Garden Fuss

Beet #kvass and fermented #salsa on deck tonight. The garden does us good! A photo posted by @mizqtinaj on Aug 8, 2014 at 9:01pm PDT One of the simplest, easy peasy, no-brainer, ways of adding beneficial cultures, vitamins, and nutrients into your diet is to ferment your foods. One of my favorite ways to add these cultures is through beverages like Beet Kvaas which I wanted to share with you today. The recipe couldn't be simpler but the benefits to my gut health, my skin, hair, and nails is why I'm excited to share this today. Beets are not on the favorite foods list of most people I know, but I'm glad to now admit that today they are one of mine. To describe to you how difficult it is to get a full grown adult to sip or sample a food with beets is worse than taking a five year old for shots. These folks feel like their life will end if they imbibe on this sometimes crimson root vegetable. But I never give up and the smell and my incessant teasing usuall

It is very fitting that next week we kick off the holiday season with Thanksgiving, so tis the time for sage in everything. Sage is such a wonderful plant! This photo was taken in May of this year and this post has been sitting in my queue ever since, waiting to shine in all its savory glory!  Now that it's cooled off significantly and the last, of the last, of the last, vegetation has been harvested from the garden, I have had time to find some perspective on a couple few things. Number one, I've decided to not give this blog up. Yeah I considered it and it's been a very long time since I've posted anything due to so many factors. Including health and very painful personal losses that took me in a direction I for one least expected. That being said and in an effort to avoid elaborating anymore, I realize that this small blog is my love letter to myself, my family, my friends (current and future), and all things green. Having just finished a phone call with a new fri

This post is brought to you by the letters A. and O. After months of agonizing over a choice I made to start a new asparagus bed I can breath a big sigh of relief. I returned home to find two tiny spears poking through the soil and mulch today despite the juicy Orach that seems to have mistakenly found a temporary garden bed to volunteer in. My family and I are so excited for fresh garden salad so the Orach is very welcome. However, Asparagus is the vegetable that reigns supreme throughout the spring and well into the summer.We can't seem to get enough of it so it goes into strirfry, sauteed with onion and garlic, soups, and even fritattas.  I'm salivating a little bit while writing this while I find my self digressing a bit from the memory of our big do-over in the asparagus department. You can't jump into a good story without saying, "What had happened was..." Actually you can and you should but I felt like adding a little drama to the tale of the wither

Cold wind go away! Let the Spring sunshine come out today. Is anyone else getting the itch to sow something? I've winter sown, I've prepared and potted clay and ceramic pots with the help of my lovely and sprite mother. Yet nothing is ready to go into the ground. We have had such sporadic weather this year that it's not worth moving full speed ahead because there will be losses. With my energy waning day by day (a myositis thing) I just don't have it in me to go all plantaholic out there just yet.  Unfortunately I have spoken to a couple family members who have given into the itch by scratching up the soil and putting plants in. They've both lost plants and are starting from square one re-sowing EVERYTHING!  YIKES!!! Each year all gardeners/farmers worth their salt try to get a jump on the season. I am no different here... What I have learned to do to save myself valuable energy, sanity, and a few coins, is to watch, listen, and learn from nature.