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Scenes from a Monday morning.
This morning the weather was simply lovely. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the flowers were blooming. When you couple that with the fact that I finally figured out how to work the...
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Stephen King motivates me to be a better gardener.
My spring garden has hit maximum overload this week. (Notice how it is the week when I am juggling a million items and my husband is hospitalized overnight for pneumonia. This is always my life.) The...
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A rambling post on gardens, sweat, and tomatillo babies.
Most mornings I drag myself outside to check on the garden beds before the heat of the day arrives and makes me a homebound worshipper of central air. (Fact: Just the mere mention of humidity makes...
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Christmas jam.
The other night I was protesting the obscenely hot weather in Indianapolis by eating egg rolls at my friend Zoe’s house. (Because if you are going to protest something, you should do it with delicious...
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Is that zucchini in your laundry basket, or are you just happy to see me?
It has begun. The summer bounty has begun its chaotic, frenzied dance of deliciousness. So much produce. So much abundance. The tomatillos are starting to make their appearance. They look so...
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The underdog of the vegetable world.
I always feel bad for zucchinis. First off, most people (myself included) have a hard time even spelling the word. Two c’s or is it two n’s or both? Despite being incredibly prolific, zucchinis...
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The smell of summer.
A friend of mine once said that every season has its own distinct smell and that basil’s fragrance belonged to summer. I agree with her. Basil smells of sunshine, green things, and heat, all things...
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Green tomato salsa verde- because you deserve it.
Last week my husband cleared out all the sad, depressed tomato and tomatillo plants. The days have gotten cooler and the nights are down right chilly which makes the plants sulk and stop producing...
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Vegetative pressure.
Gentle reader, I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with an entertaining and fascinating post but all I have are random bits of this and that. Which, of course, means that it’s time for one of...
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In the garden. (With Carly Simon.)
For Valentine’s Day, my husband bought me a bunch of plants for our garden. I had been anxiously anticipating their arrival for a few weeks now, however we were stuck in the Winter-That-Would-Not-End,...
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Spring. The eating season.
I love my gardens in the spring. There’s such a happiness in seeing live green things after a cold winter. I imagine early settlers and pioneers felt even more joy when their spring greens came up....
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Gardening. It’s what’s for dinner.
Here in Indiana, spring has been beautiful this year. Flat out gorgeous, in fact. Typically, spring is an iffy situation where I live. Some years summer comes on so hard and fast that it’s...
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It’s not what you know, it’s who you know: Gardening edition
I once had lofty dreams of living off the land and being self sufficient. A sort of modern day Laura Ingalls Wilder, if you will, but without flannel underwear or corsets. Because, ew. Gross. Then...
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Another backyard farm update. With chickens.
As you can see from the photographic evidence above, we have managed to keep all four of our chickens alive for almost a month now. Which is a lot harder than it sounds. Chickens aren’t the sharpest...
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Being ants, in a grasshopper world.
“Mom,” my son puffed, as sweat dripped down his face, “How much longer are we going to be here?” “Well,” I replied, “That depends- how much do you like jam and blueberry syrup and raspberries in your...
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Cucumber math.
Take a bushel of cucumbers priced at $12. Add $4 of dill pickle mix. Multiply by a small percentage of sweat, blood, and tears. Divide into batches by performing a few hours of intensive canning,...
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Of course I can.
When I look back on the summer of 2013 I’m going to remember the smell of cooking tomatoes and the sound of jar lids sealing. This year will definitely go down in the history books as the year of...
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Procrastination…it does a carrot good.
Yesterday, after putting it off for two months, I finally harvested the last of our carrots. I meant to pull them earlier. I really did. But there were tomatoes to can, chickens to stalk, and...
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Winding down.
Today I cleaned out the garden. Some people feel all melancholy when fall comes and the leaves start to turn colors and fall to the ground. They see the dying foliage and feel a loss, perhaps. Not me....
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Winter weary.
This weekend Indianapolis suffered through another snowstorm, followed by temperatures in the single digits. In fact, local meteorologists have proudly pointed out (as if they’ve had something to do...
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