Adventures of an urban homesteader growing greens, preserving the harvest and tending a backyard barnyard
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of sitting down in my kitchen for an interview with garden guru P. Allen Smith (well, I was in my kitchen but Allen was in Arkansas…). He was talking with me via Skype about my book, Modern Homestead, for his public radio program Garden Home. We chatted about our personal journeys with homesteading, keeping backyard poultry, what we are preserving
Attention busy garden-loving parents! Save this super cute and easy-peasy kid’s costume idea for next Halloween. I found an adorable version on Etsy (which is no longer available otherwise I would link to it!), but opted to spend $5 bucks at the craft store to make a a still-adorable-knock-off. First of all, this requires no sewing. I dream of learning how to sew one day.
The wind and rains are rolling in on these late fall evenings – a reminder that winter is rapping on our door. Here are some snippets of what autumn has looked like on our homestead. Fall creates a mix of cool blues and gray-greens in the front yard, dotted with yellow leaves from our trumpet vine and quince shrubs. Scarlets pop up here and
It’s apple season, so it was time to visit what I consider to be the crown jewel of Oregon fruit country: Hood River. This little town about an hour east of Portland produces loads of high-quality crops ranging from cherries, plums, pears, apples and more. My sister tipped us off to the only organic apple grower in the area, which made for the perfect fall
Fall is a great time of year to plant new trees and perennial shrubs for two big reasons: it gives your plants several months to work on establishing roots and there are all kinds of crazy deals right now as nurseries close out their summer stock. Just be sure to get your new purchases in the ground well in advance of your first hard freeze,
The days are growing darker and there is a bite in the morning breeze. Before the first frost hits, which for Portlanders is around November 15th, the homestead needs to be prepped for winter. We have had some fierce rain and wind storms already, so when we had a clear weekend I jumped on my garden to-do list. As we all know, vegetable plants suck
October is giving us the last drops of warm-season harvests, but it’s time to draw the curtain for winter. Juniper helped me pick the last of the ripe fruits and veggies. Her way of helping has more to do with eating than actually putting anything in the harvest basket, but I enjoy the company nevertheless. Our cupboard is already packed with tomatoes for winter –
I was entranced by the flora of southern California on our recent trip down south – not to mention the fabulous edibles that thrive in this region. We ventured in Joshua Tree for a few days to attend a wedding and we carved out a little time to explore this distinct, unusual landscape. Joshua Tree is a nation park that stretches over the higher elevation
I recently shared my adventures through the San Diego Botanical Gardens, but this post is all about edibles. Most of us live in climates where we’re thinking now about pulling out the tomatoes and growing cold-hardy crops. But let’s ignore the howl of the wind through the windows and drool over these pictures, dreaming together of what we can’t grow in our backyards. Figs are incredibly
Traveling with kids slows you down quite a bit, but we are learning to settle into a rhythm with Juniper as our regular traveling partner. This time our travels took us to southern California, a couple days of which were spent in sunny San Diego. An excellent, kid-friendly outing was spent at the San Diego Botanical Gardens. They have a fabulous Children’s Garden that includes a
