• Garden - Life&Land

    Dreaming a little of Spring

    Like everywhere else in the Rocky Mountain region of the northwest, the winter of 2026 has been extremely mild in our neighborhood. To a point of concern. There have been many prayers for moisture, particularly in the higher elevations. Prayers that we will have enough moisture to offer green grass on dryland areas, and enough water to fill reservoirs for irrigation later on in the year. As a born and raised farm girl, I understand the significance of water, especially in the western United States. “Water is King in the West,” my dad always says. And boy, is that certainly…

  • Garden - Life&Land

    Growing Food and Babies

    We had our first frost last Monday. Though this is our first autumn season in our current area — and everything is new — the first frost still came as a bit of a surprise. I had fully expected to have another two weeks before that first layer of frost coated my garden, and the weather report indicated five degrees above freezing. I suppose the weather had other plans because frost it did. The frost was light, and within a few hours of daylight, my favorite crew of littles had helped me dig up all the potatoes, pick all the…

  • Garden - Pantry

    Peas ‘A Plenty: What to do with all those Garden Peas?

    Here we are at the start of the calendar summer, and we are waist deep in peas at my place (literally, waist deep). My little helpers and I were out in the garden yesterday and picked this lovely large bowl full of sugar snap peas.   We are a few weeks into this full explosion of peas, and are loving the thick harvest we are blessed with. I find peas in the garden are simply great for the kids. Not only are they an excellence, healthy snack for the kids to graze on while outside playing in the backyard, but…