Joy: Fresh beets. I tried to save them to make beet pickles with, but I was too hungry. They made an awesome beet/orange salad.

Travail: I’ve neglected the weeds for ages. There is a walkway under there. Really. I have to pull the California poppies out. They are truly past their prime.

Continue Reading »

Occasionally we get magazines at our house that we never signed up for. We’re not sure why they keep coming, as we have offered them no encouragement. But there they are.

There is one unasked for magazine that I find it to be of, um, “questionable” merit. It is full of product advertisements and interviews with women who are wearing less than what I would wear, were I to be interviewed by a magazine. (Note to self — ask about clothing requirements if ever contacted for a magazine interview.

Since my husband never cracks the cover, despite much ribbing from me, it falls to me to do the research in the name of media awareness. (It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.) And in the most recent version of this magazine, I was totally shocked to find an “article” on gardening.

Continue Reading »

Timber Press attended the FarWest show in Portland, August 20-22. It’s amazing how convention centers are transformed during nursery trade shows. The floors are covered with carpeting, and there are plants everywhere. The florescent lighting helps you remember that you are indoors, but beyond that, there are trees and grasses and flowers, oh my!

We spent most of our time at our booth, ringing up purchases and testing our knowledge of our books.

(In real life, our sign did not reflect that much glare. Yet another example of life not imitating art.)

During a slow period Saturday afternoon, Kathryn and I went into the show to check it out.

Continue Reading »

Last night I made the Double Trouble Chocolate Truffle recipe from The Complete Chile Pepper Book.

It started easy — I had all the ingredients on hand.

The instructions were pretty easy to follow. First I put the milk and dark chocolate in a small pot.

Continue Reading »

I was reading through The Complete Chile Pepper Book and came across this useful warning:

Capsaicin, the alkaloid responsible for the heat in chiles, is wonderful for making bland foods interesting, but it is far less welcome in large doses on the skin, or in any amount in your eyes. We urge everyone to who processes chiles in any form to wear gloves when handling them. This is especially important when handling the hotter varieties, because chile burns can be extremely painful and even cause contact dermatitis, redness, and blistering of the skin.

It made me think of the funny segment Jeff Gillman had on The Martha Stewart Show earlier this year. You can watch Martha’s laughter-inducing warning here.

Here’s another bit from The Complete Chile Pepper Book about what to do if you burn your mouth with a pepper:

Continue Reading »

The Pacific Golden Chanterelle, or Cantharellus formosus if you’d prefer, is one of the most commonly foraged mushrooms. They are easy to find in the moister parts of Pacific Northwest and in season from early summer until late fall. If you are planning a weekend foraging trip, find a few to make this recipe.

Continue Reading »

I have to confess I’m obsessed with Horms™ #4 SUPERthrive 50-in-one. If you’ve ever seen a bottle or ad for this amazing product you’ve never forgotten it. We all see plenty of ads in a given day — “Number 1” “Recommended by four out of five dentists”, etc. — but SUPERthrive beats them all. The ads scream the most amazing claims:

“World’s # 1 Top Plant Supply”

Continue Reading »

Before I graduated from college, I had a bountiful list formulating in my head of all the things I wanted to do with my life. Things like, travel the world and write an award-winning memoir! Become the next J. K. Rowling! Get an MFA in creative writing! Oddly enough, Live at Home in My Parents Basement was never added to my list of aspirations.

But here I am doing exactly that. My diploma is a year and a half behind me, my school loans are doing a frantic dance in front of my eyes, and yet my junior-high school ivy wallpaper is still singing me to sleep at night. It is not exactly delightful.

Continue Reading »

When my roommates moved into their house about three years ago, their backyard had a depressing, abandoned lot feel to it.

Over the last few years they have already made a ton of improvements, but this summer they decided the time had come for the major DIY landscape. Plants are a little bit like crack to them, so they knew if they got started that this was going to be a full-on binge! They picked a weekend when there was a big plant sale, borrowed a truck from a friend, rented a tiller for the day, and went to town.

Continue Reading »

It does my heart good to know that I can spend the day at a place like Longwood Gardens, talk about the detailed history of two species of waterlilies (well, “Victorias” more properly, of the genus Victoria) and get paid for it. I was visiting Tomasz Anisko, author of When Perennials Bloom and Longwood’s curator. Tomasz was kind enough to show me behind the scenes and tell me about plans for an upcoming book on Victoria, a genus of two plants that was all the rage — and the source of controversy and scandal — in the 19th century after it was discovered on the Amazon and named after the British queen. (French plant explorers who felt they found the plants first were none too happy with the British name — perhaps it should be the genus Napoleon?)

Continue Reading »