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	<title>LivingSmall &#187; gardens</title>
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	<link>http://livingsmallblog.com</link>
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		<title>Cold Frames, Tomatoes, Peppers</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/26/cold-frames-tomatoes-peppers/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/26/cold-frames-tomatoes-peppers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:04:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cold frames]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2350</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s all about season extension up here in Montana, and these cold frames are one of my primary means of making the most of what I&#8217;ve got. I build them a little more than five years ago (Nina was pregnant with the twins, who are five now) and they work really well for a couple of reasons. One is that they&#8217;re just outside the back door. This early in the season, I put flats out during the day, but bring them in at night. It&#8217;s just too cold, and I don&#8217;t want to risk losing the seedlings and having to start over. As it gets warmer, I&#8217;ll leave things out overnight, and I&#8217;ve been known to light a Virgin of Guadalupe candle out there to keep the temps above freezing. The other key to these cold frames is the double-wall plastic. I can&#8217;t remember where I bought it, just google greenhouse plastic, but because it breaks up the UV rays, it keeps the seedlings from burning up. I need to get to work and start some other seedlings &#8212; flowers, broccoli, tomatillos, but I just haven&#8217;t gotten around to it yet. Maybe this week. Outside, I have tons of Chinese [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Hoop House!</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/20/hoop-house-2/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/20/hoop-house-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:36:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chickens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[greens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2344</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is what I found when I opened the hoop house to water this morning &#8212; real greens! Greens I can eat! I am beyond thrilled with how well these have worked out this year. The binder clips have kept the plastic from blowing off, even in the worst winds Livingston has to offer (winds that cause them to close the interstate and run all the semi-trailers through town). The plastic has kept it warm in there through a couple of weeks of freezing nights. And I&#8217;m sure the fact that we&#8217;ve had three or four 70-degree days hasn&#8217;t hurt. But after a couple of months of fighting off low-grade colds and then strep, I&#8217;m beyond thrilled to be eating my own greens again. I can&#8217;t think of anything that will restore your health faster than your own dark green veggies, some sunshine, backyard eggs, and nice long walks through town in the early evening with the dog. I can&#8217;t wait to see how the hoop houses work for the peppers. They don&#8217;t like cool nights, which is what we almost always have. I wish they were prettier, but I&#8217;ll settle for effective.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/20/hoop-house-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Spring Greens</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/19/spring-greens/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/04/19/spring-greens/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:38:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Living]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[domestic life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[greens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spring]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2341</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I came back from my week in Seattle and found that the hoop houses have been a huge success. The photo above is my first batch of spring greens &#8212; arugula, broccoli rabe, komatsuna, and a few dandelions from the yard. I was just thrilled. There were enough thinnings that I&#8217;ve been eating my own greens, fresh from the yard, for the first time since last summer. I have to say, I think part of the reason I came down with strep is that after growing my own veggies, the ones in the store, especially in the winter in Montana, look so sad and tired that I just can&#8217;t get excited about cooking or eating them. My greens, on the other hand, are vibrant and fabulous and bright green and were growing and alive just yesterday. This morning, I made my favorite breakfast, greens and eggs rolled up in a tortilla, and it just felt like everything is going to be okay again. I&#8217;ve got greens coming up. Spring is back.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>It&#8217;s Spring and I Can&#8217;t Come Inside&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/15/its-spring-and-i-cant-come-inside/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/15/its-spring-and-i-cant-come-inside/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:44:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seeds]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2227</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Spring has sprung here in Montana. My computer is telling me it&#8217;s 57 degrees outside, and the sun is shining, and it&#8217;s making it very difficult to come indoors. Especially since I&#8217;m going to be returning to the Big Corporation part time, probably next week. So, I&#8217;m taking advantage of the weather, and the sunshine, and my last few days where I don&#8217;t have to be tethered to the computer indoors for specified hours. Which means blogging might be a little slow this week. On the other hand, I&#8217;ve been gardening up a storm. I added a second hoop house this weekend. This second hoop house looked much better than the first one. I think I mistakenly bought more expensive, bendier PVC than I needed the first time around. This second one I built using the cheapest 1/2 inch PVC that the hardware store had &#8212; 1.97 for a 10 foot section. It&#8217;s great. Very sturdy. So I went back and bought replacement PVC and rebuilt the first hoop house (I&#8217;m going to use the bendy PVC in the narrow beds along the back of the garden &#8212; my plan is to cut the 10 foot lengths in half, since [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/15/its-spring-and-i-cant-come-inside/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Hybrids vs. Open-Pollinated Seeds, Read the Labels</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/12/hybrids-vs-open-pollinated-seeds-read-the-labels/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/12/hybrids-vs-open-pollinated-seeds-read-the-labels/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:01:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seeds]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2221</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s that time of year, when we&#8217;re all buying seeds, and I just want to put a plug in for reading the labels. Seed saving is something I only came to a few years into keeping a garden, and I pretty much just save tomato seeds at this point, but with Monsanto being investigated for monopolizing seed stocks, it seems that seed saving is one place that backyard gardeners can really have an impact. But the thing is, you can&#8217;t save seeds from hybrid varieties. So when you&#8217;re perusing the seed racks at your local garden stores, if it&#8217;s something relatively easy to save yourself, like tomato or squash or herbs, you&#8217;d do well to check the package. Seed Savers Exchange is a great source of heirloom varieties that individual gardeners have saved themselves, and they&#8217;ve got some good info on how to save your own seeds as well. Personally, I find that half the fun of having a backyard garden is growing things I can&#8217;t buy in the store. For the last few years it&#8217;s been interesting Italian greens and veggies from Seeds of Italy, and this