August 2011 Blog Posts (22)

I guess you could say that I grew up more HOMEGROWN than my friends. My grandmother, aunts, and my parents canned pickles, jams, jellies, fruits, and chutneys; baked from-scratch breads and goodies; grew fruits, vegetables, and herbs; and raised chickens, goats, and a few miniature horses.  In high school, some of my classmates called me Laura from the Little House on the Prairie (because of the log home my dad built us in the woods). I began to reject that lifestyle in favor of keeping up…

As the summer winds down (nooooooooo!), my herb garden is overflowing and in need of some trimming. I can't bear to compost all of the lovely flavor that's been growing, so here's my solution. I chose to combine thyme, rosemary and sage for a handy store of herb butter to smear on a whole chicken for roasting. Come January, February and March, won't it be nice to revisit summer…

She typically wakes in the middle of the night, inspired to draw out another original pattern.  The only book she ever publshed quickly sold out.  And yes, she's still stitching at 101-years-young.  Meet Aunt Lena and learn more about her passion for quilting at http://FlourSackMama.com.

Food is much more than a series of nutrients and calories. Food brings people together to celebrate the good times and helps sustain us during the tough times.  When you provide food for others, you aren’t just providing a meal. You are providing a few extra minutes in their day, crossing off one thing on their to-do list and hopefully offering a tiny bit of comfort. We all need…

Do you buy organic produce?  If you don't because of the cost, do you worry about what the effects might be?  What if organic produce isn't all it's cracked up to be? Would you still buy it? The question of what constitutes healthy, safe food is something I've been thinking about for over 20 years.

Back in 1989 I was a freshman in college. Young and impressionable, a new friend suggested I read "…

http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/2011/08/giveaway-ball-pectin-coupons.html

My how things can change in just a short amount of time, from this....

to this....

I think anyone who has a vegetable garden suffers from the…

To me it almost seems like a dumb question because we do raise our own meat animals and we're not violent at all. In fact it makes us value life more. We always make sure an animal goes as quickly and painlessly as possible and then we thank it for the life it gave us to sustain our own and honor it when we eat it.

But I've recently been seeing the violence argument a lot. One woman, at a community workshop, standing next to my husband, who does most of our slaughtering, made…

I've been a little behind on cooking all of the veggies that come in my weekly CSA share, but last night I managed to get the massive zucchini and green pepper haul under control! I called up my mom and asked her for her dear friend Ingrid's delicious zucchini soup. Ingrid passed away a few years ago, and I still remember her - still strongly fighting the cancer that ultimately took her - dropping off freshly dug potatoes and a container of this soup with ingredients from her…

Today the USDA announced its new program for Animal Disease Traceability, which looks and sounds an awful lot like NAIS, the National Animal Identification System. It was announced through the Federal Registry today, with a 90 day comment period. Please read this announcement from Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance and other groups, about how they feel about this new program.

"Consumers and Independent Producers Lose if Big Ag Wins on Animal…

This week’s share at Maude's Market includes the following:

Produce

• 2.5 oz of basil from Double Star Farms
• 4 slicer tomatoes or a pint of cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 dozen ears of sweet corn from Todd Geisert (1 dozen for 4 person) – Get unique recipe ideas in the month;s Sauce Magazine article,…

I love this time of year and the abundance of vegetables at the table. But more than that, I like coming up with new ways to prepare them. Some way to mix them all together, make it pretty to look at, and pleasing to the palette.

Here is another one of our summer favorites--Garden Surprise.

We call it surprise because the ingredients…

We recently harvested cucumbers and carrots from our garden here in Baltimore City (Boone Street Garden) and I decided to marinate the veggies in equal parts rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and honey to make pickles.

The pickles ended up being highlighted at a recent…