company Monsanto announced the purchase of Beelogics, a company with a product in trial that may help prevent colony collapse disorder in bees.* In related news, Monsanto has successfully built bee DNA into insect-pollinated crops through genetic engineering. Though the technology is currently being trialed on a limited 3,000…
An October Garden Tour
Beds are thinning out. Things that are picked are not being replanted. The loss of the beans and squash certainly changed the profile of the garden. But there is still so much good stuff out there. Here’s how my garden is looking right now: First planting of savoy cabbages look – sorry, this isn’t very…
Fall The Wife
I’ve been thinking about this. Fall is my favorite harvesting season. If I had to marry a vegetable growing time of year, it would be Fall. Spring is a virgin. She makes you wait. You want Spring in April, but she doesn’t actually put out until late June. I’m all for keeping it buttoned up…
Baby Moccasins And Other Off-Season Adventures
The peak marathon of late-summer work in the garden is finally over. Oh sure, there’s clean up and garlic and cover cropping and all those other tasks, but there’s no urgency. The days are shorter and the tasks are less immediate. I’m still preserving pears and apples but the weekend-long sessions of salsa and canned tomatoes…
The Only Good Fruit Fly Is A Dead Fruit Fly
Piles of ripening, and occasionally over-ripened, fruit, such as have been gracing my kitchen for about the last six weeks, bring with them fruit flies. Man I hate those little bastards. Fruit flies just…appear. And once you have some of them calling your kitchen or your peaches or your compost home, they will swell to disgusting proportions…
To Do In The Northwest Edible Garden: October 2011
Plan & Purchase:This is a great month to order bare root fruit trees and shrubs! If you didn’t get a garlic order in or save your own seed cloves, hit up your local farmers market before they shut down and buy some hardneck garlic to plant now. If you don’t have cloches, buy or scrounge…
Sick Day, And Old School Reading
It’s a good thing I had a productive Sunday, since I suspect I’ll be just skating by for the next few days. I’m fairly sure my nose has been shoved full of cotton and a mid-size sedan is trying to drive out of my head from just behind my eyes. Yes, I fear I’m getting…
The Rich Man, The Mormon Mom And The Dice Rolls Of Life
This is not a political blog. Sometimes my political leanings (which can be summed up as, “leave people more or less alone and don’t be a raging asshole,”) probably poke up, like so many unnoticed weeds in the raised bed of my life. But I try not to focus on politics here, or in my…
Tools For A Hand Job
Good tools are essential to any job, and work in the garden is no exception. I’m one of those girls that likes a good workout session with a garden fork, but the longer I garden, the more I find small tools get most of the work done. For my last birthday, my best friends gave…