These days I mostly try not to write. My life is so full of work and family and weeding. But every now and then, my brain starts to itch and the only way to scratch that itch is writing. This is where you will find my most recent scratchings.
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Self Irrigating Planters Made Easy!
Growing food in containers can be useful for so many situations– it’s quick to set up and can utilize very small outdoor spaces. Since it requires no commitment to a piece of ground, it’s renter friendly. Because growing in containers is so approachable, it’s where many people start gardening. Unfortunately, although the setup is undeniably quick and easy (albeit expensive) actually getting food plants to grow and produce in containers is often much more challenging than in the ground. Perhaps the biggest problem for container growing is inconsistent moisture– while herbs and some flowers do fine with the occasional droughts, food…
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Flaky Whole Wheat Pie Crust
For years I persisted with mealy pie crust, righteously using all whole wheat pastry flour and vegetable oil in my vegan days. Even after my switch to butter, I didn’t respect cooking technique– my inner-renegade took years to be convinced that what you do to your ingredients matters, and that sometimes recipe writers do know what the hell they’re talking about. If you are stuck in similarly mealy pie crust doldrums, let me free you, here and now. I won’t say my every pie crust is perfection personified, but I’ve figured some things out and I can share. One renegade…
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Austerity Fast
November is more than half over. What do I have to show for it? I have been putting some time and focus into my Quiet Riot’s food month, but predictably not as much as I’d hoped. Like many of you, my time is very limited and I seem to put any spare change I have into this addictive blogging endeavor! I have made the switch to farmer’s market cheese as well as the newly available milk in glass bottles (hooray!) And that good ole’ $16/lb coffee. But since food is my overarching life focus, there weren’t too many changes to…
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Calamity in the Kitchen
My life has had many chapters, in which I waxed poetic about many a deep subject. But two particular subjects have always been closest to my heart, and I have woven their threads throughout every chapter: Food, and relatedly, plants. Start to finish, dirt to plate, food is my favorite subject and I can blather on about it for ages. Plants are my second favorite subject, and first favorite kingdom of life. I hope in my next life to be one. As you may notice from my more personal writing, I find life as a human being quite challenging. I…
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Screentime Again, Again
A friend sent the link to this excellent post, Why I Don’t Worry About my Kids’ Screen Time, on my own personal new favorite screentimesink, Camp Creek Blog. I’m not going to attempt to paraphrase. Except here’s a brilliant little quote, “Childhood: You’re doing it wrong.” (Whosoever gets the reference in the title of this post winds my undying affection)
calamity jane 