Aug 16, 2010
Blueberry Zucchini Bread
As you may recall, we are huge fans of zucchini bread in this house and I make a couple loaves almost every week. Now that Stefan is back at work and I want him to have something in his belly every morning, I’m back to baking. But I was feeling a bit bored with the usual zucchini bread and had a bunch of blueberries in the fridge to use up…and so this recipe was born. I basically just took my... read more
Oct 15, 2009
How to make & can sweet garlic dill pickles
Although we didn’t have a huge harvest of pickling cucumbers (or even regular ones) this year, I did still manage to get a couple jars worth of pickles. I have always been a big fan of pickles of all sorts but a spicy, zesty pickle to eat with a hearty lunchmeat sandwich is always something fine. So I tried a new recipe from one of my canning books, The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving... read more
Sep 11, 2009
That’ll take care of the algae – covering an IBC tank
Fall is setting in here in Frankfurt. The weather has cooled down a bit and it was raining a lot more last week. Been a bit overcast the last two days but no rain and I’m certainly not complaining. The fall weather has been absolutely glorious and I’m actually looking forward to the fire red, burnt orange and sunflower yellow leaves on the trees; even if it does mean winter is coming soon. Our... read more
Aug 26, 2009
A bit of harvesting & foraging going on here
Despite a few setbacks in our garden (like the loss of 80% of our tomato plants), we’ve still had a fairly decent harvest. You can see our full list of harvest figures on our In the Garden page but here’s what we’ve collected from our garden in the last month. I’ve probably missed a couple things here and there but I tried to be fairly thorough. Carrots – 504 grams Salad... read more
Jul 27, 2009
Harvesting a giant zucchini
I harvested our first zucchini today from our Fordhook (Burpee) plants. It’s a whopping 3 pounds (1.5 kilos), 10 inches long and 4 inches across at the biggest part!! I grated about 1/3 of it and made zucchini bread (which takes about 2 cups grated zucchini) and plan to use part of it tomorrow for rosemary zucchini pizza. And since you usually only use a small zucchini for the pizza, I may even get... read more
Jul 21, 2009
Harvesting green goodies
We got to harvest a few more things from our garden last week…it’s always an exciting time. But it can be tedious when it comes to things like berries, especially gooseberries. They grow all over the bush and you really have to climb up, down and around the bush to see them all. Plus you have to be really careful not to get stuck with their long thorns. In our case, we also have to fight a... read more
Mar 8, 2009
Still growing strong – 2009 Seedling Journal Vol. 3
This update is LONG overdue, but what can I say. The plants are doing really well. I separated and replanted some of the bigger plants today into bigger pots; White Runner beans, Rouge pumpkins and spaghetti squash. Next time we start those seeds will make sure to only put one seed per starter pot because they grow incredibly quickly. Hopefully we’ll find a way to build out raised bed tunnels soon so... read more
Feb 23, 2009
No more folds for a while – 2009 Seedling Journal Vol. 2
We planted more seeds yesterday. I folded about 30 pots in a couple hours. Does it seem excessive yet? We’re wondering ourselves. But we actually have a lot more planting to do. Most of the seeds left will be planted directly in the ground, though, (carrots, more beans, onions, brussel sprouts, perhaps red potatoes, gourds) so we’ve got a bit more time to wait until the cold weather is gone. We... read more
Feb 16, 2009
An aspiring chef – Rice with broccoli & carrots recipe
While my mom was visiting us here in Germany, she reminded me about something I used to make all the time when I was in high school. My interest in cooking was really starting to blossom then, although I still didn’t really get into cooking until we moved over here – guess I was just spoiled by all of mom’s awesome cooking! The dish was really simple, consisting of broccoli, carrots and... read more
Feb 8, 2009
Time to start folding again – 2009 Garden Journal Vol. 1
So we didn’t exactly get to finish the compost bin or work on the greenhouse this weekend. We managed to get ourselves out of bed at about 7:30 on Saturday but after fully waking up, taking the dog and cleaning up, it was almost time for our guests to arrive. That didn’t give Stefan time to cut the supports for the compost bin and we can’t use loud things like the table saw on Sunday, so... read more












Tiffany is an American who has been living in Germany with her husband since 2001. The two are self-proclaimed "Self-Reliant Yuppies" who are in their early-30's and bought an 1830's farmhouse several years ago, which they have been turning into a more sustainable and green dream house. Two cats, a Newfie and their 2 year old daughter enjoy the adventure with them. Tiffany enjoys cooking, rock climbing, lux-camping trying to turn her black thumbs green and taking road trips. Visit the