Let me save you a few bad batches. The first time most people make English muffins at home, they end up with something soft and pleasant and completely wrong. A round little bread roll. No holes. No crags. Nothing for the butter to sink into. The nooks and crannies are the whole point. And they … Read more
These are tall, domed, bakery-counter blueberry muffins made with a half cup of sourdough discard and finished with a thick buttery crumb topping. No rise time, no active starter required, no planning ahead. You pull the discard jar out of the fridge, mix three bowls, and they are in the oven in about twenty minutes. … Read more
You buy the bunch of carrots with the leafy tops still on. You hack the greens off over the trash can. You cook the carrots. You just threw away the part that grows back. Carrot tops regrow into a steady supply of feathery green leaves, and here’s the part most people don’t know: those leaves … Read more
You grilled the corn. You ate it down to the cob. You tossed the cob. Next time, save one. Every cob is packed with seeds. Hundreds of them, one per kernel. Dry those kernels out and you’ve got next year’s crop sitting in an envelope, for free. That’s the pitch. And it’s mostly true. But … Read more
There’s a particular kind of afternoon that’s become familiar to a lot of us: you glance out the window and the light is wrong. Amber, flat, a little apocalyptic. The sky smells faintly like a campfire that nobody lit. Wildfire smoke has drifted in (maybe from a few states away, maybe from an entire country … Read more
Here’s a fact that breaks people’s brains: a single sweet potato from the grocery store can become a whole bed of new ones. Not one plant. A dozen. That one knobby tuber is a slip factory. And slips are how to grow sweet potatoes from scratch, for free, starting right on your kitchen counter. Let … Read more
This lemon poppy seed loaf is the one I keep coming back to — a moist, tender lemon poppy seed cake baked in a humble loaf pan, finished with a tangy lemon glaze that soaks just into the crust. Call it a loaf, call it lemon poppy seed bread, call it a pound cake; whatever … Read more
You know the one. Shoved at the back of the pantry, gone a little soft, pushing out pale little tentacles. You were about to toss it. Don’t. That potato is trying to become more potatoes. Let it. One forgotten spud can hand you a whole bag of new potatoes, for the price of a potato … Read more
You scooped out the avocado. You made the toast. You went to chuck the big pit in the bin. Hold on. That pit is a tree. A glossy, gorgeous little houseplant tree, and it costs you nothing but the avocado you were already eating. Let me be straight with you up front, because I hate … Read more
Take a tomato. Cut a slice off it. Lay that slice on some soil. Wait. In a week or two, a little forest of tomato seedlings pushes up out of the dirt. From a slice. That you were going to put on a sandwich. I know how it sounds. The first time I did it … Read more
