Fast, Cheap, and Good: Sustainability, One Choice at a Time

Seven years.  For seven years, I've been writing this blog, hoping to inspire some of you to live lives that are more respectful of your own time, money, health, and other resources. The efforts...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/12/taking-fast-cheap-and-good-break.html

Sigh.  I hate when the garden gives up, which, inevitably, it did in mid-October. Most of the tallies I'll share with you in this post are final, although we still have greens and peppers in t...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/12/how-much-does-garden-grow-october-and.html

I usually have good luck with butternut squash in my garden, and it is one of my favorite crops to grow. It is easy, it grows well in our climate, and you can store it in a cool area in your ho...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/11/butternut-squash-pie.html

This week, the world has been treated to an intense internet debate over whether to boycott Keurig, the makers of the one cup at a time coffee makers. Frankly, I don't care one way or the other...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-real-reason-to-avoid-keurig.html

Excuse the shameless self-promotion, but I really have to let you guys in on this. For the past three and a half years, I've been working on the book you see at your right. If you receive FC&...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/10/tickets-to-paradise-history-of-key-west.html

(This post's photo is from a line of hand embroidered tea towels at my Etsy store, Carrot Creations.  See it here. ) And just like that, high gardening season is over.  September gave us th...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/10/how-much-does-garden-grow-september-2017.html

I do not like your wretched fall. I do not like the fall at all! I do not like the falling leaves. I do not like to wear long sleeves. You may have your herbal tea. Keep your soup far f...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/10/interlude-on-day-working-in-fall-garden.html

Finally! It is nearly the end of September, and I am finally updating you on the garden progress through August. You really never know busy until you've tried to prep for a new class you've nev...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/09/how-much-does-garden-grow-august-2017.html

As you all know by now, I am in love with Key West, so I've spent a nail-biting four days watching Hurricane Irma approach and pass over the island. Right now, it looks like Key West was mostly...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/09/lessons-watching-irma-from-afar.html

Well, the garden is starting to give up. I hate to say that. I, after all, am the person who started my seeds in an incubator in the dining room on Groundhog Day, and I would just as soon live ...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-end-is-near.html

So, yesterday I had an interesting experience. I visited an organic farm (which I will not name here, but which was really, really cool), and the owner talked about how much he disliked the ter...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/08/sustainability-or-not.html

Ladies and gentlemen, the 2017 garden is officially profitable! I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself, if I might say. The return to mechanical rototilling plus an early start with the seed...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/08/how-much-does-garden-grow-july-2017.html

To say that I'm under a bit of stress recently would be an understatement. Somehow, between July and October, I need to develop and deliver three conference presentations (one down, two to go...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-annual-canning-melt-down.html

Have I mentioned lately how much I love June in the garden? Yes, I know its July already. I'm finally doing the June tallies, and that just reminds me how full of hope June always is. Just lo...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/07/how-much-does-garden-grow-june-2017.html

(Note: The illustration is from a product available on my RedBubble store.  Find it here. ) Well, it's summer once again, and the news is full of human interest stories about people being p...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/07/is-gardening-subversive-act.html

I love raw radishes; Mr. FC&G does not, finding them too sharp for his tastes. So, in the years I grow them, I often have more than I can eat, and I have been searching for a way to preserve th...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/06/radish-onion-relish.html

Finally! After a couple of months of nursing increasingly-enormous tomato plants and neither spending nor harvesting anything, the garden is back in business for May! First, the expenditures....

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/06/how-much-does-garden-grow-may-2017.html

Most of my philosophy of sustainable living is based on controlling small things. I've told you to plant a single basil plant, eliminate buying cotton balls, and switch to at least one vegetari...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/06/of-coffee-and-avocados.html

So it's happened again. I mentioned the number of tomato plants I put in this year (60, as of last count), and a well-meaning, generous soul has responded by suggesting a charity that I could...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-myth-of-extra-tomato.html

Note: In response to a conversation I was having about the joys of home ownership, I wrote this account of the tragic winter of 2008-09 when we replaced a sewer pipe.  While not strictly a sus...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-worlds-best-ballroom-dancer-picked.html

 Last week, I wrote about using DIY weed killers in place of commercial herbicides that are available for a premium price stacked in your local garden center. If you are maintaining your own p...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/04/more-of-diy-weedkillers.html

Spring is finally here!  And along with the ability to wear flip flops, get out in the garden, and sneeze my fool head off because of the allergies comes the phalanx of neighbors and their wee...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/04/weed-killers-without-poison.html

Some of my favorite cookies are those with chips in them. There are just so many flavors of chips out there, you can come up with a ton of different flavor profiles. And, even though I haven't ...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/04/salted-caramel-applesauce-cookies.html

Somewhere between Groundhog Day and St. Patrick's Day, depending on your growing zone and how impatient you are, is the right time to start your tomato seedlings. Mother's Day, in this growing ...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/03/ferrying-tomatoes.html

As always, winter is a slow time in the garden, but that doesn't mean there's nothing happening. In fact, the year has started off with some harvests. Overall, I harvested a laughable three o...

http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-much-does-garden-grow-january-and.html