Our tomatillos unfortunately succumbed to powdery mildew so it was time for us to just harvest what we had and process them. We ended up with 30lbs of tomatillos. Usually for me processing involves dehusking them, washing the sticky film off of them the best I can and sticking them in the freezer. This time…
Preserves were the first thing I learned how to can. We got gobs and gobs of various fruits every year – from nectarines to strawberries to figs to persimmons and everything in between. They sit in our freezer taking up space. Then we decided that preserves would make awesome gifts for people. I haven’t bought…
We’ve made many changes in the garden this year. We’ve planted more responsibly; growing what we will actually harvest and eat, and what will produce well in our climate. We’re eating more seasonally now that we are depending more on our yard to provide most of our produce. We’re at a point where we may…
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…
(This recipe’s gonna be short. Which is good, since it’s great for those last-minute parties where you still want to be a snobby foodie, but don’t have the time to make something complicated.) It’s winter. It’s raining, and I feel like I haven’t been sufficiently warm or dry in weeks. Generally, I am not a…
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*,…
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. No, not because of any hostile English takeover of an unsuspecting native population, not because of big-buckled pilgrim shoes or hand-print turkey paintings or the compulsive drive to bring decorative tree-droppings (read: leaves, branches, dried flowers) into the house and scatter them about in a playfully Martha-esque fall…
I love huckleberry season. Why, you ask (as if you don’t love them too, be honest, now)? First off, huckleberries, while small, are not plagued with the standard onslaught of unpleasantries that often come with wild foraging: no brambles, thorns/spines, no awkward crawls under bushes or 3 mile hikes through the rain, no damaged clothes,…
(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.
