Mixed Greens Blog

Mixed Greens Blog
Living Sustainably in the Pacific Northwest

About Sally

Recent insight: Were it not for the urgency of trying to save a planet for our children, living sustainably would just be another way to enjoy the good life.

Childhood drama: A snapshot might feature pastures, fields of potatoes and sugar beets, the fumbling pursuit of chickens and horses. Each made their impression, but my grandmother’s half-acre vegetable garden and its sun-warmed tomatoes were the clincher. With the deliciousness of those earliest tomatoes began my visceral relationship with the character of certain foods. I must admit, for example, that I’m involved in a pretty serious long-term relationship with tomatoes.

Destiny: When I began making dill pickles, canning tomatoes and sauce, jam and chutney with produce from our garden and farmer’s markets, I recognized the inevitable, that we do eventually become our mothers and grandmothers.

Past, present & future: A career educator, learning and teaching continue but are revitalized with new tools, my own version of those rural roots, and a vision that includes food, photography and sustainability.

A mission: It seems like the right time to become acquainted with the distinct produce of the Pacific Northwest and seasonal cycles unique to our place on the planet.

Email Sally

Posts by Sally:

What’s Up With the Paper Cup?

Oscars tonight. In the meantime something else to ponder, and sorry, no gowns involved. It’s the not-so-glamorous, but equally frivolous paper cup. Use them once and discard. While others have been carrying their reusable cups into coffee shops the past few years, I rarely have. Truthfully, I don’t buy much coffee out, but still, I [...]

Be Kale My Heart

Kale plants in the backyard are a show all winter long. Hardy and steadfast, they dominate a big patch of the winter garden, and lately they’ve turned seasonal warmth and light into effervescent new leaves – garden sirens beckoning me to look, to photograph and to eat. Be kale my heart may be a frivolous [...]

Great Granola, No Gluten

During our 28-day detox diet, just finished, no wheat was allowed, along with dairy, sugar in any form – yes, that includes chocolate – alcohol, soy, caffeine. Our plates were full of fruits and veggies, rice, some meat, nuts and legumes. A limited repertoire, but a healthy way to eat for a short while. It [...]

Carbon 101, Foodprints

In the past few years I’ve read several books about food and meat production, Omnivore’s Dilemma (Michael Pollan), Grub (Anna Lappe & Bryant Terry), watched the film, Food Inc. I reached a tipping point recently while reading Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer). A perfect storm of revelation and repulsion happened. I guess you could call [...]

Chocolate Pudding, Not Kidding

Valentine’s Day next week, and a  few days ago we toasted our Mixed Greens’ two-year anniversary (thankyou dear readers). In celebration – okay, Super Bowl too – chocolate pudding. Like retro sleek-winged sofas and my mom’s Russell Wright dishes of the fifties, chocolate pudding deserves a comeback and some respect. Plus, it was among our [...]

Versatile Vegetable Soup

Groundhog’s Day yesterday and Imbolc mean we’re halfway to spring. There are wee signs in the garden – the earliest flowers unfolding, and rhubarb gallantly punching hot pink nubs and crinkled neon leaves through its own mulch.

Still, it’s winter and the hardiest vegetables rule. A steaming pot of homemade soup is winter’s snooze on a [...]

Perfect Protein Quinoa

Growing up on a ranch in eastern Washington, quinoa never entered the culinary picture, nor couscous, rarely rice, not much pasta either. But potatoes aplenty. My father and grandfather grew them which I guess explains it. Food cultures vary from family to family, regionally, and internationally, and time makes a difference too, food fads come [...]

Back to Our Roots, Roast ‘em

Now’s the time to roast any vegetable, and I think I mean any vegetable. If there’s an exception I don’t know what it is. Maybe lettuce. Warm up the house, kick up the flavor, which caramelization via high-heat roasting accomplishes (the Maillard Reaction), and dinner, maybe two, is halfway done. It’s an efficient way to [...]