Kitchen Garden
Cricket and Gray(the first real outline I've written since high schoolwhich, for any math impaired people, was 23 years ago.)1. Cricket's father dies a. broken...
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The sap is running. It's not spring yet. This is midwinter for most of us (except for Simply Belinda and a very few others who...
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I've been giving a lot of thought to the balance of things. Because I am without a doubt a person who was coded without a...
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You probably shouldn't eat me.Someone told me that even here in the Willamette Valley people have been killed over mushroom territory disputes. While I...
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You thought I was going to recommend some great new diet in which you consume pot in your cookies, didn't you? (That diet is...
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Our yard is a wasteland of long grass dotted with dog bombs. It was a blank slate when we moved in except for a few...
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This bed is 4' x 16' which is equal to 64 square feet of planting space. In it I have planted 24 chitted seed potatoes...
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I am enchanted by the idea of my entire property being over run with wild flowers, rampant vegetables, and old fruit trees. I see...
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Due to my extreme influenza that almost killed me I missed the prime planting time for fava beans and peas in this region. The average...
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Home dried thyme on the left. Store bought dried thyme on the right.The color is exquisitely preserved when you use a dehydrator to dry them. ...
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For An Urban LotThis is my Quince tree. I planted it too late last year for it to form branching. It survived, however, and has...
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This year, for the first time, I will be a member of my favorite local organic farm (Oakhill Organics) which starts in February. This...
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In my previous life, the one I had before we moved to Oregon, I spent a lot of time gardening. Taking a tour of my...
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I have just finished working for the day. I had to bring my laptop down to our favorite cafe to work because the power...
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What I love about gardens is that you plant seeds and a few months later, on dark days, you find that you have grown...
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I didn't get my fall beets planted until August 1st which is a little bit late. Never the less one of the two beet beds...
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It is cold and rainy out today with short blasts of sun through the clouds. I'm feeling tired and am fighting off a big panic...
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This is total pantry love. It makes me feel that I must bake something right now using raisins. I haven't bought raisins in over a...
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Today I spent all day with my friend Laurie who lives in the sweetest cottage in the country on almost half an acre. She has...
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Enough with all this philosophical crap going on around here! My beet seedlings are up. My lettuce seedlings are up too. One kale seedling has...
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Day 3: friends do hard laborGetting down: A lot of the work of making a raised bed has to be done close to the ground....
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Day Two: the building beginsThe pieces: I used my trusty circular saw to cut most of the pieces I need for the center of my...
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The plans: I have finally mapped out plans for a monastery garden in my new yard. The yard is big but a lot of it...
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Sometimes you can't see what's right in front of you until someone else sees it first. I'm not sure I would have noticed these amazing...
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First of all, for anyone who is planning to have a winter garden, now is the time to get the seeds in the ground. Yes,...
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(and how I want to grow old here)I have a long response to the stupid rude commenter from yesterday, and it's pretty good, but for...
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I don't know what's coming. Tomorrow. Next week. Next year. This week-end made me feel a little bit like I did three years ago: hopeful,...
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We've been having bone chilling wind, surprise snow flurries, hail, and just plain old freezing rain in the past couple of weeks so it's no...
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(With the intrepid farm-girl Mathilda)I wanted to follow up my spice cabinet post with a comparison shot. The brown leaves in this picture are oregano...
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(I like to think Mary was a tool junkie* like me)Of all the bible lore that has been discussed in my presence, the most interesting...
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A Growing Challenge UpdateOne of the biggest garden discoveries I have made since moving to the farmhouse* is that the plot of heaven I have...
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In which I am mostly waiting and dreamingMy kiwi vines are ready to be planted. I can't oblige them yet. Like all plant geeks I...
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Every time I spend a day at the OSU Extention auditorium taking my Master Gardening course I get more and more itchy with impatience. The...
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(plus weird aphid information you've always wanted to know!)Everything is truly busting out of winter sleep. Bulbs are lighting up the PNW landscape like multi-colored...
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(plus a gentle reminder not to clothe my ample ass in double-knit)My birds are still moulting. I don't understand this whole moulting business, I was...
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This is an exciting time of year. Just as so many of us are shivering under our down comforters wishing we didn't have to get...
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This is from the book "Designing The New Kitchen Garden" by Jennifer R. Bartly which I highly recommend for anyone planning a kitchen garden.Not a...
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OK, I'm not, but lots of people are. This feels like a restless time of winter. People are getting tired of the rain and clouds...
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It's 8am and this is what I'm doing: baking cheese corn muffins. Yep. I never do this for my own family, but I'm doing it...
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My breakfast/lunch yesterday was: one homemade pita slathered with yogurt cheese and topped with caramelized onion and roasted tomatoes from the freezer. A damn fine...
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Who is this hitchhiker on my surprise rogue beet that I discovered in the garden yesterday? Is it a baby earthworm or something more dangerous...
