Real Food
Maybe most important, farm food itself is totally different from what most people now thing of as food: none of those colorful boxed and bagged products, precut, parboiled, ready to eat, and engineered to appeal to our basic desires. We were selling the opposite: naked, unprocessed food, two steps from the dirt.
Kristin Kimball from The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love
The main reason I started an edible garden is because I was dissatisfied with the quality of produce at the grocery store. There’s just something about food that’s freshly plucked from the garden. I still buy some things at my local farmer’s market, but even that isn’t quite as good as something that’s only minutes from plant to plate.
This week we’ve been enjoying so many wonderful homegrown vegetables: beets, potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and all kinds of herbs to season and add flavor. Every morning we’ve been enjoying harvest vegetable hash with eggs poached on top – life is truly good! (for my recipe visit Eat Outside the Bag).
What are you enjoying from the garden this week?
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Friday Favorite: Watering Cans
Up until four or five years ago, I’d never found a watering can I liked. I kinda felt like Goldilocks, they were all: too small, not balanced properly, water sloshed out while walking, or they just weren’t quite right. Then I found this one. I ordered one from I purchased a watering can from Gardener’s Supply after reading all the glowing reviews and fell in love.
I proceeded to order another one for myself and a few to give as gifts to my mom and a few gardening friends. Sadly this watering can is no longer available so I don’t know what I’m going to do when mine crack (they are plastic after all). I certainly wish I could have purchased these in galvanized metal so they would have lasted the rest of my life.
I LOVE this watering can because:
- It’s perfectly balanced, seriously – you can barely tell you’re carrying 25 lbs of water!
- Holds 3 gallons of water, reducing the need for extra trip and builds nice biceps in the process. I carry two at once which allows me to water a fairly large area with one trip.
- Easy to fill, easy to carry, easy to use, easy to clean.
- The crown comes apart for easy cleaning, which let’s face it, needs to happen often, especially if you harvested use rain water!
From what I hear, Haws watering cans are nice, but pricey. Perhaps when these finally give up the ghost I’ll spring for a Haws to see if they’re all they’re cracked up to be. So now I’ve got you wanting this watering can that you can’t find any more. Perhaps if enough people ask, Gardener’s Supply will start carrying them again. If they do, I’ll be buying a few!
How many different watering cans have you tried? Do you have one you like that you’d like to recommend?
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Non-Toxic Cleaning Series: Product Review & Giveaway
The non-toxic cleaning series continues, I’ve been busy testing a few homemade recipes for items like rug cleaners and mildew busters. When I first started the series I had a few different companies contact me about testing their products. I told Better Life I would because their products sounded great. I know many of you don’t necessarily want to be making your own cleaning products and would rather purchase a good non-toxic alternative. So I figured I’d test them out for those of you who do.
They sent me a box with 6 different cleaners. Last weekend, when we set off the clean the house in a jiffy for some potential buyers, I put these products to the test. I was fully ready to not like them as much as my homemade cleaners. Generally I find myself disappointed in purchased products, especially with the price! I was pleasantly surprised, however and really liked these.
The what-EVER cleaner was great for cleaning cabinets and other areas with greasy/oily buildup. After using them to clean my kitchen cabinets they looked amazing. This product really does clean very well, so well in fact that I’m thinking I’ll always have a bottle on hand for those tougher jobs that my homemade multi-purpose cleaner doesn’t work as well on.
The stainless steel cleaner EINSHINE working wonderfully on my appliances. Those of you who asked about cleaning stainless steel will be happy about this product as it can be difficult to find a product that cleans it well. I’ll definitely be keeping a bottle of this on hand for shining up that beautiful stove of mine.
SIMPLY FLOORED was another hit here at Chiot’s Run. Since the entire house is hardwood flooring, we use a mop for everything. I loved that this product has just a touch of sage scent, just barely enough to detect. One of the reasons I do not like store-bought cleaners is I find the heavy scent to be very offensive to my very sensitive nose. That’s one thing I appreciated about all the Better Life Products, no overpowering scents that scream “I JUST CLEANED MY HOUSE”.
The one product I wasn’t super excited about was the glass cleaner I CAN SEE CLEARLY. I didn’t find that it cleaned my windows any better than using the window cleaner or vinegar. I also received a bottle of granite cleaner which I haven’t used since I don’t have stone in my house. The wood polish was used, but I haven’t yet decided if I like it more than simply using my homemade multi-purpose cleaner.
Lucky for you, Better Life will be giving one lucky reader a You Pick 6 box. You can choose which 6 products you’d like to try; simply comment below for your chance to win. Here at Chiot’s Run I’ll be keeping some of the what-EVER cleaner on hand from now on, and I might try their Knock-Out clothes spot treatment as well.
Which cleaning product are you least likely to make yourself at home?
NON-TOXIC CLEANING SERIES
Stocking Your Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
Learning to Love Castile Soap
Make Your Own: Foaming Soap
Make Your Own: Infused Vinegar
Make Your Own: Multi-Purpose Cleaner
Make Your Own: Color Safe Oxygen Bleach
Non-Toxic Bathroom Cleaning
Friday Favorite: Charlie’s Soap
Friday Favorite: Twist Sponges
Homemade Whitening Scrub
We have a winner:
Disclaimer – Better life sent me products to try to free, but I did not get paid to write this review or to talk about their products.
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It’s a Beautiful Day, or two, or three
We’ve been having the perfect weather here recently. After a weeks in the high 90’s and even peaking into the triple digits a few days last week, the 80’s are feeling GREAT! As a result I’ve been madly spending every waking hour I’m not working trying to get all my garden chores finished up. I think I could build a cat thermometer that measured the length of Dexter in order to tell the temperature outside. This day it was 98.
The onions need harvesting, the garlic is dry and needs trimmed and moved into the basement. Kale and sage seeds need harvested, beans and cucumbers need planted and everything needs a good weeding. While I’ve been out trying to get all my garden chores finished up, Dexter is not far behind doing his own work, mainly sleeping and being cute.
Now if we can only get some rain I’ll be one happy gardener!
How’s the weather/rain situation in your garden?
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Gardening Neighbors
Mr Chiots and I love to go on evening walks with the chiots. We walk the streets of our little lake community admiring gardens as we go. Since we’ve lived here for 10 years, we’ve been watching a few gardens grow and change, while most pretty much stay the same. We always used to talk about this beautiful little yellow how with lovely gardens.
We watched as they added a fence, new cherry trees, a retaining wall, a seating area, and edible beds. The residents of the house were a mystery to us, until last fall. A sign about the oil/gas in the area was prominently displayed in their front yard, so we stopped and chatted with Jimmy. A few days later, Heather stopped by our home and a friendship was born.
The first thing that came out of her mouth was, “I LOVE your gardens. I’ve been watching what you’ve been doing to them every day when I drive by on my way to work. This house and gardens was so ugly until you guys moved in!”. A gardening friendship was born!
Now Heather comes over at least once a week and we chat over coffee about gardens, plants, herbs, local foods, cooking and many other things. We also walk through each other’s gardens during different seasons talking about plants we love. Hardly a week goes by when plant isn’t exchanged between us.
When I decided to start a new series over on the Your Day Blog at Ethel, I know that Heather’s garden would be the first one featured. I really wanted to feature real gardens, like yours and mine. Sometimes we can spend so much time looking at perfect gardens in the glossy pages of books and magazines that we forget that real gardens are like real gardeners; they have flaws.
Head on over to the Your Day blog to see and hear about Heather’s garden. She lives just a few houses down. If you would like your garden featured in the Real Garden Series contact me using this form.
Do you have any neighbors that you can share your love of gardening with?
