I just returned from a visit with my family in Canada, where my daughter MK attends the University of Guelph in Ontario. While I was at MK’s, she showed me a list of herbal remedies she keeps affixed to the inside of one of her kitchen cupboard doors. She refers to this list when she […]
gardening
How to Grow Basil from Cuttings
I’m so excited about this tip, I decided it deserved its own blog post, rather than just a footnote in another post (which I had originally planned to do). I buy basil often at the farmers market. When I get it home, I store the bunches in jars of water to keep them fresh. It […]
Compost for the Lazy: Throw It on the Ground
Compost can save the world! It sucks carbon dioxide out of the air and not only that, a half-inch layer of this black gold can still increase yields six years after its application. I had been composting in our community bins for nearly 10 years—and for several years before that at my house—but decided to start a rogue […]
A Great Read: The Good Gut
microbiota noun mi-cro-bi-o-ta \-bī-ˈōt-ə\ : a microbial community microbiome noun mi-cro-bi-ome \-bī-ˈōm\ : all the microbial genes in a microbiota I first read about the Sonnenburgs—a husband and wife team of Stanford PhDs studying the gut microbiota—in an article Michael Pollan wrote for the New York Times a couple of years ago. […]
Buying the Farm
I’ve talked about dropping out of society and living off the land since high school when my beloved physics teacher Mr. Ross took a year-long sabbatical to farm with his family. In 2011, my sister beat me to the punch and bought a 120-acre farm northeast of Toronto (although she has not dropped out of […]
5 of the Things I Learned Over a Week of Compulsive Social Media Activity
I stumbled upon many more than five great ideas this past week, but felt I better limit myself. (I should limit my time on social media as well.)
Sharing Resources in an Intentional Community
In 2005, I moved to an intentional community. My best friend’s husband calls it a hippie commune. That’s not quite accurate, but it’s getting warm. The Fellowship for Intentional Community defines this type of community as: An inclusive term for ecovillages, cohousing communities, residential land trusts, communes, student co-ops, urban housing cooperatives, intentional living, alternative communities, cooperative living and other […]