life on garden time
Dear Friends, Merry Christmas! Twenty-twelve is drawing to a close. The clock struck midnight not too long ago, and Homebrew Husband and I donned our Santa hats and crept down the stairs to place a decidedly modest stack of presents under the tree. This has been the most mellow holiday season on record at our house. My [Continue Reading...]
It is, somewhat shockingly, just a few days before Thanksgiving. I’m not sure how this happened. Perhaps because I’ve been even more of a homebody than usual this past 8 weeks, I’ve missed the traditional warning signs: Williams-Sonoma window-displays featuring festive, faux-gourd soup tureens and French porcelain turkey-shaped gravy boats. Pre-lit plastic Christmas Trees and [Continue Reading...]
Last year we performed a taste test. We ordered two, 12 pound turkeys from our local yuppie-hippie market. Both were raised by Diestel, a large, independent, family-owned turkey ranch in California. By all accounts the birds had a good life and one bad day, living on pasture, free-ranging and eating vegetarian feed and whatever bugs [Continue Reading...]
It’s November, and you know what that means. In just a few weeks, all over the United States people will express their gratitude for family, health, and living in this great nation with the annual turkey-gravy-mashed-potato bender. Thanksgiving is, without a doubt, my favorite holiday. Here’s why: I love to cook and eat with family and [Continue Reading...]
Dear Readers, In January of this year, I sat nursing my infant son and looking out the window at my quiet, still garden. As all new mothers will understand, I was stuck to my couch for what felt like days at a time, a willing human mattress and latte stop for my ever-hungry boy. I couldn’t [Continue Reading...]
We do chores around here, kids included. So the gift of not having to do those tedious chores is always appreciated. I’m trying to get the last of the holiday gift stuff together today – wrapping presents, stuffing stockings, etc. – and I put together some “Santa Slips to slip in my daughter’s stocking. These are [Continue Reading...]
The problem: your kid has a lot of friends, and wants to give gifts to every single one of them. With your money. Of course, it is absolutely wonderful that your charming and thoughtful child is thinking of his or her peers over the holiday, and you want to encourage this independent spirit of generosity. You just don’t [Continue Reading...]
You knew I’d get around to this eventually, right? A set of gift suggestions for the homebrewer – or potential homebrewer – in your life. To make things simple for the non-homebrewer who might be purchasing these gifts, I’ve put together a dozen suggestions organized by your brewers experience and your desired gift price point. [Continue Reading...]
Thanksgiving is my favorite of the celebratory checkpoints in the Fall-to-Winter Holiday Season. Putting aside the historical – ahem – issues regarding the origin story of Thanksgiving, I can really get behind a good celebration of the harvest and a day dedicated to gluttony and loosening one’s pants. This year’s Thanksgiving was a bit different because we [Continue Reading...]
Happy Thanksgiving, all. I’m off to go prep for dinner. Have a warm and wonderful holiday, completely free of fried-onions-in-a-can. See you next week, if I’m not sucked permanently into The Turkey Vortex. What are your plans for the mass of leftovers the Grand National Gluttony Festival will inevitably leave you with?
Black Friday is just around the corner, and let’s just suppose that your idea of a good way to spend the morning after Thanksgiving does not include any of the following: Waking up at 4am to queue (I haven’t done that since the last time Pink Floyd went on tour). Receiving trampling injuries from someone [Continue Reading...]
In the Maritime Northwest, with only the most basic of season extension techniques, you can celebrate Thanksgiving as a true, local harvest festival. Kale needs no protection, and looks glorious bathed in crackling frost. Chard won’t make it unassisted through a snap of real cold (teens/low-twenties around here) but protected by a cheap plastic tunnel [Continue Reading...]
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