I have been writing this Substack newsletter for three years. We have grown this from nothing (puns are always intended). When I first started this newsletter, I was craving a place where I could explain, in detail, how to garden. Short form video can be so limiting. I started gardening over ten years ago as a way to cope with anxiety and stress. It quickly became more than a hobby, it was my escape. At the time, there weren't many people teaching the kind of gardening I wanted to learn: growing as much food as I possibly could in an urban environment. I learned as I went. There were a lot of failures, but enough wins to keep me growing and going. When I set out to create this newsletter, I knew that I wanted to be the resource I wish I’d had back in 2015.
My most popular gardening guides:
Alongside a robust rolodex of gardening advice, I have also sent out personal essays along the way. Gardening is intertwined with my life and a lot of times the monotonous labor of pulling weeds, sowing seeds, clearing out, raking, and amending churns up ideas that are not acutely related to gardening. To my surprise, these newsletters, the ones unrelated to gardening, ended up being some of my most popular. I am especially proud that I championed a new category here on Substack dedicated to Home & Garden.
My most popular personal essays:
Thank you for being here. It is an intimate thing to land in someone’s email inbox week after week. There are many subscriptions these days and I do not take it lightly that you have chosen to receive my writing. As a thank you, I am running a sale on paid subscriptions for the next week. As a paid subscriber, you get full access to the archives, exclusive garden guides that distill my decade of experience (these are no-nonsense, brass tacks), and more.
I’ll see paid subscribers here next week for the September Gardening Guide (it’s going to be a good one!). In the meantime, let’s catch up on some things you may have missed:
You can watch me make it here and the recipe is here. There are two Italian restaurants near me that serve budino. It might be my favorite dessert. In my new recipe, I infuse toasted and smashed fennel seed with milk and cream. Paired with chocolate it becomes a nice bass line to silky, rich Italian pudding. Budino is thicker than a standard American pudding and lies somewhere between a hard custard and a mousse. I top it with crème fraîche, olive oil, flaky sea salt, and a few toasted fennel seeds.
After traveling for the first half of August to Portugal and Santa Barbara for weddings, I was craving healthy, easy, home cooking. As many of you know I am an avid cookbook collector. If you love cookbooks, might I recommend subscribing to the Cookbookery Collective newsletter. Last week I perused my collection and picked out some recipes to make for my family of three. I’ve recently made:
Sheet Pan Sausages with Corn, Cucumber and Peach Salad from Nights and Weekends by Alexis DeBoschnek.
Spatchcock Herb Chicken from Don’t Think About Dinner by Jenn Lueke.
Spicy Carrot Rigatoni from By Heart by Hailee Catalano. I made this a complete meal with some frozen Force of Nature grass-fed beef meatballs.
Koobideh Meatballs with Minty Yogurt from Third Culture Cooking by Zaynab Issa.
Fennel Bolognese from Something from Nothing by Alison Roman.
One-Pan Sicilian Baked Cod from Dig In! by Erin O’Brien.
My most recent garden newsletters: The Complete Guide to Preserving Your Harvest, The Complete August Gardening Guide, and my interview with tomato breeder Hans Fama.
This is everything I harvested from my garden this week. It’s been super hot here in Los Angeles. I’m ready for fall! I harvested a ton of Thai limes that I intend to dehydrate the peels and make a salt with.
As a wedding gift, my brother-in-law bought us a copper still to distill plant matter into essential oils. (He knows me so well). Last week I separately distilled tomato leaves and rosemary. I took the rosemary hydrosol (water based volatile parts of the rosemary) to make a scalp spray.
I feel silly getting excited about cool weather crops amidst this heat wave. Alas, we must sow on. I’ve done a few trays of cabbages so far and this week I’m going all in on broccoli and kale.
After two weeks away from my garden, it was in desperate need of TLC. I’ve sown a crop of cucumbers and beans. We’ll see how it goes (it is a little late).
I put up a question box on Instagram, here are the answers to your questions. I decided to go with video format this time. I think I like this format best, let me know what you think!
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