Sep
30
This week is Banned Book Week, which, according to the American Library Association, “highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.” Despite freedom of expression being clearly provided for in the Bill of …
Sep
29
Autumn at our house almost always means harvest, and food preservation typically follows. Unfortunately, along with the boxes of tomatoes, buckets of garlic, and oodles of other fruits & veggies come the fruit flies. I can tolerate a couple of flies, but when they reach critical mass, I start exclaiming things like “Die, evil vermin” …
Sep
28
This weekend, my son celebrated his fifth birthday (sniff, sniff) and each of his friends went home with a little bag of play dough as a party favor. The play dough was a much bigger hit than the clay pots and basil seeds I send kids home with last year, and it was even easier …
Sep
27
Pancakes were probably the first food I learned to make from scratch. In part because my sister has the best darned “Griddle Cake” recipe I’d ever tasted, and in part because I love cooked breakfast–especially when it can include peanut butter and chocolate chips– I became obsessed with pancakes. Now that I have children of …
Sep
24
If there’s one thing tomato-growers in colder climates fear, it’s early frost that strikes with lots of green fruit still on the vine. According to the Purdue Cooperative Extension, optimal ripening temperature is between 68-77, and it hasn’t been getting nearly that warm here this last week, and the nighttime temperatures just keep on dropping, …
Sep
13
When the garden’s bountiful tomato crop dove-tailed with one of our traditional Friday Afternoon Club gatherings, I decided to get creative in the kitchen. I skimmed through several recipes until I found one that met my requirements for a good bloody mary, including: Horseradish & hot sauce – if it ain’t spicy, I don’t want …
Sep
11
I am a dirty girl. This time of year, garden dirt finds a permanent home under my nails, and I’d much rather be outside with the kids than inside cleaning. It’s not that I don’t want a clean house, it’s just that I’d rather do anything (including reorganizing my file cabinet, pulling weeds, or reading …
Sep
09
Now that we’re all duly depressed over the upcoming frost, it’s time to start focusing on what the avid gardener can do to beat the fall/winter blues. As the powdery mildew overtakes the squash and the last of the harvest trickles in, I start looking to next year’s harvest and the first thing I do …
Sep
08
Here in Zone 5, September brings with it the perennial question: When will the first frost strike? If Accuweather is, well, accurate, this year our first frost in Lyons may well be Friday night, with temps predicted to dip to 31. Although that’s not a “hard frost” (when temps stay at or below 28 degrees …
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