Tag: homesteading

  • Embrace Change, Adapt, Grow

    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,…

  • Abundance Begins

    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…

  • Early and Evergreen Herbs and Spices

    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…

  • Epicurean Living: The Chicken Issue!

    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…

  • Early Spring Garden

    Early Spring Garden

    Spring gardens are slow to wake. Day by day, they brighten a bit more. Blooms begin. Foliage fills in. Then one morning, you step outside and find the world transformed by life. This morning — a blustery, cold one set against the backdrop of a bright sun — it feels as if the garden has…

  • The Walled Garden

    The Walled Garden

    I’ve been enamored with the idea of a walled garden forever. Okay… not actually forever. It’s only been since my first trip to France (over 20 years ago) when I saw how beautiful they could be. Before that, walls around yards defined property lines, increased privacy, and gave cats a place to sit. And that…

  • Cooking Lessons: Bouillabaisse

    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…

  • Know the #1 Cause of Weeds

    Know the #1 Cause of Weeds

    Depending on what kind of weeds are common to you area, you might have thousands to millions of weed seeds lurking in every garden bed. Yet only a fraction of them sprout at any given time. And some never do. Do you know why all the weeds don’t germinate at once? SHORT ANSWER: The conditions…

  • Detox for Good

    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…