How to Make a Plum and Tonic
If you, like me, love plum wine, you might have some to drink on occasion. If, like me, you make your own, you might have a gallon+ sitting around. And, if you are like me, you may be wondering what there is to do with …
Exploring everything green beneath the fog
Harvesting
Too Many Tomatoes?
It takes what feels like a million years to get 1 ripe tomato, and then suddenly my vines are heavily laden with red, ripe beauties. Once you’ve had your fill of salsa, pizza, spaghetti, chili, and Caprese salad (or your heartburn needs a break), what …
Growing Basil for Fun and Pesto
Basil is one of those plants I feel like I can never grow too much of. I always start a ton of seedlings early and then plant all of them. This is unlike other plants, like tomatoes, where I only plant a few of the …
Make Plum Wine from Local Unripe Plums
I’m sure you’ve seen the “tiny” plum trees around in the Bay Area. Not tiny trees, but trees that produce tiny plums. If you have one of those plum trees in your yard, or know of a “wild” plum tree somewhere nearby, you may have …
A Different Kind of Winter Harvest
Snow is not a normal sight in the Bay Area, which is why it’s quite common to trek up the mountains to Tahoe. The white stuff is quite fascinating to my kids, who had never seen it (or played in it) before. To me, a …
Why Grow Dent Corn?
Reviewing your seed catalogs in the (finally!) rainy autumn, you see the beautiful colors that dent corn can come in–blue, red, even rainbow “Gem”–and you don’t know why you’d want to grow corn you can’t eat fresh. What’s the point? Why colorful cornbread, of course! …
When life gives you blackberries…
…make a Charlotte Russe!* Part of my yard has been going wild since my kids were born, and there is a thicket of Himalayan blackberry coming into season. I’m never content to make jam or jelly, and you can only have blackberry pancakes 3 or …
Harvesting Cauliflower: Not for the Squeamish
Organic Gardening is incredibly rewarding, but there are those moments when you question the amount of work you put into it. Harvesting heads of cauliflower is one such moment. When to Harvest Cauliflower, when ready to harvest, are fully sized at about 6 to 8 …