Recently, I found a food dehydrator while thrifting. I hadn’t been on the hunt for one, because for years my family has planned to make a solar […]
Tag: Aldona Bird
USDA guide make scanning much safer
For Christmas last year my sister gifted me the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning. I’ve only used a few recipes from it, but it has changed […]
North Elementary garden teaches kids valuable lessons, far beyond simple planting
A homeschool alumna and homeschooling my child, I haven’t been often in public schools. As a teenager, I occasionally went to take standardized tests, and as an […]
Feeling spicy: Our love affair with capsaicin
As you may have guessed from my recent do-it-yourself feature, I have a lot of jalapenos to process. I used the USDA canning recipe book to calculate […]
European hornets can stay if they stay out of my way
Over the last few summers, I’ve seen huge wasps. They haven’t obliged in holding still long enough for me to measure them, but I’d estimate their length […]
Hops can be used for more than beer
A few years ago, I planted hops — one pot that my father had bought and delayed planting and another from a friend who grows hops. They […]
Bewitched by witch hazel
Lately, a shrub that grows in the woods around my house has been catching my eye. The same shrub got my attention late in the fall last […]
Autumn olives a delicious stand-in for cranberries
This week, I am preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. The traditional dish I’m working on is the tart sauce. I’ve never grown cranberries; instead I’m harvesting autumn olives […]
Scale insects can do some damage to house plants
Unfortunately, my love of plants does not always result in good gardening. Last year as the weather got cold, I brought my plants in from the porch […]
Blacksmith Adam Palmer turns interest into artwork
“I would encourage people to investigate the way things were made in the past, by our ancestors,” blacksmith Adam Palmer told me. “There was a lot of […]
