summer

Gardening with Herbs 101: Preserving Your Herbs

September 14, 2011

Written by Meg Dickey, Contributing Writer
Last time we talked about how to harvest your herbs - now that you've harvested them, what are you going to do with them?
Here are my favorite ways to preserve herbs for out-of-season use:
Freezing
This method best preserves flavor.  Rinse the herbs and chop coarsely.  Place about 1-2 teaspoons in [...]

Read the full article →

Gardening with Herbs 101: Harvesting Your Herbs

September 8, 2011

Written by Meg Dickey, Contributing Writer
Our weather may not be showing signs of Autumn, but our plants and gardens are certainly indicating it is time for harvesting!
If you have been consistently using your herbs throughout the summer, you may not feel you have many to preserve for the winter season (my catnip has been well-used [...]

Read the full article →

Small Batch Dehydrating for the Summer Bounty

September 5, 2011

There's a woman who lives a few blocks down from me with this miraculous garden that seems to go from a freshly tilled plot to a wildly abundant gardener's delight in about one month flat (my husband keeps telling me not to be jealous because she probably uses Miracle-Gro or something of the chemical-sort).
She grows [...]

Read the full article →

How to Peel Peaches and Tomatoes for Canning

September 1, 2011

Although I've been canning for 4-5 years now, it was only about 2 years ago that I learned this simple trick for peeling peaches that has made canning an easier task. I was missing out!
My 6 year old and I made this short video the other night, while peeling 40 lbs of peaches. She's behind the [...]

Read the full article →

8 Unique Recipes With Zucchini

August 19, 2011

Written by Stacey T, Contributing Writer
About this time of year, people are wondering what to do with all the zucchini that just keeps coming from gardens. Zucchini is nutritious - a great source of fiber, antioxidants, Vitamin C and many B vitamins - and it's delicious too!
But we [...]

Read the full article →

Simple and Fresh Tomato Salad

August 16, 2011

Written by Stacy Karen, Contributing Writer
To make a superior tomato salad that is full of flavor, buy locally grown tomatoes that are of different shapes, sizes, and colors. This will make the salad visually interesting as well as delicious!
The following tomato salad is a perfect side dish. Alternately, serve as an dinner entree or light [...]

Read the full article →

Preserving the Harvest: Sweet Fruit Chutney

August 12, 2011

by Meg Dickey, Contributing Writer
Summer, and the fruit it brings, has a way of overwhelming many of us. If you've got a pile of peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots or any other kind of fruit sitting in the middle of your table, you need to figure out a way to deal with it!  One of the [...]

Read the full article →

All Our Little Ducks in a Row (And Baby Makes 6)

August 2, 2011

You know you must be tired when you're a writer and you have exciting news and the only way that you can think of announcing it is to simply blurt it out...
We're expecting baby #4!
Upon returning home from our trip to the Philippines with Compassion International (literally, the day after we got home), we [...]

Read the full article →

My Buttered Life Ebook: 5 Summer Skin Recipes and a Giveaway!

August 1, 2011

By reading the ingredient list on most skincare products, you would think that it's necessary to have a degree in chemistry and your own in-home lab if you ever wanted to create your own. Sunscreen in particular seems daunting to me and I wouldn't have the faintest idea where to begin if I wanted to [...]

Read the full article →

Homeschooling Throughout the Summer

July 22, 2011

Written by Beth Corcoran, Contributing Writer
When I tell people that we homeschool year round, I usually get one of two responses.  I often hear from homeschooling families, “Oh, we try to do that, too.”  And then I often hear, “Why on earth would you do that to yourself and your poor kids?”
Well, don’t feel too [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries