A friend asked for some tips on packing lower-plastic and lower-waste lunches for her school-age son. This rather surprised me, since this particular friend is genuine cloth-diapering, Keystone XL Pipeline-protesting, etsy-craft-selling kind of girl. And in fact, when further questioned, it turned out my friend was already packing a pretty green lunch, but was looking…
Photo Tour Of The Winter Garden
This has been such a mild winter. My chard and lettuces are still going strong, along with some herbs I never would have thought to be harvestable in January, like cilantro and lemon verbena. It’s such a treat to be able to harvest this kind of food rainbow in the dead of winter. Scenes…
Your Chance to Win 'The Urban Farm Handbook'
What better way to celebrate the new look and feel of NW Edible than with a chance to win the best new urban homesteading book on the market? When Annette Cottrell, co-author with Joshua McNichols of The Urban Farm Handbook and author of the site Sustainable Eats, asked me if I’d like to host a giveaway…
Big Upcoming Changes On NW Edible
Well, the times they are a changin’….Or at least, this blog it is a changing. Tomorrow, and through the weekend, I will be implementing some pretty big changes to the look and structure of this blog. What this will mean for you, the reader: It will be easier to find the posts with recipes, the…
Avoiding Plastic Wrap In The Kitchen
I’m not dogmatically anti-plastic, but I try to be thoughtful about how and where it is used in my house, and I am trying to cut down. My garden at this time of year grows under a tunnel cloche of plastic. Freezer stuff gets entombed in plastic, because it’s the best at preserving the bulk orders of…
How To Render Beef Tallow From Marrow Bones
I recently made beef stock with marrow bones (sometimes called pipe bones) and in the process rendered out a heck of a lot of beef fat (tallow) from inside the bones. Two birds with one stone, and all that. See all the white stuff inside the bones? That’s marrow. It’s either a great culinary delicacy…
The Productivity Junkie Had A Baby
It sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn’t it? So, this productivity junkie had a baby…. I got a very kind email from a reader a few weeks ago that boiled down to this, “how do you do so much while having little kids?” This reader had recently had her own child, and was…
A Thank You Toast For New Year's Eve
Dear Readers, In January of this year, I sat nursing my infant son and looking out the window at my quiet, still garden. As all new mothers will understand, I was stuck to my couch for what felt like days at a time, a willing human mattress and latte stop for my ever-hungry boy. I couldn’t…
Best Northwest Edible Posts of 2011, Part Two
And now, the thrilling conclusion to our story! Or, at the very least, a continuation of yesterday’s retrospective of the best NW Edible posts of 2011. Did you miss the first half of this list? Find it here. July my fave: Being Everyone – Since ya’ll asked, yes, once upon a time I had a six-pack. I still…
Best Northwest Edible Posts of 2011, Part One
It’s been almost a year since I started this blog, and as the year rolls to a close, I’ve been looking back over what worked, what didn’t and what resonated with you, NW Edible’s readers. It turns out that mostly what resonates with you are posts with swearing. I infer from this that we’re all…
Last Minute Stocking Stuffer: "Get Out Of A Chore Free" Santa Cards – Free Download
We do chores around here, kids included. So the gift of not having to do those tedious chores is always appreciated. I’m trying to get the last of the holiday gift stuff together today – wrapping presents, stuffing stockings, etc. – and I put together some “Santa Slips to slip in my daughter’s stocking. These are…
Grow Your Grub Podcast Interview
Put a little gardening chat on while you wrap those presents or bake those cookies or spin that dreidel. (Or, hey, while you dance in Celtic colors around an ash yule log – I’m not here to judge.) This time of year is so busy, we all need to multitask. So while you’re attending to…