Calendula, also known as Pot Marigold, is a beautiful and easy-to-grow flower with an amazing ability to reduce inflammation and promote wound healing. It’s also wonderful for aging skin as it tightens and hydrates. That makes it a perfect ingredient in this Calendula Oil Body Butter.Continue Reading
Making mead, or honey wine, is an ancient form of brewing using the simplest of ingredients. It’s a perfect place for beginners to start on their home brewing journey. Even this blueberry mead recipe is simple enough for a beginner who is somewhat familiar with the art of fermentation.Continue Reading
Because there are so many elderberries to be found in the area where my husband works, he is the elderberry forager in the family. He’ll stop on the way home and harvest, and then after dinner, he and I will sit on the back porch as the sun sets, listening to tunes and removing berries from the stems. It’s a late August date every year. And the next day I set about dehydrating the elderberries for elderberry syrup, or I make low sugar elderberry jelly.Continue Reading
Is one of your goals this year learning to preserve the harvest? If so, Ann Accetta-Scott’s new book, The Farm Girl’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest is a must-have.Continue Reading
Weeds can be the bane of gardening, right? There are definitely ways to reduce their growth like mulching, and no-dig gardening. But don’t get too discouraged when you find common lawn weeds, or garden weeds. There are some great ways to use them, after all.Continue Reading
I wouldn’t know how to begin a discussion on gardening without beginning with a discussion on how to improve soil fertility. When I teach a workshop, I ask students what they think of when they think “garden”. Most often, the answer has to do with the harvest.
And, of course, we wouldn’t garden if we couldn’t look forward to a bountiful harvest. But, I always encourage my students to build soil because healthy, fertile soil will result in a healthy, nutrient-dense harvest.Continue Reading