Backyard Farmgals

Weezer... helper goat and knowledgable pruning specialist If you haven't started your spring pruning, there is no time like this weekend to get busy with it.  I am taking an arboriculture class and have been thrust into the fiery furnace of pruning so to speak.  We were given an assignment to prune five different types of woody plants and take pictures.  We had to spend a total of 10 hours, which ended up being a lot of trees for me because I do have some experience.  I thought I would share what I did as well as pictures for those of you who feel like I did a few years ago, not knowing where to start. There are some general rules to follow.  With fruit trees, I alway start with water sprouts.  They are those horrible long vertical shoots that come back year after year.  While I am pruning water sprouts, I am looking for anything dead, diseased, or broken.  All of these things I prune out as I go. I prune out any suckers at the base of the t...

The girls in my 'hood are all abuzz with clean eating.  We mostly eat very clean, minus the occasional dessert here and there.  We also have been mostly sugar free for the last 10 years.  I say mostly because one: I love chocolate, and two: I really, really love chocolate, and three: I really love to bake.  It's terrible!  I have good days and weeks and then I have a particularly stressful week and the chocolate resurfaces or I get the itch to bake something divine, and I dive in.  Then I have to start all over.  It's a battle... I thought I would share a healthy recipe that has been a staple in our family for years.  This is loosely based on Ina Garten's Chinese Chicken Salad.  I modified it years ago to clean it up and my family instantly fell in love.  My kids gobble this like they haven't eaten in weeks.  Clean plates, full bellies, and a happy mama (in fact, I couldn't even photograph this without little hands sneakin...