Linda Ly's Blog, page 30
January 26, 2015
Giveaway: Win an Advance Copy of The CSA Cookbook! (Three Winners In All!)
My first book, The CSA Cookbook, is slated to release on February 16. (I shared a sneak peek of it recently!)
Can you believe it’s been one year in the making? Nope, neither can I, even though I feel like I’ve been saying It’s coming! It’s coming! for soooo long now. It’s exciting stuff, and I’ve been bowled over by all the kind comments and emails of encouragement from readers near and far.
Now, it’s really coming. And as a show of thanks for your immense support and incredible patience, I...
January 23, 2015
Five Things Friday
The five little things that made my week…
1. My mug on an “About the Author” page. This makes me smile because my parents never understood what a blog was, why anyone would read a blog, and what it means when I say I’m a blogger. (Plus, they just think it’s a funny word to begin with.) But I think they’ll take author!
2. It takes a village to create a book, and my acknowledgments page proves that. Besides the dozens of incredible people who had their hands in editing, proofing, designing,...
The CSA Cookbook Is Coming Soon! A Peek Inside Its Pages
Yesterday, the very first copy of my book arrived in the mail. Tears of joy, everywhere. (Better than pee everywhere, which is what I nearly did in my pants!)
It is just so surreal to finally see a project I’ve worked on for an entire year take tangible form. After feeling reluctant to open the package, then overwhelmed with the first sight of the cover, then nervous as I thumbed through each page, hoping there wasn’t a spelling mistake we missed, I grew more and more excited as I made my w...
January 21, 2015
Brewing Compost Tea for Better Plant Health
When other gardeners ask how I amend my soil, the answer is almost always with compost tea. It’s a safe and natural fertilizer that revives and replenishes the soil food web, a highly complex ecosystem comprising a community of good and bad bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, earthworms, and arthropods. To put it simply, the soil food web forms the foundation of your plants, and subsequently your food.
Above ground, compost tea envelops your plants in a protective “web” (or biofilm) of liv...
January 15, 2015
Splish Splash: Bird’s Nest Fungi
“Can you eat them?” is the question I’m inevitably asked when we find dense mats of mushrooms growing up from our wood mulch after a good rain.
And while these ones look quite showy and fleshy, you’d easily walk by them without a second glance. Each mushroom is no more than the size of a pinky nail, just a few millimeters wide and tall. In their immature state, the mushrooms are inconspicuous nubs with spiky sides, fully enclosed to protect the “eggs” inside. As they age, the caps break awa...
January 10, 2015
Preorder Bonus for The CSA Cookbook!
I can hardly believe that in just a little over a month, The CSA Cookbook will come to fruition!
Retailers are currently listing the publication date as February 16, which means those of you who have preordered the book will start to receive your copy shortly after. Which means you still have a few weeks left to place a preorder if you haven’t already!
To sweeten the deal, literally, I’m offering a bonus collection of recipes for every person who preorders The CSA Cookbook from any bookselle...
January 9, 2015
Five Things Friday
The five little things that made my week…
1. This errant fig. Even after all its fig siblings have long been harvested since summer and all the leaves have fallen off the tree, somehow this one fig has managed to grow and continued to ripen in winter!
2. My mandarin tree. This is the first year it’s so prolific, and I am totally loving my morning routine of going outside, picking a mandarin, and sitting in the garden, peeling and eating it while watching my chickens.
3. Not to be outdone,...
January 7, 2015
The Stories Behind Heirloom Seeds
I love to grow my own food. And what I love most about planting, harvesting, and cooking all that food is knowing every vegetable that lands on my plate has a story behind it. The lettuce that started from a speck of seed and turned into a season of salads. The squash that survived a bout of powdery mildew and grew into an armful of beautiful butternuts. The artichoke that stood alone in the first year and eventually divided into a dozen more plants.
But beyond those stories that started in...
January 5, 2015
Hiking to the Hollywood Sign
In the 13 years I’ve lived in Los Angeles, I’ve hiked all over the Santa Monicas, San Gabriels, and San Bernardinos, but I’ve rarely hiked within city limits. And it’s not that we Angelenos lack the open space.
With over 4,000 acres of rugged terrain as well as landscaped parkland in the heart of the city, Griffith Park is the country’s largest urban park with preserved wilderness. It boasts miles of hiking trails, horseback riding trails, scrubby woodlands, as well as riparian vegetation an...
December 31, 2014
Made It Through Another Year… Where Do I Even Start?
I’m thankful for the sweet smell of coffee wafting through the house when I wake up in the morning, sunlight streaming through the windows in my bedroom and softly snoring pugs beside me as I open my eyes to a beautiful day.
I’m thankful for the recent rains we’ve had, probably more this month than the past three years combined. I’m thankful for the bounties from my garden and the gifts of eggy goodness from my chickens.
I’m thankful to be alive to celebrate this night, and by alive I simply...
