I confess. It is one of my favorite tools in the kitchen. Not only do I use it everyday, but it also has a permanent home on my countertop. Even when I travel by car, I bring it along with me. No, it is not a set of coveted knives, or a well-seasoned cast iron […]
Gleaning: Social Food for Thought
As gardeners, the approach of fall is bittersweet. We love the flavor of something freshly picked. Tomatoes offer a warm, luxurious taste of summer and berries are sweet on the vine. Yes, as gardeners, we hustle to gather while we can, but there is a certain relief as fall draws near. The promise of a […]
Proper Care for Home-produced Eggs
Whether you live in the country or urban setting, raising chickens can be a wonderful experience. They come in a wide variety of colors and sizes. Their personalities are often larger than life and they can be quite social. In fact, I frequently recommend people to get chickens if they are just starting out with […]
Crave-worthy Caponata
As someone of German heritage, I have a profound love of homemade Italian food that belies my upbringing. Perhaps it was due to my exposure to Italian cuisine that involved a box containing a tin of sauce, a bundle spaghetti, and cheese that was shaken out of a green canister? I grew up thinking that […]
Final Fall Harvest
Weather has a profound effect on gardening. Winds can flatten a field of crops, hail can pummel plants into bits, and drought causes fruit to wither on the vine. But the single most frantic day for gardeners driven by weather, is the day leading into an evening where a freeze has been predicted. Today was […]
Better than Store-Bought: Homemade V-10 Juice
I grew up on my mom’s canned tomato juice. All that was in the jar were garden raised tomatoes and salt. She canned it by the dozens of quarts in late summer. There was enough for our family of eight to last us through the fall, winter, and even into early spring. Besides being a […]