There’s no fresh fruit to be had this early in the growing season, but fortunately there’s something else in the garden that can satisfy the craving for fruity flavors: rhubarb! The stems of this bushy, tropical-looking perennial have a citrusy tang that, when baked into a sweetened pie, make a dessert that will have everyone asking for more….
Avoiding Transplant Shock
The threat of frost is past, which means it’s time for planting out tomatoes, peppers, and all manner of warm-weather crops here in Virginia. While planting out is certainly not rocket science, and plants can recover from much rough treatment, there are some ways to ease the transition for them, keeping them happier and healthier and ultimately leading…
Making Yogurt in the Slow Cooker
With the amount of yogurt I eat, I should have been making my own long ago. But it wasn’t until a couple of months back, when my grocery store stopped carrying my favorite yogurt, that I tried my hand at it for the first time and discovered how absolutely simple it is. And you don’t need…
100% Whole Wheat Bread That’s Just as Soft as White!
I’ve made homemade bread for a long time but until recently have shied away from 100% whole-wheat recipes. All the loaves I tried turned out very dense and dry–enticing only to health-food nuts and people in need of doorstops. Then, just a few weeks ago, I discovered a recipe on An Oregon Cottage that had the word ‘soft’ right in the name:…
Caramel Popcorn
I love making homemade edible goodies for stocking stuffers. Last year, it was caramels and orange-flavored hard candies. This year, I’m returning to an old favorite: caramel popcorn. My recipe comes from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s The Joy of Vegan Baking. It’s been almost five years since I started eating eggs and dairy again, but the recipes in…
Real Whipped Cream in 5 Minutes
There’s no reason to settle for a tub of Cool Whip or a sputtering can of Reddi-wip this holiday season. Not when homemade whipped cream takes only 5 minutes to prepare! While one person’s slicing the pie, another can be whipping up a batch of the freshest, most luxurious whipped cream you’ve ever tasted. And if you have…
From Pumpkin to Pie
‘Tis the season for baking pumpkin pies! Especially if, like me, you lazily store your pumpkins in the house. At room temperature, they start molding and rotting after a couple of months, so now’s a great time to cook up the August/September harvest and either bake it straight into pies or freeze the purée for later…
Sowing Winter Cover Crops
With the weather turning cool and the fall harvest beginning to come in, you may think the time for sowing seeds is past. And for most seeds, you would be right. But there is one class of seeds you could usefully plant in the next week or so if you’re here in Zone 7, and that’s winter cover crops….
Three Fantastic Farm Memoirs
Now, in late August, the peak of the year’s garden work appears to be behind us. Last week I harvested pumpkins, and in the space vacated by the dying vines, I sowed a fall garden of lettuce, spinach, collards, turnips, carrots, and beets. For the next few weeks, the only time-consuming work should be the never-ending need to pick…
A Very Long Egg-Eating Monster
Once before, I’ve caught a snake in the henhouse, but never in the act of swallowing an egg. Here’s the sight that greeted me a few weeks ago when I went out to collect in the evening. This is an eastern ratsnake: the only snake in Virginia that gets longer than six feet! It is not venomous…
gettin' fresh! 