Kale is probably the easiest crop you can grow in the Pacific Northwest. Our cool, mild climate is perfect for kale, which can easily become a year-round source of hipster-approved greens. However, like most cold hardy brassicas, kale tastes best when the weather turns chilly, so if you aren’t a major kale lover, grow this…
Caramelized Turnips and Apples with Thyme
Jump to the Recipe The turnip, along with her cousin the rutabaga, is an underappreciated root vegetable in the cabbage family. Winter turnips (the most common cultivar is Purple Top White Globe) can have a sharp, almost radishy flavor, but this mellows out and sweetens when you cook them. In this recipe, turnips and apples…
March Gardening Chores For The Pacific Northwest
2018 Update: Weather here in the Pacific Northwest isn’t nearly as strange as what our friends in Ireland or on the East Coast are dealing with. What I’m seeing is actually pretty typical for early March in the Pacific Northwest: a back and forth between blustery, cold, wintery weather and drizzly, mild spring weather. In my…
5 Things Friday 3/2/18
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: the sky split apart! Plus, organizing the larder to eat it down, reading with kids and more. Have a great weekend, friends! Do One Little Thing This…
Curried Sugar Hubbard Squash Soup
Jump to the Recipe When you’ve got a Sugar Hubbard Squash that needs to get used, you’ve got a lot of squash. Sugar Hubbard is a cross of Blue Hubbard and Sweet Meat, and it’s just fantastic. It roasts well and has a smooth, creamy texture when pureed. Last time I grew Sugar Hubbard I…
Johnny’s Seeds, Territorial Seeds and Monsanto: a 2018 Update
Way back in 2012, I wrote what became a fairly popular and referenced article on the Monsanto buyout of a seed company called Seminis. To briefly recap: Seminis was a provider of lots of garden seed to lots of different seedhouses. Then, overnight, they were a Monsanto subsidiary and seed companies like Johnny’s Selected Seeds…
5 Things Friday 2/23/18
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: thinking about garden clean-up, snow in the garden, rethinking school and more. Have a great weekend, friends! Do One Little Thing This Week If you are in…
Herbs To Boost Immunity in Rabbits
Sick rabbits, by and large, are dead rabbits in my experience. Dead rabbits – when they die before you harvest them for meat – are a waste of your precious time, resources, and wear you down psychologically. I detailed my struggles with meat rabbits in 2017. My research indicates that herbs, more than anything, are…
All the Seed Terminology You Need To Know
Gardening has lingo. Some of the terminology surrounding seeds, seed starting, and growing is pretty intuitive and some is more obscure or weird. But it helps to understand these seed-related terms if you want to navigate a seed catalog, ask accurate questions, look things up, or just sound like you know what you’re talking about….
Harissa Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Jump to the Recipe I’m pretty late to the harissa game. What can I say, I’ve lived in suburbia for 14 years and don’t get out much. Oh sure, I’d heard of this North African spice blend. I’d even eaten a decent amount of grilled squid with harissa, made by the the one restaurant within…
Major Site Upgrade and Some New Website Features You Should Know About
Why hello beautiful people. This is Erica’s website speaking. Can you tell I’ve….had a little work done? So the past three weeks or so here at the NWEdible headquarters has been website migration fun. When I say fun I mean fun like sticking your face inside a preheated waffle iron is fun. Actually it wasn’t…
My Seed Order for 2018
I think we need to add a new term to the general lexicon. Stress-induced Seed Acquisition Syndrome. SSAS. We can pronounce it like sass. SSAS is closely related to other Homestead acquisition and purchasing disorders, such as: Chicken Math Delusion Syndrome (CMDS) – the belief that your 4 x 8 foot chicken coop can totally…