Pasadena Housewife

We got a blueberry bush at the farmers’ market.

I’m going to try growing them in our yard.

Tags: berries, blueberries

Duck eggs from DerVaes Gardens here in Pasadena

These duck eggs are delicious and worth every penny.

I called DerVaes Gardens hoping to try their chicken eggs, but they were sold out when I called. The weather was overcast, and the chickens don’t lay as much in overcast weather, but the ducks don’t seem to mind it. (They don’t force their hens or ducks to lay.) I was hesitant about the idea of duck eggs. I was afraid that they’d be gamey or off-tasting, but I decided to give them a try. Actually, I waited for Gavin to try them first. He had fried a couple for us, and he took the first bite. He said they tasted like chicken eggs. I took a bite. They were… good. I ate some more. They were great, even. I think the word “Wow!” was uttered several times that morning. They tasted like chicken eggs… only better.

The yolks are bright, dark orange, and the shells are strong and thick. We’ve been eating them fried (basted, actually) and in omelettes. We’re on our second dozen of them now.

Cross-posted at Eye Level Pasadena.

One of my family members told me that my great aunt used to bury kitchen scraps in her garden between her rows of vegetables, and that her vegetables grew terrifically. I have a compost bin, but it was getting full, so a few months ago, I buried a few kitchen scraps under a tree.

I wasn’t expecting them to, but sprouts started to grow out of a few of the spots where I’d buried my scraps.

Look at what this one is:

Potatoes!

Tags: potatoes, vegetables

I’ve been doing our laundry with soap nuts.

They grow on trees. They’re dried shells of a fruit.

They look funny and smell funny, but they work pretty well. The laundry comes out smelling clean and feeling soft. Even my line-dried bath towels are less crunchy. They’re almost soft. And they smell like clean, line-dried, sunshine baked towels.

You tie a few of these into a little cotton bag, and put them in the washing machine. They release a mild, natural detergent into the water.

From what I read on the internet, they work better with warm water than with cold water, and they’re less effective if you have hard water. We have normal water, and so far I like them.

Tags: soapnuts

I found this moth dead in a drawer, lying on a line of not-yet-separated twisties. I set him on a white index card, took him over near a window, and took pictures of him with a macro lens my dad lent to me.

Tags: insects, moths

Check out those blisters on the crust of my last batch of sourdough bread.

I baked it inside a cloche:

Here’s the bread inside:

It was delicious.

My mother-in-law, Andrea, has been baking sourdough bread for years. A few years ago, while out on a visit, she taught me how to make it. She turned me on to Nancy Silverton’s Breads of the La Brea Bakery cookbook, and the cloche is from her and Ed. Thank you both!

On the marble-topped dresser we use as a side table in the dining room.

I’m amazed.

I read about using vinegar and baking soda for cleaning on some of the housekeeping blogs, and I wrote it off as being like coupon clipping — something that probably wouldn’t work all that well (for me, at least) and that would be a hassle and would end with weariness, frustration, disappointment, and a mess. So I didn’t even bother trying them. How could they possibly work?

This week, though, I read one blog post too many about them and I got curious. I decided to give them a try, even if it was only to finally know that they didn’t really work. And guess what. They work. They work almost as well as regular cleaning products. Not quite as well, but surprisingly well. Shockingly well. Maybe eighty-five percent as well. Well enough that I’m going to keep using them. Well enough that knowing I could eat them more than balances out the need to scrub a little harder in a couple of places. Well enough that I didn’t have to scrub all that much harder.

You use the vinegar where you would use a counter-top or window-cleaning spray. I used it on my counters, my mirrors and my floors. I didn’t dilute it.

You use the baking soda where you would use a powder scrub product. I used it in the bathtub and on the kitchen sink.

I’m not giving up my other cleaning products entirely. I’m still using toilet cleaner in the toilet bowl. It’s eco-friendly, but it’s not something I could eat. And I might pull out my eco-friendly but non-edible counter spray and scrubbing powder if the amount of scrubbing needed ever increases dramatically. But I’m not sure. Baking soda and vinegar work well enough that I may switch over entirely.

I’m kind of amazed that using them sounds so weird and that it felt like I was taking such a leap of faith when I tried them. I’m kind of amazed that everybody isn’t using them all the time. I’m kind of amazed that there’s a market for harsh chemical cleaning products for everyday use after trying these.

Tags: green cleaning products