This post has been moved to a new location at melodycondron.com.
The
Beekeeping Librarian will continue to have posts, photos, and resources
pertaining to gardening, urban homesteading, beekeeping, and cooking.
Library-specific posts and things for librarians can be found at the new
site.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013
OMG It's May (Not Ready)
It's May & I am planting things, as well as buying fresh local produce at the farmer's market. Wonderful, right? Well, yes, but it also means that I am feeling GUILTY that I still have vegetables frozen and stored from last year. I am on a mad dash, or at least a motivated saunter, to eat what is left.
I planned to make a quiche this weekend and noticed I still have bags of shredded zucchini in the freezer. Shredded zucchini quiche... why not? I decided to add half of a fleshy heirloom tomato that I had not finished, plus some of the tiny garlic that I had pulled out from the garden and some fresh basil from the plants I have not put outside yet. Add shredded provolone and feta (because those are the cheeses I had on hand), and suddenly I had an Italian-style quiche. For the custard I used a basic 3 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 3 tablespoons of flour, and a dash each of salt and dry mustard (45 minutes at 375F). It was delicious!
Before & after:
And here's what I did last week with the last of the acorn squash. Stuffed acorn squash is one of my favorite things in the world. I had fresh herbs from the garden already and it was delicious--the squash was still very sweet. I was so impressed they lasted the whole winter.
A few more squash and a little more shredded zucchini to go. I should make muffins.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
The Garden Year Begins!
The Waukesha Community Garden - first week of April 2013.
First hops shoots of the season: all four plants are up as of the first week of April.
My community garden plot: 20'x35'~ish.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Montana Library Association, April 17-20 in Missoula, MT! #MLA2013
This post has been moved to a new location at melodycondron.com.
The Beekeeping Librarian will continue to have posts, photos, and resources pertaining to gardening, urban homesteading, beekeeping, and cooking. Library-specific posts and things for librarians can be found at the new site.
The Beekeeping Librarian will continue to have posts, photos, and resources pertaining to gardening, urban homesteading, beekeeping, and cooking. Library-specific posts and things for librarians can be found at the new site.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
ALA Midwinter Seattle Dining Planner! @alamw13 #alamw13 #alamw #vegetarian #travel
This post has been moved to a new location at melodycondron.com.
The Beekeeping Librarian will continue to have posts, photos, and resources pertaining to gardening, urban homesteading, beekeeping, and cooking. Library-specific posts and things for librarians can be found at the new site.
The Beekeeping Librarian will continue to have posts, photos, and resources pertaining to gardening, urban homesteading, beekeeping, and cooking. Library-specific posts and things for librarians can be found at the new site.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
A big, linked list of #authors at #alamw13 : Who Shall I see?
This post has been moved to a new location at melodycondron.com.
The Beekeeping Librarian will continue to have posts, photos, and resources pertaining to gardening, urban homesteading, beekeeping, and cooking. Library-specific posts and things for librarians can be found at the new site.
The Beekeeping Librarian will continue to have posts, photos, and resources pertaining to gardening, urban homesteading, beekeeping, and cooking. Library-specific posts and things for librarians can be found at the new site.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
2012 Year End & Winter Reads
It has been a long year: with two gardens, a full-time job and starting graduate school I have not found much time for blogging. I am also on the Montana Book Award committee, which has kept me from reading my mainstays of gardening, alternative architecture, brain research, and cooking books. While I cannot comment on nominated award books until after judging in February, I can tell you that Montana has a lot of fantastic writing coming out right now! I am pleasantly surprised at the variety of subject-matter, especially since it will contribute nicely to my Dewey Lunatic Project.
At present, the books I am reading over the winter that aren't award nominees are short and/or related to function more than enjoyment. I won't bore you with the travel guides I have out for ALA Midwinter in Seattle (although you can expect a Seattle-planning post some time soon). Here's a list of some other things I have been reading:
Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn - The author of previous favorites Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter and the absolutely awesome Shelter, Kahn's books are always full of beautiful pictures of alternative building projects that make me so envious I could die. Tiny Homes is no exception. Kahn's Shelter may be the book that got me interested in alternative architecture in the first place when I first acquired it as a teenager. Tiny Homes would have done the same thing, had it existed. An oversize format, back stories of the architects and builders, and, again, fantastic photos of fantastic tiny homes all over the nation made me skip the library and go straight to buying this one.
