All Blog Posts (126)

I haven't made much progress in growing. I would have liked to have a huge garden by now of all kinds of goodies - veggies, ornamentals, trees. We've only ever grown little things in ugly plastic containers. I'd like to change my attitude and gain some more hands on experience, but there aren't very many classes where I am. I just wish I had a friend who could show me what to do, as gardening is not very easy to me. Perhaps I try to make it way more complicated than it has to be. Perhaps i…

I love finding and sharing solutions that people have created to overcome the obstacles that would otherwise keep them from providing for themselves and their families in a healthy manner.    Here is a link that I was inspired to post by a new member Cristina Elizabeth Rice Savina, whose living situation requires some creative thought.  Here's a great link to some urban gardening techniques.  It's easier than one might think and can be fun for kids to be involved with as well!  Here's the…

Mexican Style Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti squash

3 roma tomatoes, chopped

1/4c onion, chopped

1 jalapeno, minced

olive oil

1 1/2c cooked black beans

nutritional yeast cheezy sauce recipe*

1/2c salsa

1/4c cilantro, plus a little extra for garnish

1t cumin

1/4t garlic

1/2t…

A while back, I was perusing the interwebs and ran across a beautiful picture of one of those hanging fruit basket sets that people put in their kitchens to keep fruit, onions, potatoes, etc. up off the counter, but still accessible and fresh.  Only THIS particular basket set was wonderfully lush, with ripe, vining herbs flowing out of every tiered basket.  So I became inspired and decided I wanted to do something like this at MY house.  I decided to look locally for this tiered basket as I…

Happy Memorial Day folks!  

As we honor and remember the men and women who serve our country to keep us protected and allow Americans to enjoy our freedoms, we at FOOGS.org say "Thank you!".  Please enjoy your deservedly celebratory day.

All the best from us at FOOGS.org! 

April 25 - Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Hayward, WI, hosted an annual Sustainable Living Fair. I made squash bread, which won the Boss Bread category. Seed was saved prior to 2010. Wilma Johnson, Nutritionist, in Northwest WI, gave Happy Tonics squash seed in 2010. We didn't even know what species it was.  Happy Tonics, planted the seed in the Monarch Butterfly Habitat, in Shell Lake, WI, in 2011, as part of the Three Sisters Garden. I cooked the squash in March 2012. In…

Fig season is just around the corner.  I am excited.  We are fortunate enough to have a friend who has a fig tree in her backyard.  She tells us every year, “Come over and pick some figs.”  We do.  I show up in the morning, after an hour or so, I leave with two big paper bags full of fresh figs.

You can’t beat fresh figs, and you definitely can’t beat free figs.

Figs are delicious and nutritious.  You can make cookies, bars, eat them raw, and even make preserves.  I know what I…

I have literally been around canning as long as I can  remember.  I was blessed to have four Grandparents and a Great Grandmother who all shared a tremendous love of gardening and all had a great appreciation for canning.  My favorite earliest canning memory was visiting my Grandparents on my Mom's side and being down in the root cellar looking through all the beautiful jars of canned goodies, all of which came from the garden.  I also remember my other Grandmother and Great…

I've been using them for years.

I didn't plant in them this spring...

I'm sorry I didn't...they are awesome.

Thanks, Chris

KIDS Recipe Contest!  Win a free FOOGS logo shirt!  All you have to do is submit a recipe that YOUR CHILD or CHILDREN have created using healthy ingredients from your garden or homestead farm (at least partially).  You can choose Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or Snack.  One winner will be chosen from each age group as follows:

2-4

5-7

8-10

10-12

13-15

The most creative (and palatable!) dish as judged by us at FOOGS.org will win!

All entries must be…

wow. it's been several months since my last post.  That post was begging for Spring to get here. Evidently, it came and went in a month. The result has been a very, very early summer for us Texans and a long hot one to boot!

I had a few tomatoes. Luckily, I have the friendship pleasure of a real tomato guru who is bound to the cubicle across from me in our "corporate day jobs". He shared an assortment of heirloom tomato seeds.

Many changes to this…

Hi, I wanted to pass on my experience with using Earth Boxes. I've been using them for the past 4-5 years now and they are low maintenance and very productive. They hold about 2 cubic feet of potting soil. There is a water reservoir in the bottom and as long as you keep the reservoir filled you will be happy with the results. I use organic fertilizer and potting soil from my local home improvement store. Vegetables really do well in these containers. I don't have to till the soil or weed or…

I love living in Austin!

The City of Austin's Home Composting Rebate Challenge is a rebate program challenging Austinites to do three things:…

This is reprinted from Washington State University.  Here is the link: http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/vege022/vege022.htm

I really like this article because we all talk about planting, but what about when it's time to eat?  Some items make it easy, like tomatoes, etc.  But what about others we aren't overly familiar with, having seen most of them only in their "ready for grocery store" form?  Check out this…

Many a time I have heard people say, "I can't garden because I rent."  What is stopping you?  All the landlords I have had don't care what you do in your backyard when it comes to plants, flowers, and gardening.  When we rented a house, we had a garden.  And now that we are in a duplex we are gardening again.  We have started our Spring garden, planting three seperate beds:   A tomato bed(3 types), a potato bed(4 types), and a various greens and vegetables bed (over 10 kinds of…

I like this article, and I think there are some very salient points, but, while briefly mentioned, I think they overlooked the financial/economic benefits of sustainable organics.

1. Reduce The Toxic Load: Keep Chemicals Out of the Air, Water, Soil and our Bodies

Buying organic food promotes a less toxic environment for all living things. With only 0.5 percent of crop and pasture land in organic, according to USDA that leaves 99.5 percent of farm acres…

The Austin Chronicle is like the Foogs website -- I don't access it often enough.  So I was both surprised and pleased to find this article "Local Is As Local Does" in the latest issue.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/food/2011-02-18/local-is-as-local-does/

Surprised and pleased to see yet another entry in the "Everybody is getting in on this . . ."  movement, but not surprised that…

I found out this fall that I am not a winter gardener. No matter how much I bundle up, nothing, not even my love of garden can pull me out of the toastiness of my small home.

I dream of summertime gardening...walking, barefooted around my yard, feeling the moist soil beneath my feet. It makes me feel connected to the earth. I miss the late evening light that I garden by and the radiating warmth of the soil. My wonderful friend Paige Hill,…

Wanted to share this with you, thought you all would like to check the site out, a list of items you can use for compost.

Here it is:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/75-things-you-can-compost.html

Hope it will be of use.