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Unleashing Kids’ Inner Animal with Creative Play
If you’re a person of a certain age reading this post, it’s probably been a little while since you daydreamed about becoming your favorite animal. It may be even longer since you actually galloped around the room, whinnying at your friends, or spread your arms … Read More
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Where the Sidewalk Ends: Exploring Nature with a City Kid
My 4-year-old nephew, Louie, loves to observe and explore his surroundings. He’s a city kid through and through, so many of the observations he’s stockpiled reflect his Brooklyn upbringing: he can rattle off which subway lines run express, corrects his parents about bus routes, and … Read More
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Sewing Together: Collaborative Quilting with Kids
Every year, Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal School — the school where I teach — holds an auction to raise funds for scholarships and teacher needs. Each class is enlisted to produce a project that is kid-made, but also of auction-worthy quality. Quilt making is the perfect … Read More
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When Sleep Won’t Come: Meditation for Insomnia
It’s four in the morning, and you’re wide awake. Anxiety wraps itself tightly around your chest, and your head is awash in worries. And now you’re also worrying about not getting enough sleep. You count the hours until your alarm will ring, add up the … Read More
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How to Grow Your Own Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)
If I could only grow one crop in my vegetable garden, the choice would be easy. It wouldn’t be tomatoes; it wouldn’t be cucumbers or carrots. I would grow edamame beans (known to some as “edible soybeans” — which, of course, causes one to question … Read More
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Sweet Potato Pound Cake with Maple Syrup Glaze
Wind your way through New England and points north in late winter or spring, when subfreezing nights give way to warming days, and you’re liable to see great plumes of steam billowing up from wooden structures tucked in the trees. Slow down — it’s sugaring … Read More
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Top Crops to Grow for Fermentation
Of all the methods I use to preserve my homegrown produce, fermentation is the most fascinating one. Like most gardening cooks, my first fermentation projects involved turning cabbage into sauerkraut, which remains the best debut project for new fermenters. But since then I’ve discovered several … Read More
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Three Reasons We Updated Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens
Our flagship series of books on animal husbandry — Storey’s Guides to Raising — was born in 1975, during the Back to the Land movement. It began with a book on raising poultry, another on dairy goats, and a … Read More
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Test Your Home’s Solar Power Potential
If you have a couple of minutes — literally two minutes — you can get a rough estimate of how much solar power you can produce at your house. If you have 10 minutes (and a smartphone), you can get a much more accurate estimate … Read More
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Henhouse Romance: Laws of Chicken Attraction
I know that love exists between chickens. It’s clearly evident that they care about one another’s well-being and can form special bonds — including those of the romantic variety. What governs the affections of roosters and hens, and how do they express their amorous intentions? … Read More
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Winter Blanket Tug-of-War: A Horse Owner’s Dilemma
My Morgan mares look more beautiful than ever in winter. Their coats are deep bright bay — Robin’s redder, Martha’s darker — clean and fluffy with an extra shine that seems to come from within. During storms they are frosted thick with snow, like lovely … Read More
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Teeny Tiny Apple Pies for Kid Bakers
Piecrust has a reputation for being tricky, even for experienced cooks and bakers. The secret to keeping it flaky is keeping the fat in the dough cold and not to overwork it. Using something other than your warm hands to blend the butter with the … Read More
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Growing a Global Vegetable Garden
When my immigrant in-laws first came to Canada from Lebanon in the 1980s, they did what many newly-arrived immigrants do: They dug a small vegetable garden in their new backyard. They had no idea what they might be able to grow in this unfamiliar climate. Read More
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Plant Wisdom: California Poppy and Paying Attention
There’s a saying among herbalists that the plant you need most will present itself to you when you need it. To be honest, when I first heard this, I was skeptical. Really? Plants just know when I need them and appear out of nowhere? No … Read More
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Super Bowl Snacks, Minnesota Style
We know it hurts for Minnesota fans, but the Vikings are out. Minneapolis is bracing for this weekend’s onslaught of fans of the Patriots and the Eagles (the team that inflicted the final blow for the Super Bowl host city’s home team). That’s worth at … Read More
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Essential Oils and Cats Don’t Mix
I’ve written before about the potential dangers of essential oils when it comes to pets. Recently a flurry of posts has appeared online about beloved pet cats becoming critically ill when exposed to essential oils through home diffusers. These heartbreaking stories serve … Read More
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What Do the Abbreviations on Seed Packets Mean?
