August 2013 Blog Posts (41)

There's just something about eating fresh ripe seasonal fruit.  Makes me wonder why I don't shrivel down to a husk in the winter, waiting to enjoy all the summer goodies.

Here's a pair of peach pizzas I made using peaches my daughter and I picked from a friend's tree.

You can find…

Several months ago William Morrow / Harper Collins asked me if I would review a new book for them. Took me a few months to finally get pen to paper, so to speak. I put out the review today. This book really inspires me to continue in my new project with permaculture + cuisine = permacuisine! My new focus on creating sustainable permanent agriculture with a focus on cuisine. Melding my two favorite interests farming and cooking! 

Also, check out my…

 Did anyone get my Alice Cooper reference?  School's out for summer  is a celebrated song but what about when school starts again?



Long days, hot sun, days at the beach, family vacations and staying up late oh my! That is what children look forward to with the words "summer vacation". Do you remember your summer vacations growing up? Do you recall the feeling at the end of the school year; more importantly do you remember the feeling that you…

If you are trying to cut your grocery bill, reducing waste is a great place to start. We waste between 14-25% of the food we buy. Produce is commonly wasted since it seems to go bad in the blink of an eye. Planning ahead can help you to stop wasting the produce you pay good money for.

I use a lot of peppers in my cooking, especially in winter when I make lots of soups, stews and chilis. During the winter, however, peppers are ridiculously expensive and the quality is terrible. Instead of just settling for crappy, expensive peppers, I dehydrate wonderful and cheap peppers during summer to use all winter long. Dehydrated sweet peppers make a wonderful snack, especially for road trips or hiking. Peppers can also be added to eggs, casseroles or pasta…

I love my dehydrator. It is right up there with my blender as my favorite kitchen appliance. It really helps to reduce food waste and increases the shelf life of many foods. Here's how I use it to save money:

When I find an amazing deal on produce, I dehydrate some of the bounty. Sometimes I find packages of peppers for $.40/lb, and I'll buy 10 pounds. Some are used fresh or frozen, but I dehydrate a lot of them to toss into soups or to add to…

One of the great disappointments in life: frying up a huge package of bacon and ending up with a couple of bacon bits and a pan full of bacon grease. Don't despair! You can use that grease in place of oil in cooking to save money over buying oil, and to add that incredible bacon flavor to other foods.

I save bacon grease in a glass jar in the refrigerator so that it lasts a good amount of time (can't say exactly how long because I've never had any go bad). If you keep it on…

I didn't plan it, but apparently this summer's theme was 'get the kids to eat eggplant in a new way'.  I usually cube and roast eggplant for use in spaghetti sauce, but this time I roasted whole eggplants, in lovely shapes from our CSA farm share, and used the flesh with Indian spices to make a creamy dip.

You can find …

If you have a tick problem, you may eliminate most of your ticks by using dry-ice traps in the spring and fall. Ticks hunt by CO2 detection to find prey with blood and a CO2 signature (exhaust).  Use several small tubs of dry-ice, covered with a thick layer of heavy white felt (that touches the ground on all sides) ... and place these around your garden and/or yard areas.  As the dry-ice melts, CO2 from this ice is trapped by the heavy felt.  Ticks will use their sensing abilities to find…

Most people growing their own foods do so to avoid GMOs and herbicides/ chemicals used to help grow these crops.  In addition home growers seek a better quality of food free of all the additives, fillers, preservatives and chemical residues found in foods from the stores.

We can all avoid the temptation of growing GMO crops by reviewing a Rodale Institute 30-year farming study that shows non-GMO crops produce more than GMO crops.  In addition, research by the Univ. of California,…

My charity, NPI, is engaged in the development of innovative sustainable agricultural practices that may be of interest to this community.  Our new integrated means of food production, indoors or outdoors and at any scale, may be seen on a You Tube video (http://youtu.be/cK71v-y15YY).  Articles on two groups of our new technologies may be seen on 1)…

Originally posted at Back to the Basics!

 Do you live in South Florida?  We do!  One of the most exciting things about living in…

Originally posted at Back to the Basics!

If you're newer to my blog you may not know the whole scoop.  My husband is a Chiropractor.  But that's not how I was introduced to chiropractic.  I have been a Chiropractic Assistant for almost 12 years.  Since I was 19!



I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.  What is Chiropractic?

From…

Our farmers at Patchwork Gardens are having a tremendous season.  Each week the CSA farm share box is just loaded for bear.  I love it! To help get dinner on the table during the busy late summer/early fall days, I've created this slow-cooked Indian-spiced dish.  My kids love it and the leftovers reheat wonderfully well.

You can find …

1. You find dried bean seeds in your pockets in December.
2. There is hay in the car.
3. You turn to binder twine and five gallon buckets rather than organic hemp twine and a trug.
4. You talk compost with strangers.
5. You indulge in “one more season” hose repair.
6. You spend more time thinking about fencing than the White Flower Farm flower catalog.
7. You realize, half way through a professional meeting, that you have dirt somewhere. Fingernails?…

This pizza is great with fresh or frozen raspberries.  The tender buttermilk crust and goat cheese provide a nice tangy counterpoint (I cannot believe I wrote counterpoint, but it really fits here so I'm going with it) to the sweet raspberries and balsamic syrup.

You can find the recipe…

Several years ago, I decided I was going to figure out how to make the best chocolate chip cookie ever.  Three years later, I have done it. Three years of tweaking, replacing this with that, adding more, taking away, and I finally have the most perfect recipe.  So, read on dear friends, and come on this baking adventure with me.  You won't be sorry.

Join me at ImaginAcres for the recipe and…

Although we have made many happy landscaping discoveries this summer (Peonies, Iris, Lilacs, Snowball Bush, Rose of Sharon and more!) at our new homestead, the front landscaping around the house and deck had been completely neglected by the previous owners. With all of the other projects going on throughout the spring and early summer, I too, neglected it. BUT, the good news is-  it's not too late to get your flower beds ready for next year, and it's a great time to save money by purchasing…

These are good.  Winter or summer!  I shred and freeze the Squashzilla that appears in my garden, uninvited but certainly welcomed, and use it to stretch meat as well as in muffins and waffles.

You can find the recipe right…

Cool morning temperatures, yellowing Honeylocust leaves, plus plants weighted down with vegetables point towards late summer harvest season.  A quick pass through my yard revealed ripe tomatoes, several cauliflower, onions, currents, and another round of green beans.  Meal planning is easy this time of year given the abundance of fresh produces.  Each day means more beans, more currents, more onions… but comes a point on how many times I can eat fresh green beans in a row for dinner.  It’s…