We were so keen on currants and gooseberries, all along the chain link fence that borders our backyard. But it seems they are still banned in the state of Massachusetts – because Ribes plants could be hosts to the fungus spores that causes White Pine Blister Rust. The ban used to be on the entire …
Author Archives: kaat
More Summer Harvest
Ah, so this is what it was all about! Finally the garden is giving up that abundance that was promised: beans of all kinds, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes and tomatoes, and our first eggplant (apple green). There’s enough to eat and put by. This is one day’s harvest. The tomatoes that weren’t eaten straight away were …
The Other in My Back Yard
I am reading Jerry Mander’s In the Absence of the Sacred. The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. Many points are too loosely argued for my taste – as in, I doubt it would convince my DH, who is a total techno-optimist. As a confirmation for what I believe, it reads …
How Amie’s Summer Is Going
Math Tea Party Parrot … “Mama, when you see it IN your eyes, but not outside your eyes, it’s a dream, right?” “Yes.” “That’s why when you open your eyes it’s no longer there.” … “Mama, Peter Pan [movie] is made up of pieces.” “Yes, like Kipper: episodes.” “No, Kipper episodes are stories by themselves. …
More Canning, But It’s Hot!
Yesterday, on my birthday, I cooked and canned 4 quart (1 liter) and two half pint (500 ml) jars of applesauce with my new canner – I still used the hot water bath method, no high pressurizing as yet, it was simply the only pot that would hold all those jars. It gave me even …
Brewing Us Some Compost Tea
A friend lent me the Toolbox for Sustainable City Living, which has a recipe for compost tea. He also dropped off all the necessary equipment for making it. 1 nylon stocking’s leg full of my best homemade compost (= the inoculant) 5 gallons of (non-chlorinated) rain water 1/4 cup of molasses (food) oxygen thanks to …
Garden Fruits
Amie knows why bees are good. – Mama, excuse me, Mama? Bees are good because if there is a flower on the plant then they go into the flower to get the nectar and make honey out of it and they also do something good to the flower. Pollinate, yes. Despite the lack of pollinator-attracting …
Canner and Stove
I can cross two more items off my “Tools/Toys” list in the sidebar. “Lookit” (*) what arrived yesterday, one after the other: My Presto 23 quart high pressure canner, present from DH for my birthday Our new wood stove, present to ourselves for our 8th wedding anniversary That’s two big pillars of self-sufficient living right …
Beginning Preparedness
If for some reason you couldn’t leave your house, how long could you and your family survive on the food and water you have at home? If your answer is three days, you can count yourself “normal”. If for some reason the grid blinked out, would you be able to cook that food, heat your …
TO DO (List) Like There’s No Tomorrow
White sheet curtain to block the sun’s heat. Today we’re in the 90s, while yesterday we barely made the 70s. Things we need to do before winter (update TO DO LIST in sidebar): attempt compost tea top dress beds with compost install last rain barrel (for toilet flushing) pull poison ivy all over restart Starbucks …