Spill the Beans: Starting all over

The sourdough recipe in the book is simple. First you make the starter, feed it regularly and when it’s ready (seriously, the worst words you can possibly hear when you have no idea what that even means), you make the bread. Sounds easy, right? The first loaf turned out alright. It was small, but utterly delicious. At the time, I found the feeding of the starter tedious and the making of the bread took all day. And who has time for that? I wasn’t smitten like people seemed to be. Read More

Spill the Beans: Going to the dogs

When you move to the country, you need a dog. You need a dog to let you know that there might be something lurking in the bushes down by the creek, which they had better investigate. You need a dog to keep the deer out of the garden and the raccoons out of the garage. You need a dog to alert you that a strange vehicle is on the yard. You need a dog to keep you company when you’re working in the garden all day, so you don’t appear to be talking to yourself. Read More

Spill the Beans: Howdy neighbour!

Last weekend, our neighbours asked us to chore their animals while they were away. This is another thing that neighbours do. We’ll be away this summer and we’ll need someone to check up on, feed and water our chickens. And likely, it will be one of our neighbours either repaying a favour or hoping that we’ll help them out somewhere down the road. Read More

Spill the Beans: Killing frost

It is hard to lose plants. You plant, water, weed. You prepare the beds so they’ll grow strong and produce much food for your family (and the army for whom I am, apparently, currently growing my garden). But sometimes, despite your best efforts, the plants still die or get mowed over. Or freeze. Read More

Spill the Beans: The greenhouse is a dangerous place

So I was just going to “pop” in to the other greenhouse, that’s sort of on my way home from work. And this is how it goes. There’s something about all of those lovely green plants and cases full of seeds that I just can’t resist. All of that growing potential to feed SO. MANY. PEOPLE. Read More