cultivating a sustainable life
Every farmhouse kitchen needs a basic scone recipe, and this one is as good as they come. I’ve made others over the years that are perhaps more impressive due to their various embellishments (debatable), but this one is perfect for showcasing homemade jams and spreads, …
I’ve posted before about how much I love the winter garden, but it bears repeating. Don’t get me wrong, the summer garden is a wonderful thing, with its sweet fruits and vibrant colours, but a lot of the time, the summer garden is all about waiting …
I’ve dreamed of keeping bees since I was in my early twenties, pouring over Harrowsmith Country Life and Mother Earth News magazines. When a girlfriend invited me to help with her father’s fall honey extraction while I was living in Nova Scotia, that was it, …
We’ve been blessed with a few sunny days recently, so we took advantage of it by picking last of the basil (for pesto) and beans (for next year’s crop). Corn stalks came out finally, and are serving as Halloween decorations on the front porch for …
It’s been a long, wet month, but things have actually progressed quite well in the garden, despite the lack of sunshine. The good thing about the cool spring is that the new additions to the orchard have had a chance to get established before the …
After threatening to rip out my strawberry patch last year due to lackluster production, I think I’ve finally figured out the key to getting a good crop. Despite having 60+ strawberry plants, I never seemed to get more than a handful or two at …
Well, we have finally finished the coop enough that I decided it was time to tell you a bit about our summer project. We’re pretty pleased with how it turned out, considering that it’s made almost entirely out of leftovers from our house. Β The only …
I finally sat down and sorted my seeds out today, deciding what I need to order more of, what I’m going to sacrifice to free up some space in the garden, and what kinds of new things I’d like to try this year. I’ve been …
Today I finally got around to doing the long overdue cleaning of the mason bee house. I put a bee house in our yard a couple of years ago hoping to help increase the numbers of these threatened pollinators, and with the hope that their …
