17 New Pets

A month ago, we were put on notice by my husband’s dad that he was going to be giving up his chickens. He’s getting a little older and doesn’t feel up to taking care of them anymore. If we wanted them, we could have them, he said, but we’d have to act fast–he was ready…

Happiness Grows on Trees

In the weeks since I moved to my new home, I’ve been trying to spend some time getting to know my new neighbors–and not just the human ones. My new backyard is filled with animals and plants that I never saw at my old place, even though it was just a few miles from here. I’ve been…

How Long Does a Lemon Take to Ripen?

  There have been a lot of searches for citrus information lately on the blog, so I thought I’d give you an update on the dwarf lemon, lime, and orange trees I planted in pots last spring. They’ve been doing a lot of growing! The Washington navel orange and Meyer lemon arrived from One Green World basically…

Simplifying Pea Production

A look at any seed catalog will reveal at least three kinds of peas: shelling peas, snap peas, and snow peas. Shelling peas are the ones that show up in the canned and frozen vegetable sections at the supermarket. When you grow them at home, though, there’s quite a bit of work involved in getting all those little…

Cheap and Easy Granola

Granola is so expensive to buy in the store, and when you do, you can’t get it without a host of unpronounceable items in the ingredients list. But sometimes I just crave it. Maybe it’s those whole grains: oats and whole wheat flour, and whatever seeds and nuts are added. In any case, I finally…