Growing Inspiration (+Giveaway!)

I've been trying to grow things in any spot imaginable for some time now. Whether or not I owned the space made no difference. I'd put tomatoes and herbs in pots and rest them on my stoop or windowsill. Once, I was even so brazen as to attempt to grow green beans, tomatoes, and several other vegetables using only the sunlight filtering in from the small skylight in my 3rd floor apartment (it worked, a little; not enough sunlight coupled with a one-week failure to water the pots when I was away on vacation brought my tender green friends to their shriveled, stunted knees).

In my own yard now, if Hubs and I had the time and budget, there's no limit to what we'd be growing. We'd expand our kitchen garden; culinary and medicinal herb beds; grape vine; apple, pear, and peach trees; vining kiwi; wineberry beds; and blueberry bushes and grow a bounty of foodstuffs.

In addition to the wild foods available out here (we've got black walnut trees, nettles, fiddlehead ferns, wild violets, daylilies, and no doubt countless wild mushrooms growing in our forest-we really need a mycologist to walk the land out here and tell us what's what, mushroom-wise), there's ample room for putting in a small orchard (I'd LOVE to inoculate the bases of several hazelnut trees with truffles!!! CAN YOU IMAGINE???) in which we could grow nut trees and a few more pear, apple, and peach trees. I'd like to put in a few varieties of fig trees, as well. I'm moving our strawberry beds, so there's that. A full patch of asparagus, and artichokes, and rhubarb is on my wish list, too. I'd also really love to expand off of our kitchen with a mini conservatory where we could grow citrus trees during cooler months and transfer them outdoors when it's warm. Oh, the possibilities.

All of my mentioning this serves simply to illustrate the point that I like to grow things. And I like to watch things grow. And I like to read about growing things. And I like people who like to write about growing things. Which is what today's post, and giveaway, is all about. Amy Pennington, to quote her book's back cover, is a "food writer, organic gardener, and owner of GoGo Green Garden, an edible-gardening business that builds, plants and tends gardens for city folk in their backyards. Amy grows, cooks and lives in a small one-bedroom apartment in the heart of Seattle." Her first book, Urban Pantry (Skipstone Press, 2010) was met with wide acclaim. Amy, you see, likes to grow things. My kinda lady.

Apartment Gardening, Amy's newest book, was just published by Sasquatch Books the first of this month. I doesn't matter if the place you call home is a mere perch or a palace, there's great growing wisdom in here for everyone. Apartment Gardening is rife with ideas for planters (repurpose a metal filing cabinet!), full of details for getting started (including what grows best in containers, how to care for your plants, and getting started with seeds and propagation), and packed with both culinary and body care recipes for making use of what you've grown.

Amy's publisher has generously offered a copy of Apartment Gardening to a small measure reader. To enter the giveaway, just tell me what you'd like to grow. It can be anything. It needn't even be practical. Tell me about how you'd love to grow your own coffee beans for your java habit, or how you wish you had vanilla beans in your backyard, for your baking addiction. Hell, you can even say you wished you could grow money on trees-I wish I could! Pragmatic commenting is just as welcome, of course.

I'll keep the giveaway open for comments until one week from today, April 18th, at midnight EST. When you comment, be sure to let me know how to reach you if you win, via either a link-back to your blog, or your e-mail address. Amy's publicist, Haley, will contact you for your mailing information after I've selected a winner (which I'll do using a random number generator).

Tomorrow I'll be posting a recipe from Apartment Gardening, so be sure to stop back by. In the mean time, tell me, how does your garden grow?

For Spacious Skies

A monster of a thunderstorm ripped through our cove yesterday evening. Thunder! Lightening! 60 mph wind gusts! Hail!

It was intense. Our German Shepherd, Fly, was terrified. She's one of those dogs that's afraid of storms, while our other dog, Dexter, the Labrador-something-or-other-mix, lay sprawled out on the couch with an expression reading "I could really use another pillow. You mind?".

I was a bit on edge myself. Long ago, I lived for four years in a small town (Richlands, N.C.-anyone?) that would blast an alarm every time the threat of a tornado approached. The fire department blasted that dang alarm so often that, to this day, I get crazy anxious whenever a storm rolls through.

No harm was done, though, and afterwards-the SKIES! They were amazing, as if someone had brushed everything outdoors in the faintest hint of blush. These images don't really do the scene justice. It was, if I can muster up the courage to admit it, totally worth the storm.

