Author Archives: alexstubbz

Oh, Kale Yeah!

The curlier your kale, the better. However, if you have minimally ridged “Dino” kale, that’s ok, too.  I started off by harvesting some kale that I grew in my backyard container garden. Although you can pinch off the leaves at the stems with your fingers, it is gentler on the plant to use some sort […]

Summer “Throwback” Galette

a.k.a. Tomato, Basil, and Fromage Blanc Galette I made a double batch of shortcrust pie dough earlier in the week for a recipe my boyfriend was experimenting with. We ended up with a lot of extra pie dough, so I decided to try my hand at another galette. This time I made up my own […]

Flower bed sink

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure! We replaced the kitchen sink in our new home when we moved in a couple of months ago. Since then, the old sink has been sitting in the side yard in disuse. This week I decided to re-purpose it into a planter.  I wanted to add some flowers […]

Fall Planting

“A time to sow…” Here in California, there are two prime times of year to plant–spring and fall. Generally, you can plant after the last frost of winter and before the first frost of fall. Depending on where you live these dates will be different. A quick internet search should provide approximate first frost dates, […]

Preserving the Summer Bounty, Part 2- Figs

I recently had the good fortune of being invited to pick figs from my old landlord’s tree in Davis. After a pleasant visit, I went home with a nice-sized box full of figs and a dilemma on my hands. I loved having all of these beautiful, sweet figs, but how was I going to use […]

September is Farm to Fork Month!

In honor of Farm to Fork month, I want to feature my latest trip to the farmers market. Admittedly, I do not shop at farmers markets as often as I would like- which would be at least once a week if I did. It is something I love to do when I can, and having […]

Preserving the Summer Bounty, Part 1

By this time of year, however, most people are sick of zucchini noodles, and the appeal of a nice caprese salad has lost its novelty. So, what do you do with the rest of your summer produce? Before composting it or turning it all back into the soil, consider some preservation methods.  Freezing, pickling, and […]

Farm to Fork Live! Re-cap

Yesterday I attended a free event called Farm to Fork Live! It was put on by a Sacramento-based organization called Valley Vision. Valley Vision is focused on community innovation in the Sacramento region. This year’s Farm to Fork Live had the theme of agriculture technology, specifically where these two fields intersect. I heard about the […]

Summer Fruit Galettes

I’ve recently experimented with how to bake galettes. Galettes are a sort of rustic looking, free-form pie. If you’ve never made one, I highly recommend trying your hand at it. As far as the baking techniques go, it is pretty straightforward. A key to a great galette crust is to keep the dough cold. The […]