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Huck Finn Cap
I am welcoming the end of gardening season, because it means that I don’t have to feel bad about staying inside and sewing now! My first sewing project in a while was for my friend’s kid, Declan, who just turned two. For his birthday, I decided to make him the Huck Finn Cap by Sew Liberated. I bought the pattern and the fabric at the West Seattle Fabric Company. This hat came together really fast. After sewing all those 30 plus hour dresses, it was nice to make something that I could complete in just a few hours. I also love that you can make the lining a contrast fabric. So cute.…
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Braiding Garlic
Okay, so I harvested my garlic about a month ago. Curing only takes about 2-3 weeks, so my garlic is sure to be well cured by now. Now it’s time for braiding! One quick note before we begin. I learned a lesson about curing garlic this year. In past years, I have always hung my garlic on string to cure. This year, since I harvested so many heads of garlic, I cured my garlic on old screen door on a couple of sawhorses. Here’s why hanging them works better. A few heads had rotten spots on one side and I am attributing that to lack of airflow on the side…
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Canning Season!
Without even realizing it, and due to my little urban farm, I have adopted the age old farmer’s routine. Spring and Summer are the planting and growing season and late Summer/early Fall mark the time for harvesting and preserving. Fortunately for me, I like this kind of structure and dependable repetition, so it suits me just fine. I preserve food mostly by freezing or canning it. I freeze soups, sauces, and berries and can pickled things and jams and jellies. I like to can things that are fun to give away… or hoard (sometimes it’s hard to share)! Apparently I only can things that are red or green. I’m not…
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Mustard Green and Potato Casserole
We have been harvesting tons of food. Okay, well not literal tons, but I have been keeping track and as of today, we have harvested over 100 lbs. of food! That sounds like quite a bit, right? Don’t worry though, we’ve been sharing. In fact, here is a little recipe and photo story about just that. A lot of the poundage is from potatoes. Our total kind of skyrocketed after I started harvesting the “Yukon Golds” I planted in the Spring. By the way, these are the best potatoes I have ever grown. I only planted one variety this year and gave them plenty of room, so lately I have…
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Harvesting Garlic
Matt and I love garlic. We put it in everything. Last year I grew garlic for the first time and cured it in the basement for a couple of weeks and then made a braid of about 13 of the heads. I then hung the braid on my baker’s rack, thinking it would last us awhile. We went through it in about four months. So this year, I planted three times that amount. Some people don’t bother with growing garlic, because it takes up space and stays in your garden a long time. I planted this crop last October and it is just now ready. I think it’s worth the…
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Ode to Summer Stir-Fry
Oh Stir-fry. You are this gardener’s staple meal. I don’t think I made a lot of stir-fry before I grew my own vegetables. Now I make it a lot in the Summer, because I can throw whatever I have ready in the garden, into the wok, and end up with an amazing meal full of the fresh-from-the-garden flavor! The star of this stir-fry is really the Chiogga beets. I barely put any sauce on this and the beets give it a really nice flavor! Summer Stir-Fry Ingredients- 1/2 pound sugar snap peas 4-5 medium to large beets, boiled and chopped 1 pound carrots, chopped 1 pound broccoli, chopped 3 cups…
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Farmy photo shoot!
I am usually the one taking the pictures, so I am rarely in them. That said, I am so excited to have some pictures of myself doing the things I love; working in the garden and in my sewing room. Thank you to Amy Kiel of Amy Kiel Photography for coming over on a sprinkly Seattle day to photograph me in my element. I have long been a fan of Amy’s work, so I feel honored to have been photographed by her!
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Chicken Shit Bingo
All good things seem to come from Austin, TX. I love that city and I used to go there a lot. Seattle and Austin are like sister cities. It’s one of my favorite places for so many reasons. Modern day Flat Track Roller Derby was born in Austin as the Texas Rollergirls. TXRG is the league that helped the Rat City Rollergirls get their start, but that’s another story for another post. You know what else came from Austin (according to me, I don’t know where it came from before that)… Chicken Shit Bingo! The one and only time I ever experienced Chicken Shit Bingo (before recreating it in my backyard), was at Ginny’s Little Longhorn in Austin, TX. It was…
