In the quest for self-reliance, seed saving plays a big part. After all, in a "zombie apocalypse" situation you wouldn't be able to run to the store to buy seeds for your garden. You would need to produce your own supply. This is where a seed library comes in very handy. A seed library is a local endeavor, when you and your fellow gardeners gather seeds and share them in an orderly fashion. Seeds are catalogued and counted and made…
It's harvest time, and while most of the harvest is abundant (corn, peppers, beans, eggplant), there were some smaller harvests--including the world's smallest watermelon. Let's not call it "disappointing" but rather a celebration of underwhelm. We planted baby watermelons (okay, so there's a genetic head start on "small" right there) late in the season, following a garlic harvest as we often do, in late June or July. Plants took off and did very well setting fruit, but at some point…
I had the pleasure of taking a biodynamic apiculture class with Michael Thiele of Gaia Bees this past weekend. WOW. Talk about taking a different approach. Michael does not use smoke, doesn't wear a protective suit, and doesn't use conventional Langstroth hives to house bees. What he had to share was an entire day filled with alternatives to modern beekeeping. Just as with biodynamic farming/gardening, Michael guided the participants to view bees, the colony, the hive, and their entire process…
Today we have a guest post from Nancy Parker of eNannySource.com, a site that makes it as easy as possible for caregivers to sign up and find work. In addition, she spends quite a bit of her time writing freelance. Take it away, Nancy. We all love to reuse things and reduce waste, but some things still wind up in the trash. Items like eggshells often do, but what if you could use them in your garden instead? From handy…
It's important to try new things every once in a while, because that simple act of diving blindly into the unknown is the very thing that keeps life interesting. Yesterday I did exactly that; I made Ancho chile powder from garden-grown poblano peppers. Let me preface this by saying that my chile powder is green. I know, I know, you're supposed to wait until the peppers turn red before doing it, but the poblano plant was going crazy and I…
Perhaps the most important part of any vegetable garden is the habitat surrounding the garden itself. Having a place where good bugs can thrive can be the difference between a successful garden, or one full of pests. Milkweed plays an important role in keeping one species happy: the Monarch butterfly. Monarchs are amazing for a number of reasons. First, they only lay their eggs on milkweed plants, because that is the single food of their young larvae. Second, most monarchs…
Despite being called a "granola head" throughout college, I've never grown sprouts, mostly because I resented the fact that they found their way into places they didn't belong...like veggie tacos. However, it's important to try new things every once in awhile, so I took the opportunity to try sprouting this summer. Botanical Interests Seeds sent me a freebie: a giant packet of fenugreek seeds complete with instructions for how to sprout them. Fenugreek seeds are known for their dense nutrient…
One last stop on our tour of Quebec City's gardens: an impressive rooftop garden that anyone can replicate, at least in part. Les Jardins des Lauberiviere is a project that sits on top of a former hotel, and is now Quebec City's largest homeless shelter. Not only does this shelter provide a home for its residents, but the 6,000 square foot rooftop garden produces 1.5 tons of vegetables each year. The project was installed by Les Urbainculteurs, a non-profit organization…
Last month's Westside Produce Exchange was amazing. The haul was beyond belief. Each person left with a bag filled with summer produce that rivaled any farmers' market. I brought poblano peppers and in exchange I received tomatoes, peppers, peaches, zucchini, onions, basil and more. All handed out in abundance, all for free. If you've never heard of a produce exchange, check out our previous blog post about it. It's a great way to distribute your excess to friends and to…
Each year, we grow our own pumpkins for Halloween and winter pumpkin puree-based desserts. Most years it goes well, but this year's results left much to be desired. It all started out so good... We planted Rouge Vif e’Etampes (AKA Cinderella's Carriage) and despite our gloomy overcast summer dishing out gobs of powdery mildew, they thrived. We had three pumpkins in one cluster growing gangbusters. Then, well past the point of pollination infancy, one 5" small pumpkin withered and fell…