84 bags of “Peat Free, Earth Friendly, Mom Approved, Sustainable, Biology Inside, Organic, Premium Ingredient” soil arrived on Friday. That sentence makes such an arrival sound far simpler than it was. A couple of days ago, a driver...
Read moreSome people say that one of the hardest part about making a dream come true is finding the space for it to be born. Is it silly to say that about gardening too? It is certainly true about my dream of growing my own food. I think the hardest thing...
Read moreSo reads the headline that staff at The Onion might construct for this post. I was about to write something silly about how much gardening is like yoga, when a healthy sense of perspective saved me from painful earnestness. I thought about...
Read moreIt’s Fava Time… I’ve planted favas every year since I started growing veggies and couldn’t find beautiful fresh ones at the farmer’s market. This year’s supply are going in the ground today (‘Aqua...
Read moreEver since I was a little girl I wanted to be a farmer. I don’t know where it comes from, this yearning to get my food from the land. Certainly it wasn’t my parents. Just a generation away from struggle they did everything they could...
Read moreOn this rainy March afternoon, it’s cheering to look out the window and see flowers blooming. The pussy willow over our driveway is covered in white catkins. There are all kinds of rules about how you should prune a tree. I’ve...
Read moreThe strip beside our alley driveway is bounded by an old chain link fence that has been mangled by the trunks of mulberry trees (thankfully now dead). By mid-June, it gets overrun by mile a minute vine, wild roses, poison ivy and about...
Read moreUse the food processor to make 4 pie crusts at a time. Place the crusts you are not using in the freezer and you’ll be able to pull one out for a quick quiche or fast dessert after work. It takes 10 minutes to make crusts this way...
Read moreIn March, most of our garden eating comes from food we’ve preserved and herbs we’ve dried. We found some rosemary that survived the winter snow and used it over and over again in a meal we cooked for vegetarian friends. ...
Read moreHere’s the fence along which I am hoping to plant the first seeds of the season: Snap, or Snow Peas. Snow peas don’t really want to grow up through this much snow, and I’m hoping that the sun and the highs in the 50’s...
Read more