I'm excited to announce that our first book is live!

After Tend Magazine folded, I realized that I had a large treasure trove of recipes, articles, and photos that I wanted to do something with. I had articles which had not been published (written for future issues). I had articles which had been on the Tend blog and were now gone. And articles which had been published just once over the years, only in Tend. I have been wanting to start publishing on iBooks and other online vendors so I thought all of these articles and recipes would be great to use as a motivating force to learn a new application and design for iBooks. And of course a great way to learn about all of the processes to publish and launch books! I have been working on iBooks Author for months now, tweaking and working and changing and getting familiar with it all. I broke all of these recipes and articles into 3 books, and I will be publishing one at a time over the next few weeks, with a full length (all new) book coming out after the first of the year! Excitement! 

​Kitchen: DIY is now available (FREE!) on iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac. If you like Kitchen: DIY, please leave a review and some stars on the iBooks store! :) ​

We have harsh long winters where I live. Dark, long, cold. I always start the winter loving the coziness of soups and stews and warm drinks and being inside while winter rages out there. But after a few months of that I start to really feel the darkness. And that is usually when I crave crave crave greens. Fresh, crisp, green. GREEN!  We have been growing herbs and microgreens in winter for years - and have been pretty happy with our setup. This year, however, we decided to up it a notch and try hydroponics. We have a simple two tray ebb and flow system which we setup right in our dining room. It keeps the bright fresh greens close at hand, and allows the boys to help and participate since it isn't tucked away in a forgotten corner or basement. I.LOVE.IT. We have grown more lettuces, cress, greens, and microgreens than ever. I use one tray for microgreens and every 7-10 days I have an entire tray to cut. An entire tray to cut! It is satisfying to cut whole tray of peppery flavorful crisp bright greens when the snow is deep and the wind is howling.