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Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking: Review + Contest!

18 April 2011 by local kitchen

My lovely friend Kate, of Hip Girl’s Home fame, has published a book: The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking: Decorating, Dining, and the Gratifying Pleasures of Self-Sufficiency – on a Budget! While the official release date is tomorrow, April 19, her publisher, HarperCollins, was kind enough to send me an advance copy to review and an extra copy to host a giveaway on the blog! To tell you the truth, I was a little nervous about this review: obviously, I […]

Categories: community • Tags: budget, canning, crafts, decorating, frugal, gardening, hip girl's, homemaking, kate payne, preserving, sewing

Volunteer Tomatoes

4 August 2010 by local kitchen

Do you see this? This is a picture of the rock wall that borders my driveway (with stairs in the background, that lead up to our cozy little cottage). The wall is actually quite pretty (I’m just a lousy photographer); one of those old-timey New England stone walls that you find all over the place in our neck of the woods. The wall gets fun sun, Western exposure, and as you can see, I haven’t been very diligent about weeding […]

Categories: gardening • Tags: gardening

Garden Update: Blight Edition

5 August 2009 by local kitchen

It seems I spoke too soon: my tomato plants have been infected with late blight. The fungus, which has been all over the news, is decimating the tomato crop in the Northeast and is likely to move on to potatoes next. As heartbreaking as this loss is to my little back-deck garden (15 plants and counting), I cannot imagine how area farmers feel: my CSA (Ryder Farm) has been hard hit, with her 700 heirloom tomato plants producing less than […]

Categories: gardening • Tags: gardening

Garden Update: 01 June 2009

1 June 2009 by local kitchen

According to my last Garden Update, it’s been about a month since I direct-sowed a whole lotta seeds in pots out on the deck. I have what seems like a million pots on the deck, and then a bunch more down against the rock wall in the driveway, what my friend Nadine calls “Little Tuscany.” We’ve had cool and rainy weather for the last month. Some gorgeous sun this weekend and my plants definitely responded, but I think they are […]

Categories: gardening • Tags: gardening, local

Garden Update 18 May 2009: Frost Advisory!

18 May 2009 by local kitchen

The fringe benefits of a container garden: when the forecast calls for overnight lows approaching 32 degrees in mid-May, you can just move the garden inside for the night! If you live in or around upper Westchester County, you may want to think about row covers, Wall o’ Water, hay cover, or maybe just convince the dogs to sleep out in the garden tonight! I’ve often thought it would be an interesting experiment to heat a lot of good-sized rocks in a […]

Categories: gardening • Tags: gardening

Seedling Update: 25 April 2009

25 April 2009 by local kitchen

Week 7 since I sowed the first seeds. I’ve noticed a lot of searches lately for seed starting and germination, usually for specific varieties (at least those who end up clicking here), like Matt’s Wild Cherry, or “cayenne pepper seedling.” So, for all those searching for info, I’ve put together a detailed post. For all those who could give a furry-rodent’s ass about gardening…skip this one and search the archive for a fun recipe. Last update, on April 13, I […]

Categories: gardening • Tags: gardening

Seedling Update: 13 April 2009

13 April 2009 by local kitchen

OK, so that’s not my garden. Although I wish it were.. and I wish that were my bathtub. Alas, I find myself cameraless; the trauma of the Kami’s Birthday Cake FAIL obviously affected my brain in that I left the camera at Kami’s house, after the party (and many glasses of champagne). C’est la vie – but you’ll have to deal without real photos for a few days. Mea culpa, mea culpa. It’s been five weeks since the first seeds were […]

Categories: gardening • Tags: cooking, food, gardening, local

Seedling Update: 29 March 2009

29 March 2009 by local kitchen

There’s a whole lotta transplantin’ goin’ on! Three weeks in and the tomato seedlings need transplanting. I’ve read to transplant when there are two “true” leaves (the leaves that come out after the first set of leaves, the cotelydon), and when there are four true leaves. Some of my tomato plants had two, some had four; but all were pretty leggy, due to spending the first day or two after germaintion without much light, and so were blocking the shorter seedlings […]

Categories: gardening • Tags: gardening, local

Seedling Update: 21 March 2009

21 March 2009 by local kitchen

It’s been two weeks since I sowed the first seeds of the season. I planted: rosemary chives lemon basil jalapeno pepper red bell pepper mixed cayenne pepper Roma tomato San Marzano tomato Matt’s Wild Cherry tomato Stupice tomato Silvery Fir tomato Thessaloniki tomato The tomato seeds germinated in under a week (on top of the refrigerator for a few days, and then on top of a warming mat that I ordered from Amazon) and have gotten a bit leggy because they […]

Categories: gardening • Tags: gardening, local

How Does Your Garden Grow?

8 March 2009 by local kitchen

Spring has stuck a tentative toe in the pool called the Northeast; she may well pull it back out again, shivering, and leave us with a few more weeks of winter temps, but her effort garnered us two beautifully warm days. Yesterday was in the low 60’s here; I put the top down on my little VW Bug and we tooled around to every farmer’s market and little local food shop we could think of, just to enjoy the fresh air. […]

Categories: gardening • Tags: food, gardening, local