Archive For The “Winter” Category
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 have something more permanent. A small vegetable garden that would show people from the [...]
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 at least 5 kids in the house, we were allowed to run free in the [...]
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 speak the language. I give various, evasive answers. But one of the truest reasons is [...]
Thanks to my father, I have knife skills. Thanks to him, I also know how to sharpen a kitchen knife. He’s always kept his kitchen knives perfectly sharp and I still remember the first time I encountered a blunt knife – it was in home economy class. And I did not understand what was wrong [...]
Quince (Cydonia oblonga) is right at the top of my fruit-trees-I-would-plant-if-I-had-any-room-left list. Right now, I don’t have any space left in my garden to plant one. That, however, does not really stop me. I planted quince “Champion” in my parents’ garden and then, when one of the ornamental beds in ours street needed to be [...]
My sister has a horse and a pony. I don’t envy her the horse-riding (she hardly ever has time for that anyway). I envy her all that manure. The manure that she composted, then spread out a little, and planted winter squashes in. And they grew like crazy and produced countless fruits. Squashes and pumpkins [...]
Cheers to New Year’s resolutions! Cheers to cabbage salad EVERY SINGLE DAY! Or was this not one of your resolutions? Well, to tell the truth, it wasn’t mine either. But after all the Christmas cookies, something green and crunchy is a nice change. Plus at this time of the year, we can all use a [...]
Sinterklaas is to the Dutch what Santa Claus is to the Americans and 5th December here is what 24th is in America. The two saints might look somewhat similar (red cloths, white beard) but it is Sinterklaas who is the real deal. He precedes Santa Claus, you see. Sinterklaas does not live at the North [...]
I have trouble growing parsnips. Well, not so much growing them, because they’re one of the vegetables that mostly grow themselves. The problem is, I often forget to sow them. I think it has to do with the fact that in parsnips the moment of sowing and the moment of harvesting are about as much [...]
Oh, the challenges of parenthood! First you have to learn how to function with a fraction of the sleep you thought you needed. Then, after you think you have recovered, it starts all over again, because your daughter is twelve and simply has to go to the midnight première of Breaking Dawn part 2 (“mom, [...]
