FROM SCRATCH CLUB

I have never touched fresh rhubarb before this week! I have enjoyed eating it in different ways and seen it for sale at the end of driveways and at farmers markets, but never actually cooked with it! Every year I see it in the spring and think I will try some this year, but never […]

For the next handful of weekends, I’ll be jumping on the FSC Time Machine to create recap-posts of the  different topics we covered in 2012. Since Dianna, hit it out of the park this week with her post {Gardening in 2013} Homegrown Dry Beans, I thought I’d kick-off the series with our gardening posts! Get out […]

While the debate about gun control rages around us, we are quietly getting ready for the zombie apocalypse by planning our garden instead of amassing weapons.  I am not a survivalist, but I do like the idea of being able to eat a nutritionally balanced diet out of our garden in case there is a […]

When I first started gardening, I couldn’t imagine planting anything in the fall. Sure, I knew about tulip bulbs, but I thought of putting them in the ground as winter storage, kind of like keeping your sweaters safe from moths in summer. I couldn’t wrap my head around plants that didn’t follow the path of […]

We have been wandering in the desert of home wheat production for three years now.  We could see the mountaintop, but were not sure we could get there.  Although it is not that hard to grow wheat, harvesting, threshing and milling all present real technical problems to overcome for home growers. We learned how to scythe, then […]

“She’s standing by the stove – stirring Her cat is in the kitchen – purring It smells so good in here I just wanna close the door and hook the latch Cause she’s makin’ everything – And I mean everything- From Scratch. She takes a little, makes a lot Careful sis, its kinda hot Is […]

For the first time ever, my garden is overflowing with eggplant! Sure, it’s also overflowing with weeds and a LOT of green beans that never got picked but despite that I am pretty excited about the eggplant. I’ve gardened at our current home for the last five summers and each year I plant eggplant hopefully. […]

We have been growing wheat for three or four years in our community sharecropping plots.   Wheat is not hard to grow and not all that hard to harvest although there are some pitfalls.  The hard part is removing the teeny wheat berries from the inedible straw and glumes that surround them, which is called threshing.  […]

Zucchini season is upon us – I’ve been harvesting them daily in my garden. Why I always plant so many when I know that the harvest is predictably plentiful is beyond me. You’ve heard the jokes about the people who sneak around their friend’s houses, leaving zucchinis on their doorsteps when no one is looking? That may […]

When we bought our house in the summer of 2009 we quickly realized there was no simple spot for our garden. Our larger backyard was simply too shady and the front yard was engulfed by a tree and a 20-30 year old hydrangea bush. That front spot got plenty of sun though, so we knew […]

If it weren’t for my friend Howard, my wheat would still be in the field. When I got home from vacation last Saturday, I found a message that the wheat was ready. Howard had toured my plot, and found the grain passed the crack test. When the wheat is ready, the seed should feel hard, […]

As the community share cropping season gets going, we are planting and scheming and trying to improve the gardens compared to last year.  We already worked out our crop rotations during the winter, so now we are concentrating on weeding, feeding and cover cropping.  Cover crops are incredibly important for soil improvement, fertility and stabilization […]

I love to garden. Maybe you do too. I love to do lots and lots of things. So many things, in fact, that I am too busy to allocate as much time to my garden as I would like. If only I had an extra 2 hours a day… that would make things so much […]

I spent three years of my childhood in Germany when my father was stationed there in the army.  I have very distinct memories of the allotment gardens people cultivated at the edge of town in little individual rented plots of land, each with its own immaculate garden hut for sitting and enjoying the summer days […]

How Does Your Garden Grow? Sizing up our land and making the most of 1 acre. My husband is a cultivator; it’s in his veins. By the time most people begin their Spring cleaning he is out tilling the ground and planning the upcoming year’s garden. When were looking to build a home all he […]