Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
We need to increase localized food production. We need to feed the hungry and eliminate food deserts. We need to revitalize our communities and rebuild life systems. We need to work our bodies more and connect with the more-than-human world. We need more color and flavor in our lives. Always. The solution to all these… Continue reading Guerrilla Gardening
We regularly hear about the gender wage gap. We know about glass ceilings and barriers to advancement. We wring our hands over leadership roles filled mainly by men. These are all vital concerns. But today I’d like to address a disparity that doesn’t get much press — women in agriculture. Women farmers embody the merger… Continue reading Women in Agriculture
I realized I haven’t made anything for a couple weeks. So since I had to make ricotta cheese anyway, I thought I’d introduce you to this easy and delicious recipe. I make this almost every week and use it as a sandwich spread, on toast, as cottage cheese with fruit. I use the whey in… Continue reading Making Simple Ricotta
This is the time of year that is the most difficult for high latitude living. The sun is up by 6:30am. The birds are loudly busy. There have been seed catalogs filled with glossy green seduction in the post box every day for weeks. The chickens are talking more, attempting to leave the roost more,… Continue reading Hungering for Spring
The Ameracauna hen has gone walk-about again. Third time this month. I’ve clipped her wings twice since she molted. There are no holes in the slump block wall; I’ve walked it twice this week. And the gate is as enveloped in chicken wire as it can be and still admit sunlight. If her pretty blue… Continue reading Errant and Unexpected
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the spring fast, Lent. The name lent derives from an Old English word meaning “spring season”. Other languages name this 40-day period before Easter with words that derive from “fasting”. We can see from these names that Lent is not merely a season of preparation for the Christian Easter.… Continue reading Lessons in Living in Season
I briefly considered writing about Mardi Gras today, but I just don’t like it enough. I am not a Carnival person. I don’t like the noise, the crowds, the mess, the stink. I hate feeling inebriated and I simply can’t tolerate drunk people. I have no use for plastic beads. And King Cake looks revolting.… Continue reading Pancakes for Fat Tuesday
I have chionophobia, fear of snow. This is not a professional diagnosis. Nor has it always been true. I used to love skiing and ice-skating. I could build a mean snow fort well into my nominal adulthood. The sharp scent of snow elicited memories of birthdays and mountain nights. The silence of snowfall still takes… Continue reading Chionophobia
Because it's time to start planning those gardens, folks. And because there are all these broken trees after that last nor'easter. Hügelkulture (pronounced HOO-gl-culture) is the most fun word ever to come out of agriculture. Sounds like the hoopla around faddish felt gnomes or something, doesn’t it? Or maybe a really bad New Mexico cannibal… Continue reading Hügelkulture
There were no shadows in the winds that day… Mom had diabetes. Turns out intermittent refrigeration wasn’t the only hazard awaiting the insulin-dependent. No, in the end it was a few years of consecutive losses for Eli Lily. Granted, this was largely because of the increased cost of refrigerated shipping, but still. The problem wasn’t… Continue reading Candlemas Augury
By My Solitary Hearth 