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It is a really simple idea - things that can't go on the way they have been, usually don't. Sooner or later things that have no future just stop. We all know intellectually that we can't all live and consume like middle class Americans, that our kids are going to have a harder time because of our way of life, that Empires end and ecological disasters cause things to come to hard stops. We know it, but we don't KNOW it. This blog is about coming to KNOW, and figuring out where we go from here. I'm a science writer, teacher, environmental activist and small farmer who is trying to put her lifestyle where her mouth is, and live in a way with a future. When not writing books, serving on the board of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, I run my farm with my husband, where we raise dairy goats, herbs, pastured poultry, heirloom vegetable plants, children and havoc.
Category: Classes
Want to get in on the fun and wonderful flavors of home preserved food? Concerned about how to adapt your storage or preserving to special diets? Want to make the most of your farmer's market? All of the above?
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 11:03 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: food preservation
(photo credit Ready Made Resources.)...
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 10:08 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: food preservation
So out we go, to scavenge in the mud for our food. And then back to the kitchen to transform the muddy, imperfect and nearly lost into the delicious and perfect - the roasted tomatillo sauce, the green tomato pickles, the peach jam and leather, the spiced plum chutney, the roasted corn salsa. There is treasure in the mud, good food for the claiming, and we will not let it go.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 10:19 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: food preservation
A winter of apples and pears and occasional citrus is more delightful when a bowl of blackberry-peach sauce flows over your pancakes, when blueberry jam is spread lavishly on your morning toast, and when you can slip a hand into the dried strawberry jar and taste, for a moment, summer gone by, the sunshine and the sport of it built in to every bite.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:51 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: food preservation
In the end, I don't know anyone who doesn't look at their groaning shelves (or even their slightly more heavily-laden shelves with joy and pride. It looks hard going in - but the results are worth it. You can never have too much summer in the pantry!
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 7:39 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Classes
Self-provisioning is in many ways one of the most basic human projects - it long predates even agriculture. Human beings have been putting aside what was abundant and finding ways to make it last for just about as long as we've been human - it is a fundamental part of our history. Connecting to our food this way ties us back to our grandparents and beyond.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:32 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: vegetables
The family and I are making this an extended holiday (Rosh Hashana) trip with visits to family and friends on the way to Charlottesville, so I'll be totally offline until next Monday. So I thought I'd leave you with some ideas for things to read.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 10:49 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: food preservation
Despite the fact that you've got a life, a job, a family, volunteer responsibilities and enough backlog in your life to keep you busy until 2182, you've decided that you are going to do some food preservation too. And you are definitely wondering if you are a little nuts.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:12 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: garden
"...and that's true love and homegrown tomatoes." - Guy Clark Guy Clark's song is true - and over here we've got homegrown tomatoes and true love coming out our ears. The true love can be put up for winter until...
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:31 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: food preservation
Besides eating yourselves into a coma on ripe tomatoes, okra, eggplant, peppers, blackberries, peaches, sweet peppers and the ubiquitous zucchini, it is time to think ahead to the days when the idea of thinking "oh, no, more ripe vegetables" will seem strange and alien, and you will be desperate for red and green and orange and juice that drips warmly down your chin.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:11 AM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front
A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil
Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation
