Garden Primer Part 2 – How Many Vegetables Do I Need?

Posted on | January 12, 2010 | 2 Comments

It took me longer than I’d hoped to get this post out. Part of my struggle was that choosing the veggies for your garden is such a personal choice. But a conversation with a friend last night helped me really focus in on how I choose veggies for my garden.

Start with the limiting factors
If you live in Lyons, you can’t grow bananas outdoors, no matter how badly you’d like to. If you live in an apartment, you probably can’t manage an apple tree. If you live in a suburban house, you likely don’t have room enough to grow wheat or barley. So start your veggie planning with identifying your limitations. Last week, I wrote about figuring out how much garden space you have, and how much you need. Read more

Eat From the Pantry Challenge – Week Two

Posted on | January 11, 2010 | No Comments

My biggest lesson-learned in the Eat From the Pantry Challenge is not to send your spouse to the grocery store–even with a detailed list–if you expect to hold to eating from the pantry. Oh well, we still were able to use up quite a bit of stuff from the pantry this week, so I can’t complain too much. This week, we’re leaving town for a few days, so the pantry will remain full and unused. We’ll have to come on strong at the end of the month (and probably continue this into February) to really make a dent. Read more

A Vegetable Garden Planning Primer

Posted on | January 5, 2010 | 1 Comment

I spent about two days of my time off of work planning next year’s vegetable garden. Yes, I realize it’s early January, but I like to start seeds beginning in February, which means I need to get my seed orders in now! That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s too late for you to get started on your vegetable gardens for this-coming year. In fact, the perfect time to start planning is right now, and I’m going to give you some tips that will help you get started.

First, What Went Wrong Last Year

Last year, a couple of things went wrong with my vegetable gardening plans. First, I tried to go in on a giant seed order with all of my gardening friends. Although I think we saved some money on shipping, and had some fun getting together over the garden catalogs, we placed our order later than I like, it took us forever to divide up the seeds (we split single packets of seed among as many as six of us, which was kind of nightmarish!), and I bought way more seed than I needed because I wanted to try a few plants of everything my friends were trying. Read more

The Eat From the Pantry Challenge

Posted on | January 4, 2010 | 5 Comments

This month, Life as Mom is hosting the Eat from the Pantry Challenge. The idea is that each family spend the month of January trying to eat their way through the bounty in the pantry/freezer/cupboards to save a little money in the New Year.

I am a bulk food addict and I belong to an awesome organic bulk-food co-op. That’s a dangerous combination that explains why I currently have a life-time supply of such staples as quinoa, dried beans, and rice in my pantry. I also love tea. Matt & I have been on a tea-buying moratorium for over a year now and still have probably another year’s worth (and we drink lots of tea). So the idea of burning through some of this excess, while saving a little money, appeals. Read more

A Few Holiday Crafts for Cold Weather Fun

Posted on | December 21, 2009 | No Comments

We had a solid week of single-digit temperatures, leaving me with two kids wilder than the Mad Hatter and a desperate need for fun indoor craft activities. Here are few things we did that were cheap, easy, and used mainly things we already had around the house:

Making them each their own miniature Christmas tree out of a Rosemary plant occupied a whole evening by the time we made popcorn, ate most of it, strung some on thread with dried cranberries using dull tapestry needles, and topped the lot with a star taped to a wooden chopstick and stuck in the dirt behind the tree. Don’t ask me why the kids opted for the Star of David instead of a traditional star. Matt drew out a five-pointed star and Gabriel said no, he wanted a six-pointer. Lily had to have the same, of course. Read more

Best. Pie Crust. Ever.

Posted on | December 20, 2009 | 1 Comment

Julie's Cherry Pie

That’s a bold statement, I know. But my Mom said it was the best pie crust ever, and she’s like George Washington when it comes to lies, so it has to be the truth.

After a flood of Facebook posts and Tweets about struggles with pie crust, I figured it was past time for me to put together a post about my obsession with consistently delivering pie crust heaven during the holidays. You see, I love pie. Not like a normal, healthy person likes a good pie. More like the way a crazy, OCD person loves something.

My Grandma made great pie. But she used lard (and later shortening) and I’m totally not going there for a variety of reasons. So I use butter. I won’t lie and say this pie crust is easy, or for beginners, because there’s a reason the title of this post is Best. Pie Crust. Ever. and not Easiest. Pie Crust. Ever.

So if you’ve made a few pie crusts in your time and are ready to try to achieve true pie Nirvana, read on! Read more

Breaking My Addiction to Holiday “Stuff”

Posted on | December 17, 2009 | 3 Comments

Durango sleeping in a pile of holiday wrapping paper

Hi, my name is Julie, and I’m a holiday addict. You know, the kind who can’t resist adorable Christmas ornaments, or holiday cards on clearance sale. The kind who has a ten-year supply of wire ribbon for wrapping presents and who starts listening to Christmas songs the day after Halloween. Yeah, one of those.

I think each of us forms our impression of what the holidays should be about during childhood. For us, there was a fairly elaborate procession of golf trophies and framed pictures being boxed and moved downstairs, and then a reverse procession of worn and familiar boxes of Christmas ornaments moving upstairs. We listened to Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing carols while we unwrapped decorations. It usually took most of the day, and I loved every minute of it, Read more

About those adorable Christmas Cards…

Posted on | December 16, 2009 | 3 Comments

The Artz Family, November 2009

Last year, I would have liked to use protecting the environment as an excuse for not sending out the annual Christmas card, but the truth is I just ran out of both time and inclination. But that year off gave me quite a bit of time to think about Christmas cards, what they mean, and whether I could live without them in the name of less waste and less greenhouse gasses.

I couldn’t find a precise estimate of what the environmental impact of all these Christmas cards floating around actually is, but if you imagine the millions, even billions (one site in the UK estimates a billion cards sent in the UK alone!) of cards that are produced and then mailed around the globe, the impact cannot be small, even if you opt for recycled paper cards and avoid glitter & foil, which render the cards non-recyclable.

I love one UK company’s idea to produce edible Christmas cards, and Treehugger has some ideas for greening your cards, but I’m not going to do either this year. Read more

More on natural dyes

Posted on | November 20, 2009 | 2 Comments

I’ve been experimenting with home-made dyes for several years now whether it was dying play silks with Kool-Aid, looking for natural dyes for wool, dyes for home-made zero waste wrapping paper, or dying easter eggs.

This week, I dyed some wool roving with saffron and berries and the results were nice enough that I wanted to share! Read more

Beat the winter blues with a little green

Posted on | November 19, 2009 | No Comments

Our herb garden lives in the kids' play room

I may still have a little chard, carrots, oregano, and rosemary alive in the garden, but my garlic’s planted, my horseradish is harvested, and outdoor gardening season ‘09 is pretty much officially done. Although Seeds of Change has apparently lost its mind and started sending spring seed catalogs in November (!!), it’s early, even by my insane gardening standards, to begin plans for next year’s garden. So what’s a bored gardener to do to beat the winter blues?

Well, last weekend, I got a great deal on some end-of-season herbs from the last Farmer’s Market of the season (sniff, sniff) and planted an indoor herb garden to keep the kids and I occupied until we can reasonably start planning next year’s garden and starting seedlings in January. All it took was some leftover pots, a little potting soil, and a sunny window. Read more