February 2011 Blog Posts (37)

**from my blog, Semi-Farmed Kind of Life**

This is a short little video on how to grow poppies that I came across and would like to share with all of the poppy lovin' people on Homegrown!

Ara at My Edible Yard discussed using Ollas for irrigation. 

We were intrigued.  We do a lot of watering, especially in the summer.  Tomatoes are thirsty.

Tim did the research and found that we could buy them, but they were a bit pricey.  $20 or more each.  Yikes.  We starting counting up how many we would need.  Double yikes.  We have…

http://weedwalkingwithcountrygirlgarlic.blogspot.com

Here it is! Scissors & Drumsticks’ first product give away! We are happy and pleased with the response we have gained from our readers and social media friends only after starting this blog in May 2010 and we want to…

How would you like to visit your local grocery store feeling like you owned the place? Having a real say in the way products were chosen and sold? Getting a refund back at the end of the year because you'd loyally done so much shopping there? You can, if you choose to join a community-owned food cooperative. These co-ops are owned by consumers just like you who decide to get directly involved.

Three Rivers…

I have been thinking a lot about sustainable living, and the so-called simple life lately. Dixiebelle wrote a self-flagellating post recently about her wicked fall into a fast food lunch, and in general about falling short of one's ideals.

Oh sweetheart.

I'm not particularly old (33) but I came to this "green consciousness" early, I think.…

Mapling, or sugaring, is the process of collecting and boiling down the sap from maple trees in order to make syrup. It is an ancient practice, being one of the few sugar sources found in the northern hemisphere. The entire process takes a bit of time, but after tasting the…

Happy President's Day. I hope you are all taking advantage of this opportunity to dress like your favorite president. I know I am. Today's post is brought to you by the 16th President of the United States, Honest Abe. I have it on good authority that…

"The yellow leaves of the flowers are dried and kept throughout Dutchland against winter to put into broths, physicall potions and for divers other purposes, in such quantity that in some Grocers or Spicesellers are to be found barrels filled with them and retailed by the penny or less, insomuch that no broths are well made without dried Marigold." ~The Countrie Farme



I grew and dried a lot of…

The latest winter snow has thawed to reveal golden wisps of dormant grass blowing gently in the meadow called Cades Cove.  While horses still graze on other fields nearby, much of the grasslands lay unused except by the wildest of creatures.  Small mammals like rabbits and fowl such as quail can more likely find a place to hide from their predators when they have native clumps of grass like broomsedge in their natural habitat.  Yet, fescue has claimed most of the land, choking out several…

Cold, frozen days are inspiring me to dream about the next season's garden.  Not an expert by any means.  But I'm determined to garden smarter each season, even on a small scale.  My husband and I have the usual arguments about pest control, which involve me swearing off any synthetic pesticides, while he eventually sneaks out a can of this or that when he thinks he has no other alternative.

I'm aiming to read through the new (2009 anyway) Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of…

I can only imagine what splendid dishes the Denman family cooks up.  When I planned a visit to their greenhouse, I knew that matriarch Georgia Denman and her daughter, Caitrin Bayard, were experts at organic gardening.  What I couldn't comprehend until my visit was their depth of knowledge and passion for culinary plants. …

I arrived home from work last week to find that my sister had brought me a bag of kiwis.  I absolutely love kiwis.  I could eat them every day.  But this was a GIANT bag of kiwis.  At least thirty, maybe a little more.  My brother in law, Jeff, had apparently done some work for a local farm, setting up their network.  He refused payment because he just wanted to help them out.  So instead he got a big bag of kiwis, half of which they brought to me.

Several days later the bag is still…