Figuring out first-hand food
I’ve often wished Kevin and I could trade brains. Not forever, of course. I want to give his back as soon as I understand why he likes everything to be big and/or dangerous, and why he’s not afraid of things that scare the bejeezus out of me. And I’m sure he’d want to unload mine [...]
It sometimes feels like Starving is an exercise in which Kevin thinks of things and I write them down. Those of you who follow this space know that he is the mastermind behind the chicken coop and the sabiki rod, the turkey pen and the chicken plucker. Also, the stump pulling, the less said about [...]
It’s time to play my favorite springtime game: Annual or Perennial? Since we started growing food, the distinction has been a continual irritant. Why is it that the things you want to eat, like tomatoes and peppers, grow on persnickety plants that have to be handled just so and then die in October, while plants [...]
Do you want the good news or the bad news? We’ll start with the good news. The good news is that our hoophouse has successfully extended our growing season. Granted, it’s gotten an assist from the warmest winter in human memory, but it still felt good to be out there in January, harvesting the parsnips [...]
Our new flock of chickens is laying on all cylinders, and we’re collecting up to ten eggs a day. I’m giving a lot of them to friends, but I don’t have all that many friends, so I still have quite a few left. There’s nothing for it but to eat them. Which raises a very [...]
If you didn’t get chickens last year, or the year before, chances are good that you’re thinking about it now. You’re investigating local livestock ordinances. You’re deciding where to build your coop. You’re checking prices and availability at Murray McMurray. And you’re studying Henderson’s Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart to figure out how to pick your breeds. Henderson’s [...]
This year, we grew a kind of winter squash which has only one thing to recommend it: size. I couldn’t tell you the name of the variety; we’ve been calling it Sasquash so long that we’ve forgotten its real name. Sasquash is bland, it is watery, and it is very, very large. Together, the five [...]
I hate adages that don’t make sense. Like that one about which came first, the chicken or the egg. (That does count as an adage, doesn’t it?) It’s perfectly clear that the egg came first. It was laid by something that wasn’t quite a chicken, which had been bred to something else that wasn’t quite [...]
Since we left New York, Kevin and I have undertaken more new projects than two fifty-year-olds have any business attempting. And it is with surprise and gratification that we have seen most of them go well. We’ve raised chickens, turkeys, and ducks. We’ve designed and built coops, pens, and a hoophouse. We’ve grown a whole [...]
Tamar Haspel has been writing about food and health for over a decade. She recently moved from Manhattan to Cape Cod. She’s adjusting well. [Read More …]
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