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If you’re a canner (is that a word?) or if you know someone who loves canning, you can check out the tags and stickers in my Etsy shop here. They will also be available on my regular site soon with some customizable options.

Here’s to this paper nerd proudly turning into a canning nerd.

I mean, as it relates to compost?
Do you compost?
If you don’t, you should!

The way we do it here at the homestead turns out to be a pretty easy process. I’ll share my experience with you and claim that I’m not an expert at all. But if you garden, or would like to, composting makes a whole lot of sense.

Plus, wouldn’t it be great to put your wilted and past due fruits and veggies to work for you instead of throwing them in the garbage? Everyone can compost some of their waste. I think you can even do dog doo, but that’s a topic for Scout’s Dog Blog.


So, that’s more than you wanted to know about me, right? This is the simple structure made with only chicken wire. The structure sits in a wooded area far enough from our house to not even notice it. My husband built it, and if he can put it together, anyone can.

So, here’s the process (soup to nuts, or maybe, fruit to dirt):

::Scraps and remnants of anything that grows in the ground get put in a bowl. Lots of coffee grounds too!
::When bowl is full, it gets added to the pile in the backyard.
::Pile gets turned with a pitchfork occasionally.
::A layer of leaves or grass clippings is added for nitrogen and to balance wet vs. dry.
::Wait patiently for compost.

We don’t use a special container. I just use an old Pottery Barn bowl with a salad plate on top.


There are many “pretty” compost containers to choose from, like the one on the right, that fit on your counter-top, have filters for odor-control and compostable bag liners. We fill and empty our bowl so quickly with a family of four, I’ve never noticed any odor.

That’s the gist of how I compost. Hopefully, if you’re not doing it yet, you’re thinking about it. Can you compost if you don’t want to grow anything? Heck yeah! You could be a gardener’s hero by giving your compost to a local church or community garden. You could also use Freecycle to find someone to take that black gold off your hands. Maybe you can get a little free produce out of the deal? All in all, composting is do-able for everyone. It’s like a little smelly gift we can all give to the world.

“I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

You’ll be hearing Jamie Oliver’s name and learning more about his mission if you tune in to his show Food Revolution on ABC premiering March 26. It’s difficult to make a reality network TV show not seem manipulative, but I’m relying on Jamie’s passion and energy to combat that stigma and really get to the heart of the matter – real seasonal food.

We all need to cook more and we need to strive to use seasonal ingredients. One of my favorite of Jamie’s many TV incarnations was Jamie at Home. He was literally at his home, using food from his amazing garden and creating meals with pleasure and ease.

We can all do that (seriously!) on whatever scale we can manage. I happen to have a yard where I can plant a garden, but even if you just have a window and a pot, you can create your own seasonal food.


I’ve made this recipe before, but now I’m looking forward to making it again with mint and peas from my garden (cross fingers.) I’m not the best gardener – it might be even laughable to say I’m a good gardener. But I’ll keep trying because I think it’s important to know how food grows and to teach my kids the same. I have a memory of eating peas straight off the vine at my friend’s farm as a child and it is literally one of the best food memories I have.

Fresh, seasonal food. Sounds yummy, doesn’t it? I hope so. Even if you’re completely in love with little snack cakes, Fight the Power. Trust this man below (even if he looks a little shaggy and still in his high school rock band) to show you and your community a way to be healthier.


You can visit Jamie’s site here for more information.

P.S. He’s a husband and father too. Cool.

MN Week was born out of the discovery of people I admired online. If I dug them enough, I would click on the About and find a Minnesotan. A few of these discoveries happened in quick succession and I didn’t have to be hit with a snowball to see a pattern.

One thing to note: these profiles are not journalistic, but more personal. I’ll leave the professional writing to the, uh, professionals. Enjoy discovering these talented people living in a place that celebrates music, food and creativity…

Jessica Puckett makes plushie art and not in your typical teddy bear kind of way. Her creatures are mythical, fantastic and some are just a tiny bit ewwww. The kind of ewwww that we love to love. Some of the plushies available in Jessica’s Etsy shop, Plushroom Soup, are listed below clockwise from top left: Blue Owl; Octozombie; Purple Rain Unicorn; Frog Trio. You can click on any image to check out each in more detail. My favorites are the owls with their large, soulful eyes, but I also dig her Yetis and Sea Creatures.