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(and how growing food is better than growing plants for cats to pee on)I'm noticing a trend in teaching methods at my Master Gardening classes....
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(but without the snow)It's fitting that after such a rough day yesterday I would wake to a ghost landscape all covered in white; the last...
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Note: this is a reprint of an old post I wrote last spring, so some of you who have been reading my blog that long...
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(for the new urban homesteader)When planning your garden for the upcoming spring season you have to make a lot of decisions about what you're going...
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I am a greedy gardener. When I plant a tomato I don't plant a tomato, I plant twenty of them. I couldn't ever possibly have...
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Right now is the time to start planning what new fruits and vegetables you will be adding to this coming year's garden. The goal of...
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This guy is the last to leave the garden party. There isn't much for him to eat but he's still hangin' around. I got two...
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Anyone who aims for even a small measure of self sufficiency must turn their attention, eventually, to what nature has to offer to the medicine...
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My mom and I made it to the rose garden in Portland yesterday and it was perhaps the most perfect day on earth for it....
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Portland is called many things: PDX, The City Of Roses, and Stump Town.STUMP TOWN?I realize this is probably a reference to it's logging connections...but what...
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Meet Romeo and Juliette, discovered in flagrante delicto in the cover of the ugly bush yesterday morning. While initiating a major hack job on an...
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When I went to cognitive behavioral therapy a few years ago I learned some very important things. 1) You're the best one suited to figure...
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I would love to develop a cottage garden. "Cottage" has such a wonderfully pretty sound to it. If it's "cottage-y" it must be cozy and...
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(Plus late nights watching hospital dramas)In spite of weeds having completely taken over my yard in seven foot tall patches of blinding arrogance, things are...
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(And all kinds of talk about faith and karma and other heavy topics.)This morning I came in with more beets (all small in size), one...
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These are beautiful beets I bought at the farmer's market. Some of them were kind of bitter though. Golden beets and Chioggias.I almost always take...
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always.There is so much to write about at all times: my studio move, my apron pattern project for the apron book, and my garden. Oh,...
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A lot of people ask me about my Vespa. I see a lot of looks of longing (because, HELLO!, it's totally flippin' fun to ride...
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My lettuce patch has become choked with growth. I scattered the seeds and raked them in. I thought that would evenly distribute them and I...
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See how the stem of this beet is growing? Why does this happen to my seedlings? You should know, before you answer that question, that...
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(plus an excellent spring soup recipe)No one talks about it much. Not even on "foodie"* blogs; the fact that some of us could look at...
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So my mom and I have channeled the great shaman of the Pacific Northwest and performed blood rituals over sacred holes in the ground filled...
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You may notice that these two rather large beetles appear to be walking in hurriedly opposite directions and ask yourself what this might mean. Or...
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I think it's a pretty safe bet that George W. Bush thinks pretty highly of his own seed. I imagine that he treasures his family...
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See that beautiful lemon thyme plant spilling over the edge of this barrel? I'm going to shear it like a sheep today. Before the spit-bugs...
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Sometimes, after walking through panic and stress you have to go with the flow that presents itself. It makes sense to clean the house if...
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Chickens, in case you didn't know it, used to be tree perching jungle birds. They are (or were) excellent foragers which explains how come all...
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Hi. I'm Chloe Sevigny and I am so bored. I'm bored of my life as a fashion-forward icon. I'm so bored of the Hollywood scene,...
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I picked the first harvest of rhubarb for Dominique. 1 1/2 pounds of it. As i cut the stalks I could smell the slightly acrid...
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(Neighbors, shaking their heads in shock: "It all happened so fast, we just didn't see it coming...")You know how when your stomach has gotten just...
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Never am at at more peace than while I'm gardening. Writing is something I have to do, and it is an essential part of me,...
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Peppers from the summer harvest. The flash on my camera made them look like cheap garish vegetables, rather than the complex cayennes they really are.Remember...
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My mind can't help but turn towards the garden now. I want to plan it out, clean it up, and turn it into a mini...
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Ever since moving to Oregon I've felt like life has changed in subtle ways. In ways it's difficult to articulate. Things feel closer to...
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(The Antidote to "The Hotel" and the Unfortunate dreams I had last night.)This is Ozark, the true king of the ranch. If you try to...
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This is the first egg laid yesterday by our new flock. It's always a puzzle figuring out which hen has been getting busy in...
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A couple of nights ago we had dinner at Lisa and Mark's house and I have to say it was pretty stellar. We roasted Japanese...
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I've been thinking a lot lately about how misleading it is for me to tell people I'm a passionate gardener. When I say that...
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I'm pretty sure every guy on earth who has any pretensions to toughness will make it seem like digging a few post holes is...
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When you go to rent a rototiller for the first time, and the guy behind the counter tells you that you need an eleven...
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