About
Welcome to our Homesteading Blog! You may have arrived at this site from my last 2 blogs (MarinMangos and Tammy’s Food Blog). I decided to combine them when we added chickens to the mix…because the last thing I needed was to manage 3 separate blogs just on my hobbies. My husband Steve, who is a handy-man/builder/tech junkie, will also contribute some great DIY home projects. He not only built the kids clubhouse in back but also the chicken coop.
I have always loved to cook. It has been a hobby of mine for as long as I can remember. As a little girl I used to bake cookies and have bake sales. I would also read book like “Little House on the Prarie” and pretend to be Laura Ingalls….I would make jam, dry slices apple on a string, and even make my own butter by hand.
As I got older my love for cooking was only surpassed by my love of EATING! I am always hungry and ALWAYS trying to plan what my next meal is going to consist of. It did not help when I got pregnant. Not only did I have major food cravings but watching the Food Network all day definitely pushed my food obsession to a new level.
We now have 2 young boys, so our fine dining outings have been put on hold until they are a little older or we can con someone to babysit for us.
My love for cooking and eating led me to garden to make sure I had the best ingredients at my fingertips.
We used to live in San Francisco but now are located in San Rafael, CA. We have a large, flat sunny yard and a great atrium to grow some of the more weather sensitive species. We are so excited to finally have a yard and a place to grow everything from a common vegetable garden to more exotic tropical fruit trees.
We also cannot wait to raise some chickens. Our dreams is to buy a bigger property and have goats as well and become a lot more self sufficient.
I hope you find the pictures and info detailing my adventures in gardening, growing fruit trees, and raising chickens useful and informative. I will be posting recipes and photographs of the meals that I prepare, so let me know if you have any suggestions, feedback, or recipes of your own – and be sure to let me know if you try any of the recipes I have posted.
I do not have any professional cooking experience or even a professional photography background (but that is pretty obvious, right!). I do not have time to photoshop images and can barely snap a pic before the family digs in so if you are looking for a fancy food blog, with fancy-schmancy pics, you are in the wrong place….
If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear them!
– Tammy and Family
Hey Tammy, it’s John Lavin from MtTamMMA. Love your website! Going to try my hand at the Pineapple Carrot cake when i get some time. You mentioned before having a super easy recipe for raw cottage cheese, Anyway you could point me in the right direction?
Thank You 🙂
Thanks for checking it out. I am sending you an email with some cottage cheese tips. I will try to make some and post the pictorial this week if the boys allow it.
Tammy,
I found your blog brousing for greengage plums. I have about 22 fruit trees in Mill Valley and have had good luck grafting varieties of plums on the wild plum trees here that abound. I would love to find greengage and pluot prunings as scions to winter in the refrigerator for grafting next spring. Help finding some would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Lorne
Hi Lorne,
I would LOVE to share some scions with you. I have 2 different varieties of Green Gage. One is the Bavay and the other Doree (which is supposed to be the green gage).
I also have flavor supreme, flavor king and flavor queen pluots.
The only problem is that the green gages are very slow growers. Much slower than the japanese plums and pluots so I may not have any green gage scions this year 🙁 but should have some pluot scions…let me knowHalsey-Gonzalez 12 rooms.
Just found your site – love it! Especially the mental picture in my mind of a little homestead with vegetable garden, exotic fruit trees and the future chickens.
Really nice website
Could I use one of your images in a class I’m giving soon, it’s on plant pests? I would of course give full acknowledgement
Steve
sure. Please just reference the source.
How do I sign up for your blog? My in-laws lived in Inverness; one of the treats of seeing them was taking home some bay laurel leaves from the trees right off the deck! If you don’t have one yet, it will grow great there! Dot (Johnstone) was a terrific cook, too, and used the bounty of the area in many meals. She was trained as a county extension agent during WWII; made her own pasta and noodles, lots of blackberry cobbler, blackberry ice, blackberry pancakes–and lots of fresh fish and seafood.
I got to your blog through a repost of your lemon ginger tea! I plan to try that.
under the categories section there is a subscribe here and you can put your email in to get updates 🙂
Thanks a mil for sending your sourdough starter. I’m just now ready to devote myself to it. From here I am going to get your directions on how to reconstitute it and how to use it. Years ago I had a start from my Mom so I am sure it will all come back to me. Thank you for being such a source of inspiration! Collie