Imitations by Robert Lowell - Ah, poetry. It is what you can read when you don't have much time and just need a little bit of something (hopefully) good. I re-read Imitations recently since I am a fan of confessional poetry and had not picked it up for a while. Perhaps because it is a re-read or perhaps because I am older, I don't feel like Lowell has the same impact as he once did. Some of the poems feel inaccessible and impersonal, unlike Plath and Sexton who still blow me away with their deeply personal work. It was good to re-read, though. I particularly enjoy the poem, The Landlord.
In progress: Urban Pantry: Tips & Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable & Seasonal Kitchen by Amy Pennington - Small and short, I picked this book up from the library and was pleased with its brevity and functionality. It is mainly a short cookbook, but it focuses on using the ingredients you often keep in the pantry along with seasonal eating opportunities. A lot of the recipes are basic and some are preserving recipes. I also enjoyed the tips on what should be in your pantry, since I always feel like I am one ingredient short of the meal I am trying to make. I will say, though, that her suggestions in the "Wine, Vinegar & Booze" section ask for more than I am likely to provide since cognac is not usually on my shopping list. The other lists seem more reasonable. Or maybe I should start cooking with more cognac?
Just Started: The First Twenty Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer by Gretchen Reynolds - Recommended by my mother, I am intrigued by Reynolds' coverage on exercise research and what that means for working out correctly. Like The Science of Yoga, which I read earlier this year, I like knowing what the research says so that I am making good choices with my workouts.
At present, the books I am reading over the winter that aren't award nominees are short and/or related to function more than enjoyment. I won't bore you with the travel guides I have out for ALA Midwinter in Seattle (although you can expect a Seattle-planning post some time soon). Here's a list of some other things I have been reading:
Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn - The author of previous favorites Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter and the absolutely awesome Shelter, Kahn's books are always full of beautiful pictures of alternative building projects that make me so envious I could die. Tiny Homes is no exception. Kahn's Shelter may be the book that got me interested in alternative architecture in the first place when I first acquired it as a teenager. Tiny Homes would have done the same thing, had it existed. An oversize format, back stories of the architects and builders, and, again, fantastic photos of fantastic tiny homes all over the nation made me skip the library and go straight to buying this one.
Imitations by Robert Lowell - Ah, poetry. It is what you can read when you don't have much time and just need a little bit of something (hopefully) good. I re-read Imitations recently since I am a fan of confessional poetry and had not picked it up for a while. Perhaps because it is a re-read or perhaps because I am older, I don't feel like Lowell has the same impact as he once did. Some of the poems feel inaccessible and impersonal, unlike Plath and Sexton who still blow me away with their deeply personal work. It was good to re-read, though. I particularly enjoy the poem, The Landlord.
In progress: Urban Pantry: Tips & Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable & Seasonal Kitchen by Amy Pennington - Small and short, I picked this book up from the library and was pleased with its brevity and functionality. It is mainly a short cookbook, but it focuses on using the ingredients you often keep in the pantry along with seasonal eating opportunities. A lot of the recipes are basic and some are preserving recipes. I also enjoyed the tips on what should be in your pantry, since I always feel like I am one ingredient short of the meal I am trying to make. I will say, though, that her suggestions in the "Wine, Vinegar & Booze" section ask for more than I am likely to provide since cognac is not usually on my shopping list. The other lists seem more reasonable. Or maybe I should start cooking with more cognac?
Just Started: The First Twenty Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer by Gretchen Reynolds - Recommended by my mother, I am intrigued by Reynolds' coverage on exercise research and what that means for working out correctly. Like The Science of Yoga, which I read earlier this year, I like knowing what the research says so that I am making good choices with my workouts.
Monday, September 17, 2012
End of a Long, Great Summer
I have been lax in writing, because I have been gardening two gardens all summer. I have also just started graduate school (MLS). Busy times, and I can barely keep up!
Here are some photos of this year's two gardens.
And here are some of the highlights & info from the garden:
Here are some photos of this year's two gardens.
And here are some of the highlights & info from the garden:
- The Waukesha Community Garden grew very well, and having a water system on a timer worked out since I could not guarantee when I could get to the garden. I ran the timer every other morning at 4 a.m. for two hours, rain or shine.
