Half-Sour Pickle update

Not so tasty! I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t use the Bell’s pickling spices (because I forgot to buy them) and they have a nicer mix of ingredients… or if I just like a saltier pickle. So I dumped out the brine, rinsed the pickles, made up a new brine with double the [...]

My weekend in pickles

So it turns out a bushel of little Kirby cucumbers makes something like 40 quarts of pickles. It makes considerably less than 40 quarts when the person doing the pickling has planned said pickling for the hottest Sunday of the year and the air conditioning is on the fritz. Dumb. Hiney. I have missed my [...]

Transplanting, growing and thriving: some thoughts on success

I planted raspberry canes in one of the six beds over in my mother in-law’s yard our first summer here (has it really been three years?) but as with everything over there, they didn’t get enough sun. This spring I dug them up and moved them to a very sunny spot on the side of [...]

How does your garden grow

Oh, my. Summer is at the gate, straining at her lead and ready to gallop. So much growth happening so fast and always the sense that I can’t ever catch up. Clearly I’m still too fragmented in my efforts. Two years ago I began to envision work that allows me to be at home, pay [...]

Spinach, arugula, rhubarb, broccoli raab, green garlic, oh my

Yesterday was my 42nd birthday–the first birthday in years where I didn’t feel any anticipation about the day or pressure to somehow celebrate. No party plans, just a relaxed dinner at home. I eased into the day with warm wishes from my family, deep snuggles from Lila, soft kisses on the back of my neck [...]

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