I am forever indebted to Storey’s Basic Country Skills. It is, itself, a perfectly comprehensive and useful book but of no remarkable distinction compared to the numerous all-in-one homesteading, country skills and home how-to encyclopedias also available for sale. Personally, I am more inclined to reach for The Encyclopedia of Country Living, which is similar…
I Love Books
5 Things Friday 4/6/18
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: transplant your cool-weather crops, watch some Shakespeare, and try not to fool yourself. Have a great weekend, friends! Do One Little Thing This Week Transplant your starts!…
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…
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…
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.
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.
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.
If You Could Outsource It All, Would You?
I’m reading this quick little book on geopolitics and trends in political economy called “The Retreat of Western Liberalism.” Highly recommended, if you’re into that kind of thing and want a clearer view of how a world that seems a little topsy-turvy right now got that way. There’s a discussion in the book about job and income growth…
5 Things Friday: 1/22/16
Time for the weekly-ish round-up of randomness! This is my way of shoe-horning in and discussing things that don’t necessarily belong on an urban homesteading blog, just because I’ve been thinking about them the past week. This week: my new favorite TV show tackles baking like a Victorian, I probably love my napkins way too…
{Giveaway} Creating A Suburban Food Forest with Michael Judd
In today’s episode of the Grow Edible Podcast, I chat with Michael Judd, the author of Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist about how to create a food forest. Michael has an interesting history; he spent his early adulthood in rural Latin America, including living with a Mayan community in Guatemala. These experiences gave him a…
{Giveaway} Lee Reich on Landscaping with Fruit and Uncommon Edibles
There are moments when audacity pays off. For years – years! – I’ve been full-on Fan Girl for garden writer Lee Reich. Lee’s been writing incredibly useful, readable books and magazine articles for decades and I’ve been learning from his expertise for about as long as I’ve been gardening. So when I heard Lee was going…
{Giveaway} The Bountiful Container + High Mowing Container Gardening Seeds
Not everyone has a Back 40. Many urban gardeners are working with aggressive space constraints (“Patio 4?” anyone?) but still want the joy of planting, harvesting and cooking homegrown veg. For these gardeners, container growing is sometimes the best or only option. Nearly every crop that can be grown in ground can also be grown…