year I&#8217;m experimenting with Asian greens I got from Evergreen Seeds. I [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/12/hybrids-vs-open-pollinated-seeds-read-the-labels/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Belgian Town Gives Chickens To Residents</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/03/belgian-town-gives-chickens-to-residents/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/03/belgian-town-gives-chickens-to-residents/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:14:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chickens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[compost]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=2139</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[According to the BBC, the town of Mouscron, in Belgium, has 50 pairs of chickens it plans to give to residents as a way to decrease the waste stream. I have to say, my chickens have both significantly lowered my household and garden waste, and here in the arid west, they&#8217;ve exponentially sped up the composting process. Composting is a real problem here, because it&#8217;s so dry. Because there was an 8&#215;10 concrete pad in the back part of the yard, that&#8217;s where I built the chicken coop. And because the compost heaps were already in that part of the yard (my very fancy setup built from recycled pallets) we decided it would probably be easier just to enclose the compost in with the chickens. We didn&#8217;t really know what we were doing, but it worked out beautifully. The chickens scratch around in the compost piles all day, digging holes, excavating for bugs, and aerating the compost in the process. And cleaning out the coop and yard is really easy &#8212; I rake out the shavings from inside the coop, then hurl the shavings and straw (that&#8217;s what I use to cover the concrete) into the compost heaps. Then the [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/03/03/belgian-town-gives-chickens-to-residents/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The School Garden flap &#8230;</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/20/the-school-garden-flap/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/20/the-school-garden-flap/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:38:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vegetables]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[writers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1293</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While in some ways I hate to give Caitlin Flanagan any more web traffic for her flameball of an article about school gardens, the response has been very heartening. Here&#8217;s a link roundup: Red Herrings Are Not Dinner Food, or why Caitlin Flanagan is WRONG about school gardens &#124; Oakland Local Mag writer: Alice Waters and school gardens are evil An Edible Schoolyard in Durham: How Kids Grow (Video) Samuel Fromartz: Atlantic&#8217;s Caitlin Flanagan Blames Arugula for California&#8217;s Failing Schools Chef Kurt Michael Friese&#8217;s response was probably my favorite, in part because I find the contempt for manual labor among the upper classes both incomprehensible and odious. And even this morning&#8217;s New York Times Food section had a piece on a school in Greenpoint that is poised to build the first edible schoolyard in the New York area. As someone who comes from a long line of experiential educators, as well as someone who watched a number of very very smart family members struggle with dyslexia (and thrive when given something concrete to do), I think anything that gets kids connecting what they&#8217;re learning in the classroom to applications in the real world is a great thing &#8230;]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why school gardeners reap more than they sow : Super Eco</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/18/why-school-gardeners-reap-more-than-they-sow-super-eco/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/18/why-school-gardeners-reap-more-than-they-sow-super-eco/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:44:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Thinking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1263</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Caitlin Flannagan&#8217;s latest article at the Atlantic has folks up in arms. We all know I&#8217;m not Alice Water&#8217;s biggest fan, but I am a big fan of interactive education. Here&#8217;s a good rebuttal to Flannagan: REAL Gardens: Why school gardeners reap more than they sow : Super Eco.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2010/01/18/why-school-gardeners-reap-more-than-they-sow-super-eco/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Food Poisoning!</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/09/21/food-poisoning/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/09/21/food-poisoning/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:41:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chickens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food poisoning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vegetables]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1184</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ugh. So Saturday afternoon I thawed out some of last year&#8217;s antelope, marinated it, and made some skewers with a few onions out of the garden (for Chuck) and with onions and tomatoes and zucchini for me. Three in the morning and my sweetheart is not well. I&#8217;m a little rumbly in the tummy, but he is Not A Well Man. It was very very sad. And a long night. Morning strikes and he is still Sick Like Dog. He sits in the living room watching football and ignoring a cup of black tea while I go out back and feverishly enclose the vegetable garden in bird netting. Sometime during the Long Night, I decided that it must have been the onions. The chickens have been in that bed a lot, and because I was afraid of overcooking the very lean antelope, the onions weren&#8217;t as cooked as I&#8217;d have liked. They were crunchy. All night I had visions of germy chicken feet, and contaminated onions and so, despite Chuck&#8217;s conviction that it was the antelope, I went out and banished the chickens from the garden. In the spring, when the ground is soft, I&#8217;ll have to continue the copper-pipe [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/09/21/food-poisoning/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>First Tomatoes of the Season</title>
		<link>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/08/26/first-tomatoes-of-the-season/</link>
		<comments>http://livingsmallblog.com/2009/08/26/first-tomatoes-of-the-season/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:18:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>cmf</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tomatoes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://livingsmallblog.com/?p=1123</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here are the first tomatoes of the season. Yes, I realize it&#8217;s the end of August. It&#8217;s been a long cool summer here in Montana, and the tomatoes have only just now started getting ripe. Just in time to be swathed in plastic sheeting. The romas are looking good &#8212; I planted two kinds, Borghese and Milano Plum, both from Seeds of Italy. They&#8217;re just starting to pink up, but I&#8217;m beginning to see homemade sauce and salsa in my future. The Siberians are coming in nicely. I couldn&#8217;t remember the difference when I was planting between Perestroika and Grushovka, and from what I can tell, there isn&#8217;t much. Theyr&#8217;e both nice medium-sized early tomatoes, with a good sweet-acid balance. After three or four days in the bowl though, the ones I ate for lunch today were a little bit mealy. Jaunne Flammé is probably my favorite tomato I grow. You can only just one in this pic &#8212; it&#8217;s the orange tomato hiding beneath the basil. They&#8217;re about the size of a large egg, grow in clusters, and taste wonderful. The only real problem I&#8217;ve had with the tomatoes this year, aside from the weather, is the chickens. I&#8217;ve [...]]]></description>
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