Sustainability
Some things gained and some things lost: the dilemma of the second vehicle
Last year I learned that I should never say “never”. A year ago, I bought a second vehicle. For all my adult life I was fiercely determined to either have no vehicle or to only own one vehicle. I didn’t even get a drivers license until I was 26 or 27. I lived in cities … Continue reading
Planting Tomatoes 101
March 20 was the vernal equinox, so it is officially spring. More and more days are certainly feeling like spring. With the onset of spring comes the promise of growing gardens, and thoughts of seed starting are in my mind. We have been starting seeds at Clay Bottom Farm for a few weeks now. Lest … Continue reading
My Favorite Sweater
First published on November 20, 2013 on goshencommons.org With the cold weather that moved in a couple of weeks ago, I needed to pull out my warm winter sweaters. As usual, the first sweater that came out of the cedar chest was my old Aran sweater. I don’t know about anyone else, but, when I … Continue reading
From Cheese Sandwiches to 52 Pints of Pickles
This post first appeared on goshencommons.org on Feb. 2, 2013 As a teenager, I had decided that I was never going to do traditional household work such as cooking. I was going to be a professional woman and live solely on cheese sandwiches and ice cream. Though Pete still does most of the cooking in our … Continue reading
Growing tomatoes
I should just give up. For years I try to grow tomatoes from seed with varying degrees of success. In recent years, I have had more failures than successes. But this was the year it was all going to turn around. I started my seeds in February, earlier than ever, so they would have plenty … Continue reading
Sleepy Winter Garden
I haven’t posted anything about the garden in a while. We’re having winter weather, and while the kale was able to withstand fairly cold temperatures, it is finally wilted. The cardoon is also wilted, but it is spreading, so I am sure we’ll see cardoon again in the spring.. We finally got back to doing … Continue reading
I wanted a house so that I could have a washer and dryer
When we bought our first house, I used to quip that I wanted a house so that I could have my own washer and dryer. When we bought our second house, one big selling feature was this … … a clothes line in the backyard. I was elated. Not only that, there were clothes lines … Continue reading
Freezing beans and a new invention
It is a very hot and humid week, so it seems appropriate to freeze some produce today. This morning, under a hazy sky, before the sun started shining full blast, I went out to the garden to pick beans. I got distracted by weeds. I know that I told you I have a no-weed garden … Continue reading
Diversity, Monoculture, and Greediness
I was looking at some of my past gardening photos and I ran across these pictures from the 2009 garden. You can also tell from the 2009 garden layout that I had planted a lot of different things. The rows were short, but there were many rows. What struck me about these photographs, was the … Continue reading