Category: Basic Skills
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Embrace Change, Adapt, Grow
Those three ideas in the title of this post are pretty much the heart and art of living well today. They are also the focus of Issue 4 of Epicurean Living. For any newcomers, Epicurean Living is a free PDF magazine I create about philosophy, gardening, homesteading, creativity, and ecology. You can open and read,…
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Abundance Begins
Our first real garden harvest of the growing season is the abundant and lush beauty that washes over our landscape in May. This feast for the senses nourishes us just as much as the fruit and calorie-dense staple crops that come later on. What’s most amazing to me is that before I began homesteading, I…
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Early and Evergreen Herbs and Spices
I started my journey to become a gardener by growing herbs. It was so much fun, and saved me so much money, that even before I even knew the term “homesteader” I became self-sufficient at growing herbs. I grew so many, everywhere I could, that I cut them for bouquets, gave divisions to friends, and…
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Epicurean Living: The Chicken Issue!
The latest edition of Epicurean Living is now available for free online viewing or download. I’ve dubbed this one the “chicken issue” since I devoted the entire Epicurean homesteading section to the subject. There are also details on using all five senses in the garden and some easy ways to engage with the ecology where…
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Light Deprivation for Weed Control
Light deprivation is great low-to-no cost way to control some weeds in your garden. It’s done by covering an area with black plastic sheeting, landscape fabric, scrap sheet metal, a tarp, old carpet, or other kinds of light barriers for a few months. Alternatively, you can use carbon rich materials like paper and cardboard held…
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Cooking Lessons: Bouillabaisse
The very first time I had seafood stew was in my early 20’s. I ordered it at a French restaurant in the U.S. under the name “bouillabaisse”. I didn’t love it. The broth was bitter and the whole dish smelled like stale urine to me. It was a while before I dared to try that…
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The Year-Round Spice Garden (with free PDF seasonal chore calendar)
Variety is the spice of life. Likewise, spices can add immense variety and edible interest to your meals and your landscape year round. There’s a lot of crossover between spices and herbs in the kitchen. However, for garden planning purposes, it’s good to have a clear distinction between the two in mind. Herbs vs. Spices…
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Detox for Good
There are a lot of ways to detox. Clinically speaking, the term applies to weaning your body off toxic and addictive substances like alcohol, drugs, or dopamine driven activities like gambling. That kind of detoxing often requires professional assistance to get through safely and recover your health afterwords. It’s also easiest to do with the…
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Natural Garden Planning
Seed catalogs are arriving. So now is the perfect time for planning what to plant in your outdoor garden. Right? I used to think so until I realized that gardening isn’t like placing an order on Amazon. You can’t pick the plants you want and install them like you would a power cord or an…