Shortages are back. In some places, toilet paper and paper towels are again on the list of the disappeared. Using less is good even if there wasn’t a shortage. Sure, they’re made of low-quality “waste” wood. We’re not chopping virgin forests just to wipe our bums. But they’re made on big electric machines and wrapped in plastic, then shipped in diesel-belching 18-wheelers. They decompose anaerobically in a sewage lagoon or landfill, generating planet-warming methane. There’s an environmental impact there, all right. And they cost money. Maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal, but Americans use a stag ..read more

Hello readers. That was quite the little blogging break I took there. Like, about four months. Partly the reason has been health issues (not Covid-19), and partly the reason has been a husband who has been working a lot more than usual (totally Covid-19). Even though it hasn’t been a productive fall for writing, it’s been a very productive fall for resilience activities. I’m excited to tell you about them, starting with the fun experiment of the cinder block rocket stove. As I’ve written here and here, we cook mainly off-grid. In winter there’s the wood cook stove. In summer there’s the All-Am ..read more

If ever there was a year to learn to save seed, I think this is it. So many people planted coronavirus gardens this spring that many seed sources ran out. Some seed-selling establishments considered seed “nonessential,” and restricted sales even when there was ample stock, simply to discourage people from unnecessary shopping. In my book, seed is one of the most essential supplies. Saving them is just part of my ordinary round of gardening tasks, and doesn’t need to be intimidating. Of course there are some I don’t save yet, such as carrots. And there are some I can’t, such as new varieties I ..read more

Several years ago when I moved into my little house ,heated only by a wood stove, I knew I needed a summer baking option, pronto. Enter the ,All-American Sun Oven. Even if you don’t have a wood stove, summer cooking in sweltering North Carolina really heats up the house, and then it takes extra energy to cool it back off to a tolerable temperature. That’s energy I neither want to fork over money for, nor want to pay the ecological consequences of using. When we built the house, we planned from the beginning to move cooking outside for the hot months (April-October). This is an historical adap ..read more

I used to get excited to look at my dinner or breakfast plate and realize it held more than one ingredient that I had grown. Eggs from my chickens and sweet potatoes from my field, or tomatoes and basil from my garden. Right about the middle of April when the carrots came on hard, I noticed that I’m frequently eating a whole heap of delicious food, but I only bought the spices. The salt and pepper, maybe a little garlic or butter came from the store, and I grew everything else. It’s a heady feeling. Now this is typically quite humble fare. No glass noodles or expensive salami in these meals. O ..read more

Last year in foothills North Carolina, we had a hundred-year flood in June. Then we went three months without any rain at all. Some things produced well in spite of drought, but tomatoes really suffered and I hardly got any pumpkins. I was not able to keep things adequately watered by hand even before my catchment tank ran dry. I know that the ,carbon footprint of tap water is pretty small compared to, say, tropical vacations. But I still have a philosophical problem with paying to have water cleaned so thoroughly that it’s drinkable, and then pumped for miles and miles, only to pour it on the ..read more

How are resilience and justice connected? In my humble and not-particularly-well-educated opinion, lots of ways. All the ways. A short note to forestall confusion and toe-stepping: this is all just my opinion. I certainly don’t claim to speak for anybody else, but I’m not alone in thinking these thoughts. If you only have time for one piece today I invite you to go read ,better voices than mine. If after that you’re not full and come back, I promise to leaven these heavy words with pictures of garden veggies. I’m assuming much of my small readership is fairly white because every picture of an ..read more

As coronavirus blooms, ,freaked-out people are planting gardens all over the world and I completely understand why. Having access to good nutrition even if there isn’t much at the grocery store (or if I suddenly can’t afford what’s at the store) is definitely a primary reason why I plant a garden. Honestly, I’ve been working at it for years and still only grow a portion of what we eat. With ,last year’s drought, I didn’t have enough tomatoes to can. All winter I’ve been extremely grateful we weren’t relying entirely on my skill, and I could still buy them at the store. This doesn’t mean don’t ..read more

Is it just me, or are there a whole bunch of extra dishes lately? They’re rising out of the sink and colonizing my tiny counter in every direction. Coronavirus hasn’t really caused my family to eat more at home. Restaurant food isn’t typically better quality than home-grown, and eating out is fun but really expensive. So mostly, we don’t. No, my dish profusion began when I started ,going to the store just once a month. I’ve been baking delicious blue cornbread and frying blue tortillas with our home-grown corn, and oh, the many dough-coated dishes that have resulted! As long as I’m washing and ..read more

It’s May! The weather is beautiful! Much better than last year, when May tried to pretend it was June. Except it’s going to get down to 39 degrees tonight here in central North Carolina, and frost is predicted for Saturday. I jumped the gun and already planted my tomatoes, peppers and basil. What to do?? I’ve been nursing these tender little seedlings since February, ,starting them myself mostly from seed I saved, watering them with care, hauling them out on fine days so they can get some extra sun. I can’t bear to see them harmed. Even in a normal year, I would not be eager to run to the stor ..read more