One sunny day this week, our family and two friends took a hike at Highbanks Metro Park to stretch our legs and spy on the eagle’s nest. Little did we know what else we would find. We observed the Ohio state wildflower, bird, tree, mammal, the United States national bird and Ben Franklin’s national...
Read more →Just a week after visiting Cleveland, we hit the road again for two nights in Cincinnati. Our trip last Friday – Sunday was motivated by my participation in the 5B Conference and Cincy Winter Beer Fest. In between drinking and talking about blogging, we visited Terry’s Turf Club, the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History...
Read more →Combine interest in the inaugural Easton Farmer’s Market, an empty store front, and a community of local producers and what do you have? Celebrate Local, a pop-up holiday shop of all-Ohio goods. Celebrate Local opens October 1 and will continue sales through the winter holidays at Easton where Harry & David’s previously resided. The...
Read more →It’s hard to be a native Ohioan and have an appreciation for seafood. I rarely ate fresh fish as a child and when I did, it wasn’t very good. It wasn’t that my parents were poor cooks; twenty years ago it was hard to find seafood worth cooking. These days, life is different. Fish...
Read more →On my mind these days: 1) Hoop Houses – I was honored to meet Will Allen and attend workshops with his staff last weekend. I now know how to build a hoop house and can’t wait for some land on which to build. I’ll share more about the Growing Power way soon. 2) Better...
Read more →We have ‘people’ in Japan. People who have lived with us, vacationed with us, and treated us to tours of their home cities. We have people who mothered me during my pregnancy and attended my wedding. People who were foreign exchangees and are now family. We met our people, Miyu, Naoko, Kaoko, Kristiina and...
Read more →I mentioned a few times that I love Ohio apples. My sentiments are now indelibly inked on my shoulder, courtesy of Julie Edwards Whittaker, now tattooing at High Street Tattoo.
Read more →Homesteaders usually tend towards old-fashioned methods of conservation. We use hand-powered tools. We line dry laundry and push a reel mower. We use renewable fuels to grill and light the fireplace. But we dare not eschew high tech solutions in combination with these old school efforts. A whole system of high tech ideas to...
Read more →I have no pictures of the turkey or family portraits or plates of food from this Thanksgiving. Instead, I have pictures of Big Mac. Big Mac is a hog raised by my mother’s cousin’s family, the Barkers. After Thanksiving dinner (including the delicious ham of one of Mac’s former barn-mates) a group of us...
Read more →Local Matters has declared the next seven days Local Foods Week. They have arranged a plethora of local food activities including a Market to Market ride going on now. Alex, Lil, and I have tickets for the Jeni’s Tour Tuesday and I’m trying to figure out how to catch Brother’s Drake Meadery at one...
Read more →