gardening
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Wild Violets
We don’t have a lawn. We have non-wooded areas that get mowed. Occasionally those areas are supplemented with grass seed, and the grass learns to live in cooperation with all the other ground covers already occupying the yard. Right now the yard is sprinkled with delicate little violets, as are my flower beds and the vegetable garden, Continue reading
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Leaf management
It was a great day in the Hereford Zone today. John spent the morning fixing the brakes on the Jeep while friend Mike and son Gage were hunting in the woods. It was Youth Day today and 15 year old Gage got a young buck. So Mike and Gage butchered the deer by the driveway Continue reading
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Fall
How do you know you are with a city kid? When, driving up I-83, you enter the Hereford Zone, and he points at the trees and asks, “Is that Fall?” Yes, it is. The leaves are falling by the buckets. We could probably measure the leaffall in inches, like we do the snow. In theory, today is a Continue reading
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The birds, the bees, and…zucchini?
The reason I grow herbs is because they thrive on neglect and poor growing conditions. They are basically edible weeds. The reason I grow herbs outside is so that God can intervene on their behalf. Vegetables, on the other hand, must have their needs met in order to be fruitful: sunshine and space and proper Continue reading
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Tapenade–the real stuff
If you don’t like black olives, you can stop reading now. Tapenade, real Provençal tapenade, is all about black olives. I often see olive fixings labeled “tapenade” but they just look like diced olives. The real stuff, what you’ll find at the outdoor marché in Aix en Provence, is purply-black, spreadable, and packed with exquisite flavors. I started making tapenade following Continue reading
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Caterpillars on the fennel
What’s scarier than Buggy or the One Red-Eyed Wolf? Green caterpillars with black and white stripes and orange horns! Ok, maybe they aren’t so scary. (Well, they are a little scary if you click on the picture and see the eNORmous image of them.) They are rather amazing. We found 10 of them on Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 