Because my sister hates cooking (her words) it is not often that she becomes a source of new recipes for me. While my love of food is what drives me to cook, it does not do the same for her.…
You know the saying “show me your carved pumpkin and I’ll tell you who you are”? So, let’s see what our pumpkins reveal about our family. This one is Esther’s. Well, technically I carved it, but it was on her…
“What’s for dinner?” is one of the questions I probably have to answer most often. Sometimes, however, I am reluctant to answer. When I know that the answer will not please my offspring, I’d rather keep them in the dark…
Do you grow chard? We do, lots of it. It is such a dependable vegetable, at least in our climate. The funny thing is, you never see it at grocery stores, only health food stores usually sell it. But it…
Easter means eggs, there’s no way around it. But to me it also means eating as many wild herbs as possible. It is what our bodies need after the month of mostly eating vegetables from storage. These “weeds” have all…
Last week we celebrated Esther’s 14th birthday. Which means that somehow, inexplicably and in a blink of an eye, our sweet baby with head full of hair, turned into an independent half-way grown-up human. The picture on the right…
Kale is one the most popular Dutch vegetables and it’s grown a lot and eaten often during the cold months. It is apparently one of the things that the Dutch miss the most when they move to another country. I…
This year has been a great year for almost every kind of fruit. Everyone with an apple tree of any size is overwhelmed by the harvest and giving fruit away. We have the first ever mini kiwis on our kiwi-vines.…
If you grow any type of squash, summer or winter, you probably know that it produces two types of flowers: male and female. The male flowers are on long slender stems, but under the female flowers the fruits are already…
A couple of weeks ago, following the post on growing edible flowers, I gave you a recipe for very pretty, very easy to make edible flower and cream cheese canapés. Guess what? These canapés are just as pretty and even…
To be honest , canapés are something I hardly ever bother to make. Adding one more dainty dish to the menu when entertaining, is often the thing that can bring you one step too close to a nervous breakdown. But…
As my sister recently observed, from an early age Dutch children are trained in raising money for charity and other kinds of projects. The school needs a new playground? The kids get family and friends to sponsor them for running…
There are many great things about having kids. Especially in the early stages of parenthood, it means you get to wake up/ be woken bright and early each and every day, early enough to greet the sun in summer or…
The purpose of permaculture design is to create as many beneficial relationships between the elements as possible. One well known example is the chicken tractor: you make a bottomless pen for your chickens and move it around your property. Wherever…