When life gives you lemons, make lemon curd. Then ask life if you can come over to pick more lemons. Tell life you’ll trade for jars of curd. Life would be stupid not to comply. I had never made lemon curd before last week. Crazy, I know. I can make custard, jams, jellies, and roux…
One of the last battlefields in my quest to be self-sufficient has been condiments. Yes, I can bake my own bread, clean and dress a chicken, or make a kickass batch of Russian tea cakes (OMG – I need to make those again soon!), but when it comes to those little things – the mayonnaise*,…
There’s just something about the rain that makes me want soup. Hot, thick, creamy, hearty soup that tastes like fall and comfort food and HOME. …doesn’t hurt if it also tastes like the best part of the forests at this time of year: wild mushrooms! I am NOT going to go into a long diatribe…
A few weeks ago I was gifted a few rather large bags of basil. Maybe four or five gallons, loose? I dunno. It was a lot of basil. An overwhelming amount. Generally I would be totally excited about this – I LOVE basil. But the truth is, I have so little time these days that…
I know, I know. I’ve been waving this one around for months now, making references to how I’ll eventually get it together and post about those glorious little snacks, the dilly beans. It’s not that I wanted you to suffer, not that I have some sort of sneaky deal with the bean growers – they’re…
(note: I’m away at music camp this week. I’ll be back soon, though). It’s finally happened. I never thought it would. I’ve heard other people talk about it, but somehow I never truly believed we’d have TOO MUCH produce. Namely, right now we have too many carrots, and I’m running out of ideas. Carrot cake?…
I never quite understood marmalade. It was one of those things the early pioneers must have made: fresh fruit was precious, the vitamins scarce, and therefore even the seemingly inedible peel had to be used in any way possible. So they’d chop it up, boil it down into a thick goop, and eat it on…
Dog Island Farm is a small urban farm in the San Francisco Bay Area.
