organic gardening

Speed Pickles

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The cucumbers are ripe in the Small Footprint garden, and with the amount in my garden and my CSA box, it seemed like a good time to make pickles. And with so many things ripe in the garden right now, once I got started, I caught a “pickle bug” and just couldn’t stop. Here are [...]

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Sun Dried Heaven

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Sun-dried tomatoes are one of my favorite foods. I love their concentrated, sweet tomato-ness in just about everything, and will even eat them straight when soaked in olive oil. But at the store, they are a pricey delicacy that either come in tiny, quickly-used jars or in bags that always look too dry and often [...]

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Keeping Cool with Lavender Lemonade

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Lavender is blooming now in my garden, not only looking and smelling beautiful, but attracting bees and other pollinators to the rest of my plants. Lavender is easy to grow in any well-drained soil, and is a relatively drought tolerant, perennial plant that adds interest to any garden with its grey leaves and tall, purple [...]

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Cool Figs on a Hot Summer Night

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Figs are coming into season here in Southern California, and my tree is absolutely loaded with them. Yum! Native to the Middle East, figs were one of the first fruits ever to be cultivated. Seeing how they grow effortlessly and abundantly here without any real pests, I understand why California currently ranks third in the world [...]

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Our Favorite Homemade Sauerkraut

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If you’ve only eaten store-bought or canned sauerkraut, you really owe it to yourself to try the fermented, homemade variety. Here is our basic recipe.

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Stinging Nettles Are Good For You

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Today I weeded my very overgrown flower garden, and learned (the hard way) that stinging nettles are the most common weed there. But despite the fire in my hands that lasted for several minutes, I was so glad at the discovery! People have been using nettles for food, medicine, fiber, and dyes since the Bronze [...]

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