When I talked to you a few months back about how to preserve your own herbs, I focused on the basics of drying, freezing and heating. In my new Modern Pioneering series, I show you a few more glamorous ways to do it that turn the herbs into an instant culinary treat, for example this…
When I was a child and well into my teenage years, I used to proclaim myself the wild raspberry queen, battling the birds every late July so that I'd have enough berries to make jam. Eventually my dad began growing domestic raspberry bushes as well as blueberry bushes so it became a berry wonderland at…
One of my favorite things to do in summer is pick flowers and make bouquets. I sometimes find them growing wild in parking strips and random lots and really go to town. You don't have to have a lot of land around you to make it work. You also don't even need to have glass…
My third book "Modern Pioneering" was almost titled "How to Eat a Rose," because I had a section full of recipes made from the various parts of roses. Did you know roses were edible? Many wild things are and we've just forgotten about them as generations have past. I think you will love my recipe…
We've talked about the advantages of container gardening, as well as ideas for fabulous and unlikely growing containers. But then of course there's caring for container plants. I have been traveling a lot during these past few months, as many people do in the summer time. I also happen to have a lot of plants…
This is the juicy peach time of year. Every market is overflowing with them and sometimes I wish I could bottle up that deep earthy sweetness that tastes like the height of summer. I think I have come pretty close with this recipe for peach butter. A few wise people in my life have taught…
As a child I used to love to collect summer flowers, green clover, and fall leaves for my flower press. I would then paste them onto homemade cards or drop them into letters before sending them off so that the reader had a little piece of where I was writing from. Today I'm going to…
One of my favorite things is to get what my dad calls "volunteers" in the garden. Thess are plants that spring up from having their seeds tossed in the compost pile, and later getting transplanted when the compost is added to the soil. This has happened with squash, zucchini and zinnia flowers this year. But…
Toward the end of the season, when you have had your fill of garden squash, pick the blossoms that form on the vines before they bear fruit. They are less likely to mature into full fruit anyway as the weather gets colder, and the flowers themselves have a delicate squash flavor, so they are wonderful…