• Preserves

    Honey-Sweetened Apricot Jam

    The other day I spent hours working on an apricot thing that turned out terribly. It happens to everyone with a recipe blog: You get what you think is a great idea…

  • Garden

    Prune Your Fruit Trees, People!

    A majestic Santa Rosa plum tree cracked and dropped a huge limb in my neighborhood last week, spilling so much unripe fruit over the fence and onto the ground. It was painful…

  • West of England Tumbler and Indian Fantail Cross Pigeons
    Birds

    Gem & Haiku: Love at Last?

    It’s been exactly a year since I rescued Gem, our fancy red pigeon, from the side of the road. His right wing was both punctured and fractured, most likely from a hawk…

  • Preserves

    Meyer Lemon Jam with Mint and Honey

    My neighbor Joanne got three new hens: Cairo, Dubai, and Pauline. Joanne is getting ready to move and had sworn off new chickens, but when she saw these three babies getting trampled…

  • Garden

    How to Prune a Freeze-Damaged Citrus Tree

    I’m slowly getting better at gardening. Partly, it has to do with simplifying. Instead of trying to grow everything, I’ve been concentrating on what I love most. More than anything else, I…

  • Preserves

    Banana Jam & A Hollyhock Cookbook Giveaway!

    I’m excited to share this new cookbook with you. Even if I weren’t personally connected with it, I’d say Hollyhock Garden to Table would be a fine addition to your kitchen resources.…

  • Birds

    A Crow’s Breakfast

    Our neighborhood is home to a large community of crows. Sometimes, on summer evenings, dozens of them gather on the roof of our house. We hear them walking around up there and…

  • Bergamot Honey Syrup | Hitchhiking to Heaven
    Preserves

    Bergamot Honey Syrup

    A couple weeks ago, I got hold of my very first bergamots. Is it worth noting that spell check wants me to replace “bergamots” with “flabbergasts”?  Bergamots are, in many ways, a…