Interview With Apartment Gardener Helen Kim

...usually make grilled fish. Whenever I come back from my mother’s I use the tomatoes to make bruschetta… and add my basil. Or I make salsa and add the cilantro. Or I use the oregano to make spaghetti sauce. Cactus salad is also good with the cilantro and oregano. The spinach and chard from my mom’s I usually blanch, then cool… and add garlic, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and green onions from the sill–good with the fish as a side. I use a bunch of the...

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A Plea for Plastic Vegetables

...o a trellis or a vine that looks like the leaves of a string bean plant 8. Tomatoes and Tomato plants (All Varieties) 9. Green and Purple Cabbage 10. Any vegetable plants can be considered We will need to place an order very quickly and be able to receive an order very quickly. Please respond by letting me know what you carry and if you can ship samples overnight. Thanks very much. Sincerely, NAME WITHHELD Greensperson We did a blog post about fak...

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Science, Blogging and Peaches

...ad, fund research into more down to earth subject matter: how best to grow tomatoes in a backyard? Does tap water kill sourdough culture? Does hugelkultur work? These are, of course, the sorts of subjects our underfunded Extension Services could look at if they had more resources. Right now they have to concentrate on commercial agriculture with backyard horticulture taking a distant second. Until Musk has that low-tech road to Damascus experience...

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How to Size a Breakfast Nook Table

...ut?” Readers of this blog have more important concerns such as how to keep tomatoes alive or how to justify some ridiculously complex project such as liming your own corn for homemade masa or distilling your own essential oils whilst your household comrades complain about the tardiness of dinner. Our long list of unsolvable problems at the Root Simple compound includes such things as bad posture, contaminated soils, middle age paunch and, of cours...

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Home cooking advice?

...talian and Middle Eastern cuisines and cooking traditions, but these broad labels are enough for now.) I am neither Italian nor Middle Eastern–my native regional dish would be a steak with a corncob on the side–but I live in a Mediterranean climate, and the vegetables and herbs and fruits used in these cuisines thrive in my yard, and are easy to buy locally. This food just makes sense here. And we like it. If I limit my choices like this, my pantr...

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