Who needs sleep when you’ve got baby goats to distract you from your slumberless stupor? (Warning – This post has a sad story. But it also contains some hopefulness and Epicurean advice on goat keeping.) Normally, I don’t lose sleep over goats. In fact, during Covid-19, they’ve provided much needed distraction and entertainment given our… Read More Life with Goats
Sorry for disappearing for awhile. To be honest, after the events at the Capitol on January 6, I got lost trying to make sense of what happened and felt unable to write about homesteading again until I did. This event struck a very personal chord for me because I know that terrain well. In college,… Read More Unsettling Times
Hi all! Today was the big day! Copies of Grow Your Own Spices started showing up at homes everywhere. Some dear friends of mine spontaneously started sending me photos of their copies as they arrived. It was amazing because it felt like we were together for a moment. But as more photos showed up on… Read More Grow Your Own Spices Arrives – at Homes Everywhere!
Each morning I walk our dogs through the semi-wild parts of our wooded property. There I encounter various trees, shrubs, ground cover, mosses, lichens, and a seemingly infinite variety of fungi. What beautiful complexity exists in this woodland ecosystem. Yet, as a gardener, I can’t help but notice the diseased limbs on otherwise healthy trees.… Read More Simplestead Guide to Pruning Plants
Lately, I’ve had several people tell me that they don’t think they can grow spices where they live. I happen to know that’s simply not true. You can grow many spices anywhere if you put in a little effort to create ideal growing conditions. That’s why spices like coriander have literally been grown on all… Read More Spice Gardening for Indoor Landscapes, Greenhouses, and Outdoor Gardens
Happy holidays everyone! I know 2020 has been a tough year for so many people. I don’t want to diminish any of the hardships we’ve suffered and shared for so long. Yet for a few moments, I hope that you all get a chance to quiet your fears, quiet your worries about tomorrow, quiet all… Read More The Quiet Christmas
Hi all! First, I have some not-so-good news to share. We had to push back the release of Grow Your Own Spices to January 5th because the first shipment of books was damaged in transit. Now, on the upside, the new copies are all set to be shipped out starting on January 5th. I just… Read More An Inside Look at Grow Your Own Spices and the Secrets of the Publishing Process, Plus Personal IOUs for the Holidays!
Hi All! With my new book, Grow Your Own Spices, coming out soon (and already available for pre-order from many booksellers and on Amazon), I’ve been doing talks and interviews to get everyone excited about growing spices in 2021. So, today I want to share a link to a 2-hour course I taught this week… Read More Free Course on Growing Spices
I think food dishes taste better — and nourish more than our bodies — when they are steeped in long-standing traditions and cultural diversity. That’s one of the big reasons that kimchi makes my top ten list of all time favorite ferments. Not only is it easy to make at home, but thinking of those… Read More Fermented Food Fight Over Kimchi
I’d like to start this post by wishing a Happy 70th (day) Birthday to the gorgeous stars of the duckling video in this post and also in my previous posts: Raising Ducklings Week 1 (with video) Raising Ducklings Week 2 (with video). I faithfully took videos of these 13 beautiful Muscovy ducklings every day for… Read More Raising Ducklings – Week 3 (with video)
Saffron is one of the most exotic seeming and expensive spices in the world. Yet I grow an abundant perennial crop of it in a weedy, but compost rich patch of ground in my North Carolina backyard. Okay, so my backyard isn’t exactly a typical yard. It’s a homesteader’s fantasy of organic food production meets… Read More Growing, Harvesting, and Curing Saffron at Home (with Video)
You know that expression “good fences make good neighbors”? Well, I always thought of that turn of phrase as negative. That’s probably because Robert Frost’s poem, Mending Wall, made it seem so divisive and futile. Yet, it doesn’t have to be that way. Good Reasons for Fences There are many ways a good fence can… Read More Decorative and Useful Garden Fencing
Hi Everyone! I’d like to share a link to The House and Homestead. This is a blog and educational site run by a former city girl turned modern homesteader, living in Canada, named Anna. Anna is a down to earth, thoughtful person with mad vegetable gardening and canning skills. She also does an incredible job… Read More The House and Homestead
This article is part of a series on what life with ducks is like. It’s intended to give new duck keepers, duck dreamers, and anyone who needs some adorable diversion an inside look at simple ways to keep ducks. Be forewarned, my point in creating these posts is to make you want to keep ducks… Read More Raising Ducklings Week 2 (with Video)
Hi everyone! It’s finally fall here in Northwestern North Carolina. After the intense heat, humidity, and heavy rains we’ve had for the last two months, this weather is an amazing gift. I just wish I could wrap it up and share it with the West Coast for awhile to help all those brave people out… Read More Growing and Harvesting Ginger at Home (with Video and a Peak in My Fall Garden)
Simplestead with Tasha 