- The three sisters squash/corn/beans worked okay. The squash are all huge and they love it, and the beans, too. The corn struggled. That may be the corn variety, the fact that the starts and seeds I planted all struggled early on (wind and harsh sun). Also, the beans and squash do drag them down a little. So, the corn are a little straggly and not as tall as the neighboring plots'.
- Pinto beans did fantastic at the Waukesha, but the cowpeas never flowered and so never seeded.
- Oil sunflowers (two varieties) are all 8' - 10' tall and doing fantastic.
- Quinoa and amaranth were difficult to know when to pick. Amaranth has been picked, quinoa is still there and I hope to catch it before it drops. From everything I have read, it is not ready--the seeds are not hard enough. But we are quickly approaching the end of the season!
- At the home garden, yellow pear tomatoes and Tess's land currant tomatoes were the clear leaders--both are small tomatoes and were extremely prolific.
- As always, summer squash ran gangbusters at both gardens and I have loaves or zucchini bread in the freezer next to bags and bags of shredded summer squash.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Saving Seeds by Robert Gough
The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds: 322 Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, Flowers, Trees, and Shrubs by Robert GoughMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
What a helpful book on seed saving! Seeds of change is still my go-to, but this book have a concise description of seed-saving practices for most plants you might want, and it includes ranges for how far you need to keep plants from similar varieties to maintain the lineage. Very helpful, and also nicely laid out.
View all my reviews
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Missing Maurice Sendak, 1928-2012
Maurice Sendak, author of (the often-challenged) In the Night Kitchen, Little Bear, Chicken Soup with Rice, and the ever-popular Where the Wild Things Are, passed away yesterday, May 8, 2012.
Jon Hodgman tweeted a link/video yesterday titled, "Sendak answers, beautifully (and barely), the question: "Why bother to get born?" It was a beautiful testament to a life well-lived, and an individual's acceptance of death after a good life. Links and videos and quotes all flew around yesterday in honor of Sendak, who was called "one of the most important children's book artists of the 20th century" and I do not disagree. But I think his books and life were much more far-reaching than children, and not just because we read his books growing up. The man championed talking to children like people and had incredible vision for his writing, and his life. He was a devoted dog lover, writing numerous books about his dog Jennie. The most notable being Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life. In the book, Jennie leaves home searching for greater meaning in her life. Finding herself inadequate to meet most of the challenges out in the world, she accepts herself anyway and eventually dies--yet another Sendak take on big issues, though his books were mainly read by children. Beyond Jennie, his characters were often charmingly "headstrong, bossy, even obnoxious." Read: me as a child. I have always adored his characters. They were real, vivid, personalities living through odd, sometimes unhappy but always fascinating situations.
A decent biography can be found here. And a list I assembled of his writing & illustrations, here.
Jon Hodgman tweeted a link/video yesterday titled, "Sendak answers, beautifully (and barely), the question: "Why bother to get born?" It was a beautiful testament to a life well-lived, and an individual's acceptance of death after a good life. Links and videos and quotes all flew around yesterday in honor of Sendak, who was called "one of the most important children's book artists of the 20th century" and I do not disagree. But I think his books and life were much more far-reaching than children, and not just because we read his books growing up. The man championed talking to children like people and had incredible vision for his writing, and his life. He was a devoted dog lover, writing numerous books about his dog Jennie. The most notable being Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life. In the book, Jennie leaves home searching for greater meaning in her life. Finding herself inadequate to meet most of the challenges out in the world, she accepts herself anyway and eventually dies--yet another Sendak take on big issues, though his books were mainly read by children. Beyond Jennie, his characters were often charmingly "headstrong, bossy, even obnoxious." Read: me as a child. I have always adored his characters. They were real, vivid, personalities living through odd, sometimes unhappy but always fascinating situations.
A decent biography can be found here. And a list I assembled of his writing & illustrations, here.
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak, Part 1
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak, Part 2
Then, yesterday Colbert released this: Uncensored Maurice Sendak Tribute from parts of the interview that didn't air previously. At the end, Stephen Colbert asks Sendak what the best thing is that parents can do for their kids. He responds, to love them. Colbert pushes and asks, "what does that mean?"
Maurice Sendak responds, "take them for what they are."
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Uncensored - Maurice Sendak Tribute | ||||
| ||||
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