Editor’s Note: It’s that time of year again, the pumpkin spiders (aka cross orb weavers) are back. And while the world around us may seem a bit, well, scary right now, at least nature is staying the course by delivering up a cadre of crawling critters just in time for Halloween. So, here’s a story […]
Amy Stewart
Posted inEat + Drink
Cocktail Garden Crazy Talk
This is the final installment in our Year of Cocktail Gardening. To wrap things up, I give you the craziest, most unrealistic plants you will probably never actually grow in a cocktail garden. It is only because I can’t grow them that I think about growing them so much. Read on, dream away, and let […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Now You’re Pushing It
For the last year, I’ve been writing about plants that you can grow in a cocktail garden and use as flavorings and garnishes in drinks. We’ve run through the basics — flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables — and I’ve saved the best for last. Here are a few of the trickier and more obscure plants […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Summer Cocktail Crops
OK, it’s not summer yet, but if you’re starting plants from seed, now’s a good time to get going. These should all be planted in early June, or as soon as the last of the chilly spring weather is past. If possible, shelter them from the strong winds we sometimes get in early summer. Here […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Drink Your Celery
It’s not quite time to put in a vegetable garden yet — it’s too cold for tomatoes and peppers and all that — but if the weather’s nice and you’re just itching to get something in the ground, I’ve got three interesting, cocktail-friendly plants for you. Strawberries. The trick with strawberries is to plant them […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Unusual and Amazing Fruit
If your idea of mixing drinking and gardening goes beyond dropping a homegrown cherry in your Manhattan, this is the list for you. They might be a little harder to track down, but there’s still time to get them in the ground. Don’t expect much the first year: These are long-term investments. Black Currant. […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Put a Berry in It
Before we get started with the next installment of our Year of Cocktail-Themed Gardening, I have an announcement to make. Flavored vodkas are an abomination that should be stricken from cocktail menus worldwide, but particularly here in Humboldt County. I made my round of the bars this holiday season, and I was horrified to […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Orchard in a Bottle
Fruit trees? Cocktails? Of course! It’s bare root season, which is to say that you’re going to be digging around in a tub of dirt at the garden center pretty soon and pulling out gnarly masses of roots and twigs. They may not look glamorous, but trust me — bare root plants are both economical […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Herbalicious
It is with great excitement that I report to you on the arrival of a new gin, a gin that cannot even properly be called gin because its predominant flavor is not juniper but — are you ready? Sage. That’s right. Sage. It comes from the same clever people at Art in the Age […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Drinkable Herbs
We’re continuing to work our way through a year’s worth of grow-your-own cocktail ingredients, moving on this month from flowers to herbs. Let’s start with some of the sweeter, more floral herbs you might mix into a drink, and next month I’ll move on to the savory herbs. Autumn is a great time to plant […]
Posted inBest Of Humboldt
Best Humboldt Cocktail
When the North Coast Journal asked me to suggest a cocktail for its “Best of” issue, I thought, “Humboldt in a glass. What does that taste like?” Well, it has to taste like our fantastic local beer. It just so happens that beer cocktails were all the rage this summer at Tales of the Cocktail, […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Blooming Cocktails
Last month I looked at flowers that can be used to decorate cocktails — borage and pansies and the like — but this month, we’ll consider a few flowers that actually flavor drinks. Some of these have been used for centuries to make not just liqueurs, but boozy medicinal potions as well. Elderflower. Cordials […]