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Homemade Mayonnaise

It is so empowering to be able to make something like homemade mayonnaise in your own kitchen you thought you had to buy from a store!

This is such an easy staple to be able to swap out, and so much healthier for you and your family too- with all real ingredients and it tastes so much better than anything you can buy in the store!

With a stick blender and some simple ingredients; oil + egg + acid you’ll be amazed at how quickly this comes together!

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Vegetable Garden Design Basics

Let’s get your garden dreams onto paper so you can make harvesting from your garden a reality this summer! A little planning can go a long way. To that end, I’ve created a step by step Garden Planning Guide for you.

First – let’s get clear on what YOUR garden goals are. Setting an intention up front (and knowing it will change with/in the seasons) can be a welcome guidepost later in the planning process. Try to not to compare your gardens or goals to anyone else’s.

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Soil Blocking for Seed Starting Success!

Soil blocks produce some of the best transplants from seed starting I’ve ever grown. This is my hands down favorite way to start tomatoes, peppers and my earliest cold hardy crops.

Soil and person using a soil blocker to start seeds

The method uses a metal ‘press’ that you fill with an oversaturated (think cement slop for the right consistency) seed starting mix. You get this mix packed into the ‘press’ and push a lever to pop out the cutest soil cubes you ever saw. And if the mix is done right, they stick together great, even though it seems like they’re defying the laws of gravity.

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Best of Garden Podcasts

As an avid gardener and garden writer I’ve listened to a lot of garden podcasts- and some are better than others. I’ve also had the joy of being interviewed by a dozen podcast hosts (you’ll see some of their names below).

There’s something soothing about listening to others who have been there and done that. I love listening as I work with my hands or out on walks. If you’re not a podcast listener, I have to say (even as a writer) you are missing out!

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Chai Tea

plate of fresh ginger root

A favorite festive recipe is Chai Tea!

This will not only warm your body and soul, but makes your home smell like the holidays along the way… once I start making this Hygge season has officially arrived on our homestead.

Simple and completely able to tailor to your tastes, this recipe lets you add more or less of ingredients as you like.

I adore how I start craving this tea right around the same time I harvest my ginger each year. I’ve got an in-depth article on growing ginger in the north.

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Pickled Daikon + Carrot Salad

One of my all-time favorite condiments has always been the slightly sweet, slightly vinegary and always crunchy pickled daikon + carrot ‘salad’. This is typical in Vietnamese dishes like Banh Mi and rice noodle salads. I’m also known to just eat this straight out of the jar.

plated food with rice, broccoli, tofu and pickled daikon + carrot relish
A typical quick dinner, with pickled veggies playing an important supporting role!

I feel so lucky to have grown up around the Twin Cities where I’ve been able to savor all the flavors of the metro area. Growing up more on the east side of the metro, on the outskirts of St. Paul, I always had ample Vietnamese options. My dad used to work at the state capitol, and I would beg him to bring me to lunch at The Lagoon, an old school Vietnamese restaurant that used to be tucked in right there on University Avenue.

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Baked Apple Oatmeal Cake (GF)

A little crisp on the top layer, dense and perfectly spiced with chunks of warm apple throughout… This baked apple oatmeal recipe is so easy, uses a single bowl and can feel like a hearty breakfast or delicious dessert depending on how you dress it up!

I love the ‘idea’ of baked oatmeal but so many recipes can fall apart and feel like a good attempt gone wrong. This recipe teeters between baked oatmeal and oat cake/muffins, but I’m 100% comfortable with rocking the oat boat like this- because these are absolutely delicious!

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Dream of Wild Health Indigenous Farm

Dream of Wild Health Logo
Dream of Wild Health Logo

Seeds and centuries of gardening knowledge feed a community at Dream of Wild Health farm.  

Inspired by the people it serves and centuries of gardening knowledge, Dream of Wild Health embodies working with nature. One of the oldest, continually operating Native American nonprofits in the Twin Cities, Dream of Wild Health’s intertribal working and teaching farm brings together the best of seed saving, Earth-focused farming practices and youth development. In short, this farm is flourishing.

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Season Extension: Garden + Harvest into Winter

One last harvest deep into winter from all my veggies grown under cover

Fall temps can quite literally cool our northern garden jets once fall hits its stride and apple season arrives. But for those of us that enjoy those frost sweetened crops and don’t mind gardening into the cool of autumn, Season Extension opens another mini-season of gardening and harvesting!

For those just getting started on season extension, you may be wondering why we bother with this extra work?

For me the reason is clear – by keeping plants alive in the ground, it allows them to hold onto their nutrients, compared to if we harvested at the first sign of frost. Food loses around 30% of its nutrients within three days of harvest…

Practicing season extension can add weeks or even months of harvesting FRESH FOOD from your garden. And isn’t harvesting healthy food one of our main goals?

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The Amazing Aronia Berry

If you love growing beautiful medicine that also attracts the pollinators, then let me introduce you to Aronia Berry, aka Chokeberry. Actually, you may have already met Aronia Berry while walking in the woods or edges of prairies in the Midwest of America.

Officially named Aronia melanocarpa, this cold hardy North American native woody shrub is worth adding to your landscape for its adaptability, form, fall color, and, of course, its fruits!

Knowing + Growing

The Aronia Berry tends to stay around 8 feet tall (depending on variety) and is much less picky about soil as it has deeper roots than the Elderberry. They are hardy to -40F or USDA Zone 3. They also don’t have any pest issues and are disease resistant.

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