One Local Summer – Week 3

Ah, my apologies for being late! Due to unforeseen but lovely circumstances, we went out to dinner with friends the last couple of days, so I had to postpone our One Local Summer dinner until today. It was worth the wait, though (for us at least). Simply salad Very simple: lettuce purchased at Drumlin Farm (where …

One Local Summer – Week 2

It’s only week 2 of One Local Summer – which now has its own website! – and I already feel the impact of seasonal eating: no more asparagus, and no potatoes and onions yet. But there are still heaps of leafy greens in their prime, juicy young garlic and garlic scapes, and the newly arrived …

One Local Summer – Week 1

Food Photography It’s an art! Who knew? The shopping and the cooking and the eating were fun – that is one of the rules of One Local Summer – but the photographing not so. Dinner   This was our dinner tonight, for the first edition of One Local Summer: I’m a vegetarian and since I was the …

Homesteading for a Happier Child and Community

Dreaming We are dreaming about moving to a new place. For us that means selling this one and buying another one of approximately the same price, which means that, if we want to move, we need to move out- out of Brookline. We’re currently in a 1050 sq.f. basement apartment in a condominium. We adore …

Ecological Manifest

The world outside Sometimes I wish I never had to leave the house – even though “the house” is a small and light-deficient, though blissfully cool, basement apartment. “Leaving” means going out into the din of air conditioners and leaf blowers (see yesterday’s post). It means walking past shop after shops selling plastic junk, $800 strollers. …

First Farmer’s Market, and Potted Herbs

This Thursday was our first Farmer’s Market of the new season. Though the weather was grey and rather freakishly cold, it was a great pleasure to say “welcome back” to the farmers. And what a bounty there was already! I got red chard, mustard greens, many bunches of spinach, and lots of herbs. All for …

Toby Hemenway’s book “Gaia’s Garden”

  Just published a review on Suite101.com of Gaia’s Garden, the book that led me to Holmgren’s Permaculture. I  tremendously enjoyed reading Hemenway’s book and I hope the review does it justice. I also hope that, once we have some land, I can put the permaculture way of gardening into practice. I might have to revisit …

I planted…

… six kinds of basil! Six! They’re in clay pots perched on the ledge that surrounds our basement entrance. Sounds gloomy? No: they’re in the sun! They’re soaking up the sun and soon we will harvest some of that energy for ourselves. I plan to get more herbs (last year we successfully grew basil, cilantro, rosemary, …

Article: Review of the Simply in Season Cookbook

Review of the Simply in Season Cookbook     I got to know about the Simply in Season Cookbook (Mennonite Herald Press) via a review for Groovy Green by Liz Deane (of Pocket Farm fame). Her review focuses on the ecological and geopolitical background of food and food production. Mine focuses on the cookbook aspect of …