One of many carrot seed heads
Saving Carrot Seeds
Carrots are fun to grow at home and if you're lucky, some of them will bolt to seed at the end of the season. Then, if you grew an heirloom…
Ratatoulle, RatItalian-Style
Ratatouille, RatItalian-Style
When I saw that Smitten Kitchen recreated the ratatouille recipe from Pixar's animated film of the same name, I couldn't resist making it. But there's one caveat: I don't care…
Invasive fruit flies plotting their attack
Homemade Fruit Fly Traps
They're everywhere! Tiny, annoying fruit flies, that is. They're trying to get into our tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, and plums. They're even breeding in our compost bucket. What to do? Break…
San Marzano tomatoes, fresh parsley, fresh oregano, and homegrown garlic and onions.
Recipe: Homemade Tomato Sauce
Italians believe that San Marzano tomatoes are the only tomatoes for making sauce. I'm Italian, and I've made sauce with just about any tomato I can get my hands on,…
Nature gives us answers if you know where to look.
Harvesting Onions
Onions take a long time to grow, but when it comes time for harvesting onions, it's incredibly satisfying, and worth the wait. Here in Southern California we plant onions by…
Kelloggs Breakfast
Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes
It's harvest time for tomatoes, whether they be determinate or indeterminate. These orbs of delight are the quintessential summer fruit and we're picking them daily. We planted early this year…
Black Dakota Popping Corn
Harvesting Black Dakota Popping Corn
This spring we experimented with growing heirloom Black Dakota popping corn. It's a beautiful, deep red, pointy popping corn that pops white. We couldn't resist the opportunity to plant this…
Start with fresh fruit
Recipe: Garden-Fresh Fruit Leather
Preserving the harvest was never so fun as when making fruit leather. It's simple and easy and is far better for you than the sugar-laden stuff you get from the…
Try adding tomato for an even more savory experience
Recipe: Provolone & Leek Grilled Cheese Sandwich
We're up to our ears in leeks right now. We've made the giant vat of potato leek soup. We've dehydrated 3 jars worth of leeks for use in eggs and…
We used Cocozelle Italian zucchini - cool stripes!
Recipe: Indian Summer Succotash
It's zucchini time, and if your garden is "overproducing" zucchini like ours is, this one is for you. It's a quick dish that takes 30 minutes or fewer, and uses…