We made it through winter! (I think)

61 degrees yesterday in the mountains. Crocus and daffodils are blooming. Right now it's 39 degrees and snowing. Mother Nature just doesn't know which way to swing this year. While there is a scent of spring  flowing across the highlands from time to time, I'm busy looking through my seeds saved from last season desperately trying to discern when to plant. I moved from a place where I had weathered winters with lots of salad greens under plastic and old sheets...

... to a new location where I'm planning for much less ambitious growing situation in a few pots on my deck.

Sometimes it's enough just to have a few snips of garlic or onion or celery leaf to throw into my cooking and I'm excited by the leaves growing from the base of the bok choi I purchased last week.

Next time you have root vegetables like carrots, beets or daikon radishes, don't throw away the top ends. Instead push them part way into moist potting soil, give them some sunshine and water to keep them from drying out and wait for the leafing action. You can add marvelous tastes to your food just from the leaves! And what a way to garden inside if you don't have space outside. It just takes a few items headed for the compost bin and a windowsill with some sunlight to make you feel like a farmer. Need some music to get you going? Try this on--hip hop for gardeners!

Here's a great book with a refrigerator full of ideas for gardening with your garbage! Don't Throw It; Grow It! Deborah Peterson's book lists 68 windowsill plants you can grow from scraps. Who says you need a tiller?

April is trying to peek around the corner. Please don't give up on us.....we've waited sooooo long. Thank you heidi richardson evans at www.daisybones.com

Women feed the world every day!

DID YOU KNOW: Women farmers produce more than half of all food worldwide (Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization)

Yet, these women don't own half the land base or receive half the income. 

According to Oxfam International, women perform 66 percent of the world’s work, but only earn 10 percent of the income.

Women farmers and gardeners produce food--to feed their families. And for this reason, aren't noticed except by researchers and governmental studies because what they grow isn't sold or exchanged as a commodity. So it's not counted in the wealth of a household or region or country. Really?

Well these women are changing the story of food-growing in many ways, among them, recognizing the inestimable value of women who grow the food. From FoodTank comes: 23 Women Changing Food! Check out their organizations and learn how they are putting a woman's face on the food we eat. 

Look around your town or city. Where are women collaborating, connecting, to provide good food to their families and communities? Are you one of them? If not, how can you link in or support women as farmers, gardeners or those who want to learn? 

Hey, it's spring! The very best time to get involved in a community garden, school garden or beginning to grow food on your back porch. The inspiration for my book, simply garden small! came from small landholders and kitchen gardens around the world, many of them women.