(Non)-Consuming Fiction

A big shout out of love and thanks is due to Katy over at The Non-Consumer Advocate. She sent this sweet little package of children's fiction (that belonged to her own boys when they were wee!) to Huxley. They're penned by no less than Ursula K. Le Guin, the science-fiction legend.

Thank you so very much, Katy. Can't wait to start reading these to Huxley!

Whip It Good

Hi everyone! My "Small Measures with Ashley" post is up over on Design Sponge. This week I'm sharing tips on making homemade butter. If you've never made your own butter before, I highly encourage you to jump on it. NOTHING matches the flavor of just-whipped butter. You'll suddenly find yourself coming up with all sorts of "needs" for its use: Naked toast? Put some butter on it! Steamed broccoli? Put some butter on it! Saltine cracker? Put some butter on it. Consider yourself forewarned...(incidentally, this is reminding me of the Portlandia "Put A Bird On It" skit...Fred & Carrie should really do an "Ashevillia" spin-off; there are SO many consistent characters here that are RIPE for characterization!).

I'm deep in the throes of writing-deadline land. My new technique of getting Huxley to take naps in our bed is really working out well. Wish I'd had that idea months ago! It makes sense; it's the place he sleeps each night already, so napping there is familiar, and safe, and reliable. Hopefully he'll go down again today for almost two hours like he did yesterday, and even that came on the heels of falling asleep in our jogging stroller while Hubs took him for a long walk down our driveway and along a country road nearby! 'Atta boy.

Oh, and as for the book I'm working on, I've got to remain a bit mum on the topic for now. I promise to share more as it progresses, but, for the time being, my editor has asked me to keep tight-lipped on all the details. I can, however, share that it won't be part of my Homemade Living series. It's food-related, though, and I can assure you you'll love it. Promise.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Wild Eats

Tonight for dinner we feasted on this incredible salad with our entree. Hubs gathered up wild violets from the yard and tossed them with local greens, shaved Parmesan and a homemade honey-tarragon vinaigrette.

AMAZING!!! Wild food is: 1) delicious, 2) nutritious, and 3) FREE!!!

Giving & Receiving

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you've most likely heard me make mention of my buddy Jenna. A kindred spirit going it solo in "Veryork" (where Vermont and New York state rub shoulders), she's my girl. My bud. My homeslice. We're even on nickname terms (I believe I've referred to her as "J-Dawg", "J-Bomb" and more, while she's dubbed me "Boots").

Well, we long ago promised we'd promote and digitally scratch one another's backs (until we can meet up, real-time!) for all of our assorted and various projects, works, productions, what-have-you. This week, Jenna is offering up a giveaway. A really good giveaway. A signed copies of all four books in my Homemade Living series giveaway. A giveaway you don't want to miss.

So, make haste and head over to her Cold Antler Farm. Enter the contest and then stick around and read about her recent debut into the wide world of lambing. And don't be surprised if you find yourself returning to Jenna's world again and again. It's informative, inspirational, endearing and so very much more. In her own words: "It's a Big time, folks."

*Image from Jenna!

Compound Butter

Hi everyone! My "Small Measures with Ashley" is up over at Design Sponge. This week I'm talking about making compound butters using springtime herbs. These lovely spreads take a dish from "ho-hum" to "DY-NO-MITE!" in seconds. Fer reals.

Hope your Sunday is going well. It's hovering close to 70 degrees outside here, so, no complaints. My little dude is sleeping soundly beside me on the bed, flanked on both sides by pillows nestling him in. I tried this method of napping on him yesterday and, wonder of wonders, it worked! He dozed for over 2 hours last night while Hubs and I enjoyed a night in (like we have anything besides nights in these days!), munching on pizza and watching a movie so bad that I dare not shame myself into sharing it here.

My mom and grandmother are on their way over for some quality baby-cuddling time. I'm busy, busy, busy at work on my 5th book, squeezing in writing whenever, and however, I can. Our beehives are totally jamming. I'm going to work them later this week, on a warm, sunny day with less of a breeze than today. The chickens are content. We're working on getting our spring garden in. Hubs built a raised bed and trellis for peas yesterday and I'm hoping to get the starts into the ground today. Things seem to be humming along chez English!

Wherever you are, whatever you're up to, may your day, and week ahead, be glorious and grand.