All Blog Posts in The Stew (1,357)

This week Cafe Nola celebrated Earth Day with a Zero Waste mentallity. We offered no carryout containers or paper to go cups. Instead we offered refillable travel mugs for only one dollar. No paper napkins or straws were used and, as always all glass was recycled. Aside from a few customers wanting only carry out the effort was a success. It proved manageable for future efforts. I feel like we can reduce our waste to very little without changing alot about what we already do.

Angie, a…

We've had a productive week or so on the Nola Farm. We put a roof on the chicken coop and we're preparing to cover the outside with a wooden siding. The roof is made of corrugated metal. It's pretty lightweight and inexpensive, reflects the sun well and sounds awesome in the rain. We were going to cover the entire coop in metal but we thought it would look too "Chipotle" and felt that it might be too ironic for a chicken refuge, besides... the wooden siding was less expensive and looks…

Hi, I AM A SOUTHERN WOMAN. My name is Cat Ryan and my husband and I have a little piece of ground in Newberry, FL. We are in north central Florida about 14 miles away from the University of Florida. My goal is to become as self sufficient as possible, living in a small town. Rules ya know?



I have a husband, two grown step kids, a beautiful 3 yr old Grandson-Gryphon, two dogs, 5 cats, and 8 chickens. We are also care takers for my Ma-in Law who is 79 and on kidney dialysis. I…

Started seeds on Friday and we're already seeing basil, broccoli and cukes in the minigreenhouse! Oregano and chives are already green and growing in the herb garden, and I planted my salad greens yesterday. Tomorrow we have to go pick up some black liner to help with our weed problem (no matter what we do, daisies invade!) and some chicken wire for the peas and cukes to grow up.

Besides getting the garden going we are gutting our front bathroom, as there was a slow leak that…

With this beautiful weather here in Western NC, things are happening. Even though our frost date is May 15th in the mountains, things are getting planted anyway.

This weekend, three kinds of potatoe seeds went to the ground, a La Ratt fingerling potato, a purple potato and a yellow potato. Three rows 40 feet long should produce a lot of potatoes!

Two rows of sweet white corn also got planted today as well as some sunflower seeds around the house.

Mulch was added to my…

I think that the most overwhelming part of starting a project like this is know where to begin. What do I do? Who do I contact? Do I need insurance or a tax ID? When and what do I begin planting? So many questions flood your mind that it can seem an unmanageable task... but it isn't and you are not alone. Plenty of people around the world are doing this and have been doing this for years and there are valuable resources everywhere... the trick is knowing where to look.

So here…

So... now three member's of our crew have experienced a violent reaction to something on the farm, which we have assumed to be poison ivy. Julien has got some pretty bad blisters on his forearms and Dave's case seems to be spreading to his torseau. The blisters on my hands have healed but now my left armpit is under attack. What we've learned through this painful process is that poison ivy can be present even if the vines and leaves are not. A write-up by…