My urban farm is starting to sprout. Oh the exhilaration of watching seeds come to life, giving forth tiny shoots of green. Corny as it sounds, I think I could plant thousands and thousands of seeds before ever growing tired of the magic of watching them come to life. This year in my ultra tiny, […]
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I’m currently admiring the trays of lettuce seedlings in the window of my office. If all goes as planned, soon they will be joined by tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings too. I know I’m behind schedule in getting my veggies started, but I wouldn’t have done anything yet if not for a new book titled From
It’s really cold out there again today, but the quality of the sunlight is telling me spring is almost here and I can help but dream of my garden this summer. For the past few years I’ve been experimenting with container gardening. I’ve grown several kinds of tomatoes and beans as well as a herbs
I am utterly astounded by the giant zucchini plant I have growing out of a barrel in the shade (of all places) in my backyard. The leaves are so big you can barely see the silver walls of the container below. I must relocate the plant soon, however, because I’ve now found 3 rotting zucchinis
I’ve been dreaming about having my own backyard chickens for a long time, but my dreams became full fledged jealousy on Friday. I visited my friend’s house and, from her kitchen window, watched her hens peck about their chicken run. On her fridge was a big basket of eggs. I yearn for two, maybe three,
I made a batch of mint jelly today, just like my grandmother used to do. There was nothing tastier than her mint jelly with lamb, peas and some mashed potatoes she’d serve in her British royalty tea-cup lined dining room. My first attempt went well; the colour is a lovely, glowing chartreuse and the taste
Just got a comment from a reader in the UK, I believe, who suggests that the little red currant stems could be strained off after cooking, rather than the time consuming process of picking them off the raw berries by hand. Has anyone ever boiled red currants with their stems? Does it change the flavour? I’d
This weekend when I stopped by our local market-style shop selling mostly Mennonite products, I picked up a new kind of milk from the cooler: Harmony Organic non-homogenized milk. That’s old fashioned milk with cream that rises to the top just like my dad used to drink when he was a boy. Apparently, non-homogenized milk is back. It’s being sold across
They look like small jewels: round like pearls, scarlet like rubies. The red currant, a small berry I remember from my grandmother’s red fruit dessert–a compote of summer berries she’d make in August and freeze so we could eat the sweet summery stuff when snow lay on the ground. She used to pick them at her friend Brenda’s house, a sloped-roof cottage-like
Gooseberries, red currants-What to do with an old fashioned fruit?Read More »
I must admit that I was totally shocked when I walked into Loblaws this week and, low and behold, there was a big huge box of fiddleheads. And not only were these fiddleheads fresh and local, but they were on sale for a helluva lot less than I’d paid for the spring delicacies the day before at The Big Carrot.