Make the Most of Your Herbs

I love herbs. All of them. Mint, oregano, rosemary, thyme, lavender, chives. We grow them as flowers and greenery, as bushes and ground cover. Some of them fill in as quiet background plants, others steal the show in their corner of the yard. I have a dedicated herb garden just outside the back door; the basilContinue reading “Make the Most of Your Herbs”

Eating Local Is My ‘Diet.’ What’s Yours?

To any of you who’ve been reading what I write for awhile, the story of how I cleaned up my eating act is a familiar one. In a nutshell, several forces converged to push me toward a healthier, more plant-based life than I’d grown up with: my husband and I put in a garden and weContinue reading “Eating Local Is My ‘Diet.’ What’s Yours?”

Local for Lunch: Welcoming Spring

Salads took center stage for my Spring class at The Roanoke Co-op. We built salads filled with grains and proteins, interesting textures and flavors — and as much local as I could muster. We topped them with a choice of Ginger Sesame Dressing or Poppy Seed Dressing. Then we paired all those leafy greens with aContinue reading “Local for Lunch: Welcoming Spring”

Grow With Me

I did not grow up in a garden. I was raised in the suburbs and largely fed from grocery store shelves. Though my father hailed from a nearby dairy farm and his parents still lived on the family land, I have next to no childhood memories of helping anyone dig or plant or harvest. It’sContinue reading “Grow With Me”