The summer vegetable harvest is slowing down, and the days without fresh squash, tomatoes, and beans straight from the garden are getting closer. But with just a little effort, you can preserve some of summer’s bounty and eat it all year long. Canning and pickling may seem daunting, but anybody can use a freezer (open [...]
Whether you like President Obama’s plans for healthcare reform or not, who can argue with his idea to open a farmer’s market right outside the White House?
At yesterday’s National Health Care Forum, while responding to a question about how his family stays fit, Obama offered up this latest idea:
“So, you know, Michelle set [...]
If you’ve never picked okra, you’re not missing much. The funny-looking vegetable known as a chief ingredient in gumbo grows on a plant with leaves that are itchier than any I’ve ever encountered. Last night I picked a bucketful of okra while the kids played in the garden, and because I forgot to bring gloves [...]
Ok, even those of us who grow a lot of our own food still go to the grocery store. The modern American family who grows or produces EVERYTHING it eats is rare, if it even exists at all. But if you’re like me, when you’re shopping for food, you want to make sure you’re buying [...]
It’s the height of garden season, and every day there’s weeding, hoeing, harvesting and food preparation to be done. Along with work, parenting and everything else going on in the summertime, gardening can become a chore.
Case in point: last Tuesday. My husband was out of town and I took the day off work to take [...]
While kids who help grow vegetables are generally more interested in eating them (according to several studies described here), it doesn’t always happen that way. Tonight at supper, for instance, my two-year-old ate only meat and didn’t touch his squash, okra or green beans. My four-year-old only ate his green beans because I made him [...]
One industry that’s beating the Great Recession is the business of selling seeds, specifically vegetable seeds. As I’ve written in this blog before, growing numbers of families are starting gardens, learning to grow their own food to save money and eat healthier, more trustworthy fare.
And to grow our own food, we all start with the [...]
If you use pressure canning to preserve fruits and vegetables, don’t forget to take your canner top in for an annual checkup before you start using it this year. Think of it as a pap smear for canners — nobody wants to do it, but it could save your life. Seriously.
If your pressure canner [...]
