tall clover farm

With buckets of blackberries dotting my counter, I was telling a friend that I should blog about How to Freeze Berries. Arched eyebrow notwithstanding, and a facial expression reserved for super lame ideas, he said, “Really, Tom? It’s not as if it’s rocket science. Perhaps, you could follow up with a post on How to Boil Water.” (No berry crisp [...]

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As good as it gets: homemade ketchup from homegrown tomatoes via some lessons learned. My culinary redemption is complete. As some of you may recall, my last attempt to make ketchup did not end so well; my kitchen looked like Freddy Krueger had stopped by for lunch.  (Witness the tomato carnage in How Not to Make Ketchup.) The good news is confidence has [...]

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Boz is a big fan of green beans and the pole bean trellis (but for different reasons). Lucky for me, the green beans form  two feet off the ground.    My Fortex and Romano green beans have sprouted, and they are looking for my support–something I’ve come to expect in a good pole bean. After trying all [...]

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There are two types of strawberries: those grown locally and those at home in a plastic clamshell.  Local berries: soft, juicy and bruised by a simple indiscretion.  Store-bought strawberries: large, structurally sound and able to be dropped from tall buildings and remain unscathed.  Unfortunately what the latter offers in transportability and durability, it usually lacks in flavor. And while local [...]

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In late winter, drifts of daffodils punctuate my property like streams of sunshine. They are a welcomed sight and a needed reminder that better weather is on the way (which is a good thing since that’s about the time I start to resemble Jack Nicholson in The Shining). As flower bulbs go, they are pretty effortless and naturalize on their [...]

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I fancy myself as someone who is pretty handy in the kitchen, a man able to smoke a brisket, assemble a tart, craft a Cassoulet or conjure up some ice cream. But one day, one sad summer day, I entered the kitchen overly confident that making ketchup was a breeze. How hard can it be [...]

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There’s nothing like a fresh ripe fig and there’s nothing like a fresh unripe fig.  Ripe delivers a juicy, succulent and melting gem to fawn over. Unripe tastes like a wasted opportunity: dry, starchy and flavorless.  It’s good to know the difference. Here’s my photo guide to knowing when to pick your homegrown figs. Figs can be [...]

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Sometimes beauty reveals itself in unexpected ways, other times it’s a familiar friend on my daily path. For the madrona trees that have stood witness to the lives and loves of this house over the last century, it’s both. As I’ve said before, they are truly living sculptures.    Towering and twisted, they reach for the [...]

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One can, a bunch of bamboo and one home for your mason orchard bees How to Build a Mason Orchard Bee Nest, House I discovered the benefits of Mason Orchard Bees years ago when I stumbled upon Brian Griffin of Knox Cellars  at the Washington State Flower and Garden Show. He was selling bee starter [...]

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Our friend Jack and his structurally-sound beanstalk are the things of which fairy tales are made. In my garden, a goldfinch can bring down a pole bean just by considering it as a pleasant and potential perch. Like everyone, poles beans need all the support they can get. Here’s how I do it: the modified wattle (not to be confused with [...]

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A bountiful morning when you have the right tools.  Berry (and cherry) picking is serious business; you pick, eat a few, then try to get them in the bucket or basket without spilling your handful from a high altitude. And then there’s the bending down to fill the bucket part. (Bad backs need not apply.) There’s got to be a [...]

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 It took four days for this peach to ripen, note the dripping juice. A Ripe Peach Is Worth the Wait I love peaches too much to eat them as the rock hard flavorless orbs we’ve come to expect from the local grocer.  It’s worth every penny to buy from local growers or grow peaches yourself as it [...]

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