Linda Ly's Blog, page 25

Soaking Seeds to Speed Germination

I’m often the first to admit that there’s not much you need if you want to start from seed — just a good growing medium, sunshine, and water.

But sometimes there are forces working against us, and if there’s a way to boost our chances of seed starting success, I’m all for it.

Take, for instance, tomato seeds. Those hardy specimens have germinated on their own for generations without any interference from us well-meaning gardeners, but fermenting them before drying and storing them gives the...

Simple Preserves: Making and Freezing Basil Puree

My basil have been going gangbusters in the vintage clawfoot bed. All summer long, the bees have been flitting about the fragrant flowers — dozens of them, to the point where you can hear a collective buzz as you walk by.

Moments like these make me wish I had a beehive, because a colony feeding on all my basil would produce the most amazing honey! (Sigh, one day.)

I haven’t kept up with the pruning, so slowly and surely, the two basil plants in that bed are turning into little trees of sort...

Winter Radishes Versus Spring Radishes

Of all the vegetables one can cultivate, radishes are one thing that’s always in abundance in my garden. I love their top-to-tail usefulness in the kitchen and grow them year-round for the greens as well as the roots (and even the flowers as well as the seed pods — yep, all edible).

When the first sign of fall arrives, those tight little bunches of palm-sized orbs start to make way for larger, starchier roots like black radish, watermelon radish, and daikon — or what are known as winter rad...

Five Things Friday

The five little things that made my week…

1. Seeds! I inventory all my seeds twice a year (spring and fall) and so far I’ve counted a little over 300 packets of seeds, ordered from seed houses or saved from my own garden over the last couple years. Seeds don’t last forever, unfortunately. Have you looked at the dates on some of your older packets? Check out my cheat sheet on seed storage life to determine when it’s time to throw them out.

2. Gathering my seed starting supplies. It’s late O...

Adventuring Across America With the Kia Sedona

Camping. Climbing. Kayaking. Biking. None of these adventures feel right in a minivan to me… heck, not even a road trip feels sexy in a minivan. I’ve always associated minivans with soccer moms and suburban families, so when Kia offered up their Sedona MPV (that’s Multi-Purpose Vehicle, not minivan, mind you) for The CSA Cookbook Road Trip this summer, I’ll admit I was a little hesitant at first.

But the large windows, ample storage, and great gas mileage swayed me enough to give it a go, an...

Five Things Friday

Indian summer in SoCal. It sounds rather nice at first, with visions of balmy beach days and barbecues and frozen drinks with umbrellas in October, but I think I can speak for everyone in SoCal right now that we are ready — hoping! — for fall to start soon. (It was 102F in my town today, which is unheard of for the coast. We usually average in the 70s this time of year.)

The ceaseless heat this summer (hotter and drier than I remember from years past) means there hasn’t been a whole lot of ga...

Smells of Summer: Fresh, Fragrant Tomato Leaves

Coconut, Coppertone, saltwater, freshly cut grass and charcoal heating on the grill. These are some of the smells that reminded me of summer while I was growing up. And now as a gardener, tomato leaves make that happy list.

While there’s no shortage of Coppertone and saltwater on a California summer day (or any day in any season here, for that matter), the one smell that truly ushers in summer and closes it out is the heady, earthy, viney, fragrant aroma of fresh tomato leaves as you brush a...

I’ll Be Speaking at the Mother Earth News Fair Next Weekend!

Who’s going to the Mother Earth News Fair at Seven Springs Resort in Pennsylvania next weekend? Exciting days ahead— not only will it be my first time attending, it will also be my first time speaking at the fair!

I’ll be taking to the UTNE Stage inside the convention center on Friday, September 18, 2015, at 4 pm to present on the topic “From Leaves and Flowers to Stems and Seeds: Exploring All the Delicious Possibilities of Your Vegetables.” Afterward at 5 pm, I’ll be signing copies ofThe C...

Meet Me at the National Heirloom Exposition!

I am a huge fan of Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, so it’s a real honor for me to be speaking at their event this year at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, California!

For the last four years, Baker Creek has staged the “World’s Pure Food Fair” as a not-for-profit event that celebrates gardening, homesteading, small-scale farming, sustainable living, and of course, whole, local, pure food. Preserving heritage seed stock is the focus of the fair, and you’ll find food porn for da...

Five Things Friday

After being couchbound and under the weather these past few weeks, I finally feel some of my energy returning… and just in time, as the hubby and I are taking off to Oregon this weekend for a rafting trip on the Rogue River. It’s the old man’s birthday (wink), and paddling the Rogue has long been on his list of dream adventures since taking up kayaking a few years ago. While he’ll be tackling the rapids in his kayak, I’ll be sitting on the support raft, soaking up the sun, shooting lots of pi...