growing food

Choke Hold

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It’s easy to understand why Native Americans cultivated Jerusalem artichokes* for centuries. These sunflowers are perennial, drought-tolerant, neglect-loving, and storage-friendly. The real puzzle is…

Label maker

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What good’s a kicky wine without a kicky label, right? So after we bottled up our batch of peapod wine, I wanted to put something…

Peapod wine

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“You’re trying to make what?” the nice man asks again. “Peapod wine,” I says. “Peapod wine. Never heard of it,” says the nice man, who…

Berry Bonds

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For Brad’s birthday one year, I surprised him with a blackberry bush, wanting to give something that would bring happiness long after the day…

My name is loofah

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This little guy germinated forever before suddenly bursting to life this week. Good friends gave us a loofah sponge and it had a handful…

Sweet secrets

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Spring-like weekend weather had both of us racing outdoors for a little yard work. While rotating soil from old container plantings, I discovered a…

2013: Year in Review

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With trepidation, I peeked back at this year’s goals — and was pleasantly surprised by how many were accomplished. Certainly not all, but it…

Start paring purple

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This year marked our first attempt to grow sweet potatoes in containers on the wee homestead, an experiment to determine the smallest amount of…

Going medieval on pests

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Just found our first horn worms of the year, chowing on our tomato plants. In October. This is the benefit of planting the tomatoes…