This garden interview is with my friend PJ Worth and her dad Doulgas Worth. PJ has grown deep roots on the place where she has lived and gardened for her whole life. She and her father have about an acre of land in Micanopy, all intensively and beautifully landscaped with roses, herbs, fruit trees, and…
Author: toadstoolsfairyrings
Easter and Lichen’s First Calf
Spring is such a lovely time, and Easter might just be my favorite holiday! This year has been so busy already, we missed out on a lot of our usual celebrations, like making an Easter tree. I felt downright unprepared for Easter just now, to be honest. We were so busy putting in an ambitious…
Slovenian Poppy seed Easter Bread
We will be doing our usual egg painting and dyeing this weekend, but I wanted to share this bread tradition from my family. This bread was a special treat from my childhood. If we were visiting my grandmother, it was always out in pretty swirly slices after mealtimes, and I would often grab some to…
Mulberry Pie
We have a huge mulberry tree growing in our front yard. My parents planted it when we first moved into the neighborhood, when I was 10, which makes it more than 20 years old. Every spring it is covered with flowers – which look like tiny green mulberries with white curls all over them. We…
A Bad Haircut
This post is actually about TWO bad haircuts. One of them I actually had a hand in myself – but I’m getting ahead of the story. It all starts with our Great Pyrenees puppy, Cloud Bear. There’s a spot of cool weather now, but just last week it was hot, really hot. There were some…
FRICASSEÉ DE POULET: Chicken Fricassee
This chicken recipe wasn’t too involved…if you don’t mind quartering a chicken, and taking several steps during the cooking. So yeah, it wasn’t the easiest recipe by any means….but it was really, really good. The flavors were just excellent, and you have a chicken frame to put into broth afterwards, so it’s a budget-stretcher as…
The Lost Art Of Clothing Repair
Clothing repair is a lost art, but I don’t mean to suggest that this post will replace all the art that has been lost! This is just one way that I’ve found to be a satisfactory way to repair clothes. I used to just throw away clothes with rips and tears, but when I got…
Banana Cream Pie – And A Paleo Grain-free/Dairy-free version
We had two almost overripe bananas, and lots of creamy milk and eggs on hand – and this was the result. We can confirm from experience that this delicious pie is great for a picnic at the springs! There are two versions – a real pastry and real creamy milk version, and a Paleo…
ÉPINARDS À LA MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL: Spinach, The Butler’s Way (or beet greens)
Confession: I’m terrible at growing spinach. It just doesn’t like my garden, or maybe it just doesn’t like me. I like spinach, but I just can’t seem to grow it. I’ve tried starting it at different times of the season, in different conditions, with either coddling or neglect (some plants do better with one of…
Home-grown Soap
Ever since we put our first beef in the freezer, I’ve wanted to try making soap. There were suddenly so many jars of creamy-colored tallow taking up the kitchen shelf. I read about it, and bought some lye, but I never was brave enough to make the attempt. Caustic lye, plus the possibility of an…
BETTERAVES EN SALADE: Beet Salad
I have found beets difficult to grow here, so I am pleased to have a decent crop this spring. They just don’t grow well in acidic soil, and I have found that sprinkling lime on just after I plant the seeds helps them actually grow. I grew out a beet trial this year, with five…
Kids Love Junk
Clothilde yells, “I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!” while wearing ear protection. If you’ve ever visited our house, you will know something about us – we have junk. Lots of junk. I don’t necessarily like junk. Actually, if I had things my way, there wouldn’t be a scrap of junk and someone else…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 