Corporate Accolades

I do a lot of corporate chastising on this blog, so I feel it's only right to do a little bit of back patting as well. I saw some "handmade looking" birds on Zulily* this morning tagged with the brand Silvestri! (the exclamation point is part of the brand name.)

I was a bit (okay, fine, a lot) suspicious about how closely they look like Ann Wood birds, so I sent Ms Wood a tweet, and guess what? They're totally legit, licensed products! Way to go Demdaco/Silvestri! It's uplifting to see a company that recognizes and pays for good design.

*Note: If you click on the Zulily link, sign up for a member account, and purchase something then I will receive a credit for your signing up. If you don't want that to happen (and I totally understand that), just click here to join.

Un-Useful

Our yard is no stranger to the "un-useful" plant...plants that might have some usefulness but take an inordinate amount of work to make the fruits edible, not to mention palatable.I consider it excessive to grow a fruit that requires 5 pounds of sugar for every ounce of fruit.

Mind you, that doesn't stop me from doing it. First there were tiny, pink, fuzzy bananas, and now we have tiny, yellow, fuzzy oranges.

After 6-ish years of growth, one of our two flying dragon citrus trees (Poncirus trifoliata) has set fruit! From the small amount of information I can find on the internet, the fruit requires boiling before use, then you have to sort through the pulp to pick out the many seeds inside. Oh yeah, and it oozes some sort of latex-y substance that doesn't come off your hands even after washing several times. Sounds totally worthwhile, right?

Permie Primer

I'm sure I've talked about it before, but are you familiar with the concept of a food forest? It's one of the foundations of permaculture: provide a sustainable ecosystem for food production. Can you imagine a yard filled with food year round? The thought of not needing to brave the grocery store every week is motivation enough for me!

Search You Tube for "food forest" and you'll get tons of results. Two of my favorites are Ron Finley's urban LA plot and a Eugene, OR tour by Food Not Lawns author Heather Flores.

If you feel inspired, I hope you'll consider joining Patricia Allison, Ryan Mitchell and me for a Permaculture Primer weekend here in Charlotte, NC this October! 

Simultaneously I'm holding onto summer with a firm, red knuckled grip, while eagerly anticipating fall's cool sigh of heat relief and renewal.

Martha Stewart's lengthy series of recipes for summer crop canning is taunting me. Haven't I canned enough!? Over the past month I've put up 2 types of tomato sauce, salsa, tomato jam, spicy red pepper ketchup, blueberry vanilla basil jam, pickled green tomatoes, pickled celery sticks, and whole figs packed in vanilla honey syrup. I'm planning on adding roasted red pepper and heirloom tomato soup to the list, but now I want to pack peaches in a fruit juice reduction, make a giant batch of pickled okra and...and...and...

Considering which leafy greens to fill the garden beds with this fall. While filing this recipe away for the day after the first frost.  (Am I really typing that? Am I actually somewhat excited about the first frost?? I haven't had my fill of tomatoes and squash yet!)

Ready for a Permaculture Primer?

Registration is now available for the fall Permaculture Primer. This beyond-the-basics course will teach you the methods and means behind the practice of permaculture. Friday evening we'll kick things off with a potluck and introduction. Saturday and Sunday will be 2 full days of learning. Our guide and teacher is North Carolina's own permaculture leader, Patricia Allison. She'll cover a brief history of permaculture, ways to reduce waste and reduce petroleum consumption, among many other timely ecological topics. You'll leave with a great deal of knowledge and tools to implement change. Course cost: $150.

Interested? Sign up here!

Some topics we'll cover include: building mulch beds so your garden will be ready for spring, no tilling necessary; creating a polyculture in your landscape to minimize pests and maximize sustainability; and interesting, atypical crops that grow well in the area.