• crafts,  sewing

    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.…

  • gardening,  tutorial

    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…

  • canning,  preserving

    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…

  • cooking,  recipe

    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…

  • gardening,  preserving

    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…