I’m lucky to know Jessica enough to ask her some interview-type questions:

How did you first become interested in plushie-making?
It started in roughly summer of 2006. I was on the hunt for a cute plush alpaca (as a reminder of my long-term goal of becoming a fiber farmer), and couldn’t find one anywhere. Around the same time, I started collecting Japanese craft books, and inspiration just hit: why don’t I make a plush alpaca myself? So I used some of the knowledge I had gained about softie construction from browsing the Japanese books, and I did what I usually do: jumped in feet-first. That first alpaca I made was a funny looking thing, but it opened a floodgate for me, and I kept refining the design and making new critters.

How do you decide what kind of creature to make?
There’s no typical process. At first, I’d get requests for particular critters, so I’d make those. But even then my goal was to create mythological/fantasy characters too, once I expanded my skill set. I’ve always been and avid reader, fascinated by mythology, fairy tales, and fantasy (I actually studied these in college). So I kind of started with a backlog already of my favorite creatures, most of which I have yet to make.

Making a new critter pattern is very time consuming for me, involving lots of trial and error, so I don’t make “new” creatures very often. When I have time to make something new, I just pick whatever creature is most on my brain at that moment. Sometimes I’ll be out and about and an idea will just strike, so I keep a notebook handy to jot down thoughts and sketches. I turn to these notebooks whenever I need a jolt of inspiration. Other times, a particular fabric dictates what I make. I’ll be at the fabric store and something will just scream “yeti” or “octopus” to me.

Share your thoughts on the plushie community.
The plushie community is AWESOME! No, seriously. I have made so many wonderful new friends in the last few years. Many of these contacts started online but have since turned into real-life friendships. I love how open the community is. It can be really difficult to be heard over the din these days, but all the plush artists I’ve met are so willing to share tips and provide support, plus they’re just so dang talented. Meeting some of my plush heroes at the Plush You show in Seattle in fall 2008 was some of the most fun I’ve had in recent memory.

Name your 3 favorite foods to eat in MN.
I’m going to break this into two categories, if I may: State Fair, and non-State Fair. Because no matter how delicious a food may be, you haven’t really eaten it until you’ve tasted it on a stick. The State Fair does almost all food bigger and better (and on the aforementioned stick). I thought the State Fair was so boring when I was younger because the only things to do there were stuff yourself to bursting and pet animals. Now every year I can hardly wait to eat myself exhausted and learn about livestock care.

So, in the former category: pronto pups, cheese curds, and mini donuts. Dear god, why is the State Fair 183 days away?!

In the latter category: cheddarwürst from The Bulldog, mini corn dogs from Elsie’s, and the farmer’s omelet at Key’s downtown. Yes, I’m a gourmand. Don’t judge!

First rock concert you ever saw: who? where? and why?
I’d really love to say something cool like the Talking Heads at First Avenue when I was 12, but that would be a lie. I was so uncool when I was 12. How uncool? My first concert was Nelson (the pseudo-glam rock long-haired rocker twins that looked like girls), and I went with my mom. It was at either the State or the Orpheum here in Minneapolis. I blame my mom entirely for my glam rock phase (but on the flipside, she also gets credit for instilling in me a deep love of music; I’d say at least 50 percent of each day is accompanied by a soundtrack). I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but I was so excited about the concert that I still remember what I wore. It was 1990 (or maybe 1991), so the 80s fashions were very much still in style. I wore acid-wash jeans with a large hole in the left knee (I may have even bleached the jeans myself) and an over-sized white boatneck top with black horizontal stripes that barely grazed my waist. And I had enormous mall bangs, while the rest of my hair, teased out on the sides, fell well past my shoulder. My eyeshadow was likely purple, or some other obnoxious color. Hot, I know.

chives on flickr

Over the weekend purchase all your groceries at your local farmer’s market (or farmer’s stand or your own garden) and create 5 dinners using market ingredients. You may use flour, oil and spices from your cupboard, but the goal is to create market-focused meals.

Market Week was great motivation to go out and try meal planning strictly from the local farmer’s market. I was able to do a few meals using my market ingredients and some herbs from my garden. It’s a great feeling to support local growers and be rewarded at the same time with the food’s freshness.

bees knees photo on flickr