Kali

I’m Kali. Oregon mama, farmer’s wife and creator of the Potager book and blog. Join me and as we cook and garden through the seasons!

Books

Home

Winter
Books I read to survive the dregs of Winter
Well, the holidays are over and we are officially entering into that time of year when keeping a positive outlook can be…challenging at best. Here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, we have a tendency to do the whole pea soup fog thing from November til March. I don’t mind the incessant rain, but the fog really…

Read more
Autumn

Kitchen

Potager Garden

Preserving

Summer
Preserves from the garden you’ll actually eat
Have you ever spent hours peeling, blanching, pitting, saucing, cooking and canning something from your garden, only to watch it collect dust on your shelves all year long? I sure have. Many, many times in fact. It’s so easy to be tempted by pretty recipes…

Read more
Holiday

Home
Beautiful gifts on a tight budget
I know I just published a post on gifts you can feel good about, but can I be totally honest? Sometimes the holidays can be extremely stressful. And I don’t mean because of all the parties and celebrations. The holidays can be stressful because of…

Read more
Baking

Gardening

Home

Kitchen
Give a gift you can feel good about
It’s that magical time of year, when the Internet explodes with LOOK OVER HERE! and BUY THIS! and MAJOR SALE! Well, much as I hate to contribute to all that noise, I thought it might be helpful to share a few gift ideas. But instead…

Read more
Homestead

Tree Farm
Living in the country: 10 things I’ve learned
If you would have told me as a kid that in my 30’s I’d be married to a farmer (for 16+ years!), homeschooling my kids, living in the country, raising animals, Christmas trees and tending a large garden, I would have told you you were…

Read more
Home

Homestead

Tree Farm
A homestead dream of Christmas trees?
Four years ago this week we signed papers on our 10-acre homestead in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It was untouched, overgrown, unkempt and neglected. To everyone we knew, it seemed absolutely crazy. But to us, it was the realization of a dream. This place we named…

Read more
Gardening

Perennials
Bulbs to plant in a cottage garden
Years ago I fell in love with cottage style gardening. Through stacks of good books, a few favorite blogs and YouTube channels, I nurtured that love and learned a whole heck of a lot about the topic. Like any other garden anglophile, I developed a…

Read more
Autumn

Baking

Breakfast
Better than Pumpkin, the Maple Pecan Scone
Now don’t come for me Internet but…I’m not a pumpkin girl. I like to grow pumpkins, carve them, decorate with them and paint my toenails a dusty pumpkin color, just don’t make me eat them. The problem has been, I do LOVE a festive flavor…

Read more
Flowers

Gardening
How to arrange garden flowers
Do you ever find yourself pinning photo after photo of gorgeous, Dutch masters inspired flower arrangements, only to have your mind go absolutely blank once you actually have the shears in hand? Yeah, me too. For years I’ve admired the floral stylings of all-stars like…

Read more