Dilworth Kitchen Garden

At just five years old, James Funderburk helped dig rocks out of his family’s two acre garden plot on the rural outskirts of Eden, NC. “Everyone in my family would walk through the garden together pulling rocks from the newly tilled soil. My parents, grandparents, cousins…we’d all be out there tossing rocks into a huge pile,” James explains. “Even at that age, I appreciated the quality produce from our garden.  I’d take a salt shaker to the garden, and eat tomatoes like they were apples.”

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Garden Tool Maintenance

Maintaining sharp edges on your garden tools makes digging, hoeing, chopping and slicing easier, and makes gardening more fun.  A 10” Mill Bastard file is a good all purpose file that can sharpen most of the tools in the shed, even the lawnmower blade. Remember to sharpen only the beveled side of the edge ( angled side ), applying pressure as you push the file forward, and lifting up as you draw it back. 

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Serious About Growing : The Cotswold School Garden Club

Cotswold school’s garden beds sit right out in front, but are easy to miss if you don’t know where to look.  There is no wood framing, just a series of humble mounds of soil placed far enough apart so that the first graders don’t dare mistake the third grade bed for their own.  I knew when the husky kid in the Green Bay Packers jersey correctly explained the difference between a spade and a shovel, that the Cotswold School Garden Club was serious about growing.

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Raising Chickens in Southpark

“Mom, I promise I’ll take care of them.” Insisted Gil, this time with even more conviction. Margaret weighed pros and cons of keeping chickens in the suburbs while the three baby chicks peeped up at her from a box in the garage. What began as a school science project - hatching baby chicks safely in the confines of the classroom – was about to turn into something more involved.

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Cooking with Mushrooms

Shiitake (she-tah-key) mushrooms have been cultivated in the East for hundreds of  years, and were once saved for use only by emperors, and fiercely guarded by Samurai.  Like most mushroom varieties, Shiiitake have very few calories, but are much higher in protein and other nutrients like calcium and iron, than other edible mushrooms.  They are often served in soups and as an ingredient in steamed and simmered recipes.  Many recipes call for the removal of the stems simply because they are hardeer and take longer to cook than the caps. Log grown shiitake will stay fresh in the refrigerator if wrapped loosely in a moist paper towel, and placed in an unsealed plastic bag.

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