Podcast #263 – January in November

Here in central Alabama, November is traditionally a quiet, cool, pleasant month, when a light first frost nips the heat-loving veg, and then maybe a second one brings them down. November is also when we look forward to our first taste of frost-kissed brassicas like collards.


Podcast #262 – Growing Fruit at Home

It’s the middle of November, and in central Alabama, that means it’s time to plan your fruit tree planting for December and January. That’s why when our friend and extension agent Mallory Kelley asked us to speak about fruit, we chose this time of year.


Podcast #261 – Raising Baby Chicks

Oddie can’t participate in this one. Behind firmly closed doors in the shop next to our home, four tiny birds are exploring their new life, busily eating, drinking, peeing, and pooping. And sleeping. They spend lots of time sleeping.


Podcast #260 – Garlic Planting Time

We use lots of garlic in our cooking, so we always look forward to garlic planting time. We look forward even more to garlic harvesting time, but that’s a subject for another day.


Podcast #259 – R.I.P. Summertime

This week we closed the stack window in the ceiling of our little home in the barn. In doing so, we switched from working to stay cool to working to stay warm, and we marked the unofficial end to another summer in Alabama.


Podcast #258 – Grandmere’s Neglected Garden

Amanda didn’t hesitate when our son Joe and daughter-in-law Michelle invited her to fly to CA to take care of our grandsons so they could enjoy a weekend getaway. Yes, flying 2,000 miles there and 2,000 miles back to serve as a babysitter for three days is wildly extravagant, but […]


Podcast #257 – Tiny Houses

When we moved to the farm, we thought the little home we fashioned for ourselves in the barn was small. At 600 square feet, our apartment was about 1/4 the size of the suburban home we had left behind.


Podcast #256 – In Praise of Persimmons

Nearly every kid growing up in the South has at some point been offered a common persimmon, a small orange fruit that looks like it would be tasty but is in fact so astringent it will turn your mouth inside out. So when Amanda and I heard that people were […]