Don't be fooled. Inside this thin coating of sweetness is a fiery core of total insanity.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Read 'Em All Tuesday -- Gardening for Sustenance

I follow more than just gardening blogs, I also follow cooking blogs (and a few craft blogs, but I don't have that much time or talent for crafts, I just like to think I do). The kind of cooking blogs that I follow and that I am most enthusiastic about are those that combine gardening for food and then cooking what you've produced.



A favorite lately is Northwest Edible Life, written by Erica. Here's a little bit of info about Erica, from the About page on her blog. (It's too long to quote the entire page, but please go to the link and read it.)

"I come to the suburban homestead life by way of really good food.  I went to culinary school, and for 10 years worked in restaurant kitchens in and around Seattle.  I worked with some amazing chefs, saw some amazing food, and even had a hand in making some of the good stuff myself.  So my backyard veggie patch started as a way for me to have a few really fresh vegetables and salad greens to cook with.  That was all I wanted: a really fresh head of lettuce.

And then, in a turn of events that will feel familiar to all gardeners, I got bit by the bug.  I started looking at my nice green lawn as the enemy of productive space.  I put in some espaliered fruit trees and a berry patch.  I dragged my husband to Home Depot for banks of florescent tube lights so I could start my own seeds indoors.  I spent entire Januaries with my nose in seed catalogs.  I became....obsessed."

Erica now gardens and cooks a huge amount of her own food, and what she doesn't cook, she preserves. And she blogs about it, sometimes long and erudite posts about suburban homesteading, and sometimes photo-filled posts showing the steps of a recipe. Her latest is a recipe for mussels, and it's one I'd like to try. But don't make the mistake of thinking that all her recipes are that exotic. The post just before that demonstrated how to easily and quickly dice an onion.

She lives in the PNW, where I live, which is great for me, because I figure I can learn from her experience living, growing and cooking in the same part of the country where I live. But everything she blogs about can also apply to any gardener/cook/homemaker anywhere in the world.

There is also a tab on her blog with downloadable pdf files, that you can use to plan your garden or your monthly menus.  But please please please follow her admonition to not sell these, but download them only for your own personal use.

Finally, and most enjoyable for me.....she has chickens. Swoon!

One of Erica's beautiful chickens

This post is part of Tootsie Time's new blogging meme, Read 'Em All Tuesday, where once a week bloggers share links and information about their favorite blogs. Please go there to find links to great  blogs that you might not know about.