In 2011, I had a goal that I never said out loud. I wanted to return to the reason I first started preserving, which was to make good use of the fruit around me — homegrown or wild — that might otherwise go to waste. I’d strayed from that purpose in 2010, when I started…
As many of you know, I’m doing some work for a new nonprofit business called Community Action Marin FoodWorks — CAM FoodWorks, for short. It’s a venture based on the principles of sustainability and preserving our local harvest. Here’s an example of how it works: A local farmer has more produce — persimmons, let’s say…
With wishes for joy, prosperity, and an abundance of love and friendship in 2012.
For many years when I lived alone, I didn’t have a Christmas tree. I would get some boughs and hang some bells, but saw no reason to untangle the lights and grapple with a Christmas tree stand. (I still don’t get how something with so few parts can be so specially designed to test one’s…
It’s time for a progress report on the homemade vanilla extract. On October 8, I poured myself two big jars of booze, stuffed each one with 32 vanilla beans, and promised to report back in two months. (See Vanilla Extract: Day One for details about getting started.) The first jar was a quart of straight…
I’ve spent the past few weeks staring at a fig. It’s just a fig. But it had something to say to me — and so did the stately tree that it came from. (If I could show you something for scale, you would see that this tree is taller than a very tall house. It’s…
What’s in your pantry, people? Do you still have marmalade that you made last winter? I do. Around here, the marmalade eating can’t possibly keep up with the marmalade making, so I need lots of ideas for using up what’s left over from one season to the next. Because the holiday gears are starting to…
To those who have not yet learned the secret of true happiness, begin now to study the little things in your own door yard. ~ George Washington Carver Door-yard contentment is something I need to remind myself of, again and again. An enormous sunflower — moth included — has surprised us by volunteering under the…
A few weeks ago, I was fussing on Facebook about how I had picked up some contract legal work and wasn’t enjoying it very much. (If you have ever been stuck for hours on end in the statutes of our fifty states, untangling the particulars of some gnarly legal matter — or if you can…
Are you busy? These days, I am far busier than I would like to be, which is one reason I like this photo of caramel apple jam holding down my datebook. (I still use paper for that!) I had set the jar there so I wouldn’t forget to bring it to a friend in the…
Last week, we spent a night at the rustic West Point Inn on Mount Tamalpais. I am shaking my head that it was a first-time visit for me, considering that I grew up here and the place is pretty much in our backyard. Astonishingly, a stay costs very little — only $35 per person per…
Last year, I wanted to make vanilla extract for holiday gifts, but I missed out. I have heard people say, variously, that it takes two months, three months, six months — in other words, a while — for vanilla beans to steep long enough in vodka to create an extract with deep, true vanilla flavor….