LivingSmall

My 97-year-old grandmother asked for an absentee ballot for the Democratic primary so she can vote for Hillary.
My grandmother has never voted for a Democrat before in her life, but she wanted to “vote for that woman.”
My grandmother was a crack polo player in the 1930s, when polo was a hugely popular public sport (30,000 […]

My love of Joan Dye Grussow’s work, particularly This Organic Life, is well documented on this blog. Her experiences over the years growing and storing most of her own food was absolutely inspirational to me when I built my garden, and it’s still a book I go back to again and again.
This video has been […]

Because Politics is in the tag line — all I can say is Wow — Obama not only won it, he won it in a rout. I know there are naysayers. I’ve heard all the “experience” talk. And you know what? I don’t care …
He inspires people across the spectrum — I’m hearing apocryphal stories […]

We’ve finally got some snow, and unlike last weekend when it was below zero the whole time, the temps aren’t too bad (although the 40 mph winds are kind of a drag) — but although I’m ashamed to say that it’s the end of January and the first time I’ve made it out on skis, […]

My milk delivery came yesterday. The thing with buying milk from a real cow is that it’s not always the same. This week I pulled nearly a quart of cream off the top of my gallon, and the cream is thicker than it’s been before. Almost like English cream — slightly lumpy. This might be […]

I’m about to go log in to my job at the Big Corporation, the job that I’m hoping will see me through whatever impending financial doom is rising on the horizon, the job that isn’t my dream job, but which I like nonetheless. As much as I’d love to be able to write full time, […]

So, I’ve been buying raw milk from a local rancher since last fall — she shows up every Tuesday with a glass gallon pickle jar full of milk, with a nice layer of cream on the top. The cream has been getting thicker the past couple of weeks — I used to skim about a […]

I saw this in a garden catalog and had to have it: Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation By The Gardeners and Farmers of Centre Terre Vivante
The Centre Terre Vivante is an “ecological research and education center” locate in Southeastern France. […]

The big news around here is that I’ve been invited on board at Ethicurean as a regular contributor — and amongst ourselves, we’ve been having a lively discussion about how sustainability, seasonality, and locality (how food miles play into the whole SOLE food equation).
For those of us who don’t live in California, or even, […]

The SF Chronicle business section profiled the owner of a small French bakery last week, and I was particularly struck by this quote:
“I don’t depend on anyone else. I don’t depend on bankers. I don’t extend myself financially. I have the good things in life. I don’t need much more.”
As he slides the St. Honore […]