Good-quality catalogs, websites, and seed packets offer a wealth of information. Companies want their seeds to grow successfully in your garden, so they provide as much growing information as possible. Beyond photographs and tempting descriptions, these are common terms that you’ll find online and in … Read More
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Eating for Health: Sooji, Sweet and Savory
In Ayurveda, along with sleep and balanced sexuality, food is one of the three sub-pillars (upastambhas) of health — and the most important. Undigested food becomes toxicity in our body, called ama or aam in Sanskrit. Ama is a causative factor in physical and even … Read More
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Goat Milk Can Be Good for You
Goat Milk as “Medicine” The healthful aspect of goat milk is as legendary as goats’ aroma and their preference for tin cans but with a more positive spin and a lot more basis in truth. A few savvy doctors do, in fact, prescribe goat milk … Read More
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Project: Mandala Embroidery Sampler
To be an editor of craft books requires (at least) two traits: attention to detail and a love of crafts. I recently came across a photo of my 12-year-old self that suggests I’ve been on this path for some time. My mom taught me to … Read More
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Bird by Bird: A Rite of Passage and the Weight of Loss
More than forty years ago, when I reached what my grandfather estimated to be the eve of puberty, I was summoned to spend the weekend with him at his house in rural Connecticut. I knew what to expect because my four older brothers had undergone … Read More
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The Alaskan Huskies of Denali National Park
Alaska’s Denali National Park, which is more than 6 million acres in size, has always been home to sled dogs. On a trip to Alaska last summer, my husband and I visited the sled dogs owned by the National Park Service and, although I did … Read More
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One Bin at a Time: The Pioneering Mind Behind Worms Eat My Garbage
I first met Mary Apelhof in 1982, the year she published the first edition of her book Worms Eat My Garbage and a full ten years after she built her first worm bin. Mary was a pioneer. She was … Read More
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For Better Latkes, Rethink Your Cooking Fat
Break out the latkes: Hanukkah is coming. For most people, said latkes — grayish, greasy potato pancakes slathered with sour cream and applesauce — are beloved just because they are reminders of home and childhood. But what if your latkes didn’t have to be mere … Read More
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Find Your Craft Chocolate Match
Does your choice of cheese or beverage dictate your taste in chocolate? Learn More In Bean-to-Bar Chocolate, you'll learn what to look for in a craft chocolate bar and how to successfully pair chocolate with coffee, beer, spirits, cheese, or bread. This comprehensive celebration of … Read More
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Chocolatl: Spiced Drinking Chocolate
We often forget or don’t know that some stimulating substances like chocolate and coffee, which are ubiquitous in our lives today, were used sparingly in the cultures from which they came. Cacao was incredibly sacred to the Maya and Aztec people, so much so that … Read More
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Hello, Darkness: Welcoming the Long Nights of Winter
“Darkness is the garment of Light no less than the body is the garment of the soul.” — Daily Kabbalah: Wisdom from the Tree of Life, translated by Gershon Winkler
It is barely evening, still just late afternoon, and already I am pulling the living … Read More -
Baking Class: Carrot Applesauce Bites (VIDEO)
These applesauce muffins are easy to mix up by hand. You can add a secret healthy ingredient for extra flavor and nutrition: grated carrot. For a simpler muffin, skip the carrots. This recipe involves baking in the oven, so brush up on your safety skills … Read More
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Learning “Chicken”: 10 Tips for Watching Your Flock
When I first got chickens, I was instantly drawn to them. I wanted to learn everything I could about my new, tiny balls of fluff. As I saw it, I was planning on having these chickens around for a long time, so connecting with them … Read More
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Building a Path to Pain-Free Crochet Design
I learned to crochet when I was seven, but the craft didn’t really capture my interest until years later. When I decided I was ready to try my hand at designing crochet patterns, it was an arduous process with lots of trial and error (so … Read More