Inflammation is your body’s natural way of healing itself when you’re injured. It’s actually a really, really good thing. If you slam your thumb in the car door your thumb will become inflamed as your body sends in the immune system to shut down any invading bacteria and begin to heal the wound. You can…
Recent Posts
A Slightly Easier Way To Keep The Big Girl Panties Clean
Perhaps, like me, you spend far too much of your life doing laundry. Far too much. I have asked everyone I know if they have any tips or tricks to cut down the number of loads or number of hours involved in laundry and the consensus seems to be, you just have to put on…
Planning For A Year-Round Harvest: When You Need The Big Picture
The detailed month-by-month lists are great and all, but sometimes you need the overview, the synopsis, the big picture. This is particularly true at the beginning of the growing season, like now, when all the little details are popping up: what plants do I grow? How many? How long till I can eat them? Where do…
More Coop Improvement Projects: Sand Bed-Deep Litter Hybrid and More
I like working on the coop. This past weekend I swapped the raised hen house area of the chicken coop from a straw-bed floor to a sand-bed floor. When I bought our first two hens, who we acquired as grown layers, the owner kept an immaculate coop with a sand bed under the roosting area and swore…
Worst Soil Amendment For Tomatoes?
Rachel Shadoan is a writer of exceptional wit. I know because she posted a story of gardening loss on the NW Edible Facebook page that was both so terrible and so hilarious that I read it twice. I asked for her permission to share her tale of tomato-growing woe (and lessons learned) here. This story appeared originally on Rachel’s…
Assessing Your Health: Anti-Inflammation Challenge Week 1
On February 1st, we talked about journalling our health baseline and getting our anti-inflammatory plan together. Have you done it? If not, go do yours right now and then come back, or read on to see what my Assessment looks like if you need some inspiration. Need even more motivation to do this? Just in…
Refactoring In The Garden
2011 was The Year of Additions. We added to our garden: new perennial bed, new mini-orchard, new chickens, two new coops for aforementioned chickens, and a couple new raised beds. We added this blog, and with it a sizable commitment and a wonderful community of like-minded folks. And late in 2010 of course, we had added this…
February Anti-Inflammatory Diet: Day 1, Making The Plan
A few days ago I asked my readers to weigh in on what February challenge I should sponsor on this blog. Overwhelmingly, people in comments and on the Facebook page voted for an anti-inflammatory diet challenge. Those of you who wanted a debt diet, don’t worry – you’re next. Multiple bloggers, including possibly me, are planning…
To Do In The Northwest Edible Garden: February 2012
Time to get going. The days are stretching out, gardeners can feel spring reaching out to take hold of the vegetable plot. February is the month in the Maritime Northwest when you begin to begin, and by now most of us have recovered enough from September that we are eager to get going. Plan &…
February: Save Money Or Reduce Inflammation?
February is coming up, and I’ve been thinking about sponsoring another No Spend Month challenge. February is an easy month to go No Spend, because it’s short. Twenty-nine (hey look, Ma, a leap year!) breezy days of enforced frugality to re-set the savings budget and rebalance the treat spiral entitlement curve. Homebrew Husband and I have…
Seed Organization For Gardeners With Too Many Seeds
On Monday I talked about seeds for beginners. Well, after a season or two of growing from seed you may become (like many of the commenters on Monday’s post) a Gardener With Too Many Seeds. You have become a G.W.T.M.S. when you have file boxes dedicated to your seeds and you debate with yourself every season…
Honey, Nut and Raisin Granola: A Litmus Test For Beekeeping
Homebrew Husband and I are dancing around the idea of maybe, someday, possibly keeping honeybees. We are being very sensible about this. We are not rushing in. We are getting a bee education before we plunge into apiarying. I’m currently taking a fantastic Apprentice Beekeeping class through the local branch of Washington State University’s Extension program, and when I’m done, he’ll take…