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…
What’s In A Name? The Beyond Organic Backyard Egg Question
My mom was over and asked, “Are your eggs organic?” “Oh yeah, of course!” I said, “We use organic feed.” But I’ve been thinking about it, and here’s the thing: I’m not sure our eggs are organic. Not really, not technically. I mean, our chickens have a good life. Compared to battery-caged birds they are…
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…
Taking The Homestead In For Lunch
I used to pick up lunch at work. You know, a cheapo sandwich from Safeway, a burger from the cool indie burger place across the street, takeout teriyaki from the stand that seemed to have new owners every week. Back in the day, four years or so ago, I used to budget $6 a day…
What Leftovers Look Like
I know people who refuse to eat leftovers. At least, they think they refuse to eat leftovers….little do they know how creative professional kitchens get to minimize food waste. Ever ordered the soup du jour or the daily lunch special? If so – you’ve had leftovers. Personally, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t know what…
The Kids Who Will Save The World
You know how you read the newspaper (or whatever passes for a newspaper in your world – for me it’s the Google news homepage and my blog feed reader) and by the time your coffee is tepid you’ve discovered thirteen new ways in which The World Is Going To Hell In A Handbasket? Like most…
Plum Perfect Galette
You know how people say “easy as pie,” when something couldn’t be simpler? Well, sorry pie, there is something simpler, and tastier: the galette. Oh, sure, you might argue that a galette is just a French pie, and in a way you’d be right. But this flat, simple, rustic (galettes are always described as rustic, which I find…