We went to visit my mushroom compost mothers-in-law last weekend and were stunned by the growth of their cucumbers from one month to the next.

The only downside of this kind of exuberant growth is the difficulty of finding the fruit. "The vines look beautiful," Rose Nell told me, "but there's only been one cucumber big enough to pick."

"Are you sure?" I countered. I got down on my knees and peered into the cucumber monster. Soon, our basket was full of crunchy fruits.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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