Since rabbits continue to ignore the spinach on our allotment and there’s also a raised square bed full of spinach (3 different varieties) in our community garden, we harvest and eat spinach all the time. I have by now two…
Last time I went to the allotment, our neighbor, a gardening veteran, kindly asked whether I would like some rhubarb. I couldn’t help laughing because the 15 odd plants in our garden are enough even for me and my passion…
What’s eating your crops? Do you have a slug problem? Do you hate cabbage worms making holes in the leaves of your brassica? Carrot fly? Birds? In our organic, very diverse garden, pests are usually not a huge problem. But…
These days, it seems every season comes with a superlative: it is either “warmest” or “wettest” or “coldest” or “driest”on record. The current spring is very cold. I do mind as a person who would like to start wearing…
As mentioned before, we have lots of rhubarb on our new allotment. For the first time in my life I have enough of it to make all my old favorite rhubarb recipes and experiment with new ones. I pick an…
It’s spring, we’re in the Netherlands and that means tulips! Tourists from all over the world flock to Keukenhof, the shop window of the Dutch bulb companies to admire the spring plantings. I’ve been to Keukenhof once and was a little…
One of the most fun and most rewarding projects I did last year was initiating a community garden. Every year we organize a neighborhood plant swap and plant sale, which is great, but I thought it would be nice to…
As you might or might not know, the Netherlands is a monarchy, a constituent monarchy to be precise. That means the monarch is the head of the state but though he or she has to sign all laws, the parliament…
On our new allotment, there are no nettles. I am sure I will be grateful for that in the long run, but right now, after the long winter largely devoid of fresh greens, nettles are my favorite vegetable. Luckily our…
I have complained at length about our new allotment: it’s smaller, there’s too much shade, the soil is in a much worse state. But there’s actually one very good thing about it: the rhubarb plantation. Probably because a good part…
When spring starts 3 weeks later than normal (though what is normal anymore?), mid-April will find the gardener very busy – busier than usual in this busiest gardening month. Throw in an unexpected (but very welcome) writing assignment with the…
On Saturday I sowed the first seeds directly in the ground – finally!- and spinach was the very first vegetable I sowed. So no, this quiche was not homegrown, but hopefully will be in about six weeks. Because I am…
It’s snowing as I’m writing this post. The weatherforcast is promising us the coldest Easter since 1964 – colder than Christmas! But it’s Easter and we’ll celebrate, whether it’s snowing or not. Today I’m baking the Easter lamb. Not a…
When I was little, we used to spend a good chunk of every summer vacation at my mother’s friend’s house in a very small village in the western part of what was then the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. There were always…
I teach Norwegian. Most of my students learn Norwegian because they want to move to Norway. Away from the overpopulated and completely man-landscaped Netherlands into Europe’s last wilderness. They ask me why I don’t move there, too, since I already…